Part 20 (2/2)

He flashed up a digital still: ”During the ritual, however, as the lightbeams from the Firestone hit it and the lichens came to life, it appeared like this: ”Note the righthand upright,” Lachlan said. ”And see how the outline of the African continent can be clearly discerned. You can even seen the Mediterranean Sea at the top.

The Red Sea, which only flooded in recent geological times, is not yet in existence.”

Lachlan quickly outlined the twins' theory that the shapes on the stones represented the continents and oceans as they existed millions of years ago, before the melting of the ice caps and the worldwide rising of sea levels had produced the present coastlines.

”What about the outline on the lefthand upright?” Paul Robertson asked from the darkness.

Julius said, ”That one's more difficult. As you can see, it only depicts a sliver of land on the right and at the top, so we're guessing that it depicts a section of ocean, but we haven't figured which one yet.”

Lachlan went on. ”You will further see on the righthand upright, three luminous little starlike objects. These are the points at which the shafts of light struck the upright. We have numbered them 1, 2, and 4-while No. 6, as you'll see, is on the lefthand upright.

This is the order in which the light shafts. .h.i.t the stones of the henge.”

”The order in which the Pillars must be placed,” Wizard said.

”Yes,” Julius said. ”That's right. That's what we think.”

”I'm glad my years of studying this matter meet with your approval, Julius,” Wizard said with a half smile.

”Oh, yeah, sorry,” Julius said. ”Here's the other trilithon that was. .h.i.t by light shafts 3 and 5: ”Again, we are still working on the exact locations of these points. As you can see, the coastlines are exceedingly old-representing the Earth as it was hundreds of millions of years ago-and so don't match any existing coastlines. So, like the previous example, we do not yet have a match for these locations.”

Lachlan took over. ”In any case, according to Professor Epper's research, each of these sparkling points represents a vertex, or corner, of a giant sixpointed Machine-”

Julius said: ”-Think of two pyramids sitting base to base, forming a diamond within the Earth's spherical shape.”

Wizard interrupted. ”Point of clarification, boys. They represent no less than the locations of six greattempleshrines, underground structures of a magnificence that we cannot even begin to contemplate. It is at each of these templeshrines that a cleansed Pillar must be placed.”

Julius nodded. ”Yes, sorry, good point that.”

”So where are they?” Paul Robertson asked gruffly. ”The first one looks like it's somewhere in Egypt...”

”That's not a bad guess,” Lachlan said. ”The African ones are the easiest to figure out, thanks to the relative stability of the continent's shape over the millennia. GPSimaging and satellite photography have proved to be very helpful.”

”Not to mention Google Earth,” Julius added.

”Oh yes, Google Earth, too,” Lachlan said. ”In the end, according to the data, the first site lies in southern Egypt, not far from the Sudanese border.But...”

”But what?” Scimitar asked warily.

Julius winced. ”But there's a problem with our a.n.a.lysis. We've run the data over and over again, and one issue remains. This first site, it seems, lies underneath a lake.”

”A lake?” Vulture said.

”Yes, Lake Na.s.ser, in the deep south of Egypt,” Lachlan said. ”One of the largest lakes in the world.”

Julius said, ”And sadly, that's as precise as we can be from the available data. We're not sure how you find the exact location of the templeshrine if it's underwater, let alone its entrance.”

A general murmur of disappointment went through the room, and the twins-Lily saw- seemed a little embarra.s.sed not to have done better. She felt for them.

But then a voice spoke up from the darkness.

The voice of Jack West Jr.

”Whichend of the lake was it?”

”The southern end,” Lachlan said.

Jack nodded. ”Thank you, gentlemen. Well done. I think I know where the first temple shrine is.”

”WHERE?” Vulture asked quickly.

”Yes, where?” Iolanthe snapped around in her chair.

Jack stood up, examining the image on the screen closely.

”Lake Na.s.ser is a not a natural lake,” he said, gazing at the picture of the first trilithon.

”Technically, it's part of the Nile. It's an artificial lake that formed behind the Aswan High Dam in 1971 stretches for about two hundred miles to the south. It could easily have covered the entrance to an ancient subterranean structure.

”The dam was also built by the Soviets, after the US pulled out at the last minute.” A glance at Paul Robertson. ”Its construction was a Cold War battlefield for Egypt's allegiance. After much initial excitement and promisemaking, during which the Americans did extensive surveying of the area, the US suddenly decided that they didn't want to go ahead with the project. Maybe their surveyors just didn't find what they were looking for.”

Paul Robertson was pokerfaced.

Jack looked directly at him. ”You guys have been at work on this Dark Sun project for a long time.”

Robertson shrugged. ”We all have our secrets.”

Jack's gaze lingered on him before he went on, grabbing a sheet from Wizard's black folder and placing it on the projector: ”This is a scan from Wizard's notes. It's a carving from the sarcophagus of Rameses II, written in the Word of Thoth. Translated by my learned colleague”-a nod to Lily-”it reads: ”With my beloved, Nefertari, I, Rameses, son of Ra, Keep watch over the most sacred shrine.

We shall watch over it forever.

Great sentinels, With our third eyes, we see all.

”'With our third eyes, we see all.' That line didn't make sense to me until now.”

Astro said, ”What are you saying?”

”At the extreme southern end of Lake Na.s.ser stands one of Egypt's greatest monuments, the four colossal seated statues of Rameses II at Abu Simbel. Each one is oversixty feet tall. Gigantic.

”Back in Rameses' time, they sat on the banks of the Nile at the border of Egypt and Nubia as a warning to any wouldbe intruders: 'This is how powerful the King of Egypt is. Think twice before you enter our lands.'

”Abu Simbel, as it's called, is also the most distant monument in Egypt-its distance from the major Egyptian centers of Thebes and Cairo is astonis.h.i.+ng, making it the subject of much speculation. Why build such a dazzling monument so far from the centers of your civilization?

”The thing is,” Jack said, ”there's asecond set of statues at Abu Simbel, about a hundred yards from the four wellknown ones of Rameses. It's a smaller rockcut temple dedicated to his favorite wife, Nefertari. That second temple features some giant statues of Nefertari, all of whichalso gaze out over the lake.

”These two sets of immense statues are still there today, sitting on the banks of the Nile, now Lake Na.s.ser. But they don't just keep watch over an old border. According to this carving from Rameses' own sarcophagus, they keep watch overthe most sacred shrine.

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