Part 7 (1/2)

”What's asem?”

”Electrum. It's a naturally-occurring alloy of gold and silver. The Egyptians mined a lot of it. But over time the patina can turn red or even dark purple. See? There's nothing like that here.”

She inspected the inscriptions on the near pillar. ”Can you s.h.i.+ne your light on the other one?' she asked.

He moved his arm, hearing Flinders gasp in wonder. Staring at the opposite pillar, she sagged as if someone had struck her. ”This can't be.” Her voice dropped to just above a whisper.

”What?”

Her eyes found his. They were wide and dilated and her breath caught in her throat like it was something sharp and jagged. She indicated the pillar on the left. ”These inscriptions match the characters on the papyrus, the ones I translated. But those-” she indicated the matching opposite pillar-”are in Vinca.” She stared through the darkness. ”I don't believe this! It's a Rosetta Stone for the decipherment of the Vinca script.”

She all but leapt forward, peering around the girth of the pillar. ”This statue represents Thoth,” she said. ”He's depicted here in one of his earliest incarnations, the baboon, who was a.s.sociated with the moon.” Positioning her LED on the throne to aim the light at the left pillar, she dropped to the ground and booted up her laptop. Her eyes raked over the carved glyphs.

”'Hear these words and listen, children of Khem,'” she translated. ”'Words that will bring you to the Light. I am Thoth, deathless through all the eons, bearer of knowledge and wisdom since the ancient days, keeper of secrets...'This is just incredible!” Her eyes moved down the pillar. ”Here it talks about the magnificence of Thoth's city, Atalatarte, lying on the eastern sh.o.r.e of a great lake at the mouth of a strait that opened onto the sea. That's got to be Kerch!” She leaned closer, her eyes darting back and forth as she worked out the translation. ”And here it mentions some kind of magical stone of great power that came down from the heavens, sent from the G.o.ds.”

”The orichcalc.u.m?”

”I think so!” With quick fingers she entered the translation into her laptop. ”Apparently they had to travel a far distance to find the source of the stone to mine it.”

”But coming down from the heavens? What could that be? A meteorite?”

”Has to be. Don't you think?” She swung around to look at him. He could see reflected light gleaming in her eyes.” Ancient people would have no idea about the workings of the solar system. They would have thought that meteors and comets were sent by the G.o.ds.”

”How could a meteorite be a power source?”

Focused on her translation, Flinders gave a distracted shrug. ”Look-here it says that the sea broke through its barrier and drowned the glory of Atalatarte, submerging it beneath the waves. The inhabitants brought away as much of the heavenly stone as they could, then fled south to the 'Place of Sands'.”

”'Place of Sands'? Sounds like Egypt to me,” Skarda said.

She nodded. ”It proves my theory,” she answered, the words spilling out of her lips. ”The ancient Egyptians were survivors from Atlantis.” Studying the pillar again, she gasped. ”Here it says that when the flood hit they transported Thoth's mummy and the Emerald Tablet to the sacred place in the mountains.”

”The Tablet? Does it say where the sacred place is?”

”No.” She turned to face him. ”But it does say that the Tablet gives the location of the source of the heavenly stone.”

”So that's why the Bad Guys want it.”

”Must be.”

Skarda's face set hard. ”That means we're going to have to find it first.

___.

Under the spread of stars outside, April leaned against a ruined wall, her eyes probing the surrounding expanse of sand, a soft breeze playing with her dark hair. From this standpoint the desert was a limitless pool of darkness surrounding her, embracing no shapes or shadows, refusing to be defined by the weak light of the moon above.

But something was out there. She could feel it. Her intuition was jangling in overdrive.

Then, in a line directly in front of her, movement far out in the desert.

Three sets of headlights had suddenly blinked into view, dipping up and down over the sand dunes, accelerating rapidly toward her position.

___.

After Skarda had snapped photos of the pillars, he fished a USB cable out of his pack and downloaded the images onto Flinders' laptop, then backed them up with another download to his Stealth, a copy of which he forwarded to Candy Man. Then he folded the tripod and zipped the Nikon into his backpack.

”Park!” April's voice echoed from the outer staircase. ”Company.”

SEVENTEEN.

THE night air against Skarda's skin had cooled considerably by the time he helped Flinders clear the lip of the altar, then levered his body out after her. Retracing their steps through the courts, they emerged to find April staring out at the desert. He followed her pointing finger to the dark expanse of sand, where three sets of headlights were approaching fast.

”Well,” Skarda said. ”Here we go again.”

Flinders shot him a worried look. ”What's going on?”

”Bad Guys,” April answered.

”How do you think they found us?” he asked.

”They must have sets of eyes all along the roads out here. My fault. I should have thought of it. But not much we could have done anyway.”

Nodding in grim agreement, he caught her eye. A silent communication pa.s.sed between them.

He turned to Flinders. ”I'm not sure what's going to happen here. These people are probably heavily armed, and we aren't. I want you to take the camera and the laptop and find a place to hide here in the ruins. We need to get you out of harm's way.”

For a moment, she just stared at him blankly. Then she began to shake, remembering the men who had tried to kidnap her.

Laying his hands on her shoulders, he looked down at her with a confident smile. ”No matter what happens, stay hidden, okay? You're the one who's the key to this whole thing. If they get you, they can translate the Tablet if they find it. I'm going to hide the Stealth behind one of the columns over there. If things go bad, call Candy Man and OSR will send somebody to get you out of here.”

Her dark blue eyes were liquid as they locked onto his, realizing the implication of what he was telling her.

”Can't we make a run for it?”

”Nowhere to go,” he said with a grin. ”Nothing but desert out there.” Again he smiled, but the smile didn't reach the hard intensity of his eyes. ”I don't have anywhere near the skills and training that April does, but she's worth ten of me. And probably ten of them. So don't worry. We'll make it.”

She hesitated, his words freezing her to the spot. The thought of leaving his side filled her with dread.

”Go!”

Finally, with a great effort she nodded. Then she took off into the shadows.

At the altar, April was trying in vain to push the heavy lid back into position. When Flinders had disappeared Skarda joined her and together they shoved. The granite slab wouldn't budge.

He shook his head in frustration. ”Think we can do that handle trick in reverse?”

”Worth a shot.”