18/07/2021 – Egyptian Connections (7)

International Shipments

Jeziah spends the whole morning checking out the Penhew Foundation. He goes to a Tea Shop and write a letter to William Gates, the employee from the Foundation he has been given the name of. He then pays a cockney boy to deliver the note to William when he finishes work at the Foundation and pays half a crown for a response.

William Gates then meets Jeziah later. He learns that more and more Egyptians have been employed at the Foundation. Gavigan seems to prefer them. He tells him about the many deliveries that come back and forth from the Foundation. Some are arriving from Australia. Others are sent to Shanghai. Yet more are being sent to and received from somewhere in the North of England. Jeziah asks for the addresses, but Gates is reluctant to reveal them as it’s more than his job’s worth.

Jeziah thanks him and they leave.

Bizarre Cults

Cassandra reads more from Dark African Sects. The author is now considering joining a cult, because he is convinced the world is going to end. He attempts to join another cult north of Kenya, but during the initiation ceremony he is thrown down a pit into an underground network of caves and a massive cavern where there is a society of dead flesh eating people live. The walls of the cavern are layers and he has to spent months working his way up the layers until he is able to get to the top and escape.

The ordeal takes two years and the author resolves not to join a cult after all.

Alex spends the day training up his young assistant to run the shop while he is away. Tiger gets a spare shotgun for Jeziah.

Premonitions of Death

The Great Zalkador is doing readings for clients that day and finds all his readings seem to be coming out negatively that day. He foresees the death of one of his clients, but decides to just tell her there is a life-changing event coming.

This disturbs him and he decides later to do a reading for himself. He sees there are many enemies aligning against him. There is some sort of vast conspiracy going on.

That evening the Investigators meet back up at Astor Manor to catch up. Jeziah tells them about the Penhew Foundation’s activities. They focus on their odd movement of goods and want to find out exactly where they are going in Northern England and in Shanghai. Also, why ship from Australia to Britain then back to Shanghai?

The Great Zalkador suggests hiring a Private Investigator to spy on the Foundation and find this out for them. Alex says he knows someone called Joe Quimbey, who is uses occasionally. He will get in touch with Joe in the morning.

Jeziah reminds them of the chronometer they found under Ju-Ju House and wonders if they are moving goods around the world for a specific, world-wide event at some point. As he does so, the lights in the house seem to flicker momentarily and the Great Zalkador feels like someone has walked over his grave.

The World is going to End

Zalkador suddenly decides to go a Tarot reading, distracting everyone. He foresees that the world is going to end, in the not too distant future. Further readings suggest it may be possible to stop it, but it will be a struggle and there are several people in the way of doing so.

The fortune teller seems rather disturbed by this. Jeziah holds back a sarcastic response about this mumbo-jumbo, as it’s the first time he has felt Zalkador is serious.

Zalkador does a further reading to determine what needs to be done to stop the world ending. Travelling is required and there is a foreign princess involved too. Zalkador also sees his own death. On the plus side, he sees that he will not die until he starts travelling. So he is safe at the moment.

Cassandra wonders how things have moved from trying to find Roger Carlisle to the world ending! She understands that these cults do want to bring the world to an end, but how can they possible achieve this?

It will take a while for a Private Investigator to track down the information they need. In the meantime, Jeziah proposes keeping an eye on the Penhew Foundation, as more things are pointing to them. Cassandra wonders if they were behind the Egyptians who murdered Jackson Elias.

Wednesday 23 January 1935

Alex contacts Joe Quimbey and has him start work infiltrating the Penhew Foundation and finding out where their deliveries are going. Alex then returns to his shop with Tiger for a time.

Jeziah begins watching the Penhew Foundation. Cassandra reads more of Dark African Sects. Zalkador returns to this other clients for a few days.

Thursday 24 January 1935

The Blue Pyramid Club

That evening, while watching the Egyptian staff of the Penhew Foundation, Jeziah discovers a group of them head on foot to Soho, to a building called the Blue Pyramid Club. It is a private members club with an Egyptian theme and the other shops around here have an Egyptian / Middle Eastern theme.

Jeziah decides to head to his own club and ask about this place. He finds it does belly dancing and Egyptian food. The area has a bad reputation. There have been several murderers in the area, which have been branded “The Egyptian Murders” because most of the victims have been Egyptian. They were all stabbed through the heart, a possible ritual killing.

Friday 25 January 1935

That day, the Investigators assemble at Astor Manor to catch up. Jeziah tells them what he discovered about the Blue Pyramid Club and the murders. They could do with more information about the area.

They ask Zalkador to head into the neighbourhood and ask around, see what he can discover, as he wears a turban as well as most Egyptians. He is reluctant, but decides to do so, as he is now convinced he cannot die until he travels abroad.

He goes there and spends the afternoon and evening wandering around, visiting shops, drinking coffee, talking to shop owners and local residents when he can. He is able to discover that the Club has developed a bad reputation in the last five years or so. It is open 6pm to 1am every day.

The Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh

One shop keeper is very angry about the place and rants about a mafia style group called the Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh. He alleges that the Brotherhood murdered the boyfriend of an employee of the Blue Pyramid club, after he took offence at a member of the Brotherhood hitting on his girlfriend.

He also tells them that every so often, a coach comes to the back of the Blue Pyramid club, picks up a large number of members and takes them off somewhere.

The shopkeeper then calms down and becomes worries, pressing Zalkador to not tell anyone what he said. Zalkador agrees, then leaves and returns to tell everyone at Astor Manor what he has learnt.

They realise that the Club’s deteriorating reputation seems to coincide with the Carlisle Expedition’s demise.

Saturday 26 January 1935

They are Building Something

Joe Quimbey contacts Alex to tell him that he has traced the deliveries from the Penhew Foundation in Northern England to Henson Manufacturing in Derby. He also has the address where goods are being shipped to in Shanghai, to a company called Ho Fang Imports / Exports in Shanghai.

He tells Jeziah, who arranges a meeting of the Investigators at Astor Manor that evening, to let them know.

Cassandra speculates that they must be building something based on what has been found in the abandoned city in Australia.

End of Episode Seven