H2G2 Storytime III: From Prussia with Love. Part XXXIV
Created | Updated Aug 12, 2006
Anna felt the woozy dullness of a sedative wearing off. As consciousness leeched into her awareness a growing sense of her surroundings dawned on her.
She was lain under a small hessian type weave blanket that was, she was becoming aware, actually rather itchy.
Someone, somewhere attached dumbells to her eyelids.
...
'Must have passed out there,' she thought, swimming upwards, as she noted that several of the blurred sillhouettes in her vision had jumped about like a scratched record.
One she recognised by his rough outline...the Russian, Sreka, slumped by the wall.
Then there was that voice. It decended down from the rafters of her delerium where it had formed part of the background radiation to her hallucinations, a multi-coloured haze of clipped Irish brogue.
"Sean, dear - you have the stone?"
Excellent....we'll rendevous...
The voice sunk into stony silence as the world wobbled out of focus once more.
she heard echos in a blind cave:
"The Poles are ready."
"The Monk is nearing his doom."
"Where he fails we shall succeed."
She was overcome once more in a fog of utter night, that stiffled her mind.
....
'MN on'
'arrs a dud erl'
'achey 'achey'
A shot like lightning electrified her thoughts, the bonds of sleep withered in it's light and Anna burst forward...
...and opened her eyes.
Vandeveer was peering at her, his face right up against hers, he was wafting some smelling salts under her nose.
He turned to look over his shoulder, "she's awake."
She peered up at the evil kojak form of Von Trapp.
"Wakey! Wackey! We're going for a little ride..." he said grinning.
Ody's mind was sifting rapidly through the events of the last night; it didn't make sense. Why him? Why now?
Somewhere between being attacked by pistol-whipping diamond thiefs and having a willful research assistant, not to mention finding, and loosing, a magnificent archaeological treasure - all in the space of a day - Ody was feeling rather put down upon.
A line descended down into the gap in the sand where the coverstone into the Turquoise Moon Chamber lay, Ody held the other one in his fist, and adjusted a few ill-fitting buckles. Jamilla was already down there,
"'Junior'? ...'Junior'..." he mused quietly to himself.
"I've not been called 'Junior' since..."
He took a step off the side and rappelled down until he stood on the floor of the chamber.
It was still dark down here; the glow stick had long since expired. Ody could here Jamilla fiddling around from the occasional clunk and thud; he deduced she was plugging in a generator.
"Need a hand?" he called out.
"I think I've got it!" the voice from the darkness called back.
There was a final definitive click, and a low whirring noise and the generator hummed into life. The bulbs in the lamps began to glow and then a broad beam shoneout, refracted instantly aroudn the myriad of diamonds on every surface and plinth a soft blue glow to the whole chamber. Ody stood transfixed as in a moment - it was really quiet beautiful.
He switched off the ineffectual torch, and Jamilla did the same to the light on her hard hat. She rested her hands on her hips and looked justifiably smug.
The unyielding light picked out details on the wall that the glow sticks hadn't been able to uncover and the gloom of the underground night had concealed from sight or the hurried events of last night.
Hieroglyphs and other elaborate designs stood out in relief on the wall.
Ody was lost for words. "This...this is incredible."
Jamilla was already in front of the wall, tracing the shapes in the air with her finger, roughly translating as she went.
"Thoth holds the ...key to the ...Underworld."
This appears to be a temple of some sort." she said. "But I don't see any of the usual signs of religious activity. you know sacrificial alters, blood channels."
"Perhaps the rest of it is behind that door?" Ody said indicating the slight depression between two pillars on the far wall.
"A door? Where?"
Just there. Ody said pointing. It was very carefully hidden, just a slight change in the texture of the wall, betwene two large stone slabs. The light from the diamonds gave the lie to it's location.
"Are you certain?" Jamila asked putting down a dusting brush.
"I've seen enough hidden chambers in my time to spot a door masquerading as an innocent bit of partition walling. Stand back."
"Ody?"
Ody, walked back a few feet or so, tipped his fedora, ducked down, and charged at the door shoulder first.
There was a rush of air, Jamilla held onto her bandanna as he sped by, and crashed into the wall with a crumpling sound
"That won't work," she said flatly.
"It did this one time in..."
"No you don't understand - I think it's locked."
"How on earth could you know that?"
"It says so, over the lip of the door."
"Oh" said Ody, painfully replacing his shoulder into his socket.
"The hieroglyphs show an ibis, representing Thoth, weighing the souls of the dead. They then - hang on! "There's something here."
Jamila knelt down and blew away a thin layer of dust and sand obscuring something in the pattern of hieroglyphs. Look at this ankh next to this other Ibis, there's a hole. I think...no that's impossible."
"What is?" Ody said kneeling down beside her.
"I think it's keyhole."
"You're right, that's impossible. The Egyptians didn't invent keys. Mathematics, writing yes, keys - no."
"I can't see through." Jamilla said frustrated, adding, "Quick!" Get into the city and reach Brody in New York; he must have something on this. If this is a keyhole - then there must be a key, and it might just be on file already. If we can't find then we can always go back to you trying to break it down. Go! Go!"
Right, right, right - I'm on it," said Ody, edging back toward the ropes dangling from the skylight above.
"Whatever is behind this door may hold the answer to whoever built this place and the mystery of these diamonds." Jamila called after him.
The line wobbled as Ody disappeared up back into the world above, determined to reach the post-office in the market square before the mid-morning rush.
High, high above a patient vulture was circling. The bare, level sand shimmered, and the only notable feature in this stretch of desert was a mushroom-shaped stone outcropping half a mile away.
Arthur and X were huddled under the shade of a blanket trying to play Old Maid and passing a canteen back and forth, while Jimmy Faisal cursed and spat and kicked the engine, for the fourth time since their journey began.
"Bleeding Gehenna," he growled. "I think I see what the problem is. The oil cylinder is leaking..."
There was a pop, and a flash, and Faisal dived under the blanket with the Agents.
"What's the problem?" frowned Arthur, budging over. Faisal was gibbering slightly, and biting his sleeve.
"Well it's like this, my Christian friend," he quavered. "You remember just before we stopped, there was a bang that I said was just the engine backfiring?"
"Mmhmm."
Faisal held up a flattened bullet.
X dropped to his belly, and peeked his head out from under the blanket. There was a tiny, tiny flash from the top of the distant mushroom rock.
"Drat," he said. "I think there's..."
There were two distant shots, and the jeep lurched to one side as the wheels on the right burst. The Agents and Faisal scrambled over to the left side of it and flattened their backs against it.
Moments passed.
"Umm," said Faisal. "This may be a minor point, but all of our water is in the back of the jeep."
Arthur nodded grimly.
Half a mile off and beneath a sand-coloured sheet, the sniper played his scope across the back of the jeep. He could see the shadows of his targets wavering about on the sand. Missing these men in Cairo had been a blot on his otherwise perfect record.
He took a quick nip from his flask, and settled down to wait.
The sun beat down, and around the jeep the lone and level sands stretched far away....
Arthur motioned to X to stay put.
X chewed vigourously as he always did when he felt in mortal danger.
Arthur clambered onto his hands and knees and shimmied towards the front of the jeep.
He rolled over onto his back and began to kick at the wing mirror, the joist holding it began to snap and buckle. Arthur was careful not to break the mirror, only the connection to the vehicle. It came away suddenly and Arthur caught it with both hands and held it to his chest.
He sat up and pressed his back into the tyre, he loosened his tie and picked at a seam until he found a loose thread which he began to pull at, slowly undoing the savile row weave.
Clenching the black thread between his teeth he undid one of the cufflink about his right wrist, then with a seamstress' eye he looped and knotted the thread to the relatively heavy weight of the metal cuff. He let the weighted rope droop from his hand and guaged the weightpulling back on the thread a little.
Satisfied, Arthur rolled back over onto his back and located the radio antennae on the bonnet. With an expert flick he threw the weighted thread which lassoed around the ariel and held fast.
Arthur began to wind the thread of the ties hand over hand, slowly bending the ariel double, hooking the line taught around his elbow.
Executing a painful stomach crunch, Arthur sat up and with his free hand caught the antennae as it bent over double. Using his thumb and forefinger he gripped the ariel and twisted it round until it started to unscrew.
The lasso came away easily and the decapitated ariel sprung back into position. Another shot rang out as the assasin took aim, the remainign ariel shuddered violently as the bullet struck it square on.
"Damn he's good." thought Arthur
Propelling himself backwards on his shoulderblades, Arthur crawled back under the blanket shelter.
Arthur clipped his cuff back together and decided to discard the tie, leaving his top button rakishly undone. He started banging on the back on the wing mirror with the ball of his palm until the mirror popped out.
"X finish that gum your chewing and pass it here."
X did so.
Arthur afixed the mirror to the ariel using the gum as an adhesive.
"Maybe now we can get a look at who's trying to kill us." he said grinning a maniacal grin
"We'd beter hurry friends." counselled Jimmy looking anxiously at the azure blue sky above the desert.
"Why" said Arthur
"Eventually it will be night and in the dark we cannot see where Death lies in wait."
High, high above, a patient vulture was circling....
