Mysterious Cairo (6 page)

Payne's words surprised Cage. Had his expression been so obvious and easy to read? Or had he spoken his thoughts aloud without realizing it? He couldn't remember speaking, but lots of memories had been lost these past few months, washed away in an unending rain of vodka and orange juice. Cage allowed himself to be led to the first case.

"Memories are often discarded for all the wrong reasons, Mr. Cage," Payne continued. "Neglect, carelessness, forgetfulness. I find such memories to be the most precious, most valuable kind. My stock and trade, if you will."

Cage peered into the nearest display case. Inside, resting atop a bed of black velvet, was a piece of crumbled stone. A small spotlight was fixed upon it, making it glow in the small case.

"A piece of the Great Pyramid," Payne acknowledged, "removed by the priestess Anhai for use in arcane ceremonies."

The tour continued as Payne led Cage through the twists and turns of displays. Some cases revealed their contents willingly, easily. Others remained opaque, offering nothing more than a teasing, half-hidden glimpse as Cage walked by. He saw dried hearts and green scarabs, rune-encrusted scrolls and chunks of red glass. He saw gold, silver, and stone objects. He saw fingers and eyes and monkeys' paws. There were even mundane items like books and pens and candy wrappers. By the time they reached the last case, Cage had forgotten more items than he remembered. He felt like a kid in a toy store, excited, impressed, and eager to see more.

"Dreams, desires and hopes, Mr. Cage," Payne proclaimed, spreading his arms wide. "One man's garbage is another man's glory, if seen in the proper light. And I only use the most proper lighting. But do you know the most exciting part of all this, Mr. Cage?"

Angus Cage shook his head, but his eyes were wide with anticipation. There was something more exciting than the things he had already seen? He had to know what it was. He just had to!

Payne leaned close, as though to share a special secret with Cage. He motioned for Cage to bend down, then he placed his lips against Cage's ear. Their touch was cold and dry, but the words he whispered were like runaway fire.

"There is more to see!" Payne forced the low, barely audible words past his cold, dry lips and into Cage's ear. "I have saved the best exhibits just for you!"

With that, Payne danced toward a shimmering black curtain set against the wall. Cage hadn't noticed it before, but that didn't surprise him. There was so much to see, so many strange and curious artifacts, that it was easy to miss a curtain of midnight black set against a blank portion of the wall. Payne gripped an edge of the curtain, but didn't quite pull it open. Instead, he paused and turned to look at his audience of one with gleeful eyes.

"My exhibits have brought people from all over Cairo and the Nile Empire to this out-of-the-way alley," Payne declared in his carnival voice, tempting and titillating with tone, gestures and carefully-chosen words. His hand tightened upon the shimmering black curtain, which seemed to be trying to wriggle free of his grip. "I have traveled from realm to realm to gather, display, and sell my wares. From New Majestic to Paris Liberte to Cairo and back again, all for the enjoyment of the crowds. But my prized possession, my headlining exhibit if you will, has not yet been viewed by the general public. Oh no, Mr. Cage, I have saved this one just for you!"

Hur-ree! Hur-ree! Hur-ree!

Payne, first-rate showman that he was, released the curtain with an exaggerated gesture. As soon as his grip relaxed, the black curtain parted of its own accord to reveal a second room. "Step right up, Mr. Cage," Payne hawked. "Come in and see the show!"

The room beyond the curtain was bare stone. Four stone walls proclaimed the limits of the room. A stone ceiling pressed down from above, and a stone floor was laid out hard beneath his feet as Cage stepped forward. The bare stone was decorated in arcane symbols — circles, stars, triangles and other geometric shapes were drawn on every surface in dried smears of brown, rust and black. Thick black candles provided light, while oily black wax dripped and pooled at their bases. Eleven pedestals formed a circle around the edge of the room. A huge glass bell jar rested atop each pedestal. Some of the jars were filled with gray smoke. Stars twinkled in the smoke, shimmering like living fireflies. But the main portion of the exhibit rested within the circle of pedestals and bell jars. There, bathed in the light of the black candles, sat two opened sarcophagi. The sarcophagus on the right was empty, but the one on the left contained a partially-mummified body.

"What is this?" Cage asked, trying to understand what his eyes were seeing.

"This," Payne said, "is my prize exhibit."

The partially-mummified body was obviously male. The dried, withered portions of its anatomy were still wrapped in prepared cloth, but on the healthy, full portions the wrappings were ripped away to reveal living flesh. Around its neck it wore an amulet shaped into the head of a crocodile — the sign of Sebek!

"Who is that?" Cage asked, unable to keep the questions from falling past his lips.

"Have you not guessed yet, my friend?" Payne shot back. "I imagined better from you."

"Sebek?" Cage stumbled over the word, realizing that his mental processes were still sluggish from the liquor he had consumed. "Sebek is Mobius' patron deity ."

"How true," Payne laughed, "how true!"

Cage continued to examine the body, marveling at its contrasts of vibrant, living flesh and dried, mummified remains. As he watched, the body tried to force open its encrusted eyes, but it couldn't quite manage the feat. Fascinated, Cage stepped closer. Then he remembered the empty sarcophagus.

"The other one," Cage stammered, "what about the other one?"

Someone stepped out of the shadows in the corner of the stone chamber and stopped beside the empty sarcophagus. It was a young woman with raven hair, raven eyes, and shapely form. She wore a simple dress that was gathered at her waist by a simple belt. The effect, however, was far from simple. It was stunning, the way the dress draped across her ample curves. Cage recognized the woman instantly, and his heart beat faster.

"Is this the man you were telling me about, Mr. Payne?" the young woman asked in a smooth, silky voice.

Quentin Payne stepped between the two, his face lit with amusement. "Yes, my dear," he said, "allow me to introduce the two of you. Angus Cage, I have the pleasure of presenting to you Clemeta, Royal Concubine to the Pharaoh Amat-Ra."

* * *

"While there are striking similarities between the history of this Earth and of your own Terra, there are also remarkable differences," Payne explained, making the confusing notion of nearly-parallel dimensions sound simple. "Take Amat-Ra, for example. On Terra, he was a powerful and evil Pharaoh who eventually died at the hand of his bastard son, Sutenhotep. On Earth, his reign left no mark on history, and few records concerning him remain. But you can find information on anything, if you know where to look for it. And I definitely know where to look."

Angus Cage heard Payne's words, but he wasn't really listening. He was staring at the woman who looked so much like his Clemeta that it hurt. She was sitting across from him, at a small table the three of them shared, sipping tea and regarding Cage with her large, expressive eyes.

"Why is he looking at me like that, Mr. Payne?" Clem-eta asked, wrinkling her nose as though she smelled something foul.

"Pay him no heed, Clemeta my dear," Payne said. "He is simply captivated by your beauty. Be a dear and go check on Sutenhotep for me."

Clemeta rose from the table, which was set in a corner of the shop's main room, and walked toward the shimmering black curtain. She moved with grace and confidence, her head held high. The curtain parted as she approached, offering her admittance to the chamber beyond. When she stepped through the opening, the curtain fell back into place.

Angus Cage watched her every move, memorizing the way her curves swayed when she walked. As she passed through the open curtain, he rose to follow her. Payne stopped him with a gentle touch of his hand.

"Please, Mr. Cage," Payne said sternly, "I sent her away so that we could talk freely. We really must talk, you understand."

"No, Mr. Payne, I don't understand," Cage admitted, raising his voice in anger. "What is it you want from me?"

"I need your help," Payne replied evenly, ignoring Cage's outburst. "They need your help," he added, nodding to the chamber beyond the curtain.

"They?
And who are
they?
Do you really expect me to believe those two people are three thousand years old?"

Payne's eyes narrowed to angry slits, and his voice took on a menace that Cage had not heard before. "I do not expect anything of you, Cage," Payne declared. The pretense of courtesy was gone now, and in his anger the small man dropped such formalities as titles before names. "No matter what you choose to believe, I tell you that that woman is Clemeta — not the Clemeta you knew a year ago, and not the Clemeta that Mobius knew three millennia past, but she is Clemeta just the same. She is Earth's Clemeta, a concubine in Amat-Ra's harem who had the ill fortune to become involved with a young man named Sutenhotep."

"Sutenhotep?" Cage laughed. "Mobius often claimed he was a Pharaoh from ancient Egypt but none of us ever believed him."

"You should not laugh at such a notion, Cage. The man you know as Mobius
was
Sutenhotep. The form in my back room is
also
Sutenhotep, but the Sutenhotep of Earth, not Terra. This bastard son never sought the power of the throne of Egypt, never led armies against his father. Perhaps he would have, had Earth's Amat-Ra ruled longer and had he not fallen in love with his father's favorite concubine, but we will never know."

Cage stared hard at the small man, looking for signs of a joke. He saw none. Quentin Payne was serious. Deathly serious. "What does this have to do with me?" he asked at length.

Quentin Payne relaxed, offering Cage his winning smile. The anger, the utter fury — had it been there at all — was gone now. "Let us say that I represent certain interests from New Majestic which would like to see Mobius ... deposed. I believe you have similar interests, do you not? Of course you do. With your help, my Suten-hotep will take Mobius' place as leader of this modern Nile Empire. Thus, your interests and the interests of my... employer... would both be served."

Something about this offer reminded Cage of a well-concealed bear trap. No matter how much honey you piled on top of it, it still hurt like hell if you stuck your hand in to taste. But too much drink, too little sleep, and the strange air that hung in the shop's interior made the thought insubstantial. It was there one moment, sending off danger signals as loud as thunder. Then it was gone, swirling away on a stale breeze.

"Before you say a word, Mr. Cage," Payne added, "allow me to explain the terms. For the assistance you provide, you will receive room and board, as well as the companionship of the lovely Clemeta. She is not your Clemeta, but her form is pleasing, is it not? She bears more than a passing resemblance to the woman who haunts your thoughts, I do believe. And, of course, the drinks are free. Now, what do you say? Do we have a done deal?"

Cage licked his lips, wishing he had a drink right now. "So, all I have to do ...?"

". is talk to Sutenhotep," Payne finished. "Tell him everything you know about Mobius. You are an expert, after all. No one has made a study of the man like you have."

"Talk to him? And Clemeta.. .?"

"... will be at your side the whole time," Payne proclaimed, his eyes wide and bright with anticipation. "Do we have a done deal?"

Cage looked at Quentin Payne, and a part of his mind recalled the thing in the booth back at the gin joint. Then he looked at the shimmering curtain of black, and he remembered Clemeta's swaying hips as she walked away. He looked again to Payne, and a silly grin appeared on his lips.

"We have a done deal, Mr. Payne," Cage agreed, holding out his hand for Payne to shake.

"Very good," Payne said, thrusting out his hand in return. But he did not reach for Cage's open palm. Instead, he took hold of the worn Fedora resting on the table.

"Discarded dreams," Payne whispered, bringing the hat to his long nose and sniffing deeply. "Unused possibilities," he said with a mixture of awe and loving kindness. Then he stood up and walked to an empty display case.

Payne placed the hat within the case and closed the transparent door. Then he stepped back to admire his new exhibit. The Fedora, once the symbol of a bounty hunter and hero from a world called Terra, looked sad and lonely atop a pillow of velvet. But it almost glowed when Payne switched on the case's very proper light.

* * *

Angus Cage sat in a straight-backed chair. It was propped inside the circle of pedestals and bell jars, next to the sarcophagus containing the mummy of Sutenhotep. Six of the eleven jars contained the strange, light-filled smoke he had noticed the first night Payne showed him this stone chamber. That was two nights ago, and at the time only four of the jars were filled.

Cage studied the man in the stone coffin set before him. He was tall, well over six feet, and the portions of his anatomy which had become revitalized were strong and broad. He had a full head of dark brown hair, and his skin was the color of bronze. Even in this undead sleep, the man epitomized the meaning of regal. He reminded Cage of Mobius, even though Cage had never looked upon the man beneath the purple hood. He had the bearing of a king, as Mobius had, but he wasn't animated and maniacal. Perhaps, when he finally awakened, he would share that trait with Mobius, too.