Lady of Heaven (42 page)

“Morgan,” he
said steadily. “Do me a favor, love, and find my notepad. It should be in my
backpack.  Please bring it to me with some pens.  I think I have some
translating to do.”

January 5, 1924

            Kadin
took Louis and I to Karnak today.  It was a truly amazing spectacle of the
power of ancient Egypt.  Kadin and I have discussed when we shall continue to
pursue the clues in the papyrus because Louis refused to go any farther. He has
already booked passage back to England and I fear I am in great turmoil over
this.  Still, my love for this country, and its people, grows. In Egypt, love
is indeed eternal.

            ~FS

CHAPTER TWENTY
FOUR

It was noon and
Fox had made Morgan leave the stuffy, dusty temple to fetch him something to
eat.  Truth was, he just wanted her out of the stale air because she kept
sneezing as she sat patiently on the last step as he methodically translated
one of the twenty-four columns he had counted. Fox knew that the translation
would take years but he wanted to at least translate as much as he could before
they left.  It might help determine what, exactly, this place was, but the fact
remained that he was determined to return at some point very soon with an army
of help. 

So he sent
Morgan to their encampment with Jabeel to help the man with the noon meal. 
Jabeel had brought couscous and bulgur wheat, and he cooked the grains in hot
water, mixing the mash with salt, chopped garlic and onions.  It was hot and
delicious, and Morgan had several spoonfuls before the grain was even fully
cooked.  Add to that hummus from canned chickpeas, garlic and sesame paste,
fresh bread hot off the make-shift grill pan, and she was in heaven.  She ate a
good portion of the hummus and bread before she even thought about taking a
plate to her husband.

But she piled
one paper plate with bread, hummus and cucumber and a second plate with the
bulgar and couscous, preparing to take it to Fox.   Just as she balanced both
plates in one hand and took a bottle of water with the other, she noticed a
figure approaching from the north.  She couldn’t tell who it was at a distance
but given that they were still seeing the robed security men from the gold mine
lurking about, she wasn’t going to take any chances. Setting the food down, she
ran to her tent for her weapon.

By the time she
emerged from the tent, she could see the figure wobbling towards them.  The man
was dressed in dirty white robes, no
hajib
, and looked absolutely
exhausted. He was literally staggering. Curious, Morgan joined Jabeel and the
two of them watched the man weave unsteadily towards them. When he was within
twenty yards, he finally collapsed face-first into the ground.

Morgan and
Jabeel ran to the man, falling to their knees beside him. Morgan took the man
by the shoulders and carefully rolled him onto his back.  When his face, caked
with sand, came into view, her eyes widened.

“Beni!” she
hissed. Then she looked at Jabeel. “Bring some water; hurry!”

Jabeel dashed
off as Morgan felt Beni’s pulse, his breathing, and brushed the sand off his
face.  He was semi-conscious.

“Beni?” Morgan
shook him gently. “Beni, can you hear me?”

Jabeel returned
with the water, pouring it over Beni’s face and watching the man revive
somewhat. When Beni realized it was water, he opened his mouth, like a hungry
bird, and Jabeel poured water into his mouth as it splashed onto his shaking
lips.

“Beni?” Morgan
said again. “What are you doing here? What happened to you?”

Beni was gasping
for breath; he grabbed Morgan’s arm. “Dr… Dr. Fox,” he gasped. “I must speak to
Dr. Fox.”

Morgan looked at
Jabeel, who took off in a hurry. When he was gone, Morgan brushed more sand off
Beni’s face and tried to shield his face from the bright noon sun.

“What’s wrong?”
she asked softly, urgently. “Why do you need to speak to him?”

Beni’s dark eyes
were open, looking up at her.  He struggled to speak. “You,” he whispered,
swallowing hard, and Morgan gave him more water. He settled down to speak
again. “Dr. Alia wants you.”

Morgan looked
surprised. “She wants
me
? Why?”

Beni wasn’t sure
how to continue; his mind wasn’t working very well as it was.  He simply shook
his head and closed his eyes, exhausted and dehydrated, and Morgan didn’t push
him. She sat there on the dirt with his head in her lap, shielding his face
from the sun, until Fox arrived.

And he arrived
swiftly. Fox ran like a wide-receiver, with long, powerful strides and arms
pumping. He came upon his wife, sitting on the ground with Beni stretched out
beside her, and kicked up some dirt as he came to a swift stop.  He went down
on one knee, his handsome features wrought with curiosity and dread. He fixed
on Beni.

“Beni?” he said,
his hand on the man’s shoulder. “What’s happened to you?”

Beni opened his
dark eyes, the pleasure of seeing Fox evident on his features. “I… came to warn
you, Dr. Fox. Dr. Alia has gone mad; she wanted me to follow you. She wants to
know what you are doing. She wants to abduct your wife.”

Fox’s eyes
widened. “What?” he struggled not to roar at the weak man. “What are you
talking about?”

Beni nodded
faintly, clutching at Fox with weary hands. “She made me do it,” he rasped.
“She made me steal the journal in your wife’s bag. She wanted to know why you
were in Egypt.”

Morgan nearly
exploded. “
You
took the journal?” she exclaimed. “Why in the hell would
you do that? You didn’t even know what it was!”

Beni coughed
wearily. “No, I did not,” his voice was scratchy with fatigue. “But Dr. Alia
wanted to know why Dr. Fox was asking questions. I took the journal because it
was the only thing I could grab before returning your bag to you. But the
journal told of the Five Fingers of the Ape, so Dr. Alia began to understand
that you were following clues from an ancient papyrus. The journal said so.”

Fox was
struggling to stay cool. “So… she sent you to see what I’m doing?”

“More than
that,” Beni insisted weakly. “She made me follow you everywhere to report back
to her. At first, it was because she wanted to know if you were truly following
the clues that the papyrus spoke of. But then it became something else;
somehow, it became more about you and your wife and less about what you were
doing in Egypt. When you came to the desert, she called an old friend of her
father’s, a war lord, and told the man to steal your wife.  We have been
tracking you through the desert for days, watching you.”

Fox stared at
him, processing the situation, feeling more fury and dread than he had ever
known. “Are you serious?” he shook the man’s shoulder gently. “She told someone
to abduct Morgan? Why?”

Beni swallowed
hard and Morgan poured more water down his throat.  “Because,” he breathed.
“She believed that if your wife was taken, you would turn to her for help in
finding her.  She is obsessed with you, Dr. Fox. She still wants you even after
all of these years.”

Fox looked at
Morgan then, the two of them exchanging wide-eyed, startled expressions. Fox
finally put his hand on her head, dropping his chin to his chest and shaking
his head with deep, deep regret.  The insanity of Alia was overwhelming and he
was ashamed, shocked and furious at the same time.  But most importantly, he
was concerned with Morgan’s safety.  He sighed heavily as he looked to Beni
again.

“So she has an
army of thugs out here to kidnap my wife?” he asked, his anger getting the
better of him. “Where are they? And where do you come into all of this?”

Beni seemed to
calm somewhat. “I know my guilt,” he muttered. “Dr. Alia forced me to follow
you and report back to her. But now she is coming to Edfu to follow you herself
and I am fearful of what she might do. I had to warn you, Dr. Fox. You must
take your wife to safety. These men that Dr. Alia knows… they will kill her if
Dr. Alia tells them to.”

Fox looked at
Morgan, his eyes wide.  He was so enraged that he could hardly think straight
but above that, his first reaction was to get the hell out of there. 

“If what he says
is true,” he said, “then we need to leave. Now.”

Morgan shook her
head. “I’m not afraid of that bitch,” she said. “We’ve found something pretty
spectacular here and I’m not running off because some crazy whore can’t get it
through her head that you’re not interested in her.”

Fox struggled to
stay calm. “Love, I understand how you feel,” he said steadily. “But you’re
more valuable to me than any archaeological find. This will be here when we
come back; I just want to get you out of here. Please don’t fight me on this.”

Morgan could see
how worried he was.  It just made her angrier.  She looked at Beni. “Were you a
part of that group that tried to rob us a few days ago?” she asked.

Beni nodded. “I
was there,” he said. “They wanted to take you then but you shot one of them.”

By this time,
Allahaba jumped in to the conversation. “I remember!” he hissed, looking at
Fox. “They said they wanted to take your wife. Do you recall? But when they
tried, she shot them.”

Fox nodded in
remembrance, recalling that day and what had been said.  He looked at Morgan.
“It won’t stop there,” he said softly. “These aren’t like normal criminals. If
there’s money or family honor behind this, they’ll push until they get you.”

Morgan was torn
between agreeing with him and wanting to fight back, to protect herself. “But
this find….”

He cut her off. 
“It’ll still be here next week, next month, next year,” he insisted. “But it
doesn’t mean a thing if you’re somehow sacrificed in the process. Please, love;
please don’t fight me on this. I need to get you out of here.”

She was growing
increasingly inclined to agree with him, simply because he was genuinely
frightened for her.  But she gave it one last kick.

“But I need to
finish this,” she whispered. “For Fanny, we need to find out if this is really
what she had been searching for. If Isis is
really
here.”

He reached out,
putting a giant palm on her cheek. “As far as I’m concerned, it is finished,”
he murmured. “You thought that papyrus finished Fanny, but it didn’t. Now it
may finish you and I can’t live with that.  When the madness is over, we’ll be
back, I promise.”

Morgan gave in
without another word. As Fox hauled Beni to his feet, Allahaba and Jabeel were
already running for the encampment to begin breaking it down.  Morgan trailed
after Fox as he carried Beni over to the car, her gaze moving to the small hill
that was really a temple in disguise.

Maybe Fox was
right; maybe this was the end of the trail. They had found something beyond
their wildest dreams, something that would take years to excavate and
decipher.  It was the end of the papyrus, the end of the rainbow, an ancient
temple with a mummy that contained a scroll mentioning Isis.  She couldn’t
imagine it was anything else but what they hoped it was.

The tomb of
Isis.

January 11, 1924

            Kadin
believes he knows what the Ape’s Claw, referred to in the Lady of Heaven
papyrus, is.  He has not told me but he has intimated his awareness.  Louis has
packed all of our belongings and now awaits the ferry, which will take us back
to Cairo and then back to England.  But I fear that I cannot go; my choices may
be selfish, but I am determined to find the tomb of the goddess.

            ~FS

CHAPTER TWENTY
FIVE

When the green
fields of Edfu came into view, Fox nearly wept with relief. The entire drive
back along the Marsa Alam road, he kept waiting for men with guns to jump out
of the hills and take Morgan away from him.  He kept running the scenario over
in his mind, planning what he would do in such a case.  Anything he could come
up with would most likely end his life, so he kept praying that nothing would
happen on the barren road, miles from help. Now that they edged to the
outskirts of the city, it looked like they were going to be okay.

Morgan sat
quietly against him, scrolling through the images on the camera of the temple,
the mummy, and the few shots they had taken of the Manjam Hamsh dig. They came
to the dusty intersection where they had filled up the gas cans a few days before
and Jabeel pulled in to fill up the tank.  As he popped off the gas cap and
shoved in the nozzle, Fox and Morgan got out of the car to stretch their legs.

The day was warm
and a balmy wind blew steadily across the fields. Fox removed his sunglasses
and wiped the sweat from his eyelids, turning to see his wife folded over in
the middle, stretching her back and legs as she touched her toes.  All he could
see was her great butt, smiling at her when she straightened up and caught him
looking at her backside.  She grinned and shook her head reproachfully.