Robert had never been to North Africa although he had heard much about it. It was far hotter and more inhospitable than he had ever imagined. Even Marcus was finding the heat a bit much, he noted.
"How do you stand this heat, Doctor Jones?" The young man asked, for the tenth time.
Indy smiled. "Indy. I keep telling you. Indy. Anyway, it's not hot. You should be here in July. That's hot!" He lifted his fedora, scratched his head and pulled the hat down over his eyes again.
"Did we have to walk the last two miles though?" Robert asked. They had left their truck some time ago and he was beginning to think the British Museum wasn't so bad after all.
"You can hear an engine for over a mile in the desert." Rene said. "We don't want to announce our arrival to...." He left the sentence unfinished.
"To who?" Asked Marion. She had insisted on coming as without her books, they 'would still be floundering about at home' as she put it and she was also very interested in the whole affair now. No one could complain, as she was right and anyway, she was standing up to the conditions as well as any of them.
"Who knows?" Indy answered, looking ahead. "The Jap's; The Nazi's; Smith and his thugs; All of them?" He shrugged his shoulders. They climbed another large, soft, foot-trapping dune and peered over the top. There, below was the largest archaeological site Robert had ever seen. He whistled quietly. "It, It's as big as....as...." He murmured.
"A city?" Indy said, finishing Roberts' sentence. He pulled them all down into the shelter of the dune, out of sight of anyone looking their way and drew out the map.
"We're on the Eastern side, fairly near the river mouth but we have to get across, to the library building." He tapped the map with his finger.
"Couldn't we have come at the site from that side?" Marion asked. Whenever she was with Indy it seemed to involve getting cooked, frozen, or wet and she had no desire to ask how they would cross the river. She was certain she already knew.
"No access." Indy replied. "There are mountains on that side. Unless, of course you fancy mountaineering in this heat?"
Marion scowled but said no more.
"We'll wait till dark before we move. Maybe we'll get lucky. Who knows. Maybe we'll find a boat or something."
Marion looked skyward. "Yeah, sure.." She grumbled.
It was fairly cool as the sun sank beneath the horizon and Robert, and the others, were glad. Marion was just beginning to feel relaxed and more than a little sleepy when Indy disturbed the calm.
"Right. Let's go."
Marion jerked fully awake, only to realise she had nodded off with her head resting on Rene's shoulder. He was gently supporting her with one arm. She pulled back sharply from him. "Hands off bud!" She exclaimed, sounding more angry than she actually felt. She was more than a little surprised at the realisation that her hatred was turning to mere distrust. Rene held his hands up and said, "I was only stopping you from falling over, my Cherie."
"Don't 'SHERRY' me ANYTHING." She growled, scrambling to her feet.
Indy, Marcus and Robert were already heading down the slope to the site below. Marion stumbled in the soft sand and Belloq took her elbow to stop her falling. She pulled back once, then let him hold her arm as she tripped a second time.
"Just don't try anything, buster." She said, leaning more than a little on him for support. Rene struggled to keep a straight face.
"Are you two gonna romance all night?" Indy called back to them.
Marion jerked her arm away from Rene and stamped off after the others.
"Watch your mouth, Jones!" She exclaimed, furiously. She was, however, glad it was dark enough to cover the flush she felt rising in her face.
As they headed toward the dig, Indy mused on his strange relationship now with Marion and Rene. He knew that years ago, he would have been intensely jealous of the obviously decreasing mistrust that Marion held for Belloq. He would also have been extremely unhappy at the feelings Rene still blatantly showed toward her, even after all that had passed. Rene had been an unwitting pawn in a game too big for him back then and whatever Marion might shout, Belloq had genuinely been very fond of her at the time. He obviously still was. Indy smiled. He was older now. Too old? He wondered. Marion was a lover once, then a good friend and accomplice. Now she was just a part of his life. Even when they were apart, they were together he realised. She was like the sister he had never had. He would always care about her but anything more? He wasn't sure anymore. And Rene. Sure, they had been archaeological enemies in the past but Indy dimly realised it had all been part of the fun. Part of the game. Rene had somehow always been a friend. A close friend. Even when they had been on opposite sides. Even during the business with the Ark. Rene hadn't actually done him any harm. Not himself. Not deliberately. He was just on the wrong team at the wrong time. Indy looked back at him bringing up the rear, holding a rifle at the ready, watching their backs. He smiled. He looked at Marcus, puffing along at his side. Never complaining, always like a schoolboy on a new adventure. He looked at Robert, this new 'member of the gang' and realised he was much like himself when he was younger. Would there ever be any 'Adventures of Robert Robert', he wondered? Also, he realised, there was someone missing from 'the gang'. Dad.
Suddenly, a strange feeling came over him and he knew he loved all these people and that somehow, something was going to change. He didn't know how he knew, but his well trusted inner sight told him to cherish this moment, as it would never be the same again.
"There's the gate." Indy snapped back to reality. Marcus had spoken and in the gloom ahead, he saw the jagged, broken pillars of the old City's Eastern gate.
"Quiet." He hissed to them all, now fully in command again.
"Wait here." The others stopped without question and Indy crept ahead to the gate and vanished into the city. Moments later, his voice came quietly but clearly through the darkness.
"OK, You guys. C'mon."
The company filed between the pillars and saw Indy standing with someone else. They all tensed instantly. Then the stranger began to quietly sing.
"A British soul is a soaring soul, as free as a mountain bird....."
"Sallah!" Marcus and Marion called together.
Sallah came forwards, embracing them all in turn, even Robert, even Rene. He looked at the Frenchman and said, "You look well, my friend, for a dead man."
He laughed and slapped Belloq on the shoulder who stared for a moment, then laughed himself, slapping Sallah even harder on the arm.
"Indy wired me before you left." He said in answer to the unspoken question.
"Now, we must move. I have everything you asked for, but you are not the first at the new dig. A group of German and Japanese archaeologists and soldiers arrived yesterday and they have been looking all along this side of the river for a tall building with four columns."
Indy looked at Rene. "The Jap. He heard us."
"But this side of the river?" Why this side? We never said anything about which side of the river the library was on. And anyway, it's on the other side." Rene said, puzzled.
Then the proverbial penny dropped and Indy laughed. "Don't you see? They only ever had one half of the map. They never saw our piece. It only shows one side of the river on each piece."
Then Indy turned to Sallah and in another strange repeat of time, they said in unison,
"They're digging in the wrong place!" Then they both burst out laughing, much to the confusion of Rene and the others.
"The Jap must have heard our description of the building; large, with a four columned facade. Only the foundations will be there now, so they're digging, hoping to find the bases of the four columns."
Then Robert spoke excitedly. "But they're not there!"
"They're on the other side of the river." Marion finished, also getting caught up in the excitement of it all.
"We can't afford to waste time." Indy said. "It won't be long before they discover their mistake and start digging on the other side. We have to move quickly."
"But how will we find the building? How can we work without being seen?" Robert asked. Indy turned and stared across the moonlight dappled water.
"We get help and we dig at night."
No more was said and the company followed Sallah to a boat at the rivers edge, where they crossed, dry, much to Marions pleasure and were taken to a safe house away from the site of the digging where they were greeted by an attractive but older lady who Sallah claimed, in a slightly embarrassed tone, was an 'old friend'. They were well fed and tucked up for the remainder of the night and Indy slept as soundly as he had ever done.
It was well into the next day when he awoke to find Sallah was gone and the woman, whose name was Celicia, was packing seemingly enormous amounts of food for their first nights work.
Some hours later Sallah returned with the news that he had secured the services of an excellent group of diggers at minimal cost. Indy shook his head at the seeming ingenuity of the man.
"What the hell did I ever do without you?" He laughed.
"You let him win all the time." Sallah replied, nodding toward Belloq. They were all silent for a second before they burst out laughing.
The sun set was glorious over the line of hills and Marion stared at the sight dreamily, only vaguely aware that someone was at her shoulder watching her. She was thinking of this odd group of people and how strange it was that she should be in another adventure with them all. It was like time repeating itself.
"You know, Indy," She said, without turning, "I kinda missed all this, you know? The adventure, the fights, even Rene. I guess I knew it wasn't really his fault, you know, the well of souls and all that. But still, you gotta blame someone. Don't tell him, but I kinda liked him really. You know. Boyish charm and all that. You don't mind do you. It's not like us, we're sorta, well, different. But Rene, well, he's kinda.....different..." She finished lamely. She turned to look at Indy but received a jolt to see it wasn't Indy standing behind her.
It was Rene.
Instantly, she went scarlet and drew up a fist to hit him. Rene caught her wrist and for a moment, their faces were only inches apart. There was a stilted but gentle silence that seemed to last an eternity. Marion moved slightly toward him and stretched up on her toes and closed her eyes. She felt Rene let go of her wrist and seconds later she opened her eyes.
Rene had gone.
Her mind flashed back several years and the words," How come we never get the breaks?" flashed through her head.
A while later, she heard Indy say, "Time to go." and she vaguely wondered if he had seen what had happened but neither she nor Indy ever spoke of it.
Two days of uneventful searching passed and Indy and the others began to wonder if indeed they were on the right trail.
There was little left of the ancient city and most of the ruins were almost impossible to decipher without a lot of patient study. Time they could ill afford.
Late into the third night, Indy was in the middle of a heated argument with Rene about the next area to try, when Robert burst into the room.
"We've found it!" He blurted.
"We've found the library!"
