Through a Glass Darkly

From the point of view of Dr Eliza Jamieson

Saturday 3^rd January 2004

I have finally got a transfer away from St Thomas’ and Doctor Haroon Akmed after three months and numerous unsuccessful interviews. I am now going to be a senior intern at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading and I will be working with Graham. When they gave me the job they stated that I would have every opportunity to advance myself to the surgical team. So not only will I be getting the advancement I feel I need but it will also mean that my travel time will be cut from two hours to ten minutes. I will however need to continue to work in the Accident and Emergency department for the time being.

Monday 3^rd January 2005

I have now been working at the Royal Berkshire for six weeks and am enjoying the job at last; at least I am appreciated here. Yet this morning I received a letter inviting me to a meeting of something called the Royal Society of Antiquities a function that appears to be taking place in the Society of Antiquities own premises just off the Strand. Anyway when I arrive I note that there appears to be no security just an old woman in a kiosk at the side of the door who is checking memberships or collecting fees as appropriate. As a guest of Mr Woodthorpe as I appear to be waived through without either. She informs me that the meeting is on the first floor. As I enter I am swiftly confronted by the man I last met on an underground train six months previously, Lionel greets me and states that he needs someone for a job and thought of me because of my medical training and stoicism in assisting himself and his friends in getting out of the tunnel that evening.

The meeting of the Royal Society turns out to be rather tedious. Mostly it appears to be a collection of strange and unusual people who seem to be obsessed by ley-lines and astronomy in a way that confuses the mind. At the end of the meeting he asks me to accompany him into a private meeting with a gentleman of Arabic background named Mahmoud Ali. (We were later to ascertain that this is not his real name as when James Elliot did an internet search on him his name came up as Mahmoud Hussain, a second cousin to Saddam Hussain, and designated the eight of clubs in the American army’s notorious deck of cards.) I am introduced to five other seemingly random people who had been asked to attend the meeting. One appears to be a tall rugged adventurer type called James Connelly (strangely enough he reminds me of someone, I am sure I will place him). A second is a considerably less impressive male specimen named James Elliot who appears to be some sort of computer wiz-kid. The third member of our motley crew is a historian of Asian extraction called Myra Patel. The fourth, Belinda Durham, appears to all sense and purposes a forty-year old university professor specialising in Anglo-Roman archaeology. The final member of our team was a figure I had seen previously in much more stark surroundings - to whit a courtroom - a quack and so called modern-age physician named Adam Walters. As I understand it he had attempted to use his so called medicine on a patient who had subsequently expired; a patient that would have lived had they been given into the caring hands of an efficient medical practitioner.

Mr Woodthorpe appears to have gathered us together for a job, as he feels that our combination of skills can help him solve a dilemma. Mr Woodthorpe then hands the floor over to Mr Ali who informs us that he is the curator of the Museum of Antiquities in Baghdad. Mr Ali then goes on to explain that recently there has been a break in at the Museum of Antiquities and an item was stolen, to whit a large stone altar called the 'Ummayyad Font', an artefact dug up in the 1920’s by Lord Ravensworth. He then stated that the item had been in two pieces but did not state if Lord Ravensworth split it or that it was broken when it was discovered. He informed us that Lord Ravensworth had retained the smaller section for his own collection but its significance was not realised until the larger portion was unearthed about twenty years ago.

Tuesday 4^th January 2005

The Font appeared to have lettering around the sides but they were in Arabic and Mr Ali did not translate their significance. He wished us to go and see this item at Lord Ravensworth’s collection as he believed the family were about to donate the collection to the museum. Myra and Belinda were chosen to travel to Ravensworth Hall for this job as they were our two archaeologists. However, when they arrived they were to find that the item in question was missing and believed stolen by Geoffrey Baxter a man the present Lord had employed to catalogue the items prior to their donation. Lady Rowena, the daughter of the current Lord Ravensworth actually accused Mr Baxter of theft but didn't seem particularly bothered; (in her own words, "pity he didn't take it all, if you ask me".)

Wednesday 5^th January 2005

As we attempted to discover the whereabouts of Mr Baxter we were to find a report that Mr Baxter had recently met with a fatal accident, would that I had twenty-twenty foresight I would have refused to go on this foolhardy expedition. We were to discover that Mr Baxter’s estate was being wound up and that all his possessions were to be put up for auction in two days. We would have to attend.

That night Myra appears to have a strange turn very similar to Jim the train driver. It seems that while she was walking back to James Elliot’s house from the pub in Ravensworth she claims to have seen something skulking in the graveyard but was either unable or unwilling to convey any more details than that.

We attended the viewing in Richmond of the items on the day before auction and noticed the altar stone, which we had been searching for. My comrades expressed interest in several other items that were up for sale at the same time, the most noteworthy of these were a collection of note books and diaries obviously written by Mr Baxter, a hymnbook, a tin whistle with AYAKHOBAAL written on it (but what this meant was unclear), a Halloween mask that appeared to made out of bone and last, but by no means least, an unusual pair of homemade binoculars in a leather case. Mr Connolly picked these up and tried to look through them but all he could see was fog. As he attempted to alter the focus however, he cut his finger on a spike that appeared to have been secreted on the inside of a cylinder (note these binoculars are most unusual, as they appeared to be considerably heavier than was first thought and peculiarly appeared to be full of liquid. They also appeared to have an extra focussing ring of mysterious purpose as to its usages I am unaware).

After we went back to our lodging in Myra studied the hymnbook and found a slip within it that indicated hymn 51. She turned to look at this hymn and there appeared to be several alterations to the words. We later checked and this was confirmed certain words had been changed certainly in hymn 51 and possibly in others as well. What concerned me more however was the cover of the hymnbook itself for on closer examination it appeared that the leather binding did not appear to be from a cow my opinion was that it could be human skin but I would need to test it to be sure and curiously there was also a line of musical notes at the bottom of the page. What was most unusual about this was that there only appeared to be two notes on the score almost as if the music were planned to be played by that weird flute that came with the book.

We were later to discover that Mr Connolly had a strange dream that night but refused to divulge to me what it entailed.

Thursday 6^th January 2005

On the morning of the auction Belinda Durham informed us that she would have to leave us and return to London. How I now wish I had gone with her. Anyway the rest of us took our places within the auction rooms and everything appeared to be fine. The auction began and we noted that the Ummayyad Font fragment was one of the last items up for auction. Mr Connolly took the responsibility for doing any bidding that was required and he suggested that we watch who was bidding against him. Mr Connolly bid on all the items that had interested him save the hymnbook and whistle during the earlier viewing and was successful in acquiring all but the journals and diaries which were purchased by an older woman.

Myra Patel upon noting that Mr Connolly was not bidding on the hymnbook and whistle took it upon herself to enter the bidding for this item and she was successful in this. However, I feel Mr Connolly did pay a little over the top for the binoculars. I noted that while others were bidding against us the only consistent bidder against us was an attractive red haired woman who we were later to discover was an agent named Karen Doherty in the third row. Finally the stone altar came up and worryingly a lot of the early bidding came through the phone. If the people we were sent to stop were bidding by phone then there would be no way to track them. We needed not to worry though for our fears were alleviated when Miss Doherty stepped in. As the bidding got higher, I noted that Mr Connolly seemed to be pushing Miss Doherty quiet hard and that he even went above the allotted funds we had. He stated this was to check Miss Doherty was genuinely after we were looking for and it was clear that whoever it was she was working for would go to whatever the final asking price rose to.

We overheard Miss Doherty on the phone arranging collection with someone to pick up the font piece the next day. We also picked up the auction items Mr Connelly and Miss Patel had bought.

As we drove back to Ravensworth I noticed Mr Connolly playing with the binoculars. He started gabbling about Gallows Hill and convinced us that we should go and take a look. So that evening we all set out for an evening jaunt up to the top of this exceedingly spooky hill that was complete with an old stone on the top with holes for a gibbet. While we were up there, looking around, Mr Connolly took a funny turn and must have caught himself on either a branch or a piece of barbed wire as he screamed and ran down the hill. We were later to find he had also received a sizable abdominal wound that appeared to my trained eye to have been caused by a claw. Fortunately we had gone up the hill in Mr Elliot’s parents' Landrover.

As we all quickly piled into the Mr Elliot’s Landrover to follow Mr Connolly, Miss Patel reported seeing figures emerging from the woods. I saw little of them because of the fading light but from what I could see the figures seemed to be degenerate humans dressed in remnants of clothing. They looked dirty with hooked fingers and long finger nails almost like the claws of animals. Mr Elliot reversed the Landrover down the hill and through the bushes without mishap and avoided the figures easily. However Mr Elliot was later to state that despite the figures being caught in the headlights on a number of occasions he did not see them.

I patched Mr Connolly up as best as I could but we only had a first aid kit and it was clear from the outset that the wound would require stitches so he was taken to the local hospital were he was quickly patched up and given a booster tetanus shot. He was released the next morning. The story he gave was that he had cut himself on a barbed wire fence.

Friday 7^th January 2005

We chose to stake out the auction rooms the next day and were finally successful in noticing that the altar was collected by four men of Arabic ancestry who loaded it into the back of a large white van. I was able to film this using the camera in my phone but strangely my compatriots stated that while the loading was occurring their mobile phones had stopped functioning.

Mr Connolly attempted a badly thought out plan to get a look in the back of the van but all he succeeded in doing was antagonising the men. His plan also stopped an action that would have saved lives. We were not the only ones watching what was occurring as unknown to us certain elements the military, to whit the Special Air Service, were also watching from unmarked cars. They had planned to capture the Arabs on the street but had to change the plan after Mr Connolly alerted them. I now feel this may have been due to the fact that this had something to do with Saddam’s second cousin. Adam vanished around this time. We did not know it but he had been captured by the SAS.

We were able to track the van going in the direction of Gallows Hill. We were however to fail to get to the hill that night as we were accosted and arrested by the SAS soldiers on the approach road. Were they had come from was a mystery at the time, it was only later that we learned they had been observing us all day.

The four of us were not searched but were loaded into the back seat of a car, where we found Adam Walters, and we were left with two guards who stood watch, both armed with automatic weapons. We saw several more soldiers heading up the hill. As we attempted to ask what was transpiring we were instructed to be quiet.

Shortly afterwards we heard the sound of automatic fire coming from the direction of the hill and there also appeared to be a light emanating from the summit. I was concentrating on trying to see what was going on but noted in passing that Miss Patel had the hymnbook open on her lap and she was playing the notes from the book.

Suddenly there was a loud clang and the roof of the car sagged in as if something heavy had fallen on it. I noted with concern that as the two soldiers looked at the car panic crossed their faces. These men looked to be some form of Special Forces Unit so this concerned me greatly. What was even worse was that while one of the men just froze to the spot the other panicked and opened fire on the car. Fortunately I was uninjured but Miss Patel was hit I the arm. We decided that we should get out of the line of fire as quickly as possible.

Mr Connolly was able to open the door and get swiftly out of the car, Mr Walters I quickly followed. We then turned to try and assist Miss Patel. As we turned we both spotted what had dented the roof. A black figure some eight feet in height with immense wings, the figure was vaguely humanoid but bore an insectoid face.

I don’t know what happened next for the next thing I remember was being picked up by the military men miles away. I was taken to London where I was to be debriefed and then instigated into a weird government department that stated they would be able to explain what had just happened. My brain must have been addled by the experience as I agreed to their wishes. As to what had happened to Mr Connelly and Miss Patel I was unable to ascertain.

I was however to read Mr Elliot’s column in the Observer and to say the least I was not best pleased as he seemed to be critical of all three of us but seemed to reserve extra bile for me.