As they continued to watch, Spencer was handed an index card. He quickly read it to himself before repeating it for the viewers, the Kanes included.
“This just in, two employees of the museum, Zahra Amelia Kane and Grant Lawrence Upton, were not among the deceased and are currently missing from the scene. As of now, they are presumed to be alive.” He glanced up at the camera and then back to the card. “When questioned, police said that they are, and I quote, ‘not ruling out the pair’s involvement.’” Spencer took a deep breath. “Elizabeth, back to you.”
George shut off the television and faced his daughter. “Now, you’re being hunted by the police. Wonderful…”
Zahra shrugged. “It’s nice to be wanted.”
Things just got a lot more complicated, she thought, draining the rest of her coffee.
“So,” she said, setting down her empty mug, “where should we start?”
Her father got up and poured her another helping. “The beginning, I suppose.”
He rejoined her and cleared his throat. “Do you remember the story of how your mother and I met?”
“You were classmates at NYU.”
“Correct,” George said, “but your mother’s reasoning for being in America wasn’t what it seemed.”
Zahra paused mid-sip and gazed at her father. She didn’t say anything.
“It wasn’t until after I had proposed to her that your mother told me the truth about herself…and her family.”
“The car ride. The day she died… You guys were talking about someone finding her.”
He nodded. “Yes, well, I’m afraid that mine and your mother’s problems have now become yours and Baahir’s.” He frowned and moved to get up. “This is all my fault.” Zahra stopped him with a single gesture. She reached out and closed her hand around his. George squeezed back and relaxed. “I’m sorry, Zahra. I should have done more to protect you two.”
“Tell me. I know we can figure this out together.”
George smiled. “You sound just like your mother. She always looked for the positives in everything.” He let out a long breath. “Speaking of which…”
“What?”
“Your mother’s name wasn’t really Hanan.”
“What? It wasn’t?” That was a sickening gut punch. Zahra squeezed her fists together as hard as she could. She was sick of the secrets. She took a deep breath and relaxed, for her father’s sake.
“No, it was Kamaria, though I never knew her as that. To me, she was always Hanan. She changed it to Hannan once she was stateside — before we met.”
It was plain to see what Zahra’s mom had done. “Who was she hiding from?”
“Her family back in Egypt.” He sat back and slouched down a little. “A trusted few back home came to her aid. They helped your mother change her name and fake her death. Then, she came here and enrolled at NYU as a student of archaeology. The depth of her knowledge was unbelievable, especially at her age. She knew more about Ancient Egypt than her professor. It enraged him.”
Zahra grinned. “Yeah, Mom could do that to people.”
“So can you.”
Her eyes flicked to her father. The left side of his mouth was curled slightly upward.
“What did she call it, my ‘warrior blood?’”
George nodded and laughed. “Yeah, she had it too. Your brother and me, not so much.”
The mention of Baahir made George uncomfortable. “Do you know if he’s okay?”
Zahra shrugged. “Last I knew, he was being hunted by Khaliq’s people down in Cairo after he found Anubis’ Book of the Dead.”
George launched to his feet, spilling his coffee everywhere in the process. “What? They actually found the Scroll of Anubis?”
She nodded. “That’s what he told me, yes.”
“Oh, no, no, no. This is bad, Zahra. This is really bad.”
She stood and held out both of her hands, trying to calm him down. “Easy, Dad, it’s just a scroll.”
“You don’t get it, Zahra. It’s not just a scroll. What your mother told me about it — where it leads — the temple! No, this is awful.”
“Dad!” Zahra shouted, getting his attention. “What did Mom tell you?”
They returned to their seats. Zahra cleaned up the mess while George attempted to collect his thoughts.
“Zahra, the scroll, it is the original Book of the Dead, and it was penned by Anubis.”
Zahra snorted a laugh. “Come on, Dad, Anubis? Anubis the Egyptian god? He was a myth, along with all the other ones.”
“That may be so. Yes, Anubis, the god of death, was a myth, but Anubis wasn’t a god at all, was he?”
“Are you asking me?”
“Anubis was a scientist — a man years ahead of his time. His practices became legendary and were included into the lore of the region.”
Zahra looked out the kitchen’s square window. “Like what some people think about Merlin, right?”
“Correct. There is no magic, Zahra. There is only science, and depending on the time you lived in…”
“It could be seen as magic — witchcraft, even.”
“Correct, again,” the professor replied. “Your mother’s family was hellbent on proving that Anubis was real and even more fanatical about continuing his work.”
“The plague?”
George nodded, making sure his daughter was paying full attention. “It’s the same sickness that struck down Egypt in the Bible.” Zahra smiled, but it faded almost immediately. Her father wasn’t joking. “The Scales of Anubis want to recreate the plague and unleash it upon the world.”
“But, Mom, she—”
“Wanted no part of it,” George finished, extinguishing some of Zahra’s rising anxiety. She couldn’t bear to think that her mother was a fanatical killer like Khaliq and his sister, Ifza. “It’s why she chose to go to the States. She wanted to learn as much as possible about her country so she could stop what was coming. As you know, knowledge for women isn’t all that easy to come by where she’s from. There was still so much she didn’t know.”
“And you were okay with all of this?”
George nodded. “I didn’t care. I loved her for who she was. Her family history meant nothing to me. When we found out she was pregnant with you, she broke down and told me everything.”
“One thing still doesn’t make sense — more than one thing, really?” She collected her thoughts. “What does this have to do with Mom’s canopic jar? I thought you guys bought it from a street vendor outside of Cairo before I was born.”
He shook his head. “A lie, I’m afraid. Your mother stole it from her father the night she disappeared. A close friend of hers smuggled it, and her, out of the country an hour later aboard a ship to the UK. Then, she headed to New York.”
“And the jar itself?”
“This is going to sound crazy, but —”
Zahra smiled, interrupting him.
“What?”
“All of this is crazy, Dad.”
“Touché. Your mother’s canopic jar is the only evidence of hellstone that has ever been found.”
“Hellstone? I remember Mom mentioning that before. I thought it was just a spooky way of describing igneous rock?”
George nodded. “She did, and sort of… Hellstone is believed to be the secret to unlocking Anubis’ plague. Something within the rock itself reacts negatively, or positively, depending on what outcome you desire, to heat. I personally believe there’s some sort of bacterium that’s responsible.”
“So, it’s not the jar itself. It’s just the hellstone they’re after?”
“Correct. I even had a colleague of mine back in New York run some tests on it years ago, and it came back as a substance similar to something found inside of a meteor, though he didn’t know about the possibility of bacteria.”
“Hang on, Dad.” She pieced it all together in her head. “You’re telling me that I’ve had this rock in my possession for over a decade, and that it’s crawling with tiny microbes from space — from another world.” She pointed at the ceiling. “Aliens, Dad. Aliens!”