Mistakes

"We are liberators of precious antiquities." The words flew threw my head as I pulled in where the helicopters were landing. I knew the words forwards and backwards, those were Nick Mortons famous words. To Justify his looting and stealing of precious antiquities of the world. He certainly knew how to talk himself out of a situation. It never amused me in the slightest. He didn't know I was here but soon he would, the wrath I would lay upon him when I got him alone... He had no idea what was coming. I drove up to this massive hole in the ground. Grinding my teeth together in anger I threw open my door slamming it behind me letting them know I had arrived. I kept my rage under control as I noticed there were other soldiers around the site. My blonde hair was flying with the blades of the chopper winding down. I basically stomped like a toddler up to the Greenway, Morton, and Vail.

"One in which two assholes from long range reconnaissance, that would be you. Run all over northern Iraq, just one step ahead of the enemy. Except, instead of hunting for the enemy you hunt for antiquities stealing whatever isn't nailed down and selling it on the black market. Meanwhile, these fanatical insurgents are trying to erase 5,000 years of history unwillingly covering your tracks. It's a pretty good scam." I caught the tail end of their conversation. Colonel Greenway recited almost the exact words I had told him about Sgt. Morton a year or two ago.

"Let me guess, you stole a map?" I rolled my eyes he reminded me of the late Jonathan Carnahan. Nick Morton was a well built man, dark brown hair almost black, with green eyes. The first thing that attracted me to him the first time I met him. But, he was just in it for the money and the gold. A lavish lifestyle would satisfy his needs until death. No matter what he did, I was always left cleaning up the mess.

"I don't know what you are talking about." He stated smirking at me knowing I knew he did.

"Sergeant Morton!" I heard a girl scream behind me. I rolled my eyes probably another one of his floozie one night stands. I spun around to see one of my colleagues that got on my nerves an awful lot. Of course, nothing would make this better than 2 blondes and a couple of thieves.

"Where is it?" Ah I knew it. I smiled in my victory. He stole the map from Dr. Halsey. She was involved in some strange things I never wanted to ask about again when I had found out the first time. She was not military and she certainly did not have authority over this scene. Though I knew exactly who sent her, the same man had been trying to sway me over to his company for some time now.

"What? Where is what?" Nick asked her feigning confusion.

"The letter. The map you stole from me." She more than yelled at him.

"Map? How would I... Even have had the opportunity to steal anything from you, Miss?" I rolled my eyes, same old Nick trying to cover his tracks in front of his superior officer.

"NICK! Stop it. We all know your track record! So shut your mouth and just admit you stole the map!" I looked over to Dr. Halsey who was smirking at him.

"HALSEY. You as well. You know damn right you do not have authority here. The US military does and I don't remember you enlisting or signing a contract so get the fuck out of here." I lost my temper that had been bubbling up since the call I got this morning from Colonel Greenway.

"O'Connell, you've made your point. Dr. Halsey is here to take what she can back to a museum in London. To see if there is anything of value down in that cave. She's here because you are military and assigned to go where we go. We are not even supposed to be here. If your unhappy with the situation I suggest you take it up with your boss." Greenway simplified it for me. I frowned and pushed my hair out of my face.

"And it's my job to make sure things of value get out and away from attack zones and enemy hands. Not Halsey." I ground out from my clenched jaw.

"It's looking like we will have to combine forces as it were O'Connell. Two heads are better than one..." I groaned hearing those words come from Greenways mouth. I walked away over to the hole in the ground as the three discussed their business.

"Oh my god..." I breathed out. I was expecting a Persian tomb or something to do with Iraq. Not Egyptian. Halsey walked up next to me. The Egyptian mummy face stared back at me plain as day.

"It's Egyptian." She said from next to me.

"Why is that unusual?" Vail said from my other side.

"We are in the Persian Gulf, Vail." Nick said to him. Trying to get closer to me. Nick and I had a complicated relationship we had been together in the past. But clearly the relationship went out in flames.

"Right. Egypt is a 1000 miles away so it's unusual." Vail recovered himself.

"Put those down, hurry. Go get the rest." Halsey told the men she was working with.

"Got it." The man replied. I suppose it would be better working with a team that she had but I wanted this to be mine. I threw my keys at the man on her crew.

"Get mine too." I told him gesturing towards the car.

"Yes ma'am." He uttered out speechless. Halsey looked at me her mouth agape.

"It might be good to use your crew." I told her and she smiled at me happily that I had joined her side.

"How did this happen?" I asked Nick.

"The integrity of the building fell due to the air strike. It hit the ground and left this tomb in its wake. Any idea who it is?" Nick asked me trying to get me to actually have a conversation with him. I shook my head as the sun beat down on me.

"I have to go down there to figure it out." I said as the man got back with my gear. I started opening the backpack getting the rappelling gear out and hammering an anchor into the ground above. I quickly set up the rappel got my harness on and clipped in.

"Colonel, this is a significant find. I need your men to secure this village. We have no idea what could be down there. The content of Tutankhamun's tomb alone were valued at 650 million pounds sterling. Understand?" She asked Greenway as Vail and Morton gave each other a glance. Greenway looked at me to confirm as Halsey set up her rappel unit next to mine.

"Sir, I know we aren't supposed to be here. Give us three hours we'll get everything out and ready to go." I told him.

"Colonel if I may with a couple shake charges we could just close this hole right up, and Miss Halsey and Elizabeth can come back another day." Nick stepped in front of his superior officer trying to get the find for himself. The colonel and I knew all too well Morton would come back and steal everything out of the hole.

"Shut up!" Halsey and I both shouted at Nick.

"Okay, you have two hours. Then we're moving out. You are getting in the hole with them." He pointed at Nick for the last part. I smiled at the success.

"Him?" Halsey asked.

"Me?" Nick said at the same time. Questioning the Colonels judgement.

"Yep." He told him slowly.

"Sir." Nick tried to get himself out of the situation he so skillfully got himself into.

"You gear up, that's an order." Greenway yelled at him.

"I'll be right here holding the rope Sarge." Vail opened his mouth when he shouldn't have.

"Get in the damn hole, Vail!" Greenway told him too.

"Oh man!" He groaned out, not happy either. I clipped in and leaned myself over the hole. Starting to lower myself down. Halsey followed behind me as Vail and Morton tried to keep up.

"So... I'm sorry for the way things ended up happening." Halsey spoke to me.

"Jennifer, it's really not that big of a deal. Shit happens, we move on. Yeah?" I asked her. She stayed silent as I continued down.

"I just-- I'm sorry, I didn't know when I had sex with him that this would happen." She told me. I rolled my eyes, fed up with the situation not wanting to even know. She was once one of my good friends when I was with Nick before she got involved with Henry and that strange company.

"You knew. How could you not? I bitched about it all the time to you when you were my friend. He is incapable of keeping it in his pants." I told her.

"I just needed some sort of release. He was there. It just happened." She said back to me as it started to get darker within the cave. I switched on my flashlight.

"As it usually does." I told her and with that I was done with the conversation. I shouldn't be mad at her, I had no right to be. He wasn't mine anymore, I was free and completely over it.

"It's fine. Just let's get this over with." I said again clearing my head as I started to near the bottom of the cave. I reached the bottom unhooking myself from the cables and shining my flashlight around. I saw beautifully ornate statues lining the walls. Not many hieroglyphics here, someone didn't want us to know where we were.

"I am in a large antechamber of some kind. There is an inscription on the northern wall." Jennifer said, which I had to assume she was narrating for a video of some sort.

"Would you stop that!" I whisper yelled at her. She looked back at me before she could continue dust and dirt fell around us. I moved away from it and to the wall Jennifer was looking at.

"Are you kidding me?" Vail squealed out.

"Your fault, Nick. Your fault." He yelled at his friend.

"The litany of Ra." I said. As I continued forward into the cave.

"Do you see any treasure here, Nick? Because I don't. Do you know what I see? I see statues that I can't carry out." I heard Vail whisper at Nick.

"Keep it down." I heard Nick say to him. I pretended not to notice their banter. But it was too hilarious not to watch. Vail kept shining the flashlight in Nick's face to annoy him and Nick kept pushing his arm out of his face.

"You keep it down." Vail said back to him. I watched them silently as Nick looked up at the ceiling dripping on him.

"What is that? Mercury?" He asked looking towards me. I walked up to him grabbing his arm where the drop had landed.

"Yeah. The Ancient Egyptians believed that it weakened the evil spirits." I explained to him, he wasn't much of a history buff like I was but I knew that he enjoyed learning.

"Well now we know better. This stuff will kill you." He said to me a shred of a smirk on his face. I scoffed and threw his hand away from me.

"Yeah, after it makes you crazy." Vail weighed in on the conversation I grumbled and walked away from the two idiots.

"There is mercury dripping from the ceiling into holes in the ground. Possibly to connect the.." I heard Jennifer say while walking back to Nick.

"It's a canal system leading all the way to..." I told her, she looked at me.

"Get the lights!" She said into her walkie talkie to the men on top of the hole. I looked around at what was instantly lit in front of me. We walked down some steps that were most likely carved by the men that put the tomb here.

"Oh my God." I let out, the breath leaving my lungs. Seeing a pool a mercury and statues facing inwards towards some chains that were suspending whatever was inside the pool. It was beautiful like nothing I've ever seen.

"Get everything out of the bags." I ordered Nick and Vail as Jennifer caught her breath. We threw our bags onto the ground and got everything out: flashlights, cameras, etc. Vail followed Jennifer down more steps closer to the tomb.

"I am in a large man-made cavern adjoining the antechamber. There are chiseled steps descending from the ledge. There is a canal at the center of them that feeds a ritual well at the base filled with mercury. Beads of scarabs, scarab signet rings. This is a high priest of Ammon from the temple of Thebes. There is a ritual barrier chain that's around the well as a warning to intruders. To keep people out. There isn't a single provision made for someone's journey into the underworld. No Canopic jars, no Shabtis..." She trailed off as I was taking pictures of everything. She looked at me asking me what this was.

"To be buried in a place like this would have been a fate worse than death." I told her.

"Nick! Don't even think about it." She yelled at him for trying to steal something no doubt. I continued taking detailed pictures of just about everything I could.

"There are six watchers around the well facing inward instead of out. Whatever is in there, those chains aren't for bringing it up. They are for holding it down. This is not a tomb. It's a prison." I told her slowly realizing we had gotten ourselves into more than we could possibly handle for the moment.

"Lima 2-6, come in." I heard come through the radio breaking the silence that had fallen.

"Copy, sir." Vail replied into the radio.

"Get out now. We've got reports of bogeys inbound. We gotta take off." Greenway told us.

"Tell Greenway I need a DTRA." Jennifer told him.

"For what?" Vail asked back, he was scared. It almost seemed the man had seen zero combat.

"I need specialists from Cairo..." She told him still holding her ground.

"Cairo?" He asked again.

"We'll need seaborn suits and shielding cuffs..." I told him exactly what we would need to see what was in the pool without raising it.

"Elizabeth, we are out of time. You better grab what you can now!" He yelled at me.

"I'm not leaving until I see what's in that pool." I yelled back at him.

"Oh you are leaving. We're leaving right now." He yelled back not giving up.

"I have not come this far just to leave without..." I yelled at him. I heard a shot ring out and the chains started moving.

"NICK! WHAT DID YOU DO???" I yelled at my former lover. A sarcophagus rose out of the mercury pool. I held up my gun as I watched the mercury bead off and hit the pool. I was thrown out of my trance when these spiders started to come out of the crevices. Vail started shooting them almost immediately as they came close to him. I stepped on them getting them out of my range.

"Cease fire! Vail!" I yelled at him.

"Cease fire! Cease fire!" Nick backed me up.

"They're just camel spiders! They're not even poisonous!" I yelled to him trying to put his mind at ease.

"Can we please leave?" Vail asked me, the fight leaving him.

"Are you out of your mind, Vail?" Nick yelled.

"Please!" Vail yelled back at him.

"What is wrong with you?" Nick clabbered back.

"That thing bit my neck! It bit me!!" Vail yelled. I walked over to the medical kit I packed grabbing some ointment and a bandage, then went to Vail.

"Better?" I asked him as I put the ointment on his neck and the bandage on tight.

"Yeah, thank you. Enough of this! I don't care! I'm leaving! With or without you! I'm leaving!" Vail yelled at Nick and Jennifer. I left his side and walked over in front of Nick. He was in a trance, seemingly not hearing any of the chaos that was going down.

"Nick! Nick!" I tried to get his attention.

"Tell Greenway he is gonna send a team to get this thing out of here. Or he is gonna have to explain why he left me behind. Do it!" I yelled at him before walking off and collecting my things.

"Okay." He whispered and I walked back near the sarcophagus taking photos as best I could with the spiders surrounding me. This could have been a huge mistake but the damage was done and most likely we couldn't reverse what was going to happen.