The Last Chamber (3 page)

Cairo, Egypt

A light, evening breeze brushed through Will’s hair as he knelt down
on the grass just outside of Richard Firth’s home.
 
The structure’s appearance was like many of the homes in the
Garden City district of Cairo, featuring a more contemporary, elegant design.
 
Garden City, itself, was a glaring
contrast to many other areas of Cairo, especially the Islamic district.
 

Will had sat patiently in his car, one block from the professor’s
house and watched as the gray-bearded man had arrived home from work.
 
Apparently, Dr. Firth’s finances were
in good order, considering the comfortable house and the late model Jaguar
parked in the driveway.

Once Firth was inside the building, Will had made his way casually
down the sidewalk amid the evening’s few pedestrians.
 
As soon as there was a lull in foot traffic, he hopped the
stucco wall into the yard just behind the house.
 

Normally, killing a target would have been a less hurried affair.
 
Will preferred there to be as little
chance of resistance as possible.
 
His favorite way to execute a mark was while they slept.
 
And there were so many ways to do
it:
 
knife, bullet, strangling, or
occasionally, arson.
 
This
particular outing would most likely be messy.
 
He didn’t have time to wait around for the professor to go
to sleep.
 
That meant he would have
to be as efficient as possible and hope the man didn’t make too much of a
scene.

Shouldn’t
be a problem,
Will thought.
 
The old man was just a historian with
no training or background in combat.
 

He removed the small, 9mm Glock from his jacket and attached the sound
suppressor then moved towards the side door and squatted next to the steps
leading into the door’s alcove.
 
He
could hear his target moving around in the kitchen, rattling pots and
pans.
 
The man was probably about
to make dinner.
 
With all the extra
noise, Will would be able to enter unnoticed.
 

Just as he started to ascend the steps, he noticed a pair of
headlights approaching a block away.
 
He crouched back down, assuming the car would pass by harmlessly.
 
Instead, he was surprised to see the
SUV slowly come to a stop, and park on the curb just on the other side of the
backyard wall.
 

Even when the vehicle’s engine shut off, he figured it was just a
neighbor or someone coming to visit another one of the many homes in the
area.
 
When the passenger door
opened, what he saw sent a confused shock through his system.
 

Sean Wyatt and his female friend, Adriana Villa exited the vehicle,
and approached the front door of Richard Firth’s home.
 
Will thought Wyatt had certainly been
killed or incapacitated by the car explosion.
 
But there he was, alive and well, ruining everything.

SSSSS

“What if he isn’t home?”
 
Adriana asked as they walked past the sleek black Jaguar sedan.
 

Sean pointed at the car with his thumb.
 
“British historian living in the nice section of Cairo?
 
Pretty sure that’s his car,” he replied
with a smirk.

She nodded.
 
“Good point.”

They reached an unlocked wrought iron gate and made their way through
it then up sandstone steps to a dark wooden door with a small, barred window
near the top.
 
Sean pushed the
doorbell button and stood back.
 

A few moments later, a balding man, with a white rim of hair answered
the doorbell. He wore a tan, tweed jacket and navy blue slacks, and brown
shoes.
 
His round glasses atop a
short, thick nose and splotched face completed the picture of man who’d spent
his life dedicated to the study of ancient history.
 
He was taller than Sean had expected, standing close to
6’2’’ as best he could figure.

“Dr. Firth?” Sean asked.

“Yes,” he answered politely in a sophisticated English accent.
 
“How may I help you?” The man looked
down at Sean curiously.

“My name is Sean Wyatt.
 
I’m with the International Archaeological Agency.
 
We were supposed to meet with you and
Tommy Schultz earlier today.
 
May
we come in?”

Firth raised an eyebrow.
 
“You were supposed to meet me at the museum,” he seemed thoughtful for a
moment.
 
“I was running a few
minutes late to our meeting.
 
By
the time I arrived, the whole area had been barricaded.
 
Apparently, there was a terrorist
bombing at one of the hotels nearby.”

“No, Sir,” Sean shook his head.
 
“They were no terrorists.
 
It was a deliberate attack aimed at us.
 
Fortunately, they mistimed their little explosion, though
not by much.”

The professor’s eyes grew wide.
 
He was about to make a move to shut the door, but Adriana was quicker
and braced it with her foot.
 
“You
should let us in, professor.
 
We’re
here to help you.”

His head turned from her to Sean and back to her.
 
“Help me?”

“Professor, we really should get in the house.
 
You’re going to have to trust us on
this,” Sean insisted.

The old man appeared to consider his options for a few seconds then
backed away from the door.
 
The two
entered and Sean closed the door behind, after giving a quick look up and down
the street.
 

“What is all this about?” Firth asked with a scowl.
 

“We think someone might try to kill you,” Adriana said.
 

The blunt force of her words confused the professor.
 
“Kill me?
 
Have you gone mad? Who would want to kill me? I haven’t any
enemies.” His voice was indignant.

“She’s right,” Sean agreed.
 
“We have reason to believe that a group known as The Order of the Golden
Dawn is sending someone after you.
 
We need to get you out of here as soon as possible.”

Firth looked at Sean as if trying to figure out whether or not he was
telling the truth.
 
“Golden dawn?”

Sean nodded.
 

The older man scoffed.
 
“They haven’t been around for nearly a hundred years.”

“I know,” Sean replied.
 
“But they’re back.
 
And
they’re after something big.
 
Apparently, they’re looking for an ancient treasure related to the four
chambers of Akhanan.
 
Up until
earlier today, we were ahead of them.
 
Now, they may have caught up.”

Firth shook his head in disbelief, still stuck on the part where
someone was coming to murder him.
 
“I don’t understand.
 
Why
would anyone come after me?”

“As far as we know, you are one of the few people who can translate
this,” Sean pulled a piece of paper out of his jacket, and handed it to Firth.

The professor reluctantly took the sheet, clearly suspicious.
 
“What is this?” he asked and started
moving slowly towards the living room.
 
He stopped under a row of track lights pushed the spectacles up his nose
a little further.

“It’s a copy of the stone we found in Ecuador.
 
We were going to meet with you to see
if you could decipher the inscription on the back.”

Firth nodded slowly.
 
“This is a very ancient form of writing,” he said quietly.
 
“I’ve only ever seen anything like this
once or twice in my entire life.”
 
His voice was full of awe.
 
Then he turned to face Sean.
 
“Where did you say you found this?”

“Ecuador.
 
A few weeks
ago.”

Sean and Adriana had followed their host into the living room and were
standing a few feet away.

“Ecuador?” the man asked.
 
“You’re sure?”

Sean grinned and snorted a quick laugh.
 
“Pretty sure.
 
I
was there when we found it.”

The professor shook his head quickly, trying to process what he’d just
heard.
 
“That makes no sense,” he
began.
 
“These writings come from a
very ancient culture.
 
They have
only ever been found in two locations.”

“Where?” Sean pressed in closer.
 

Firth shrugged.
 
“Well,
one of them is an Egyptian temple, but it is a day’s journey by train.
 
That whole place is an enigma.
 
There are a lot of strange writings and
hieroglyphs there.
 
It’s unlike
anything else we have unearthed, thus far, in this ancient land.
 
Not surprisingly, it is the location of
some of the oldest artifacts that have ever been discovered in the region.”

He looked down at the paper again.
 
“These symbols have no business being in South
America.”
 
The professor emphasized
his point by tapping the paper with his index finger.

Sean nodded with a grin.
 
“I’ve heard that before,” he commented wryly.
 
“I can tell you all about it.
 
For now, we need to get you out of here.”

“Where are we going?” he asked.
 

“Well, that’s kind of what we were hoping you could tell us.
 
We need to know what that sheet
says.
 
You think you can work it
out?”

The professor nodded.
 
“I
already have.”

“What do you mean, you already have?” Adriana jumped in.

“I mean I know the exact location this sheet is talking about. The
ancient temple of Nekhen.”

SSSSS

Will listened to the conversation with his ear pressed against the
side door of Firth’s home.
 
He
couldn’t hear everything but he heard enough to know that his employer would
not be happy.
 

He slid back into the shadows and waited until he heard the people in
the house leave.
 
A few minutes
later, he heard car doors shutting and saw the lights of the SUV pulling out of
the parking spot on the street.
 
Will took off across the yard and hopped the little wall just in time to
see the vehicle veer right and disappear around the corner.
 

The good news was that if Firth could figure out where to go, he knew
where they would be headed next.

Cairo, Egypt

Sean steered the SUV through the quiet streets of the Garden District,
past some of the most elegant homes in the city.
 
The sun was disappearing in the west, setting the sky on
fire with a searing orange glow.
 

“Alright, Mr. Wyatt,” Firth began.
 
“I’ve agreed to come with you. Now, I would like very much
to know what is going on.”
 
The
professor sat in the back seat, leaning forward as he spoke.
 

Sean could understand the man’s agitation.
 
He could also see why them showing up at Firth’s door and
telling him someone was going to kill him seemed a little crazy.
 
Sean made a quick left turn and aimed
the vehicle towards downtown.
 
He
looked back at the professor in the rear view mirror.

“Recently, we discovered two of the four lost chambers of
Akhanan.”
 
He let the words sink
in.

“I am aware of your recent discoveries,” Firth retorted. “That was one
of the reasons I’d agreed to meet with you and Thomas to begin with.” It always
sounded strange when people called Tommy by his real name.

Sean went on.
 
“During the
search, two professors were murdered by someone working for the Order.
 
The men were foremost experts in
ancient languages and codes, just like you.”

The new bit of information caused Firth to think for a moment.
 
He sat back in his seat and seemed to
consider the circumstances.
 

Sean went on. “We believe the Order is being run by a very wealthy and
powerful man named Alexander Lindsey.
 
The agency I used to work for is investigating him, but apparently,
Lindsey has left the country.”

Firth absorbed the information quickly.
 
“Do you think that this Lindsey is in Egypt?”

Adriana nodded.
 
“Probably.
 
We think that he
is only interested in finding the fourth chamber.
 
Now that he has the clue to the third, he is close to that
goal.”

“What do you aim to do?” the professor asked.
 

“We have to stop him. And we have to reach the final chamber before he
does,” Sean said plainly.
 

Firth sat quietly, contemplating everything he’d just heard.
 
Then he shook his head.
 
“I’m sorry.
 
I don’t understand why you don’t just let them have the
treasure.
 
I’m sure the IAA doesn’t
need the money that kind of find would provide, even if it was in the hundreds
of millions.”

Sean forced a laugh.
 
“We
don’t keep much from any of our finds, Doctor.
 
Everything is returned to the governments of the area in
which the artifacts are found.
 
The
money isn’t the reason we need to stop Lindsey.”

The older man shrugged.
 
“Then why?”

Adriana turned around and held up an old canvas with a painting of an
oddly shaped tree on it.
 
“How much
do you know about the Bible, Dr. Firth?”

He grasped the painting gently and looked at the name signed at the
bottom.
 
His face washed in
disbelief.
 
The old, gray eyes glanced
at her, then at Sean’s in the mirror.
 

“Where did you get this?” he asked in awe.

“I retrieved it in Germany.
 
It was stolen during the war.
 
My intentions were to steal it back and return it to the rightful
owners, or to a museum.
 
Instead,
the last owner gave it to me shortly before he was killed by the Order.”
 
Adriana’s words hung heavy in the cabin
of the SUV.

Firth looked back at the painting.
 
“I’ve never heard of this piece before.
 
The shape of the tree is so strange,
two trunks forming into one.”

He continued to stare at the canvas as Sean steered the vehicle into
an underground parking garage.
 
The
professor noticed where they were.
 
“What are we doing?”

“We need to change clothes and get our things, Doc,” Sean answered as
he pulled into an empty parking space.

“I’m sorry,” Firth said, forgetting about the painting for a
moment.
 
“What does this painting
have to do with the sheet you showed me earlier?
 
And what does any of it have to do with the temples in
Nekhen?”

“Actually, Professor,” Adriana interrupted, “that is what we need you
to tell us.”

He raised his eyebrows at her statement.
 
“You don’t know where you’re going and you don’t know what
you’re looking for?
 
Not a very
well thought out plan, eh?”

Sean ignored the jab and shut off the ignition.
   

Firth shook his head slowly as he returned his gaze to the
painting.
 
“I cannot believe you
have been driving around Cairo with a Van Gogh in your car.”