“Richards Gross calling Ton Cremers.
Ton, come in. Come in Ton…” the walkie talkie echoed inside the large cabin
labelled, ‘Head of Museum Security’.
“Go for Ton. I’m listening.” He
said taking a big bite out of his perfectly buttered bagel.
“There is an unusual sight at ‘Valley
of Kings’ ground floor, West Wing. Do you copy?
“Loud and clear, heading West. Gross
this better not be a visitors gimmick, like last month. Out.” Ton said hastily
finishing his bagel as he headed downstairs.
Home to the oldest Ancient Seven
Wonders of the World, Egypt is the most famous of all historical sites in the
world. For almost 30 centuries, Egypt was the preeminent civilization in the
Mediterranean world and has managed to preserve its charm in the beauty of its
unparalleled art, the accomplishment of its architecture or the richness of its
religious traditions. Egypt’s majesty has always entranced archaeologists,
historians and millions of tourists.
The National Egyptian History Museum,
located in the heart of the capital city, Cairo, is one such place. Thousands
of visitors from around the world pour in at the museum each day to experience
the essence of these captivating artefacts. This multidisciplinary museum which
has some rare collections from several disciplines such as history, archaeology
and arts has a grand imperial building with a colossal entrance and a
magnificent front garden and spreads across 17.9 acres of land exemplifying
classical architecture with modern details. This magnificent building
accommodates an extensive collection of extremely valuable ancient Egyptian
antiquities ranging from the sarcophagi (Egyptian artistic coffins) of great
emperors like Tutankhamun, Irunefer, Mastaba, their mummified remains and
around 120,000 antique artefacts including Tutankhamun’s Mask, The Grave Mask
of king Amenemope, Narmer Palette, Statues of Khafra, Khufu, Menkaure and
legions of similar objet d'art. This abundant fortune has not only incessantly
stunned the travellers but has also held in thrall the biggest smugglers.
The museum has witnessed small
burglaries in the past but since then the Government has taken stern measures
to up the security levels. The museum has been installed with numerous 24x7
CCTV cameras, laser detectors and has a multilevel team of security guards for
the entrance, main building and the exit. Ton Cremers, the head of the security
team of the museum for almost 5 years was a slightly plump middle-aged man with
the temper of a sun-bear and the wits of an orangutan, believed that with his
team of 15 highly competent guards and technology as their trusty assistant,
the National Egyptian History Museum could easily qualify as one of the safest
museums around the world. Today was the day he was about to be proven wrong…
absolutely wrong and in such a manner that it would mark history.
“Yes Richards, what’s the unusual
site? Is the mummy of King Tutankhamun asking for a bagel? If yes, then get us
a sesame one with decaf to go along.” Ton remarked in jest.
“Seriously dude? Is he the Head of
Security at this place, geez…? I can do his job—”
“This is Nikita, she informed us
about it all” Richards said trying not to infuriate Cremers.
“Oh yeah dude, what exactly did you
site? You little punk” Ton said bending over towards Nikita, a 15 years old
solo visitor.
“The Tuta…ankha…muns coffin right
there got a cell phone and it has been ringing like every 40 minutes. First, I
thought that ‘Yo man, this is crazy Egyptians had cells, damn!’ but then when
it started ringing, I was like what? Wait a minute this is getting sketchy and
I informed my man Richards right here and then he called you.”
“A cell phone inside a sarcophagus?
That’s not possible. They haven’t been touched since the last quarterly
maintenance. Richards, did you actually see or hear the mobile phone ring?”
“Yes sir, I, in fact, did hear it
ring. That’s why I informed you.”
“Did you cross-check with the lost
and found Richards, someone must have dropped it by mistake—”
Trin-trin… trin-trin… cell phone
starts to ring again, the iconic cell phone ringer tune, known by almost
everyone baffled the two guards as they inspected their surroundings but to
their surprise, the sound was indeed coming from Tutankhamun's sarcophagus.
Stumped by this unusual occurring, Cremers walked towards the coffin passed the
laser barricades with his all access pass and peeped inside the sarcophagus, to
only confirm their strangest doubt. He extended his masculine arm and reached
for the cell phone which was still ringing.
“Hello…” he answered the call
hesitantly.
“Hey! Did you give your mother the
speakers? Don’t forget to bring the toys for the kids. Come back soon honey,
I’m waiting. Beware of your dad, you know he is watching. B-Bye… bleep” said
the female human-like yet very mechanical voice and the call ended before
Cremers could answer or utter even a single word.
“Well, who was it? Was it the owner
of the cell asking to return it? Why didn’t you tell him to collect it from the
lost and found—”
“Excuse me Richards, but I am getting
late for my movie show, I just came in here to pass a little time, not to play
Sherlock Holmes, so I better get going. OK?”
“Ok, Nikita you can leave for now but
we’ll need your phone number in case we need your statements for further
investigation.” Said Cremers with a bewildered look on his face.
“Geez! Am I in some kind of trouble?
I swear I didn’t do anything in here—”
“Relax kid, you have got nothing to
worry about. We are taking your number only for the precautionary measures.
Richards please take down his number and let this young lad go.”
“Okay Mr Cremers, my number is (555)
657-782. Is that it? Bye and have a nice day…”
“Thanks, son, have a good day.”
Richards said and quickly turned towards Cremers “Further investigation? Of
what?”
“The female that answered the phone
sounded a bit off, you know those mechanical voice generators, it sounded more
of that. Also, she hurriedly said something about giving the mother the
speakers, bringing toys for her kids, being careful of the father who is
watching everything and to come home soon. Something about all this doesn’t
make sense and she even cut the phone before listening to the reply. It’s
strange, isn’t it Richards?”
“Well you can call her back and ask her
who she is and how did she leave this phone here?”
“Yeah you are right Gross, let me
call her back” Cremers open the call log and dials the last contacted number
and puts the phone on speaker.
“The number you have dialled isn’t
reachable. Please check the number you have dialled or call again later.
Beep….” Said the automated voice reply.
“This keeps getting stranger and
stranger, isn’t it Richards? First, a mobile phone is found deep-seated in
Tutankhamun's coffin which is beyond the physical reach of the general public
and hasn’t been touched since March, then a woman gives an anagrammatic message
and now her phone isn’t reachable. What is the matter behind all of this?”
“I think someone is trying to mess
with us, maybe it is just a prank…”
“I hope so. Well, now you may return
to your duty and I’ll hand this over at the Lost & Found and check this
areas CCTV footage in my cabin and maybe I’ll find the answer behind the sudden
appearance of this strange phone.”
“Okay, sir. As you say.”
Richards returned to his duty and
Cremers scanned the entire CCTV footage of previous evening and today morning
only to be left with no evidence at all which would explain the abrupt
appearance of that cell phone. He enquired his whole security team, the Lost &
Found department, the cafeteria, the maintenance and in-house daily cleaning
staff but had no luck at all in retrieving any information about that
sweet-devil of a phone.
Days passed and no significant
development seemed to happen in this case and everyone forgot about it.
Everyone, but Cremers, he was convinced that there’s a big conspiracy behind
all of it and the occurrence of the cell wasn’t a mere accident but due to the
lack of evidence he couldn’t prove it. This event never appeared to slip off his
mind and was stuck to the back of his brain like a piece of chewing gum to the
bottom of a shoe.
On one fine calmly-chaotic Tuesday
evening, news flashed on prime-time headlines, ‘“Ground-breaking case for
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) — it is the first time an alleged
cultural property network has been dismantled at Egypt. Remains of an ancient
mummy were chopped and placed inside a stereo-speaker and was illegally being
trafficked to Bilbeis city,” said James Hayes, the new special agent-in-charge
with the Egypt Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security
Investigations.’ Cremers memory snapped, it all made sense now. He sprung out
of his sofa like a lion and pounced upon the pen and paper like it were prey.
Adamant to solve this mystery he tried to jot down the exact information that
the woman gave over that phone.
“Come on… come on… you are gonna do
this. Aghhh! What was it? Speaker… mother… toys… and… and…? YES! ‘Did you give
the speakers to the mother and get the kids some toys. Come back soon honey, I
am waiting for you. Beware of your father he is watching,’ YES! YES! It’s over
for you now. I’m gonna get you.” Cremers happiness knew no bounds, he couldn’t
wait for the next day. He spent his entire night looking for and being impressed
by James Hayes’s life time-line, his previous work and experience, his working
methodology, his education and his office’s address and writing down all the
possible plans and ways to find the real thug behind it all.
Next morning, he reached the museum
at exact 8 in the morning, went in the Lost & Found department and got
‘that phone’. He quickly informed Richards about his findings and made him
in-charge for the time being. He hurriedly sat himself in his car and went to
the HSI office, he had already booked the first appointment of the day with
James at 9 and eagerly waited in the hallway for his chance to arrive. As the
clock struck 9 and James’s assistant called for Mr. Cremers, he quickly got off
and entered the cabin.
“May I come in?” Cremers said opening
the door halfway. He was taken aback by James’s appearance, the large number of
accomplishments and the stature of his position along with the numerous google
images and the face he saw on the prime-time headline didn’t quite seem to
match with the very young appearing man, sitting behind the neatly organised
profligate-looking teak-wood table in a crisp posh deep blue suit working on
his immaculate desktop PC.
“Yes Mr. Cremers, kindly do. Please
seat yourself. So, my assistant tells me that you are here regarding the recent
cultural trafficking case.”
“Yes Mr. Hayes, I surely am” Cremer
said hesitantly, freeing himself of the trivial thoughts he had about James’s
appearance. People often alter their appearance at this point in life, he thought
to himself and started to discuss his findings and deductions about the
artefact trafficking racket with James.
Cremer explained how the perplexing
phone call on a phone that magically appeared at the museum closely
interconnected with the current case and further the thugs might be in the
pursuit of gathering more toys that is the artefact to sell in the black
markets, speaker for mother that is the mummies to sell to pharmacies that
manufacture ‘mummy powder’ which is believed to have medicinal properties that
provide eternal life and finally how precautious they are of their fathers that
is the intel police regarding the whole scam. James was stunned, he was in a
state of utter awe for a moment.
“You Sir are without a doubt one hell
of a dedicated security individual! Your inferences can surely play a vital
role in the further investigation, kindly leave this file-work and the cell
phone with me so that I can pass it on to higher authorities and devise a quick
action plan combining your report, intel from our men and the confessions of
the smuggler who was caught red handed. It was my pleasure meeting you. Thank
you so much for stopping by and don’t forget to share your contact card with my
assistant. We’ll surely be working on this case together in the near future.”
“Mr. Hayes the honour’s all mine,
finding an opportunity to work with special agent-in-charge of HSI is once in a
life-time thing. Thank you for your time. Good day.” Cremer said as he got off
the chair, shook James’s hand and exited his cabin.
Returning to the museum he felt proud
of himself and had a cheerful grin on his face throughout the drive. When he reached the museum, he found
Richards eagerly waiting for him in his cabin.
“How did it go? Did you solve the
case?” he asked in a single breath.
“Calm down… I have handed over my
file-work to James Hayes, he’ll look into it and let me know. He even offered
me to work along him on this case.”
“Wow, that is remarkable! Mr. Cremers
the whole security squad is proud of you…” Cremers smiled and shook Richards
hand, “and so am I” he added to it.
“Now let us all get back to our
duties the smuggler might in hot pursuit of the ‘Toys’.” Cremers said in a jest
leading Richards out of his office. The following days the security team worked
with more attentiveness than an eagle, even the CCTV cameras and lasers sensors
were on their best comportment. It had merely been a week, since Hayes and
Cremers meeting and he received a phone call confirming a day and time to shut
the museum for Mr. Hayes to visit it for investigation. This conversation
charged Cremers with all the more enthusiasm to solve the mystery and cut the
roots of this smuggling gang. The next day sharp at 10, the front driveway of
this imperial building was flooded with cars and vans of the federal police,
software-intelligence department and Hayes personal team.
“Welcome Mr. James, I am delighted by
the speedy investigation that is taking place over this case.” Said Cremers
shaking James’s hand.
“It has been possible only because of
your key findings Mr. Ton, let’s go in and get started with the investigation,
shall we?”
“By all means Sir.”
“So, can you show the exact location
where you said you found the cell”
“Yeah, sure. Please follow me.”
Cremers showed the investigation team
the exact location. The software-intelligence department analysed the CCTV
footage facing the crime area and others around the museum. It was deduced that
all the CCTV footage of the night before the discovering of the cell-phone has
been tampered with and a fake one had been played over the real time one by
hacking it from within the building. This provided the robbers with a window of
30 mins to execute their plan. Now the question arises that at night the museum
is fully locked down with two guards each at the entry and exit gates of the
property, then how did the robbers enter the property? James’s personal team
and the federal police were adamant to find this secret entry and exit passage
of the robbers. The blueprint of the museum was studied and it took no longer
than an hour for the team to bust this secret passage.
“Found it!” a man from the team
exclaimed from the washroom. The whole team rushed towards the area and to
their surprise a tunnel had been dug, beneath an out-of-work washroom.
“What? How can this be possibly
happening? This washroom has been out of order for almost a month now and has
been locked since then, how did they even get in and out of a locked room?”
Cremer shrieked in panic.
(To be continued...)
