Two soldiers accompanied Professor Alef inside. They appeared to be of low rank and remained silent, solely responsible for security. However, Ahmed knew that these two must have been acting on orders from their superiors, perhaps possessing the same authority to make decisions on the spot. Those dark gun barrels could be used against the enemy, or they could be turned against him at any moment.
" Abdullah!" Ahmed decided to find himself an accomplice. "Do you know how to use a gun?"
"Huh?" Abdullah was taken aback, then stood up and saluted. "Reporting, I served in the military when I was young, sir!"
"Excellent," Ahmed said to the policeman beside him. "Go find him a gun, preferably an unregistered one." He then said to Alef, "Mind if I find a guide?"
Alef said indifferently, "You have that right."
The officers quickly found a revolver. Ahmed shoved the gun into Abdullah's arms and whispered in his ear, "You're mine now."
Abdullah nodded solemnly. "Understood, sir."
Led by Abdullah, the group entered the pyramid entrance.
Ahmed grew up in a mosque, where the imam warned against going to the pyramids, saying they were cursed by the devil. But the more he was told not to, the more curious he became, and as a child he often sneaked out to climb the pyramids with his friends. Although the Egypt Tourism Authority explicitly forbids climbing, many people still do. So when Abdullah said that two young men had climbed Menkaure, he wasn't surprised at all, and could even imagine the tourists bribing Abdullah.
He remembered that the passageways inside the Pyramid of Khufu didn't have such sturdy iron railings before. Except for the passageway leading to the King's Tomb, which had a few dim lights installed by electrical wires, the rest of the passageways were pitch black. But now, the passageways have not only been reinforced, but the lighting is also very bright.
The passage to the underground burial chamber was sealed off. Ahmed assumed that was the way down, but Abdullah ignored him and continued climbing. After climbing a little further, two passages appeared before them: a very wide but steep passage leading to the king's tomb, and a straight passage only half a person's height leading to the queen's tomb.
Abdullah pointed to a dark cave entrance ahead and said, "This is it."
Alef pondered for a moment and said, "Scientists have discovered a passage below using muon detection, but they haven't found the entrance. Plus, the underground tomb was only half-finished, so we haven't paid much attention to it. We never expected that the passage would actually appear this time."
Before descending, they had prepared, so everyone wore headlamps. Ahmed turned on his headlamp and shone it into the cave entrance, discovering a narrow staircase winding downwards.
Abdullah mustered his courage and climbed down first, followed closely by Ahmed, while Professor Alef, protected by two soldiers, came in last.
By the light of the lamp, Ahmed discovered a bloody handprint on the wall. He put on gloves, dipped his finger in the blood, smelled it, and found it to be fresh.
" Abdullah, did you leave these handprints?" he asked.
Abdullah quickly denied it, saying, "No, we didn't touch the body at all."
Next, bloody handprints were found on the steps. They looked like they were left by someone climbing out of the passage. But strangely, there were no other traces besides the handprints. If it were an injured person, there would have been more traces left in the passage.
Below the narrow staircase was a wide ramp. Abdullah stood at the entrance of the passage, no longer going forward, and said, "Be careful, it's not very clean here."
Ahmed saw blood everywhere on the ground, many red, fleshy-looking things scattered about, and a corpse lying in the corner.
He carefully stepped over the ground and squatted down beside the corpse. He saw that the body was wearing a white robe, the chest of which was stained red with blood. A headscarf covered the face. Judging from the clothing, it was clearly an Arabia. The body's abdomen had been cut open, with muscle and fat exposed. The internal organs had been removed, with some fat and intestines still hanging from the edge of the abdomen.
"This should be parallel to the ground, the base of the pyramid." Alef, unconcerned about the bloodstains and corpses on the ground, observed the slope's walls as he spoke. "There's nothing unusual here. There's a passage ahead; we should go down and take a look."
Ahmed turned around and called out, "Hey, don't step on those things!"
Alef looked down, then lifted his foot and shook it. A soft, red thing came out from the sole of his shoe and slapped against the wall.
Ahmed felt an urge to punch someone, but he didn't have time to pay attention to the expert right now, because he had already removed the veil covering the deceased's face. Even though he was a veteran detective with twenty years of criminal investigation experience who had seen countless murder and dismemberment scenes, he was still taken aback.
It could no longer be called a face. The nose and upper jawbone had been completely ripped off, the whole face was gone, and a large hole was formed from the lower jawbone to the brow bone, filled with a messy, strawberry jam-like substance.
Ahmed quickly covered his head with his turban again. He believed that Abdullah and Basaimu wouldn't have had the courage to look at the dead man's face when they came down. He didn't know what would have happened to Abdullah if they had, but Basaimu would probably have needed to be carried out.
Behind the slope was another entrance, and they continued down a passage. This passage was wider and gentler than the previous one.
Abdullah walked ahead, gripping his pistol tightly. Suddenly, he screamed and collapsed to the ground. Ahmed saw a corpse lying on the stairs ahead, dressed similarly to the one from before, and killed in almost the same manner: the abdomen had been ripped open, most of the internal organs missing, but seemingly not completely cleaned, with some scraps scattered around the body. The nasal bone and jawbone were ripped open, leaving a large hole in the face, which looked gruesome without a headscarf.
After checking it over, Ahmed found nothing more unusual, so he turned back and patted Abdullah on the shoulder, signaling him to stand up and continue walking.
Abdullah got up tremblingly. Seeing his appearance, Ahmed knew that asking him to lead the way might scare him to death, so he took the lead and walked ahead.
Professor Alef glanced at the corpse, said nothing, and it was unclear what he was thinking.
At the end of the passage appeared a pair of stone doors, intricately carved with patterns. The doors were ajar, and the interior was pitch black. Ahmed pushed the doors open and went inside; it was a stone chamber.
"My goodness, it's so exquisite!"
Upon entering the stone chamber, Professor Alef exclaimed in surprise at the murals on the walls, completely oblivious to the bloodstains on the floor and the pervasive stench of blood.
Ahmed crouched down to examine it closely. The bloodstains looked like someone had dragged a corpse, extending all the way to the sarcophagus in the middle of the stone chamber. The coffin lid was half-open.
He recalled the radio host's joke, "The Pharaoh's coffin lid can't be closed anymore!"
Just as he was about to push open the coffin lid, he suddenly heard Alef shout, "Hey, don't touch that coffin! There might be a pharaoh's the Mummy inside, be careful!"
Ahmed ignored him, forcefully pushing open the coffin lid, and said, "I'm afraid you'll be disappointed, but I'm sure the body inside is still fresh."
However, he was stunned. The stone coffin was empty, with nothing inside, but it revealed a downward passage.
"Professor, could you please take a look? What's going on here?"
Alef came running at the sound, and upon seeing the passage inside the sarcophagus, he frowned, seemingly surprised as well. After thinking for a while, he said, "We'll know once we go down and take a look."
Ahmed said, "Are you sure? There might be danger down there."
"Wasn't it dangerous just now?" Alef said. "I have a feeling the danger is no longer here."
Ahmed didn't understand what he meant, but seeing how determined he was, he knew he couldn't dissuade him, and besides, he himself was determined to go down, otherwise he wouldn't be able to explain it to the chief later.
As for how these people died, it's still hard to predict. He didn't quite believe in any mysterious forces at play, but the manner of their deaths didn't seem like a typical robbery-murder. If he had to offer a reasonable guess, he thought there might be some kind of beast underground that liked to eat human entrails, but the fact that no animal tracks were found was strange.