Book of the Dead

by Greig Beck

  The man’s eyes darted around, taking in the cloth-covered mound and each of the Americans, before he nodded and backed out. Only then did Albadi relax. He turned to the group and shrugged. “I am overly cautious, perhaps.”

  Once again his hands fussed as he flipped pages. “In Syria, we are also experiencing the sinkhole phenomenon. But within the fog of war, who cares if a few thousand people fall into a pit, when tens of thousands are being slaughtered in the streets above, hmm?” He peered up at Abrams and Tania. “But these events are what started my search for answers among the ancient books, and what led me to the Al Azif.”

  He placed one stubby finger on a particular page. Matt drew near, looking down over his shoulder.

  “The sinkholes are the first doorways to the surface for the Shoggoth. The birds are the spirits of the Earth, the enemy of Cthulhu, and are becoming enraged in the sky; the carnivores, the roaches, the vile lice upon the sleepers beneath us…It is all in here. Before they rise, the earth shall fall.” He tapped the book. “The sinkholes are only the start. The Shoggoth will come through first, as well as the other vermin of the dark deep. And they will be in the shadows, moving upon the surface now, as the few morsels that have been brought down will not long satisfy the appetite of the leviathan below us. Those disgusting servants of the Old One; they exist to eat and round up the food for their master.”

  Albadi leaned forward and started to read. “From the darkest core, they will rise. From beneath the rock, below the soft earth and slime, they will come. The Great Old One and its army. It sleeps, powerful, all knowing, and patient beyond time itself. Cthulhu shall rule again.” He pushed the book away, looking pale. “It is my theory, based on the prophecy in the Al Azif, and the signs we have seen, that the Great Old One Cthulhu is once again awakening, and we don’t have much time. Its army of Shoggoth is already here.”

  Abrams stared hard at the Syrian but spoke almost casually. “You keep mentioning these things, Shoggoths. What exactly are they? Does it say what they are…supposed to look like?”

  Matt looked at Abrams. The major’s eyes held a hint of unease, and the realization struck – the man knew something.

  Albadi hesitated for a moment, and then began turning more pages. “The Shoggoth – yes – their very name means Inhabitant of the kingdom of darkness. In the Book they are described as shapeless things – creatures made from nothing but black putrid slime, with multiple eyes that float freely over their surface. They can form limbs, mouths, and eyes whenever and wherever they will. They are much bigger and more powerful than a human.” He looked up. “These will be the army, the shock troops of Cthulhu.”

  Abrams’s face drained of color, and he turned away.

  “Soon, the leviathan from the deep earth will come.” Albadi sat back. “And then the time of humankind will be over.”

  Silence stretched as Abrams paced.

  Matt noticed Tania smirked, and she shook her head when he caught her eye.

  “I need to know more about this…thing, that is supposedly on its way.” Abrams stopped pacing.

  “Cthulhu,” Matt added, now less surprised that the major didn’t challenge what they had just heard.

  Abrams nodded. “I want to know more about its strengths, and its…weaknesses.”

  “Weaknesses?” Albadi snorted his derision. “A flea could ask how to stop an elephant.”

  “Ever seen what the toxic bite of a Chimaeropsyllidae flea can do to an elephant?” Tania said folding her arms.

  Albadi’s lips compressed. “These beings are not like mortal creatures, Captain Kovitz.” He carefully turned a page in the ancient manuscript.

  She held up her hands. “Well, tell us about them.” She looked down at the page and frowned. “That’s the Caduceus – it’s Greek.”

  Albadi stared down at the image of two intertwined winged snakes. “No Captain, it’s not the Caduceus. That was one of its interpretations after it was adopted by the ancient Greeks. The wand of Hermes, with power over life and death.” He traced the image with one finger. “But the symbol is far older. It was found on Mesopotamian cylinder seals that were over six thousand years old. It was thought to represent the earliest form of the Underworld gods.”

  Matt came and stood between Tania and Albadi. “It’s also appeared in Babylonian script, representing the balanced struggle between life and death.”

  “Balance,” Albadi said. “Yes, but the balance between two of the greatest Old Ones, brothers, locked in an eternal embrace – Cthulhu, of the dark, and Xastur, the light.”

  “Xastur? So there’s two now…and one is good?” Tania asked, with her lip curling.

  Albadi seemed unfazed. “Not good as we understand it. We are dust compared to them, and our values and lives mean nothing.”

  “And now they’re both coming awake?” Tania asked.

  “I don’t know,” Albadi said softly.

  “But this shows two beings intertwined or fighting. How come then only one, Cthulhu, is rising?”

  “Again, I don’t know, Captain Kovitz. These are ancient beings of immense power. From what I can decipher in the Al Azif, they are currently imprisoned.” He grimaced. “No, that’s not right; they are currently sleeping beneath the sea, beneath the Earth, and in some versions in other dimensions altogether. When they first ruled it was for billions of years, and it was even before the primordial ooze. But something happened, some sort of great cataclysm that made the world unsuitable.

  “A few, like Cthulhu, chose to await a more suitable environment – just as some animals hibernate during a time of cold, so also did the Great Old Ones lie dormant. Many perished, simply vanishing over the intervening billions of years. But the true Old Ones, the most powerful of them, slept on. But not eternally. Cthulhu was but waiting, and it had set itself an alarm clock. Not a device, but an event – it would await powerful cosmic forces aligning again, so it could be woken, and then be released to revel once more across the world and cosmos.”

  Tania frowned. “Cosmic forces aligning? Like what does that mean?”

  Matt said, “The sun or moon being in a certain place?”

  “Something like that, but a lot more powerful.” Andy, who had been standing quietly at their rear, came forward. “What about all the planets aligning? That’s about to occur soon.”

  “The convergence.” Albadi nodded. “I think this is true. Alhazred called it heaven’s light – all the planets in alignment would have been very bright in the sky. It is a very rare event.” He rose to his feet. “The last such alignment was in 738 AD, the year that Alhazred finished writing the Al Azif. And the next is due…in just a few days’ time.”

  Matt raised an eyebrow at Andy. “How did you know about that?”

  Andy waved away the question. “Most modern geologists do. There are seismometers left on the moon by Apollo astronauts that record moonquakes, right? So, they occur most often during perigee, that’s when the Earth and moon are closest together – once every month. It focuses a lot of gravitational energy on the geology. Ha! And I didn’t even go to Harvard.” Andy continued, “The Earth’s gravity can trigger quakes on the moon. But being eighty-two times smaller than us, the moon’s way too weak to trigger any earthquakes back here, though it is of course still enough of a force to pull at our tides. Now, what if all nine planets were brought into alignment; something that happens, once every thirteen hundred years or so? There would have to be a geological effect – there’d be no avoiding it.”

  “Yes, yes, but more than geological,” Albadi said. “It is a very powerful gravitational force, no question. But when all the planets focus on us at the same time, what other cosmic forces would also be focused on us, pulling and tearing at us?” His face became grim. “They would draw out the old impurities, like pus from a boil.”

  “So, this alignment is some kind of cosmic alarm clock,” Tania said.

  “And it’s getting ready to ring,” Matt responded.

  Abrams ran both his han
ds up through his short-cropped hair, exhaling. “Doctor, you said they’d been here before. But they’re not here now, and we are…so where are they?” He dropped his hands heavily to the table. “And what happened in those times they were here?”

  “A sensible question, Major.” Albadi turned back to the pile of yellowing paper, and began flipping through more pages. “There are no times included here, but there are the ancient Syrian words for thousands and millions. I made some notes and then correlated these to what we know of the Earth’s history. What I found was astounding.”

  He drew aside several pages of hand-written notes. “According to Alhazred, there have been five appearances of the Old Ones in Earth’s past. These events occurred after they supposedly went into their cosmic slumber, when they were in effect awoken. The periods correspond exactly to the four mass extinction events punctuating Earth’s history.”

  “I don’t like the sound of this,” Matt said softly.

  Albadi turned one of his note pages. “The first great mass extinction event took place when our world was in its infancy, some 434 million years ago, during the Ordovician period. According to the fossil record, sixty percent of all life forms of both terrestrial and marine life worldwide were exterminated. Then again, some 360 million years ago in the Late Devonian period, was the scene for the second mass extinction event.” He turned a page. “It goes on…The end of the Permian period, 250 million years ago, shows that up to ninety percent of life was extinguished.” He looked up. “Ninety percent.” He sighed and went on. “Finally, and most recently, 65 million years ago, the dinosaurs disappeared – all of them.”

  “Jesus Christ.” Andy leaned back against a table, upsetting some books. “But how the hell did we send them back?”

  Albadi expression was miserable. “We didn’t; how could we have? Even when the Old Ones were most recently here, we were barely tiny animals scurrying between the toes of the giants. No, they, it, went back to its slumbers of its own accord.” He shrugged. “Perhaps the food ran out.”

  Matt snorted. “They ate everything. There was nothing left – they scoured the planet of meat.”

  “And we’re up next,” Tania said softly.

  “He’s damn well gonna find us a bit hard to swallow.” Abrams got to his feet, but paused before turning away. “Wait a minute…why didn’t they come through in 738? The planets were aligned, these things were obviously beginning to come through, given what we think happened to Alhazred. So why aren’t they already here? Why didn’t they scour the planet of meat then?”

  “Yes, yes, another sensible question.” Albadi pointed at the major’s chest. “In fact, Major Abrams, that is the most important question now facing mankind. This is why you must find the original Al Azif. It alone must have the answers we seek. It is my belief that Alhazred somehow found a way to stop them.” His brow creased. “No, that is not right. I do not believe that they could ever be stopped. But maybe he found a way to slow or delay them. Make them continue their slumber until the next alignment.”

  “Push the problem out to be dealt with by the poor saps of the future – us,” Andy said.

  “And we need to do the same to the next guys,” Tania said as she came over to look down at the ancient book. “So, Doctor, here’s the next million-dollar question – the Book – where the hell is it?”

  Albadi smiled. “I believe it is hidden right here, in the Middle East. Where it has always been.”

  Chapter 8

  Charles Sheldon Drummond, one of the wealthiest men on the West Coast, lay face down in the chapel. His lips moved in fervent prayer, his eyes were screwed shut and his hands spread, his mouth was cotton dry and his chest and ribs screamed in agony from the hard stone beneath him. He had been there for hours, and he would stay for hours more.

  “Sir.”

  His prayers stopped.

  “Sir.”

  His teeth ground and he opened his eyes. No one was allowed to disturb him here – no one. He looked up at the altar, seeing the large eye embedded in the center of the writhing mass of limbs – the image of the Old One, its likeness known for as long as humans could daub images onto cave walls.

  “How dare you, Kroen?” Drummond started to rise.

  “The Book, sir,” the big bodyguard responded.

  Drummond froze, waiting.

  “Father says there are non-believers searching for it.”

  Drummond’s eyes went wide, and he twisted, looking up at Kroen, knowing immediately what the huge man was referring to. Thoughts of retribution fell away like dry autumn leaves. “The Father said that?”

  “Yes sir, and we have a location,” Kroen said.

  Drummond turned back to the eye. “Oh Great One, your return will be the mightiest event we worthless humans have ever witnessed.” He got to his feet. “Where, when?” His dark robes trailed as he headed for the doors. On the way, he snatched up a bottle of Swiss mountain water, drank deeply, and then tossed it over his shoulder to the bodyguard.

  Kroen caught it smoothly. “I do not know. The Father calls for you.”

  Drummond spun, his eyes blazing. “When…?”

  “Now,” the guard said.

  Drummond felt the color drain from his face. “Of course…” he gulped. “Of course.”

  *

  “And now we must ask ourselves; where in the Middle East?” Albadi held a finger in the air, waving it, as he talked. “Abdul Alhazred travelled far during his…creative phase, and said he found the ruins of Babylon, the fallen cities of Ibu, and also crossed the haunted deserts of ad-Dahna to the forbidden caves. I believe it is in one of those long-forgotten sites that he got his inspiration for the Book…where he spoke of communing with the Old Ones.”

  “Great,” Tania said sharply. “If it’s in a cave, we just go and damn well get it, and then get the hell out of here.”

  Albadi turned to her, and opened his arms. “I didn’t say the Book was in the cave. In fact, even if you did find the cave that Alhazred used, it might be of no use to you, now. What I said was, the cave was where Alhazred received his inspiration. No, Captain, the Al Azif was secreted somewhere else, and I believe it is quite close – hidden – in a library.”

  Matt looked up. “A library…your library, in Damascus?”

  “No, no,” Albadi scoffed. “This copy refers to the Great Library of the Macedonian. Even though the Az-Zahiriyah Library of Damascus was created nearly eight hundred years ago, the library we seek was already ancient long before that. It was the greatest library our world has ever known, and at one time had collected together all the world’s knowledge, and its secrets.” Albadi smiled. “That Macedonian was Alexander.”

  “The Bibliotheca Alexandrina; the Library of Alexandria in Egypt,” Matt said. “But it was destroyed nearly two thousand years ago by Julius Caesar.”

  “A tragedy on an unbelievable scale,” Albadi said, his eyes downcast. “The most famous example of cultural vandalism in our history.” He looked up. “But not by Caesar, Professor Kearns. It is true that a fire raged through the library at the time of Caesar, but the works were spared. The real cultural vandal was Pope Theophilus in 391 AD, who regarded some of the works as being heretical and decreed they be destroyed.”

  “Great; a dead end,” Tania said, pacing away from them. “I gotta use the head; back soon.”

  “A dead end?” Albadi asked, brows raised at the departing woman. “The original library was an oasis of wisdom, and Alexandria became the center of the world for scientific and intellectual learning. It was also said to be the repository of many mystical wonders. Things that defied explanation for even the finest minds of their time.”

  “I don’t know how that helps us, Doctor.” Abrams looked briefly at his watch.

  Albadi smiled. “It helps because the copy of the Al Azif I have infers that the original work is held within the great Bibliotheca…on the island of the Pharoes.”

  Abrams just stared, deadpan.

  “Its impossib
le.” Matt frowned. “The Al Azif was written in 738 AD, and the library was supposed to have been destroyed centuries before that.”

  Albadi said, “Exactly, and perhaps why it escaped destruction and remains hidden. I think that the library was moved again. To the scholars at the time, the works would have been more valuable than gold. They would have had an almost religious value. The scholars would have died before they let the entire library be destroyed again. Somewhere in Egypt, on this island of the Pharaohs, the great library still exists.”

  “Then the library it is.” Abrams turned to Matt and then Tania, who had just pushed back into the room and was drying her hands on her pants. “Do either of you guys know the location of this island of the Pharaohs?” he asked.

  Tania folded her arms. “Never heard of it.”

  Matt’s brows were still creased. “I know a lot about the ancient Middle East, but I’ve also never heard of any reference to an island of the Pharaohs. Still, it sounds vaguely familiar. Dr Albadi, can I see the references to this library?”

  Albadi nodded, and turned some pages, coming to one and running his finger down the archaic script. “Here.”

  Matt nodded as he read, and after a minute he paused. “Ha, of course.” He began to smile. “Doctor, you were right and wrong at the same time. Yes, it’s still in Alexandria, which makes sense. But it’s not the island of the Pharaohs, but it’s actually the Island of Pharos.”

  Albadi smacked his forehead. “Of course, the inflection on the noun.” He bowed. “Your skill is truly impressive, Professor Kearns.”

  “Pharos?” Andy came and looked over Matt’s shoulder. “Does that help us?”

  “Pharos, why not?” Tania grinned. “It makes sense to move it to, and perhaps hide it in, the greatest structure of the ancient world…perhaps even as great as the pyramids themselves. It’s where the Ptolemaic built the Lighthouse of Alexandria.” Seeing their more or less blank faces, she went on. “Look, back then, most dwellings were single story, and very few were ever over fifty feet tall, so imagine a structure of stone standing nearly four hundred feet high, fully encased in pure white marble. At its top, a giant golden statue of Poseidon, and between his legs, a large bonfire was kept burning at night with a huge polished mirror to guide the ships into the harbor.”