Welcome to weekend writing warriors. Many fine authors, and me, contribute short snippets for your delectation. This is the start of a new work, Illegal Aliens. It is something of a cross between a horror story, a science fiction tale, and a romance.
Roland awoke after bringing an attractive young woman home, alone. Something of a surprise, and in some ways a shock. His mobile chirruped into life and the works manager – where he’d been called to examine a mysterious block of Roman concrete – told him the “bloody German bomb, it went.” A knock on the door interrupts their conversation just after Mr Shah explains that one of his workers couldn’t even stand the firecrackers on Guy Fawkes.
One of a somewhat menacing pair of visitors finished last week with “that is irrelevant.” Maybe for them. The visitors found a mysterious note in what looks vaguely like Arabic, in a somewhat illegal search. Roland, in a mixture of embarrassment and pride read it (or at least its summary) last week. Another element from Roland’s past and a cat show up. Last week we met Roland’s old post-doctoral supervisor. This week Roland continues translating (and the cat is back).
The man handed Roland his phone, there was an image, a scan of a fragment on it.
Roland started reading, darkness, despite the sunny morning, surrounded them and ‘his’ cat hissed; Roland stopped and the room lightened; the cat resumed her purr, “It’s a curse … not to be read aloud, at least not if you don’t mean it; it invokes Apep and Set among others … they’re the least obscure of the deities.”
“Who?”
“Apep, the God of Chaos and Evil, not to mention destruction; Set … basically the model for Satan the Bible, much as Osiris’s life and resurrection were models for Jesus or Mithras.”
“You don’t believe that tripe, do you?”
Roland shook his head, “No, not really, but it’s been such a strange last few days … I’d rather not tempt fate.”
He read further, silently; after looking at the wall for a moment, he turned to the agents and said, “It invokes them as protection; protection from something else; something far worse.”
The next image was spray-painted on a brick wall, “It’s from here, painted on the new biochemistry building, off Sherrington Road … keeps coming back, no matter what they do to clean it.”
“It’s a warning, about transgenic animals … bringing a curse from Bastet upon their efforts.”
His cat purred louder.
My sincere apologies for abusing semi-colons.
Illegal aliens is up for order on Amazon. In the end, the way to fix my mistakes was to issue a new edition. I still used kindle create but in a more native way to produce a “reflowable” book.
You can get a copy of the first four chapters on instafreebie.
I’ll be off exploring Exmoor next week. High open and wind-swept hills with unbelievable views (when it isn’t raining) and sea nearby (wet suits are a good idea if you want to actually bathe). Horses and horse-flies.
The ordnance survey maps show stone circles and other neat neolithic monuments. One has to be careful, however, the last time I was there I used the British Grid and a GPS to find one. It was literally a circle of small stones (about 2Kg each) in a field of heather. Unlike Stonehenge of Avebury, it wouldn’t have been a difficult feat of engineering.
You can find my, well our, works here.
The Art of Deception, first in a series of late Georgian/early Regency spy novels is available for preorder. You can get the first part here.
I can’t help but feel that the ‘cat’ is participating in the conversation. I enjoy all the tidbits of information Amelia. They are just the right size.
Thank you. She’s an … unusual cat.
Man, those are fat horses. I know that has nothing to do with your snippet, which effectively starts to hint at an explanation for the cat and other odd goings-on, but the last image one sees sometimes lingers in the mind.
They’re semi-wild (used to people but no one works or owns them). There was a herd of about 15 when I last visited (2003). While they get titbits from the occasional walker, most of their food is grass on the heather/heath where they live. It must be nutritious.
Thank you
What a fascinating intersection of the ancient (Egyptian mythology) and the current!
I sense the cat is fond of Bastet.