Where the Library Hides

Back in the hotel, Inez pieces together that her mother will likely fence the stolen artifacts at the underground auction hosted by the Tradesman’s Gate smuggling ring. She proposes infiltrating the auction to locate Lourdes and the cache of Cleopatra’s relics. Isadora questions how far they’ll get without money and suggests that they go to Argentina to regroup. Inez decides to think it over but returns her travel tickets for cash for the time being.

Once Inez gets the money back, Whit arrives. He convinces her to hear him out and then tells her he knows how to find the location of the Tradesman’s Gate meeting. She reluctantly agrees to work with him if he stops lying to her and they can divorce once it’s over.

At an opium den, Whit meets a contact, Yves, and exchanges his beloved revolver for information about the next Tradesman’s Gate auction, which will be held in the old government building in a few days. After Yves leaves Whit with the bill, a shadowy stranger drops the money on the table. Though Whit tries to follow them, they vanish, and he returns to the hotel.

Inez’s Tía (Aunt) Lorena and her cousin Amaranta arrive at Shepheard’s Hotel, and Inez breaks down as she recounts what happened. Amaranta demands retribution and says that Lourdes must pay for Elvira’s death with her own life. Inez agrees that her mother needs to face justice, though she privately struggles with the idea of killing her.

Inez meets with Ricardo, who is furious about Whit’s absence and the disastrous fallout from the discovery of Cleopatra’s tomb. Mr. Maspero, the antiquities officer, then arrives with men to arrest Ricardo and Abdullah, accusing them of negligence and complicity in the theft of Egypt’s national treasure. Despite Inez’s protests and her attempts to implicate her mother and Fincastle as the real culprits, Maspero dismisses her claims, believing that Lourdes is dead. As Ricardo and Abdullah are dragged away in front of hotel guests, Inez rushes to find Whit, already at the hotel’s entrance, standing with Abdullah’s granddaughter, Farida. Farida asks what they can do, but Whit and Inez know that the only way to free the men is to locate Lourdes and the stolen artifacts.

After Whit leaves to reason with Monsieur Maspero, Inez, Isadora, and Farida regroup in Inez’s room to assess the situation. Farida says she has photographs taken at the Philae dig site with a magic-touched camera that can take images through walls. One shows Lourdes holding a card, which Inez thinks is an invitation to the illegal auction. When Inez tries to point this out to Farida, Isadora takes her aside and cautions her against being so trusting. The half-sisters argue about involving the third woman before Isadora finally agrees. After Farida warns them about Maspero’s history of torturing prisoners, Isadora says she knows where and when Tradesman’s Gate is meeting. The trio plans to go, and Inez uses her mother’s magic scarf to shrink the camera so that they can take it with them.

Whit, meanwhile, spends the day unsuccessfully negotiating with Sir Evelyn and Maspero for Ricardo and Abdullah’s release. He returns to the hotel lobby to rest but notices Inez, Isadora, and Farida sneaking out. As they leave Shepheard’s Hotel, he follows them.

In the dark, Inez and Farida follow Isadora through Cairo toward the auction’s location. As they bicker about whether they’re going the right way, three men try to corner them. Isadora defends the women with her small handgun before Whit arrives and knocks the men out. He confronts Inez about where she’s going, and she says she’s on her way to the auction to get photographic evidence of the illegal trade. When he says they’re going the wrong way, she insists that Isadora must have just gotten lost. They agree to team up and go together. One of the attackers wakes, and Isadora shoots and kills him.

Whit leads them to the dilapidated building housing the auction. They sneak in through a side entrance, where Whit knocks out the guards and leads them inside.

The group splits up: Inez and Isadora sit among the masked attendees to observe the auction, while Whit and Farida explore the surrounding rooms, capturing photographic evidence of the hidden relics. They plan to meet up on the street outside afterward or in the hotel lobby if things go wrong.

While Farida takes images of the hidden artifacts, Whit takes the mask and uniform of an auction staff member to disguise himself. While preparing to take the artifacts onto the stage with another employee, Whit sees that he has a clipboard with the addresses of the auction’s buyers.

As the auction begins, Phillip Barnes, the host, introduces the first few items from Cleopatra’s tomb. Inez recognizes the blue asp statuette as an artifact she sketched at the site. She bids on it to get the organizers’ attention and, despite lacking actual funds, wins it for a bid of 50,000 pounds. Whit, disguised as auction staff, steps onto the stage to take the statuette away. Another staff member then summons Inez to a private meeting with the founder of Tradesman’s Gate.

While Isadora waits outside, Inez is led to meet with Tradesman’s Gate’s founder, Basil Sterling, the man responsible for Elvira’s death. He attempts to get Inez to reveal the whereabouts of Lourdes and Mr. Fincastle. When she says she doesn’t know where they are, he proposes that they work together. She refuses, and he returns the golden ring, which once belonged to Cleopatra and was a gift from Inez’s father, as a “gesture of goodwill” (182). He lets her go, and Inez reunites with Isadora and the group. Whit says he got the address linked to the payment for the asp statuette. Though the address is fake, he points out that it could still be a lead since Lourdes would carefully track any funds. The address is in Alexandria, and they question if she might be starting a rival “black market” there.

Before leaving for Alexandria, Inez insists on visiting Ricardo and Abdullah, who are held in a Cairo prison awaiting trial. Lorena, Amaranta, and Farida join her. Lorena presents Ricardo with a magic-touched teacup that allows instant communication through water, providing a method of contact between them.