I just love razzing my brother and after what he did, spoiling a perfectly good dream, he deserved it. I wandered over to where Ahmed looked ready to start supper. I noticed the boxes and another metal square box. “What’s that?” I asked.

Ahmed stiffened and looked up at me. “What’s what?”

“That square metal thing?” I studied him for a moment, curious. The sand muffles footsteps pretty good. You could sneak up on just about anyone that way. Hey, I could even sneak up on Frank and he’s pretty hard to startle. I’d never noticed before how observant and alert Ahmed always was.

“It is a battery-powered cooler converted to solar energy.”

I blinked and looked at the cooler. It was only about twelve inches square. “You couldn’t fit drinks and stuff in there, could you?”

Ahmed arched an eyebrow at me and shook his head. “It is only for the necessary foods that are perishable. All drinks were stowed in that box over there.” He pointed to a cardboard box with handles.

“Thanks.” I walked over to the box and noticed that it was full of those sports drinks. I spotted another box with bottles of water. I glanced around, pretending to take my time choosing a bottle and noticed something. Normally, when you buy those sports drinks with the little top you snap up to drink like on squeeze bottles, there’s a clear plastic cover that’s sealed in place with cellophane wrap to resist tampering. All the bottles of sports drink were minus their covers. I spared a glance for the water bottles and saw the same thing.

“This can’t be good,” I muttered. I stood up and spun around and nearly yelped. Ahmed was right behind me. I cleared my throat. “Yes?”

“I would not recommend those drinks. Water is best.”

I glanced over my shoulder at the boxes and then I turned to look at him. “Do you know something?”

“I only know what I’m going to cook for supper.” He turned and walked off. Something about the way he walked seemed familiar but I couldn’t place it.

I followed him back to his work area. “Who drinks those? Just Tommy?”

“Yes.” He looked at me and for just a minute, I flashed back to that alley where we’d cornered those drug smugglers. I shook my head and wondered if the heat was getting to me. “Why is it you are curious. It is probably just overexertion on his part. No one knows how to survive in the desert, unless they were born in it.”

I cleared my throat. “Hey, I meant to compliment you on that little trick you pulled with the other cook’s food. No one even noticed.”

He gave me a slow smile. “The hand is quicker than the eye, so the magicians say.” He wiggled the fingers of his right hand at me. A second later, his left hand was holding a sharp knife a little too close for comfort. “See?”

I took a step back. “Hey, all I wanted was a snack.”

He gestured with the knife, making the setting sun flash off the blade. “That box over there. Now I am busy. Please, go.”

I backed up some more and frowned. “There’s no need to be rude.” I hurried over to the snack box, grabbed a package of snack crackers, retrieved a bottle of water and went in search of my brother.

I found him in our tent, digging through his duffle. I sat down on the sand. “I hope that doesn’t mean you forgot something.”

“Have you seen the binoculars?”

“Why? You did forget them?”

Frank grunted. “Joe.”

“They’re in my duffle. I packed them, remember, not you.”

He got the binoculars out of my duffle and peered out the tent flap, toward the low dunes. I waved my hand in front of the lenses. “Whatcha lookin’ for?”

Frank yanked the binoculars down and glared at me. “Stop that.”

I popped a fish-shaped cracker in my mouth. “Had an interesting conversation with Ahmed. Have you considered him a suspect?”

“He’s the cook.”

“Yeah, well, Steven Seagal was the cook in Under Siege and look how dangerous he was with a set of knives.”

Frank sighed and lowered the glasses. He looked over at me for a moment while I popped a handful of crackers in my mouth. “What?” I asked, my mouth full.

“You wouldn’t have brought it up unless there’s a reason.”

I gulped some water to wash down the crackers. “Tommy’s the only person who drinks those sports drinks. And guess what?”

“Don’t leave me hanging.”

“The little covers are all gone. Anyone could tamper with the bottles. It’d be easy as pie.”

Frank frowned. “Dr. Mounir.”

“He is playing the ‘mummy’s curse’ card a little too much.”

Frank nodded. “Oh, and by the way, we’re not searching for the tomb.”

I rolled my eyes. “Of course we’re not. We’re going to watch for who is going to search for the tomb. Anyway, if they have seen the map, there will be no searching.”

Frank snorted. “Stop showing off.”

I grinned. “Had you going there, didn’t I.”

“No comment.” He set the binoculars to one side. “I checked on Tommy. He’s not any better. Usually with water, salt and getting the person out of the heat and sun, a person can recover.”

I wadded the empty bag and tossed it over his head. “But if it’s something else...like poison...”

“He wouldn’t improve.” Frank shook his head. “Things are getting serious. I think we should convince Samantha to turn back.”

“You can try, but I don’t think it’ll do any good.”

“Maybe I should talk to Leila.”

“Don’t think that’ll do any good either. She’s in Mounir’s camp, remember.”

Frank gave me another glare. “She’s her own person.”

I looked over at him. “Sounds like you’ve been chatting. When did you two get so friendly?”

Frank blinked, looking surprised. “I thought I mentioned it. She stopped by our tent before Samantha screamed last night.”

“Why?”

“She said she’d seen Theo around Samantha’s tent. I couldn’t tell her it was because he was setting up the camera.”

I sighed. “You know, I think they’re the only ones having fun on this little expedition, filming all the arguments and screaming matches. It’s getting to be a farce.”

Frank nodded. “Yeah. It is.” He got to his feet. “It’s still daylight. Let’s walk around, stretch our legs. We may be in for a long night.”

“Right behind you.” I followed him out of our tent, feeling unsettled. I’ll be glad when this is all over and I sincerely hope we all survive it.

***

“So what is that one?” I kept my voice down to a whisper but Frank just glared at me. We were situated behind a low sand dune. We had a good view of anyone who might come to look for the tomb. But the glittering multitude of stars overhead were distracting. I’d managed to pick out one I was familiar with: the Big Dipper, but the rest of the stars were confusing in all their brilliance.

Frank poked me, hard. I poked him back. “Just tell me.”

“Which one?” he asked finally.

It took a moment for me to find it again. “That snaky looking one toward the south.”

“Hydra, it’s the longest constellation.” He shushed me again and then we both heard a faint cough. We shifted to look over the dune to see who it was.

I frowned, noting that whoever it was wasn’t very big. I glanced at Frank. “Volsky?” I whispered.

Frank shrugged and motioned for us to hurry. In a matter of minutes we were by his side. “Dr. Volsky, out for a late-night walk?” asked Frank, quietly.

The man jumped nearly a foot and almost fell. He grabbed my shoulder and took a deep breath. “What are you doing?” he asked, sounding angry.

I shook my head. “I think we should be asking you that, Dr. Volsky. You wouldn’t be looking for a certain tomb, now would you?”

He gave another start and coughed again. He looked over his shoulder and shivered. The camp was quiet, everyone was in bed but Ahmed tending the fire. “How did you know?” he asked finally.

“The map was folded wrong,” said Frank. “You’d folded it backwards in some places. It showed in the creases.”

I arched an eyebrow at my brother. I hadn’t even noticed. He’d probably noticed since he’s obsessed with those forensic shows. “Okay,” I said. “But the camel driver—“

Volsky cleared his throat. “Have you ever heard of curare?”

Frank blinked. “Yes, it’s a South American plant.”

“I believe that is what killed the camel driver. Possibly utilized in a poison dart.”

I shook my head. “What’s going on, Dr. Volsky?”

He seemed to shrink in on himself. “Dr. Mounir has no right to steal the glory. I wanted first chance.”

“But to kill the camel driver? Poison Tommy?” I shook my head again. “All that just for first chance at a tomb?”

Under the moonlight, he looked white as a ghost. He shook his head. “No! I did not kill anyone, I have nothing against Tommy except that he’s a fool. No. I killed no one.” He shivered again. “I just want the chance at the prestige, the honor of finding that tomb.”

Frank and I looked at each other. Finally, Frank cleared his throat. “If you didn’t kill the camel driver and didn’t poison Tommy...”

“Who did?” I asked, looking past Volsky to the now silent camp. We were in even bigger trouble than we’d realized.

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Disclaimer

The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The authors have just borrowed them for an adventure or two. The authors promise to put the boys back when they are done with them. The authors do claim copyright to the original characters in this story. Please do not borrow original characters without express permission of the authors.