Chapter Fifty-Two

Trummel’s mind was a frenzy of excitement as he and the others descended a staircase into the crypt. On all the walls and across the floor, blue light glowed from embedded veins that branched to a round hole in the floor. The five giant sarcophagi were placed around the hole, like spokes in a wheel, heads positioned inward, feet toward the walls.

Ever since Trummel had first traveled to Egypt, he had been curious about the history of early man and his gods. Here before him was a missing link to their past. The anthropoid coffins, made with gold and silver, were the largest he had ever seen. They appeared Egyptian in design, yet bore unknown markings too. The prone figures on top had the bodies of men and heads of animals – ram, jackal, crocodile, cow, and a bird with a long, curved beak, like an ibis. There was a crescent moon on the ibis’s head. Trummel recognized that one as Thoth. The jackal, of course, was Anubis. The crocodile with a female body most likely represented the underworld goddess, Ammit. The ram god represented Khnum, and the cow goddess was Hathor. All gods known to have resided in the underworld, according to Egyptian scriptures.

Trummel had seen these figures countless times on papyrus scrolls and tomb walls. Standing before their coffins, he felt the same elation as he had as a young lad searching for treasure with his sister. That moment of discovering something important, something that expanded the mind to new heights and the heart to fullness…it was this elation, and the promise he’d made long ago to his sister’s grave, that had driven him on his quest. How he wished Nell was there to share this moment with him. I found this for us. He sent the thought into the ether, hoping his sister’s spirit might hear.

Everyone stood around the sarcophagi. Dyfan moved his hands over Ammit’s crocodile face. He smiled, so emotional that he was almost in tears. “We found them.”

“Yes, we did, old chap.” Trummel ran his fingers over the intricate designs, marveling at the craftsmanship.

“What could be inside?” Imogen wondered aloud. “Giant mummies?”

“Let’s open one and see,” Trummel said.

They gathered around the sarcophagus with the jackal face. It took all of them to lift the lid and set it on the stone floor. Inside lay a giant corpse that must have once stood eight feet tall. It wasn’t wrapped like a mummy. Its chest and abdomen were covered in armor that sculpted its muscular anatomy. The dark platinum armor was untarnished and the durable fabric that made up its mid-calf kilt had withstood centuries. The gray flesh of its exposed lower legs, arms, and neck had barely deteriorated. A metal, jackal-faced mask covered its head.

“A giant Egyptian warrior?” Caleb asked.

“Anubis, the god himself.” Trummel removed its mask. The corpse’s gray face beneath had a wide mouth with enormous teeth – just like the monstrous faces engraved into the columns on the roof. “What we are looking at is one of the Shining Ones.” Trummel looked across the sarcophagus at Imogen. “Your grandfather told me that an explorer who makes it through the underworld gates and realms would arrive at a shetayet – a tomb of the gods.”

“This is what he was searching for…” She shook her head, as if disbelieving her own eyes.

Trummel nodded. “Ever since he deciphered the missing piece of the Ani scroll. Harlan’s team sacrificed their lives to pave the way for us.”

Imogen stared silently at the corpse of Anubis.

Gosswick beamed. “This gold and silver must be worth a fortune. How do we get all this back to England?”

“We’ll find a way.”

“You actually plan to remove these?” Imogen asked.

“If we don’t claim them, someone else will. Just imagine having the remains of actual ancient Egyptian gods on display at the British Museum. London will become a Mecca to the world.” Trummel moved to the next sarcophagus and signaled the others to help. “Let’s remove the other lids.”

In each sarcophagus, a giant corpse had a skull and armor similar to the first. What distinguished the creatures were the different animal masks they wore and the emblems marking their chest plates.

Trummel picked up Thoth’s bird mask. “We’ve found proof that the deities the Egyptians worshipped actually visited them in the flesh.”

He thought of all the ridicule he had received from his university colleagues for his outlandish theories. Even Dr. Harlan Riley had remained a skeptic, trying to fit his understanding of the Egyptian gods inside a box limited by science and historical records. But Trummel, whose intellect far exceeded that of his colleagues, recognized that the mysteries of man lay far beyond the reaches of science, history, religion, and even the stars.

In a book Trummel published titled Unexplained Mysteries of Ancient Egypt, he theorized that a race of celestial giants helped the pharaohs design the pyramids and advance their civilization.

He had argued that mysterious giants were described in the texts of older civilizations. The beings that the Egyptians depicted in their art as gods connected to the Sumerian god-kings, the Anunnaki, who had reigned over ancient Sumer for thousands of years. The Middle East wasn’t the only region where celestial giants supposedly walked the earth. The mythical yeti roamed the Himalayas to commune with Tibetan monks. The temples of Angkor in French Indochina depicted their own beastly creatures, as did the pyramids of Central and South America. The Mayas and Incas described underworlds similar to the Egyptians’ Duat, all containing gods and demons.

Every primitive culture around the world that had radically advanced their civilization and constructed pyramids and giant statues of gods had been visited by an advanced race that, according to the stories of the ancient peoples, came down from the heavens. Or, as Trummel boldly stated in his book, “visited our planet when man still lived in caves. It was these celestial beings that civilized early man.” Trummel’s book had fueled the fires between the opposing theorists, including church leaders.

His lectures often evoked chuckles from the audience, sometimes outrage and heated debate. Not one colleague supported his theory. Now here, in this lost world hidden deep beneath an Egyptian tomb, lay compelling evidence that such a race existed. He couldn’t wait to return with it to London and show the fools he had been right all along.

“Where did they come from?” Caleb asked.

“The stars, an alternate dimension. Perhaps these corpses will guide us to the answer,” Trummel hypothesized. “The ancient Egyptians had a complex religious system and believed many gods lived here on earth among the people. The pharaoh acted as a mediator between men and a pantheon of gods. The Sumerians also recorded in their texts that they had communed with higher beings called the Shining Ones. Hopefully this discovery will shed light on the most enigmatic mysteries of ancient cultures.”

Trummel grinned in the pyramid’s interior light. “These beings that the Egyptians called gods must have died long ago. I’m after the relics they entombed here with their bodies.” He stepped up to the hole in the floor. Below, at the core of the pyramid, glowed a narrow, vertical tube with honeycomb walls. Several feet down, the hexagonal cells contained large, disembodied hearts. Roughly the size of melons, each organ had a dark outer layer that swelled and contracted. Blue light glowed inside them. Thick, knotted arteries and veins branched across their outer skin and grew up the honeycomb walls like creeping ivy.

“How could a pyramid have beating hearts?” Imogen asked. “Is this tomb alive?”

Trummel noticed that the giant corpses’ chest armor had paneled sections. He went to Thoth and pulled the center panel of its chest plate open like a door. The chest cavity was empty. Its anatomical design – part organic, part machine – fascinated Trummel. All along the interior of its rib cage networked rubber tubes that would connect to a heart. “The hearts of these creatures appear to be powering the pyramid.”

Dyfan held his palms over the hole in the floor. “This is the source of the vibration that’s been pulling us here.”

“It is the divine power men have been searching for in these caves for centuries.” Trummel breathed anxiously. He thought of all the skeletons of the ancient warriors in the bone maze. The web-enshrouded bones in the realm of spiders. The offerings of jewelry and trinkets left behind at the altars of the convent. So many had died on their quests to find this place. How many, besides Harlan, had actually made it to the pyramid? That Trummel had reached this tomb to find everything intact confirmed what he had always believed about himself: he was destined to solve the greatest mystery of the universe. What race of beings came before humans? And how did humans evolve from tribal cave people to architects of great civilizations?

He couldn’t wait to see what amazing revelation he would learn next. “Imogen, climb down into the tube and pull out the hearts.”

She looked at him with shock. “You don’t mean that.”

“Actually, I do.”

“That’s bad science and you know it,” she said. “We should leave the hearts in place until we fully understand their function.”

Trummel grew annoyed by her disobedience. “I didn’t come all this way to leave the greatest archaeological discovery of all time.” He pressed his face close to Imogen’s. “Now stop wasting time and get down there.”

Caleb charged Trummel. “That’s no way to speak to her.”

Gosswick intervened, pressing a firm hand against Caleb’s chest.

“Stay out of this, Beckett.” Trummel gave Caleb a piercing look, then turned to Imogen. “We’re not here to follow standard protocols. We’re here to bring these relics back to England.”

“Why not climb down there yourself?” Caleb demanded.

“She’s the only one small enough to fit inside that tube.” Trummel pulled out his pistol. “Imogen, get a move on.”

She stared at the barrel, then gave him a defiant smirk. “Put the gun down, Nathan, you’re not a murderer.”

“Maybe not me, but Goss won’t hesitate to issue some pain.”

“If you hurt me, you’re not getting down there.”

“You’re not the one who will suffer.” Trummel nodded at Goss. The soldier punched Caleb in the ribs and he fell to his knees. A chop to the back toppled him to the floor.

“No…” Imogen tried to go to Caleb, but Trummel stepped in front of her.

He gripped both of her arms. “I’ve traveled too far to get those relics. Now, get down that tube.”