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CHAPTER

46

REDA HAD RUN THEM THROUGH his interpretation of the coin before they headed out to the Giza pyramid complex. Now, Matthew, his friends, and Reda were standing at the base of the Great Pyramid, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Matthew had been here before as a tourist, but the awe of that trip couldn’t rival the thrill that came with today’s purpose.

It was six o’clock in the morning, hours before the site would open to the public. And as Reda had promised, he had the connections to secure them access.

Matthew, Cal, Robyn, Alex, Reda, and his two men were standing at the back of the pyramid, facing south toward the boat pits and, farther out, a modern-day road. The Great Sphinx was ahead and to the east. To the southwest was the Pyramid of Khafre, and beyond that, the Pyramid of Menkaure.

“It said two hundred twenty-five cubits due south from the middle of the structure,” Matthew reiterated, certain he remembered what Reda had told them about the coin’s inscription.

Reda nodded. “Approximately three hundred thirty-eight feet.”

Matthew looked in front of them. He’d guess it would take them past the road. “Just refresh my memory of what’s on the other side of the road,” he said to Reda.

“We have the Mortuary Temple of Khafre and Khufu’s causeway.”

Matthew nodded. He knew there were many structures and landmarks within the pyramid complex but couldn’t recall the positioning of everything.

He took out his phone, using an app to track distance, and took his first step. The others fell in line with him. As he’d guessed, it took them past the road. They reached three hundred thirty-eight feet before they hit the causeway. “This is where we dig.”

He looked at Alex and stepped back for her to get into position with the ground-penetrating radar machine. She took it out of a cart that Reda had one of his men drag behind them. In addition to the machine, it contained their bags, various tools, and a tent for shelter. She connected the readout module to the radar machine and turned it on. Matthew hovered over her.

She stopped moving and glanced over a shoulder. She was smiling at him, but said, “A little space might be nice.”

He held up his hands and backed up. If they were alone, he’d call her out on that. Last night she hadn’t wanted any space between them.

“All right, it’s reading something…” Alex focused on the screen. “It’s reading a depth of twenty-five feet.” She walked a bit farther. “And there’s definitely something down there. It could be a tunnel.”

“Let’s get digging, then.” Reda handed Cal a shovel.

Cal didn’t reach for it. “Who’s going to take pictures?”

“Come on, help an old man out,” Reda pressed.

Cal took the shovel, albeit reluctantly, and turned to Alex. “Where are Andres and Danny anyhow?”

“They’re keeping watch over the tomb and base camp,” Alex replied.

Matthew was watching his friend, unsure what was going through his mind. He wasn’t exactly being himself today. He seemed fine one moment—even happy—and the next he was scowling. Come to think of it, Matthew hadn’t seen Cal lift his camera to his face once since they’d arrived at the pyramid complex. Matthew knew that Cal had planned on calling Sophie last night, and this morning, when Matthew had asked how it went, Cal had simply said it went fine. He hadn’t exactly been forthcoming, now that Matthew was giving it some thought. And that likely meant the conversation hadn’t gone well.

Matthew took a shovel from the cart, and Alex exchanged the machine for one, too. Robyn was ahead of them and already heaving sand over her shoulder. Same with Reda’s two men, who were excavating like eager hounds on the scent of a groundhog. Reda stood back, watching.

After a while, Reda snapped his fingers, and the projector man from last night sauntered off a short distance with Reda and pitched the tent. Everyone else spread out a bit and stayed focused on digging.

Matthew moved in next to Cal and leaned toward him. “Everything all right with you?”

“Yeah, sure.” Cal heaved a shovel full of sand over his shoulder.

“So the call with—”

“I told you it went fine.” Cal put his back into the next pitch of his shovel.

So you guys are good? Maybe Matthew was pushing harder than he should, but he and Cal went way back.

Cal emptied his shovel a few more times and then looked over at him. “Are you going to help us or just stand around?” There was a hint of jest in his voice, but his gaze squashed the attempt.

That answered Matthew’s question. Something had happened during their phone call last night. But he’d have to wait to find out exactly what.

Matthew got to work, and it wasn’t long before he was wiping his brow with the back of his hand. The sun was out and already powerful. Factor in the manual labor, and it made him one sweaty mess.

Shadows suddenly moved over him, and he turned to see the source. Five armed men were standing there watching him and his friends.

Matthew glanced over at Reda, who was seated under the tent. Reda just smiled and waved. The armed men were obviously here on his orders. And the added security probably meant the complex was open to the public now or soon would be.

No wonder it was getting so hot. It would be nearing nine in the morning.

They carried on, though, and spent hours digging. Matthew’s shirt was soaked through when they took a break for lunch. At least Reda’s two “colleagues” had gone back to helping them dig, and as a team, they were all making real headway.

Once the tourists arrived, they were curious, walking by as close as the armed men would let them get. They wore their baseball caps and Ray-Bans, and gulped from bottles of water.

By the time the tourists had cleared out, Matthew and the others had dug down about twenty-one feet. Four more to go, and, thankfully, the sun was starting to sink in the sky and a breeze was coming with refreshing impact.

At six o’clock, they took a short break for dinner, which was just some deli sandwiches Reda had someone bring in. Matthew sat down, and it felt so damn good. Getting his body to move again was going to take effort. He took a bite of his sandwich and followed it with a large swig of water.

He looked around at everyone who had been digging. They looked about as wrecked as he felt.

“We’re not going to make it,” Cal lamented, pulling from Matthew’s mind, and lolled his head forward as if he was going to hit the table.

Robyn was the first to laugh at his dramatics, and the rest followed suit.

“Only a couple more feet,” Matthew said, smiling, as he found the gumption to motivate the others.

“Four, actually, but who’s counting?” Robyn smirked.

He smiled at her and let the expression carry for Alex and Cal. “What do you say we get it behind us so we can get to the real adventure?”

“Sounds good to me.” Alex was the first up and out of the tent, and Matthew followed.

The opening they’d dug out was wide enough for six people to work next to one another. He got back to digging, staying focused on their goal.

Day turned to night, and portable lights were brought out. He dug his shovel into the earth, prepared to pull out more sand, but it hit a hard surface. “We’re there!”

Reda’s “colleagues” got in there and cleared out the rest of it. They came to discover that Matthew had been standing on top of the tunnel and his shovel had struck stone. Two feet to the right of that was a sealed entrance.

Reda snapped his fingers, finally standing up from his perch. “Go get it,” he said, sending the projector man off and running.

He returned with a ratcheting system they’d brought just in case they ran into this. It would offset the weight of the stone seal and allow them to move it out of the way. After it was rigged up, and with persistence and determination, the stone started to move. Then it was lifted out of the way.

Behind it was darkness.

Cal groaned. “Here we go, again. Into the belly of the beast.”

Matthew laughed at Cal’s reference to the movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.

The four of them grabbed the oversized backpacks and miner hats they’d brought along.

Cal stepped back and gestured to Matthew. “By all means, you go first.”

Matthew quirked an eyebrow. “You sure that you want to be the last one in?”

“Why? What’s wrong with bringing up the rear?” Cal’s eyes widened in panic.

Matthew laughed and pushed his friend gently toward the opening.

“And out the demon’s ass,” Cal said, ducking inside the tunnel. He was nothing if not dramatic—and a movie lover.

Matthew looked up at Reda, who was standing back from the entrance with his two right-hand men. “You’re not coming down?”

“Not this trip,” Reda began. “But please make sure that your friend takes a lot of pictures.”

Matthew smiled at him, adjusted his hat, flicked his headlamp on, and stepped inside the tunnel. It was about five feet wide by five feet tall, just like the one that had collapsed out at the dig site that first day. His breath caught, the correlation between the two tunnels playing with his mind. Still, his stomach fluttered with excitement and anticipation at breaching the unknown. The fact that the tunnel had been sealed thousands of years ago didn’t help his nerves. Nor the fact that the mission they were embarking on now was solely to save the world.

No pressure.

“We need to go at least two hundred twenty feet down the tunnel,” Matthew said, pulling from one of the insertions in the tomb’s murals. There was no sign of the seventeen steps, so it seemed that landmark would come later.

Alex brushed past him and Cal. After a bit, she stopped walking and pointed to the right. “There’s a staircase.”

“Seventeen stairs,” Matthew whispered, awe overtaking him.

“The tunnel keeps going straight ahead of us, too, Matt,” Alex added.

“It probably snakes into the Great Pyramid.” An assumption, but Matthew would wager it was a likely one. It would give a literal meaning to the Tablets being linked to the Great Pyramid.

“If that’s the case, it’s a miracle this tunnel hasn’t been discovered from the other end,” Robyn interjected.

“It could be one of the hidden passages that archaeologists are aware of but haven’t yet gotten to,” Matthew said.

“But why go to all the trouble of putting the location of the Library and Tablets on some coin and burying it with other clues miles from here if someone could just randomly come across it otherwise?” Cal raised his brows to emphasize his point. And he had made a good one.

The key to enlightenment lies with the pharaoh.

They’d found the coin with directions on where to dig, but the missing artifact had mentioned the Library and the Tablets. And it seemed Jasper, Seth, and Timal had seen fit to steal it. There must be a use for it they had yet to figure out.

“We just might need the stolen artifact in our hands,” Matthew said.

“Well, I sure hope you’re wrong about that,” Robyn began, but she didn’t need to finish. If he was right, they were screwed, because they obviously didn’t have it.

Matthew took the lead down the stairs. The steps were about three feet wide and half a foot high. He counted them as he walked and reached the bottom after the seventeenth stair.

He swept his flashlight ahead of him. The beam of light picked up shelves full of scrolls. “We’re here!”