The Masks of Nyarlathotep: Egypt part 2

The Private Diary of John Jamil Zwaiter

3^rd October 2008 continued

We went from the Red Pyramid to the Bent Pyramid, and looked round it like typical tourists. The two entrances were closed by metal door. The one at ground level had 4 soldiers outside it, while the other was a short but steep climb up it. We walked right round. Syed asked one of the soldiers why it was closed and he said it was for maintenance. Stephanie McQueen suddenly began to scramble up the monument towards the door, and one of the soldiers called over to ask her to stop. Syed and he explained about the maintenance closure. In my experience, that is a convenient explanation of why things are not available, and can even be true, but it is usually months before anyone actually gets around to doing any maintenance. I went over to help Miss McQueen down if necessary, but she managed the descent quite gracefully on her own.

We then returned to the Embassy, where the group requested the use of a room and secure communications. I arranged this, and refreshments since they certainly needed to keep their water intake up until they were more used to the dry climate. They sent a message back to the UK asking whether there was any known relationship between the Cults of the Bloody Tongue, Black Pharaoh and the God of the Black Wind. A message arrived for Daniel Wilshire, which we all read. It was an excerpt from a book, 'Life as a God', a fantastical description as you might expect from such a title, but they took it surprisingly seriously. He'd also been sent excerpts from the medical notes of Dr Robert Houston about his patient Roger Carlisle. I can summarise these as follows:

First consultation: From the Doctor's observations, a young man with low will power, easily led. His patient reported trouble sleeping with a recurrent dream of 'Vane' (his middle name) being called, passing through a mist to meet a black man holding an ankh, pyramid and other Egyptian signs. He then floated upwards and saw humans with animal heads around a ball of pulsating energy, and he then merged with the ball. An asymmetric pyramid appeared before him, then shapes and then he awakened. Interestingly, he does not see this as a nightmare.

Fifteenth consultation: Roger Carlisle mentions Anastasia, his priestess 'Mweru' who the therapist sees as a rival.

Nineteenth consultation: Roger mentions the Bosch Incident to the therapist, which breaks down the doctor-patient relationship.

After discussion they send further questions to their HQ in London to ask about Mweru and the Bosch Incident. After this point they said that they no longer needed my assistance, so I took the opportunity to catch up with the work that has been piling up in the last day.

Saturday 4^th October 2008

I had the most shocking experience of my life today.

After arriving at work, I discovered that they planned to meet at the Embassy, and had added an Egyptian woman to the team. I arranged her clearance for entrance. She's Fatimah El-Hamid who works as liaison between the Cairo Museum and foreign archaeological expeditions, so it wasn't difficult since there is already a file on her. I noticed that she was a contact of the Clive Expedition which might explain her presence. I booked the room we had used yesterday. Once they arrived I listened to them to work out what was going on. I'm certain they are using assumed names, because they don't always use the same names for each other. 'Edward Thorn' has occasionally been 'Adam' and 'Stepanie McQueen' gets called 'Eliza'. They also mentioned that someone called Nyarlathotep might be behind things, which sounds like another code name. They seem to think that the stolen sarcophagus might be in the Bent Pyramid (which is really closed for repairs – a stone fell on an American tourist).

They spent a long time discussing the Carlisle expedition and I got the impression that they might really be after antiquities smuggling, although given the obvious high-level clearance and approval for this team it must be something more than the usual type of artefacts. The missing sarcophagus from the Clive expedition, 'rivalling the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb' would fit this. Syed indicated that he's identified Rifaat Abaza, a businessman closely connected with Gamal Mubarak among the visitors to the expedition at Giza, adding a tricky political dimension to it, as well as a way to ship anything out of Egypt without difficulty. I said something about this, but only Syed took any notice.

Then I realised that Fatima believes she can speak with the dead and that they are totally serious about using her to speak with the corpses from the three deaths I've been asked to look into to find out information. It was a good thing I was sitting down. I felt like I'd either dropped into a computer game, or there was a massive hoax underway. The fact that these people were official and we were in the British Embassy in Cairo made the rest of the morning really disturbing. I couldn't say to them that they were mad or having a joke. I looked at Syed and he had the fixed expression on his face that the security people get when a diplomat explains how to run security. I decided to adopt the same approach and go along with them for the moment. They asked me to track down where the bodies were buried, then Syed and I could go to them with Fatima. We'd dig them up and she'd do the talking. I just ignored the fact that the second part was mad; people can't really talk with the dead and the diplomatic repercussions if staff of the British Embassy were caught digging up dead bodies don't bear thinking about. Only having to find a new job would be a very good outcome!

I started with Warren Bessart, since the French had been very helpful before. They didn't think my question was particularly strange. I guess they've encountered relatives wanting to visit the grave of someone who died overseas before. They'd arranged interment in a modern Christian cemetery in the suburbs of Cairo. At least it should be free of the people who live in older, Muslim, burial grounds. We went there early afternoon, found the caretaker, tipped him £E3 and located the grave. It was in a quiet part of the cemetery. Some houses overlooked it but not directly. I took a photo on my BlackBerry Bold 9000 phone to be certain we could identify it again. We walked out, looking round to make sure we could find our way back to the grave in the dark.

Syed dropped me off at my flat to change because I did not want to ruin a perfectly good Armani suit. Back at the Embassy, Syed had put together some tools and we set off at dusk, with Fatima. We found the grave without difficulty and then the two of us dug while she sat on a gravestone and looked on. Fortunately, no-one spotted us the whole time we were there. Syed had thought to bring sheets with him so that we could endeavour to leave not too much mess behind us. Although I like to think that I am in pretty good shape from regular work-outs in the gym, the effort of digging meant that I did not think much about the body and what would then happen. After about 2 hours shovelling the dry sandy soil away we hit the coffin. We levered it open, and the sight of the badly battered and decomposed body shook me. The smell and appearance were awful and I'd like to forget it. Fatima was quite stoical and wanted to get into the hole to be near the corpse. We got out and helped her in. Then she pricked her thumb, let her blood fall onto the corpse and then began chanting. She kept it up for about 20 minutes and I got increasingly anxious that someone would hear her, or that she'd continue until daylight and we'd be discovered.

I wondered when we could suggest that she should give up and we could leave. Then there was a deep voiced groaning from the hole and a ghostly image coalesced at his head, the image of a weasely man with flesh hanging off. I was totally shocked. The voice didn't match Fatima or the build of the corpse, it came from the other end of the grave to where she was, and I could not imagine how she could fake the image. I've seen magicians live in theatres and close-up as the entertainment at events, but they were nothing like this. My memory of the next few minutes is still vivid as the dead man described his death. He spoke, first in French and then in English, about things that Fatima could not have known. He said,

'Who has brought me back' (in French) and she asked,

'What did you do for the Carlisle expedition?'

He explained that he'd acted as a agent to purchase and ship illegally ancient artefacts to the USA that related to the Black Pharaoh. Later he organised equipment and permit for the expedition and that was it.

Fatima then asked, 'Why were you killed?'

'I knew too much. I had seen things I should not have seen,' he replied. He explained that the expedition was interested in the Bent Pyramid at Dashur. His role as 'fixer' meant that he was not with them every day. However, one day he arrived on site and Jack Brady made the unbelievable claim to him that Roger Carlisle, Sir Aubrey Penhew, Dr Houston and Hypatia Masters had all vanished inside the Bent Pyramid. They had gone inside and he and the workers could not find them despite searching thoroughly and calling their names. When the diggers realised this, they ran away. He and Brady then drank themselves into a stupor.

The next morning, all the missing people emerged from the pyramid. Brady felt they had all changed for the worse. When he tried to talk with Hypatia, Sir Aubrey shouldered him away and ordered him off the site. Then two diggers, a woman called Ayesha and her son Achmed came to Warren and said that all the Europeans had lost their souls by consorting with the messenger of the Black Wind. Ayesha claimed to be a priestess and that was why she knew. She said he could see proof at the Collapsed Pyramid at the dark of the moon.

He went there, hid and saw Carlisle, Miss Masters, Sir Aubrey, Dr Houston and a black woman participating in an obscene and vile ritual with hundreds of cultists. As part of it, twelve human captives were pegged to the ground. The desert became alive as creatures rose from the sands and tore out the captive's throats. Then something even worse the size of an elephant with five shaggy heads ate the sacrifices while trampling heedlessly on the worshippers. At this point, Warren Besart said, he passed out and then either imagined, or really did, wander the desert until dawn. He was conscious of the presence of dark things that were just waiting to be released onto the world.

When he came to his senses, he was in the care of Ayesha and her son. He stayed with them at their home in Al Wasta until the day that six burly men arrived. Fortunately, Achmed was away because they attached Ayesha and himself with hooked clubs, leaving them both almost dead. Achmed found them on his return, and Warren died. He knew that Ayesha had survived, clinging to life because she had something the men wanted that she refused to give them.

When Fatima asked Warren what he wanted, he said it was vengeance on his his murderers and to stop the plans of the Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh. Then his image faded and Fatima looked exhausted. We helped her out of the hole and then filled it in, trying not to leave evidence. We left the graveyard in the early morning. Syed took me home and then left for Fatima's residence. I had a shower, put all the clothes I'd worn in a bag for the laundry and then went to bed. I did not sleep well. What I'd just witnessed had challenged my view of the world.

Sunday 5^th October 2008

The first thing I did when I woke was delete the picture of the grave from my phone. I threw the clothes I'd worn into the waste bin. I do not want any tangible link to the place. I had another shower. I ached all over, which was not surprising from the digging, and my thoughts shied away from what I'd seen.

I arrived late at the Embassy. It turned out that Stephanie McQueen and Robert Sayle had explored the top of the Red Pyramid last night after climbing up it in the dark. It hadn't been some drunken, late night stunt but with a definite purpose behind it. Stephanie must be fitter than she looks. Robert was concerned about stones that were missing from the top and, going by the condition of the rock, had been removed recently. They seemed to think that this missing rock was involved in watching over the Bent Pyramid. When Fatima finally arrived, she phoned her boss at the Cairo Museum who said that the Carlisle expedition had removed it a few years ago. It sounded completely mad, but after last night I wasn't going to question their ideas. I'm just going to go along with them, help them as instructed, and try to head off anything that looks like an obvious diplomatic incident.

Today's expedition started by driving to Al Wasta in an attempt to track down Ayesha and Achmed. It's a poor suburb of Maidum, so we stood out like the obvious foreigners or rich Arabs that we are, even Syeed and Fatima. Asking is the only way to find anyone, and we didn't have much success at first. My suit didn't go down well. Finally, I think it was Robert Sayle who found them and we met up near the house. It's normally impossible to get away from swarms of children but this street was worryingly quiet. Fatima and I headed for the house. As we got near, we could hear some shouting near the car, and at that moment a woman who could only have been Ayesha came out. Her appearance fitted with last night's description of events. She'd lost her lower arms, she had obvious difficulty walking and she could not speak properly because of injuries to her face. It fitted together horribly well. Her son, who had been doing the shouting came up and tried to get her to go back into the hovel. He was a prematurely aged, weather-beaten man who could only have been about 30 but looked decades older. He could understand her distorted speech, and obeyed his mother despite a short argument, heading for a field with a hoe. I tried to ask her what we could do for her, was there anything she wanted, and she limped back to the house. She soon returned with a necklace of a pendant on a chain. She held it out and I took it. It looked like silver with a design influenced by ancient Egyptian style. The pendant was a silver setting of (probably) jet and opal. The quality of craftsmanship in the piece was obvious. It was dramatic, a statement of something, rather than a pretty necklace for a girl. Why anyone in such obvious poverty should have kept it, goodness knows. Incredibly, Ayesha's gestures and grunts made it obvious that I should put it on. Caught up in the situation, I slipped it over my head and inside my shirt. Robert was muttering something about a strong enchantment, which fitted nicely into the surreal event.

Then her son reappeared with an cloth-wrapped object that turned out to be a small block of pinkish stone with a design like a stylised eye carved onto one surface. He was very keen to hand it over to us. That seemed to be the end, so we headed back to the car. However, Achmed followed us to ask if his mother had given us the amulet. I said that she had and he said,

'It did not protect her but maybe it will protect you.'

I replied that maybe it had protected them, because I was thinking that she had survived, despite her injuries and it had happened while he was away. He muttered about not being there, as if he still felt guilty for coming through uninjured, and added that she'd had something to live for. Fatima started asking about what he did for a living and when he said he acted as a guide she began asking if he'd guide us round the Collapsed Pyramid, which he agreed to to the next day. While they were talking, I pulled out all the cash I had on me. It was nothing like the value of the amulet, but I anticipated that he would take it. I pressed it discreetly into his hand as we finally left.

Back in the car I handed the amulet to Edward. There was writing on the back, not hieroglyphs but some other pictorial script. Edward photographed it and sent them off to a specialist in London as we drove to the Collapsed Pyramid. We'd decided to visit it today since we were so near it, and might go back again tomorrow with Achmed. Once we arrived, Edward felt ill after leaving the car and had to go back to sit down. He looked distinctly pale. I stayed fairly near the car with Syed while Edward, Robert and the women walked around the site. The name 'Collapsed' gives a false impression of the state of the pyramid. The Sagged Pyramid would be a better name since it is still very much a pyramid in shape. Despite the bright sunshine, I rapidly realised that the two women were also distinctly uneasy about the place because they soon headed back to join us at the car. The other two returned soon after and then we drove back to the Embassy in Cairo.

I had news waiting for me that Farad Nazjeer was buried in the Bab Al-Wazir cemetery in the north of the city. There was absolutely no way that I was going there tonight! The others felt the same and without argument agreed that this evening was the time to have a meal and then rest. I led the way to the Abou el-Sid, as a good compromise between authenticity and Western levels of service in classy surroundings. Of course, it is a franchise of a Lebanese company, but the cuisine is really more Egyptian than Lebanese.

Monday 6^th October 2008

They were anxious to find out more about the amulet, and had a contact at the Cairo Museum, Dr Ali Khafour. I handed it to him, with some hesitation. All he could say was that the writing was inspired by hieroglyphs, but then Ms McQueen had a sudden flash of insight that the writing was Hyperborean (!) and the amulet was a ward against a flying horror. We also showed Dr Khafour the carved stone from the pyramid and he immediately found something about it in a book. The symbol was 'the eye of light and darkness' used as a ward to weaken any agents of the outer gods who entered its area of protection. They also got more information from him about the Carlisle expedition, which had concentrated on the Bent pyramid. Their Cairo Museum liaison had recorded that the expedition had damaged the Red pyramid. This fitted well with the stone, and its removal must have disabled the ward. As a result of this meeting we were given permission to go into the Bent pyramid, accompanied by Fatima.