Off the coast of Africa, a small boat sailed towards the shore. On deck, four people watched excitedly as the shoreline of Alexandria, Egypt came into view. This was Bob and Cristal Altman and Rob Hubbard, treasure hunters from Washington State, and their guide, Laila Raimi.

“This doesn’t look anything like Washington!” Cristal said excitedly. “It’s like Asia!”

“It’s not, though,” Laila laughed. “This is Africa!” The boat slowly sailed into the harbor, where it docked and let the three tourists climb off.

“Thanks for the tour!” Bob called. “We loved it!”

“I was glad to be your guide from Heraklion to here!” Laila called back.”

The trio had flown to Paris, France two days earlier and spent the night. Then, they had flown to Heraklion, Crete, where after spending another night there, they met Laila and sailed from the island all the way to Alexandria.

With that, they left the dock and continued into the bustling city.

“Can we go see the Sphinx?” asked Cristal, who was recently obsessed with cats.

“We’re not even in Cairo yet!” Rob laughed. “Besides, the Sphinx isn’t even near Cairo! We came here on a mission!”

“You mean that diamond ring?” Cristal asked.

“Not a ring. Just a diamond.” Rob corrected

Bob cut in. “The ancient Egyptians had found a huge diamond near Cairo. They kept it in the temple of their false god, Ra. They thought of it as holy. Legend insists that if anyone touched it, Ra would instantly kill him.”

“If you die when you touch it, then why are we searching for it?” Cristal questioned.

“We don’t believe in those superstitions.” Bob said. “This is just a normal diamond.”

They soon found their rental car and started driving towards Cairo.

“This won’t be as easy as finding La Cueva De Oro .” Rob said.

“That wasn’t easy!” Cristal exclaimed. “It was super hard!”

“Then this will be even harder!” Rob said with a smile. “La Cueva De Oro was found only a hundred years ago. The diamond was found more than 2,000 years ago!”

Two hours later, their rental car pulled up in front of a rickety looking house on the outskirts of Cairo.

“Are you sure this is it?” Bob asked. Rob tapped a few buttons on his phone.

“Yep, according to Google Maps, this is our rental house.”

Cristal unlatched her car door and hopped out. Bob climbed out and walked up to the door of the house, with Rob following. He typed in the door passcode, which looked fairly new compared to the house surrounding it, and the door slowly creaked open. Strange-looking bugs scuttled out of the way.

“W-what are those?” Cristal asked nervously.

Rob pulled out his phone. “According to Google, they are Egyptian cockroaches,” he said.

Bob walked past them and up a set of stairs. Rob and Cristal followed. Bob opened another door, this one without a lock. Inside was a comfortable furnished room, looking nothing like the outside. The walls were a pale green. Three cushioned red chairs surrounded a round table. Three beds were on the far side of the room.

“I guess there’s no kitchen,” Rob said. “We’ll have to eat at a restaurant.”

“Yay!” Cristal squealed. “Can we get Taco Bell?”

“I don’t know if there’s a Taco Bell near here,” Bob replied, “but we sure can get Mexican food!”

High above, a black private jet flew, headed for the Cairo International Airport. Painted on the side was the jet’s name: Black Cobra. Inside, Dave Parker sat across from his chief henchman, John Malina. Dave Parker was the leader of the villainous Black Cobra Treasure Hunters team. He tried to steal the treasures that Rob, Bob, and Cristal found. He also liked to play tricks on them. Once, he even made a fake treasure map for them to follow while he found the real treasure. Last adventure, in the huge gold-filled cavern of La Cueva De Oro, he had fallen over a cliff. Luckily for him, there was an underground river at the bottom that flowed out of a hole in the mountain, where his jet was parked by the riverbank. “You know where the vault is,” Dave said. “If we can lure Rob and Bob and their silly little girl into it, they’ll never come out alive! Do it tonight!”

After dinner at a restaurant, Rob, Bob, and Cristal went straight to bed. In the morning, after a short breakfast of apples and crackers, they were on their way to the temple of Ra to look for clues. Bob rushed out the door and nearly tripped over a medium-sized package sitting on the doormat. He stopped and picked it up. Rob and Cristal walked up behind him.

“What’s that?” Cristal asked.

“I don’t know,” Bob replied. “I found it sitting here.” He opened the top of the box and found it stuffed with packing peanuts. Partially buried in them was a plastic bag. Bob picked it up and handed it to Rob. Rob opened up the bag. Inside was a note wrapped around something hard. It was a large metal key.

“What’s the note say?” Cristal asked eagerly.

“It’s coordinates.” Rob answered. “They must be the coordinates of the diamond!” He quickly entered them into Google Maps. “They point to a spot only a few blocks away!” They three ran to their rental car and Bob started the engine.

When the car pulled over at their designation, they found themselves in front of a wall of hieroglyphics .

“I don’t see anything.” Cristal said sadly, looking around.

“Hey, look!” Bob said. It’s a hieroglyphic of Ra!”

Cristal ran to look. “His beak looks funny,” she commented.

“Hey!” Rob exclaimed. He pulled the key out of his pocket. Putting the tip on Ra’s beak, he pushed hard. There was a click, and the key slid into the spot where the beak had been. “It’s a keyhole!” Bob said excitedly. Rob turned the key carefully. A door sized section of the wall pivoted outwards, revealing a tunnel behind it. Cristal ran into the tunnel, leaving Bob and Rob behind in the tunnel’s mouth.

“Cristal, come back!” Bob called, his voice echoing around the tunnel. He and Rob began to run after Cristal, but after they’d only ran a few yards, there was a click from behind them as the door was pushed closed. There was utter blackness. Then a beam of light flared. Rob had pulled out his flashlight. “Who closed the door?” Rob asked in a worried voice.

“I don’t know.” Bob said, as Cristal walked up to them. “What will we do?” she asked.

Rob was studying the door. “We’re not getting back out through here,” he announced. “I guess we’ll have to just keep on walking.” The trio began to walk slowly forwards, until they came to a staircase. They began to descend down, but then came to a split in the staircase.

“I guess this must be like a huge maze!” Bob said. “Let’s go… left.” They took the left fork and kept descending into the darkness. Suddenly, the floor gave way beneath them, and they fell into a deep pit. There was a sound that sounded like a chorus of hisses. Bob sat up. Rob shone the flashlight into a dark corner. Hundreds of small forms rose up out of the shadows. King cobras, one of the world’s most venomous snakes. Cristal leaped up, along with Bob and Rob. The cobras were slowly slithering towards them, their fangs glistening in the light of the flashlight. Bob backed up into something that felt like a handle. He grabbed it and pulled open a door. They flung themselves inside, Bob slamming the door quickly.

“That was close!” he exclaimed.

“Yeah!” Cristal agreed. Rob slowly shone his flashlight around. They were in another hallway. They began again to walk down the hallway, this time bypassing turnoffs. The flashlight suddenly began to flicker. Then it went out altogether.

“I might have some more batteries in my backpack.” Rob said. He felt around for them, but soon gave up. “I can’t find any more.” He said.

They began to feel their way along the wall. Then, Bob’s foot hit something. He reached out with his hand and felt a wall. He groaned. “A dead end!” “Let’s go back to one of the turnoffs.” Rob suggested. They began to feel their way backwards, until they felt a doorway. In the doorway was two other passageways.

“Let’s go right!” Cristal said. They felt their way down the right passageway, until they saw a small dot of light far ahead. The three hurried towards it, until the light disappeared. Frowning, Bob hurried ahead until he felt another rock wall. “It’s another dead end!” He began to turn around, but then saw the light moving slowly down another tunnel to the right of him. They began to hurry towards it. They quickly walked closer, until they realized what it was.

“It’s a flashlight sitting on the floor!” Cristal cried. Rob picked it up and shone it around. They were now in a large, hieroglyphic-covered room. In the middle was a stone pedestal. And on it was one of the largest diamonds they had ever seen.

The trio walked over to the pedestal. It was then that they realized that the diamond was drenched in a strange, clear liquid. Rob pulled the key out of his pocket and touched its handle to the diamond. There was a bubbling, fizzing noise as the end of the key began to dissolve. “Acid,” he said softly. He looked upwards. There was a small, pinpoint hole in the ceiling. A small drop of the acid oozed out, then dripped onto the top of the diamond.

“The acid must not be strong enough to dissolve the diamond.” Bob reasoned. He then saw a keyhole near the hole. He took the key from Rob and carefully, not touching the acid, stuck the key into the hole and turned it. There was a click, and the flow of the acid stopped. They watched as the acid on the diamond slowly drained into another hole on the pedestal. Cristal pulled out her water bottle and dumped it over the diamond. The water washed off the last traces of the acid, leaving the diamond clean.

Rob touched it carefully with one finger, then picked it up.

“Wow!” Cristal exclaimed. “It’s so big!”

“Now we need to find our way out of here!” Bob said. “Of course we will probably have to give the diamond to the government, though.” He moved towards the exit. Suddenly, there was a click, and something hard and metal was pressed up against his back. A gun.

He heard a gruff voice say. “Hand over the diamond,” Bob recognized the voice as that of John Malina. Rob handed it to Bob, and he handed it to Malina. “Now, where’s the key?” Malina asked. Bob pointed to the keyhole in the ceiling, where the key was still lodged. With his gun in one hand, John Malina walked over to the spot and tugged hard on the key.

There was a cracking noise, and the key fell to the floor. Cracks spiderwebbed across the ceiling. All across the room, the sound of small drops of acid dripping was heard. As the cracks grew wider, Malina dropped the diamond. Rob snatched it from the floor. He ran over to the key, picked it up, and inserted it into the beak of Ra on one the wall’s hieroglyphics. There was a click, and a section of the wall opened. Bright light shone into the chamber. Rob, Bob, and Cristal lunged through the door, as acid rained down on Malina and the ceiling caved in. They found themselves back near their rental car, next to the same wall of hieroglyphics. The hieroglyphic of Ra was only a few yards away.

Rob spoke up. “Although Malina was our enemy, that was a horrible end to him. We should notify the police about the diamond, and what happened to Malina.”

“You’re right.” Bob agreed.

As they got into their rental car, Cristal said, “Daddy, can we go see the Sphinx?”