Amgyptapan

Chapter 17: Past Comes To Light

The curator wore long, tan pants, a safari jacket, a white, button up long-sleeved shirt with a pocket protector and a pitch black tie. His black hair was cropped into a military buzz cut. His facial hair was trimmed into a slightly bushy van dyke. His name was John Doe.

John Doe was the curator for the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He came from a highly privileged family. Because his family was rich, John Doe was raised to be greedy. His current expedition to Egypt was to fuel that greed.

John Doe had learned that a special artifact in Egypt, in the ruins of Thebes, was practically a gold mine. The expedition led deep underground, under the ruins of what used to be a palace. The curator was getting frustrated. So far, they had found minor objects that could sell for close to a million dollars each.

Unfortunately, John wasn't after million-dollar artifacts, he was after a billion-dollar artifact. He had a male half demon historian with him. John considered the demonic a half breed. Even though the half demon was practically leading them to their intended destination, that didn't mean that the curator thought that the other was worthy of his respect.

"Mr. Doe, I believe we have a problem. One of the workers encountered an...obstacle." A man that looked like a toad said to the curator.

"What sort of obstacle?" John Doe demanded, irritated.

"A box-like obstacle." The man answered.

"A box?" John repeated, shocked. "A fancy-looking box with inscriptions of the old language on the lid? Was that it?"

"Y-y-yes, Mr. Doe. That sounds like it." The man stammered.

"Fool!" John snapped, infuriated. "That 'obstacle' is what we're looking for! It's called a 'sarcophagus', a decorated coffin."

The man shook in fear. The half demon historian rolled his eyes. Despite John Doe's best efforts to get the half demon to fear him, the former was not in a mindset to be easily frightened. He went to stand next to the curator.

"Shit, if you don't calm down, you're going to give yourself a stroke." The half demon remarked.

John raged, "If I wanted your opinion, Half Breed, I would ask for it! Now, make yourself useful and go find out who is in the sarcophagus!"

"First, quit calling me a half breed. My name is Akiva! I fucking suggest you use it!" The half demon snapped back, "Second, I don't care of you want my opinion or not, I am still going to give it if I so desire! Third, I actually have an uneasy theory of who's in the sarcophagus."

John calmed a bit upon hearing that Akiva had a theory and asked, "Well, who do you think it is?"

"Look at the facts. I saw the sarcophagus a short while ago while the dig chief came up. I would have to date it to around 1981 B.C. If memory serves, that was in the Middle Kingdom. Now, back in those times, someone was only buried in a sarcophagus if they had a very important status, royalty for example, or if they had committed a great crime and were to be punished for all of eternity." Akiva explained, sinking into his well-read mind for information.

After a blank stare from John, Akiva rolled his eyes and elaborated, "I think the person in the sarcophagus is either very important or a high level felon. Those are the only two possibilities as to what the mummy inside could be."

"Which would fetch a better price?" John asked.

Akiva scoffed. Trust the curator to only think of money at a time like this. To be honest, Akiva wanted to learn more about the being inside the Egyptian coffin. Unfortunately, the sarcophagus was going to be shipped to the Smithsonian to be stored in the archives until a time when it could be sold for the greatest profit.