There were more plausible theories, such as the supposition that an ancient temple had stood on the area at the time of building the causeways to the less plausible suggestions that the ancient Egyptians were trying to replicate the stars of Orion’s Belt.
But what if the obstruction hadn’t been aboveground? What if there was something under the sand that the builders had been avoiding? Any large tomb would make the ground above unable to support the weight of the causeway and the enormous limestone bricks transported over them.
In her mind, she could see the causeways and the strange space left between them and the Sphinx. The tunnel she stood in was just to the south of it. She spun to her right to look at the north wall.
A laugh erupted out of her lips before she could stop it.
“Oh, this is going to be good!” Lopez exclaimed from the side, moving to get a good angle for his video.
It had been there the whole time. Of course, it had been buried in thousands of hieroglyphics. A simple cartouche of a lion stacked on top of a monkey stacked on top of an ibis.
This was some old-school Egyptian religion. Before Ra. Before Osiris. Before Isis. These were the animal gods worshipped before the dynasties. The Egyptians worshipped animals above all else. It wasn’t until thousands of years later that they morphed mankind into their pantheon.
“This is it,” Rebecca said, reaching out to the symbol, but Brandt’s forearm stopped her.
“What’s the rule?”
Rebecca grinned. She just had gotten so caught up in that moment of discovery. “No touching the artifacts.”
Brandt nodded. “At least not until we are secured properly.” He turned to the men. “I want everyone tied to each other, with tighter bindings between pairs.”
The men complied, except Levont, who looked around them, seeming to take in the fact they were in a newly found ancient passage about to open another secret millennia-old hidden passage.
“Can I just say?” the point man said. “You guys rock.”
“Tie in, Levont,” Brandt ordered, but Rebecca noticed he had the tiniest grin at the edge of his lips.
Rebecca picked up Vakasa as Talli finished cinching them together.
Once they were all tied in, the men raised their guns. Well, not all of them. Lopez had his camera up.
Brandt looked to each man. Once he got a nod from them, Brandt put his palm on the cartouche and pressed. Nothing happened. He pressed again, with the same result. Rebecca only took a little step forward. “Maybe you need to—”
A loud grinding filled the tunnel. Brandt urged her back, his gun raised as the wall moved laterally, revealing a dark passage. Once the rumbling and dust had settled, it became apparent it wasn’t a passage, but a set of stone steps.
Brandt flashed his light down the steep tunnel.
“How far does it go?” Rebecca asked as both she and Vakasa craned their necks to see.
“Pretty damn far,” Brandt answered, not looking any too happy about it. Then resolve replaced concern. “But it’s our only way out, so…”
He indicated for Levont to take point. Without a word, everyone got into position and started down the steps. Lopez swept the camera side to side. Halfway down, the corporal began his narration.
“What will we find, RJ? What mysteries will we uncover? Will Daddy go in the record books? Along with, you know, all these other people?”
Brandt gave Lopez a three-out-of-five death stare.
The corporal just shrugged. “What? Who’s going to hear me? Mummies?”
To Rebecca’s surprise, Brandt didn’t bark for Lopez to shut up. The corporal’s soft whisper seemed to dull the edge of anxiety as they descended farther and farther into the ground. Would they find another dead end? After all of this, would they have to throw themselves on Egyptians’ mercy?
The girl in her arms didn’t seem to mind, either. She would brace against Rebecca’s body to lift her head above the men, constantly trying to see what was up ahead. Ah, children and their boundless curiosity. Someday Vakasa would learn that not everything up ahead was a wonder. Or maybe Rebecca hoped that the little girl wouldn’t learn such a harsh lesson. Maybe she could learn it was okay to poke your head above the crowd and expect good things to come of it.
“I’ve got a door,” Levont reported from the front. They all climbed down to join him on the landing.
Rebecca searched the surface for any hieroglyphics or cartouches, but found nothing. Just a hand-chiseled door. She shifted Vakasa’s weight to the other hip. Brandt didn’t even bother to ask her opinion. How could she have one with no writings?
Brandt gave the nod for the point man to open it. With a heave, the door slid across the uneven ground, grinding and protesting the whole way. Why wouldn’t it? It had been shut for how many generations?
Levont took a decisive step into the next room. “What the…?”
Lopez was next and gave a whoop. Talli walked in, his jaw dropping.
Rebecca followed closely behind. “Oh. My. God.”
However, it was Lopez who summarized it best.
“In your face, Geraldo!” he announced to the camera. “This is how you open up a chamber!”
CHAPTER 18
══════════════════
Undisclosed Location
3:01 p.m. (EST)
Bunny nearly jumped out of her skin when the click came over the line.
“Yes?” she answered. Silence stretched. Hope faded. Davidson didn’t have any new information. He was checking in to see if they did. “Sorry. Nothing more.”
Her eyes scanned the dozens of newscasts that Stark pulled up. Sure, theories were rampant. However, not a one had identified Brandt and the others. Which was probably a good thing. However, not having word from them for nearly a half hour was not such a good thing.
The longer they dallied, the greater the chances the Egyptians discovered the hidden tunnel. Okay, so Rebecca and the others probably weren’t dallying, but still.
“Let him know the extraction team is nearly to the area,” Emily stated. “He should be looking for a large van. Blue. Windowless.”
Bunny nodded and repeated the information. She got a click in response.
It was a little hard to gauge Davidson’s mental status through a series of clicks, but still. Something felt off. Wrong.
“Are you okay?”
That click came back way too fast.
“Something’s wrong,” Bunny said, glancing over the news feeds again. Everything seemed quiet on the eastern front. Then it had to be something with Davidson himself.
Prenner frowned. “But he just said he was fine.”
The lieutenant didn’t know Davidson like she did. Like the sniper would admit anything was wrong.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” Bunny asked.
No response. So her hunch was right.
“Except, of course,” Bunny continued, “for us to pray.”
A click was her answer.
* * *
Davidson turned off the sat phone and shook out his right hand. That Bunny was a little too insightful for her own good.
He willed his fingers to loosen, but they had seized down into a knot. A minor wound like the one he’d taken in the alley never would have affected him, but the damaged nerves in his hand had something else to say about it.
A sniper kind of needed his fingers to work. It was one of those deal-breaker kinds of things.
Lying flat on his belly again, Davidson tried to relax. Maybe if he could convince his body that he was on a nice hot Bahamas beach rather than a grungy Giza rooftop. A grungy tin rooftop. He’d had to abandon all of the residential rooftops since, well, most of the occupants were out on them. With all the sirens and police activity, it had roused everyone from their apartments.
Not exactly ideal conditions for a stealthy extraction.
Trying to ignore the cramping of his fingers, Davidson did a perimeter sweep, again. Besides the co
nstant influx of police and army vehicles, there was nothing to prove that Bunny had been correct in her assessment. He could be sitting on the wrong side of the pyramids for all he knew.
Or the others were all dead.
Davidson shook his head, sending a spray of sweat off his forehead. He couldn’t let the nauseating pain get to him. An equally likely scenario had him placed within only minutes from Brandt’s reappearance.
Okay, maybe equally likely wasn’t correct, but even if there was the slimmest of chances, Davidson would wait out the week for them.
Not like this, though.
Pulling his hand away from his rifle, he had to admit he couldn’t shoot. At least not with his right hand.
Jerking the rifle’s butt up, Davidson positioned it against his other shoulder. He was trained to cross-shoot. However, being trained in it and actually doing it were two different things.
Yeah, their best-case scenario now required that Brandt and the rest had survived in a cave under a pyramid, somehow made their way to the Sphinx, broken out, then threaded the needle of hundreds of enemy forces, all with the support of their sniper, shooting left-handed.
Nope. Nothing to go wrong there.
* * *
Brandt tried hard not to be impressed or overwhelmed or shocked. He failed on all three accounts.
The chamber alcoves lined the walls, filled with urns. Tables overflowed with artifacts.
Thank God there hadn’t been any threat in here since Levont had flat-out forgot to clear the room. Brandt had barely remembered to remind him. And Rebecca? Forget about it. The woman dragged her finger along objects circumventing the room. It was like her brain was trying to upload all the objects and categorize them.
Lopez was filming the whole thing, of course. Along with commentating. The only sound in the room was his voice.
“This is like King Tut’s tomb on steroids, RJ…”
And the corporal wasn’t wrong. There was a statue of an ibis that must have stood seven feet tall. The top of its head brushed up against the ceiling. Vakasa picked up a cobra circlet and put it on over her head scarf.
She then mimicked the “Walk Like An Egyptian” dance, looking very unlike a messiah.
The only English Vakasa seemed to know was American idioms. It was pretty damn cute.
After nearly tripping on a jackal vase, Brandt stopped.
“What is this place?” he asked.
Rebecca turned to him, wonder softening her tired features. “Anything that would come out of my mouth would just be a guess.” She looked to Vakasa, who was trying to incorporate a moonwalk with her strutting. “Maybe she can help us translate some of the tablets…”
Ah, yes, the tablets. Brandt couldn’t even count how many tablets were scattered around the room. He was no Egyptologist, but he would bet this doubled the known amount of knowledge about ancient Egypt.
“Guys,” Levont breathed out, his eyes wide with delight. “I think…I think this is just the antechamber.”
“Get out of here!” Lopez exclaimed. Even Talli looked impressed.
Levont seemed spot-on, though, as they all made their way to the far end of the room.
“I think these panels slide apart.”
The point man was right. Those panels covered in hieroglyphics did look like they slid.
“Rebecca?”
She stepped up to the entrance, then put her hand out for Vakasa to come forward. The young girl cocked her head, studying the symbols. Then she reached out and opened them. Everyone scrambled back.
Okay, that was one way to do it.
“Levont, this time let’s try and clear the room by the book,” Brandt reminded the point man before they all got excited about the next discovery.
“You go it, Sarge.”
However, as they entered the new chamber, all thoughts of the enemy vanished.
* * *
Rebecca wanted to breathe. Her lungs wanted air. Her brain wanted oxygen. They would all have to wait.
The sight before her was…staggering. The cavern was predominated by a huge pedestal, which served as the base for possibly the largest sarcophagus she’d ever seen. Dark-blue lapis lazuli had been laid into the sides. The stone was considered a precious gem, given it’s swirled mineral pattern. Each piece completely unique. And there were hundreds, if not thousands, used to adorn the stone coffin.
It was the only adornment, though. This tomb was so ancient it predated Egypt’s fascination with gold.
“There’s more,” Levont shouted from up ahead.
How could there be more?
But there were more. Dozens, as a matter of fact. Dozens upon dozens of “smaller” sarcophagi. And by smaller, Rebecca meant they were only seven feet long and four feet across.
“Whose tomb is this?” Talli asked as they found the back of the cavern, then made their way back to the main sarcophagus.
That was a great question. Rebecca surveyed the hieroglyphics they passed. There was a lot of chatter about the upper and lower kingdoms. About the two becoming one. That event, the unification of Egypt, was perhaps one of the single most important joinings in history. After the two kingdoms merged, a true golden age of humanity began. But maybe all this hype about the unification wasn’t just talk. Rebecca put all of this into perspective, given the timeline they had built regarding the Sphinx.
Rebecca clasped her hands over her mouth.
“What?” Brandt asked.
Rebecca backed away from the tomb. It couldn’t be.
Yet there it was. She read the cartouche. There was no mistake.
“I think…” Rebecca had a hard time speaking. “I think we’ve found the first pharaoh’s tomb.”
Lopez whooped, although Rebecca wasn’t quite sure even he understood the magnitude of the find.
“Narmer?” Talli asked in a much more measured tone.
Rebecca shook her head. “No.” She pointed to the cartouche. “I think this is the Scorpion King.”
“The one the Rock played?” Lopez asked, looking very skeptical.
“No,” Rebecca hurried on. “The movie totally twisted history, but there was a rumored Scorpion King—Selk was his given name—but most historians dismissed the story out of hand.”
“Guess they didn’t see this,” Levont commented.
Again, Rebecca couldn’t help but laugh. “No, I guess they didn’t.”
To say this was the find of the century was an understatement of an understatement.
“This is the man that singlehandedly birthed nearly everything we know of Western civilization…”
“Which is great and all…” Brandt stated.
Rebecca tried to shake off her awe and turned to him. “But how does this get us out of here? I have no idea.” She pointed to the towering sarcophagus. “Come on, though, it is pretty cool.”
Brandt graced her with a rare in-combat smile. “I will give you that.”
“The Sphinx wasn’t just a random, catchall protector of Egypt,” Rebecca rushed on. “It was protecting this tomb. The tomb of Egypt’s first, unified ruler.”
Vakasa ran up to the coffin, putting her arms around a corner. “Babushka!”
* * *
“Grandmother,” Brandt translated, although he wasn’t sure if he really needed to.
Rebecca tried to get the girl away from the sarcophagus. “Honey, your body oils are going to stain the surface.”
However, Vakasa wouldn’t budge. No wonder, given that explanation.
“Babushka,” she murmured, resting her face against the cool stone.
“Wait…” Rebecca said, backing away from the girl, cocking her head, studying the hieroglyphics.
“What?” Brandt ribbed her. “You going to tell us this really is Vakasa’s grandmother. The virgin mother of the virgin mother?”
“No,” Rebecca said with a wave of her hand. “But I’m not so sure this is the man I was thinking.”
“Levont, Talli, find us a way out of here,” Brandt o
rdered. He didn’t bother asking Lopez, as the guy was too busy filming. He turned to Rebecca. They had maybe two minutes to indulge her history geek side.
“Want to share?”
Rebecca chuckled again. “We always assume it’s a guy, don’t we?”
Brandt frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“Pharaoh is actually a unisex term,” Rebecca explained. “As is ‘king’ in ancient Egyptian.” Brandt still didn’t have any idea what she was driving at, but hey, she usually landed her point—in time. Rebecca pointed to the cartouche. “This is the Scorpion King, only I think there’s a chick buried in there.”
“Whoa!” Lopez exclaimed. “Did you hear that, RJ? Girl power, man. We’ve got some competition.”
Rebecca grinned at the corporal, then turned back to Brandt. “I think a woman united the two ancient kingdoms.”
Lopez snapped his fingers. “Hey, wasn’t there that other broad, Hapsi-put or something?”
“Hatshepsut, the female pharaoh,” Talli corrected. Brandt was pretty damn sure he’d tasked the sniper with another duty, but they were playing it pretty loose and fast today.
“Yes,” Rebecca confirmed, then went on. “But she wasn’t the only female pharaoh. She was the best known and considered not just a female pharaoh, but one of the most successful monarchs of Egypt. She expanded trade and the arts. As a matter of fact, if a museum has an Egyptian artifact, it is probably from Hatshepsut’s reign.”
Brandt gave her that look. The one that said, I’m feeling pretty generous, but move it along.
Rebecca seemed to get the message, as she hurried. “Anyway, there were at least five other recorded female pharaohs. Even one called the “Warrior Woman.” But this…This means the originator of Western civilization was a woman.”
Vakasa kissed the coffin. “Babushka.”
“Which, again, great footnote to a paper but—”
The ground beneath Brandt’s feet shook.
“What was that?”
The Betrayed Series: Ultimate Omnibus Collection Page 112