Episode 9-The Tablet of Osiris

9

The Tablet of Osiris

Cairo was a city of wonder.  It was a series of ancient buildings, some dating back to the time of pharaohs, set to a background of more modern skyscrapers.  The two intermingled in a fascinating combination of old and new in a way that made E feel like she was on cloud nine.

The city itself was populated to the point of bursting.  People where everywhere, Cairo was packed full of youth and energy, making the city feel wild and alive.

E had caught up quick on her Arabic, having to deal with so many fast talking Middle Eastern people.

She had however, After all it was what she did as a living and she was damn good at it.

She couldn’t help but smile as she rounded the corner heading back to the down-trodden hotel room Karl had rented them for the night.  She shouldn’t have been in a good mood considering what she had gone through in the last few days.  She had fallen out of a plane, been attacked by a giant Mongolian thug, and of course been dragged halfway across the world.

Still it had a strange feeling of right.  She turned to look at the sun as it was beginning its descent and it illuminated the ancient metropolis in a way that sent chills through E’s body.  She could almost hear the history whispering to her.  It whispered of loves and battles, victory and defeat.

How could the sight of this not be worth it?

She had seen more and done more in the last two days than most did in their entire lives.  She could only think about all the times she sat between two stuffy old business men and helped to broker by translating a deal.  It had been her job for the last ten years, but this, this was the reason she wanted to speak other languages; to explore, to find things.

This was a reason to get up in the morning.

She turned and entered the hotel, climbing the steps to their room and knocking twice before entering.  Karl had stayed behind.  He would have been useless at this part anyway.  E had gone out to find out what she could about the situation, recon, Karl had called it.

She entered the room and put her bags down on the table, not seeing Karl in the small room.  “Hello?”

As soon as she said that, Karl walked out of the bathroom wearing only a towel.

E’s eyes widen as he crossed the room to where he had laid his clothes out on the bed, having not noticed her yet.  She could only stare in wonder at Karl’s hard body, damp from the recent shower.  His stomach was tight and defined by a six-pack, his arms were not overly muscled but instead thick and sturdy.  His thighs matched his upper body and his entire body glistened.

She cleared her throat finally to let him know she was there and he whipped around.  For a second, it looked like the towel was going to fall.

For a second, she wished the towel would fall.

He relaxed at the sight of her.  “Jesus, E.”

“Sorry,” she said, turning to shut the door and hide the deep red that her cheeks were turning.  “Didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I’m not scared,” Karl said, having been spooked, obviously bothering his warrior instincts.  “Just jumpy, I guess.  You find anything out?”

She turned smiling.  “Of course I did.  It’s what you pay me for, isn’t it?”

He grinned.  “I guess so.”

She smiled.  “According to the locals, the Fortress Babylon has been closed off for weeks now.  They have been hiring free workers to go in and work during the day… digging.”

“Sam was right.”  Karl suspicions justified.  “The cup is under the fortress.”

E shrugged.  “That, or this Bomani thinks it is.  Anyway, that’s probably where Sam is, but from what I can tell, they haven’t taken any workers up there in a couple of days.  I found one of the workers and although he didn’t know what they were doing down there, he said there were a lot of Asian looking men with guns.  He said they all took their orders from a Mongolian man with bad teeth.”

“Hoi,” Karl hissed with no small amount of disdain.  “You find out how many?”

“The worker said including Bomani and Hoi there are nine men, all armed with machine guns.”  E answered.

Karl frowned.  “Damn it!  How am I supposed to deal with that?”

His question was rhetorical but E smiled and walked to her bag on the table.  “With these.”

She dumped the bag and two Colt model 1911 semi-automatic pistols and four clips fell out onto the wood.

“Holy shit,” Karl said as he stared in shock.  “E, how did you-”

“A good translator can speak the language.”  E smirked.  “A great translator uses it.”

Karl looked at her and smiled.  “You are one hell of a woman.”

E found herself blushing again.  “It was nothing.”

Karl picked up the guns and went through a quick field check of them.  He then set them down.  “Okay I’ll leave tonight.  I’ll have a better chance in the dark.”

“You mean we’ll?”  E interrupted and Karl turned to see her cheeks flushed now with anger.

“E, you can’t come.  You’ve helped a lot but I can’t put you in that kind of danger.”  Karl said with sympathetic eyes.

“You can’t put me in that kind of danger?!” E scuffed before getting into his face.  “Eight hours ago, I fell out of a plane.  Guns cease to scare me.”

“Look, these men are killers,” Karl protested.

 “You can’t do this alone,” E said.  “You lost the right to do it alone when you brought me.”

Karl took a deep breath.  “Okay.”

“Good.” E said putting a period on the conversation.

The two now lingered in a weird place.  The adrenaline was still flowing but now it was flowing in a different way.  E knew Karl felt it too.  Sam was endearing in his mad scientist sort of way, but Karl was earthy.  He was a man with bloody knuckles, a determined warrior.  He struck something deep and primal in E, a female need to pick the biggest and the strongest.

“God help me.”  She said as Karl leaned in to kiss her.

The towel slipped away.

****

Sam had not had the chance to sight see.  He had his hands tied and was hustled into a car and driven directly through town to the fortress.

The operation had taken pull and a lot of money but somehow, Bomani had gotten permission to dig in the basement of the fortress.  He had found the original exit to the cup’s tomb.

They entered the man-made tunnel and Bomani suddenly began to talk.  “It took time, much like when the Egyptians built the pyramids.  They had tricked the laborers inside and collapsed the way out, sealing the tomb and the knowledge of the tomb inside.”

Sam nodded, having already guessed as much.  “Where is your digging crew?”

Bomani turned with a smile.  “No longer needed, we found the tablet.”

Sam’s eyes went wide as they walked through the tunnel.  “The tablet is real.”

“Of course,” Bomani said turning away.

Sam stared at the back at his head and Bomani finally turned, feeling his eyes on him, “Question?”

“I don’t get it,” Sam began.  “You worked for the Taliban.  They’re religious zealots.  How does a Muslim zealot go searching for a Pagan artifact?”

Bomani took a deep breath and for the first time Sam could see pain on his face.  “I believe in the cause.  I believed in the holy land.  Believed in god.  I watched so many die to send the infidels to hell, all the time thinking there would be a place for me in heaven.”

“What happened?” Sam asked honestly curious.

“The Ankh,” He answered.  “It is a thing made not of this earth, but not made of my God. The more I learned of this legend, the more proof showed itself and I realized that the cup’s existence is proof that my God does not exist.”

“That must have been a mind blower, huh?”  Sam’s words had a grounding effect on Bomani.

Bomani shook his head and his soft smile returned, the pain in his eyes vanishing. “Whoever drinks from the cup gains the strength and immortality of a God.”

Bomani turned back to the man made cave in front of him.  “There is no eternity waiting for me, Mr. Bier, so I will make my own.”

TO BE CONTINUED…

Episode 8-Becuase You Need To Know

Episode 8

Because You Need to Know

Sam stood and stared for a second before dusting himself off and charging.

He could only think of his brother and E, free falling through the air, knowing their death was imminent.  He saw Karl, the man who kept him in check slamming into the ground at terminal velocity and knew that as much as this Egyptian was at fault, so was he.

Sam saw the man’s neck and, for the first time in his life, he wanted to kill a living thing.

Hoi went for his gun as Sam charged but it didn’t deter him.  Sam had long past left his need to stay alive behind.  The Egyptian put up his hand to stop Hoi.

Sam reached for the man and it happened fast.

The thief side-stepped Sam’s attack and rolled his hand over Sam’s wrist.  With a hard twist he sent Sam head over heels out of the port hatch and crashing down the stairs.

Sam rolled, bouncing violently down the stairs and slammed into the tarmac.

The pain was everywhere, washing over Sam’s body.  He moaned loud and low and saw stars.

Instinctively, he rolled away from the stairs trying to gain distance.  The man walked down the stairs.  Hoi was behind him.  He made a tsk tsk noise with his mouth.  “Mr. Bier.  I was hoping you would be more civil.”

 Sam scrambled to his feet and came to the realization that he was surrounded by men of Mongolian decent.  “Fuck you!  And fuck your pet gun runner.”

Hoi showed his shark-like, broken teeth in a deep frown and again the Egyptian put up his hand to stop him.

Sam’s eyes narrowed as his very random brain finally caught up with what was happening.  “You went after my brother because he protected me.  E, because she was a witness.  But not me.  We both know Hoi wants to gut me like a fish and you’re stopping him.”

The Egyptian raised an eyebrow.  “Your point?”

“You need me.”  Sam smiled.  “You need me to get you through the catacombs that lead to the cup!”

Sam began to laugh out loud but the Egyptian’s smile never faded.  “Mr. Bier, this still doesn’t change your position.”

Sam stopped laughing.  “The hell it doesn’t.  You need me to help you and I’m not going to.”

The Egyptian cut Sam off.  “Help me?  Come now, Sam.  We both know you are going to help me.”

Sam frowned and the man continued.  “You are going to help me because you didn’t come here to bond with your brother and you didn’t come here for a souvenir.  You came here to find the cup.  You came here to see if you can do it.”

Sam almost broke down because as much as he wanted it to be different, this man had him pegged.

Sam couldn’t let it go and just walk away.  That was an ability he had not been born with.

“You’re going to kill me too?  When we find this thing?” Sam asked knowing the answer.

“Undoubtedly.”  The man answered without missing a beat.  “But that doesn’t really matter, does it?”

Sam’s self loathing had never been higher because in the end, he had to know.

****

Karl watched her.

He had been watching her since their narrow escape of death.  They had lucked out and not landed in the desert, instead hitting a road forty miles outside of Cairo.  It was a matter of time before a bus had shown up on the road.  Karl flagged it down and negotiated their way onto the bus.

In all that time, E had not said a word.

She had been silent and Karl had worried she had snapped under the pressure.  Either way, the poor New York translator was in a deep shock.  Karl couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of guilt.  It was his fault she was in this.

He took a breath to say something when his phone rang.  It was Carolyn and he decided E could wait.  He answered.

“Karl?  Is that you?” Carolyn’s normally hard voice sounded concerned.

“Yeah, what’s up?” Karl asked, deciding he wouldn’t tell her about the last hour unless he had to.

“Turn around and come home.  You’re in deep shit.” Her voice was stern but still carried the concern that he had heard before.

Karl raised an eyebrow.  “Talk to me.”

“I found your Egyptian,” Carolyn began to explain.  “His name is Bomani.  He is an international terrorist, but not in the ‘kill himself for his God’ sort of way.  This guy went freelance after starting in Al-Qaida which is extremely rare, and then vanished only to pop up a half dozen more times, always linked to bombings or military actions, then vanishing.”

“He sounds like a movie cliché.” Karl responded, sarcastically.

“Look, this guy is bad news.”  Carolyn ignored Karl’s comment.  “He’s not someone you are going to be able to deal with alone, especially if he’s working for or with Hoi.  Turn yourselves around and call off the hunt.”

Karl took a deep breath and tried to rub the headache from his brow.  “I can’t.  He’s got Sam.”

Karl had come to this conclusion from the plane attack, knowing that a man this well trained would be waiting for the plane on arrival.  There was silence on the other end, and behind him a chicken screeched, reminding him of how hot and crowded the bus was.

“He’s gone then.”  Carolyn said finally, her voice was dead cold.  The concern was gone.  “He’s gone.  You and your translator go in after him and you will just end up joining him.”

Karl frowned.  “Thanks for the info Carolyn, but screw you.”

Karl hung up on her.  He found it hard to be mad at her for her suggestion.  She was a cold hard facts sort of girl, and she was looking at the numbers.  Karl, from a strategic stand point, was more valuable.  Karl had more chance of leading a successful and happy life while functioning in society.  This chance went up tenfold when you subtracted a crazy brother dependent.

This was why Karl had stopped seeing Carolyn and quit the FBI.  Sometimes you had to forget the numbers.

“What’s wrong?” E’s voice broke his train of thought and slightly startled Karl.  With the stress of the situation, he had momentarily forgotten about the woman.

“We’re in over our heads and Sam is being held by the Egyptian.  His name is Bomani.”

“Warrior.”  E said in response and this confused Karl.

“What?” Karl questioned.

“Bomani.  It means warrior.”  She said and Karl remembered her trade of choice.

“Of course it is,” Karl said nodding.  “Look, he’s bad news so when we get to Cairo I will have a private plane take you back to the states.”

“No thank you.”  E said quickly with plenty of fear, the free fall having scared her of flying.

“Not up for debate.  You are going home and that’s-” Karl was cut off mid rant by a kiss from E.  It was soft and gentle and perfect and conveyed her emotions with a silent passion.

“Look,” Karl said finally when she broke contact.  “This isn’t going to change my mind.”

E shook her head.  “You caught me as a plummeted to my death.  Thank you.”

Karl nodded and was quiet.  He found it hard to respond to that.

“Besides,” E continued.  “You’re going to keep me around because you need me.”

This woke Karl up fast.  “How do you figure?”

“You don’t speak Mongolian or Egyptian.” She said matter-of-factly.

She had him there.  At the end of the day, Karl spoke only English, but was about to go head to head with a Mongolian drug syndicate and a high ranking freelance terrorist.

“I can’t protect you, not in there.” Karl said very calmly and quietly.

E took a deep breath.  “I know, but I’m the only one who can help you save Sam.”

Karl gritted his teeth realizing that she was right, even in some small fashion.  She knew the language and, when it came down to it, she would be the most valuable tool in reconnaissance that Karl could have.

She wasn’t a tool, though, she was a human being.

A tool that Karl was very afraid he could not protect.

TO BE CONTINUED.