Ebony was on watch. "Mister Fez" left the apartment, and Ebony followed him to the parking garage. He drove off in his Chevy Caprice. She returned to the watch, and soon after, the other older woman (she guessed Mrs Khalfani) left. Ebony followed her, and she went to a nearby supermarket on foot.
Ebony phoned it in, so Sledge Hammer and Mort joined her. They ambushed poor Mrs Khalfani, shot her up, and left her, bandaged and unconscious, in a skip in an alley. Apart from the groceries, they found $1000 and the apartment keys on her.
Summoning the rest of the group (Jacob and Juan), they entered the apartment building, then burst into the apartment itself. Safiya and Osiris were there, but put up no resistance when threatened with guns and knives. They were soon zip-tied to the chairs in the kitchen, and gagged.
The apartment appeared totally normal with standard accouterments and furnishings, with two bedrooms, an open-plan living area with kitchen, bathroom and shower.
However, in the hallway was a door, presumably down to the basement, cold to the touch. In fact, it was so cold that the door handle was beaded with ice, and was steaming. No-one was brave enough to open it, so they went back to question the brother and sister.
Juan was groping away on the squirming Safiya, when he noticed a tattoo of a hieroglyph on the nape of her neck. Mort took a picture of it, with his phone, planning to send it to Abu to get it indentified. But the photo showed no tat - just the smooth olive skin of the girl.
Sledge tried tracing the picture onto a piece of paper. This worked okay. So Mort took a photo of the hieroglyph on the paper. Again, nothing on the camera - just paper.
"Hmm," said Sledge. "Curious. Try it on me. See if we can photograph it then."
So Mort copied the hieroglyph onto Sledge's nape using a vivid permanent marker pen.
Sledge suddenly went quiet and stared vacant. Mort frantically tried to rub it off.
Sledge then blinked, and reacted violently. He drew both his .357 magnums and blasted away at Mort, luckily missing him.
Mort, Ebony, Jacob and Juan fled. Sledge opened up on them. He got two good shots into Ebony as she was last to scamper from the apartment. Rather than pursue, he secured the apartment.
The party gathered a block away to lick their wounds. Ebony was badly wounded, so they took her to a hospital.
Jacob phoned the fiasco in to Prospero.
"Oh dear," he said.
Friday Evening, June 13
They thought they'd ask Mina for advice. Mina was not particularly interested.
"Clean up your own dirty work," she said. "And anyway, that is Oberon's area. See if he will help... ha ha... maybe not. He sure hates Mort. Good luck!"
Apparently, the recent mummy killings were no longer being done in "vampire style", so the vampires no longer seemed to be so interested in getting the killings to stop.
Oberon was in the Khyber Pass Bar & Grill. But he didn't seem particularly interested in helping out either, when Ebony approached him. She did recall that one of the hos was a vampire girl any way. So maybe Oberon already knew.
While this was going on, Mort was outside in his hearse, being too scared to enter a place where Oberon frequented. Alert, more out of fear than anything else, he happened to catch notice of a shadowy figure on a nearby roof-top. He ducked... as a 7.62mm full metal jacketed round crashed through the back window, through his head-rest, and buried itself in the dashboard paneling. (It was Sledge with his scoped PSG1 sniper rifle). Mort floored the accelerator and took off.
The party stayed the night in Mort's safe house. Luckily, Sledge had not been there, so would not know how to find it. [ Merit Safe Houses are unlocatable by definition ].
Saturday Morning, June 14
"I'm worried about my boy," she sobbed. "He's taken up with a moslem girl, a terrorist!, and they are going to get married."
A plan to rescue Sledge formed.
"Invite him and his betrothed to your place, for lunch. We will ambush him and take him away from those awful Egyptians."
Saturday Noon, June 14
Sledge's mom greeted them and, as per tradition, got Sledge to place all his weapons on the mantelpiece in the lounge before entering the dining room for the roast chicken lunch.
This is where the party struck, hitting Sledge with a taser (donated from Prospero). Safiya screamed and tried to run, but they easily grappled her down.
Sledge and Safiya were zip-tied, and laid down in the lounge and their backs were exposed.
Sledge had four hieroglyphs tattooed on his back (from nape to midback). Safiya had five.
"We need to get these off," said Mort.
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