The Masks of Nyarlathotep: London part 2

Extracts from the Personal Diary of Dr Belinda Durham

Thursday July 24^th 2008

We reviewed the information we had to decide what to do next. This gave us a number of facts but not how they led to Elton Jackson's death. For example:

Roger Carlisle is officially dead in the USA.

The end user certificate says that Grey Dragon Enterprises have authority to import 12 kg Pu-239.

Elton Jackson did not travel by air after he was in China (especially after he'd visited Shanghai). He went by sea and land.

There was a letter from Harvard library, dated 15 May 2008 about a book 'Africa's Dark Sects (or Secrets?) that appears to be misplaced. We found out that it was published late 1920s or early 1930s. Few copies survive and it was actively suppressed in UK and USA, so not only will it be difficult to get a copy if it turns out we need one, but this letter may be evidence for its continuing active suppression.

So, what to do? Obviously, visiting Elton Jackson's publisher was on the list. Alex, Barbara and Adam went to visit Jonathan Kensington, who ran the small publishing house that had marketed all Elton Jackson's books. They told me about their visit on their return.

Visit to Jonathan Kensington Publishing

Jonathan Kensington was sad, but not visibly upset on learning of the death of Elton Jackson. He had prepared himself for this day since Jackson was a friend as well as a client, because, if you consider what Jackson was doing, he was a very sane man who liked to shine light into dark places. He had advised, or was a researcher for, a Panorama programme about the massacre of the Carlisle expedition. He became convinced that that this was not carried out by the LRA, and decided to learn more about it. His last book had come out in 2004 and he thought this topic would make a good subject for his next one. Kensington thought so as well, and expected it to do even better than the one about the Thugees that had been quite lucrative. He therefore advanced Jackson the money to go to Kenya. As a result, Jackson had sent him emails and notes during his travels that gave a good idea of the trip.

Jackson checked that Carlisle really had hired native bearers and gone on an old-style safari to Mount Elgon National Park that lay on the Kenya-Uganda border and was actually mostly in Uganda. Indeed, the party's route soon took them into Uganda. Jackson tried to track the route back from the massacre site. He also asked around in Mombassa and became convinced that at least one of the white members of the party had survived. His email of 19 April 2008 stated that there were tales among the natives of survivors. His messages also hinted that the LRA connection – or their use as a cover-up – meant there was a political dimension. Then, the tone of the emails changed.

Without explanation, Jackson flew to Hong Kong. He wrote in an email that he'd realised that it wasn't a local conspiracy but a world-wide one. This sort of statement was completely uncharacteristic. A few days later he flew to Shanghai and stayed there for weeks. Something happened that frightened him badly and he had trouble sleeping. He mentioned air demons in an email. Kensington explained that although Jackson wrote about the supernatural he did not believe in it although he certainly believed that some people gained power through others' belief in magic. However, for the last 3 months of his life, Jackson gave every indication of now taking magic seriously.

From Shanghai, Jackson's emails became more erratic. He went by train to Beijing, the Trans-Siberian Express to Moscow, then took another train to Odessa. When Kensington asked why, he said 'it all starts in Egypt.' It is almost impossible to get a ferry from Greece to any Islamic country but Jackson managed to do it. He said his sleep was disturbed but did not say what was disturbing his dreams. Maybe he himself did not remember once he was awake. He left Egypt to follow a lead to Paris and we all knew what happened after he left Paris on the EuroStar.

This behaviour was totally uncharacteristic, Kensington had explained. He was a refreshing author; his writing would convince you but he remained an impartial observer. In 1999-2000 he had infiltrated the Thugees, became fluent in two languages, and left in a hurry with them after him. Over the years he'd also upset English Heritage, the National Trust, druids, the Children of Light, although all these were unlikely to have killed him (except the last lot). His book 'Black Power' had also upset people and he had been accused of being a racist.

Kensington had not wanted to show Jackson's last messages to Adam and Alex because they suggested that his mind had deteriorated. Kensington said that Elton did not take drugs. He'd received a last parcel by courier 2 days ago from Paris. In it Jackson had written phrases like 'Dreams like Carlisle's', 'Carlisle's safe', 'Gate opening', 'they all survived', 'Egypt warned Paris', 'great winged creatures carry off people', 'bodies remarkably undecayed'. There were two addresses, one in Egypt (El Wadi Export Co., Elgiesh, Abu Qir, Alexandria) and the other in Paris (Silas N'kwame, Ju-Ju House, Les Bosquets Rue, Clichy-Sous-Bois), He'd also noted that the massacre site was cursed by the God of the Black Winds. All the locals had left years ago due to a curse by the local god of the mountain. Dr Kizza Besigye had blamed the Cult of the Bloody Tongue, which holds a peak in Mount Elgon National Park sacred. The way that Jackson was killed, particularly the strip of skin taken off the forehead, was characteristic of their ritual. However, this was not an African god. After hearing about these final statement, St John realised that the God of the Cult of the Bloody Tongue was an avatar of Nyarlathotep.

We continued to pour over the information that we had, adding the pieces together. The people who had been in the Carlisle expedition included Jack Brady, an ex-Royal Marine who had got into a fight in a night club in Kenya, Robert Huston who was Carlisle's therapist and had gone on the expedition to continue the therapy, Hepatia Masters, a society beauty who had taken photos and Sir Aubrey Penhew. They had left Egypt in January 2003. Carlisle had had a sister, Erica, who had stayed in America and was still alive.

We reported what we'd done and worked out to the head of MI13. She did not look at all well, pale, coughing and chewing on a red-spotted handkerchief. When we asked about her health, she said it was due to smoking 80 a day. She observed that the absence of a silver cord from Elton Jackson's body meant that Nyarlathotep had taken his soul.

The next thing that happened was that the Met arrested Dahab Kiir, a Frenchman of N. African origin, in Tower Hamlets with evidence that he'd been present at Elton Jackson's killing. When questioned, he mentioned N'kwame at the Ju-Ju House in Paris, and this gave us a reason to go to France. We were told that Clichy-Sous-Bois was one of the banlieues where had been riots in 2005 and subsequent years. If we went there we needed to be careful to avoid triggering another one.

Friday July 25^th 2008

We split into two groups. Alex and Barbara, the ones more familiar with the police, went to Paris on Wednesday 25^th June. The rest of us visited the Penhew Institute in London.

Visit to Penhew Institute

Tracey the receptionist was, oddly, not surprised at our arrival.

We went to see the Director, Gavigan, led to his second floor office by his blond secretary. He admitted he'd met Jackson here six months ago for an interview about Sir Aubrey's ill-fated expedition. He told us about the history of the building and Institute. Sir Aubrey Penhew had been a gifted Egyptologist who did not suffer fools gladly, or anyone who disagreed with him, which was the main reason he'd left the Petrie Museum at UCL. He'd built up the collection in this building from his own work as well as soliciting donations and new finds. He had financed the building and run the Institute from 1991- late 2002. Gavigan had been appointed in 1986 to take care of the administration even though he had a background in archaeology. He indicated that admin was not one of Sir Aubrey's strengths

Sir Aubrey's particular interest was in the Old Kingdom and Pre-Dynastic events. There is a accepted time-line for events in ancient Egypt and a list of Pharaohs but there are still some disagreements, particularly in the earlier times that were Sir Aubrey's speciality. He wanted to have an extra Pharaoh added, Nephren-Ka the black Pharaoh. One point to keep in mind is that the word 'black' used in this context does not relate to the skin colour of the Pharaoh, and also does not imply anything sinister as it might in Western culture (although the Black Prince, Edward of Woodstock, a founder member of the Order of the Garter and the English leader at our victories at Crécy and Poitiers was certainly considered admirable in his time of the mid-fourteenth century and only acquired the name the Black Prince centuries after his death. One fault could be that he died shortly before his father, therefore giving the country King Richard II instead of Edward IV. He can hardly be blamed for this, however.)

To the Egyptians, black was synonymous with good (and red with evil). Also, the pharaohnic list at this time is especially confusing since each Pharaoh has several names and the lengths of reigns is not always definite. However, Sir Aubrey is the only scholar with this particular view about Nephren-Ka. He had formed his ideas about Nephren-Ka (or Nebkah) early in his career and refused to change his mind, although he had reduced his public advocacy. He said that a new dynasty had erased Nebkah's name. Although there are precedents (think of the events in the Nineteenth Dynasty following Amenhotep IV (aka Akhenaten)'s death, and Rameses II's habit of recycling existing inscriptions by replacing the ruler's name with his own) he was definitely out on a limb on this one. Carlisle was keen on Sir Aubrey's idea. Gavigan said that he was surprised that Sir Aubrey did not take any experienced staff from the institute with him for this expedition, or recruit any in Egypt through his many contacts.

The dates of the 2002 Carlisle expedition were:

3 November 2002 – London

16 November – spent 10 days near Giza

28 Nov – 6 December – Sakkara

7 December – to Dashur, near the Red Pyramid

23 January 2003 – left Egypt.

Adam told us afterwards that he thought Gavigan was quite sincere when he was talking with us and had no idea why we were asking him questions (we'd suggested we were some part of a police special task force – Alex would have sighed at our manner!). He was proud of his institute. However, he became apprehensive about where our questions were leading.

The Institute staff are:

Curator, Mike Charles

Assistant Curators, Abdul and a Catalan

Conservator, Maria McMahon

Librarian Brenda Fullerton

Office Manager and PA, June Telson

Security, 4 men

Night cleaner

We went on a tour of the building and later compared it with the plans. Eliza spotted that there was an area in the basement that we had not seen.

The library was, as one might have expected, very strong on the Old Kingdom and Pre-Dynastic literature, and even had books about the Black Pharaoh.

We asked about Sir Aubrey's will. He'd left everything to the Institute. He had had money from the family heavy engineering firm of Penhew Industries, now called PHI. The institute was also supported by private donors, especially Egyptians, and still financed expeditions. Because of the difficulty of proving that Sir Aubrey was dead, there had been delays in proving the will. For example, his property could not be disposed of until 7 years after his presumed death.

Jackson had talked with him about the lack of proof of death and indeed suggested that one or more of the party could still be alive. Gavigan said he'd accused him of suppressing information but did not not ask him for money.

I spent time reading about Sir Aubrey's life, his publications and his ideas of the Black Pharaoh while St John concentrated on the Cult of the Bloody Tongue. We talked together about what we'd found out and decided that we should go and see Gavigan again. One good reason was that we wanted to visit Sir Aubrey's house at Walton-on-the-Naze and needed to ask him for a key and also a letter of authorisation to avoid another masquerade as police with any well-meaning neighbours. We also wanted to see the room we'd missed in the basement.

One further piece of information which popped up on Wednesday was about the yacht photographed in Shanghai. The official 'intelligence services' came up trumps with this. It appeared in the harbour every few weeks and the people on it did not mix. The harbour authority records had narrowed it down to the Darling May (registered in Australia), The Dar-Es-Salaam (which is the capital of Tanzania, south of Kenya) or the Dark Mistress (registered USA).

Nephren-Ka, the Black Pharaoh

The events happened during the third dynasty, about 3500 years ago. As an old man, the senior minister Nephren-Ka became Pharaoh because there were no suitable sons of the previous Pharaoh Zoza. He was considered moral and very popular with the people, but the sons rebelled, overthrew him and took over. Huni, who became Pharaoh, ensured that records about Nephren-Ka were expunged. The conventional view is that there might well have been some confusion about the succession, but the adoption of new names that usually occurred on becoming Pharaoh, as well as the scarcity of records from this time fully explained the events without the need for a conspiracy.

Visit to Paris

Alex and Barbara told us what happened and I will only briefly summarise the events at the Ju-ju shop. Importantly, they did not start any riots, although Barbara managed to get injured. They found a basement excavated under the shop that had been used for cult worship with a pit at its centre. There were decomposing bodies mutilated in the same way as Jackson, and zombies that attacked them. There was also a man (Zehouane) in it wearing a mask and fur robes, a priest who attacked them with a spell. Alex, Barbara and their French liaison officer Inspector Georges Duquesnes, killed the man and destroyed the zombies. Barbara was injured and became temporarily insane but was cared for in a French hospital. They found several artefacts and Alex spoke to an expert at the Louvre, M. Mercredi about them. He told us that both Georges and M. Mercredi were both aware of the occult and aspects of the Mythos.

They sent photos of one of the artefacts over, a beautifully made coronet with Ogham script on the inside. It is a difficult script to interpret, since most of the words from inscriptions are best translated as personal names. However, I had a go at it.

Saturday July 26^th

Barbara was discharged from hospital after an over-night stay, fortunately much recovered. She and Alex were home by lunchtime and brought copies of letters and a book with them.

Before they arrived, we went back to the Penhew Institute, arriving for 11 am. I took a small pistol with me. I'd been training hard in how to use it effectively, and my Gloriana side was unhappy without a weapon. We arrived at 11 for our 11:30 appointment to give St John time to dowse in the gift shop which was directly above the room we'd missed. He and Adam agreed that it was not on a ley line, there was iron beneath, maybe as a pipe, and paper in definite regions. However there was also something small that we'd never met before.

Gavigan gave us directions to the Walton-on-the-Naze house, a key and the burglar alarm code, which should reassure any neighbours. Strangely, the secretary was angry that he gave us the key. We were also told that the room in the basement was actually Sir Aubrey's personal rooms, which were locked with an electrically operated lock and there was no key available.

We then met up with Alex and Barbara. They, particularly Barbara, looked shaken by their experience in the Parisian cellar. Adam and Barbara went off together for a short time and when they returned she looked better. Thinking of the way he, and others, helped me after my recent breakdown, it is reassuring to have someone like him around in this new fascinating, and terrifying, world.

We then drove off along the A12, reaching Walton by late afternoon. The house was at what used to be the centre of a large estate and was built for Sir Aubrey's grandfather who started the family fortune. It was in the Art Deco style near the side of the river and had its own private jetty. The grounds were still well maintained as indicated by the mown lawn. The house itself consisted of two wings with an entrance hall between them. Most of the window blinds were down. We walked round it while Adam sat in front of it to see what he could sense. He told us he felt that there was something unpleasant in the house that he could only feel at the edges of his perception, rather like the shoggoth we'd encountered at Avebury.

We headed for the right wing that contained the state rooms – dining room, map room and boudoir. There was a late eighteenth century Napoleonic map of Egypt on the wall, drawn on leather. Adam meditated again and concluded that the creature, that was not a shoggoth although like one, was high up in the next room which was the library. We decided to look round the rest of the house before we confronted it, since at that point we might have to leave – rapidly! We learnt nothing from the bedrooms so went back downstairs. There were lots of very expensive-looking objects in the house and I began to speculate about how the insurers felt about these things being in an unoccupied house.

Then we heard a 'clack' noise, and a door slam. We froze, but did not hear anything more. We continued to look round and reached the servants quarters, where two beds had obviously been used recently. The fridge in the kitchen had food and milk in it which was another indication that people, normal people (!) had been here recently.

We relaxed a bit, walked back to the library and found a dead man on the floor, which certainly changed our attitude. Then there was a giggling noise and we all ran out. Alex saw someone with a gun, ducked into cover and started shooting. We glimpsed the figure who looked middle eastern. Then we realised that although it was only 6pm and near to the longest day, it was starting to get dark outside. Without any need for discussion, Alex broke the nearest large window by shooting at it and we scrambled out. I gashed my knee but hardly felt it in the adrenaline-drenched scramble to get away. Instead of going round to the cars, and into the obvious sights of whoever was after us, we ran straight for the sunlight that we could see just beyond the darkening zone around the house. It was bizarre. I'd seen the total eclipse in 1999 and this was similar but more intense since it was a sunny day and the clear sky meant that stars were starting to become visible.

Once we were in the sunlight again, only about 100 yards from the house, we could look back and see that the house looked like it was at the centre of a thunderstorm in the middle of a sunny day. We ran on, not knowing if we'd be pursued, until we were too tired to run further and I began to feel the injury to my knee.