by Paul Edwards
Chapter Seven
I spent the next ten days waiting for the damn rocket to take off, I soon learned that the most necessary skill needed in a career of rocketry was patience.
Frank and Jack sent me all kinds of sophisticated test equipment to set up and monitor the launch, the longer the launch was delayed the more equipment they sent. I soon became quite an expert in the installation and monitoring of numerous test devices, I was even offered a job by one of the base's supervisors.
When the launch finally came I was so busy making sure all the equipment was running properly and transmitting data I almost missed it.
The launch itself was exhilarating, the sound the engines made seemed to shake my very soul, it was like watching the birth of a mighty fiery beast.
It took me a further two days to disassemble and crate all the equipment and then send it back to Rand, thankfully I had had the help of the two young foot soldiers I had met while first entering the base.
When I finally checked out of my hotel I had to wait until nightfall in order to fly back, I spent the day at a small beach taking long swims in the ocean and sleeping under a large umbrella I had rented.
I was quite happy when the sun finally went down, I took off from the secluded spot I had found to change into my flying suit. The night was cloudless and I could see thousands of stars, I felt relieved to be finally going back, I could implement the rest of my plan and go back to my real home, The City of Magic.
I met Frank and Jack the next morning in Frank's office, I brought them all large black coffee's, I wanted them to be in a good mood.
"So how's the paper coming along," I asked as I sat down.
"We have the rough draft done, do you want to read it?" Frank said.
"Sure... rough draft... what still has to be done?"
"Oh just spelling and grammar, we're both pretty bad at it," Jack said.
Frank reached into his desk drawer and handed me a sheaf of papers stapled together, I saw a title typed on the cover page, Physical Properties of Antiquarian Magic, and both their names.
I looked at my watch, "have to go, got a meeting," I said.
I almost ran back to my office, I quickly closed the door and window shades then sat down at my desk and hurriedly read the paper.
The paper was perfect for my needs, they had used the references I had provided for the spells, the research was impeccable and it was well written and easy to understand. They had even signed their names in somewhat legible signatures.
I used my bracelet to surreptitiously create a copy, I then sent the copy on its way to another destination.
Frank and Jack were going to get their paper published in the most prestigious physics journal in the world. Not only would it be published but it would be a cover story, and they would have their biography's and extensive credentials published as well.
The most important thing of all was that the place that they did their research would be prominently displayed.
My plan was almost complete, I would now just have to wait until the journal came out and then implement my final phase.
The phone on my desk rang then, I looked at it suspiciously then picked up the receiver.
"Hello."
"Geez, where have you been?" It was Peter.
"Oh... hi, business trip, I was up the coast for two weeks."
"I guess I should have asked for your cell number, are you free tonight?"
"Ya... I guess"
"Let me take you to dinner... I have something to show you."
That night I met Peter in a quiet restaurant, it was just a run of the mill place catering to the local population. Peter directed me to a secluded corner of the restaurant, we sat at a largish table.
Once we had ordered our food and drink Peter pulled out a thick sheaf of paper from a small satchel he had been carrying, it looked like newsprint, old newsprint.
"When I said I never found anything else good when I was buying stuff for my shop, that wasn't quite true, I found these."
I picked up the sheaf of folded newsprint, the paper was yellow with age.
"What are they?"
"They're rubbings of hieroglyphs, I think, you're an Egyptologist maybe you can read them for me."
I carefully unfolded the sheaf, there were about twenty separate pages, I noticed someone had numbered the corners of each page. They were hieroglyphs all right, done in charcoal, they were so faint I could barely see them in the dim light of the restaurant.
Peter switched on a small flashlight and shone it on the page, I took it from his hand and started to read the glyph's.
"Early dynastic I think second or third dynasty."
I had read numerous ancient papyrus's to prepare myself for my cover story as an Egyptologist, I had found that I could easily distinguish the era that they had come from with a little practise, I could do the same with most artifacts as well.
"It's written by a guy called Imhotep, it's about some kind of dispute he had with a woman from the city of Assur, her name's Semiramis."
I read further.
I had conceived of a plan to thwart the shameless harlot, I could not wait to destroy her. I would finally redeem myself after falling prey to her seductions.
It seemed that Imhotep had been seduced and manipulated by some exotic beauty, like that has never happened before, I thought to myself.
The rest of the rubbing was basically a long description of a desperately infatuated man bragging about a ridiculous plan he had concocted to get back at the woman who jilted him.
I read my translation out loud so Peter could hear the story, It wasn't until the very last page that I realized that both Imhotep and Semiramis weren't just run of the mill citizens of antiquity.
I am sure she had been plotting against me since we met in the City of Magic.
I had to suppress a gasp, my heart almost leap out of my chest.
"Where did you get these?" I asked, trying to act nonchalant.
"They were with the stuff I got from the Sampson estate," Peter looked at me, his face was completely devoid of expression.
"Was there anything else?"
"I have Tom Sampson's journal... from the Desmanille expedition, have you heard of it?"
"I've read a little bit about it, what's it say... about what happened?" I tried to keep my own face expressionless.
"What do you think it said?"
A thought occurred to me then, what if I was being set up, what if Rand had recruited Peter, what if I was still their target.
Unfortunately I had a tendency towards paranoia sometimes. Was I overreacting? Why would they create such a grandiose plan, it made no sense... unless they were trying to get me to unwittingly reveal the secrets of magic... then it made sense, use Peter to gain my confidence.
They could learn a lot just from a short conversation about sorcery, especially if I thought Peter was another Sorcerer.
"Is there something you're not telling me?" I tried to look confused and oblivious.
"No... the journal was kinda boring... he got picked up by a caravan, had to spend two months with them because they didn't want to divert their route."
Our server returned with our food then, we spent the rest of the dinner making small talk, I looked at Peter surreptitiously while he was eating, trying to discern his intentions in the expressions of his face. I saw nothing.
A strange feeling came over me as I looked at Peter, a kind of panicky anger, I suddenly realized I had developed feelings for him.
I felt my eyes narrow, if he was a Rand operative, and he was just stringing me along, he'd better hope that I was captured for I would pursue him to the ends of the earth to gain my revenge.
After dinner was over and we had paid our bill Peter walked me outside to wait for my taxi, he seemed to sense a change in my mood for he only gave me a quick kiss on my cheek as he opened the taxi's door.
Peter let me keep the rubbings, he told me that they were probably quite old but that t
hey weren't old enough to have any value.
When I had returned to my hotel room I laid out the rubbings on the bed, I then took out my laptop and did a search for the two names in the writings, Imhotep and Semiramis.
Imhotep appeared to be a real person, an ancient polymath. It could just be someone with the same name I thought, I looked to see if I could find the era he had been alive, I found numerous articles which placed him in the third dynasty, he served a King called Djoser.
There were a few references to him being a skilled sorcerer.
The name Semiramis turned up two people, one a queen who had lived thousands of years after Imhotep and the other a mythical goddess like figure.
I searched for articles on the goddess figure, when I read them they painted a picture of a beautiful and treacherous woman who seduced and manipulated men. I found one very interesting tidbit, she had used trickery to make it seem as if she had resurrected a fallen King in order to stop a war.
I thought back to my own past, resurrection was something I had done, it was not a difficult thing to do. I also thought that dressing up someone else as a king would not fool anyone for long, for his armies would expect him to return to lead them.
I found one last thing, a reference to a papyrus, it had a description of a battle Imhotep had had with an Assyrian sorceress. I looked up the location of the city of Assur, it was in Assyria.
I looked at the rubbings, the way they were written seemed to indicate that it was a tribute, or a rendering of an accomplishment, something that would be put on a statues base... or a tombs wall.
I did a search for Imhotep's tomb, it had never been found, this in an era when gigantic pyramids had started to be built over tombs, the professional tomb robbers gift from the gods.
If Imhotep had been a sorcerer it would have been quite easy for him to hide even the worst of a man's vanities.
Had these rubbings come from Imhotep's tomb? Did Tom Sampson find it when he was wandering through the Sahara desert?
I closed my laptop, folded up the rubbings and then put them all on my night table. I was tired and it was time to go to bed.
The next morning the first thing I did after I woke up was to shut off the three spells I had created for Frank and Jack to test.
The magazine their paper was in would be on the newsstands this morning, I had used sorcery to make sure it was in this issue so I wouldn't have to wait for the usual publishing cycle.
I took a long shower, then got dressed and packed my things, I dispelled my luggage so I would not have to carry it.
After checking out of the hotel I was soon walking down the sidewalk towards Rand, I would soon see the results of my plan, I doubted anyone there would suspect me.
It was mid afternoon before Janet found me, I was in a laboratory where they were testing copies of ancient swords, something that interested me.
"Even the steel is authentic... and we had a blacksmith forge them," one of the technicians explained to me.
Janet burst through the labs doors, a strange look was on her face.
"You and you get out," she pointed at the two technicians, they both took one look at her and promptly walked out.
"Janet, what's the matter?" I asked with a suitably concerned look on my face.
"What the Hell is this?" she threw a magazine onto the bench beside me.
I picked it up trying to look curious.
"Oh... Frank and Jack, they published their paper... they didn't even tell me."
"Oh they did huh... those spells they were testing, they don't work anymore either... I think you did this." Janet stared at me, her eyes were as hard as stone.
"What are you talking about... how could I do this... the magazine is peer reviewed, even if I sent the paper to them why would they publish it?"
Janet pulled a folded piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to me.
"Look at that."
I opened it up, it was a map with some lines drawn on it, it looked like it came from a web site used to find directions.
"Unless there's a daily scheduled flight from your hotel room to a taxi stand in Lompoc, you flew... like a bird... I pulled the GPS co-ordinates out of that cell phone I gave you."
"Oh... you can do that?" I said surprised.
"The... the... chutzpah, even Dillinger didn't do this... you joined the taskforce that was hunting you?" Janet's voice was shaking with anger.
I took off my fake glasses.
"What did you expect, an attack from Lord Evil and his army of goblins," I stared right back at Janet," you had no idea who you were dealing with."
"You've destroyed their career's... made Rand a laughing stock... made me a laughing stock."
"You won't starve... you're life is still your own, beside's I thought it was kinda appropriate after what was done to those fusion guys."
"I knew it was you... when I saw the picture of that statue... I just couldn't believe it, didn't listen to my little voice."
I noticed Janet had a small bulge under her jacket, her hand had been slowly moving towards it as she had been talking to me. I saw one of the swords the technicians had been testing out of the corner of my eye. It had the word Ulfberht written faintly on the blade.
I lunged for the sword grabbed it and then swung the flat part of the blade against Janet's hand as she was pulling it out of her Jacket.
A menacing looking pistol flew out of her grip and slid across the floor, Janet stared at me, then she quickly took one step back and grabbed an Ulfberht of her own.
She held the sword in front of her, both hands on the grip, I could tell from the way she held it that she must have had some training in swordplay.
"So... you think you're tough huh... Texas A&M thought they were tough." Janet stepped towards me swinging her sword.
I parried, and stepped back, she came at with a flurry of swings. I was right, she had had some practise at this, she had a strange style swinging the sword over her head.
She kept rushing at me trying to use her size and strength to overwhelm me, I backed away defensively, biding my time, she finally made a mistake, over extended herself, she had assumed she was the stronger one and could risk giving me a bit of leverage.
I was a child of antiquity, when something had to be lifted, I lifted it, when a long journey had to be made, I walked or ran it. I had learned very quickly that in this era women were pampered and quite weak, even those who thought of themselves as athletes.
I swung my sword as hard as I could smashing it against hers, I saw it fly out of her hand cart wheeling though the air. I charged her then hitting her square in the chest with my shoulder, she stumbled backwards falling onto her bum.
I held my sword tip against her throat, she glared back at me her eyes full of rage and fury, panting with exhaustion.
"I'll be leaving now," I said.
I noticed a grim smile slowly creep across her face.
I felt something hard poke the small of my back, "Drop the cutlery princess, I got a gun," I heard a gruff voice from behind me say.
