HOURS LATER, THE EGYPTAIR PLANE descended onto runway two at Cairo International Airport. As soon as it stopped and its doors opened, the passengers descended the stairs and then boarded the minibus that would take them to the terminal. Sephy and Antonia were the first passengers to do so. A little further away, even if only by a few meters, the hitmen blended into the group, following them.
After a long wait, they finally collected their luggage. As soon as they left the airport, they approached one of the taxis waiting — parked at the curb for new customers to arrive. Determined, the cryptographer went straight to the back door of the first car she found.
Sephy followed suit, climbing up the other side, but before closing the door, she looked back. The men who had followed them from Madrid had stepped between a young tourist and the taxi parked next to them, pushing him aside somewhat rudely, trying not to waste time. It was clear they intended to follow them to the hotel.
The public vehicle moved off as a pungent, penetrating smell reached them from the busy streets, along with the voices of night traders, the chants of religious people, and the rhythm of tambourines in the Zar ceremonies, for the conjuration of spells of love, fertility, and wealth, driving away demons.
Antonia Sala's dream had come true, after all. She had finally arrived at the place that had piqued her curiosity ever since she read the Toledo manuscript — this distant and mysterious region where humanity's greatest hidden secret lay.
She felt goosebumps when she discovered that she was traveling through the streets of the oldest city in the world: the lost city of Enoch.