pirates loot King Solomon's Mines

In Search of King Solomon’s Mines

         Sam Adams was obsessed with pirates and legends of lost hidden treasures ever since he read Treasure Island as a young lad. When he grew up he went to work for the Cosmos Institute straight out of College in Berkeley, California. The Cosmos Institute was a secret government agency that investigated paranormal claims. They liked to think of themselves as real-life” X files”. many of the investigators were ex-agency, ex-FBI agents, or ex-military.

         One day he discovered in an obscure journal a map to King Solomon’s mines in East Africa. In order to find the mine’s location, they had to go to the Pyramids in South Sudan, go to the roof of the pyramids on the full moon night, and look at the desert landscape for the right clues.
         He went to his boss, the elusive, aloof, mysterious Maria Lee, and outlined his plans to find the hidden buried treasures in King Solomon’s mines. Based on his research, the mine's treasure would be worth billions of dollars.

         He assembled a crew from the institute, supplemented with special forces, and Sudanese Arab speakers from the region. They went off to Egypt and eventually to Southern Sudan near some newly discovered hidden pyramids. He had read in his journals that to find the entrance to the mines, one must enter the right mind by eating magic mushrooms.

         Sam gave his companions a button or two of the magic mushrooms they had picked in Southern Oregon the week before. They entered into a mystic state and looked out at the desert and saw their destination under the Full moon lit up like a dagger pointing deep into the mountains.

         The next day, hungover, they struggled to locate the path, eventually; they found a trail through the desert that led into the mountains high about the desert floor. They hiked for days and were about to give up but decided to try the magic mushrooms again.

         They soon saw the mines in their drug-induced visions and hiked all night and entered the mines, discovering the buried treasure. Unfortunately for the team, their Sundanese interpreters were working with Sudanese pirate gangs, and they called them in the middle of the night.

         “Abdul, this is Mohammed. We found the mines. The teams are asleep. when will you get here.?"
”
         "Send me the coordinates.. We should be there in a few hours. Make sure that you disable their communication equipment, so they can not call for rescue. I hear there special forces on the alert along the coast.”

         “Will do. See you soon, Inshalla.”

         The team entered the mines at dawn. and were astonished by what they found. After an exhausting day spent documenting their findings and trying without success to get their communications gear working, the team finally went to sleep.

         The pirates soon found them and slaughtered them in their sleep, and the legend of King Solomon's Mines died with them. The pirates stole the wealth of the mines and flooded the black market with the stolen loot of King Solomon’s Mines, but kept the location a secret.


NEW PROMPT


Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus - i.e. Pompey the Great - was a leading general and statesman in the late Roman Republic. For a time, he was arguably Rome's most powerful man, even more so than his contemporary Julius Caesar, who eventually eclipsed him.

On September 29, 61 BC, Pompey celebrated a "triumph" -- i.e. a public parade and display in his honor -- for his victory over the pirates iin the eastern Mediterranean. Yes, pirates were a thing in the Roman Empire: a considerable menace, in fact. Julius Caesar himself was once captured by pirates!

Being "captured by pirates" became a literary trope in Classical fiction as well. Yes, they also had fiction back then! (And, for fun, here is a modern fictional take on Roman pirates.)

For tomorrow, write a story or poem about being captured by pirates. Start your tale with the capture itself, and end with the resolution to the situation (escape? join them? kill them all? take them over? etc).

NB: This doesn't have to be historical pirates. Could be space pirates. Or goblin pirates along the shores of Faerie. Or zombie pirates who've started invading the mainland. Etc. Be creative!