[Sodium_noir] Sanura Sesostris - An interesting artifact...

[Eric]

Sanura Sesostris
  Alexandria, Egypt
  3 weeks ago
  
  "Where did he get this?" she asked her contact with a hint of trepidation as she looked over the linen wrapped ancient artifact.   It was a cylinder approximately 40" inches long and 6" inches in  diameter bearing a cartouche of the Goddess Bast.  She had been  contacted by her friend and mentor Naglaa Habib El Zahlawi earlier that  week and was told to meet with a mutual contact down by the shipping  docks in the warehouse district.  No other explanation was  given.  In fact, he had seemed somewhat... tense. Which was quite  unusual for Naglaa.
  
  Sanura Sesostris, more typically known to her clients as Sandra  Scoland, had recently moved to the Gotham Towers not more than a month  earlier when she had been called when she had been called back to her  native home of Alexandria, Egypt by her mentor and dear friend Naglaa  of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities.  Without going  into details, he had mentioned there was a piece that, due to the  nature of the item, required her personal expertise.  When she  tried to press him for more information, he remained rather evasive,  almost as if he were afraid that someone could be listening. "Are you  familiar with the name of Professor John Carter?" he had asked.
    
  "Vaguely," she began. "A well noted egyptologist in his own right from  what I have heard with some rather contraversial theories linking  ancient Egypt and ancient MesoAmerica.  I  do know that he is an associate of the well know egyptologist Dr.  Tweaksbury. The curator of the  Gotham Museum... a Dr. Lazarus I believe... is said to have studied  with him and Dr. Tweaksbury," she says. 
  
  Courtesy of her chosen profession, Sandra was  familiar with many of the sponsered archeological digs from her  contacts in the egyptian ministry, but Dr. Tweaksbury's research had  intruiged her from the first time she had heard about him.  It was  part of the  reason she had moved to Gotham in the first place.  Many of the  artifacts he was said to have found ended up under the care and  ownership of Dr. Lazarus at the Gotham Museam.
    
  "You are quite correct," said Naglaa. "I need you to meet personally  with one of our contacts back here in Alexandria.  It is far too  sensative to speak of over the phone.  You will recieve  instructions once you arrive at the airport.  And please,  Sanura.  Do not speak of this to anyone."
    
  "Of course," she said.  She had  gained a reputation for professionally discreet mediations on behalf of  her  clients, and one that was well deserved. But the tone of her mentor's  voice gave her pause.  She needed to know more.  And  apparently the only way that would happen was to fly back to her native  homeland of Alexandria.
  
  That was four days ago.  Now she stood before Naglaa's contact at  2 am holding a three and a half foot heavy cylindrical mystery in her  hands.  Once again she asked, "Where did he get this?  The  preservation on this piece is incredible."
  
  "I know nothing more other than it was intercepted by one of our  contacts at the docks as it was being loaded onto a cargo ship bound  for Gotham.  It was to be shipped in a container marked with the  Melcom Insignia," he said.  "Naglaa felt due to the nature of the  piece and the potential history behind it, he wanted you to look into  it for him as soon as possible."
  
  Damn Naglaa sometimes.  He knew she wouldn't be able to turn down  a mystery such as this.  "It's going to take some time.  I  will need to be even more discreet than usual given the circumstances,"  she said as she ran her fingers over the artifact tracing its lines.
  
  "Of course," he said. "Naglaa has already made arrangements with customs to have it shipped with you back to Gotham."
  
  "What?!" she said in hushed tones.  "It was bound for Gotham in  the first place! Questions are going to be asked as to its  disappearance, and a company like Melcom has the money and contacts to  find those answers, and I'm supposed to take it with me?  Is he  nuts?"
  
  "He says he needs you to be its guardian," the contact continued. "He  trusts no one else with it. Its value and history are too important, he  says, to risk loosing it."
  
  I'm not surprised, she thought to herself.  Sanura let out a heavy  sigh.  In for a penny, she thought.  "Alright, but tell him  he owes me one... big time."  She admired the intricacy of  artifact again once last time before wrapping it back in its linen  cloth and putting it back inside its case.  "Tell him I will  contact him with whatever I can find out as soon as I can."
  
  "I will," the contact said. "Blessings upon you, Sanura. Safe journeys."
  
  "And you," she says picking up the case and turning to the familiar  shadows of her old home.  This, it seemed, was going to prove an  interesting mystery.  
  
  TBC
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