SESSION 25: THE LETTER
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To: Hatch
Fr: Barrinton
Re: Correspondence
H:
This letter arrived from EE via Vatican courier, and I forwarded it along to you post-haste.
-B
Our dear friend:
You may be wondering
why you've received such a large collection of
missives lately. They
were being sent to a friend of ours in New York;
we were just informed
of his untimely demise. I do not say this to
frighten you, but it
would be best, perhaps, if our names were not
mentioned.
However, we feel an even
greater need for our story to be told now
than before; if we perish
in our task (as I fear we must, eventually),
it is imperative that
someone can continue to fight the horrors we've
all seen. So please
forgive us for choosing you as an appropriate
candidate. Given what
you have seen, we thought you our best (and
perhaps only) ally.
But remember; every mistake means annihilation in
the game we now play.
If you feel that you cannot danger yourself by
receiving these (and
believe me, we'll understand), please ask a
friend to send me a
telegram saying that an old lover is sorry they
cannot converse with
me any longer. That friend doesn't know anything
about our enemies, of
course, for their safety.
Well, as you must have
guessed by now, we've arrived safely at our
destination. Our dapper
friend, who I'm not sure you've met, is of
course staying at the
finest hotel; we're staying at our usual haunt
(it being one of the
few hotels open for the summer). We are
ostensibly here researching
early Egyptian gods for a potential
expedition next season.
We've made contact with our usual supplier
here, and spent a wonderful
dinner with him. He's completely
trustworthy, and is
checking out some things for us. One good piece of
news is that the brutal
crimes that plagued New York and London don't
seem to be occurring
here (although he's confirming this, to be
safe). He's also investigating
a Faraz Najir, someone who was in
contact with the people
who started all of this when they passed
through Cairo.
Something strange has
happened here, though; another tie to the people
we talked about being
in charge of things in London. The Clyve
expedition had quite
an embarrassing mishap; after making an extremely
important discovery
at the pyramids of Giza (specifically the
smallest, the pyramid
of Menhaura), they lost a surprising
artifact. To hear the
locals tell it, they found a completely intact
burial chamber from
around the 12th dynasty; most unusual. They had
guards posted while
waiting to announce the discovery, and one night,
all of the guards *and
the sarcophagus* disappeared without a
trace. (I'm not sure
how much you know about archaeology, but a
sarcophagus could easily
weigh over a ton. Most unusual that there
were no marks on the
floor, such as levers would leave.) It's been
quite embarrassing for
the expedition; they've been asked to move to
Memphis, where their
camp is closed off to all but the authorities. As
you can imagine, many
of the locals are laughing about the great fool
Brit. The authorities
seem to be waiting for it to show up on the
black market. The main
investigator's name is Shereif Al-Hisain.
One of us managed to
acquire some firearms here in the city; his
contact corroborated
the story about the Clyve expedition.
And a note of interest
to scholars; the Egyptian Museum is, as one
might expect, phenomenal
in terms of resources on Egypt's
history. Except, as
our friend from the Museum noted, on the object
of our enemies' worship.
There was a conspicuous lack of *any*
information on the group
we seek, their god, or even that time
period. Most odd.
I believe that our dapper
friend is out in the Old Quarter now, with a
trusty guide; looking
for the Master Najir previously mentioned. I
will let you know more
on our progress as we make it.
Thank you most sincerely for your help in our fight.
Yours in good health.