Sci-Friday – Excerpt from “The Eyes of Cleopatra”

A 2nd glimpse into my upcoming book of 6 eerie sci-fi stories

Here is another excerpt from my book of short stories in the science fiction realm that will be published soon by Wordwooze Publishing. (Great editor there, very accommodating and easy to work with.) This is a story inspired by the film noir days when Dana Andrews played a hardboiled detective and Humphrey Bogart had Lauren Bacall teaching him how to whistle.

The Excerpt

Zachariah Fontaine sat at the highly polished mahogany desk in his tastefully and expensively furnished office on the seventh floor of the glass and steel building in Rockville, Maryland, north of Washington, DC. The office door sign said discreetly in gold painted letters “Fontaine Investigations.”

As the Egyptian man sat in the guest chair in front of the desk, Zachariah watched him with a nagging feeling that he should have sent the man packing. Most of his clients wanted dirt on a political opponent or someone out of favor with the group currently in charge. Occasionally, he handled simpler cases, finding evidence on cheating spouses for a nasty divorce. On rare occasions, he hunted lost objects, but none like this.

“I am Ahmud Rah,” said the man, “special emissary of the Cairo museum.”

“A pleasure to meet you,” said Zachariah quietly.

“You have heard of me?” asked Ahmud.

“Should I?” asked Zachariah, hiding his urge to grin

Over the phone, Ahmud had said it was a matter of world importance. Zachariah had refrained from saying, “Yeah, right.” He had just set a time to meet.

“The story—it was in the papers, on TV, online. They were entrusted to my care. I must get them back.”

“Ah, the Eyes of Cleopatra. Dramatic name.” Zachariah stifled a yawn, held up his right hand, and looked at the immaculately manicured nails. Frankly, a couple of missing gems with a strange moniker didn’t interest him much.

“An appropriate name,” said Ahmud, seeing the lack of interest in Zachariah’s face and manner. “Cleopatra and the ancient Egyptians believed emeralds could treat eye diseases. Cleopatra was going blind—possibly cataracts—and had a servant place these stones on her eyelids as she lay on her bed. Within a minute, her eyes were cured and turned green. As she lay dying, a servant obeyed her instructions and placed the stones on her eyelids. When Cleopatra was dead, the servant put the stones in a small box and gave them to the high priest of the temple of Ra. He entombed the stones with her. They were discovered a few years ago. Since then, they were on display in the Cairo museum. I brought them here to exhibit for a month at the Smithsonian. I had them in my room at the hotel. Someone broke in. They are gone.”

“Call the DC police,” said Zachariah.

“I did.”

“And?”

“They said they could do nothing, that I should file a claim with the insurer.”

“Were they insured?”

Ahmud sat a moment and then nodded. “I cannot file a claim, though.”

“Why?”

“I did not have them in the hotel safe. I felt they were more secure in my room.”

Zachariah thought, “Guess you were wrong.” But he didn’t say it.

“Egyptian government’s angry with you, right?” he said instead.

“Yes. Besides, the story of the theft has had too much publicity of a negative nature.”

“And so have you, I’m guessing.”

Ahmud nodded.

“How’d the press find out?”

“Someone at the hotel, I suspect. Please, this must be done discreetly.”

“And you need to regain your reputation, not to mention the trust of your government.”

“True,” said Ahmud, sitting with a stony look on his very Egyptian features.

Studying the man a moment, Zachariah sighed, sure he was about to get involved in something unpleasant.

“My services aren’t cheap,” he said.

“Yes, yes, I expected that.”

“Fifty thousand to start, plus expenses.”

Ahmud swallowed hard and nodded. “Do you take checks?”

“Sure, but I start when the check’s cleared—could take several days. Cash is better.”

“I will return in one hour.” Ahmud stood, bowed his head, and left.

As the office door closed, Zachariah laughed.

More to Come

More excerpts from other stories from the book will be coming over the next few weeks. Your feedback is most welcome.

Hope you found this helpful and have been inspired to start and/or continue writing!

See my article: Publisher Agent Fiction Genres Defined, with downloadable PDF.

Please check out my author website. And thanks for reading.

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Thanks for reading. Please check out my first book of short stories (a couple are actually novelette length), newly published by Wordwooze Publishing. (I even designed the cover.)

Wind Down the Chimney and Other Eerie Tales by A.C. Cargill