Area 51: The Sphinx-4 (29 page)

"Not according to legend."

"In what form are the Records kept?"

"I don't know, but whatever form it was, I believe it was kept in the Ark of the Covenant," Mualama said. "Ms. Duncan, you must bear with me. I have spent many years tracking down legends and rumors. My translation of the runes was tainted by my own knowledge, so some of what I think I know will disagree with some of what your UNAOC scientists think. I don't—"

"Professor," Duncan interrupted him. "I have seen many strange things in the past month. Things I never

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dreamed existed. So please, speak freely. My belief is that by the time our scientists figure all this out, it will be much too late. As you say, perhaps this Hall of Records will tell us where the Qian-Ling key is, and we desperately need that. I trust your intuition—you did find the grave site, after all. And I do want the full story of how you did that when we have some time."

"All right," Mualama said. "I believe this record of history is contained in the Ark of the Covenant. I believe for most of its existence the Ark was stored inside the Hall of Records. I also believe, though, that this record may have had other names throughout our history."

"Where is this hidden Hall that holds the Ark?" Duncan asked.

"According to the marker, it is located under the Highland of Aker, in one of the six divisions of the Duat, along the Roads of Rostau."

Duncan simply stared at Mualama, waiting for him to say it in English.

"I believe what we are looking for is hidden underneath the Great Sphinx on the Giza Plateau."

Giza again, Duncan thought. All the more reason to go there now.

Mualama continued. "The Sphinx has always been something of an enigma.

Archaeologists can't agree on when it was built, but they do agree that it was constructed at an earlier time than the three large pyramids behind it."

"How much earlier?" Duncan asked.

"Anywhere from five to six thousand years before the pyramids," Mualama said.

"So it could have been built at the same time that Atlantis was flourishing under the Airlia," Duncan said. She signaled with her hand to Major Quinn, who began quietly accessing one of the portable computers built into the conference tabletop as they spoke.

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Mualama responded to Duncan's statement. "Yes. There are those who claim the Sphinx is twelve to thirteen thousand years old, dating to around 10,000 B.C."

"Do you think it is that old?" Duncan asked.

"I have been there," Mualama said. "I believe it very well could have been built that long ago. Have you ever thought about Egypt's history?"

"What do you mean?" Duncan asked.

"Egyptologists." Mualama's voice showed his contempt. "There is so much they ignore or don't think about. The alignment with the stars of the entire Giza complex. Even though the pyramids were indeed built around the time they say, they never quite explain the alignment with the various star systems that the shafts in the three pyramids have. The alignments suggest that while the pyramid complex was built in the Fourth Dynasty, between 2613 and 2494 B.C., it was planned around 10,450 B.C. With modern computers that can scroll back through the star charts—using a method called precession—this is obvious, but no one speaks of it.

"But the most fascinating thing, the most amazing ignored fact, is the lack of development in ancient Egypt. It's as if we are supposed to believe that for almost four thousand years of rule, nothing changed, nothing developed. The civilization just sprang fully formed into being with the reign of the Pharaoh Menes and pretty much stayed at the same technological level all that time.

Think of it. If you were an archaeologist a thousand years from now and you excavated Cairo, would you not be able to see a vast difference between buildings from the nineteenth to twentieth centuries? Just a hundred years. But we look over the course of thousands of years in ancient Egypt and all is the same. You know how they date the Sphinx? Someone scribbles a name in hieroglyphics somewhere and the 'experts' say, aha, it must have been built then!

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"They ignore the state of the rock, the construction, the weathering, and they focus everything on the stela between the paws. The dating of the Sphinx, according to the experts, is all based upon a single syllable on a stela found between the paws. Even though the experts agree that the stela is not of the same age as the Sphinx, that it was placed there later. It is dated to the Pharaoh Thutmosis IV, who ruled from 1401 to 1391 B.C., who tried to clear the Sphinx of the sand that constantly surrounded its body.

"He put a stela, a stone tablet, between the paws, and on the thirteenth line it has the word Khaf, which Egyptologists say refers to the Pharaoh Khafre, who ruled between 2520 and 2494 B.C. and thus must have built the Sphinx, according to their inductive logic.

"I have seen this stela. You cannot even read the writing anymore, as the stone has deteriorated so badly over the years. The only way they even have an idea what was written there is that someone made a copy of what was written. So it is a case of a copy of writing on a stone not contemporary with the Sphinx, all relying on one word, being the leading case for dating the Sphinx to the realm of Khafre.

"Something that is interesting about the stela is a line that says the Sphinx is the embodiment of great magical power from the beginning of time. Even most Egyptologists agree that there were three eras to ancient Egypt if one studies the texts of the early Egyptians. The first was the time of the Neteru, or gods.

Most people consider this not a real time but rather a mythological time, which saw the gods go through various struggles, ending with the accession of Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris. The second phase was that of Shemsu Hor, which means the followers of Horus. This ended when Menes unified the Upper and Lower Kingdoms and started the first dynasty of pharaohs. All our focus has been on the time from

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Menes forward, because it was believed that the two earlier ages were mythical, but what if they were real?

"What if the Neteru were the Airlia? In myth, the Neteru were said to have fair skin and red hair, most unusual for that part of the world, but very fitting for the Airlia, don't you think? And what if the Shemsu Hor were the humans who survived Atlantis and began civilization in Egypt?"

"What you're saying," Duncan interrupted, "is that if the Great Sphinx was built around 10,000 B.C., then it might have been made by the Airlia."

"Or humans who followed the Airlia's orders. There is much about the Sphinx that is strange. Because it lies in the shadow of the Great Pyramid, the Sphinx has not had as much attention paid to it as it should. It is quite remarkable in its own right.

"First you must consider what a sphinx is. No one quite knows whose face is that on the Sphinx. In fact, it is very likely that the original face was altered at a later date during one of the many restorations of the Sphinx.

"The Great Sphinx is called the 'father of terrors' by the Arabs, which is a strange title. One has to wonder where that name came from. It sits on the west bank of the Nile and looks to the east, into the rising sun.

"The main body of the statue was carved out of a huge, solid, limestone rock.

I don't know the exact dimensions," Mualama said, "but it is quite large."

"The face is nineteen feet from the top of the forehead to the bottom of the chin." Major Quinn was looking at his laptop screen. "It's slightly wider than high. The body length is a hundred and seventy-two feet and the total height from base to top of the head is sixty-six feet.

"According to official and accepted records," Quinn continued, "it was built around 2,500 B.C. and the like-

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ness is that of King Khafre. But we all know that we have to read official records with a jaundiced eye," he added.

"That is indeed so," Mualama said. "One interesting aspect about dating the Sphinx is that a study of the surface concluded that the base and the stones on the temple wall around it were eroded by water. As we all know, the Giza Plateau lies on the edge of the Sahara Desert, a region which has been dry for nine thousand years. However, there is speculation that before that time, about ten thousand years ago, the area was heavily vegetated and the Nile much larger than it is now, forming lakes. Which might account for the water erosion.

"Another interesting aspect is that although the main body of the Sphinx was carved out of a solid block of limestone, the base, the paws, and the wall around it were made of blocks of limestone, much like the Great Pyramid. The difference is that the blocks around the Sphinx are much larger than those used in the pyramids. The largest weigh two hundred tons. If one wonders how the ancient Egyptians moved the blocks that made the pyramids, you truly have to marvel how these huge blocks were transported so long ago. Modern engineers are stumped as to how this could have been done, as there are only two cranes in existence today that could move such heavy stones.

"It is believed that there is an entrance to a network of underground tunnels between the paws of the Sphinx. If the Ark is hidden anywhere, I would say it is underneath. According to legend, there are two gateways to the Roads of Rastau, one on land and one in the water."

Duncan put the scepter down. "We can sit here all day and chat about the Sphinx, but I think the best thing is we take a look. Professor Mualama and I will go to Egypt."

"What about permission?" Mualama asked. "The Egyptian government has had most curious policies re-

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garding investigating the Sphinx, particularly the network of tunnels that are supposed to be underneath it."

"I'll contact UNAOC and have them get in touch with the Egyptian government,"

Duncan said.

"Egypt is slightly to the right of center," Mualama said, "as far as the isolationist movement goes. The Muslim fundamentalists are very much against having anything to do with the Airlia."

"I'll emphasize to UNAOC that this has the highest priority," Duncan said.

"It's all we can do."

"There is something else," Mualama said.

"What?"

Mualama pulled out an oilskin-wrapped package. "This manuscript. It is written in Akkadian, an ancient tongue." He briefly gave Duncan the background of the papers and Sir Richard Francis Burton. "If we can translate this, it might be of use. I believe it will be important with regard to whatever is inside the Hall of Records. It might also talk of the key you seek."

"Why did you hold the key and this manuscript back from us?" Duncan asked, although she already had a good idea what the answer would be.

Mualama confirmed her suspicions with one word. "Trust."

"Major Quinn?" Duncan pointed at the manuscript. "Think you can find someone who reads Akkadian?"

"I can try."

The door to the conference room opened and an enlisted man handed a file folder to Major Quinn. He opened it and checked the sheet of paper inside.

"What is it?" Duncan asked.

"The results of the tests you requested the UNAOC doctors perform on von Seeckt and the results from the examination of the Airlia skeleton." He pulled the paper out and handed it to Duncan.

She scanned the two pieces of paper. "Goddamn!"

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she exclaimed. She tapped Mualama on the arm. "Let's go."

MANHATTAN, NEW YORK D- 15 Hours

The sniper had been in position for forty-eight hours. He sat in the room the way he had been trained, the muzzle of his weapon two feet from the window. Only amateurs would rest the barrel on the window and allow the end of the weapon to poke out. The room was dark, and he was invisible to anyone peering at the window from the outside.

He had a perfect angle of fire along First Avenue. The previous day he had counted the flags that lined the edge of the United Nations from Forty-second Street to Forty-eighth. One hundred and eighty-five, in alphabetical order, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, north to south. Even at the place that was supposed to help unite the world, each country had to fly its own flag.

The sniper had pulled the dresser over to just in front of the window, and the bipod for his weapon rested on it, the metal legs scratching the finish, but that was the least of his concerns. He had the butt plate swung up and resting on top of his shoulder, taking the rest of the weight of the M93.

The weapon, with ammunition, topped out at twenty-six pounds. He had broken it down into three parts— detachable stock, receiver with barrel, and magazine—to carry it to the room. Then he had carefully reassembled it. The scope was bolted to the top of the barrel, and he had zeroed it in the previous week at a farm in upstate New York. The barrel was made of match-grade chrome alloy with a matte black polymer finish. There was a large flute at the end to reduce some of the muzzle blast signature.

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The gun was so big and heavy because it fired a .50-caliber round. A half inch in diameter and almost six inches long, it was the bullet that fighter planes in World War II had fired from their wing guns. Using that large a round gave the gun a range of over a mile, although the kill zone the sniper had delineated for his target was only six hundred meters away. The large caliber ensured that when the bullet hit, it would do devastating damage. In fact, the primary use of the M93 was not called sniping but strategic operations target interdiction—using the weapon to hit critical components in such systems as microwave relay towers or on jet fighters sitting on a runway.

But a bullet was a bullet, the sniper's instructors had harped at him during his training.

He removed his eye from the scope and checked the watch lying flat on the desktop. The target window was open. He had been given a folder that said this was the earliest the subject left. The sniper used his right hand to pull up on the bolt and slide it back. The top bullet on the magazine of ten slid up, and as he pushed the bolt forward, it slid the round into the magazine well, seating it tightly in place.

He put his right hand on the pistol grip, curling three fingers and his thumb around it as his forefinger slid through the trigger guard and lightly touched the thin metal sliver.