“You mean, why Narmer was so far ahead of his time.”
“Yes. Why did so many ceremonies, so much art, so many beliefs that we thought didn’t develop until many centuries after his time actually originate with him? And what happened to them? Why were they lost for so long?”
“I can guess the answer to that last question,” Logan said. And he pointed at the wadjet eye that was still clasped in her hand.
Tina nodded slowly, closing her fingers over the artifact. “At least I won’t have to worry about my job. I’ve got years of research ahead of me.”
Another, longer silence settled over them. The sun crept lower, then sank, behind the horizon.
“Why did she do it?” Tina asked at last, in a very low voice.
He turned toward her in the gathering dark.
“What happened to Jennifer Rush?” she asked.
For a moment, Logan said nothing. And then he began to answer—an answer that, he realized, he had been unconsciously rehearsing the entire time they’d been traveling downriver. The comfortable, the orthodox, answer. “Jennifer had certain—psychological issues,” he said. “Rush told no one about them. He felt that her unique gifts, the length of her own near-death experience, made her valuable enough to the expedition that it outweighed those issues.”
“Valuable to his precious Center, you mean,” Tina said bitterly. “Think of the publicity value it would have meant for him.”
“No,” Logan replied. “I don’t think he ever thought about it in those terms. He cared for her—cared for her deeply. But I think his attachment to his research blinded him somewhat. He didn’t see, or refused to see, the toll that the crossings were taking on Jennifer.”
“In that case, he was blind. I could see it. I did see it, that time I witnessed her going over. If Ethan knew she was emotionally unbalanced, he shouldn’t have forced her to undergo that. Not once, and certainly not again and again. Especially after her own personal trauma—clinically dead for fourteen minutes. It’s no wonder she ultimately came to believe herself possessed by a spirit from the dead.”
When Logan didn’t answer, Tina fetched a deep sigh. “That time we watched Ethan induce the hypnotic state, ask her all those questions … I couldn’t help but wonder: What did it feel like for her? I mean, when she came back out of it? Poor Jennifer.”
Still, Logan said nothing. He was remembering an earlier conversation he’d had—a very different conversation—with Ethan Rush. I’ve been thinking about what you said, the doctor had told him. That Jen was brain-dead for so long—that her NDE was so protracted—that, in essence, she might have lost her soul.
Fourteen minutes …
“Came back?” he said at last. “We don’t know what came back.” But his voice was so soft that Tina did not hear it over the thrum of the engine and the lapping of the waves.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
While research for The Third Gate drew on many factual sources, Egyptologists will note that I have not hesitated to alter numerous relative dates, rites, beliefs, and many other facets of ancient Egyptian history—both general and specific—in the service of this novel. And while the Sudd is most certainly a real place, I have also altered various geographic, political, and temporal aspects of the swamp, returning it to the kind of unearthly place described so vividly in Alan Moorehead’s The White Nile.
Be that as it may, The Third Gate is a work of fiction, and all characters, events, and particulars in the novel are entirely imaginary.
Many people helped see this book to its conclusion. In particular, I want to thank the endlessly patient and enthusiastic Jason Kaufman, as well as Rob Bloom, Douglas Preston, Greg Tear, and Eric Simonoff.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lincoln Child is the New York Times bestselling author of Terminal Freeze, Deep Storm, Death Match, and Utopia, as well as coauthor, with Douglas Preston, of numerous New York Times bestsellers, most recently Cold Vengeance and Gideon’s Corpse. He lives with his wife and daughter in Morristown, New Jersey.
ALSO BY LINCOLN CHILD
TERMINAL FREEZE
DEEP STORM
DEATH MATCH
UTOPIA
WITH DOUGLAS PRESTON
The Pendergast Novels
COLD VENGEANCE
FEVER DREAM
CEMETERY DANCE
THE WHEEL OF DARKNESS
THE BOOK OF THE DEAD
DANCE OF DEATH
BRIMSTONE
STILL LIFE WITH CROWS
THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES
RELIQUARY
RELIC
Gideon Crew Novels
GIDEON’S CORPSE
GIDEON’S SWORD
THE ICE LIMIT
THUNDERHEAD
RIPTIDE
MOUNT DRAGON
The Third Gate Page 28