El–Wari offered Ethan a flat stare. ‘Seriously. You abduct me into this hall to talk about oracles?’
‘Girls are vanishing in large numbers and we think that the Russians are behind it,’ Lopez explained. ‘They’re looking for the tomb of an Egyptian scribe named Tjaneni.’
El–Wari raised his hands in supplication. ‘All right, but I still don’t understand what this would have to do with abducted girls. The Tulli Manuscript alleges an encounter between ancient Egyptian peoples and some kind of unidentified flying objects, although I thought that the author was unknown. What does that have to do with oracles, if they even exist?’
‘That’s a longer story,’ Lopez admitted. ‘Just tell us what you do know.’
El–Wari sighed heavily.
‘The scribe Tjaneni served under the Pharaoh Thutmose III, and then under his son, Amenhotep. The location of his tomb remains unknown, as does much about his later life.’
‘Yeah, about that,’ Ethan said as he took another image from his pocket and showed it to the Egyptologist. ‘We think his disappearance may have something to do with this.’
El–Wari looked at the image of the Ark of the Covenant and baulked. ‘Oh, please, no more. You think that is the Covenant Ark, no?’
‘We know that the Ark was Egyptian in origin,’ Ethan replied, ‘and we know that the Russians are using the oracles to search for it.’
Doctor El–Wari pushed past Ethan angrily. ‘I’ll show you your damned Ark!’
The doctor stormed back out into the museum, forcing them to follow him, and he quickly stopped before a large glass cabinet. Within, mounted on dark blue velvet, stood an Ark with Anubis sitting atop the lid, the poles running through mounts at the Ark’s base.
‘This is the Ark of Anubis, found in the tomb of Tutankhamun over a century ago,’ El–Wari seethed. ‘As you can see, it has levelled no mountains or turned anybody here into a pillar of salt. There are no world governments sending in lethal agents to recover it either, or if they are they’re not very good at their jobs as this artefact has been on display for about a hundred years!’
Lopez smiled sweetly at the Egyptologist. ‘Probably not the one we’re looking for, doc’,’ she said.
‘Then I don’t know how I can help you,’ El–Wari replied miserably.
‘It’s Tjaneni’s tomb we’re after,’ Ethan said, ‘and we’ve got something to trade with you if you can help us.’
The Egyptologist looked up to the ceiling in hope. ‘That you’ll go away and never come back?’
‘Yes,’ Lopez replied as she unslung her rucksack from her shoulder, ‘but better than that, you can have these.’
In one smooth motion she opened the sack and showed El–Wari the priceless tablets hidden inside. The Egyptian stared at them for a moment and then his eyes flew wide.
‘Where did you…?’
‘Don’t ask,’ Ethan said, ‘just be reassured that they were being hidden to ensure the rest of the world would not learn about them. You get them for the museum, if you can translate the writing on the back.’
El–Wari ushered them through the museum to his office, which contained a large poster that had been laminated and framed on wall. Upon it were dense ranks of hieroglyphs, each with a translation beneath them in both Greek and Latin that Ethan guessed had been taken from the famous Rosetta Stone, a granodiorite stele inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis, Egypt in 196 BCE on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The decree appeared in three scripts: Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the Demotic script, and Ancient Greek, and had allowed linguists with a means to finally decode the mysterious Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Lopez placed the tablets carefully on the table as El–Wari examined them closely.
‘These are exceedingly ancient,’ he said in wonder, ‘Tjaneni could not himself have created them. They must have been preserved.’
‘Tjaneni is believed to have carved the inscriptions in the front of the tablets,’ Ethan confirmed, ‘but the rear facing script is much older.’
El–Wari frowned as he read the lines.
‘The text is uncertain but I believe that part of it is referring to a tomb in Sqarra, that of the sage Ptah–Hotep.’
‘Hellerman said that was where the hieroglyphics in Utah were copied from!’ Lopez said to Ethan.
‘Can you decipher the rest?’ Ethan asked Doctor El-Wari.
‘I only know one person who could reliably decipher the rest of this. His site is just a few miles south of the city.’
‘Can you take us there?’ Lopez asked.
‘I cannot leave the museum,’ El–Wari said, ‘but the same expert in ancient texts is working at Saqarra right now. If you like I can call him and have you meet him there?’
***
XXXIX
A wave of blistering heat assaulted Ethan as he stepped out of the museum and into the street, the sun a fearsome flare sky in the flawless hard blue dome of the sky above.
‘Here we go again, huh?’
Lopez moved alongside him outside the museum as they watched the bustle of people and battered vehicles fighting for space on the crowded streets and creating a din that was Egypt’s capital city’s signature.
‘Let’s get out of here,’ he replied as he flagged down a taxi, a ramshackle white car that looked vaguely European in design and thus might possess air conditioning.
Ethan was aware that the head of the DIA had recently visited Cairo for two days, during which he had held talks on boosting military and security cooperation. Egypt’s volatile political situation after that “Arab Spring” uprisings had calmed enough for the country to again become a valuable US ally and bulwark to the troubled north and east of the region.
Ethan climbed into the cab with Lopez, and their driver agreed in halting English to drive them the twenty or so miles south of Cairo to reach the Saqqara site. To Ethan’s dismay the car had no air conditioning, the driver instead fighting his way through Cairo’s intense traffic with all of the windows down, the horn blaring as he yelled in Arabic at virtually every other road user he encountered.
The heat wafted through the interior of the car, bringing with it the pungent scents of animals, vegetable stalls, unwashed bodies and sweet coffee.
‘You sure know how to show a girl a good time,’ Lopez smiled at him sweetly as the car lurched this way and that.
Ethan suppressed a smile as the driver finally broke free of the traffic and accelerated, allowing a blessed breeze to blast away the pungent odors as the car drove past the Giza plateau, the immense pyramids rising up into the smog–filled Cairo air. Ethan wondered not for the first time how on earth the ancient Egyptians had built such colossal structures. Although mainstream archeology had located what was believed to be the tombs of the builders themselves, there were no descriptions in those tombs of how they actually built the monuments. It was supposed by experts that ramps were built around the pyramids as they were constructed in order to haul the massive fifteen ton blocks from which the monuments’ exterior was constructed. Yet, as pointed out by many, the ramps would have ended up being as big a construction project as the pyramids themselves.
‘Doesn’t make any sense,’ he said out loud as he looked out at the site.
‘I know,’ Lopez replied, guessing what he was thinking. ‘What’s even more amazing is that they used to be covered in white stone, with a gold cap at the top.’
‘You gonna tell me and the rest of the world how men built those things then?’
‘The mistake you all make is that you assume men built them,’ Lopez replied.
‘You think that aliens did it?’
‘No,’ Lopez said as she loosened her shirt. ‘Women. Historically, women have always done the hard work while men have passed the time fighting and hunting for dinner.’
Ethan shook his head as the car travelled on, eventually reaching the site of Saqqara. The driver pulled over as he was waved down by a portly Englishman dressed in shorts with a straw hat protecting
him from the blistering sunshine.
Ethan paid the driver and climbed out with Lopez as the Englishman shook their hands profusely.
‘Professor Benjamin Radford, University of Oxford, welcome to Saqqara. Doctor El–Wari said you’d be here and that you were both insane, so you’re in good company.’
Radford was every inch the British scientist stranded in a foreign land, his skin red from sunburn, his eyes twinkling behind square–rimmed glasses below the brim of the straw hat and a red kerchief about his neck. Ethan figured that he could have showed up in Egypt in 1840 and not looked out of place.
‘It’s not every day that I get a call from the Defense Intelligence Agency,’ Radford enthused. ‘What is it that I can do for the Yanks out here?’
Ethan suppressed a smile as he replied.
‘We need access to a particular tomb,’ he explained, ‘and we’re told you’re the man to show us.’
‘I am indeed,’ Radford replied as he led them along a dusty path toward a series of step–pyramids before them. ‘I can guide you through any tomb you choose in this vast complex.’
‘What is this place exactly?’ Lopez asked.
‘Saqqara is an ancient burial ground. The name is believed to be derived from the ancient Egyptian funerary god Sokar. The site served as the necropolis for the Ancient Egyptian capital Memphis, and features numerous pyramids including the world famous Step pyramid of Djoser which you can see over there.’ Radford pointed to the irregular pyramid as they walked. ‘It is the oldest complete stone building complex known in history, built during the Third Dynasty. This area was an important complex for non–royal burials and cult ceremonies for more than three thousand years.’
‘So people of importance were buried here,’ Ethan said.
‘Many. Do you know the name of the tomb you’re interested in?’
‘The tomb of Ptah–Hotep,’ Lopez said.
Ethan caught the look of uncertainty in the professor’s eye as he looked at Lopez. ‘Why would the great American government be interested in the tomb of a sage from the fifth dynasty?’
‘It’s a long story,’ Lopez replied. ‘Right now we just need to take a closer look at the tomb.’
Radford shrugged but said nothing more as he led them to a rock–cut tomb on the south east side of the complex known as a mastaba, which had signs in English and Arabic above the entrance, which was decorated with two pillars. The searing heat vanished instantly as Ethan followed Radford and Lopez into the darkness, as though the cool breath of the earth were whispering past them in the shadows.
‘This is the mastaba of Ptah–Hotep,’ Radford said, his voice eerily distorted inside the tomb.
Ethan followed Radford through a room filled with reliefs on the walls, then past two rooms on each side of a corridor until they reached a court surrounded by ten pillars. More rooms followed, Ethan now keeping a sharp lookout for the relief that they sought, passing a false door of some kind with an offering table before it.
‘Most of these walls are decorated with reliefs,’ Radford said, ‘but mostly only the lower parts of the scenes are well preserved and…’
‘I’ve got it,’ Lopez said as she crouched down alongside one wall.
Ethan joined her and peered at the relief before them, recognizing instantly the shape of the alien figure they had been shown in Washington DC.
‘What do you make of this?’ Ethan asked Professor Radford.
Radford peered at the image for a moment before shrugging. ‘Judging by the rest of the reliefs, it looks like a lotus flower in a vase that just happens to be vaguely reminiscent of an alien figure.’
‘That’s a stretch,’ Lopez replied, ‘and I’m a sceptic.’
‘What is it that you’re looking for here?’ Radford asked. ‘Why on earth would the American government be taking a mural such as this seriously in terms of extra–terrestrials?’
Ethan pulled an image from his pocket, taken at the site of the cult in Utah. He handed to the professor and explained how they had discovered it.
‘The artist is blind,’ Ethan said. ‘She claimed to have been channeling the thoughts or experiences of a sage named Ptah–Hotep.’
Radford humphed and handed the picture back. ‘More likely she copied the picture from the Internet or similar.’
‘She is blind,’ Lopez reminded him. ‘Tough call, don’t you think?’
Radford blustered and waved her away. ‘I don’t believe in such mythical things as channeling and remote perception. I deal in facts.’
‘Okay,’ Lopez said. ‘So, factually, how the hell did she draw this when blind, and also guide a Utah Sheriff out of a burning building and predict their imminent deaths accurately enough for the sheriff to avoid obstacles and save their lives?’
Radford stared at her for a long moment. ‘Coincidence and good luck are remarkable bedfellows.’
‘So are ignorance and bullsh…’
‘Shouldn’t we focus on what we do know for sure,’ Ethan cut Lopez off. ‘We did our homework professor. This isn’t the only anomalous image on ancient Egyptian reliefs, is it?’
Before Radford could reply, Ethan handed him one image after another.
‘A mural above a doorway in a temple in the Kush goldmines, which appears to show a rocket ship and people standing next to it as another craft flies overhead. Rows of hieroglyphics in ceiling beams of the three–thousand–year–old New Kingdom Temple at Abydos, dedicated to the god of the Egyptian pantheon, Osiris, perfectly depicting a modern helicopter, aircraft and hovercraft.’
Lopez stepped forward. ‘And this,’ she said, holding out another image they had collected from Hellerman before leaving Garrett’s yacht. ‘Supposedly the mummy of an eight–month old unborn child but with almond eyes, an elongated skull and fingers twice as long as any baby’s should be, found in the tomb of Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun in the Valley of the Kings.’
‘Which matches these remains found in Chile’s Atacama Desert in 2003,’ Ethan went on, ‘a supposed fetus six inches tall that was DNA tested and found to actually be some six to eight years old, had only ten ribs, an elongated skull, almond shaped eyes and DNA that diverged from human by no less than nine per cent.’
Professor Radford held up his hands in supplication.
‘Science doesn’t know everything,’ he admitted, ‘but that’s no reason to jump to such far–fetched conclusions.’
‘All we’re interested in is solving a case,’ Lopez insisted. ‘There is another icon on this relief, called the Eye of Horus.’
‘A common icon in Egyptian lore,’ Radford confirmed, ‘often referred to as the All Seeing Eye.’
‘The eye appears also on a stele than mentions the ancient Egyptian scribe, Tjaneni,’ Ethan said.
‘It appears in conjunction with many Egyptian figures,’ Radford replied. ‘I don’t understand the significance you’re placing in one individual’s relation to the eye.Horus was a falcon–headed idol considered the king of all Egypt, the symbol of which was the pschent, a red and white crown of a particular shape associated with Horus.’
‘From what we understand, Tjaneni is believed to have travelled south from Saqqara to Karnak and from there to his death, wandering in the desert with forty followers who entombed themselves with him in order to protect a secret. That secret is something to do with the Tulli Papyrus.’
Radford’s eyes widened behind his spectacles as he finally understood what Ethan and Lopez were seeking.
‘The Tulli Manuscript,’ he echoed. ‘El–Wari wasn’t kidding when he said that you two had lost your minds.’
‘We just want to know what the Eye of Horus means to you, what it meant to the Egyptians, and how it might connect to Tjaneni and the possible location of his tomb,’ Ethan asked.
Radford sighed and used a kerchief to mop his forehead as he spoke.
‘The Eye of Horus supposedly was a symbol of protection for Egyptians and was personified by the goddess Wadjet,’ he explained. ‘How
ever, there is a school of thought that suggests that the eye is in fact a depiction of the pineal gland in the human brain.’
Lopez blinked. ‘Say what now?’
‘The Eye of Horus matches precisely in shape and form the human brain’s thalamus, one of the most ancient and primal structures inside our brains. The organ translates all incoming signals from our senses, and some schools refer to this part of the brain as the “third eye”, essential for things such as astral projection, remote viewing and so on. The Eye of Horus traces perfectly the form of the brain’s corpus callosum, thalamus, Medulla Oblongata and hypothalamus.’
‘How would the ancient Egyptians have possibly known about something like that?’ Ethan asked.
‘Precisely my question!’ Radford asked. ‘They were capable of basic surgery but nothing that might have exposed them to such a structure deep inside the human brain. They are said by most archeologists to believe that the heart was the repository of all human faculties, yet the Eye of Horus was also formed of six basic components, each referring to a different sense; smell, touch, taste, hearing, sight and thought. Clearly, they knew very well what the organ was for and believed that some seers, or oracles, could divine the future using the Eye of Horus as their guide.’
Lopez looked at Ethan. ‘The Watchers, the Eye of Horus, oracles who can see the future, it all fits together somehow.’
Ethan nodded in agreement but he decided to get Radford back onto the task at hand.
‘Can you tell us, from what’s written on this tablet, where the tomb of Tjaneni might be found?’ Ethan asked.
Radford looked at the images Lopez handed to him, reading intently with a furrowed brow before he spoke.
‘Where on earth did you get this?’
‘Long story,’ Lopez said.
Radford looked down at the images as he spoke.
‘The tablets speak of a canyon shaped like a crescent moon, named the Canyon of Horus for its similarity in shape to the All Seeing Eye,’ he said, ‘that lay in the direction of the setting sun when viewed from the Temple of Horus in Behdet.’
The Genesis Cypher (Warner & Lopez Book 6) Page 26