Cairo, Egypt
The air in the Ministry of Defense was thick with the scent of old leather, cigar smoke, and skepticism. Amira Khan stood before a semi-circle of men whose chests were heavy with medals and whose faces were etched with the hard lines of a lifetime of command. These were the generals and intelligence chiefs of Egypt, the gatekeepers of the nation's secrets and its power.
In the weeks since her father's disappearance, Amira had become a relentless force. She had leveraged every ounce of her father's academic reputation, every political contact he had ever made, to force this meeting. She was no longer the frightened scholar from the desert. She was a woman with a singular, burning purpose.
"The entity that took my father," she said, her voice steady and clear, echoing slightly in the cavernous, wood-paneled office, "is not a random predator. It is a guardian. The seismic and energy readings we collected, however brief, show a pattern. A resonance. It suggests the sand creatures are not biological in the traditional sense, but rather a form of localized, self-organizing energy projection, anchored to a single, powerful source."
She pointed to a large, holographic map of the Giza Plateau. A red circle marked the anomalous zone she had identified earlier. "A source located here. In an undiscovered subterranean structure."
A gruff general with a thick mustache grunted. "You ask us to risk a battalion and a fortune in drilling equipment based on a 'resonance'?"
"I ask you to act on the evidence," Amira countered, her gaze unwavering. "The beam from the pyramid, the creatures, the disappearance of a world-renowned geologist... these are not separate incidents. They are connected. My father was not killed; he was taken. He was taken because he was the foremost expert on the geological makeup of this plateau. They need his knowledge."
She did not speak of the map in her soul, of the psychic scream she had felt. She spoke their language: threats, assets, and strategic importance.
But as she spoke, she allowed a fraction of the power within her to leak out. It wasn't a vision or a command, but a subtle, psychic pressure. A projection of her own unshakable conviction. She focused on the memory of her father being dragged beneath the sand, on the absolute certainty of his location, and let the raw emotion of it wash over the men in the room.
The generals shifted uncomfortably in their high-backed leather chairs. They felt a sudden, inexplicable chill, a sense of profound unease, a flicker of an image of suffocating darkness. They would later dismiss it as a trick of the light or a moment of fatigue, but in that instant, her certainty became their doubt.
The oldest man at the table, the Minister of Defense himself, finally spoke. "And if we grant you this... expedition? What do you call it?"
"The Eidolon Exploration Team," Amira said without hesitation. "Eidolon, for the phantom of my father we pursue, and for the spirit of ancient Egypt that has now awoken."
The name hung in the air, filled with a mythic weight that appealed to their sense of national pride.
The Minister nodded slowly. "Very well, Dr. Khan. You will have your team."
One week later, Amira stood on a military airstrip on the outskirts of Cairo. Before her, a squadron of Egypt's finest special forces soldiers stood at attention. Beside them, a collection of the nation's best geologists and archaeologists checked their state-of-the-art equipment. A T-800 mobile drill rig, the same one from her previous, aborted attempt, gleamed under the harsh sun.
This was her team. The Eidolon Exploration Team. She was no longer just a daughter on a rescue mission. She was a commander, sanctioned by the state, leading a modern army to uncover a secret as old as the pyramids themselves. Her oath to her father would be fulfilled, not with tears, but with soldiers, science, and the strange,