The Cult of Osiris

They were all in on it!

She changed direction, jumping on to the Temple of the Sphinx’s northern wall and running along it. The ancient, weathered stone was uneven beneath her feet.

‘Get after her!’ the American shouted. The first guard followed her on to the wall. The two men ahead also changed direction, intending to leap over the ditch separating the temple from the compound’s upper level and tackle her.

The wall was over twelve feet high, too far to jump down . . .

Instead she flung herself off the wall at an angle - just barely reaching the top of a ruined stone pillar five feet below, then springing off that, legs flailing, into the darkness beneath. Pain exploded in both feet as she hit the ground and fell, her phone and some loose coins flying from a pocket and skittering away.

The guard jumped off the wall after her—

The lighting changed, the red highlights on the lower block suddenly vanishing. The man’s outstretched foot missed its top. His other shin cracked into the stone’s edge, sending him spinning to the unyielding ground. He let out a keening wail as he clutched his injured leg.

Macy wasn’t feeling much better, gasping in pain as she stood. She was not far from a passage leading to one of the temple’s original entrances. Ankles throbbing, she limped into the deeper darkness behind the high eastern wall.

She turned the first corner, looking back. A guard was on the north wall, but his attention was on his wounded comrade. He hadn’t seen her. Round the second turn—

And crashing to a stop against metal bars.

Shit! She’d known there was a gate to keep tourists out of the temple, but it was taller than she’d thought, too high for her to climb. Beyond it she saw the seated audience, but they were looking up at the brilliantly lit Sphinx, not the unimposing ruin in front of it, and wouldn’t hear any shouts for help over the soundtrack’s bombastic crescendo.

Macy could hear other shouts, though. Her pursuers were in the temple.

And she was in a dead end.

The shouts got closer.

The inner wall facing the gate was somewhat lower than the others - and in the light shining through the bars she could pick out footholds. She scrambled up. All the past hours of gym practice for the cheerleading squad no longer seemed such a chore.

She looked over the top of the wall - to see the guy in the snakeskin jacket only ten feet away on the other side, other men spreading out across the temple floor. One ran into the entrance to the passage.

Trapped—

She pulled herself up and lay flat along the wall’s top, holding her breath as her heart pounded. The running man rounded the corner, reached the gate, looked through it. Nobody fleeing the temple, just tourists gawping at the display.

‘Does anyone see her?’ called the American, shining a tiny but bright LED flashlight between the ruined pillars. The shouted replies were all negative.

Hamdi and Shaban hurried to him. ‘She can’t have got out,’ said Hamdi, one hand clutched to his nose. ‘The entrances on this side are all blocked.’

‘Who is she?’ Shaban demanded angrily.

‘One of the IHA team. Macy Sharif. She’s just a student.’

‘Student or not, she could ruin the entire plan if she gets out of here,’ said Shaban.

‘We gotta find her,’ the American added. ‘Fast.’

‘What are you going to do with her, Mr Diamondback?’ asked Hamdi.

‘Whaddya think?’ There was a metallic sound that froze Macy’s blood. A gun’s hammer being cocked.

‘You’re going to . . .’ Hamdi tailed off, shocked.

‘I’m sure as hell not spendin’ the next twenty years in an Egyptian jail ’cause of some li’l whore of a student.’

‘Dr Hamdi,’ said Shaban, ‘if she gets away, you and Gamal will have to handle Berkeley. Bobby, we need to send people to watch her hotel, the airport, anyone she might go to for help. She’s American?’ Hamdi nodded. ‘Use our contacts there to find out where she lives - and where her family lives. Send people to watch their homes, tap their phones. We have to silence her.’

‘Count on it,’ said Diamondback. A second click - another gun.

Macy trembled, a terrified nausea churning within her. They were going to kill her! Every instinct told her to run, but she didn’t dare move.

One of the guards called out from the temple’s southern end, reporting that the other entrance passage was empty. Diamondback shone his light across the courtyard. ‘What about those stones there, by the wall? Could she climb ’em?’ He walked towards them, the heels of his cowboy boots clip-clopping on the stone flags.

‘Go with him,’ said Shaban. For a moment, Macy thought he was talking to Hamdi, before realising it was one of the guards.

The one who had come into the passage after her.

There was nobody between her and the east wall—

Adrenalin overcame her fear. She sprang up and ran along the wall, jumping up to a higher block.

‘Hey!’

Diamondback had seen her.

Macy gasped in fright, expecting a gunshot - but it didn’t come. The sound and light show was ending, and a shot would be heard by hundreds of people. She climbed another block, finding herself at the edge of the east wall. The ground was over twenty feet below.

Diamondback scaled the wall on which she’d been hiding as effortlessly as a lizard. The guard ran back into the passage. Macy turned, crouched - and dropped. Fingers clutching the weathered stone, she slithered down the wall, toes rasping for purchase.

She let go—

More pain as she hit the ground and fell on her back, but she was too scared to let it stop her. She rolled and took off across the dusty expanse. The audience was dispersing, milling towards the nearby exit in the outer fence.

Behind her, the guard climbed the metal gate as Diamondback reached the highest part of the wall, eyes scanning for her, locking on - then losing her again as she shoved into the crowd. Someone hollered in protest, but Macy ignored him and ducked low, weaving between the clumps of tourists. If she could reach the exit, the edge of Cairo’s urban sprawl was just yards beyond the fence . . .

The guard was over the gate. Diamondback landed beside him. More men ran along the walkway above the temple. Macy moved faster, knocking people aside in her desperation to reach the exit. There were two white- uniformed members of the Tourist Police at the gate, but they hadn’t yet been alerted to the chase. Come on, move—

Diamondback and the guard were running. The guard shouted to the policemen, who looked round. Some of the tourists did too, stopping to see the cause of the commotion.

A gap opened up. Macy took it, rushing through the gate before either cop could react. By the time one started after her, she was already halfway to the dark alley between the nearest buildings. She raced into the shadows. A junction; she went right, deeper into the maze. Clattering footsteps echoed behind her. Left, right again. Don’t be a dead end, don’t—

A low, narrow gap in one wall just before an intersection. On some wild instinct she squeezed through it. She found herself in a small yard behind a house, faint light coming from a window above. The only other exit was a door into the house itself.

She pressed against the wall, eyes wide in fear as the footsteps drew closer - then passed, slowing at the intersection. More men ran up. Clip-clop. Diamondback. She held her breath. If one of them noticed the little gap . . .

They ran again, splitting up to follow each of the alleyways. The footsteps quickly faded into the night.

Macy slumped, panting.