The Adventurer & The Librarian

Chapter 5: Instincts

The day had passed quickly and the full moon was shining bright in the sky.  Bonnie had spent most of the time in her private quarters, doing her best to just avoid people.  Something didn't feel right and her gut instincts were almost always spot on.  It was how she was still alive.

Perhaps if she mingled a bit, she'd figure it out.

Bonnie grabbed her bag and exited the cabin before locking it, then she headed down the hallway out onto the deck to the gentlemen's section of the boat.

"Without my glasses, I can't see the deck to cut it, can I, Daniels?" one American male said to another man at a poker table.

"No women allowed," the bartender hissed, which drew Jonathon's attention.

"She's with me!" Jonathan shouted cheerfully.  "Please don't make her mad, old chap!  She packs a hell of a punch!"

The guests laughed amongst themselves as O'Connell walked up to Jonathan's table.  "Thank you," she muttered.

"You're welcome," Jonathan replied.  "Sit down, O'Connell.  We could use another player."

"I only gamble with my life, never my money," Bonnie said with a polite grin.

"So this is the female ex-soldier, huh?" Daniels said as he eyed Bonnie up and down.  "She doesn't seem so scary to me."

The woman arched a brow.  "Give it time," she answered sharply.

Some of the men guffawed at the odd woman's retort.  "Sure seems like a pistol, though," another man said, smirking up at her from his chair.  "You don't like poker?"

"Not particularly fond of the game, no," Bonnie replied.

"What if I was to bet you five hundred dollars says we get to Hamunaptra before you do?" Daniels asked in a cocky tone.

Bonnie's grin disappeared.  "You're looking for Hamunaptra?"

"Damn straight we are,"  the previous man said.

"And who says we are?" Bonnie asked.

All three strangers pointed to Jonathan.  "He does," they all said.

Jonathan chuckled nervously and glanced over his shoulder at a slightly pissed off Bonnie.  "Well, how about it?" Daniels asked, smiling.  "Is it a bet?"

Bonnie eyed the gentlemen looking at her before giving Daniels a giant smile.  "Alright, you're on," she said, liking the idea of competition.

"What makes you so confident, miss?" An older British gentleman asked behind her, causing her to turn towards him.

"Well, what makes you?"

"Well, we got us a man who's actually been there," the blonde American answered as he looked over his cards with a shit eating grin.

"Oh, what a coincidence, because O'Connell-"  Bonnie smacked her bag into Jonathan's side, giving him a death glare as she shouldered it.  Jonathan looked back to the men.  "Whose play is it?  Is it-is it my play?  I thought I just, um-"

Bonnie leaned in with a white toothed smile, gripping Jonathan's shoulder tightly.  "Gentlemen, we got ourselves a wager.  Good evening, Jonathan," she said behind her teeth, crunching his shoulder.

Jonathan flinched before saying good night to Bonnie.  She trekked down the deck further, looking for a good spot to check her weapons.  Again.  Further down the port side, Bonnie spotted William.  His back was to her and he was immersed in a book, which didn't surprise Bonnie in the slightest.  She went to turn around, but then she stopped.  The man saved her life, she could at least be civil with him.

Bonnie walked up to the table and slammed her bag on it, startling William out of his trance.  The adventurer immediately regretted scaring him.  "Sorry.  Didn't mean to scare ya," she said, taking off her jacket and putting it on a chair.

"The only thing that scares me, Miss O'Connell, are your manners," William said with quick wit before going back into his book.

Bonnie jerked her head with a soft chuckle as she unstrapped her bag.  "Still angry about that kiss, huh?"

William eyed the woman behind his reading glasses.  "Oh, is that what that was?" he challenged.  Bonnie's eye twitched a little and her lip curled in a bit before she unrolled the bag aggressively, revealing guns, ammo and other assorted weapons.  The woman sat down as William gaped at all the weapons, removing his glasses.  "Where the bloody hell did you get all this?  Yesterday you were just an unsavory, loud mouthed homeless woman," William said with a curious smile.

Bonnie narrowed her eyes at him, not wanting to dignify his insult with a response.  "I'm a survivor," she replied curtly, checking the chamber of one of her revolvers.  "Therefore, I'm always prepared."

"What are you preparing for?  Battle?"

"There's something out there, Mister," Bonnie answered as she holstered the gun.  "Something underneath that sand."

William rolled his eyes and glanced at her other guns.  "Well, I'm hoping to find a certain object," he said as Bonnie continued with her gun checking ritual.  "A book, actually.  My brother thinks there's treasure.  What do you think's out there?"

"In a word, evil.  The Bedouin and the Tuaregs believe that Hamunaptra is cursed," Bonnie explained, trying to snatch back the piece of the disassembled shotgun from William's hands.

"This is the trigger piece for your Winchester shotgun, isn't it?" he asked as he jerked it out of her grasp.  The woman tilted her head to the side as she raised an eyebrow.  William smirked.  "I do read about them, you know.  Guns."

"Have you ever actually used one?"

"I have."

"When?"

William cleared his throat uncomfortably, or at least that was what Bonnie perceived.  "Look," the librarian began as Bonnie went to assembling her shotgun.  "I don't believe in fairy tales or hokum, Miss O'Connell, but I do believe that one of the most famous books in history is buried there.  The Book of Amun-Ra.  It contains within it all the secret incantations of the Old Kingdom.  It's what first interested me in Egypt when I was a child.  It's why I came here...sort of a life's pursuit."

The longer William had gone on, the more Bonnie smirked.  The excitement on his face was so pure and innocent.  She didn't expect that from a man.  The shotgun had been assembled and Bonnie began wiping it down with a cloth, still smirking at William.

"And the fact that they say it's made out of pure gold makes no never mind to you, right?" she asked confidently.

William smiled more broadly, his eyes lighting up a bit at her response.  "You know your history," he said, sounding quite impressed.

"And you know your guns," she said with a grin, then she blinked and looked at her gun, paying more attention to the object rather than the...increasingly attractive male specimen sitting across from her.  "And I know my treasure."

William went silent for a moment before almost whispering.  "By the way...just out of curiosity, why did you kiss me?"

Bonnie paused for half a second before wheezing with laughter.  "I don't know, I was about to be hanged.  It seemed like a good idea at the time," she replied while switching from the shotgun to loading up her pistol. 

The next thing Bonnie knew, William was storming off and she turned as he charged past her.  Was the man that offended by her response?  Before she could apologize and explain herself, however, Bonnie heard a little yelp over by some of the luggage.  With her pistol loaded, she got up and ambled over to a man's shadow.  She leaned over and grabbed the man by the shirt collar and jacket, yanking him up and making him scream a little. 

It was Beni.