AU Bigbang: Jackal (2/2)
While the zoo had even been crowded for a Monday, there was next to no one at the museum. They parked relatively close to the front entrance of the museum complex. There was only one bus in the parking lot, and the rest were a scattering of normal cars.
Ed craned his neck and looked up at the huge half-domed ceiling in the main rotunda of the museum while Al paid for their tickets. Ed knew better than to rock-paper-scissors the purchase of the tickets with Al, so they had flipped a coin.
"This place is cool," Ed said as Al walked back over to him. He glanced up at the painted murals on the walls depicting the museum's former occupation as a train station. Al handed Ed his ticket to the exhibit.
"C'mon, we've only got an hour," Al said. "The ticket-taker said that the curator in charge of the exhibit usually is around, so if we had any questions about having some hieroglyphics translated we should be able to find him there."
"So we're playing tourists this time?" Ed checked.
"Something like that."
The Egyptian exhibit was set up with large fake pillars marking the entrance. There were several people milling around that entrance, looking at display cases so it was clear that this exhibit was currently the main draw for the museum. Ed and Al walked through the entrance, each scanning over the main room.
There was a large, fake replica of four statues from the Great Temple at Abu Simbel that Al stopped beside. The statues were almost taller than he was and there were photographs of the actual thing that showed the vast grandeur of the ancient civilization. Ed wandered away from Al to peer into glass cases full of all sorts of relics recovered from the excavated tombs of the pharaohs.
Ed found a wall full of recreations of the paintings found on the inside of famous tombs. They were covered in the hieroglyphic script of ancient Egypt, naturally, so Ed pulled out the paper with the rubbing on it and began to compare it to the painted symbols on the wall. He couldn't make sense of any of it, the symbols were similar but nothing struck him as the same ... not that he knew what the hell any of it meant! Ed made a frustrated noise and turned to see what Al was looking at.
There was an older gentleman standing right beside him, with gray hair and a strange demeanor. He was dressed in the museum's uniform with a name tag. "Looking for something?" he asked pleasantly.
"I, uh-" Ed looked at the paper and then the wall of hieroglyphics. "Can you read any of this?" He gestured to the wall behind him.
The older gentleman laughed. "Of course I can," he said with a conspiratorial wink to Ed. "I wouldn't be of much use here if I couldn't!"
"Right," Ed said. He offered the paper to the man. "Can you read this?"
The man took the paper from his hand and frowned at it for a moment, mesmerized by the symbols. "That's the cartouche of Imseti; one of the four sons of Horus."
"Cartouche," Ed repeated the unfamiliar words. "Of Imseti?"
"See how there's an outline around the symbols?" The man pointed to the line encircling the hieroglyphics. "That signifies a cartouche, a royal seal. It's more of a signature, so it isn't used often for the names of the gods ... although it isn't unheard of."
"Who's Imseti?" Al had come up behind Ed while the older gentleman was talking.
"One of the four sons of Horus," Ed regurgitated.
The museum worker laughed. "He's only really found on canopic jars," he said.
"Canopic jars?" Ed said. "Aren't those the things they used to store the guts of the mummies in?"
"Hey, Mr. Bausin!" A girl in the museum's uniform waved as she passed by. "Joey's looking for you!"
"Thank you, Kelsey," the curator said, acknowledging the girl with a wave. "I'm sorry; you boys will have to excuse me."
"Do you happen to have any canopic jars on display here?" Al asked.
"Further on down the exhibit, right next to our pharaoh," Bausin said. "Enjoy the rest of the exhibit!"
Ed and Al wandered in that direction leisurely. "How did you know about canopic jars?" Al asked, tilting his head at Ed.
"Because they come up often in horror movies about mummies," Ed said. He smirked at Al. "And you say horror movies never teach you anything."
"They don't," Al said. "You're just a freak."
"You're the freak," Ed cleverly retorted. They walked around the corner of the display into a make-shift "tomb" that held the mummified remains of a king.
The pharaoh's body had been partially unwrapped. Ed stopped beside the display, staring down at the thousand-year-old corpse. Al stood beside him. "Man," Ed said after a long moment. "I'm sure glad we don't have to fight mummies."
Al snorted a laugh and moved on past Ed. In the display case against the wall there were four ancient jars. One was cracked and another was laid out in pieces. The wall behind it explained the process of mummification as well as the purpose of the canopic jars. "The Book of the Dead," Ed said in a mock-spooky voice while Al actually read the text of the plate on the wall.
"Ed," Al said in annoyance. He pointed at the jars. "What do you see?"
"A monkey, a bird, a dog and a man," Ed said, looking at the ancient sculpted and painted faces. "Wait."
"All the missing organs sync up to the canopic jars," Al said. "The human headed one, Imseti, held the liver."
"And the baboon the lungs, I'm guessing," Ed said. "The hawk the entrails and the jackal the stomach?"
"You'd win the pot," Al said. "So why did whoever did this kill real animals? These jars are made to hold human remains. So what's the purpose behind this?"
"Some kind of ritual, obviously," Ed said. "Especially since each one was killed during the same phase of the lunar cycle."
Al groaned and scrubbed a hand through his hair. "What's Gallagher's purpose in all this, though? Is he trying to harness some kind of power? Create a mummified monster?"
"Bobby hasn't found anything yet?" Ed said they made their way through the end of the exhibit. "Guess we've hit a wall."
There was a whole kid's section near the end of the exhibit, where they could sit down and make colored hieroglyphics and other assorted activities. Standing just inside the exit was the museum worker, Bausin, and a man in a dark suit. They stopped talking as Ed and Al approached them, as they had to get past the two of them in order to exit the exhibit.
Bausin smiled at Ed and Al. "Did you learn everything you needed to?" he asked genially.
"More than we were anticipating, but not everything we were looking for," Ed said curiously. "It was a good way to kill time, though."
Bausin glanced back at his colleague in the dark suit. "This is what I've been trying to tell you, Joey. The exhibit needs more to it, it'll draw more people."
The man in the suit frowned at Ed and glanced at Al. "The exhibit is fine the way it is, Dr. Bausin," he said finally. "The museum doesn't have the money to expand it and you know that."
Ed looked between the two men, obviously caught up in some sort of argument they were having. Al stepped in to rescue Ed. "Well, it's a wonderful exhibit, thank you for answering our questions, Dr. Bausin," Al said. He had picked up a brochure and caught Ed's eye.
"Just doing my job," Dr. Bausin said cheerfully, although his expression didn't reach his eyes. Ed and Al bid the curator a good day and headed out of the exit and back into the main rotunda of the museum.
They stood near the exit of the Egypt exhibit but neither Bausin nor his suited friend emerged. Ed shoved his hands in his jeans and blew out a breath. "I wonder what that was about?"
"Ed," Al said, holding up the brochure. "Look at this."
Ed glanced at the front of the brochure. It said "The Mysteries of Egypt" on it and had a photograph of the mummy they had seen. Near the bottom of the page, however, it had listed the names of the curators on it. There were two. "Peter Bausin," Ed said, identifying the old man immediately. "And... Joseph Burne?" He looked at Al. "You're kidding."
"Well, that gives us a whole new angle on things," Al said grimly.
"I'd say," Ed snorted. He looked around the rotunda. "So Joseph Burne - who is Karen Lunn's mysterious missing fiancé - works for the Egyptian department of the local museum."
"And then Karen is found dead with her liver missing, the last of four animals matching up to canopic jars," Al added.
"Well, it looks like Gallagher just got demoted off our list of suspects." He focused on one of the food shops set against the same wall as the entrance. "I am famished," he announced.
"Now we just need to figure out when he plans to do this ritual, whatever it may be," Al said. "And stop him." Al kept walking, right out the door of the museum. Ed gave a pathetic look at the eatery and followed his brother.
"If the killings themselves aren't the ritual," Ed pointed out.
"Now that I know which Joseph Burne we're looking at I can do some back history on him," Al said. "You keep an eye on him, see if you can get into his office and find out what he's up to." They stopped on the steps into the museum. There was hardly anyone entering the museum, even though the main attractions didn't close for another hour or two, the Egyptian exhibit closed early. Ed glanced back up at the front of the building.
"Yeah, because this guy is going to keep the internal organs he's cut out of people and animals in his work office."
"You never know, Ed." Al said, holding out his hand for the car keys. Ed grumbled but tossed them to him. "I'll call you later, be careful."
"You be careful with my car," Ed said as Al trotted down the remainder of the stairs. Al raised a hand in acknowledgement before Ed turned around and started back toward the entrance.
*
When Ed went back inside, Bausin and Burne had moved to the exit of the exhibit. They were clearly arguing about something. Bausin looked disapproving and Burne growing increasingly agitated. The bad thing about them having this discourse in public meant that they were keeping their voices down and Ed had never mastered the art of reading lips like his brother had. The good thing, on the other hand, meant that Ed could piddle around the food court and not be out of place while he was keeping an eye on the two men.
One ridiculously overpriced slice of pizza and a beer (they sold beer in this museum! Ed was officially in love with the place) later, Ed found a seat at a small circular table and ate his food slowly. He had carefully situated himself so he wasn't facing them directly, but instead the giant screen that was showing different IMAX attractions. They were still in his line of sight, though, so Ed watched them on his peripheral vision.
Abruptly, Burne was done with the argument. He snarled something and turned with a flourish, heading for the employees-only door. Ed stood up quickly and dumped his plate into the trash. Bausin hadn't moved, just turned around to stare at the exit of the Egyptian exhibit, but he was between Ed and the employee door that had now since closed behind Burne and locked.
Ed lingered by a display case as Bausin sighed. The older curator looked around but didn't seem to see anything, never mind Ed. He turned and ambled back toward the exit of the Egyptian exhibit. Ed let out a breath he'd been holding and waited until Bausin vanished between the two pillars before moving again.
While there was still a bit of a crowd about, Ed knew the basics of a successful infiltration were to look as natural as possible and that's what he did. He slipped in behind a girl wearing the museum's uniform and even held the door for her, which she thanked him for with a flirtatious grin.
"Do you happen to know where Dr. Burne's office is?" Ed asked. "I'm new, and running an errand for the bossman-"
"Oh yeah," the girl said. "He's on the bottom floor, near the loading docks. 'Cause no one wants to lug those stupid stones all over the museum." Before Ed could ask her where the stairs were, she pointed. "You go down the hall and down the stairs. It's a hard office to miss."
"Thanks," Ed said.
The girl gave him a grin and tossed off a wave as she disappeared down one of the many corridors behind the exhibits. Ed watched her go carefully, glancing around. Now that he was back in the restricted employees-only area there were few locks to worry about. There were cameras, though, so Ed made it look like he belonged, while keeping his face away from being fully captured on the film the entire time.
Everyone back here knew where they were supposed to go and not everyone was dressed in the floor uniform. In fact, a lot of the employees were actually wearing clothes similar to Ed's. They worked with artifacts and the set up and break down of exhibits; they didn't deal with the public. Not a single person there gave him a second glance as he moved confidently down the corridor.
The stairwell was enclosed, concrete stairs. It was very utilitarian. Ed was opening the door to the basement level when he saw movement; Burne was leaving his office. Ed darted back into the stairwell, certain he had been seen. However, Burne passed the stairwell without glancing at it, apparently heading toward the loading dock. His suit coat had been abandoned, and the sleeves of his dress shirt were rolled up, tie loose. That told Ed he was coming back to his office; he didn't have much time.
Burne's had left the door to his office partially ajar. The nameplate was new, although it was scraped up. He hadn't been working at this particular museum for that long, apparently. The office itself was full of artifacts and papers, books pile in stacks on the floor and some still in boxes. There were several chairs, somewhere, under all the papers and books. Small bits of stoneware and broken pottery littered Burne's desk, and it looked to Ed's untrained eye like the bits of a canopic jar. Papers covered in hieroglyphics were everywhere, completely incoherent to Ed. However, something he DID recognize was a figure drawn on paper half under some of the other papers.
It was a transmutation circle.
Ed yanked the paper out from under the others. He had never seen this particular arrangement before. The form was unmistakable, though. The symbols were all there, just like the ones he'd seen in his father's journal scrawled sloppily in the margins. It was similar to the one that had been painted on the floor in the warehouse where they'd fought the homunculi. What was Burne UP to?
"Do you like the design?" Burne asked as he closed the door to his office behind him.
"It's very unique," Ed said, not showing any surprise at being found out so quickly. Al was going to kill him later. If he managed to live through this. "What's it for? It doesn't look like anything else you've got here."
"I'm not sure yet," Burne said, picking his way around the piles of stuff and standing behind his desk. He glanced at Ed's face and frowned. "Do I know you?"
Ed held his breath. Burne didn't quite recognize him; he had barely glanced at Ed earlier. "Possibly?" Ed said. "It's only my third day."
"What department are you with?" Burne asked disinterestedly, shuffling through several papers. "They didn't send you down to me, did they? Bausin's the one who needs an assistant, not me."
"Not quite," Ed admitted. "I was just kinda wandering around on my break. I hate just sitting, you know?" Ed glanced around the room, and then he held up the paper he had taken from Burne's desk. "This seems kinda out of place with all the hieroglyphs," he offered.
Burne looked up at Ed and gave him a considering glance. "That's because it's alchemy," he said.
"Alchemy?" Ed repeated, the twinge in his stomach reappearing. "What does alchemy have to do with ancient Egypt? I thought that was all scientists and stuff wanting to turn lead into gold, or something."
"Egypt was one of the major birthplaces of alchemy," Burne said. "One of the first and oldest books on alchemy came from Egypt." He got up from his seat. "Would you like a drink? It's hot and thirsty work moving stuff around down here, if that's what you're taking a break from." Ed was going to decline, but Burne had already turned to a sink hidden under a pile of scrolls. Burne began to remove things from the sink before running water from the tap into a glass for Ed. He got himself some water from the tap as well, and Ed watched him suspiciously.
Burne had not made any strange moves, and Ed waited for him to drink his water before he took a sip. Burne downed half the glass easily. "So you're really in to this whole alchemy thing in ancient Egypt, huh? Think you're going to turn lead into gold or something?"
"Did you know," Burne said thoughtfully. "There was a great court magician by the name of Imhotep. He was one of the few non-Pharaohs to be deified by the Egyptians. One popular theory is that he is the same as the Greek Asclepius, who had many contributions to the birth of alchemy."
"That's fascinating," Ed said. "Thanks for the water, but my break's almost over, and I really should be getting back-" Ed put the half-full glass of water on the edge of Burne's desk and caught himself dizzily.
"Do you really think," Burne said, moving the water around in his glass and watching it, before glancing back up at Ed. "I would have gotten as far as I have in these studies without recognizing you on sight, Elric?"
The edges of Ed's vision were beginning to go cloudy. "What the hell did you put in the water?" Ed asked groggily. "I didn't taste anything off..."
"Just a bit of a sleeping draught," Burne said with a sharp grin. "You won't feel a thing, I promise."
"Like what you used on, on Karen Lunn?" Ed tried to fish around in his pocket for his cell phone, but the sleeping potion was doing a number on his coordination at the same time.
"Something like that," Burne said, watching Ed flail around with little interest. "Enjoy your nap, Elric." Ed slumped to the floor, completely unconscious and not once managing to pull his cell phone from his pocket. "Your timing couldn't have been better. I was going to use that old fool Bausin, but you? You're going to play an integral part in these proceedings." Burne smiled and sat back in his chair, finishing off his water. He had plenty of time.
*
Talking with Bobby turned up absolutely nothing of value. Al sat at a table in the large local library and rubbed his eyes. He hadn't been sleeping well lately, mostly because Ed hadn't been sleeping well. Ed didn't quite talk in his sleep, but ... sometimes he'd make a funny noise or something. And sometimes he would throw himself out of his bed as if he was trying to escape some sort of horror only he could see. Al hated to think it, but Ed didn't even have nightmares like this fresh out of hell.
It could be that it was the combined weight of everything that had happened. Ed wouldn't talk to Al about it, and every time Al tried to bring it up he just got angry. Then they would fight, and yell, and someone would storm off in a huff. They could never sit and discuss things like rational human beings, either Ed would yell at Al or Al would yell at Ed and it always slid downhill fast from there.
So here he was, ridiculously tired and slightly out of sorts, reading through books so bone-dry and boring they were starting to make his eyes cross. Al had been through every possible variation of the ancient and archaic Egyptian mummification rituals and not a single one was giving him a clue as to what the hell Burne was trying to do. Al closed another large and old book and resisted the urge to put his head on the table and groan. Instead, he rubbed that space between his eyes that always seemed to ache when he hadn't had enough sleep.
He took a deep breath and glanced at the pile of books he had yet to go. Selecting the next-thickest, Al flipped it open and started skimming.
It was an hour or so later when Al realized that he hadn't heard from Ed in a while. Not a call or a text message, so Al sent off a text message just to check on Ed. The museum was long since closed, but Ed probably had wormed himself into something, so Al didn't worry just yet. He tried calling Bobby again, only to get chewed out that Bobby would call HIM when he found something, and to "stop calling every damn hour, can't get any work done if you don't shut up and leave me alone!" Al put up his books and stared blankly at his laptop screen.
"Canopic jars, and mummification, and internal organs," Al muttered, to himself, propping his elbows on the table and folding his hands before his mouth. "What's the link? What is Burne trying to do?"
Nothing was popping out at Al, nothing at Al. He sighed and picked up the pencil he had been using to take notes, doodling idly in the margins of the notebook. He traced over three points, they formed a triangle and he kept mindlessly tracing over and over it again as he thought. He had almost completely obscured the margin of the notebook when his cell phone went off. Al had remembered to put his phone on vibrate so instead of disturbing the entire library it only rattled across the table. The caller ID showed Bobby's home number.
"Yeah?" Al answered quietly, not wanting to make Bobby leave a voicemail.
"I think I've got it," Bobby said triumphantly. "It was hard as hell to track down because it's not entirely an Egyptian ritual, it just started that way. It's some kind of bizarre corruption intended to grant immortality to the conjurer, and it goes directly against the Egyptian teachings of immortality too, interestingly enough."
"How does it grant immortality?" Al asked, packing up his notes one-handed.
"Not entirely sure, but it's supposed to summon ... something. The text I found was rather incomplete in that nature."
"Wonderful," Al muttered. "Idiots summoning shit they don't know how to deal with again. Any idea on when the ritual needs to be held?"
"If I had to lay my bets I would say tonight," Bobby said. "It bein' the full moon and all."
"Thanks," Al said. "We owe you one, Bobby."
"You owe me twelve," Bobby grumbled as Al disconnected the phone. He finished packing up his laptop and then frowned at his phone. Ed still hadn't texted or called Al back. Well, Al would swing by the museum to pick Ed up and with any luck; Ed would have some idea where Burne might be holding the ritual.
To Al's surprise, it was well after dusk by the time he exited the library. He hadn’t realized how much time had passed since the late afternoon, and he glanced at his phone again. To settle his mind he dialed Ed's number as he tossed his laptop bag into the back seat of the Impala. Ed's phone picked up and went straight to voicemail.
Well, that couldn't be good.
They never turned their phones completely off, even when they were with each other. There was no telling who would try to get a hold of them, it was a safety measure to just go ahead and keep them on. That as a sign that someone got their hands on Ed's cell phone and had turned it off. If they weren't in the middle of a case Al might dismiss it, but there was no way that Ed would voluntarily turn off his cell now.
Al headed back toward the museum. There were still lights on despite the lateness of the hour, and several cars parked on the far side of the lot. Workers toiling after-hours, behind the scenes, Al reasoned. Al parked the Impala amidst those vehicles to not call attention to it, and got out of the car. The loading docks, where tractor-trailers parked to unload their valuable merchandise would be the best place to try to gain entrance to the museum now.
As Al trotted around to the far side-of the parking lot, he saw a semi parked unattended at one of the loading docks. Al hesitated in the shadows, and then slunk over to the tractor trailer. No one seemed to be around, either unloading or loading the vehicle. So he stepped out of the shadows and walked casually over to the end of the truck, then caught onto the edge of the dock and pulled himself up easily. There wasn't a soul in sight, although all the lights were on.
Al, like Ed, never went into a situation unarmed if he could help it. Al checked his gun before he got inside and made sure the clip was full, and now he pulled it out, flipping the safety off with his thumb. He was pretty sure he was going to need it.
The loading dock was small. There were only two doors that a semi could back up into. Several skids full of boxes and other paraphernalia were shrink-wrapped, either having just come off the truck or being prepared to be loaded. There was a pallet jack sitting unattended near the exit.
Still no one. Al had his gun up and was sweeping in front of him as he came up on the exit from the loading docks. There had only been a few cars in the lot, and they very well could have belonged to the security guards that Al was certain the museum had. Al was going to feel pretty stupid if Ed and Burne weren't here.
Then Al turned a corner, and glanced something out of the corner of his eye. A foot was sticking out from behind several crates near the door. Very carefully, gun out, Al edged around the crates and scowled. It looked like the security guards were not going to be anyone's problem. At least he knew that Burne probably intended to do the ritual here, then. Of course that left the problem of where the hell Ed was, but Al had a feeling that if he found Burne, he'd find Ed.
Now Al didn't expect anyone to impede his progress, and he had no idea if Burne knew if he was coming or not. The gun stayed up and Al stayed cautious as he made his way down the concrete hallway. There were crates and sometimes large stone artifacts pushed to the side in the hall. For a brief moment, Al realized he felt like he was in a first person shooter, and let that thought amuse him as he turned a corner.
A good ten minutes of investigating turned up absolutely nothing on the basement level. He passed by what had to be Burne's office, although the door was closed and locked. Al had paused by it, ear to the heavy door but couldn't tell if there was anything on the other side. The door was too large and heavy for him to kick in easily, but judging by the open office on the other side, the interior of Burne's office had to be tiny. There was little chance he was doing the ritual in there. Al kept going and was trotting up the stairs when a thought struck him. It was too ironic for it not to be the case, and would explain Burne's need to kill the security guards. Al bypassed the rest of the back rooms and exited through one of the employees-only doors into the Mysteries of Egypt exhibit.
The lights were all up in the exhibit, bright and revealing, not kept at the dim and smoky levels they were at during the day. The bright lights showed how gaudy and fake several of the exhibits were, the colors best shown under the partial light. Al let the door click quietly shut behind him, and after a hesitant moment he heard a low groan. That spurred him onward.
Al turned a corner quickly and found his brother. Ed was chained to one of the low-cut stone pillars, seated on his ass. He looked out of it, like he was coming off of a decent sedative. "Ed," Al hissed quietly.
Ed opened his eyes and glanced up, spotting Al instantly. "Al! Dude, you've got to hide, Burne'll be here any second!"
"I'll get you out of here first," Al said, taking a step forward toward Ed. There was a very loud click as Burne cocked Ed's own gun, the barrel pointed at the back of Al's head. "So very nice of you to join us, Alphonse," Joseph Burne said. Al raised his hands slowly, letting his gun dangle from one finger. Burne grabbed it from Al's hand and then prodded him forward with the muzzle of Ed's gun.
"Great rescue attempt," Ed said as Burne chained Al's wrists to the same column as Ed's. "Wonderful. If we get out of this alive remind me to kick your ass."
Al sighed, his back opposite Ed's to the pillar. "Shut up, Ed. Please, just shut the hell up."
The display room had been transformed from earlier in the day. As Al tested his restraints he looked around. The display case that had stood in the center of the room had been pushed aside. On the concrete floor a very distinct pattern of lines had been drawn; some kind of transmutation circle, Al recognized. "What is it with us and attracting alchemy freaks?" Al speculated out loud. "This is all your fault, Ed."
"Sure, blame it all on me," Ed said with a sigh, rattling his chains. "Because I can totally predict and control the crazy that people end up getting infected with."
"If both of you don't shut up," Burne exclaimed from the other side of the room, "I'm sure I can find you some very unpleasant gags." His grin was unsettling. "I'd really rather not gag you. I'd like very much to hear your screams."
"You're fucking twisted." Ed said pointedly. Both Ed and Al watched as Burne vanished out of the room, presumably to act upon his threat.
"A transmutation circle?" Al said. "Seriously?"
"Yeah," Ed muttered. "I know, right?"
"Do you recognize it?"
"Kind of," Ed said affirmatively. "I mean, I recognize parts of it. The triangles are integral, but as to the whole idea behind this one I have not a freakin' clue." He rested his head back against the stone column. "I have such a fucking headache you have no idea. Did you get a chance to talk to Bobby?"
"He thinks it's an immortality ritual," Al said. "Some kind of bastardization of a true Egyptian mummification ritual."
"Makes an odd sort of twisted sense," Ed said. "People do weird-ass shit in the name of immortality." He twisted in his chains. "Any chance you can reach your ridiculously over-long arms into my pocket? I have a couple things you can use to pick the locks on these cheap theatre cuffs."
Al strained his arms against the column but had to give up. "Yeah, that's not gonna happen," he said. "You're too far away."
"Dammit," Ed groaned.
"Why did he even keep you alive?"
"Apparently part of the ritual involves equivalent exchange," Ed said. "And he has to exchange one warm body for whatever the hell it is he wants, which I guess is the elixir of immortality or something. So I get to be offered up to the thing he's going to summon through that fucking circle."
"Well, I hope whatever it is doesn't intend to eat you. You'd give it heartburn."
"Gee, thanks, Al." Ed craned his head back and looked up. The column only got wider the further up it went, until it touched the ceiling. "This guy knew who we were, and knew we were coming."
"How?"
"I don't even know," Ed groaned. "I am so damn tired of every other sicko we run across knowing dad or knowing OF dad or knowing of US and we don't have an clue who the hell they are."
"I hear you there," Al said, as Burne entered the room again, carrying a large bag. Burne had that unsettling grin still, and set the bag down in the circle.
"Two for the price of one," he said. "Did you boys have a nice discussion while I was away?"
"Oh please spare us the monologue," Ed said. "We know you're crazy, you're a wannabe alchemist, and you really want to be immortal. Anything else I don't give two shits over."
Burne shrugged. "Fair enough." He rifled through his bag and came up with two Tupperware containers. He placed first one, setting it on a point on the inner circle of the lines drawn on the floor, then walked the second one immediately opposite it.
"You kept animal guts in Tupperware containers?" Al asked.
"I froze them," Burne said as he set the third and fourth own. "Couldn't have them rot before I could use them."
"You're disgusting," Ed said. "The whole reason you started dating Lunn was to get access to the zoo, wasn't it?"
Burne picked the bag up and tossed it out of the circle, pointedly ignoring Ed's question. "Now then, I think it's time that we get started."
*
Ed rested his head back against the pillar, his eyes closed. All Burne had been doing for the past twenty minutes was chanting low, in a language that Ed didn't recognize, but if he had to guess was more than likely ancient Egyptian. His head throbbed; whatever the hell Burne had drugged him with had left a killer migraine in its place.
Burne had thankfully left the internal organs in their Tupperware containers, but had removed the lids. The smell of the defrosting innards was enough to make him gag, but Burne didn't seem to notice it. Al was silent behind him; they both were watching Burne intently and trying to figure out a way to get out of the chains he'd used to bind them with.
There was something about this whole thing that bugged Ed. Something about the circle drawn on the floor that didn't seem right. It was reminding him of something he'd seen before and he couldn't quite pin it down, but it was telling him that whatever this guy was planning to summon, it wasn't going to work.
All of the sudden, the shackle around Ed's right wrist clicked open. Ed glanced over and to his surprise, the old curator Bausin was there. He had several keys in his hand, and when Ed looked at him he put one finger to his lips before quickly flipping through the keys to get Al's shackle unlocked.
Ed couldn't see Al, but he could sense Al's shoulders tense. How had Bausin gotten in here? Was he working with Burne? Why would he release Burne's prisoners? Ed very carefully lifted his left wrist, trying to keep the chain from dragging on the ground while he attempted to pop the latch on the other cuff.
He wasn't quiet enough. Burne looked up and saw what he was doing. "Hey!" he barked. "How did you get out of those chains?"
Ed glanced back but Bausin was already gone. Good. Burne got too close to Ed's legs and he kicked out, catching the Egyptologist in the knee. Burne staggered back and that gave Ed enough time to clamber to his feet as well. "You know about us, huh?" Ed said, shaking his head to clear it from the fog. "Well then, you also know that we get the job done."
Burne struck at Ed and he dodged the blow, catching the next punch on his forearm and deflecting it. Ed grabbed Burne's outstretched hand around the wrist and flipped him. "Al!" Ed called as Burne scrambled to his feet and caught Ed in his solar plexus. All the air left Ed's lungs in a hurry. "The circle," he gasped. "Destroy it!"
Ed staggered back as Burne shoved him into the pillar and tore after Al. "No!" Burne shrieked, and then shouted something else, very clearly in Latin. As Burne's foot touched the circle, it lit up on its own, the light quickly consuming the room. Al was caught on the lines of the transmutation circle, but had the right good sense to get the hell off of them, to no apparent ill effects.
The light that this array shone with was not the lightning-blue that Ed remembered. It was a red color, dark and coiling like the color of blood. It had consumed all four of the Tupperware containers and then some. Burne laughed insanely and threw his hands into the air. "I feel it!" he shouted.
Red coils of lightning were creeping off the lines and coming straight for the closest person, Al, who saw them and started backing away. The room was small, though, he didn't have much of anywhere to go to get away from them. Ed didn't see the small red coils of light, he saw dark tentacles ending in hands from his nightmares reaching for his brother and something within him just broke. Ed let out a yell of sheer rage and clapped his hands together mindlessly. The first thing his fingers found was the chain still dangling from his left wrist and it vanished in a flash of blue light. Ed glanced down at the machete that he was now holding like he didn't quite comprehend how it got there, but he wasn't going to argue its appearance.
The machete cut through the red and black light coils like they were something real and tangible and not made of energy, dissipating and vanishing back into the circle. Al did a double-take at the weapon in Ed's hand. He had seen Ed turn the chain into a machete but was beginning to believe he had hallucinated the transmutation right before his eyes.
"I knew it!" Burne shouted. "I knew you were one of them too!"
Ed held the machete in a loose grip in his right hand, standing between Al and Burne. "One of who?" Ed growled, moving to the left or right with Al, keeping himself between Burne and his brother. He hear Al's snarl of aggravation from behind him but disregarded it, this was too important. He wouldn't let that thing have his brother too.
His machete moved quickly and sliced through any of the tendrils that reached for him or Al, until they started coming at him more than one or two at a time. Ed was quickly getting overwhelmed, and the red and black coils of light started to wrap around Ed, around his left arm where he was using it to block, and around his legs. He became more concerned with fighting them off than with what Al was doing, and Al went for the guns.
Then, abruptly, the lights of the circle faded. Burne looked around in confusion as the black and red light receded into the transmutation circle but didn't completely extinguish. The lines beneath his feet still seemed to hum with some hidden power.
Ed did not drop his protective stance; an Al had managed to recover his gun. He held it, bead drawn on Burne, at an angle from where Ed stood. "The smart thing to do here," Al instructed, cocking the gun, "is to step out of the circle, Burne."
The bright lights over their heads blew out. All three of them glanced at the ceiling in confusion, and then Ed and Al looked at each other. "That can't be a good sign," Al said, and Ed shook his head quickly in assent.
They both looked about, waiting for the angel to emerge but to everyone's surprise, Bausin was standing by the pillar, still holding the keys to the cuffs. He was looking at the ceiling, perplexed, just as surprised at the lights blowing out as everyone else.
"Bausin!" Burne cried, throwing his hands out. "Look, I've done it!"
The old curator shook his head sadly, looking at the charred remnants of the Tupperware containers. "I didn't want to believe it," he said. "You killed Karen? For this?"
Burne snarled at the older man. "She was going to leave me anyway, said I was obsessed!"
"From a very biased third party," Al said, "You are totally obsessed." He hadn't dropped his sights from Burne's head. "Don't make any sudden moves, Burne, or else we're going to test out this immortality of yours."
Bausin shook his head. "Not like this, Joseph. You don't want to do this, trust me."
"I will summon him, and he'll grant me immortal life," Burne said. "He'll take the life of one of these worthless alchemists in exchange for the eternity of mine!"
"Hey!" Ed said, indignant. "Who are you calling worthless?"
Al shot Ed a look. "Who are you calling an ALCHEMIST?"
Bausin ignored the both of them. "Joseph," Bausin said quietly. "That's not how these things work, you know that."
"I hate to break in on this obviously very important conversation," Ed said. "But really, Burne, I'd leave the circle if I were you."
Burne let off a laugh and shook his head. "I know what you're trying to do," he said. "And I won't let you. This power will be mine!" He spread his arms wide and continued the chant in the language that Ed couldn't decipher. Al looked over at Ed, a glance that asked 'shoot him now?'
Then something strange happened. The dark red light of the transmutation circle extinguished entirely. Burne looked around the circle in confusion, then looked at Ed like Ed had done it. Ed still had the machete held in an outstretched hand, and he looked as confused as Burne did. He didn't know where the power had gone.
Al, however, was looking at Bausin. The older gentleman seemed to be rimmed in that dark red light for a moment, before it vanished into the air around him. When he opened his eyes though, the light was still there behind them.
"I warned you," Bausin said. "I warned you each and every time that you were messing with forces beyond your comprehension, Joseph." Bausin took a step forward and the red shimmer appeared around his body. "And now, you've gone and destroyed the one good thing in your life, and for what?" Another step forward. "Some ideal of immortality?"
His form was beginning to shimmer along the edges and Ed at first thought it was a trick of the dim light. With the transmutation circle extinguished the only light came from the other end of the exhibit, or the emergency exit signs that pointed the way free. Bausin began to speak in a low tone, in the same language that Burne had been using. Burne got a clue and began to back up as Bausin approached him, an when the curator's foot touched the transmutation circle it let red again, brilliant red this time with no hint of the black tendrils that twisted along the lines before.
Bausin was gone. Something different stood in his place, something that made Al's aim falter and he took a step back, the gun wavering. The voice that spoke was different, too. Deeper, older ... and unused to the English words its mouth was now forced to form.
"You were given four chances," the jackal-headed man said with a low rumble. "You took each of them. Now you present me with the canopic animals and expect to gain the immortality that few deserve?"
Burne let out a squeak of horror and stumbled, landing back on his rear. A staff appeared in the creature's hand. He slammed it to the ground beside his feet and from the staff sprouted a set of scales. It grew quickly until it was at least as tall as the dark figure. The pure gold of the scales sparkled in the wan light, the red glow of the circle not reflected in its luminescence.
"Your immortality awaits, Joseph Burne."
Al inched toward Ed, his gun still held outright. "Stop right there," he tried, and when the jackal head turned to face him Al didn’t waver.
"Do not meddle in the affairs of that which you do not understand," it said.
"Meddling in the affairs of that which we don't understand is part of the job description," Ed said. The jackal-headed man snarled at him and the red light of the transmutation circle jumped to chest-height. The jackal head turned to face Burne again.
Burne was scrambling backwards in some kind of demented crab-walk, scuttling on his butt. The creature stalked toward him and Burne froze in fear. It leaned down and put one hand against his chest, and Burne gave a shout of fright as the red light crept up the creature's body and hand, and then the creature withdrew its hand. He held a perfect beating representation of a human heart. Burne clutched his chest, breathing raggedly.
"You will be judged," the creature intoned. He held up his free hand and the red light didn't seem to touch it as a perfect, glittering white feather appeared between his fingers. "You will be judged on the scale of Ma'at, to be worthy or unworthy of the gift of eternity."
The feather seemed to gleam with its own light. The jackal-headed creature placed the feather on one side of the scale, and the still-beating heart on the other. They balanced even for a few seconds and then, predictably, the heart began to sink, the feather raising into the air. Burne, scrambled to his feet and pressed back against the wall furthest from the scale. He let out a wail of despair as the scale dropped so low that its golden plate almost brushed the active lines beneath it.
"You have been judged ... unworthy." The figure said without raising its head. Burne began to wail louder as the shadows on the wall around him began to move. The Egyptian figures on the painted mural seemed to come to life as large, jackal-like shadows started to circle Burne. Ed's machete seemed to shake in the air and Al knew why, the shadows reminded Al of hellhounds. "Ammut awaits you."
"No!" Burne screamed as one of the shadows took his arm. "No, no wait!"
"You should have double-checked your translation," the voice coming out of the creature sounded like Bausin for a moment. "You mistook immortality for eternity."
With a last shriek, Burne disappeared into the wall behind him, dragged to whatever fate lay with the beast Ammut. The light running along the array extinguished instantly, and took all the other lights with it. After a few long moments, the backup generator that the museum ran on kicked in with a low hum and brought up dim emergency lights. They revealed an empty circle ... both Burne and Bausin were gone.
*
Two days later, Al sat in the Impala next to Ed, his elbow propped up against the window frame and his fingers massaging his temple. "It's a stupid idea, Ed," Al pointed out, trying not to focus too much on the headache that was forming behind his eyes.
"We've watched the news and the police bulletins for two days," Ed argued. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel as he considered it. They were parked in the main lot of the museum again, on a bright and sunny school day. There were several large yellow buses and enough cars in the lot that the Impala didn't stand out, and just to be safe Ed had switched the plates last night. "There's been not a peep about the dead guards and the destruction of the exhibit. Something's fishy here."
"Ed," Al said. "I get that you really want to be thorough about this job..."
"Besides, that jackal-headed jackass did kill that guy."
"Like we were going to."
"Well, we were gonna try to talk him down off his crazy first."
Al conceded that point. "What if someone recognizes us?"
"This is a tourist attraction, Al. They're not going to know us from Adam." Ed had made his decision and got out of the car suddenly. Al sighed and after a moment's hesitation, did the same.
There was a large class of kids in private school uniforms exiting the museum and generally getting under foot as Ed and Al trotted back up the stairs to the entrance. Ed held the door open for a young female teacher with a flirtatious grin, and Al had to yank the back of Ed's jacket to get him to actually go inside.
The Mysteries of Egypt exhibit was still there, but no longer open. Ed and Al exchanged knowing looks, the front of the exhibit, between the two statues, was roped off. They waited patiently in line to get to the ticket seller, and then Al inquired about the exhibit's closure. "Oh, it was just horrible," the ticket seller said with a sigh. "The head of the exhibit turned up dead in his office, a heart attack."
"Bausin?" Ed asked.
The girl nodded. "Yes. Dr Bausin had been with us for so long, he was like everybody's grandfather. And between that and Mr. Burne suddenly tendering his resignation ... well, we don't have anyone to keep up the artifacts currently." The ticket seller looked over at the person working beside her, and seeing that the man was distracted, she leaned over the counter and said in a conspiratorial whisper, "Besides, between you and me, we all figure Burne killed his fiancée and ran before the cops could catch up with him."
Al nodded and Ed wandered off toward where the exhibit was blocked off. There were some official looking men in suits standing near the entrance and Ed thought it better to not give them a good look at his face, and he lingered near a display kept outside the exhibit, in the hopes of attracting visitors to pay the extra expense. To Ed's surprise the artifact actually caught his attention.
According to the display plate, it was a depiction of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Ed recognized the scales instantly, and the figure of the half-man, half-jackal holding them.
"It's quite intriguing, isn't it?" Ed looked to his left to see one of the men in suits had wandered away from his group. "An archaic ritual."
"From a different time," Ed murmured, more to himself.
"Not so different," the man said. "Not that different at all." When Ed turned to ask the stranger what he meant, another man in a suit came up to him.
"Nabisu-sensei! The Director was talking all this time thinking you were standing right there, please, stop wandering off!"
"My apologies," the professor said, and allowed the other man to lead him off. Ed watched him go, confused by the encounter. Al sidled up to Ed then, looking a little embarrassed. Ed glanced back to the ticket seller and saw her wave at Al and he laughed. "Get her number?"
"Shut up, Ed," Al muttered. "Bausin's dead and so is Burke, can we please just put this miserable city behind us?"
Ed nodded, and then pointed at the Book of the Dead. "Look familiar?"
“It’s the Book of the Dead, Ed.” Al paused, and stared hard at the ancient painting. "Wait…"
"I know, right? Some kind of ritual performed by a demigod. And we were right there for it all." Ed shoved his hands into his pockets and rocked on the balls of his feet. "Although it's maddening to know that our presence didn't make one damn bit of difference."
"Bausin is Anubis," Al said in amazement.
"Crazy," Ed said. "But demigods and pagan gods have been hiding in plain sight for centuries."
"No, Ed. I meant that Bausin is an anagram. It spells out Anubis." Al rubbed his hand over his face. "I can't believe I didn't see that before."
"Well, who the hell realized that we were going to run across ancient Egyptian demigods while checking out something out of Hannibal Lector's repertoire," Ed said. Then he hesitated himself, and glanced over to where the professors and directors and what have you were having their meeting in front of the Egypt exhibit.
"What is it?"
"Nothing, Al, never mind." Ed shook his head. "Let’s go."