Blueblood 3: The Others - 8. Amir

We did go to sleep but woke up after a few hours to reset our bodies to this time zone. Now, I felt that lag because of the changes.

We woke after sunset, but it was important we try to adjust. “Why are we orienting ourselves?” I asked Colin as he rolled to regain a comfortable spot. “Vampires are night creatures.”

“Not this one,” Colin said with his voice muffled in the pillows. I heard him sigh and roll over and then sat up. “This is one time I really need that coffee.”

I gave him a surprised look. “Am I to understand all the other times you didn’t need the coffee?”

He reached up and was scratching his messed up, sleep tossed head of hair. “I can’t even think right.” He grinned. “I guess I need my caffeine fix.”

I smiled as I kissed him. “We’ll get that for you. We need to dress first.” I ran my hand over the bed. “This is a comfortable mattress.” I smiled touching the sheets. “I wonder what this is. It’s very nice.”

Colin chuckled. “What else? Egyptian cotton!”

I chuckled back. “Of course.” I looked out the window at the night sky. “We should check to see if Amasis replied to our notification.”

Colin got up. “I’m sure we’ll hear from him soon.” He stretched. “It will probably be like Edwin. He’ll send someone to us.”

We got in the oversized shower. Yes, together. It was almost big enough for a whole ball team. “Whoever this person was…” I said looking around. “He had money.”

We headed out to the dining areas. We were some of the very few up at this time, but Mark was up. He was looking at fixtures on the lamps and checking behind other things.

“Mark?” Colin asked watching him. “What are you doing?”

Mark looked up and smiled. “Looking for surveillance devices.”

“You think the house is bugged?” I asked.

“Of course,” Mark said logically. “This house is amazing! They just happen to have this place for us. Fully staffed and this…” he held his arms out to engulf the house, “…is a palace!” He looked at us seriously. “Yes, I think it’s bugged.”

Colin nodded with a smile. “I hope it is.”

Mark was not ready for Colin’s remark. “What!? You want them to overhear and see what we do here?”

Colin nodded again. “Sure.” He smiled. “What will they see? We’re doing what we say we are. We are using our program to translate hieroglyphics. We don’t have state secrets. And we are looking for vampires.”

Mark was startled. “You want them to know that!?”

Colin gave a shrug and nod. “Sure.” He grinned. “They might already know about the vampires. We do. They will learn that. If they don’t believe in vampires, they’ll think we’re just crazy. Am I what I say I am? They know that already.” He took my hand. “Other than perhaps seeing Devon and I loving each other…” He looked at Mark. “You are loving Stan. We are not doing anything of value to their government or endangering ourselves or others.” He laughed. “I hope they enjoyed the show. Yes, I hope the house is bugged.”

Mark was thinking about what Colin said. It took him a moment or two as his eyes moved left and right as he thought before he nodded. “Okay.” He shrugged and walked back to wherever he was with Stan.

I pulled Colin’s hand to my lips. “You want them to know,” I stated, not as a question.

Colin smiled. “We got cooperation from our FBI. We got cooperation with MI5 for those in Great Britain. If Tad Morsi is connected to the government…and we know his brother is in the government. We’ll find out.”

“And the servants here?” I asked as a woman was going through the corridor.

Colin shrugged again. “I hope they are all agents.”

“And if they…or even the government here has a connection to Amasis?”

Colin smiled. “Even better.”

When the sun did rise, we called at a decent time to Tad Morsi and asked if we could come to the museum that day. We would test the program and computer. Tad agreed.

Stan had set up the portable CPU in the secured room and he now had the key. We took various items and devices with us. I knew about hieroglyphics, but I couldn’t begin to know symbol one! Did they go from right to left? Left to right? Straight down?

We were escorted to an area of the museum where they had the writings.

Tad Morsi waved at the various scrolls and plagues that were covered with writing. “Here they are.” He motioned to another area. “We have the translations over…”

Colin waved his hand at that. “We don’t want to know what it says by someone else.” He said opening his laptop and booting it. “This will be the first test.” He smiled at Tad. “We’ll find out if the program can do it as well translating.” He handed me the scanner. “And you will do the scanning.”

My eyebrows rose. “I will?” I took the scanner. “I will.” I nodded and walked to the first scroll. I did the scan and we all looked at the screen as the Delkenzie program worked on what it got. We watched it go through the various symbols and began creating sentences in English on the screen. “It seems to be working.”

Colin nodded. “It’s going through syntax and making a readable sentence.”

Tad Morsi watched with eyes widened. “It’s fast.”

“The thing is…” Colin smiled. “Can Devon read this and get it right on the screen. He doesn’t read this.”

“He doesn’t know this?” Tad Morsi asked.

I shook my head. “No clue.” I grinned as I was starting to be able to read it. “This is…a recipe?”

Tad laughed. “It is!” He gave a shrug and a nod. “Well, it’s a remedy.”

I turned my head as if that would help. “What hyssop?”

Tad grinned more. “It’s for upset stomachs. It’s a plant that grows in the water here. It’s roughage for the stomach. It’s boiled down into a stew or broth, it literally scraps your insides and if there’s a blockage or just to cleanse the stomach and bowels, it will do that.”

“And these other ingredients?”

Tad smiled. “Flavor.” He said simply. He held his hands up. “I’m sorry, but I left that here on purpose. To see if you were really able to do this.”

Colin nodded. “I hope we passed the first test.”

Tad nodded again. “With flying colors.”

Colin smiled. “Well, Devon can’t read the original, but we were able to tell you what it says.” He hit some commands on the computer. “This remedy can be translated to metric, too.” He looked at the many scrolls and other samples. “Do we translate all you’re already translated? Or can we try something not translated? Or even something you have problems seeing?”

Tad led us to some other samples. “There are writings that haven’t faded. They’re just missing. Portions of the scroll or writings were lost through time.”

Colin laughed. “We can’t help you there. We can’t read what isn’t there.”

We spent most of the day translating what they already had translated to assure Tad Morsi the program worked. I learned there were different types of writing. Hieroglyphics were formal writings. There was also Hieratic, Demotic and Coptic! One was for every day, the other was for business and legal issues and the last was to bring other languages and sounds in Hieratic. Whatever. I just found out the program worked! Even Tad Morsi was impressed. I even forgot again why we were really here! I was fascinated!

We finally called it a day for that day and went back to the house we were staying in. Colin was checking his messages. Nothing.

“He knows we’re here,” I said.

Wayne frowned. “He’s biding his time?”

Colin shrugged. “Keeping an eye on us.” He said waving at the computer. “We could be…escorted any time.”

Stan nodded. “I’ll be on top of it.”

It was later that night when we were in our room. We sat together on the sofa before a huge fire in the fireplace.

We both turned at a knock on our door.

Colin looked at the door. “Come in.”

A young man I’d seen working here came in. “Excuse me.” He said coming in a bowed slightly. “I am Amir.”

He was a nice-looking man in his late twenties. Dark hair like all Egyptian men about six feet tall. His skin was distinctive as was with most Egyptians. A light color that wasn’t white, but…

“Is there something we need to know, Amir?” Colin asked.

“I will get to the point,” Amir said smiling. “Amasis wants to meet with you.” He smiled. “I will take you to him.”

Colin turned slightly. “I see.” He stood up with me. “Let’s go.” He waved to the door.

Amir smiled and shook his head. “It won’t be that simple.” He produced a little vial of liquid. “You must take this first.”

I chuckled. “Just to be clear,” I said walking toward Amir. “We came for this reason. We’re not supposed to know where we go or how we get there?”

Amir nodded. “Yes.”

Colin walked closer to Amir. “You’re not a vampire.” He sniffed near Amir and looked him in the eyes. “We’re to simply take what could be poison and simply come with you.”

Amir nodded again. “Yes.”

Colin nodded slowly. He took the vial. “Is this for both of us or just for me?”

Amir brought out another vial. “For one of you.” He held the other vial. “The other vial is for the other.” He looked sheepish. “If you don’t mind. Take it in the car. I don’t want to drag you both through the house.”

I nodded and took the other vial. “That would be cumbersome.”

“Not to mention the others on our team would come to our rescue.” Colin nodded. He thought and looked at Amir. “You know?” He handed the vial back to Amir. “On second thought, no.”

I was startled when Colin said that. “No?”

Colin nodded. “No.” He said again simply. “Whoever this Amasis thinks he is, I know what I am. What we are.” He waved to me and him. “I am a vampire. So, is Devon. We’re out in the sun. Is Amasis? We have what he wants. I understand he may not be able to travel in daylight. Fine. But I will not allow Devon or me or anyone here to be spirited away in the night to places unknown to meet someone unknown.”

Amir looked surprised. “He’s willing to meet with you.”

Colin nodded. “And I want to meet with him.” He frowned. “But not like this.” He shook his head as he began pacing again. “I’m tired of all this…paranoia! I don’t want anything from him. I can go to the airport and go back home just fine.” He looked at Amir. “No. We won’t be taken. We’ll come to him! I have something he might want. I am a vampire. Everyone with me, except four of them, are vampires. We go in the sun, we eat and we have lives. It’s in the posts on the internet what we have worked. The United States is hard because it’s so spread out. England is gaining control. Now, we’re here offering that help to you. He doesn’t trust me? What reason has he given for us to trust him?” Colin shook his head. “No. We won’t take this. We won’t be kidnapped or taken to wherever he is. If he wants to rejoin the world. He will take all of us, or we just go back to the United States.”

Amir looked worried. “He will not like this.”

“And?” Colin asked. “I don’t like this!” He held up the vial and threw it down on the ground where it shattered. “I won’t do this. He can send us information as to where we can meet…” Colin fumed. “Or any potential deal is off.”

“You heard him.” I looked at Amir’s worried face. “If we don’t come with you, will there be problems for you?”

Amir looked at me. “No, not really.” He shrugged. “Amasis isn’t used to not getting what he wants.”

“Few people get whatever they want.” I grinned. “That’s not you, it’s us. Tell him that.”

Colin walked over to Amir and moved him to the door. “We’ll wait for his response. Tell him the old ways are done for us now. He can either join us or not. Either way, we’re fine.” He moved Amir out the door and shut it.

I smiled at Colin as I got near him. “That wasn’t a bluff, was it?”

Colin shook his head. “No.” He smiled at me. “Not trusting is our nature. That needs to change and he should be the one to do it to win our trust. I don’t have to do a damned thing to win his.” He looked at the door. “We need to tell the others what just happened and they need to be on alert.”

We told everyone with us what happened as gathered for a meal.

Mom looked worried. “Do you think they’ll try other drastic means?”

Colin shrugged. “Maybe, but it won’t work.”

“Colin’s right,” Mark said. “He and George have what they want. They’ll be back.”

Colin smiled. “Yes, they will.” He looked at everyone at the table. “Everyone goes.” He looked at Stan. “We’ll let Ruben know and he can keep track of us by satellite. Also, Edwin. If help is needed, it will have to come from them.”

For two days, we heard nothing. Colin and I spent time with Tad Morsi as he had us go through writings that still needed translating. Partial scrolls were read, too.

“This program works!” Tad Morsi said at last.

“It has for three days.” Colin pointed out. “Are there tombs or caves that need reading? We need to test in the field.”

Tad Morsi nodded. “There is a new find we’re going through. He wasn’t a king or anything, but the walls are faded. We can test that scanner and the program there.” He smiled. “It’s sort of remote.”

Colin looked a little worried. “How far away?”

“Two hours by vehicle.”

“If we fly?” Colin asked.

Mr. Morsi smiled. “Fifteen minutes to half an hour?”

Colin nodded. “I’ll make arrangements.”

We returned to the house just before sunset. Colin found Mom and Willie had gone downtown. George and Burke were upstairs doing…whatever. Stan, Mark, Chuck, Alex, and Gabriella were in the pool.

“Anything new?” Stan asked as he lounged on a floating lounge.

“No.” Colin shook his head.

Mark surfaced next to Stan. “We’re bored.”

Colin raised his eyebrows. “Bored?”

Mark grinned. “Well, yeah. You’re off doing…whatever. What do we do?”

I chuckled. “You’re living in a palace. There’s nothing to do?”

Stan shook his head. “Not really.”

Colin gave a frown. “Poor babies.” He said in mock pity.

That’s when Amir came in the pool area. “Amasis asked you to meet him.” He produced a map. Unrolling it, he brought it over to Colin and me. “Here.” He pointed on the map.

Stan swam over to the side and came out of the pool and leaned over the map by us.

I shoved Stan away a little. “You’re dripping on the map.”

“And us.” Colin chuckled.

Stan grinned. “It’s water, it will evaporate.” He looked at the map. “Sure, I’ll scan it. I’ll have the coordinates in no time.”

Amir looked cautious. “You can?”

Stan nodded. “Sure. These two towns are on the map. To get to this…” Stan looked closer. “…peak, I just have to triangulate and we’ll be there.”

Colin smiled at Amir’s surprise again. “When do we go here?”

“Tomorrow night,” Amir said. He looked at Stan. “You can do that?”

Stan nodded. “It’s not hard.” He couldn’t understand why Amir didn’t understand that. “It’s science.” He looked at Amir. “You do understand that, don’t you?”

Amir nodded. “I guess.”

Stan frowned. “Do you use a computer? You went to school, right?”

Amir shook his head. “I went to school at home. My mother taught me. I do use a computer. I send Amasis’ emails.”

“From your home?” Stan asked.

Amir nodded. “From where I live.”

Colin looked at Amir. “Tell this…Amasis. We’ll be there.”