Our last day here. Despite our late night I was up early. Rare, I know but this was Egypt, this was Cairo. I wanted to see the pyramids, I wanted to see it all. I finally managed to drag Frank out of bed by eight-thirty and by nine o’clock we were at this huge outdoor market. The taxi driver called it Khan el Khalil Bazaar. It’s located in Eastern Cairo, the Old Quarters. We were here last night actually but I’m enjoying myself much better this morning.

There were carpet sellers and I swear I’ve seen a few that could pass for a magic carpet. There’s booths that sell copper souvenirs as well as the more silly trinkets made to look like Egyptian artifacts. There’s a whole table full of little plastic busts of Nefertiri, just like the real one but a quarter of its size. And statues of Tutankhamen? Man, there must hundreds of them around here.

And it’s not like home at the mall. The people who run the booths here practically jump on us, wanting to haggle prices on everything from jewelry to video games.

“Come inside, come see. Brand new, all kinds,” says one guy, clad in a pale beige robe with a headcloth hiding his hair. He looks a little older than us and very excitable. He motions to us with one hand, strokes his dark beard with the other while his eyes dart around like he’s searching for unseen intruders. “Come, come...”

Frank hangs back. “We have plenty of video games at home.”

“La, La.” The man shakes his head vigorously.

That means no. We learned that from the taxi driver this morning when he dropped us off here. I sighed. “He’s right. I could probably get ‘em cheaper back home too,” I added not quite as loudly.

“La. Come see. You must see.” He grabbed my arm and started to pull me inside. It was a little dim inside and after the week we’ve had, my suspicions were up. I dug my heels into the sand but didn’t get enough traction.

“Look, let go.”

“There is no cost on this video game,” the man said in a rush. “It is free. That is good, yes?”

I shared a look with Frank who looked ready to summon the police and shook my head. Although I was uneasy about how pushy this guy was, it was probably just that, him being pushy. I let him lead me inside the booth, not too worried, since I knew Frank was right behind me.

I pulled my arm free and looked around. He wasn’t kidding about the video games, and he also had a ton of CDs and DVDs, some I knew hadn’t been released in the states. “Okay, we’re here.”

Instead of him pointing to the row of video games, he pulled one out of a pocket in his robe. He handed it to me and nodded briskly. “You like?”

I looked at the cover and frowned. It was two guys on camels, being followed by a group of other guys armed with daggers and machetes. I looked at Frank. “Déjà vu.”

Frank rolled his eyes. “No, it’s a flashback.”

“Whatever.” I noticed the title was in English. “Adventure in the Desert.” I grunted. “Kind of a generic title.”

“Joe, take a closer look at the two guys on camels.”

I’ve heard that odd tone in Frank’s voice often enough, usually when he’s about to tell me we’ve just stepped into a trap...or he’s figured the whole thing out. I peered closer at the picture and noted one guy had blond hair, the other had dark hair. “Hey, Frank, that’s us.”

The man nodded, beaming, and almost knocked his headdress off. “I knew you would like. It is free.”

I looked over at my brother and realized the truth. We had another assignment from ATAC. We rushed out of the booth and made our way quickly out of the bazaar, our playing tourist forgotten in the excitement. We found a taxi and made it back to the hotel as fast as the driver could take us but what with the camels, donkeys, and push carts littering the roads, it wasn’t that fast.

I led the way to our hotel room and once Frank was inside, I closed and locked the door. The cool thing about this hotel is that they provided video game equipment in all the rooms, along with pay-per-view movies in English and Arabic. I wouldn’t have thought to bring a game system simply because hotels outside of the US have a different voltage system than in the states.

I slipped the DVD in and pressed play. In a funky script that looked like it had been taken from an old scroll, it read Adventure in the Desert. A New ATAC Adventure starring Frank and Joe Hardy. I rolled my eyes and saw Frank do the same. ATAC stands for American Teens Against Crime. My dad, Fenton Hardy founded the secret organization. We get to work for it.

The title faded to black and then a familiar smiling face appeared on screen. Q.T., our boss at ATAC, nodded. “Hello boys,” he said. “Or should I say, As Salaam Alaikum—peace be with you.”

Without thinking about it, we replied, “Wa Alaikum Salaam.” Or, ‘and with you also’.

Q.T. nodded again, as if he’d heard us. “I’m sorry to interfere with your vacation, but we need a pair of agents over there and since you’re already in Cairo...” He shrugged as if to say, it’s obvious, we’d do just fine as their agents this time. “We’ll need you to stay over another week. Your father knows but you’ll have to clear it with the rest of the family.”

I winced. That was the lousy part, having to think up new excuses and reasons to avoid Mom or Aunt Trudy ever finding out, since all our cases are top-secret. Frank leaned forward. “So what’s it about?” he asked, as if it was a two-way video conference call. I rolled my eyes.

“With the recent discovery of the gold mummies several years ago, it has to do with treasure,” answered Q.T. He nodded again, reminding me of one of my teachers who liked to lecture. “Treasure that has been rumored to exist for centuries, even nearly two thousand years ago. According to the legend of Menes, he was the first king to unite Upper and Lower Egypt and could by right wear the double crown of Egypt.”

I shared a look with Frank. I liked history but I didn’t really remember some guy with that name. Without thinking, I asked, “Who was he, though?”

As if Q.T. had heard me, he answered, “It is rumored that Menes was actually a combination of two first dynasty pharaohs. Narmer and Aha. To be truthful not much is known that far back. But at the time of Zoser and Imhotep, it was already rumored there was a vast treasure.”

My eyebrows shot up. “Imhotep?” I asked Frank. “Wasn’t he--?”

“Shh.” Frank made a sharp motion with his hand and I glared at him.

“First dynasty kings were not buried in the famous Valley of the Kings. That was much later, around the time the Middle Kingdom began. First dynasty kings were buried at Abydos.” Q.T. cleared his throat. “The reason I’m telling you all this is that last year, rumors began that Roger Corson may have even found the treasure which is believed to be buried with Menes.”

“Corson? Isn’t he the explorer guy who dates all those gorgeous supermodels?” I asked, hitting the pause button.

Frank nodded. “Yeah. He’s always in the news.”

I don’t normally watch the news much but I thought I remembered something about Corson recently. “Hey, Frank, wasn’t Corson in the news just recently?”

Frank frowned and stared at the frozen picture on the screen. “The papers said he died under mysterious circumstances.”

I hit the play button again, feeling unsettled. Q continued talking. “Corson never admitted he’d found the treasure, part of the rumor going around is that he made a map and had plans to retrieve the treasure. Again, it was only a rumor, one that seems to revive every once in awhile. But someone believed it. Last month Corson was found murdered in his bed in his London flat. The murder weapon: a three-thousand-year-old jewel-encrusted dagger in his chest.”

“No way,” I said, starting to get creeped out.

“The apartment was ransacked. A woman, Corson’s nearest neighbor, claims she saw a blood-soaked mummy fleeing the scene.”

Frank shook his head. “No. That’s impossible.”

“The police thought the same but reached a dead end and shelved the case. According to the legend of Menes’ vast treasure, there is said to be a scrap of hieroglyphic warning of a mummy’s curse.”

“But I thought that was Imhotep.” I moved to stand with my arms stiffened out in front of me but Frank’s glare stopped me cold. “What?”

He shook his head and gestured to the screen. “Listen.”

“...might have been the end of it too, if it hadn’t been for Samantha Chilton—“

I hit the pause button, earning another glare from Frank. “Is he kidding? The Samantha Chilton?”

“Joe, hit play.”

In case you’ve been living in a cave for the last year or so, Samantha Chilton has been all over the news ever since she first walked down the runway. She’s rich and beautiful and temperamental. Her mother is Lady Ernestine Chilton, an amateur Egyptologist and a wealthy woman in her own right. Samantha has made a different kind of name for herself with her parties, her good looks, shady boyfriends and outrageous antics.

After another look from Frank, I hit play. Q continued, “Miss Chilton was dating Roger Corson at the time of his murder and Scotland Yard suspected her briefly until a witness said she’d taken a flight to Rome where she promptly dropped out of sight. In fact, until Wednesday no one knew where she was.” He took a breath and shifted on the screen slightly. “Then Lady Chilton received a phone message from her daughter. Here, let me play it for you.”

The screen changed to a slideshow of photos of Samantha at clubs, on the red carpet, strutting down the runway. Her voice came over the speaker, sounding excited, with her trademark English accent. “Hello, mum. It’s Samantha. I’m sorry I’ve been out of touch but Roger insisted I disappear for awhile. He gave me this hand-drawn map that is supposed to lead to an amazing treasure. He told me to take care of the map because it’s worth a lot of money. He wouldn’t even tell me how much. So I headed to Rome and stayed with friends for a week but Roger never called. So I decided to find this treasure myself. I’ve already contacted Dr. Mounir, assistant director of Egyptian Antiquities and he’s planning on coming with me on my search.”

“Dr. Igor Volsky is coming as well. You remember him? The expert you think is so smart? And Tommy’s going with us as well. He’s my new boyfriend since Roger never called back. I don’t need some flake who never calls back. I’ve even lined up a video crew to go with us and film the whole discovery. I’m so excited. Love you, bye!”

The slide show faded back into Q’s face. “We think Ms. Chilton knows nothing of Roger’s murder. Lady Chilton tried to contact her daughter but apparently she’s out of cell phone range. Considering what’s happened, Lady Chilton is very worried about Samantha and we believe the young lady could very well be in danger.”

Frank nodded. “I agree. Whoever killed Corson wanted that map and now she has it.”

“What, you don’t think it was the mummy’s curse that killed him?” I asked, pretending to be scared.

Frank just glared at me again, giving me the warning look that he’d had about enough. “Come on, Joe, there’s no such thing.”

We turned back to the screen to see Q speaking again. “Lady Chilton was able to locate Ms. Chilton’s friends in Rome who told her that her daughter was in Egypt. We traced Ms. Chilton’s credit card purchases to a town called Ras Khalifa,” said Q. “The call came in on the fifteenth. Ms. Chilton says she’s leaving ‘the day after tomorrow’. That would be the seventeenth.”

“That’s tomorrow,” I said.

“I know that won’t leave you much time to get ready. But I know you’ll manage. Ms. Chilton’s boat, the Ramses II, leaves the Ras Khalifa dock at seven o’clock in the evening. You must be on the boat with her. Lady Chilton is very much concerned. It’s your job to protect Samantha Chilton.”

“Wait.” I hit the pause button. “How are we going to do that? This is Samantha Chilton we’re talking about. She’d never let us join her.”

Frank let out a long sigh. I hate it when he does that, like he’s tired of putting up with me or something. “Why not listen to the rest of the message before you jump in with both feet.”

I grunted. “Fine.” I started to hit the play button when another thought occurred to me. I’d actually get to meet Samantha Chilton. Oh wow...

“Joe, hit play.”

I sighed and hit the play button. “Ms. Chilton is not one for allowing bodyguards, so we’ve arranged for you to pose as teen reporters for Beautiful People magazine, doing a feature on the expedition to find the treasure. Everything you’ll need – press credentials, notebooks, cameras, cash, plane tickets for tomorrow’s flight to Ras Khalifa and a few other things, are in a package being held for you at the front desk. Pick it up at any time. Good luck, boys.” He gave a cheerless smile. “Oh yes, as usual, this information will obliterate itself in five, four, three, two, one...”

The screen went blank and loud Arabic music blasted out of the speakers. I got up and switched off the video. “Time to get busy.”

Frank didn’t move. “There’s just one thing.”

“What?”

“How on earth are we going to explain this to Mom and Aunt Trudy?”

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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.