First of all, this is a continuation, and you can read part 1 >here< . To the others who asked for updates, here it is, and, well, this story isn’t recent, it happened a few years ago, on my first field research (as you might have guessed), I’m transcribing excerpts from my diary, some articles we produced during that time, and filling in the other gaps with what happened but wasn’t recorded. I’ve never told this story before, but some recent events made me think it’s worth sharing, and considering that the “academic community” wouldn’t take it very seriously, I’m very grateful to you all for listening to my account. With you, the next entry:
The hot wind was suffocating as it blew, encountering no obstacles greater than the occasional stone. The sun was scorching, and one could feel the pores opening up, releasing sweat as we stood there. Now, the other members of the expedition were packing up to leave, but Dr. Renswor and I stayed behind, facing that corpse.
“Doctor…” I finally broke the silence. “What do you think happened?”
“Well, lad, I’ll be honest and say I have no idea. When I found the body, it was already like this, very dry, brittle, as if it had been roasted by the hot sand,” Dr. Renswor replied.
The Doctor rubbed his graying beard, seeming lost in deep thought. His eyes, behind the thin-rimmed glasses, were fixed on the symbol in front of us, as if searching for answers in the desiccated entrails of the desert.
“But there’s something strange about all this,” he murmured, more to himself than to me. “If this body was buried recently - and let’s assume from yesterday to today - it shouldn’t…” He crouched down and plunged his hand into the sand. “As expected, cold. The sand beneath the surface is cold, unless we had a heat source underneath, which doesn’t seem to be the case. It wasn’t the sands that roasted him.”
I swallowed hard, feeling a shiver run down my spine.
“Let’s go,” Dr. Kamal appeared behind us. “Things are ready. Let’s take the body and meet with the police chief at the camp.”
We nodded, Benjamin rising from the ground with a pensive expression still etched on his face. Together, the three of us carefully wrapped the body in a sheet and placed it on the makeshift stretcher we had brought, then loaded it into the back of the jeep.
As we undulated through the sinuous dunes, silence hung heavy among us. The sun continued to unleash its relentless rays through the windows, but this time, the feeling of suffocation was even more intense, perhaps now amplified by the presence of that body among us. We arrived a bit behind the general convoy, and we were met with the adapted vehicle parked, a man with a hat, uniform, and a thick mustache awaited us. He wore sunglasses, making it difficult to discern whom or where he was looking.
The man approached as soon as we parked, his serious expression revealing little about what he was thinking.
“Dr. Renswor, Dr. Kamal, I’m Chief of Police Ahmed,” he said in a grave tone, tipping his hat as a greeting. “What did you find out there?”
“I was excavating one of the quadrants, where yesterday we found a statue, a very important item for our research,” Dr. Renswor began to explain, while Yunet and I unloaded the body from the jeep. “That’s when I came across this body. It was buried under the sand, near the statue. It seems to have been killed recently, but there’s something strange about the whole case.”
Chief of Police Ahmed (I saw his name on the badge) frowned, examining the body covered by the sheet.
“In what way strange, exactly?” he asked, his eyes scanning every detail of the scene.
“Well, for starters,” Benjamin said, pulling back the sheet and uncovering the body, “the cause of death seems to be some sort of prolonged exposure to extreme heat, but the sand beneath the body was cold, suggesting that it wasn’t the sand that caused this.”
Ahmed scratched his chin, pondering the information.
“Understand…” he murmured. “And there are no signs of struggle or other clues that could give us hints about what really happened?”
“No, nothing that I’ve seen,” replied Dr. Renswor, leaning in to examine the body more closely. “Ah, except for this strange symbol,” I shuddered as I looked, remembering that symbol - the same one that was tattooed on my attacker’s hand earlier in the morning.
“This symbol,” the Officer examined it for a while. “It seems to be something ancient, do you know what it means?”
“I have a guess,” I spoke up for the first time; everyone turned to me. “By the way, it’s a pleasure Chief Ahmed, I’m Alexander Hayes, a student of Dr. Renswor, and this morning I was attacked by a man who had this exact symbol on his hand.”
He raised an eyebrow, surprised by my revelation. His gaze was piercing, as if he were evaluating every word I said.
“You were attacked?” he repeated. “And this man, do you know him? Did he say anything during the attack that could help us understand what’s going on?”
I shook my head, trying to organize my thoughts to explain the situation as clearly as possible.
“No, I didn’t know him,” I replied, my voice still trembling slightly from the shock of the incident. “At least I couldn’t recognize him; he wore a hood that covered his face, just silently entered my tent and tried to stab me while I slept.”
“I see,” he murmured, seeming lost in thought. “So, it seems we’re dealing with something more complex than a simple death in the desert.”
Dr. Renswor nodded, agreeing with the officer’s words.
“Anyway,” Chief Ahmed continued, “we need to take this body for a more detailed autopsy. Perhaps that will give us more clues about what really happened and who might be behind it.” He turned to me. “Alexander, can you accompany me to the nearest police station? I need you to make an official report of what happened this morning and any additional information that might help us understand what’s going on.”
I nodded.
“Of course, Chief. I’m available to help in any way I can.”
As we headed towards the police car, I could feel the curious and concerned gazes of my colleagues. Yunet and Dr. Renswor came right behind me, joining me in the car. Meanwhile, Chief Ahmed instructed his subordinates to take care of the body and the scene of the incident before joining us at the station.
We departed, gradually leaving the desert behind and entering a city. A living human civilization. I had almost forgotten what that was like. The sand turned into asphalt, the dunes into buildings. Within 30 quiet minutes, we were pulling into the parking lot of the local police station. Arriving at the station, we were greeted by a bustling environment, with officers running back and forth and phones ringing incessantly. Chief Ahmed guided us through the chaos to a reserved room, where we could sit down and discuss the events more calmly.
Once we were settled, the officer pulled up a chair and sat in front of us, ready to hear my account.
“So, Alexander, please, tell me in detail what happened this morning. Any information you can provide will be crucial for our investigation.”
I took a deep breath before recounting the events of that morning, trying to recall every important detail.
“Well, we have two excavation shifts, one crew goes at 7 and another at 10 in the morning. Today I woke up feeling a bit unwell, tired, and asked my tent mate to inform the others that I would go at 10 with the rest. I fell asleep again and after a while, I woke up to someone entering the tent. I was confused, thought it was the doctor, and mumbled to him that he could go without me, but there was no response. When I turned around, there was the mystery man. He tried to attack me with a knife but I pushed him away; thank God I managed to reach the tent where the others were and he fled.”
Chief Ahmed nodded, making some notes in a notepad as I spoke.
“I understand. And you said that this man had the same symbol we found on the body in the desert?”
“Yes, exactly,” I confirmed. “He had several tattoos, one on each phalanx. And one of them was the same as the one on the body’s chest, which caught my attention the most when I saw it.”
The officer seemed intrigued by this connection.
“Interesting,” he murmured, thoughtfully. “It seems more premeditated to me… Is there anything else?”
“Yes,” I remembered. “There’s this,” I said, taking the knife out of my bag, its blade black and gleaming. “He tried to use this to kill me.”
The officer took the knife carefully, examining it closely. His expression became even more serious as he observed every detail.
“This seems to be a rather unusual weapon,” he commented, delicately turning it over to examine the handle. “Have you ever seen anything like this before, Dr. Renswor?”
Dr. Renswor leaned forward, studying the knife with interest.
“No, I’ve never seen anything quite like it,” he replied, furrowing his brow. “The construction, the material… everything seems quite peculiar. It could be of ancient origin, perhaps even related to what we’re investigating in the desert.”
Chief Ahmed nodded, seemingly jotting down the information in a notepad in front of him.
“Well, this is a valuable lead,” he said, enclosing the knife in a zip lock bag. “I’ll ensure that this is analyzed by forensic experts. It may give us some clues about the identity or origin of this individual. And you, Dr. Renswor, Dr. Kamal, do you have any other relevant information to add?”
“To be honest,” Yunet said, “I wasn’t even aware of this attack, and I suppose Dr. Renswor wasn’t either.”
“That’s true,” the elderly man agreed. “I believe the confusion with the corpse distracted us and took away the time for Alex to explain the matter.”
“I see,” Ahmed said. “Well, stay in the city today; we’ll cover your hotel expenses. It’s three blocks from here.” He scribbled the address on a piece of paper and handed it to Yunet. “We want you there so we can contact you more quickly if needed.”
“Understood,” Dr. Kamal nodded, taking the address paper and tucking it into her pocket.
The Chief rose from his chair, indicating that the meeting was coming to an end.
“All right, then. Any updates, we’ll be in touch with you. Thank you for your cooperation.”
After the farewell, we left the police station and headed to the hotel indicated by Chief Ahmed. The feeling of being in an urban environment after days in the desert was strange but at the same time comforting. We stopped in front of the designated building. It was imposing but… rundown, without wanting to be rude, but it reminded me a bit of Egypt itself. It was a large building, but with faded paint and some broken windows, an old wooden sign, with a pharaoh drawn in profile, bore the words “Hotel Ramses.” Dr. Kamal looked at the building with a skeptical expression.
“It seems like this place has seen better days,” she commented, looking around. “I hope at least the rooms are reasonable.”
We entered the hotel and were greeted by a sleepy receptionist, who handed us the keys to our rooms with an almost palpable indifference. Room 32 for me and Dr. Renswor, and 33 for Yunet. We went up to our rooms, and despite the outdated décor and lack of maintenance, the rooms were relatively clean and comfortable. We left our belongings and decided to meet in Kamal’s room. As I turned on the shower, I couldn’t help but feel uneasy.
After a quick shower and a change of clothes, I knocked on the door of room 33, where Dr. Kamal and Dr. Renswor were already waiting for me. We sat together in a set of worn armchairs as we discussed our next steps.
“So, what do we do now?” I asked, looking to my colleagues for guidance.
“We can’t halt the excavation. We have a deadline to meet, and we’re only two months away from the time limit,” Dr. Renswor confirmed.
“Yes, I agree. We need to continue with the excavation, but with additional precautions,” he said. “I’ll speak with the rest of the team and instruct them to increase security around the camp. We need to ensure everyone’s protection while we investigate this incident.”
“Furthermore,” Yunet added, “What about that knife? It was definitely an antique. Could we have a thief infiltrating our site and trying to make off with some souvenirs?”
“It’s a plausible theory,” Benjamin agreed, scratching his beard. “It’s possible that someone is trying to appropriate valuable artifacts for resale on the black market. But that doesn’t explain the connection with the symbol and the attack on Alexander. There seems to be something more sinister at play.” He stood up. “Alexander, my dear, do you remember the symbols you saw?”
“Ah, yes, I remember them well.”
“Okay, perfect. Could you elucidate them for us then?” he said, picking up a paper and pencil and pointing to me.
I took the sheet and drew the symbols (let it be clear that I’m terrible at art). The first one was a kind of dot-circle, the second was three undulations, the third was a type of semicircle, the upper part of one, and the last one was a type of bird. Each one was on a phalanx of the intruder, going from the index to the pinkie. The one on the corpse was the circle with a dot in the middle.
After drawing the symbols on the sheet, I handed it to Dr. Renswor and my colleagues, explaining what I remembered about them.
“These were the symbols I saw tattooed on the assailant’s hands,” I said, pointing to each of them on the sheet.
“These are hieroglyphs…” Dr. Murmured, “It’s difficult to pinpoint a single meaning; they can signify many things.”
“If these hieroglyphs are in any way connected to the attacks and the body we found in the desert, it suggests we’re dealing with something much more serious than just antique thieves,” Yunet said suddenly.
We looked at each other in silence, realizing the gravity of the situation.
“Okay,” Benjamin broke the ice, “Let’s leave all this for tomorrow. Yunet, get in touch with the excavation and ask them to increase security. Tomorrow, as soon as we get clearance from Officer Ahmed, we’ll rush over there, try to finish the job as quickly as possible, and leave it at that.”
After this brief and provisional solution, we went to bed. This time, on a real bed, I had no trouble finding sleep. But unfortunately, it wouldn’t be that night that I slept well; in fact, it was quite the opposite. I woke up to the mechanical and noisy ringing of the phone. I picked it up still groggy.
“Hello?”
“Mr. Hayes?” The voice, laden with accent, came through; it was the receptionist.
“Yes, what is it?”
“We have a call from the police for you.”
That sentence shook me from the sleepy remnants that held me.
“Yes, please put them through.”
A few seconds later, Ahmed’s deep and low voice came through.
“Hey, Alex, I need to talk to you.”
“You can speak, Officer.”
“No… not here, it’s important. I need you to come to the station urgently.”
He hung up.
With my heart racing, I got out of bed, still half asleep. I didn’t know what to expect, but the urgency in Chief Ahmed’s voice left me worried. I left a quick note for Dr. Renswor and Yunet, explaining the situation, and headed out. The night air was cool, a welcome change after the scorching days in the desert. I walked through the deserted streets, the few passersby I encountered looked at me with curiosity as a foreigner in pajamas hurried past them.
I arrived at the police station in a few minutes and entered, being greeted by a sleepy secretary sipping a cup of coffee. He pointed me in the direction of Chief Ahmed’s office, and with a nod of thanks, I made my way there. I knocked on the door, opening it soon after.
“Mr. Ahmed,” I said as I entered and closed the door. He was there, at his desk, facing away from me as something was displayed on his computer. “What’s going on?”
He remained silent.
“Chief?” I said, reaching out to his shoulder.
His hand fell to the side, limp, the chair spun, revealing his body already dead, motionless in the chair, eyes open and glazed. Chief Ahmed was still, lifeless. The cut on his neck still oozed warm, viscous blood, fresh… A chill ran down my spine as I realized something terrible had happened there.
With trembling hands, I released his shoulder. It was then that I noticed a strange object on Chief Ahmed’s desk. It was a small sculpture, looking ancient and adorned with symbols similar to the ones we saw in the desert. It was strategically placed right in front of the computer monitor, as if it were meant to be the first thing anyone saw upon entering the room…
“But what…” I heard a noise behind me that made me freeze.
I turned slowly, but there was nothing. However, as I stood there, paralyzed, I could see a small red drop dripping from the ceiling before my eyes. I turned my attention upwards and by God, my heart almost stopped. Hanging from the ceiling, in a manner I have no idea how, was the hooded man. The knife in his hand still dripping blood. As soon as I looked, he brought his finger to where (I suppose) his mouth was, in a “shhh” gesture. My mind spun in panic as I watched the man slide down like a snake along the wall until he reached the ground. He raised the blade close to the hood, and from that darkness, I could see his tongue protruding and pouring out that red liquid. I was glued to the ground by panic as he started coming towards me.
My instincts screamed to run, but my legs seemed petrified. I was cornered in that room, not knowing how to escape. As he approached, I realized I needed to act fast. With all the strength I could muster, I took a step back, trying to distance myself from him. My mind raced frantically, seeking a way out of that terrible situation. I looked at the chief, saw his gun in the holster. I began to calculate how quickly I could grab it.
In a quick and desperate motion, I reached for the gun in Chief Ahmed’s holster, feeling my heart race with each passing second. My hands shook as I tried to slide the gun out of the holster, but it felt like time was crawling slowly. Finally, I managed to grab the pistol and aimed it at the hooded man.
“Don’t take another step closer!” I shouted, my voice trembling but firm. My mind was racing, trying to find a solution to this insane situation.
The man paused for a moment, his eyes locked on mine, as if assessing my intentions. The silence in the room was deafening, only interrupted by the distant sound of sirens outside. He then broke the pause by taking another step towards me.
I panicked and quickly pulled the trigger, only to be met with an empty mechanical click… That shadow began doing something I could only interpret as a laugh, but it was dry, it sounded like it scraped his throat. He lifted the pistol cartridge, opening it and letting the ammunition fall to the floor with a metallic clink. I trembled, feeling completely powerless in the situation. My mind screamed for a solution, anything that could get me out of this terrible trap.
“Who are you? What do you want?” My voice came out in a trembling whisper.
The man remained silent for a moment, seemingly considering my questions. Then, slowly, he began to move toward me once more, each heavy step echoing in the silent room.
My muscles were tense, ready to react to any sudden movement from him. I needed to stay calm, to find an opening to escape. He menacingly raised his knife.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked, trying to buy time as my mind worked frantically to find a way out, stepping back and leaning against the Officer’s desk.
The hooded man stopped a few feet away from me, his figure shrouded in dancing shadows in the dimly lit room. I could hear his breathing as he moved, poised to deliver the fatal blow, when my fingers closed tightly and I lifted the statuette, striking him in the face. The impact of the statuette on his face caught him off guard, causing him to recoil a few steps and release a grunt of pain. It was the time I needed to leap backward, gaining distance between us.
With my heart pounding wildly in my chest, I looked around frantically, searching for an escape route. I glanced at the window behind me. It was my only chance. Without hesitation, I ran towards it and, with a push, lifted it, creating enough of an opening for me.
The cold night air hit my face as I jumped through the window, feeling the impact as I landed on the ground outside. I rolled to mitigate the force of the fall and quickly got to my feet, looking back to see if the hooded man was coming after me. Luckily, he didn’t appear. I took a deep breath, trying to calm my racing heart. I needed to find help as soon as possible. I looked around, trying to orient myself in that unfamiliar area. I spotted the lights and heard the sirens I had heard before, seeing a patrol car emerging at the end of the street, to which I waved, and they stopped, in a hurry.
“Hey, aren’t you that researcher with Yunet?” one of them asked.
“Yes, it’s me. How did you know what was happening? Quickly, the man must still be-“ I was interrupted.
“We didn’t know you were here, get in the car, quickly.”
I got into the car, confused, as they sped off, taking a route I knew, but didn’t want to believe…In the distance, contrasting with the deep blue of the night, I saw a massive gray mass rising into the sky. More sirens began to be heard, and it wasn’t long before I saw the terrible nocturnal glow.
The patrol car stopped, and they unlocked the doors. I got out, dazed, each step faltering as the red trucks tirelessly tried to extinguish the flames. The force of the water splashed some particles on me, and I could feel the heat of the fire against my skin, but none of it mattered, I was numb as I read the old, decaying sign that barely resisted the flames, the sign that now brought me a sense of horror and despair:
“Hotel Ramses.”