City Of Sand

by Richard Smith

  Cody could see that the adjacent display cases had no lighting, but he could still see the shadows and silhouettes of various artifacts sitting in the dark. “What about all the stuff in the other cases, the ones with no internal lighting, do those items get moved around also?”

  Valerie looked at Cody and knew that eventually she was going to need to explain to him about the items in the dark cases. “Those cases contain unverified artifacts, Cody; Questionable items and artifacts that don’t fit into any known Egyptian era or dynasty.”

  “So you just let them sit in the dark?”

  “We can’t mix them in with the other artifacts because of possible contamination.”

  Cody scratched his head, not sure about what Valerie was saying. “Can’t you take some samples and carbon-date a few items to give you at least a general idea of the time period?”

  “We’ve done that, but knowing the approximate age of the items in those cases hasn’t resolved the mystery.”

  “I’m sorry, Valerie, I know I’m just a dumb engineer, but you’re talking in circles. Can you at least identify what part of Egypt those unverified artifacts came from?”

  Valerie hesitated. She knew that what she was about to tell Cody, had been kept a secret since 1915. And she also knew that those mysterious items in those special cases had sat in total darkness for over 100 years. “They didn’t come from Egypt,” she finally answered in a hushed voice, “they came from the Grand Canyon.”

  NINE

  Cody looked around for a place to sit down. Valerie’s revelation had made him light-headed and he had to take in a deep breath to stabilize himself. “But…” he started, and then hesitated, his mind still reeling. “But you said that the story about the Grand Canyon discovery was a hoax, something you laughed at.”

  “I didn’t say the story was a hoax, I said that I didn’t believe it.”

  “I don’t understand the difference, Valerie,” Cody said, more confused than ever.

  Valerie sighed as she tried to make sense of everything herself. “I knew that the items found in Grand Canyon were real, because I had seen them with my own eyes, they were sitting right here in my museum, but how they originally came to be was the part that was difficult to believe.”

  Cody was still perplexed, looking forward to some answers

  “Let’s go up to my office where we can sit down and hash all of this out,” Valerie said, “I’ll try my best to explain what we’re dealing with here.”

  “I’m all ears,” Cody nodded, forcing a smile.

  Sitting at a small table in Valerie’s office, Cody waited patiently to hear more.

  Valerie started the second chapter of her story and continued to captivate Cody’s imagination. He could picture in his mind exactly what she was dealing with now.

  It seemed that Professor, G.E. Kirkland, the historian and adventurer who had discovered the Egyptian temple in the Grand Canyon, had brought all of the artifacts he had recovered to the newly opened Los Angeles museum in 1915. The museum was only two years old then, but Kirkland was a good friend of the founder and current director, Doctor Benjamin Howard. Professor Kirkland was told by Dr. Howard that nothing would be displayed until all of the artifacts had been thoroughly researched. G.E Kirkland died at the end of the same year and the artifacts from the canyon remained in storage. The dozens of mysterious items were never researched, categorized or held to be authentic.

  “In 1966, after finally authenticating that the canyon artifacts were indeed thousands of year old,” Valerie said, “the museum decided that the story of the canyon had to be just a story, and there was no real scientific proof that the canyon items actually originated in Egypt.”

  “So the story was swept under the carpet, so to speak,” Cody said, “sent to the basement.”

  “That’s right,” Valerie responded, “the museum’s reputation was at stake and the people in charge, the powerful people that controlled the purse strings for the museum, decided that the canyon artifacts would never see the light of day.”

  “Does the Secretary of State know this story?”

  “No,” Valerie answered, “Neither does the director of the state archives. My boss, the museum director, and you, are the only ones currently alive that know about the canyon artifacts.”

  “Do you think there’s a tie in here with the items discovered in Death Valley,” Cody asked?

  “I believe the same civilization was responsible for both sites, and I believe that there could even be additional unknown and undiscovered sites.”

  “So the Grand Canyon people and the Death Valley people were one in the same?”

  “Not just people, Cody, they were Egyptians, they were from Egypt.”

  Still finding Valerie’s remarks hard to comprehend, he thought about the discovery in Death Valley. “So, do you lock away the artifacts we recover in the Valley with the Canyon’s artifacts? Will they go into the same dark display cases?”

  “The Death Valley discovery will be a revelation of its own and spark its own publicity, but its discovery will eventually lead to the truth about the Grand Canyon,” Valerie said, “But we have to tread lightly here. The artifacts from both sites will eventually be displayed together, but we’re talking about a historical event that would rival raising the Titanic. The scientific and historical community will have field day disputing everything we do. I’m sure that the museum will come under a tremendous amount of pressure from the media. No amount of viable data will ever convince a lot of elite, educated people that what we have now, and what we’ll eventually recover, is true and real.”

  “Then why put yourself on the firing line, Valerie?” Cody asked, “Why even try and convince people that the Egyptian’s came to North America and built underground cities thousands of years ago?”

  “Because it’s my job, Cody – history is my job, no matter how unconventional, convoluted or strange it may appear to be, history is something that we can always learn from – it’s my job to keep the past alive.”

  “Even if you’re ridiculed for what you say and do?”

  “Cody,” Valerie said, looking at someone she was slowly starting to really like, “I have a job to do and you work for me – remember? So we both have a job to do, a job to do together. Our mission now is to go back to Death Valley with the resources we need to find out the truth – to find the answers that will fill in a few obvious blanks in history.”

  Cody sighed, “You’re the boss,” he said, staring into eyes of the prettiest boss he’d ever had, “so what’s our next step, Boss?”

  Valerie was all business, “Give me a list of everything you and your crew will need for the excavation and I’ll pass it along to the Secretary of State.”

  “Everything?” Cody asked, with a sly grin.

  “Within reason, Mr. Larson.”

  “Okay,” he said, “Maybe I’ll scratch the hot tub.”

  TEN

  Larson Engineering’s original drilling site in Death Valley was changing by the minute.

  When Valerie and Cody arrived back at the site a week after their meeting at the museum, two large trailers had been moved into place and there were several state owned vehicles parked close by. People raced about holding smart phones and wearing safari hats.

  “Remember,” Cody said, looking at Valerie, as he also watched each frantic individual appear to be on a special mission, “you’re in charge.”

  As curator of one of the largest museums in the country, Valerie was used to giving orders, but the chaos in front of her seemed overwhelming. She looked for her assistant from the museum, who was supposed to already be on site.

  Cody parked his truck next to a state owned Chevy Blazer, and watched as Ben Smith approached. Cody stepped out of his truck with a smile but his project manager’s face was as hard as a desert rock. “You don’t look so happy,” he said as Ben got closer.

  “Man, I’m glad you’re here, Cody; these state people are driving me crazy. There all over the site
and they’re even talking about dismantling our rig.”

  As Valerie stepped down from the passenger side of the truck, she saw Sue Perkins talking to two men standing near one of the new trailers. As she headed in that direction, her assistant turned to see her coming. Sue Perkins immediately rushed toward her boss.

  “They’re not listening, Ms. Case, nobody’s listening to me,” Sue said franticly as she reached Valerie; “I can’t get them to understand that they were not to do anything here at the site until you arrive.”

  Valerie could see that Sue was on the verge of tears. “Who are they?” she said as she adjusted her sunglasses.

  “The two state archeologists sent down from Sacramento,” Sue said, “the two assigned by the state to work at the site.”

  Cody and Ben had come around the truck and now stood with Valerie and Sue. Cody could see Valerie’s eyes sparking under her sunglasses.

  “Follow me,” Valerie said as she started out toward the two state archeologists.

  The two men watched the approaching group with curiosity and a hint of amusement. They knew that they were the only two archeologists in the state of California that had been chosen for this special assignment and they planned to take full advantage of that privilege.

  “Good afternoon, gentlemen,” Valerie said as she stopped just a few feet in front of the grinning men. She removed her hat but not her sunglasses. “My name is Valerie Case.”

  Sue Perkins took a step back, knowing that there was about to be fireworks.

  “Ms. Case,” one of the men said as he offered his hand, “you’re the curator over at the Natural History Museum in L.A.,” he added, keeping his sly grin.

  “That’s correct, and I’m also your boss on this assignment, can I please see both your I.D.s.”

  The startled man with the insulting grin hesitated for only a second, then pulled out his wallet. His grin disappeared and his face flushed.

  The other man got huffy. “This is not how we work, Ms. Case,” he said, “You probably haven’t been in the system long enough to understand how the state works on these types of projects. We’re state archeologists; we don’t take our orders from a museum curator.”

  As Sue Perkins backed up another step, shaking her head, Valerie stepped closer toward the balking man. She removed her sunglasses so her eyes could lock onto the gloating man’s eyeballs like two lasers. “Evidently, you boys didn’t get the memo,” she said in a smooth, steady voice. “Do either of you know the Secretary of State, Mr. Charles Barrow?”

  The two men looked at each other, but said nothing.

  “Did either of you know that Mr. Barrow has assigned me to direct this project.”

  Both men looked surprised. Neither had read the details pertaining to their cushy assignment.

  “That’s right; you both would have been working for a lowly curator, if you just could have held the job.” She shook her head from side to side; “What a shame that things didn’t work out for you.” She let out a sigh as she put her sunglasses back on. “I want you both off the property within the hour,” she added, staring a hole through both state employees. “You’re both fired!”

  One of the men’s faces went dark with anger and he stepped toward Valerie. Cody and Ben quickly moved forward.

  “If you want to save what’s left of your lousy state jobs,” Cody said, “I’d highly recommend that you both hi-tail it back to Sacramento.”

  “Lady, this is not the end of this,” the angry one said, pointing his finger at Valerie. “You’ll hear from my attorney!”

  “Take it up with the Governor,” Valerie said as she put her hat back on and turned away.

  ELEVEN

  Cody, Ben, Valerie and Sue sat around a small table in one of the new trailers. A cool night was settling over Death Valley and the desert air had dropped to a comfortable 72 degrees. The thermostat clicked to neutral and the whining A/C in the trailer automatically went dormant.

  Cody could see that Valerie was exhausted. After the episode with the state archeologists, she had assembled all the state workers in one of the trailers. She had barked out orders to every person in the small conference room and left no doubt that she was in charge, but the stress of being in charge had drained her.

  “Were you ever in the Marines?” Cody asked with a sly smile. “Man,” he said, raising his eyebrows, “you even had me shaken in my boots with that speech.”

  Valerie took a long sip of luke-warm coffee and let out a sigh. “I ride a desk, Cody,” she said, “not an Abram’s tank; I’m never been a company commander and trying to be one is not my style.”

  “But you came across as in charge and knowing your stuff,” Cody added, “I was really proud of you.”

  “I was too, Ms. Case,” Sue Perkins added, “I believe you’ve got everybody working on the same page here.”

  “Ditto, for me,” Ben Smith said.

  Valerie smiled at the three people seated across at the table. “I truly appreciate everyone’s support,” she said, holding her coffee mug with both hands, “I just want to accomplish what we all came here to accomplish with as little hassle and aggravation as possible.”

  “That’s a given,” Cody responded, “and we are all here to help in any way we can.”

  Valerie nodded, but her enthusiasm seemed to wane and her reactions seemed to slow. “Tell me again about our plans for in the morning?”

  “So Ben,” Cody said, looking at his project manager, “what have you and Mark come up with?”

  Ben’s brown eyes came alive with excitement as he spread a drawing out on the table. “We’ll use our original entry point, Cody,” he said as he pointed with a short pencil, “the one that the rig is over now, and widen it to six feet. We can get all of the equipment down through a six foot wide access.”

  “Even the generator?” Cody asked.

  “We’ll leave the big generator topside and take two of the smaller units down. We’ll bring cables down from Big Bertha for the majority of the power feeds.”

  “Compressors and pumps?”

  “They’ll all be sent down with the generators,” Ben replied.

  “I want us to have plenty of water and I want an oxygen canister for each person going down.”

  “Oxygen canisters?” Ben asked.

  “I put those on the list because we just don’t know about the air down there. I know that the sensors we dropped read in the green, but I still want the oxygen.”

  “Roger.”

  “Climbing ropes, D-Rings, pulleys and cable – extra batteries and back-up lighting units?”

  “All going down, boss,” Ben responded, “we’ve got a lot of stuff to load into that hole tomorrow, Chief.”

  “I believe Ms. Case has left the meeting,” Sue said with a nod toward her boss.

  Valerie’s head rested on her folded arms and she was taking in slow deep breathes.

  “Probably time we all turn in,” Cody said with a smile. “She’s all yours Sue,” he added as he and Ben stood and gathered up several items from the table. “We’ll regroup at the site in the morning. See if you can have her there by 0:800, Ms. Perkins.”

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Larson?” Sue asked, standing behind Valerie.

  “That’s eight o-clock in the morning, Sue,” Cody answered with a grin.

  “We’ll both be there,” Sue replied as she put a hand on her boss’s shoulder.

  TWELVE

  The initial plan was for two technicians to be lowered into the hole before anyone else. The two would run the power feeds and set up the lights. They would remain in the chamber while Valerie, Cody and Ben were lowered down.

  Valerie felt a tinge of guilt about firing the two state assigned archeologists, but she knew that her knowledge of ancient Egyptian history was every bit as good as theirs. She was excited as she stood next to Cody in the warm morning air. At 8:00 a.m., the temperature on the desert floor was already hovering around eighty-six degrees. She adjusted the straps on her back pack and ch
ecked her canteen and camera. “How long will it take for them to get everything set up?” she asked as she turned to Cody.

  “Not long,” he answered, “maybe forty-five minutes.”

  Valerie started to worry, not about the descent into the chamber, but about something she had held back from Cody. She originally thought the information so foolish that she had kept it to herself, but now, standing with him at the dark entrance to a hundred foot hole, she was having second thoughts.

  “You and I will take the first car down,” Cody said, “Ben will follow in number two.”

  Because of the increased diameter of the shaft, the travel cages had been redesigned to carry two people instead of one.

  The cage that the two technicians had ridden down had now resurfaced.

  “You ready to do this, Miss Case?” Cody asked, wearing a wide grin.

  “Ready as I’ll ever be, Mr. Larson,” Valerie said with a weak smile.

  The two stepped onto the open steel mesh of the car’s floor and Cody secured the gate. He entered a code into a small control panel and a green light flashed on. “Commencing decent,” he said into a small hand-held radio.

  “Clear for descent,” a voice came back.

  Cody flipped up a safety cover over a red button and pushed. The car began its downward motion immediately.

  A hundred feet, Valerie thought as they dropped down slowly, not that much – a ride on an elevator from the top of a ten story building. With the redesigned cages, there was no longer a need for helmets, so she felt good about that, and Cody was right by her side – so why did she fell so uneasy – so apprehensive? She saw the halogen lights in the chamber below her growing brighter and closer. I need to tell, Cody, she kept saying to herself, he’ll definitely think I’m crazy, but I’ve got to tell him. The perfect time and place was important. Anxiety caused a knot to form in her stomach. As the car passed through the ceiling of the chamber she wanted to say something, but her voice was gone.