Scorpion Scheme

Pharaohs' tombs. Ancient myths. Modern-day murder.

Dr. Hope Sze doesn't need a trip to Egypt.

She can't afford the flight to Cairo, or the cruise down the Nile, but her fianc, Dr. John Tucker, yearns to patrol the Pyramids.

So when a company offers them both a free stay in Cairo in exchange for working in an emergency department, Tucker lobbies for a pre-honeymoon in the windswept temple of Hatshepsut and the Valley of Kings and Queens, confronting the curse on King Tutankhamun's tomb, or flying off to scuba dive in the Red Sea.

Instead, within 90 minutes of arrival, Hope drops to her knees outside the Grand Egyptian Museum, desperate to save a now-comatose 87-year-old man with a nail through his skull. The man had raved about Kruger and treasure.

Tucker fixates on their one chance at the legendary Kruger Millions, a fortune in gold that many believe to be secretly stowed somewhere in South...