Shiva (42 page)

“
Because each of the scientists had their equipment and findings confiscated
,
then were systematically discredited,
”
Rebecca answered
,
using the side of her arm to brush back her unruly hair.

Great info. Just not exactly helping right now with the thick limestone wall that blocked their escape.

Then his knife hit something even harder. As a matter of fact
,
it broke off the tip of
the
hardened
-
steel blade.
“
I think I
’
ve got something.

More carefully
,
he dug around the hold he
’
d made to expose a slab of black rock. Across the glassy surface were hieroglyphics. Brandt didn
’
t even bother to wait until Rebecca asked. He just got up and out of her way.

* * *

This slab of ancient Egyptian writing was possibly the most exquisite find of ancient hieroglyphics in more than a decade. Not that Rebecca voiced her fascination. They weren
’
t on an expedition. They were trying to formulate an escape.

Her fingers ran over the otherwise
-
smooth surface, reading the carved
-
out symbols like reverse braille. Well,
“
reading
”
might have been a bit generous. Hieroglyphics weren
’
t her thing. Where was Bunny when you needed her? She was much more adept at ancient languages. Why hadn
’
t the woman gotten on that chopper with her?

Oh, yeah, because then she
’
d be stuck far underground with the entire Egyptian police force after her. That
’
s why.

Vakasa put her tiny finger on the stone as well, smiling, tracing the ancient letters.

“
Any clue?
”
Brandt said.
“
Any at all?
”

Rebecca didn
’
t respond to him. She studied the little girl
’
s face. Was that comprehension?
“
Can you read this?
”
Rebecca asked.

The girl
’
s smile widened as she put her cheek against the cool slab.

“
Was that a yes?
”
Brandt asked.
“
Is this some kind of door? Can we blow it open?
”

“
I
’
m not sure,
”
Rebecca answered.

“
Rebecca, a little late for modesty.
”

She shook her head as Vakasa went back to outlining the letters.
“
Trust me, I
’
m not. These aren
’
t just hieroglyphs. These are from the Early Dynastic Period.
”

“
What
’
s that?
”
Levont asked as he helped chip off more limestone to reveal exactly how wide the wall was. All the more letters to
not
understand.

“
Exactly my point,
”
Rebecca said.
“
This is seriously ancient writing.
”

Brandt rocked back onto his heels and up.
“
That
’
s it. We
’
re blowing the wall.
”

“
But
—
”

The look on Brandt
’
s face stopped Rebecca cold. She knew that look. The look that said
,
O
ur lives are on the line
,
so I am in absolutely no mood to have an academic debate about this.
Unfortunately
,
Rebecca had seen it too many times before.

“
On it, Sarge,
”
Levont said.

Rebecca tried to move Vakasa out of the way, but she refused. As Levont got out the C4, Rebecca took picture after picture of the letters with her phone, trying desperately to record at least some of this ancient find. Snapping the shots, she translated as best she could.

Okay, so hieroglyphs were read left to right. They didn
’
t really use vowels
,
so there was that. Unfortunately
,
the ancient Egyptian language was partly phonetic. Like English, you put the sounds together to make the words. Which would be great
.
H
owever
,
they only did that about a third of the time.

Sometimes the duck symbol meant
“
duck.
”
Other times it was the
“
st
”
sound. Still other times it meant
“
son.
”

Then another really awesome habit of the ancient scribes was to just throw
in
symbols for aesthetic purposes. Meaning
,
if they didn
’
t like the look of a sentence
,
they
’
d just drop
in
a seated god or add a scarab beetle to make the passage prettier.

Oh
,
yeah, and their modifiers could be before the word, in the middle of the word, or after the word. No biggie when trying to speed-read ancient Egyptian.

Damn that Bunny. Rebecca hoped she was happy wherever she was
,
tucked safely away.

* * *

Bunny frowned as she pushed the earphone tighter to her ear. The audio feed was scratchy and mainly filled with police officers shouting in Egyptian. Stark was putting it through a filter and translation program, but even he didn
’
t look too hopeful.

So it was up to her to try and figure out what the hell was going on at Khufu
’
s Great Pyramid. It was chaos over on the other side of the world. And no wonder. It wasn
’
t too frequently a bunch of Americans landed during the complex
’
s light show
,
then escaped into possibly the world
’
s most treasured landmark.

The police had sent in search teams
.
H
owever
,
they were having just as much trouble contacting their own people inside the pyramid as Bunny was trying to raise Rebecca or Brandt.

Then she heard it.
“
Elasepha.
”

Down
. Brandt and Rebecca had followed the lower passages.

“
They headed down,
”
Bunny informed the group.
“
Bring it on screen,
”
she encouraged Stark
,
who brought up a map of the passages.

“
It
’
s a dead end,
”
Prenner stated.

No duh. Everything in that pyramid was a dead end. Unless
…

Was it by accident they went down
,
or did Rebecca remember the controversy of the 1996 documentary
Sleeping Prophet
,
which
suggested that there were a series of tunnels under the Pyramids and Sphinx, linking them all?

“
Get me
”
—
Bunny snapped her fingers, trying to remember the name of the quasi-scientist
—
”
Dr. Schor. I think that
’
s his name. There should be a diagram in his most recent paper.
”

Emily stepped forward.
“
Dr. Schor. Should I know who that is?
”

Bunny didn
’
t answer. She wasn
’
t sure yet. The idea had been so crackpot at the time. As a matter of fact
,
Schor and a few other researchers who had joined their voice
s
to the
“
T
here are tunnels under the pyramids
”
theory had flip
-
flopped so many times it was hard to keep track of them with a scorecard.

“
Here we go…
”
Stark said as the elaborate tunnel system came up, overlaid on the map of the pyramids.

Underground
p
assages that were supposedly
“
documented
”
were in green. Others were yellow, orange
,
and red. The warmer the color, the more it was based on speculation.

“
What are we looking at?
”
Prenner asked.

Bunny pointed to the green tunnels, which were the fewest in number.
“
These were
‘
discovered
’
with ground
-
penetrating radar
…
These others were guessed at to complete the circuit.
”

If these scientists were correct
—
and Bunny was nowhere close to saying that they were
—
it did give Brandt and the rest a chance. A slim one
,
but a chance.

“
But how are they going to find it?
”
Emily asked.
“
After the hundreds of excavations of that pyramid, how are they going to find it?
”

Bunny stared at the very
-
red tunnel that abutted the westernmost wall of the lower passage. Was the tunnel just a figment of the scientists
’
imagination or a real structure the Egyptians
had
used to unite the pyramids? Either way
,
it was obscure. Super
-
obscure.

“
Hell if I know.
”

* * *

You had to give it to Rebecca. She was snapping pictures and trying to read the chicken scratch even as Levont was rigging the C4.

“
Update,
”
Brandt asked Talli.

The man craned his head over his shoulder.
“
Best I can tell they haven
’
t attacked because they think they have us cornered and the tourist bureau doesn
’
t want any permanent damage to the tunnels.
”

Yeah, they really wouldn
’
t appreciate what Brandt was about to do. But they couldn
’
t count on the cops to stay their hand just because their government told them to. All it took was one yahoo with a hero complex and
boom
.

It didn
’
t matter what country or what situation. There was always one of them in the bunch that had to make it go
boom
.

“
Hold on,
”
his fiancée said.
“
Think…I think this wall may be booby-trapped.
”

“
Rebecca…
”

“
No, really,
”
she protested.
“
This here…
Any trying to pass will meet, or visit, or run into, the wrath of Anubis.
”

They really didn
’
t have time for this, but this was Rebecca. He couldn
’
t just order her to shut up. If only he could in situations like this.

“
Any other bright ideas
,
then?
”
he asked. If you couldn
’
t beat her straight on
,
l
et her beat herself.

“
I just need a few more minutes to translate…
”

She stopped as Vakasa laughed merrily
,
then kissed the black stone. The little girl jabbered in at least five different languages. Brandt caught
,
at the least
,
German, Russian, Arabic, possibly Norwegian
,
and Swahili.