The Unblessed Ch. 8

 So Four Days Later we find ourselves in Sudan with Daniel Hunt again. Remember him? No? It's only been ~240 pages since we last saw him. Anyway, he's at another dig when a native digger, an Egyptian named Hesepti, tells him that someone is here to see him with a letter of introduction from Raymond. It's one of those, "If you are reading this I'm dead" type missives and of course it was brought by Collin.

"To Daniel Hunt, Collin looked dangerous. He had the cold, menacing aura of a cat at bay."

""Mason is dead," he said simply. The cold emotionless quality of the voice sent a chill up Hunt's spine." p.258

If you've read these sorts of books before you know that Collin is now a hardened man who will do whatever it takes no matter the price. He's suffered, you see. He's incompetently manfully done battle with evil forces and he's battle scarred, both in and out. He's been toughened by adversity and has no time for finer feelings. Bet you two bucks the next woman who wanders on scene will be his new love interest. But he's been hurt. And he can't put her in danger. Or something. We'll see. This author has steered clear of any romance so far, even with Collin's fiancée, so maybe he's not really interested.

Rather than tell Hunt that Raymond died in an ill-conceived and badly botched plan Collin tells him that he was murdered by the demon from the temple he's digging up. They head outside to talk.

Then we get an interlude where a "small executive jet" carrying the only other two men who knew about the Ostium dig flies out over the ocean despite repeated attempts by flight control and two Navy jets to get the pilot's attention. And it crashes. That's it. That's the scene.

Back in the cave Hunt and Collin take a look at some remains that might be demon remains? So they think it might be an undiscovered species that has unknown reproductive habits? Which means there could be more, I suppose. Anyway, they're interrupted by a woman.

"She was rather pretty, in an understated way, with shoulder-length blond-hair, tied back. She wore light brown shorts that tended to downplay trim, tanned legs, and a jacket that obscured the shape of her upper body effectively." p.264

They hold her at gunpoint, which doesn't thrill her, and we learn that Samantha, Raymond's assistant, does make a repeat appearance.

""What are you doing here?" Collin asked coldly, still not lowering his pistol."

She also has a letter from Raymond and she tells them a story about how, months ago, Raymond sent her to Smith's village to be initiated into the priestess-hood there, get her own fancy amulet, and hear Hasha's story. He paid her well but when he stopped his check-ins she was notified, realized he was dead and that was the sign to look up Hunt.

So they have dinner and talk. "Hunt and Egan had come away from the session deeply shaken by Collin's brief but unsparing narrative, and both of them looked at Collin with unabashed respect afterward. Neither could have conceived the details of his ordeals." p.269

Samantha explains that she learned how the amulets work. "Magic, you see, real magic, is not a supernatural phenomenon. The force by which magic operates is supplied by human emotions." p.270 So, you know, the kind of magic that requires your feelings to have power over other people.

Anyway, they're interrupted by "the trim form of the Egyptian" Hesepti who Collin realizes is possessed and armed, allowing him to jump away before he gets shot. Samantha tackles Hesepti giving Collin time to gets his own gun out and shoot him. "Once, twice, three times the blood-quenched bullets slammed into the Egyptian's trim torso." p. 271-2

The three take stock and the lights go out. Samantha gasps, they turn to the corpse and freeze in shock. End scene.