The Masks of Nyarlathotep: Egypt part 1

The Diary of Syed Hussein

July 2008: The team has been cooling its heels in Aden harbour for weeks now waiting for the signal to go. The Major believes that this signal may never come. Why send us out here if they’re not going to let us do our job? Damn these politicians – there’s not a decent pair of balls between the lot of them! Then finally we get a call from Nightingale to say that the team is to be stood down for two weeks and they will get some R&R in Sharm while they wait for their next set of orders – everyone but me that is! Nightingale says that I am to report back to Berkeley Square for a new assignment. I bid farewell to the team as they prepare the boat to sail to Sharm and then I fly from Aden to Cairo. When I get to Berkeley Square I get my new mission brief.

I am to sign up as a digger on an archaeological site which is being excavated by the Clive expedition, a British-run dig funded by something called the Penhew Foundation. Back in May this site produced a major find which was hailed as being as big as King Tut’s tomb, but very soon after this discovery was announced there was a scandal when the Queen’s Sarcophagus was stolen from the site. This scale of theft would be a major undertaking and the general feeling is that the dig has been the victim of a big criminal cartel, but there is the suggestion that it may have been an inside job. One of the students on the dig – Jan van Heuvelen – was dismissed for incompetence shortly before the theft and the expedition leader, Dr Henry Clive, has suggested that van Heuvelen may have helped the thieves.

Nobody says this outright, but it’s pretty obvious that someone in the intelligence community suspects the involvement of Clive and/or someone high up in the Egyptian government. When I ask what all this has to do with me I am told that a scandal of this magnitude involving a high profile British expedition and a World Heritage site could cause major diplomatic repercussions and destabilise the relationship between us and the Egyptians. Instability in this region threatens the oil supply – that’s the real reason why the government is so concerned!

Anyway, my job is to infiltrate the dig and find out what I can about the set up and the players in this little drama. Then we get news that the Clive expedition has moved their operations from Giza to Memphis. This is billed as a scheduled move but the briefing officer believes it is designed to escape the media frenzy surrounding the theft – Giza is within spitting distance of Cairo whereas Memphis is quite a bit more remote and harder to reach.

The change of location gives me the perfect opportunity to join the dig since they are taking on a new crew for the new site.

1st August 2008: I join the digging crew at the Clive expedition site at Memphis. The entire site is fenced off and guarded by the Egyptian army. It has the feel of a prison camp. I quickly realise that there are two groups of native workers at the site. The group I am with are hired and paid on a daily basis and we get all the crummy jobs – all the heavy digging and lifting work. The other group is smaller and hired on longer contracts. The guys in my team reckon the other group are paid more, but are less experienced diggers. There is no love lost between the groups and they generally keep apart from each other. The higher-paid group gets the higher profile jobs, but both groups commute in and out of the site each day.

The big players at the dig are as follows:

Dr. Henry Clive is the expedition leader. Heavy smoker, talks with a clipped cultured accent. Puts on an aristocratic act and pretends to be a descendant of Clive of India (not true according to intel). Has an excellent rep in archaeology at Liverpool University (where most of the academic types come from). Clive loudly blames van Heuvelen for the theft of the mummy (with no apparent proof) and also for the theft of some scrolls which went missing around the same time.

Dr. Mahmoud El-Asawi, Professor of Egyptology at Cairo University. Handles the group of ‘special’ diggers. Very serious and dedicated, no sense of humour. Very angry reaction at the mention of the theft and refuses to talk about it.

Dr. Ahmed Younis, Lecturer in Egyptology at the American University in Egypt. Friendly type who likes to talk and joke with the diggers. Regarded as a leading light among native Egyptologists, but comes over as a bit of a dreamer like his mind isn’t on the job. Refuses to comment on the likely involvement of van Heuvelen in the thefts.

James Gardner, post-grad student at Liverpool Uni. Very serious, seems to be looking to make a name for himself on this dig and hoping this will kick-start his career in archaeology. Not a big talker, but does let slip that he is concerned the theft of the sarcophagus has tainted the expedition and that this may harm his career prospects. He seems to find it hard to believe that van Heuvelen was involved in the thefts, but does accept that the thieves must have had some inside knowledge which they may have got from Jan after he was dismissed.

Agnes Broadmoor, under-grad at Liverpool Uni and the least experienced Egyptologist. Seems to know the basics and is learning on the job. Never stops talking even when there is nobody to listen. Thought Clive might have brought her along as eye-candy, but he barely seems to notice her and is barely civil to her when he does. Agnes believes Clive is right to blame van Heuvelen for the theft of the sarcophagus and she is certain that he stole the scrolls.

I make friends easily with the group of regular diggers – there seems to be a high turnover of staff in this group, but that is probably not unusual as they are casual daily-rate workers. My efforts to make acquaintances with the other group prove largely ineffective, but finally after three weeks of trying I get chatty with one of the younger members called Masoud Sawalha. After a couple of days Masoud suggests that I might be able to transfer into the other digger group. He makes it sound like some sort of secret society, like the Masons or something similar.

In the last week of August there is a visitor to the dig site – Gamal Mubarak, the younger son of the President Hosni Mubarak himself! Gamal is the President’s heir apparent and Clive shows him round the dig site himself, brown-nosing all the way!

Next day Clive announces that the dig will close down for Ramadan which starts on September 1^st. The diggers seem to be expecting this but are surprised that this has come with no warning. It’s as if Clive only made the decision last night.

When I ask after Masoud I am met with shrugs and head shakes – nobody has seen him for a couple of days. All Masoud’s colleagues in the ‘special’ digger group give me black looks. It seems as though my cover has been blown so I get the hell out of Dodge along with the rest of the diggers. The expedition is staying in Egypt and will resume operations after Ramadan. All the diggers are told to return on October 1^st, but I don’t think I will be welcomed back!

September 2008: I return to Berkeley Square (a.k.a. the Cairo Embassy) to report my findings at the dig site in August. Although the diggers have been dismissed for Ramadan the site is still occupied and there will undoubtedly be some activity during the month of September so I suggest that I set up an O.P. to keep an eye on what is happening. There is not much digging going on – most of the activity is clean-up by Agnes and James. Clive, Agnes, James and the two Egyptians go out to dinner once or twice a week and Agnes goes out shopping quite a bit.

I read a report in the paper that Masoud Sawalha has been mugged and killed in Saqqara near Memphis. I call the Embassy to ask someone to investigate this incident.

Meanwhile at the dig site, Gamal Mubarak and his entourage visit again. I notice Clive talking to one of Gamal’s staff about something which has apparently been pre-arranged and I overhear Clive saying he is ‘ready when the time is right’.

That night Clive drives out of camp to the west and south. I follow him on night vision so that he doesn’t see my headlights. Clive drives to the Bent Pyramid where there are four armed guards on the main entrance. Clive acknowledges the guards but heads to the west side of the pyramid. He enters the pyramid through a very formidable door – a modern metal security door which is securely locked. If I am to investigate this I will need some explosives or someone who is good with locks.

After Clive leaves I give him some time before heading back to my car and then find I’ve got it stuck in the sand! Damn this desert! I’ll have to be careful about that in future. I strip the car of anything identifiable and yomp it back to the OP, reporting the car stolen the following morning.

I get a call from the Embassy. One of the Embassy staff called John Zwaitar has a report for me about Masoud. Apparently he was beaten to death with a very strange type of spiked club. The police believe this was an ‘honour killing’.

By the end of September I bring the OP work to a close as there is little more activity to report and I am called back to Berkeley Square to brief a security team coming in from the UK. I meet John Zwaitar at the Embassy – he is the FCO liaison for the security team. I have a couple of days to spend looking into some background about Gamal Mubarak. Information about Gamal is relatively easy to come by, but I can find nothing about the man on his staff whom I saw talking to Clive. Maybe I can at least get an ID on him when I get time to ask around in the Embassy.

2^nd October 2008: John Zwaitar and I take a minibus to the airport to meet the security team flying in from the UK.

We drive straight to the group’s hotel where I brief them on the pertinent details of the dig and the personnel involved. They already seem to be aware of certain information, particularly the involvement of the Penhew Foundation (whatever that is). There are four members of the security team: Robert Sale, Daniel Wiltshire, Edward Thorn and Stephanie McQueen. I have no background or briefing on any of them – I guess they are all in intel – but it is obvious that Robert Sale has a military background, definitely an officer. He asks me about my background and I tell him Royal Marines – he tells me his background is Parachute Regiment.

We begin the investigation immediately. Robert and I get Jan van Heuvelen’s phone number from his folks in the US, but when we call the number it has been disconnected. We try to get his phone records from GCHQ, but this will take a couple of days.

Daniel Wiltshire goes around Cairo looking for cats!? He asks me about anyone visiting the Red or Bent pyramids and I tell him about Clive’s night-time visit. Maybe one of this security crew has a knack with locks?

Edward Thorn makes some calls to contacts in the antiquities business looking for information about the Clive expedition academics. Stephanie McQueen goes to the hotel gym to exercise – she looks fit enough already to me!

Later that afternoon Daniel, John and I go walking around Cairo old town for a couple of hours. Daniel is still looking for cats, but he doesn’t seem to find what he’s looking for.

Edward goes to the Cairo Museum to see Ali Khafour. Edward finds out about the Black Pharaoh. The Black Pharaoh was called Nephren-Ka and was from the 3^rd Dynasty. He was of Southern Nile origin, hence was a black man, and was reportedly evil. The sarcophagus stolen from the Clive expedition belonged to Nitiqreti – a 6^th Dynasty queen who tried to resurrect the cult of the Black Pharaoh. Apparently the cult of the Black Pharaoh uses clubs with hooks in (used to use lion’s claws in the olden days) such as that which was used to dispose of Masoud Sawalha.

Clive obviously has connections in the Egyptian government. Has the Egyptian secret police been infiltrated by the cult of the Black Pharaoh? Like the Mafia in US law enforcement? Is this why Nitiqreti’s tomb was stolen? Are the ‘special’ diggers on the Clive expedition part of this cult? Could be why Masoud was ‘disappeared’ because he talked to me about it.

3^rd October 2008: Having discovered that the Clive expedition was originally digging at the Great Pyramid just outside Cairo we decide to visit it first thing in the morning. The site is almost deserted but we find a local guide who will show us round for a pittance. Apparently the Clive dig opened a secret chamber inside the pyramid by digging in from the outside. This meant that there was plenty of lifting gear in place which would have made removal of the sarcophagus relatively easy. However, given the level of security at the site it would still only have been possible with high-level inside help. Given that Jan van Heuvelen had been dismissed from the dig on the 18^th June and the theft took place on the 24^th June then JvH would not have had sufficient access through site security to have organised the theft alone. I am convinced that Clive is behind it in collusion with elements of the Egyptian government – but why?

After a thorough tour of the Great Pyramid the team goes to visit the Red Pyramid. The Red Pyramid was built by Snofru and contains three chambers. There were no sarcophagi inside this pyramid because nobody was buried here – so why build it then? The Red Pyramid was Snofru’s third attempt because the others fell down. I can’t help but feel that this is a distraction. There is something inside the Bent Pyramid which Clive went to see on a secret midnight visit and that is what we need to get a look at as soon as possible. Maybe I will suggest this to the team for tonight…