The Time Stone (34 page)

"You have always had a vivid
imagination." A tall young woman came out of the darkness. “I
missed you.”

“
You should not speak of
such ill-conceived things.” He turned to her. “Come sit and wait
with me.”

“
I think we need to be
honest with ourselves, Saragin, and confront the Superior Chief
about our needs.” She said.

“
I have always valued your
opinions my dearest one but I cannot make such a request coming
from a mere woman, it is simply not done.” He replied.

“
You don’t have to tell
him it was my idea.” She raised her eyebrows pointing out the
obvious. “I mean who would know”

“
I would know” he looked
at her with a high degree of sincere recognition and yet
admonition.

“
Whatever it may be, it is
not for us to decide but the will of Ra as does the dawn that
brings us life and sustenance every day. You are the highest priest
for the Pharaoh’s court, acolyte and all. Nothing is completely
without possibility or…”

“
We will speak no more of
it, Hashilda…” He started when suddenly a loud noise from outside
disturbed their silent conversation.

The sound of a thousand camel hooves
stampeding simultaneously echoed in the distance. They veered
outside and began to step out of their tent in the small circle of
tents when they were confronted by large scale winds and torrential
sands being picked up heading in their direction, a glowing
yellowish hot white light circling in the distance appeared to move
in all directions at once shining like a fire from the bowels of
Hell. They ran inside and avoided the sands coming toward them but
remained frightened in still prayer as it passed. Moments later,
the sounds of winds and turbulence stopped and they veered outside
in utter horror as they saw the calm desert as it was once again
and in the twilight of the dawning sun stood what was not there
before, a young woman with a slightly tan complexion wearing a
khaki colored pair of shorts, shirt with her sleeves rolled up her
elbows, a sun hat, and small round glasses, her dark brown hair
knotted in a ponytail behind her, and holding a brush with her
right hand standing in shock herself as to what just transpired.
Saragin and his wife Hashilda were in complete disarray in
paralysis at the horror of seeing what was to them the impossible
under the dawning day.

The next hour in the central city,
small but growing with the regular nomadic commutes of the peasant
class protruding together and individually throughout the markets
set up in the local villas under one large square encampment over
five thousand meters wide, a skeletal pyramidal structure rested in
the center of the entire compound and appeared incomplete but
looming over the compound in the distance like a leviathan. The
smell of dry bread and oily meats permeated the air and sounds of
loud voices in early Egyptian dialects and the carting of livestock
in small cages were heard throughout the square.

“
What do you mean? I want
two dozen for this.” Spoke one man in Egyptian but was refuted with
a courtesy of the world’s common universal sign of failure to seal
a deal, absolute ignorance. The people wore long gowns of different
varieties, colors, and trends adorned with gilded and silver decor
were some but others plain and simple, clean were some and others
were dirty from neglect and abuse as a result of extreme poverty,
representatives of the various classes of status apparent in the
combined social circles. Members of the Pharaoh’s court wore a
silver pin with a half crescent moon and five stars encrusted
representing the dynamic reign of Pharaoh Riana. The rustle
continued throughout the morning. Nearby in a small enclosure, Drax
sticks his head out into the market arena and whiffs the gentle but
still dry heat air.

“
I love hummus” he
uttered, “too bad we have to keep a low profile.” He went back
inside the tent and sat at a small unstable wooden bench with one
on either side of the table before it. Tina, James, and Mercedes
sat on the other ends and looked perplexed over everything that
happened. They were wearing dirty brown long gowns similar to those
worn by the local people but even more dirty and more fowl smelling
than most having picked them up from a discarded pile of clothes
ready to be washed. They held cups made of wood with a hot liquid.
A waitress and other persons wandered around the small enclosure
keeping a wary eye on the sudden strangers. The quartet converse in
quiet trying to avoid too much attention.

“
We couldn’t have stolen
cleaner clothes? These reek,” commented Tina.

“
Next time well comparison
shop” joked Drax. “We need to figure things out little by little”
he clasped his hands on the table before him. “What do we have so
far?” Drax said.

“
Not much” said James
shrugging.

“
I’m sorry; I’m treating
you guys like you’re trained agents. It’s just what I am used to.
We value productivity above all else in my line of work. Time is
our most valuable asset. I guess I got to stop thinking like I’m
leading a staff meeting for a group of operatives.” He
sighed.

“
We are grateful for
everything you did for us.” Said Mercedes and James and Tina nodded
in acknowledgement. “It just takes time to adapt to new
things.”

“
Yeah” James
replied.

“
Where are we anyway?”
Asked Tina.

“
I believe the correct
question is when we are?” Replied Drax.

“
We actually did it,
again. The device made us travel through space and time. The Time
Stone did it.” Said James.

“
Again?” Drax
asked.

“
Everything that happened
back in the citadel was so strange. I still don’t get it all.” Said
Mercedes.

“
Me neither” added James
smiling.

“
It’s complicated but
yeah, we went from the outskirts of Chronix Bay in 2012 to Egypt
approximately 5020 BC.” Drax said.

“
Ancient Egypt?!? How can
you tell the exact time?” Asked Tina.

“
The scenery and position
of the sun are dead giveaways but also the symbol on the pyramid
structure up there is the same as the pins on many of the
socialites in town. It is one of the early dynasties. It’s the
dynasty of Pharaoh Riana to be exact. This is where the first
people settled along the Nile Delta.” Drax said.

“
We went back in time?”
Asked Tina shaking her head. “Just like when we were in Brazil and
wound up in Chronix Bay” she added.

“
Yes, I suppose” said
Drax. “We were move by virtue of the theory of time displacement,
allowing for instantaneous fixation into the alien time stream no
different than moving in an airplane to a new time zone, well maybe
a little different.”

“
You sure know a lot” said
James.

“
I am trained to be
prepared for everything.” Drax said confidently.

“
Then why didn’t you
anticipate what happened at the citadel?” Said Tina
sarcastically.

“
Well, almost everything.”
Drax smiled in response as he sipped his tea. “We should get going.
We got a lot of recon to do… That’s intelligence talk for getting
our homework done. We need to find out more specifics about what
happened and where Broad is, and most importantly where the Time
Stone is!”

“
Yeah that’s true. They
left the time stone on that balcony. I guess it is still there. I
guess it will be. These damn past and present tenses.” Tina
added.

“
It definitely exists
here. Our research found out that little gem has been a part of our
world’s history for over thirteen thousand years.” Drax
said.

“
Wow that is pretty old.”
Said Tina.

“
Yeah.” Said Drax raising
his eyebrows emphatically.

CHAPTER 69

James walks along the road near the
town square and suddenly stops in a frantic malaise. He grabs his
head and moans in an agonizing pain. His mind felt like a million
sharp daggers penetrating him and causing him to drop to his knees.
He felt the harsh sensation of a vice on his head and his vision
became suddenly blurred as his sight became merged with his mind’s
eye and then a flash of blue and black lines vibrated intensely
before him, a tunnel of energy fast forwarding him to another place
and time, a city dark and mysterious, tall skyscrapers not unlike
any major urban metropolis and lights of various colors of the
rainbow spectrum on the front and pinnacle of each building, a
large dome-shaped citadel structure in the center. He recognized it
as Chronix Bay but it seemed more advanced, each building having
cable wires protruding up and down the structures with shining
shimmering vanguards sprinkled throughout the city with heights as
large as the great wall of China and a series of roads that
extended upward and around the buildings leading up to a launching
pad. He stood in admiration as a ground passenger vehicle drove up
the road structure and then left the road on the launching pad
where it spouted a pair of retractable fixed wings and flew up off
the platform, a pair of flames jet boosting the vehicle up into the
night sky. Then in the midst of this miraculous phenomenon, a large
explosion eviscerated the entire city leaving a fiery mushroom
cloud of immense proportions in its wake. The blue-black tunnel
raced back and he snapped out of this vision staring again into the
dirt road he lay on. “What the heck was that?” He screamed gasping
for air and thinking that his abilities had taken a turn for the
more horrific as he looked up into the piercing hot sun.

The smells and sounds of the
marketplace were robust and delightful as Tina and Mercedes walked
down the make cobble path that led to the great arena as they were
told. Luckily, Drax was a master of virtually all languages, old
and new, by virtue of his extensive military and agency trainings.
He acted as a subtle liaison and told the locals they were
traveling merchants from the east and have lost all of their wares
in a sudden sandstorm and were now seeking temporary
refuge.

“
We sure are lucky to have
found these clothes to fit in.” Said Mercedes.

“
You call this luck” said
Tina making a sour face at the odor.

“
We ought to be getting
close to the great arena. Drax said there are tons of great deals
we should be able to get with the little bit of money we could
obtain in this time stream.”

“
Just what I always wanted
to do is go on a spendthrift shopping spree.” Replied Tina. “What
do you suppose the boys are doing?” Tina inquired.

“
Drax is negotiating for
supplies we might need to scale the mountains in the far distance.”
Replied Mercedes.

“
Mountains? What
mountains? This is a desert.” Said Tina.

“
He said they are many
miles away and many days, possibly weeks in travel.”

“
What? That’s crazy.” Tina
uttered.

“
But he seems to think
it’s the best place to hide from Broad because of the advanced
mineral deposits in the regional rock face, something triluthicate
or something like that. I don’t remember. Mineralogy was not my
field.”

“
What was your field?”
Asked Tina seriously.

“
Biology and Technology.”
Mercedes smiled. “Anyway, he also thinks the deposits indicate it
might be the perfect place for the time stone to be. Without that
relic, we can’t get back home.” Said Mercedes.

“
Let’s hope we are able to
prevail.” Said Tina.

They arrived at a large tent with
several small wooden pillars out front and a series of merchandise
that had been placed out on a table before it, gold jewelry and
adornments, frankincense, myrrh, and silk. They approached in
astonishment at the array of goods. An old man sat tending the
small table and smiled at them, his front row teeth missing, to the
gasp of the two women. They saw people walking in and out of the
tent larger than many others seen in the entire village. The
sunlight briefly wiggled inside the tent and there were an
astonishing apparent several rows of items from food to homemade
trade, glass ware products on the other tables inside the tent, and
several other items of local interest. The two women entered as if
in a daze. Then suddenly, something brushed by in between them and
they quickly noticed it was a woman dressed in a long brown gown
with a white scarf around her face and head. “I’m sorry” she
uttered as she made her way away from the tent. Seconds later, a
large muscular man with a somewhat thorough beard and long hair
underneath a white turban, bear chest surrounded by a loose fitting
vest, and bag in his hands ran out screaming in early ancient
Egyptian dialect as he chased after the young woman clenching his
fists.

“
What the heck?” Said
Mercedes.

“
Let’s go” said Tina
chasing after them.

“
Where are you going?”
Asked Mercedes rhetorically throwing her hands up.

“
Opportunity knocks” Tina
yelled from the distance while running. Mercedes ran after her.
“We’re gonna get in so much trouble with her.”

Tina and Mercedes chased after the man
and woman into another tent on the far end of the grand arena
square. They entered announcing themselves.