A few black SUVs bumped along the desolate semi-desert, heading for an unknown meeting point on the border between Egypt and Sudan.
"Don't worry, the people we hired are very reliable."
In the middle car, Paul Smith was talking to George Edwin and Harry Faultner. Both of his friends looked haggard, especially Edwin. Paul Smith barely recognized him after only a few days. His cheeks were sunken in, and his tired eyes were filled with a strange look.
After working with him for so many years, Smith had never seen Edwin like this.
"The sellers are just small fries," Smith said. "After they take the money, they will immediately gather a group of people to prevent us from taking advantage of them. But they won't dare to make too big of a move, because it's not us they should be afraid of, it's the big gangs here. "
"Paul, I'm not worried about that," Faultner said with a shrug. Ford shrugged. He had participated in even bigger transactions in the past. Although there were risks in every transaction, he really wasn't worried about it. He thought that Edwin wasn't worried either. Edwin was completely fascinated by those fragments …
Regarding the line of the Holy Book, they had made a lot of guesses over the past two days, but it only made the fog thicker.
Since yesterday, Faultner had stopped and told Edwin to look at the other relics, as well as the mummy that the seller had mentioned. He wanted to get more clues before he made a deduction.
Because it was just a broken bowl and a line of Holy Book, it was really impossible to come to a conclusion.
But … that was only one of the reasons. Faultner could feel that he had to pull out and cool down. Otherwise, he might be mesmerized too.
"I see that you guys don't look good," Smith joked. Smith joked, "Be careful of the women here. Be careful of AIDS. That thing is really deadly."
Faultner still had the time to squeeze out a smile, but Edwin seemed to not hear the conversation between them. He was immersed in his own mental world.
It was still early in the morning, and the sun had not yet become violent, but the semi-desert was already shrouded in a layer of hot steam, so that the blowing sand was like the edge of a knife, and the lonely short trees and weeds on the ground seemed to be on the verge of death.
The convoy of off-road vehicles gradually moved away from the nearby towns and cities. There wasn't even a stray dog, let alone any signs of human habitation.
Only when the convoy was about to reach the meeting place did they see a few tents set up in the desert in the distance. Some vehicles were parked around the tents, and some guards were standing guard and patrolling. The tall and strong men were all armed with guns and weapons, and all of them looked unfriendly.
The car stopped some distance away from the camp. Paul Smith got off the car and negotiated with Eldin, who had come with his men. Then, the motorcade passed and stopped at the edge of the camp. Then, Ford and Edwin got out of the car, took their tools, and walked into the camp with a team of bodyguards.
"Did you bring everything?" Edwin asked as soon as he saw Eldin. He sounded like a man who had been thirsting for water for a long time.
"Mr. Edwin, come with me. They're all inside." Eldin nodded, feeling more confident than before. After all, he had a large group of subordinates by his side.
Edwin hurried to the main tent indicated by Eldin. Faultner, Smith, and the others had to stride to keep up with him.
When they entered the tent, they saw the other two sellers of that day, Bashir and Ella, as well as more armed guards. The tent was quite spacious. There was a long table in the middle, covered with a white cloth. Behind the table was a large piece of nylon cloth, and the outline of three rectangles could be vaguely seen. They seemed to be three coffins.
Coffins with mummies in them?
Ford could not help but feel excited when he saw the outlines, let alone Edwin. He almost pounced on the coffins, but was stopped by Bashir.
"Mr. Edwin, don't be hasty." "We still have a lot of other good stuff," Barshire said with a little more confidence and a little more domineering.
Ella, on the other hand, was even more domineering. She was carrying an automatic rifle and several rounds of ammunition belts. "You have money with you, right? We give you things, and you give us money. That's all for today. If you have any evil thoughts, you won't be able to go back."
"Don't talk nonsense with me!" Edwin suddenly roared. His usual gentleness was gone, and the veins on his pale, skinny face were bulging. "We will give you the money, we will, but you don't understand the situation now. It's not that simple … These things, they involve secrets. I can feel it, secrets …"
Bashir and Ella were stunned. This old man was like a drug addict. The two looked at each other. Did that mean the things were more valuable?
"Edwin means the secrets of history." Paul Smith immediately tried to smooth things over. "For people who love archaeology, that's what makes relics priceless."
"If you have anything good, take it out," Faultner chimed in. "As long as we like it, the price can be negotiated."
He did not know if his old friend had already realized that he would fall into such a state a few days ago, so he called him for help when he was far away in Lundy.
But now that he thought about it, when this deal was over, it would not be as simple as a nap. This old friend of his was under too much pressure. He wanted to achieve something like Shang Boliang so badly that he almost broke down. Perhaps he needed to rest for a while to adjust his state of mind, or even to see a psychiatrist.
But then, Faultner saw Bashir walk to the long table and lift the white cloth covering the table, revealing the relics on the table.
His eyes widened, and his heart skipped a beat.
There were some bottles and jars of pottery on the long table. This did not surprise him, because a tomb with a bowl of water would have these containers.
What attracted his attention was a ceramic animal statue placed in the middle of the table. It had a ram's head and a lion's body. In a moment of trance, he seemed to see the two curved ram's horns spinning like a whirlpool, spinning thousands of years of history and countless secrets.
Edwin had already walked up quickly, and the expression on his face became even stranger. He was also looking at the ceramic animal statue, and his mouth was mumbling something that others could not understand, mixed with English. "The Sun God with a ram's head … Here, the Nubian region … Nile … Kushi people …"
Others might not be able to hear anything, but when Faultner heard these words, his mind flipped, and other knowledge and thoughts came to him.
Could it be that his previous interpretation of the Holy Book was in the wrong direction? The rebellion did not happen during Djoser's era, but during the New Kingdom?
That bowl, this tomb, they were all products of the New Kingdom?
For some reason, when Faultner walked to the ceramic animal statue, his heart turned a little bit. What Edwin said was an inexplicable fear.
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