by N Williams
‘Strange, what does she mean by that; "The people within?"’
‘That’s exactly what I thought. She seemed to carefully select her words there. I realise she was Italian, but her English was as good as yours - probably better,’ he laughed. ‘She spent many years in New York before settling in Wales. She didn’t say, "The people who LIVE or WORK inside". That’s what got me thinking. Is she cryptically referring to something?’
‘But if she was actually hiding something she didn’t want anyone to know about, why would she even hint at its existence?’ said Gates.
Sally had an idea and smiled. ‘Because…Adelina didn’t want just anyone to know. If she wanted no one to know about it she would have destroyed it at the outset, but she didn’t do that. She even used her own money to transport the thing from Egypt to the UK. Why would she do that? I honestly think she wanted the relic, or whatever it is, to be found at some point. But not just by anybody. I think this is a message to someone in the future, someone like us, perhaps.’
‘There is also another reference on the DVD which I found intriguing,’ continued MacKenzie. ‘Something about "an aged treasure of our father."’
‘“An aged treasure of our father?”’ repeated Sally. ‘So, that does mean it’s something to do with God? So it’s unquestionably a religious relic of some kind?’
‘Yes! Definitely.’
Zac looked surprised.
Sally saw his confusion. ‘The Catholic church had a habit of taking finger bones or a rib or lock of hair, or just about anything they could find that they could associate with a saint. They’d then revere the object and sometimes kings would use them as political favours to buy peace or alliances between countries; use them as trade items. They were smart people. They knew how to play on the beliefs of the people, and no one would ever dare to challenge their authority.’
‘That’s my Church you’re slagging off,’ said Zac, looking offended before he broke into a smile. ‘I don’t go anymore, so no offence taken,’ he laughed.
‘Sorry Zac, I didn’t know you’re Catholic.’
‘As I said, I’m not anymore. Fell out with all that a long time ago.’
‘Well, perhaps all this is just about a finger bone from some poor bastard who was canonised for being tortured for his faith,’ suggested Gates.
‘Maybe, but I truly can’t see how it would justify the murder of at least two people, if that is the case,’ said Sally.
MacKenzie cut in. ‘If you all shut up for a moment and let me finish, I might be able to put you right on a few things. Give me a moment and I’ll send you what I’ve got via email.’
Within minutes, the notes appeared as an attachment in Zac’s inbox.
Sally snatched the printout containing the notes from the diary before Gates could retrieve it. ‘Too slow, big man,’ she laughed. She began to read the passage and after a few moments stopped and shouted into the speakerphone, ‘Was it written exactly like this in the pages of the diary, Mac?’
‘Exactly.’
Sally scratched her head, ‘You’re sure you didn't take liberties when you made the notes?’
The disembodied voice raised an octave. ‘Bloody hell! You’re one picky lady... ’
Blushing, Sally showed the page to Zac. ‘It just seems strange that Adelina wrote it like that.’
‘What do you mean?’ said Zac.
‘Well, look at this again. She wrote - "An aged treasure of our father." Why would she write father with a lower case "f"? If she was so devout, surely she’d be keen to ensure she would recognise God with a capital "F", not like this. We only use the small f when we refer to our own father. The upper case letter distinguishes God our Father from our own genetic dad.’
Gates chipped in, ‘Perhaps she was in a hurry, or wasn’t bothered with all that?’
‘I doubt that very much,’ she countered. ‘Grammatical precision was more important in those days than it is today, another sad reflection of our times, I’m afraid.’
‘So are you suggesting that Adelina deliberately wrote it like this for a reason?’ asked Gates.
‘I think so, yes.’
‘But if that’s the case, where does that leave us?’ said Zac.
‘I think it leaves us with an even bigger mystery,’ replied Sally.
‘Perhaps I can help,’ offered MacKenzie. ‘You may not like what I’m about to tell you, but I think you should hear it anyway.’
Zac groaned. ‘Not more conspiracy shit?’
‘Mock as you might, there’s no smoke without fire, Zac. Anyway, the first page of the diary seems to be an account of an archaeological find in Egypt. She mentions the Sphinx and the treasures buried beneath. She mentions someone called "Stella" who held the key. As soon as I saw that I knew what she was talking about.’
‘What?’ asked Zac.
‘I’ll come to that in a minute,’ MacKenzie continued. ‘She also wrote that only three pieces of treasure were removed from the Sphinx. I managed to translate something which I think means "library" but I know she doesn’t mean it in the sense we understand. There follows some lines I couldn’t make out, but there was also a word which I think means "pot" or "pots."‘
‘Anything else?’ asked Sally.
Zac could hear the excitement in MacKenzie’s voice. ‘Yes, there’s a reference to a complex of rooms or chambers beneath the Sphinx... leading between the pyramids. But the best thing is a comment written by Adelina in the margin at the bottom of the page. She wrote, "My world has been shaken by this find. God is REAL." Now, I don’t know about you, but this is a little odd, to say the least. Why would she, as a devout Catholic, say her world has been shaken when she then declares that God is real?’
Sally was lost in her thoughts. ‘Perhaps she found something that reaffirmed her belief - convinced her that it was all true?’
‘Spot on, my astute friend.’ MacKenzie was on a roll. ‘There have been legends of a secret chamber hidden beneath the Sphinx for years. The belief is that the contents of the lost Library of Alexandria were stashed in the chamber before Caesar accidentally destroyed the Library in 48 BC. The world mourned the loss of great knowledge, whilst in fact the contents had been moved to Egypt well in advance of the Roman invasion.’
‘You can’t seriously mean that the Sphinx was built to house the Library? The Sphinx is much older, even I know that,’ said Gates.
‘About 2500BC in the time of Khafre,’ Sally offered.
MacKenzie laughed. ‘That’s what they all want you to believe.’
Zac was relieved that they weren’t speaking via video conference and that MacKenzie couldn’t see Sally’s expression, even though he knew the young man was accustomed to ridicule for his weird beliefs.
‘The Sphinx was built much earlier than the experts will have you believe. It was built in a time when the Giza Plateau was a lush and fertile land, before the desert, and it was built to contain treasures from the past. Just think of it for a moment. If you wanted to keep something safe for all time, and didn’t want anyone to find it accidentally, where would you hide it?’
MacKenzie waited for a reply. Zac, Gates and Sally looked to each other for help, and when none was forthcoming Zac said the first thing to come into his head.
‘In plain view... make it something so obvious and so much a part of the landscape that, over centuries or thousands of years, you’d forget its real purpose.’
‘Zac, my man, you are on the money. That’s exactly right. If you hide something from view people will know it’s valuable and go after it. If you create something so large and so much a part of the environment, and give a good reason for building it - like to celebrate the first age of Osiris - the Zep Tepi as the ancient Egyptians called it - then no-one will think anything more of it. It’s a bit like storing the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London and starting the rumour that they’re fakes.’
Gates looked confused. ‘So does that mean the jewels are fakes?’
‘Whatever you wish
to believe, my man, but if there was a rumour doing the rounds that the jewels were fake, no-one would bother wasting time attempting to steal them. It would make sense to lock them away in a vault somewhere, but that would only make them more of a target. Someone would know of the whereabouts and eventually let it slip whilst drunk or trying to impress a new girlfriend, or some shit like that. So you make up some bollocks about the stuff being fake and stick them right under the noses of the people. And that, my friends, is what the Egyptians did.’
‘They lived in a time when things were uncomplicated,’ Mac continued. ‘The gods were the centre of their world, and they kept the traditions of those gods. They believed that Osiris could be found within the stars - in the constellation of Orion. I’m sure you all know of the theory of the pyramids at Giza being aligned with Orion, and that they were built to mirror the three stars which make up the belt. That’s an awful lot of work and would test the most ardent of faiths.’
‘Cut to the chase Mac,’ said Zac. ‘How does this have anything to do with what we’re looking for?’
MacKenzie laughed. ‘Patience, my man. I’m getting to the crux, but I need you to understand the bigger picture first. True, the Library was much later, but that doesn’t mean to say that the storage facility under the Sphinx wasn’t already there. There are many things from our far distant past that were stored there and the other stuff from the Library added later. That also means that the knowledge of the true purpose of the Sphinx would have been kept by a select group of people - handed down from one to another.’
Zac fished two tablets from his wallet and forced them into the top of a bottle of spring water.
‘Lots of marvellous things have been created for religion. Look around the world and you’ll see breath-taking buildings and incredible art, all for the glorification of God. If you’re like me, you might think it’s a load of bollocks, but after reading the diary pages you gave me I’m beginning to think that I was wrong... not entirely wrong, perhaps confused would be a better word.’ MacKenzie fell silent for a moment before continuing. ‘You see, I now think that the faith thing, and the stories of the ancients, was based on real events, which have then been distilled and altered over millennia to suit the needs of certain powerful groups. We all know that our politicians will feed us shit if it suits them...’
Gates grunted. ‘That’s for sure.’
‘...So it’s not hard to accept that our ancestors probably did the same. Anything they thought didn’t fit in with their system of control had to go. They only kept the stuff they felt they could use. A bit like Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth; hide what you don’t want others to know and insist it’s right.’
Zac sipped from the bottle as he strolled slowly around the room. ‘I’m still not getting this. What has the Sphinx and Orion and Al Gore got to do with this?’
‘Al Gore has fuck all to do with it. That was just an analogy, Zac.’ MacKenzie was clearly exasperated. ‘What I’m trying to say is that our modern belief system is nothing like it should be. It’s not what it started out like because it’s been changed to suit the establishment. What I’m saying is that when our first ancestors walked this earth, our first real ancestors, they didn’t just have faith in gods... they knew they existed. They had seen them come from the sky and change the world around them. Indeed, they even changed the people themselves.’
Sally laughed. ‘Bollocks! Are you trying to say that aliens visited Earth and became our gods?’
A beefy hand thumped Sally on the shoulder. ‘Do you kiss your granny with that foul mouth?’ Gates grinned.
‘That’s exactly what I’m saying,’ said Mac. ‘Why is it so hard to believe?’
‘Because there’s absolutely no evidence to suggest that happened,’ Sally countered.
‘Of course there is. Haven’t you ever heard of the argument about transitional life forms? How and why did trilobites just suddenly appear when there’s no evidence of an ancestor for them? Look at insects - they just appeared.’
‘But that’s only because we haven’t found the ancestor yet,’ argued Sally.
‘So you have faith in science - that the ancestor existed, but you don’t believe the facts as they stand. There simply isn’t an ancestor for these things. The reason we believe there is one is that we can’t and won’t accept the alternative - that life appeared and didn’t evolve.’
‘I never saw you as a Creationist, Mac,’ said Zac.
‘I’m not. I just don’t accept the current stand on life and evolution. It just doesn’t work. I believe that life had a helping hand. Look at us humans... we already have a mapped genome. We can genetically modify all life on earth. Can you imagine what we’d do if we landed on another planet, a planet with the potential for life? We’d be straight in there playing God.’
Zac had to accept that MacKenzie was certainly right on that point. ‘Where does that leave our religions?’
‘It just leaves them confused, and extremely pissed off, if something comes along to destabilise the status quo they’ve enjoyed for so long. We believed for centuries that the universe revolved around us until it was proved to be wrong. Look at Galileo. He had a right shitty time because he suggested the Church was wrong. Why do we still see ourselves as the centre of God’s creation? If we truly believe in God, then we have to accept that if there’s life out there in the universe our God would be their God too. And that brings me to the main point. If God created life elsewhere first, then it’s not too far beyond the realms of possibility that we are the genetic descendants of an earlier race, a race from somewhere else.’
‘That would throw the spanner into the works for the Church,’ said Gates.
‘Too right, but I don’t see why. I don’t see it like that at all. Why does it matter where life was first created? If there is an all-powerful entity out there, then surely it is still our creator too? We may be a little further down the family tree, but we’re still His children. But we have to accept that there will be many millions who will not like it one little bit and may even kill to keep it hidden.’
CHAPTER 42
‘The best and most crazy bit is yet to come,’ said MacKenzie excitedly. ‘You may have heard all that recent bollocks about the Sphinx needing work to stop it sinking? That’s absolute bullshit. The thing is carved on bedrock. There’s no way in the world that it will sink. There’s more chance of the leaning tower of Pisa straightening itself than that happening. I found loads of references on the internet relating to chambers beneath the Sphinx. A couple of them had some remarkably good schematics of the chambers. They don’t mention where these drawings came from, so I can only assume that they are works of imagination, or created by someone who knows something the Egyptians are keeping quiet. I also think that the recent activity at the plateau may well be connected to your diary and Madame Patti’s find.’
He could sense he had the full attention of his audience, and MacKenzie wasn’t going to let go of centre stage. ‘This isn’t the first time that people have suggested the existence of hidden treasures under the Sphinx. Indeed there are many who believe that the people guarding the site are all part of a secret sect set up to preserve the treasures and knowledge hidden there. One blog I found even claims that the chamber contains information relating to our earliest civilisations - and even the meaning of life itself...’
‘It’s 42!’ chipped in Gates.
‘Oh hell! You a fan of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy too?’ Mac moaned. ‘But getting back to my point before I was so rudely interrupted... it also carries a warning; it goes on to state that this knowledge would be something that would destroy our present orthodox views and might even piss people off so much that it’ll bring about the dreaded Armageddon.’
‘But this is just the view of some blogger,’ stated an exasperated Zac. He was less than impressed.
‘True, but I always like to look at all views and opinions before making my own mind up on things. I often find that even the most outlandish idea
can contain a grain of truth and that grain can be compared to the missing piece of a much larger puzzle. As soon as that piece drops into place everything else makes sense. For example, there are also connections to the psychic readings of Edgar Cayce.’
‘I’ve heard of Cayce,’ said Zac. ‘He was some American guy who claimed to receive insights to our existence through hypnosis.’
‘Beautifully put, my man. That’s right. He was supported by many immensely wealthy people at the time, but also had his doubters.’
‘So where does he fit into this?’ asked Zac. ‘This is doing my head in.’
‘I don’t know if he does... probably doesn’t. It’s just that a search of the internet throws up links to his ideas,’ explained MacKenzie. ‘He believed that the early Egyptian people were descendants of refugees from Atlantis. I should clarify that he didn’t claim to believe that, he claimed those were the suggestions which came through him in his state of trance.’
Zac began to laugh. ‘Another load of complete bollocks; this is just nonsense. How could anyone take any of that seriously?’
‘You’d be surprised,’ interjected Sally. ‘I’ve heard a whole raft of different crackpot ideas put forward for the origins of our species.’
‘Well I’d rather go with Richard Attenborough’s take on things,’ sniggered Gates.
‘I think you mean David Attenborough,’ laughed Sally.
‘Anyway, there’s too much science to argue with,’ retorted Gates.
‘Perhaps we’re looking at the science in the wrong way? Perhaps the science can be interpreted in a different light if we think of it as the mechanism of creation, a product of the God Plan.’
Gates laughed aloud. ‘Come on. Get serious here. We’re supposed to be looking for a relic of religious significance - something that is tangible - a real thing. This talk only confuses me. I’m totally lost now.’
‘All I know,’ said Zac, ‘is that something was found beneath the Sphinx which was significant to Adelina. She was concerned enough to put her own money into a plan to bring the thing to the UK. Whatever that thing was has resulted in at least two deaths and the attempts on the lives of Sally, Bill and myself. So I don’t honestly care what it is. If I could just forget about it all and concentrate on my flying I’d be a happy man, but it doesn’t look as if that’s going to happen. I’m also bloody furious and determined that no one is going to get the better of me in this. We need to find the poxy thing before anyone else does, and the only way we can do that is to get all the pages of the diary translated, so we know what we’re dealing with.’