The luxor curse, p.14
The Luxor Curse, page 14
part #1 of Kathryn Black Series
The basic seating was plentiful, its long benches fixed in place. Everything they were looking at was made from solid wood, really heavy timber, and there was plenty of it. The flat wooden roof offered much needed shade from the heat as well as some protection from the blinding light. This was a light which continued to bounce off every white rock in the valley, even though at this time of day the sun was no longer directly overhead. The shelter, having been built over quite a steep slope, was raised at the front.
“There must be plenty of space underneath, if we could just get under there,” said Kate. Whilst Alex went to look inside, she reconnoitred the outside, making out that she was searching for something small, which she had dropped. Having closely inspected the seating area from the front and both sides, she went to join Alex in the shade. Kate was on the second step up, when a black cat emerged from a small gap, raced across the short distance to the tomb of Tutankhamun, then disappeared into the courtyard entrance.
Once back with Alex, Kate didn’t give the cat another thought as she described what she had seen. “At the front there are a couple of sets of steps with wooden panelling in-between. The wood is as thick and heavy as these benches, so we cannot get under that way, the panelled sides are the same. There are also Tourist Police positioned at each end.”
“Is there any good news, because there is no access from here? I thought that there might be a trap door, something!”
“Some, perhaps. The panelling along each side stops just before the very back, so I was able see sunlight coming through from behind. I think that the only possible way to get under this seating area is from the back. The bad news is, I can see no way of getting around there without being seen by the Tourist Police. They are absolutely everywhere.”
Alex agreed with her, in as much as getting around behind the seating area was going to be virtually impossible without a diversion. “Okay, Kate, you are the witch, so request a diversion,” said Alex in his most humorous voice, whilst gesturing subtly like a Halloween ghoul.
Kate went along with the fun by standing up and waving her arms as though she was casting a spell. “Hocus-pocus, I call the witches demon for a diversion,” and being Kate, she just had to add, “and I want it now!”
Alex thought that any chance they may have had to get under the back of the seating area, had now been blown. Rather than blending in, everyone was watching Kate’s performance. Yet again he was proved wrong, as just at that moment two Tourist and Antiquities Police came along, carrying a short, screaming figure between them. It was the perfect diversion. Alex was down the steps and around to the back of the decking without a second thought, and once there, he quietly urged Kate to hurry up. On hearing Alex’s voice, Kate clicked into gear. She was at the back of the seating area within seconds, as she took the shorter route, throwing herself over the back railing and landing right beside Alex.
“Did you see that?” she exclaimed. “It was Cairo. I had forgotten all about him.”
Alex looked at her: “WITCH!”
They both laughed as they slid down under the seating area. Their world went black, as their eyes struggled to adjust to the relative darkness of the area. A large group of tourists were sitting above them, as were several police. They were making so much noise, all chatting away about what they had just seen, that Kate and Alex felt completely safe to do what they liked, as nobody above would be able to hear them or see them.
“Oh Alex, I feel really guilty that I didn’t give any thought to Cairo.”
“Rest assured, you are not the only one.” He rolled over. To his surprise sunlight reached across the first metre or so of ground. “I can’t believe that since he hid in the sarcophagus, he hadn’t even crossed my mind, but let’s face it, we couldn’t have done this without him.”
Kate was already tapping lightly on the hillside, only to stop suddenly, when a hollow metallic sound emanated from the lightest of taps. Laying down, due to the lack of space overhead, as they were at the back of the seating area, she started to brush away the loose white stone with her hands. Very quickly she uncovered the edge of what she presumed to be a solid metal door. How big it was she had no idea. Just to the left of this, her brushing revealed some hieroglyphs, though it was the cartouche – an oval with a horizontal line at one end which encloses a pharaoh’s name – which excited her.
She immediately recognised the name as that of Nakhtifi, the pharaoh who did not exist according to the books and scholars, but there it was, his cartouche, as clear as the nose on her face, however, the surrounding hieroglyphs were indistinguishable. Both Kate and Alex knew they had found an important clue, as Thoth would not have pointed them in this direction otherwise.
Alex, whose understanding of hieroglyphs was non-existent, looked on as he uttered, “There is so much more to this than meets the eye.”
“Can you get a picture?” asked Kate, as having now uncovered two very large and very strong padlocks, she presumed that there had to be more. This wasn’t a door, it was a securely fitted modern panel. Where they were, there would not have been enough room for a hinged door of this size to open. Both agreeing that this had to be an entrance to a tomb, they also both agreed that without tools, which would, in any case, make far too much noise, there was no way for them to get in. To be honest, if there had been a way to enter, Kate really wasn’t up to another encounter with three-thousand-year old dead people who wanted to kill her … not today anyway. Usually she had to know people for a week or two before they felt this angry!
Alex was considering his options as he looked at almost invisible hieroglyphs. “It’s going to be really difficult to get a good picture. There’s no definition here.” With his digital camera, having survived within its case within the rucksack, he took one picture which he showed to Kate in order to prove his point. The flash had been so bright that there was nothing to see except white. He took another whilst holding the camera slightly sideways, but again he reviewed no useable image. Turning the flash off, there was still no definition. Instead of a pure white image, he now had a sludge grey image with a few darker lines here and there, which gave Alex an idea. “Okay, Kate, we are going to have to do this like archaeologists. Have you got a ruler in your backpack?”
“Yes,” said Kate, pulling out pieces of what must have been a nice ruler before she slid down the hill. “Well, no!” she said, as she changed her mind. “I have this though.” She offered Alex her tall slim water bottle, which was about the same length as her ruler had once been.
“That’s great,” said Alex, whilst fiddling with his camera. He set it for close focus with the flash permanently off. Placing the bottle upright on the ground, just to the left of the hieroglyphs, he held the camera firmly on top, facing it down at the ancient writing. Kate had moved his backpack to the opposite side of the hieroglyphs, as Alex had asked her to. He took a few pictures of exactly the same hieroglyphs, whilst adjusting the exposure before each click. Alex was finally happy with the camera settings. Slowly he moved the bottle and camera completely around the hieroglyphs, taking multiple photographs as he did. Kate mirrored his movements with his backpack, making sure that she kept directly opposite him.
“What are we doing?” asked Kate, after Alex had easily taken over fifty pictures.
“Don’t worry, as I have seen this done before. All we need on each picture is for there to be slightly different edge detail. With you moving my backpack as I took the photos, it created the shadow that the camera needed. When I onion skin them back at the hotel, we should be able to read what they say.”
“What the heck do onion skins have to do with hieroglyphs?” asked Kate with extreme attitude.
“You know, where in the first Shrek film he talks about ogres having layers, like onions–”
Before he could continue, Kate lost it, and where they thought no one could hear them from above, well, they heard this, and it was not nice.
The Tourist Police immediately started to look between the wooden slats of the floor, leaving Kate and Alex with no option except to get out of there as quickly as they could. In the scramble to get up the slope and out of the back of the seating area, they dislodged enough stone and gravel to cover the door, along with enough white dust to obscure what little view the police had. This gave them the few seconds of advantage they needed. They were out and running for the exit before the police worked out what had happened.
Alex grabbed Kate’s arm as they reached a particularly large group of tourists heading for the exit, “In here, walk, don’t run.” In his wish for them to blend in, Alex immediately struck up a conversation with the nearest person, who, as it turned out, spoke no English. The tourist nodded in a somewhat confused way, then raised a thumb as he nodded, obviously thinking that Alex was asking if he had enjoyed his visit.
The hand-held radios, attached to the belts of the police by the exit, were buzzing excitedly. It was obvious that they were being told to look for a boy and girl on their own and probably covered in white dust, which they were. Hiding within the tourists, they passed through the exit un-noticed, keeping amongst them on the road train, then to the bus that would take this group back to their hotel. Thankfully, the Egyptian driver spoke good English, so Kate turned on the charm. She asked him if he would be so kind as to drop them off just outside the security barrier, as their car was parked there, and after walking around the tombs, they were both too hot and too exhausted to take another step. He looked a little unsure, but the twenty Egyptian pounds that Alex thrust into his hand reassured him. Within minutes they were standing by Ali’s car, where, as was only to be expected, Cairo was asleep on the back seat.
Getting in without waking Cairo, Kate did a pretty good U-turn, and off down the hill they went, arriving at Africa Restaurant virtually unscathed. With the car parked, Alex noticed that the speedometer was still reading ten kilometres an hour. Somehow the journey back had been less unnerving than the journey there, but this had more to do with what they had experienced in the tomb, rather than any improvement in Kate’s driving. Cairo was sound asleep, so they had no option except to wake him. A somewhat difficult task, as living with constant noise Egyptians could sleep through anything.
“They threw me out,” protested Cairo as they headed up the stairs.
“We know,” said Kate, “we saw them carrying you.”
“Not my fault those tourists fell to the ground. I was just getting out. What else I do?” Cairo looked so small and so innocent, however, Kate and Alex could not take another step up the stairs because they were laughing so hard. They both had the same mental picture of completely unsuspecting tourists in a dimly lit tomb, when Cairo’s hands, and probably a little moan, came from within the sarcophagus. Ali appeared over the balcony. He was relieved to see them back. He was even more relieved to hear that his car was in one piece, though he still sent a waiter down to double check it for him.
“Come on up,” he called. They did, just as soon as they had recovered their composure, sitting back at Ali’s table, where they had a superb view across the Nile to Luxor Temple. Watching one of the larger Nile cruise boats slowly turning to moor beside others, which were already lashed together, was a joy. This was perhaps more of a joy than it should have been, but after a day like today, they appreciated these normal pleasures … they appreciated being alive.
Whilst they waited for their meals to arrive, Kate and Alex kept bursting into fits of laughter, due to Cairo continuing to protest his innocence. They could not shift from their minds the mental image of several horrified tourists in a dimly lit tomb, seeing hands appear from an ancient sarcophagus. Cairo also kept apologising that he fell asleep and did not help, even though they tried to reassure him, that he had helped them much more than he could ever imagine.
They proceeded to tell Cairo of all that had happened in the tomb. He suspected that most of what he heard was from the overactive minds of teenagers on holiday, however, he was really pleased to be part of the group, as it made him feel special.
Kate marvelled at teenage boys, as all Alex kept moaning about after their life-threatening escapade, was that he missed seeing a topless woman, even if she did have the head of a cow.
Cairo returned to protesting his innocence along with his disgust at being ejected from the Valley of the Kings, however, the arrival of food stopped him in his tracks. A feast of Egyptian cooking was laid out before them, including deep fried battered slices of aubergine, tahini made from ground sesame seeds and olive oil, potato cooked with tomato, onion and herbs, fish from the red sea, rice with macaroni and salad, along with Egyptian flat bread. They all filled their plates, with several refills having to be brought to the table, especially battered slices of aubergine which sounded disgusting, but actually tasted wonderful when they were hot.
Kate had a hunch, or rather an educated guess, which she decided to put to the test right now. “Nakhtifi,” she said in a clear, not particularly loud voice.
“Are you crazy!” said Alex, as he spluttered partly chewed food over the table. “We have just survived one attack, and now you bring another upon us.” He stood and turned to face the stairs, dinner knife in hand. Cairo, being Cairo, had disappeared under the table. His hand did return to grab his plate of food. Whilst nobody could see him, everybody could hear him munching away.
Kate admired the optimism that lead Alex to believe he could defeat an oncoming ancient army with a blunt dinner knife, but she said, “Oh, give me strength. Just sit down, Alex, as everyone is looking at us. If I am correct, nothing will happen.”
“If you are correct, that is a flipping big if!” he said rather hysterically. He sat down, without his eyes off the entrance.
“Think about it, Alex. Thoth said that it would not be safe going out the way we entered the tomb, but that it would be safe taking the back route out.” Kate paused in the hope that the penny would drop, but it did not, so she continued. “The route out was where the tomb robbers gained entry, so we were safe.”
“What! Safe from tomb robbers?”
“No, Alex, safe because that tunnel was not there in ancient times.”
“But that tomb was robbed in antiquity.” He was going to say more, but he could see that Kate would lose it if he did, so he stopped.
“By antiquity,” said Kate in her most exasperated voice, “you mean one or two thousand years ago, when the tomb itself is over three thousand years old.”
A little voice spoke up, as Cairo stuck his head out from under the table. “Our ancestors can only follow us on their path. We cannot make them follow our path.”
Jaws dropped, as both Kate and Alex stared at Cairo who blushed before going back under the table, as he thought that he must have said something wrong.
Talking over each other, they uttered words along the lines of “No, you are right” to Cairo. Alex now understood what Kate was going on about. The passage they had taken out of the tomb was safe, as it had not been there in the time of the attacking soldiers. By this measure, Kate considered that they were safe on the roof of Africa Restaurant, as they were well above the level of the land in ancient times. Similarly, they were safe in the Winter Palace, because the impressive curved concrete staircase that lead to the entrance, took them above the level of Ancient Thebes.
“Sorry, Kate, I was being thick. It makes perfect sense, and thank you, Cairo, for your insight, so do come out now.”
“Well, Alex, I’m pleased that you finally joined Mensa,” said Kate smugly. “We are as safe here as we are at the hotel, so at least we can eat and sleep in peace. Now, how are we going to be able to read those hieroglyphs?”
“Onion skinning,” said Alex. It was his turn to give Kate a look that said listen and let me finish, and she did.
Cairo wasn’t interested, not when food was around.
“I have seen this carried out in dark tombs with very expensive equipment, when dad has wanted to pick up detail which cannot be seen easily with the human eye. First, they set up a sturdy tripod to which they fit a motor and a long metal bar. Imagine a large clock face where the two hands are fixed. The camera is mounted at one end of one hand with a photographic light mounted at the end of the other hand. The camera and light move in a complete circle whilst being kept at the same distance from the hieroglyphs. Each picture taken picks up different edges or shadows.
“We didn’t have a light, and anyway, our problem was the opposite. Though it was dark under there, we had too much light spilling across the ground. We had to block light in order to create shadows, that is where the backpack came in. When all the pictures are carefully aligned on top of each other and made semi-transparent, a process called onion skinning, we should be able to read what is there quite clearly.” Kate was looking impressed as Alex continued. “As soon as I am back at the hotel, I can do this in Photopaint on my laptop. The pictures will not be as accurate as with the professional equipment, but I took so many that there must be enough there to make the hieroglyphs readable.”
Dejectedly, Kate said, “The condition of Aggie bringing me here was, that I had to leave my laptop and mobile at home.” Then perking up a little, she continued, “Actually, I haven’t missed the mobile.” Her tone dropped again. “But not having my laptop is a real pain.”
“Talking of Aggie, when were we supposed to be back for dinner at the Sobek?”
“Whenever,” said Kate, “as she will be well into the gin by now, so she will not remember a flipping thing.”
It was just as Alex thought that everything was going well that he noticed a black cat sitting on the far wall. There was something about it which made it appear really familiar, it also appeared to be staring at him. He could not quite make it out from where he was sitting, but to him it looked as though the cat was wearing a golden necklace, because it glinted as the sun hit it. Alex turned to ask Kate and Cairo if they could see what was around the cat’s neck, but when he looked back, it had gone. “That’s strange,” said Alex, “it was there, and it looked so familiar.”
