UNTITLED

By: Sinjin Jones

Chapter 5

After exiting the “train”, heading up a gigantic flight of stairs, walking the length of another secret underground government base, ascending yet another flurry of steps, walking about four miles on the streets of Egypt and standing for over an hour in the hotel, Nomi got the best news of the day.
“You can go ahead to bed, Nomi, we have a long day tomorrow.” Nomi felt himself jump inside; a bed, a shower…heaven. “I will wake you up a four a.m.” His heart sank as he looked up at the clock behind the courtesy desk. It was already four p.m., by the time he had eaten and showered that would only leave him eight hours of sleep.
Sulking, Nomi turned and headed for the elevator. Upon entering, he noticed the soothing music playing from speakers above his head and nearly fell asleep. He pressed the ‘6’ key for the floor and closed his eyes as the doors began to shut. A hand abruptly reached out and impeded the elevator doors from closing, causing them to make a sound and Nomi to open his eyes. He saw the crimson of his dreams as Ansa walked in and stood beside him, barely acknowledging his existence. He couldn’t help but look at her.
“Hi.” His sycophantic gaze was unflinching now.
“Hello.” She still did not look at him and her eyes remained stolid at the shutting doors of the elevator.
“You’re on six too.” He realized that the question was stupid as soon as he asked it. Of course she was.
“Of course I am. Why would Wood book us on different floors?”
“I know. I’m sorry…Wh-what’s your room number?”
“635.”
“Oh, so we’re right next to each other.”
“I guess.”
“Cool, so if I need your expertise, I can just yell.”
“Yep. Looks that way.”
“So, what do you think about this mission?” Ansa laughed at Nomi’s feeble attempts to initiate conversation, but decided to throw him a bone nonetheless.
“It’s just like any other mission to me. I’m just doing my job. But it seems like the details shook you up a little.”
“Yea…I’m not use to anything like this at all and it’s kind of too late for me to get out.”
“Yep, that happens. But don’t worry, you’ll get used to it soon enough.” The elevator door opened Ansa quickly exited.
“Either that or something will go wrong and you’ll die,” she said as she disappeared from view. Nomi caught the faintest glimpse of a smile in her face as he followed her down the lavender-carpeted hallway, trying his hardest not to stare at her ass.
He found room 433 and slid the keycard into the slot, opening the oaken door. The room was one open space…almost smaller than the train compartment. But it had a bed and a shower, the two amenities Nomi needed most at the moment.
After heading straight to the shower and using all of the party sized shampoos, Nomi took a more detailed look around. The kitchen was unfilled, the television was broken and there was a ceiling fan above the bed which frightened him. He imagined it falling, still spinning, on him in the middle of the night and himself being filleted in his sleep. There was, on the plus side, a balcony to the right of the bed which gave Nomi an unrivaled view of the Giza complex. There he stood, in the crisp evening air, reflecting on the past day and pondering as to the next.

This was actually the first novel that I started writing, I now have like 3 started that I want to finish. On this one, I am on Chapter 8 because, as the book continues, chapters get longer. I do think that I will have to rewrite the first 6 chapters because I'm not really happy with them. The book is about this archaeologist, Nomi Tearo, who is invited by the OPALEAS (secret government organization) to explore a chamber under the right paw of the sphinx. I love the idea, but this is probably some of the worst writing I have ever done. Nonetheless, it will be completed to my expectations eventually.