Death in Luxor

by Graham Warren

  Kate and Alex were up and on their way to the entrance before the words had fully left Quentin’s lips. They both stopped abruptly as they came across a very wide row of rock steps. These went down steeply, before reaching the solid metal door of the entrance which the gaffir was unlocking. With no handrail, not even a rope to hold, they took each step carefully whilst placing a hand on the wall for support.

  “Hey, Alex, if Aggie was to trip here that would be the end of her. Any ideas how we could get away with it?”

  “Don’t think like that. It’s not nice. She will just need a hand down.” Alex, however, continued to make his way into the tomb. He had no intention of going back to help Aggie, because if she fell, she would most likely take him with her. “Wow, I can’t see a thing.”

  “Me neither,” said Kate. Having stepped inside, she was now groping in the dark. Her hand caught hold of a wooden handrail, and there she stood. Gradually, she could make out Alex, and he her. Their eyes quickly adjusting from one extreme to another. Looking ahead, they were able make out a light further down. It was the yellow glow of an incandescent light bulb. They looked back only to be faced with Aggie’s rear end. She had come down the outside steps backwards, with Quentin on one side and Babs on the other, just in case she slipped.

  “It doesn’t look as though your prayers are going to be answered today after all,” said Alex as they headed down into the tomb.

  “Oh, do shut up,” Kate replied as she slipped slightly on the steep slope. “When have prayers ever done anybody any good?”

  Surrounded by flat plain walls, there was nothing of interest to look at in this section of the tomb, so down they went. Wood had been laid to protect the original floor, onto which shallow wooden batons had been screwed. This afforded visitors at least some grip as they descended. From the strengthening light ahead they were able to see that this slope led down to a small landing before another long wooden covered slope.

  Kate and Alex had not yet made it to the landing when there was a scream from Aggie, a scream from Babs, and an “Oh my God” from Quentin. They both turned back to see Aggie appear, for the second time this holiday, as though she had been shot out of a canon. Her flight was broken by Alex. He descended rapidly backwards to the landing, where, also for the second time this holiday, he was rolling around in pain. He had satisfied the first law of collapsing objects, or in this case a falling object, in that they must always hit any male in the most sensitive of areas. Alex’s eyes were streaming as he rolled around, though Kate did not have eyes for him.

  Upon hitting the ground, Aggie’s momentum was such that it turned her completely around as well as over. She bounced and screamed as she disappeared out of sight, feet first, along the second slope. Babs and Quentin raced past Kate on their way to Alex – he was whimpering, possibly crying, whilst on the floor in the foetal position.

  “Bugger … The old bat is still alive,” said Kate, who was now close enough to Alex to realise that the whimpering was not all coming from him. Some was coming from much further down in the tomb.

  They managed to get Alex to sit up. He was recovering quickly. There were a few grazes, but overall he was in pretty good shape, all things considered.

  Quentin headed on down with the gaffir to attend to the moaning Aggie. Shortly afterwards Babs said that she had better go and see what she could do, as she was the only qualified first aid person here.

  “I didn’t know that your mum was a qualified first aider.”

  “She isn’t, she got her first aid badge in the Brownies,” said Alex, still paying far too much attention to his private parts.

  “You are both in danger here,” said a deep, authoritative, though far from loud voice. Kate spun her head to the left whilst Alex just had to look up. An impressive hawk-headed man, wearing a solar disk on his head and a uniform entirely made up of golden feathers, stood before them. This was Ra-Horakhty, though not a Ra-Horakhty they had seen before.

  “Who is your pharaoh?” asked Kate, who, like Alex, was no longer fazed by the comings and goings of the ancient gods.

  “That is unimportant. What is important is that you are both in danger. We believe an attack is imminent. It will, most likely, start with the power from the generator being cut. Should this happen, and you are plunged into darkness, you will both have to feel your way into the small room at the far end of this tomb. Stay in the far-left corner.” He pointed down and to the left as if they were unable to take in a simple verbal command. “You will be rescued from there. You need have no worries.” He turned, took two paces up the stairs, then turned back briefly to repeat, “Remember, the small room at the far end of this tomb, and stay in the far-left corner.”

  “Walking up the stairs is not much of an exit for an ancient god. I would have thought that he would have stepped into the wall,” said Alex, “like in the tomb of whatsit and whatsit.”

  “In the tomb of Tausert and Setnakht there were bas-reliefs which the ancient gods could step back into,” said Kate in a girls rule, boys drool moment.

  “Oh, yes,” was all that Alex said, as he took in the plain walls around him. He attempted to stand and succeeded with some effort.

  Kate felt both sorry for him, and angry with him, at the same time. The fall would have been bad enough without the added weight of Aggie, but then, if he had not been in the way, Aggie would never have survived the fall and she would have been free. “Why couldn’t you have stepped to one side and saved yourself all this pain?” In her mind she continued, “And I would have been rid of my pain.”

  “Oh yes, right,” Alex managed this time.

  Kate really did feel sorry for him, as from the tremble in his reply she knew that he was obviously in more pain than he was letting on. Slowly and with Kate’s assistance, they made it to the burial chamber. Arriving, she saw Aggie, now silent, though obviously still alive, lying on the floor in the recovery position. Continuing to support Alex, who had given out a moan every now and again as he limped down to the tomb, she took in the room. Looking across to the large stone sarcophagus that dominated the middle of the chamber, she got a severe case of the giggles.

  Quentin and Babs gave her a look which said that laughter was most inappropriate at a time like this, whilst the gaffir and Alex looked at Kate with somewhat confused expressions. The face of the gaffir, who knew almost no English, and the face of Aggie, semi-conscious in the recovery position, did not change, though everyone else was laughing after Kate spoke. “You know what that sarcophagus is thinking, just like London busses, not a dead body for centuries and then two arrive at once.”

  Chapter 10

  -

  We Need a Meeting

  As the laughter subsided, Kate helped Alex to sit on the top step of the final few down into the burial chamber. From here they could view the entire room without moving. To their right they looked at twelve sitting baboons painted on the far wall, one for each hour of the night. These obviously gave the valley its modern name. To the extreme right of them, on the wall that came back along to where they sat, was the famous hunting scene. Famous, due to it being the only royal tomb with a hunting scene, whereas paintings like this were commonplace in the tombs of the nobles.

  Looking over to the far wall, there were various ancient gods, painted life-size and in vibrant colours, who were leading a now defaced Ay into the afterlife. Directly across from where they sat were the four sons of Horus. These were shown seated on the wall above an open doorway which lead into a really small undecorated room. In ancient times this room had, most probably, contained Ay’s canopic jars, the jars which would have contained the entrails of his embalmed body. This was also where Ra-Horakhty wanted them to be if the lights went out.

  Most impressive by far was Ay’s extremely large red granite sarcophagus. It dominated the centre of his tomb. Both Kate and Alex had read up on it last night, just in case Quentin tried to catch them out by asking questions to confirm that they had been listening, when they obviously had n
ot. With Aggie slowly recovering, they were pleased to hear that they would not have to listen to Quentin anymore today. It had just been made clear by him that they would all be heading back to the hotel, just as soon as Aggie had recovered enough to be helped back up the stairs.

  “You know what, Kate,” said Alex in rather a melancholy way, “this was a pharaoh, a leader of ancient Egypt, the most powerful man in the land, yet after his death his family did not, or perhaps they could not, stop his tomb from being opened, his face from being defaced and his name removed from every single cartouche. Someone desperately wanted to stop him from enjoying the afterlife.” Alex turned to Kate where he saw a single tear running down her cheek. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “Idiot … you did not!” Kate paused, then felt that she had to explain. “It’s my fault as I always say things without thinking. Every time I think of a bus, I think of my mum.”

  Deciding, that it was best to change the subject, Alex asked if they should make their way over to the far corner as Ra-Horakhty had advised them to, because the lights could go out any second.

  Inside Kate’s head it was as if the last piece of a very large puzzle had been put into place, a piece which brought all the other pieces together, though a piece that made their victory over Pharaoh Merenptah a defeat, an absolutely resounding defeat. “We must get out of here now,” she said.

  “What!” was the reply from Alex who was somewhat shocked by the alarm in Kate’s voice.

  “Tell your parents that you do not feel well, that you need to go for some air, tell them anything!”

  “But I’m feeling somewhat better, by just sitting here and recovering.”

  “Oh, for God’s sake, tell them that you have a nosebleed and your tissues are in your backpack, which you left in the minibus.”

  “But I don’t.”

  “Well, you do now, so get moving.” Kate was pleased with the result of her quick jab. It was unseen by everyone, even Alex. Always amazed by how much blood flowed from such a bony structure, she dragged him away whilst the gaffir complained, in Arabic, about them dropping spots of blood on the wood that he would have to clean. Kate managed to shout out that Alex had a nosebleed so they were going to get his tissues from the minibus. Babs shouted back that she had some. Kate ignored this and kept dragging Alex as he stumbled his way up the steps, the slopes and hopefully out of the tomb.

  They were not that far away from the entrance when everything went dark, the hum of the generator having ceased. Kate could make out an ancient soldier ahead, who, she thought, was standing guard. He was there to stop anyone from leaving. He had to be an ancient soldier, as with the sun beating down behind him, she could see his silhouette very clearly. There were not any modern Egyptians she was aware of who wore a kilt and carried a spear with a curved knife on the end of it.

  With the lights out they had no way of knowing who or what was coming up behind them. They could see nothing, though they could also hear nothing, which they both thought was strange. Kate was not going to slow down, though her legs were tiring. She was willing them to go faster and suddenly they did as Alex, finally realising the seriousness of their situation, stepped up a gear and started pushing Kate towards the exit. “Move! I have a gun,” shouted Kate to the ancient by the entrance, as if a gun would actually frighten any ancient.

  “You do not have a gun, but you have legs, so use them!”

  The voice sounded very familiar. Kate called out between gasps, “Sanuba, is that you?”

  “Yes, now get out there. I cannot protect you inside a royal tomb.”

  “Shut up, don’t you know it’s not safe for you to talk in English?”

  “Surprise, Kate, I think they know you are here.”

  Laughing at her own stupidity whilst gasping for breath and stumbling, Kate made it just beyond Sanuba before collapsing. Alex collapsed beside her. They heard a clash behind them, a violent sounding clash, though it did not last for long. By the time their eyes had adjusted to the extreme brightness of being outside, there was no sign of Sanuba or whoever had clashed with him, though they could make out that the tomb lights were now back on.

  “Are you two okay?” asked their driver. He towered over them as he stood on the top of the steps, “Only I heard such a noise.”

  “We raced each other out of the tomb and fell here, sorry,” gasped Kate.

  It was a full frustrating two hours before they were finally back at the Winter Palace, though, on the positive side, it was not yet two in the afternoon. A second positive was that Aggie had amazed them all. Her fall, after initially laying her low, had now somewhat rejuvenated her. She made it clear that she and Babs were off to The Gardens, just as soon as they had changed. Aggie also made it clear that there was no way Kate was going to go with them. This was perfect, as it gave Kate the freedom she needed, if only for the remainder of the day.

  Quentin, having some reports to write up, was happy for Alex to go off on his own.

  “It could not have worked out more perfectly,” thought Kate. She looked on as Aggie checked out the cut over her eye, as well as the grazes to her knees, from every angle, in an oversized mirror on the wall opposite the reception desk. She now understood that this was going to be the gossip of the day at The Gardens, and if it was not, Aggie would embellish her fall until it was. Fall, push, attempted murder!

  Kate was desperate to get away, though she was well aware that she could not be seen to be too hasty to race off, otherwise Aggie’s mood could change instantly. This was far too important a day to destroy by being too hasty.

  “Well, Babs, I shall go and change now. I will see you back here in reception in half an hour. Not one minute later, mind you,” ordered Aggie, to which Babs rather meekly agreed. “We shall all eat at The Gardens tonight. Shall we say seven?”

  “Seven is fine with me,” said Quentin, who looked as though he would have agreed to anything to be on his own with his notes and his thoughts.

  Kate and Alex also agreed. Just like Quentin, they would have agreed to anything to be free of her for a few hours.

  Everyone moved towards the lifts, though only Aggie, Quentin and Babs got in. “I will be up in a minute, Nana,” said Kate.

  “Alex, you are definitely not going out looking like that!”

  “No, Mum. I will be up soon to shower and change. I just want to say hi to Cairo. I haven’t seen him today.”

  “I will lay your clothes out for you.”

  The lift doors closed. Kate and Alex were finally free of the oldies. They turned and ran into the bar, which, much to their relief, was devoid of tourists. Three and Cairo were eagerly waiting for any news, having seen them arrive at the hotel, though neither they nor Alex could have expected to hear what Kate was about to say.

  “We did not win a battle. You know, the other day, we did not win a battle, we won a decoy. We thought that we were ahead this time, yet unless we act very quickly we will have lost big time.” She, almost frantically, searched her pockets for Rose’s card. “I can’t find it. I haven’t got Rose’s number. Three, we need speak to Rose urgently. She must get Ramses, Nakhtifi and Bast together now, right now. We need a plan if we are to have even the slightest chance of victory. Can you contact Rose?”

  Hearing the urgency in Kate’s voice, Three did not need to be asked twice. “Go and change, then come back here as quickly as you can. You also, Cairo.” He headed for the phone behind the bar.

  “I like the fact that you used ‘we’ several times just then,” said Alex, “though I do wish you would tell me what is going on.”

  “Yes, Madam Kate, what happen?”

  “I need to tell everyone at the same time, as we – see I used the ‘we’ again – need to have a master plan. This is much bigger than any of us thought.”

  “How big, Kate?”

  “Let’s just say that I cannot see this ending well.”

  “Oh good, it’s great that you are so positive. We wouldn’t want the morale of
the troops to drop.”

  She did not have time for this banter right now. “Alex and I must go and change if we are to keep Aggie and Babs happy. You look fine, Cairo, just as you are. See you back here in a few minutes.”

  The lift had just arrived as Three came out from the bar. “Madam Rose will be outside in twenty minutes in her Volvo. Do not be late.”

  “Her car is far too recognisable. Couldn’t you have found one that the warlock’s supporters wouldn’t notice?”

  “Do not worry about the colour of Rose’s car,” said Three. “We do everything for a reason. If we sneak you out of here, it would look as though we were worried, as if we were weak. It would boost the warlock’s confidence. Nobody can report back to him that we are hiding you if you leave in a trendy car like that. It will send the message that we must send.”

  “I never thought that there was such a thing as a trendy Volvo. That is something new. Oh … and is it alright if Cairo comes with us?” Kate knew that it was, but she needed confirmation.

  “I am pleased that you ask. Of course, Cairo can go with you if he wants to.”

  “I want to, Papa.”

  “There, Kate, you have your answer,” said Three with pride.

  Fifteen minutes later they were all back in reception after quickly showering and changing. Alex had another of his father’s ‘famous’ T-shirts on, though this time he had not complained, as not only were there more important things to worry about, but as everyone was so used to these now, he knew that no one would make any comment. He was wrong!