Indiana Jones and the Daring Daughter

The cork exploded from the top of the bottle, bouncing off the ceiling and clattering to the floor as foam bubbled over its neck. It dribbled down over Belloq's hands as he walked over to the table, a wide smile on his face as he poured Indiana a glass, filling his cup at the same time.

"To our graduations!" Indiana said, raising his glass as Belloq sat down and reciprocated.

"And to our futures," René added as the glasses clinked off of each other.

"Speaking of futures..." Indiana began, pausing to take a sip, before continuing, "...Planning on going for your doctorate?"

"Of course. You?"

"If I can get the money for it," Indiana leaned back into his seat, tapping his fingers against the arm of his chair, "The last haul was good. Kept my creditors happy. But I don't think anyone's going to lend me enough to start on my doctoral program. Marcus got me an in with some guys at Oxford, I can even get a part time teaching job there, but I still gotta pay for the tuition.

"I think one more haul into the jungle we can get it, easy. I'd just need forty percent this time, and we already have the trails charted-" Indiana trailed off at Belloq's reaction.

Shaking his head, his friend held up a hand to stay Indy, "No, no, no, we can't. When they looked into the disappearance of our guide, information came out and now there's probably a thousand people trying the same grift. We were lucky we got in when we did, but the well's dry now."

"Fuck," Indiana rolled his head back, "Do they know it was us?"

"That's why we used aliases, Indiana," Belloq reminded, "You had said it 'felt wrong' at the time. Aren't you glad now?"

"...It still doesn't feel right," Indiana admitted.

"Well!" Belloq leaned forward, "There is something else we could probably get into. I thought you might be a bit busy to come along, what with your lease ending soon, but..." René pursed his lips, "We are in contact with the family of some old, French sailors back from the Napoleonic period. They want us to do some finding for them so that we can retrieve some belongings and antiques their ancestors had."

Indiana straightened up, taking another sip from his champagne, "Tell me more."

"Well, the sailors were part of the crew of a French privateer," René said, leaning in even further, "During the war, they captured an English vessel and recovered a substantial amount of gold and treasure. The value of their cargo and tensions on board caused the crew to mutiny. They cast their officers adrift in a boat and continued sailing on. The English were angry at them, so was the French Empire - who eclipsed the entire continent at that point. So, they sailed to a remote island with a native tribe on it, integrated with them...

"Chances are the treasure is still there somewhere. The client wants us try and trace where the ship ended up, find their resting places and recover their bones to take back to the family mausoleum. As for any gold we may happen to find... we can simply underreport how much we actually obtain," Belloq grinned, shaking a finger at Indiana, "And you can even bring Anna along with us. We'll be spending a lot of our time on a ship, so I imagine it will be easy to take care of her there."

Indiana, however, shook his head, "I don't want to drag her along on this. It could be dangerous."

Belloq's gave a shrug, "Dangerous because of what? It's a safe job. Maybe not easy, but safer than our trip into the jungle."

"I'd rather just have Marcus keep her," Indiana insisted, "Would free me up to work harder, anyway."

"I don't mind at all," Belloq shook his head, "Besides, will Dr Brody really be available for the amount of time we'll be away?"

"...How long will we be away?" Indiana asked, uncertain.

"It could be any amount of time. Three, five months, maybe more?" Belloq shrugged, "I don't know. I ensure you, we'll have a steamship and a crew, anything less and we won't be able to haul everything back to the mainland. You trusted her to be on a passenger ship, right? It's not like we're going to hire pirates to carry us."

Just one more job, cleaner than the one that came before it. Then, he could settle into a teaching life with a large enough salary to pay all his expenses and start on his debts. He gave a slow nod, "Sounds good."

Over the next several months, travel was prepared. Any possessions Indiana wished to keep from Paris apartment were boxed up and shipped to Marcus for safekeeping, while the rest was sold off. From there, it was a trip back to Western France, a ship, and a trip to the Panama Canal to head towards the Pacific. Of course, thoughts about the last time he was in Panama immediately prompted Indiana to wire ahead, getting in contact with Richard.

The ship was on schedule to dock there about the same time that the Safe Travels did. And, fortunately for all involved, the trip across the Atlantic met very few delays.

Anna followed, bright eyed and curious, as Indiana walked down the gangway to the port. They had a day until traffic cleared enough for the ship to proceed through the Panama Canal into the Pacific, which left just enough time for Indiana to reintroduce his daughter again to someone. Someone who was waiting by a familiar steamer about a thirty minutes' walk away.

Richard was staring straight out over the waters, back against a stack of wooden crates until the sound of Indiana's voice seemed to snap him out of his reverie. A toothy smile spread across his lips as he turned towards the father and daughter approaching him.

"Anna. This is Richard. You know Richard, right? He's the guy who sent you all those nice cards?" Indiana said, keeping an eye on Anna as he extended a hand out towards the other man.

"Hi..." Anna mumbled, staring at Richard nervously.

"The last time I saw you, you could fit right in my hands," Richard said, placing his hands on his hips, "Now look at you, you come up to your father's knees."

"She's growing pretty fast. The doctor believes she'll probably cap out about..." Indiana placed a hand near his stomach, "Here."

"The German doctor?" Richard asked, gesturing Indiana to follow as they walked for a nearby bench.

"Uncle Johan..." Anna muttered.

"Dr Richter. He's a zoologist," Indiana confirmed, "Been doing things like taking measurements, tracking her development, all sorts of things. He came off as sort of creepy when I first met him, but really he's just a very dedicated scientist. Even bought her gifts and stuff."

"And he was the one who told you Anna was intelligent?" Richard asked.

"I... more or less figured that one out on my own," Indiana admitted with a dry chuckle, "When she started talking and all..."

"Daaaaaaad..." Anna suddenly spoke up.

"Hmm?"

"It's hot," Anna said.

"Poor kid. It was winter back in France, and I think her coat grew in a bit thicker. The heat in the tropics is already bad enough," Indiana said, waving a hand near his neck to stimulate some air flow, "Have you been drinking your water Anna?"

"Mhm..."

"Don't lie."

"Mhm!"

"Good girl."

Richard was the first to arrive at the bench, sitting down and patting the seat next to him, "What brings you back to Panama, Indy?"

"Work," Indiana sat down next to him. Anna placed her forehooves on his knees, prompting him to reach out and help her up onto his lap, "My friend Belloq is out right now talking to a client. We're doing some research into finding some old pirate bones. I'm hoping with the money I make, I can fund the tuition for my doctoral studies. Then from there it's just... teaching. Getting grants to do research, making a stable living. Buy a house somewhere, give Anna more attention, start paying back my debts..."

"Pirate bones? Sounds exciting. Personally, I'm out of a job," Richard sighed, placing his hands on his knees and leaning back onto the bench, "They went ahead and did it, Indy. Safe Travels is a rum runner now."

"Man. I'd almost forgotten about all of that stuff," Indiana's eyes went down towards the concrete below them. A hand idly stroked down Anna's back and up her exposed neck, causing her ears to twitch, "What're you going to do now?"

"Try and get rehired on another ship," Richard shook his head mournfully, "I considered keeping on with the Travels until I reached New York, but I figured there's more respectable traffic going through the Canal these days."

Indiana pursed his lips, "...Hey, maybe we can help each other out? I mean, if you're just looking for something in the interim, I can see if maybe I can swing a spot for you on our boat?"

"I definitely wouldn't say no. Would be good sailing with you again," Richard agreed readily.

Indiana lead the other man back across the docks, Anna trailing slightly behind while in flight. They found a place to get lunch together, which was sadly a markedly easier thing for them to do in Panama than it was in the US. Anna adamantly refused to even try any of the local food, instead only eating the bread. Indiana briefly wondered if her digestive system was somehow incompatible, before realizing she had been the same way when first trying French food. Rich simply said that kids were 'like that' when it came to new food.

After paying, they moved back to where the Eleanor, the ship that would take them into the Pacific, would be docked. There, Indiana met back up with René, who was with a stranger with a thick moustache, goatee, and bowler hat. From the instant they came into sight, the stranger's eyes locked onto Anna, giving Indy a slight skin crawl.

"Hey, René, meet Richard Simons," Indiana held out a hand towards his companion, "My friend."

"Nice to meet you, sir," Richard tilted his head in deference to René, who nodded in return.

Belloq, placing his hands in his coat pockets, stepped back to allow the stranger forward, "Mr Jones, meet our client, Dr Pallière. He decided to come forward to ensure the safety of his investment."

"Hi," Indiana said, reaching out a hand towards the strange man.

The man blinked, seemingly taken off guard as his eyes came off of Anna and met Jones's. He managed a smile, shaking Indy's hand and saying, "I trust the bones of my ancestors are in safe hands. It is rare that I would trust someone without a proven history with such a task, but the Belloq family has a certain... dependability when it comes to operations like this," his smile widened, along with Belloq's.

"You flatter me, sir," René said, before pointing towards Indiana, "This is my own friend. We are classmates, and he is a very skilled linguist and historian. He's also very familiar with tropical climates."

Pallière nodded to himself, eyes wandering from Indiana and back to Anna, "And who is this?"

"My name is Anna!" Anna said enthusiastically, hovering by Indy's shoulder.

"It talks, just like you said!" Mariette chuckled, smiling ear to ear as he looked over to René, who tilted his head in response.

"Quite remarkable, isn't it? She's intelligent life that isn't human," René remarked.

"I hope we didn't make you come out all this way just for this," Indiana said, speaking up as he placed his hands on his hips and set his gaze on Pallière, "It'll be a few more months until we can promise any kind of progress. Archaeology isn't really an exact science..."

"It was no problem at all. I am dealing with business in Brazil, and I ended up having quite the speedy transit using an experimental flight across the Atlantic," Pallière excused with a wave of his hand, "But- I won't take your time for much longer. I already checked with the Eleanor's crew. The quartermaster assures me you all have more than enough supplies for your time on the sea, and Mr Belloq tells me he knows where to start the search."

"We do?" Indiana raised an eyebrow.

"We'll be going to Samoa to start on our research. Our target ship was last seen heading through that area, so it's as good a place to start as any," Belloq said casually.

Indiana glanced back towards Richard, before once again fixing Belloq's gaze, "Hey, René, listen... I've got a favor to ask you."

"Mmhmm?" René crossed his arms, raising his chin slightly to the question.

"Rich, my friend, is out of a job. I was wondering if we could get him something to do with us, just in the interim? He's an experienced seaman and a cook," Indiana proposed, holding out an open palm towards Richard.

"The ship is fully crewed and we already have cooks..." René muttered, "I see no reason to pay and feed an extra man. Surely there is plenty of work for a seaman here?"

Richard opened his mouth, but Indiana leaned forward, "Anna will need a guardian too. I'd rather not leave her with some random sailor. Rich knows her, he can take care of her and keep her out of our hair while we do our jobs."

"What does that mean?" Anna asked, in an honestly curious voice. All she got in response was a hand held up to silence her.

René sighed, looking Richard up and down, "I suppose he could make for a good bodyguard..."

"If it's really that big of a deal, he can take some out of my share," Indiana offered.

René seemed to consider that for a moment, before firmly shaking his head, "We have enough for incidental expenses. Replacing crew members hospitalized from fever, and such. We can pay him out of that."

Richard bowed his head again, "Thank you, sir."

"A friend of Indy's is a friend of mine," René smiled, looking up to Rich, "Besides. I've heard tales about the place we're going. A big, intimidating man with dark skin is almost indispensable for security in places like that."

Richard, clearly suppressing a roll of his eyes, gave a glance towards Indiana, who simply shrugged.

"What does that mean?" Anna asked again.

Indiana had to admit, of the two times Richard and he had sailed together, he very much liked the journey aboard the Eleanor over the Safe Travels. Not only was he not being kept up at all hours of the night, not working boilers, and not recovering from malaria, but he was in fact being kept in a nice cabin, on an adventure, and keeping his eyes on a hefty payday at the end of it all.

In fact, it was... not exactly something Indiana wouldn't mind doing for the rest of his life. Going out on expeditions like this, the master of his own destiny, with only his own knowledge and wits to fall back on was something he hadn't experienced since the last time he'd gone to Panama. It had ended pretty terribly, at least in terms of actual money making, but perhaps that had just been from a lack of experience. A lack of another mind to bounce things off of.

Indiana thought of all the ways Belloq could have been useful in his trek through the jungle to the mysterious pyramid where he'd found Anna, as he stared out over the sea from the railing of the weather deck. Certainly the other man could have helped against the gangsters, meaning they wouldn't be so short on supplies going into the wilderness. Perhaps they could have even had the forethought to hire guides... and...

And what would've happened to Anna?

Would Belloq have been the one to take care of her? Maybe he would've sold her... or convinced Indiana to sell her. René was much alike Indiana in many ways; they were very similarly... materialistic. Richard had only managed to convince Indiana to go down the path he did because he was the only external voice that had spoken to him. Marcus and Johan had been indifferent as to the fate of Anna, at least at first. Indiana owed his current situation almost entirely to the man.

A man who was currently being a very great help to Indiana. Richard just had a way with Anna that Indiana just seemed to not have. Anna was beginning to learn how to read, and Rich took the time to help her with learning her alphabet. He even took on the challenge of going through German, via the books Johan had sent Anna for her most recent birthday, though Indiana had a much more involved effort in the teaching of the second language considering he was the only one who actually knew how to speak and read German.

Eventually, they arrived at Samoa, a colonial administration of New Zealand. There, the research began - library hours, the questioning of locals, tracking down sources of information, a long and gruelling process. One that, predictably, took several months to slowly slog through.

"Indy, if we think this is hard..." Belloq commented once as the two men poured over books, "Just wait until we need to research for our doctoral theses."

"No kidding," Indiana muttered, adjusting his glasses. Ever since getting a prescription the previous year, he had begun to appreciate just how much he had been straining his eyes to read for most of his life. The optometrist had said it was an astigmatism - nothing to do with gas.

"What are you planning on researching?" asked Belloq, turning a page.

"Stratigraphy," Indiana muttered, "Specifically how it can help archaeological digs."

"Interesting," Belloq nodded, turning his eyes back down to the page, "I'm still trying to figure out what I'll research."

"The people overseeing your research should be able to suggest a path," Indiana pointed out.

Belloq didn't respond to that, becoming absorbed in something in his book. It seemed that over the past few days, the two men had finally found their breakthrough. Apparently, some of the mutineers had stopped off on a nearby island while the rest of them continued eastwards, meaning that they could have a lead on finding native lore hinting at where they went next. They just needed to find the correct source that would point them in the right direction, which required even more careful reading.

The familiar sound of four-hooved clicking, along with the heavy stomps of human footsteps, brought Indiana's head up from his book to the sight of Richard and Anna. Furrowing his brows, he checked his watch.

"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" Anna shouted for attention, hopping up to his eye level several times with a flutter of her wings.

Richard placed a large hand on top of one of Indiana's discarded books, "Lost track of the time, Indy?" he asked.

"Kites! Kites! Kites!" Anna shouted, beginning to hop around behind Indiana's chair.

Belloq looked up from his station with an annoyed frown, a page of the book between his index and middle finger in the midst of a turn. He only gave a sigh as he looked back down to his work, attempting to ignore the child's shouts.

"Kites?" Indiana asked, a confused grimace on his face.

"You know, the kite you told me to buy her for her birthday? So that she could play with you while flying?" Richard said as Indiana blinked cluelessly. An almost offended look came across his face, "You said yesterday you would play with her on the beach with all that wind?"

"Wind! Wind! Wind! Wind!" Anna chanted, reversing her course and hopping back around Indiana's chair.

"Oh, yeah," Indiana did remember that, "Sorry, Rich, we're right in the middle of something. I'll probably need another few hours," he said, tapping the face of his open book indicatively.

Anna's chanting suddenly stopped.

"It'll be sundown by then, Indy," Richard folded his arms.

"You take her then, I don't care," Indiana said, perhaps too fast, "I'm busy right now."

Richard's face slowly hardened, causing a bead of sweat to form on Indy's forehead as the man loomed over him, "She has been with me all day. What she wants is you."

Indiana sighed, turning in his chair to meet Richard's eyes, "Listen, Rich, she might think this is some sort of vacation, but this is work for me. I need to get this done, then I'll have all the time in the world."

"Indiana. Your daughter spends eight hours a day with a sitter and sees you for a precious few at the beginning and end of every day. I know it's hard to give her the attention she needs in the time you have, but you can't just keep pawning off your duties onto other people," Richard spat, extending an index finger and poking Indiana in the shoulder, "I'm sure your dusty old pirate bones can wait a few goddamn hours for you to take your daughter to the beach!"

"They're not just dusty pirate bones," Indiana retorted, "I get this done, and-"

"And what??" Richard said, voice increasingly incredulous as he glanced towards something, "You go to back to college and get your doctorate? So you can get a cushy teaching job? So you can work long hours and ignore her even more efficiently? Have a private tutor raise her instead?"

"You're blowing this all out of proportion, this is temporary! Temporary!" Indiana argued, voice rising.

Richard's gaze locked onto the thing he had been glancing at before. Then, a full scowl overtook his face as he pointed towards it, "Look! Look at Anna!"

Indiana turned in his seat, looking over the back. Nearby, Anna sat, back against a row of bookshelves. Tears streamed down her face as she whimpered softly, ears flattened and wings drooping. Her choked sobs echoed through the mostly-empty library, Indiana struck into dumbfounded silence. Her rose-colored eyes eventually spied Indy's, and one of her wings raised to shield her face.

"What kind of six year old learns to hide her tears like that!?" Richard grabbed both of Indiana's shoulders and shook him firmly, jostling the other man to look him in the eyes.

"Get your hands off of him!" Belloq said, looking up from his work.

"Shut up, piss boy! This is a conversation between two men, not two men and a wand of fancy bread!" Richard bit back.

Belloq looked up at the clear two feet of difference between himself and the other man, swallowed, and looked back down at his work. That left Richard to turn his scorching gaze back down on Indiana.

"I- I'm sorry..." Indiana muttered lamely.

"Don't apologize to me, apologize to her," Richard growled, finally releasing Indiana's shoulders, "Be careful how many times you turn your back on your own child, skimpy, 'else you might turn back and find there's nothing there."

Point made, Richard walked back out of the room, exiting into the waning light of the day. Indiana took a moment to rub his shoulders, the force applied to them having been so strong that he was sure with a flex of his palms, Richard could have shattered Indiana's collarbone. A golden blur shot past Indiana as Anna escaped, leaving the library as well.

Belloq looked back up from his book, the page having not been turned since Richard came into the room, "...Some people just don't appreciate the sacrifices people like us make in the pursuit of science."

Indiana Jones turned to look at him, an incredulous look on his face, "...Really?"

Belloq chuckled nervously, "Don't fret, Indy. The worst is nearly over. We are so close to a breakthrough. You'll have all the time in the world once we're underway, heading to this new lead."

"I should go..." Indiana said to himself, breaking eye contact.

"I can't translate this stuff on my own, Indy," Belloq said, "I mean, what do I pay you for?"

"You don't pay me shit!" Indiana turned his emotional distress into anger, slamming a hand on the table and looking towards Belloq.

"Yes, I do, in fact. You wouldn't have this opportunity without my family connections, yet we have a fifty-fifty split. We are both spending our time on the far side of world from our homes and families in pursuit of..." a pause, "Greater things, aren't we? We may be friends, but I still expect you to pull your weight!"

Indiana blinked a few times, blown back by just how callous René suddenly was being. Was this really the same guy who had partied with him in Paris, shared the burden of papers and research with, travelled through the Amazon with?

Belloq, detecting Indiana's questioning, raised a placating hand, "I think this last text is all we need. If we can get this done, I can go and contact the guides we need tonight and expedite the whole process. If we wait, it will tack on another day to our research. Another day where you'll be just as busy as today, where we have to go all the way back into the city. If we can just stick this out we'll sooner be underway and you can have more time with her."

Two hours later, Indiana walked out of the library to a dusky sky. They had found their lead, and he had been too cowardly to go and face his problems. The younger one was asleep, and the older one refused to talk to him.

Once, and now again.

Richard watched, brows furrowed, as the armed men rifled through his belongings. They lifted the mattress of his bunk and extracted his trunk from underneath the bedframe, muttering amongst themselves as they crowded the tiny crew room. Their backs blocked Richard's sight of his own belongings completely, making him extremely nervous as he tried to peek over their shoulders to see the action.

The Eleanor had been underway for two weeks now. Just recently, Indiana Jones and Mr Belloq had talked to some island natives and had gotten the final location of their prize. Now, the two men had disembarked aboard a launch to go to said location, leaving Richard once again as the sole guardian of Anna.

Yet, not minutes after Anna and he had watched the boat pull away from the ship had the quartermaster, along with several armed goons, come to his berth to tear his bunk apart. Anna had been sent back to her room, leaving Richard to wonder what the fuss was all about. He didn't have to wait for long.

"Aha!" one of the sailors said, retrieving something that made a glassy sloshing sound, "I knew it! Thief!" he said, turning around, a bottle of liquor in his gloved hand. It had been planted, of course. Richard squeezed his eyes shut, he should've seen that one coming.

"Been saving some of Mr Belloq's private stash for yourself, have you, thief?" the quartermaster asked, folding his arms, a greasy smile spreading across his face as his teeth clenched down around his cigarette, "Take him to the brig, boys!"

The Eleanor dropped anchor in a pristine piece of oceanic real estate. Below its red, slightly rusted hull, dark blue ocean met with aquamarine shallows and freckled, rocky arms of reefs. A sandbar absorbed a natural break nearby, the sun approached the horizon, and a sea breeze constantly blew in from a gathering of dark clouds to the west.

Past the beautiful, clear, shallow water near the ship was an island. It was small enough that one could walk from one side to the other in a half an hour at a leisurely pace, and was partially ringed by a wide beach filled with driftwood and washed-up seaweed. Near the back of the island, the sand turned to stone in a long, sloping descent into the ocean. Crowning the rises of the island was a cluster of palms and a few, sturdier trees further in. A few crabs skittered back and forth between the flotsam on the beach, and not a single creature moved between the fronds of the island's tiny forest.

From the ship, a launch began to putter out towards the island, driven by a gasoline motor. Upon it, a group of sailors sat, crowded around Indiana and Belloq, the wind blowing through their hair as tiny spittles of water wetted their jackets, kicked up as the boat's prow crashed through the waves.

Their four month journey had finally come to an end at this island. They had finally found the natives, into which the mutineers had assimilated. To their great remorse, it had turned out the mutineers had scuttled their ship, the treasure sinking along with it, to make themselves harder to track. Not only that, but their integration into the native culture had brought plague upon the indigenous populations.

Many of the mutineers, along with many more of the natives, had been buried in a special pit on a remote island which had been visible from a distance. That island was where Indiana and Belloq now headed, to search for the century-old plague tomb in order to confirm the location of the sailor's bones for Mariette.

Then, they could get paid and go home. Even the standard payment for the work was going to be enough for Indiana to afford his doctoral tuition. There, at least, was some hope.

He'd tried his best to try and make it up with Anna by taking over a few of her reading lessons and trying his best to find fun things to do aboard the ship - which he'd found out were relatively few. Fortunately, it seemed she was still a bit young to hold long-term grudges, and reciprocated well to the added attention. She'd gotten her alphabet down, and even managed to hold a few conversations in German with her father.

Richard's words still held like a heavy weight in Indiana's heart, though. Just because he had some time now didn't mean it would all just go back to normal once they got back to civilization and normalcy. Deep down, Indiana knew that as soon as he got back into his studies and his work, Anna would be on her own again... for eight hours of the day.

Indiana Jones adjusted his fedora, putting his mind back on the present. Usually, he would get a thrill at the thought of unearthing an ancient tomb and getting an insight into another culture. However, all he could really think about was getting his paycheck and going home. All the joy had been sucked out of the expedition.

The boat was run up onto the beach, some of the sailors hopping out and helping to push it up onto the sand. Indiana stepped out as well, brushing some of the water off of his leather jacket. Boots hit the sand as Belloq stood in the boat, stretching a few times and following Indiana off.

"I will have the sailors go back to the ship for supplies once we confirm the location of the pit," Belloq said, boots sinking into the moist sand as he followed Indiana towards the pit, "I doubt we can do a full excavation before nightfall."

"Shouldn't be too hard to find," Indiana muttered, "They said it would be somewhere on the rocky side of the island."

The sand dried as they came further up the beach. Belloq's sailors followed close behind, picks, shovels, and machetes in hand as they circumnavigated the island. Eventually, they found the rocky side of the island, where waves crashed against barnacle-covered rocks instead of sand, and the high tide filled several pools that had to be carefully navigated around, in order to prevent wetting their socks.

The tomb was not hard to find, just as the natives had said. A roughly-hewn, circular stone sat over a flat section of rock, only a foot above the lapping of the high tide. Using their pickaxes, the crew leveraged the stone aside, revealing a dark, empty crevice beneath it.

Belloq lit a torch, tying a rope near its handle and got the crew to slowly, carefully lower it into the hole. Indiana stepped forward, kneeling near the tomb and peering inside as the flames danced around the sides.

The hole had to be around ten meters deep. The mouth of the pit opened wide and tapered off as it went down, roughly-cut bricks lining the sides. Rows of sharpened sticks pointed downwards, as if to discourage someone from climbing back up, the rows only terminating at the bottom of the pit, where the torch illuminated piles upon piles of moist, darkened, rotting bones.

"Why the spikes?" Belloq wondered.

"Scared of the dead coming back to life, maybe," Indiana theorized, standing up and adjusting his fedora, "Let's rig up a rope. We can saw through some of those poles to make it safer to-"

Someone suddenly threw their weight into his back, and Indiana found himself plummeting down into the abyss below. His body bounced off of one of the wooden poles, smashing the air out of his lungs. His hands, instinctually raised to protect his head, protected his skull from cracking against the side of the pit as he tumbled down the side, landing in the bottom with a crash of bones.

The world swam for a few moments as Indiana's stunned diaphragm worked to pull air back into his lungs. Blinking away the stars, his vision finally stabilized to the sight of a pair of empty eye sockets of a human skull, staring back at him.

"Mr Jones..." Belloq's voice echoed down from the top of the pit.

"René... what the hell's going on!?" Indiana shouted angrily, surging back onto his feet and looking up to the orange, sunset light pouring down from the top.

"Dr Mariette changed the terms of our agreement," Belloq explained, a faint smile on his lips, "I am afraid our partnership, no matter how profitable, was nothing compared to what I stand to gain from ending it."

Indiana blinked, agape as the crewmen worked on the stone again, beginning to shift it back over the entrance to the tomb.

"Your daughter is worth a lot of money to a lot of people, Mr Jones. You did not really think you could keep her, did you?" René laughed, "That is the difference between you and I, I think. You see that thing and you think you can treat it like a normal, little girl. I see it, and I see an opportunity. You lack ambition, Indiana. That's what makes me an archaeologist... and you, a tool."

"Don't you touch her!" Indiana screamed, surging to his feet and nearly avoiding impaling himself with the end of a slick, wet spike sticking from the wall. He wished he had a gun, just so he could blast that smug grin off of the frenchman's face.

"You were a useful tool, though," Belloq said, ignoring him, "You were brilliant and sharp. Perhaps in academia, we may have even been peers. That is why I do not just shoot you right here. I want to allow you a bit of time to think your life over before dehydration takes you. At least you may take solace in the fact that someone will profit from your foolishness, and that Anna may still remain alive."

A sliver of light remained, Belloq's face being the only thing visible through the gap between the stone and the edge of the pit mouth. Indiana balled up a fist, extending a finger, "I'll kill you for this! I will! You'll go through hell for this, René!"

René Belloq simply smiled, took off his hat, and wished him, "Adieu."

The rock slid back into place over the pit with a slam, covering the world in darkness.