Chapter 3
Posted: August 12, 2006 - 05:12:47 pm


Egypt 2018 AD

Ellis Stone stopped reading, and reexamined the cartouche that contained the name she had just read. Yes, it actually said Moses. It was another monumental discovery, a cross link between the Bible and an Egyptian written record. The story of Moses' meeting with the mighty Ramses did not exactly match the biblical version, but her father, who among other things considered himself a Talmudic scholar, was going to go crazy over this.

On a personal note, Ellis was intrigued by the description of Mery and Tiy because it fit her and her twin sister almost perfectly. She and Elgin were also big women, at six feet-two inches tall and a hundred fifty-five pounds each; they were large even by present-day standards. Like Mery and Tiy, they were also opposite-handed and even had matching mirror-image birthmarks on their thighs. Ellis guessed that their Jewish ancestry also qualified them as Israelites of a sort.

Ellis glanced at her watch again; it was late afternoon and almost time for the team's daily briefing. Ellis ducked down to pass through the low doorway, exited the small room, and turned left down the columned hallway. It had taken four years of painstaking excavation by New Man graduate students to reach this point. Ellis had been involved in the project from the start, first as a graduate student, then as a teaching assistant. For the past year, she had been the project's leader.

The discovery of this part of the vast Temple of Karnak was a major coup for the New Man University. It also validated the school's multi-discipline team concept because it was the team's structural engineer who deduced that there was something underneath the sundial courtyard against the outside wall of the northwest corner of the complex.

Ellis had been the one who first discovered the sacred room of Amon-Ra. Last week, while working on a sketch of the floor plan of this newly excavated section, she noticed that the dimensions of two adjacent rooms did not add up to the distance between their doorways. She had examined the wall between the doorways and found a place where the stones were slightly different. With the permission of the Egyptian Department of Antiquities, she had removed a few stones at eye level and shined her flashlight into the opening. The small chamber was not a cache of artifacts, but Ellis still felt like Howard Carter as she excitedly scanned the room.

A gleaming rectangular block of polished black stone dominated the small room. The block was in the center of the space. Against the wall opposite the door, was a smaller, cubical block of what looked like granite. The walls and ceilings were covered with colorful hieroglyphics and drawings, while the black stone was finely etched with tightly spaced glyphs.

Ellis had photographed and video taped the room from every angle before starting on the translation of the hieroglyphics. For the last three days, she had been on an emotional roller coaster as she studied. Almost every single word she read was some sort of mind-boggling revelation. From medicine to astronomy, the cult of Amon-Ra was thousands of years ahead of the times in which they had lived.

Back at the air-conditioned trailer that served as the expedition's headquarters, Ellis listened to her team summarize their day and helped schedule the next day's activities. Everyone was deeply involved in his or her own specialized area of the site and only mildly curious about Ellis's find.

Ellis called the University again after the meeting broke up. She silently thanked her lucky stars that she was getting all the support she was receiving with the urgent focus the school was putting on the global weather crisis. Ellis reached her sister Elgin on the first try; Elgin was packing as she spoke. The digital images Ellis had transmitted back to the school had done the trick of ensuring Elgin's impending arrival.

"The university is also sending someone to look things over. He is apparently some sort of consultant; wait a minute I have his name written down, and it's a mouthful. Here it is, his name is Doctor Janus P. Pulaski. I don't have a clue as to what he is supposed to do," Elgin said.

Under other circumstances, Ellis would have been angry that the university was sending out a consultant to check her work. However, this discovery was so astounding that the earlier it was independently confirmed, the better.

Two days later, Ellis sat at Cairo International Airport. She was waiting for her sister to clear customs. Ellis wore khaki dress pants and a long sleeved white shirt, her long black hair was tucked up under a fedora styled hat, and a white scarf hid her neck. Ellis wore loose clothes to hide her femininity in keeping with local customs. As a guest of the Egyptian Government, she was careful to respect her host's traditions. Ellis was busy typing observations from her dig into her notebook computer when she sensed her sister coming down the hallway. She closed the paperback book-sized computer and stood up.

"Over here Gina," she mentally sent her sibling.

The ability to communicate like that with her sister was a by-product of being an E-twin. Because of their late integration into New Man University, Ellis and Elgin's ability to communicate mind to mind was limited. Their ability improved daily but they had a long way to go to be at the level of the average New Man wonder kin.

"I feel you Lisa, be right there," replied Elgin.

Lisa and Gina were the names the twins gave themselves when they were in the first grade. They had never figured out why their parents had hung such weird monikers on them in the first place. Ellis and Elgin were stupendously androgynous names; especially given one could never mistake the Stone sisters as anything but women.

Ellis and Elgin hugged fiercely as soon as they met up. The three months that Ellis had been on the dig was their longest separation yet.

"I have a truck outside. Where are your bags?" Ellis asked.

"I smoozed the head customs guy into having some of his soldiers carry them for me, they'll be here in a minute. Besides, we can't leave anyway, Dr. Pulaski should be arriving in an hour or so." Elgin said aloud. Then she continued mentally, "I am getting better at subtly influencing people, if I had had something to hide, I could have waltzed through customs without even a spot check."

Ellis frowned in annoyance at having to wait for New Man's errand boy; she wanted to be back at the dig as soon as possible.

"We'll wait a couple of hours for him but if he's not here by then he'll have to find his own way. I'm not hanging around here all day waiting on some old stuffy windbag. Come on, we can wait in the restaurant, I'll even spring for lunch," Ellis said.

I stepped off the giant Airbus onto the sweltering Jetway, my shirt already sticking to my sweaty back. This place was hot as hell, even for a Florida boy. I hoisted my backpack more firmly on my shoulder and set my cowboy hat on the back of my head. I waited a second for my seatmate to clear the door then set off for the cool of the airport.

"You sure aren't like any of the PhDs back at Duke," she said as she stretched out her stride to keep up with me.

Her name was Gretchen and she would be a senior at Duke when the new academic year started. She was part of a group of students on a tour sponsored jointly by Duke and the University of Cairo. Gretchen was a gregarious brunette cutie. We were friends within minutes of introducing ourselves on the plane. She had been most enjoyable company on the long flight, first from Atlanta to London, then London to Cairo.

"Probably because I'm not an academic, I'm just a working stiff with a degree," I replied.

We walked down to the baggage claim carousel still talking.

"Johnny, will you call me when we are back in the States? I really enjoyed meeting you."

I said I'd like that. Then I told her to look me up at the Luxor dig when her tour arrived there. She said that was cool and that she had better catch up with her group now before the chaperones became too indignant. We hugged and she gave me a very nice, surprisingly sexy kiss.

"Umm, I never kissed a doctor before," She teased. "I think I might want some more of those later," she said as she dashed off.

I endured the hassle of passing through customs; I cheated a little and smoothed the way by radiating truthful sincerity. Finally I was at the exit doors of the airport terminal looking around for my ride to my new job. It only took me a second to spot the matched set of older than normal E-twins standing by the exit. I walked over and stopped in front of the one dressed like Indiana Jones.

"Keep moving cowboy, we are waiting for someone," she said irritably.

Great, just my luck, an E-girl with a chip on her shoulder. I sucked it up though, gave her my most disarming smile, and stuck out my big Pulaski paw.

"I think I'm that someone Sunshine, Johnny Pulaski, at your service."

She looked down at my hand as if I had doggie doo on it. Then I felt her trying to probe my mind. That action was one of my biggest problems with these New Men and E-twins in particular. They ran around talking about how arrogant world leaders were while they themselves arrogantly tried to fuck around inside other people's heads. I know that my resentment of the fact was irrational because I knew that New Man was all about peace and living in harmony with the Earth, not controlling people. Still, it was a pet peeve of mine, because I wasn't the enemy. Anyway, Miss E-Amazon was out to lunch trying that trick on yours truly. I lived off and on with twins of my own; I had learned how to defend myself against someone about fifty times better at it than her clumsy attempt suggested she was. I booted her nosy ass out of my head and gave her another smile.

Her eyes registered her surprise at the ease in which I deflected her intrusive probe. She tentatively took my proffered hand.

"Doctor Ellis Stone..." she started to say.

That's all I let her get out before I zapped her with about a million volts of pure lust. I know it was petty, but, hey, she started it and we might as well settle this little issue right now. Her eyes went big and round as she swayed on her feet. Her sister, who had been silent so far, moaned as the lust hit her through the connection she shared with her sister. I shut off the lust after a second and looked at her inquisitively.

"Nice to meet you. Are you all right?" I asked innocently.

She shook her head as if to clear it and nodded.

"Must be the heat," she muttered. Then in a stronger voice she said, "This is my sister Elgin."

I shook hands with her sister neutrally. At least Elgin was dressed like a woman in her long khaki skirt and crisp pink cotton blouse. A big colorful scarf covered her hair and her sister was wearing that ridiculous hat so I couldn't tell how long or what color it was. I was guessing black though, given their mellow brown skin and beautiful, almond shaped, almost black irised eyes. These girls were even taller than my sister Katrina; in her heeled boots, Elgin and I were eye to eye. It dawned on me then who they were, as I remembered them from the Olympics a few years ago.

"A pleasure. I'm ready to go when you are," I said.

I hid a smile, as Elgin looked slightly disappointed that we didn't share fireworks when we shook hands.

The women exchanged looks; it was pretty funny watching them communicate nonverbally. I was well versed in that look, as Elaine and Ellen shared it about a thousand times a day. Hell, my women even did it with me. I couldn't initiate a mental conversation with them but I could receive their thoughts if I wanted and even send my own back. Elaine said they could trigger the latent ability I had in that area up at New Man University if I wanted it. I told them I'd rather eat shit and die than let Emma Adkins and her siblings rummage around in what little brain I had.

Ellis and Elgin were indeed having a talk on their private mental channel.

"What the hell just happened?" Ellis asked.

"I don't know but if him shaking your hand makes you that hot, I want to be around when he kisses you," Elgin replied.

"Don't hold you breath," Ellis hissed.

Ellis went to the parking lot to retrieve her vehicle while Pulaski helped Elgin move her gear out to the passenger pickup area. Elgin explained the aluminum cases and their contents to him almost reverently. Elgin watched him as she talked, intrigued by his rugged good looks and cowboy persona. He wasn't model handsome but those gray eyes and his ready smile struck a chord within her.

"You certainly don't look like a PhD, Doctor Pulaski, we thought at first you were here for a rodeo."

He laughed good-naturedly. She liked his laugh; it was deep and sincere and made her tingle.

"My name is Johnny; and you are the second beautiful woman to tell me that today. I'm no cowboy, though; I am just more comfortable in jeans and boots."

Elgin flushed ever so slightly when he said she was beautiful. She knew she was, of course, but having him say it was somehow different than the hundreds of other men who had said the same thing.

Ellis screeched up in the big Range Rover provided by the Egyptian Antiquities Department before Elgin could say anything else. Ellis hopped out of the driver's door and popped open the rear hatch. Elgin cringed when Pulaski started cracking on her sister about the big SUV. For all his good looks and charm, the guy was undoubtedly either stupid or had a death wish.

"Wow, a lot of fossils had to die to make gas for this thing. I thought you Newbies were against gas-guzzlers," he said as he loaded the bags in the cavernous hatch.

'We are," Ellis said indignantly. "But this was all the Antiquities Department had to loan us."

"Oh, hmmm," was all he said in reply.

Ellis gritted her teeth, jumped in the truck, and shot out of the airport as if she were a kamikaze pilot. Damn, no one in her life had ever been able to get under her skin so easily. Elgin sat quietly in the front seat next to her sister. Her thoughts about Doctor Pulaski were just the opposite. She was itching to have him get under her skin. Ellis drove with aggressive abandon back to Luxor and they arrived at the New Man camp before dinner. After a quick flurry of introductions, everyone sat down to eat. Ellis was eager to show her sister the Amonaten room and wolfed down her meal. To Ellis's consternation Elgin toyed with her food and flirted like a schoolgirl with that irritating moron Pulaski.

"Jesus, Gina, you are acting like a cat in heat," Ellis sent to her sister.

Elgin managed to send her sister an embarrassed blush. "I know, but I can't help myself, for the first time in my life I want a man so bad I'm shameless."

"Try to keep your panties on until I show you the room, then you can go at it like weasels for all I care," Ellis harrumphed.

The meal was finally over and Pulaski helped two of the other men on the dig take Elgin's gear down to the subterranean chamber. Ellis watched Pulaski as he looked around the room. She was gratified that his eyes were a big as saucers when he looked back at her.

"My God, Doctor Stone, this is the find of the century!' he gushed.

Ellis preened at his praise then remembered who he was and nodded nonchalantly. She'd be damned if she would simper along with her sister.

"If our dating technology confirms my estimate of the age of these inscriptions, we are going to have to reevaluate many of our ideas about the early Egyptians," she said.

Pulaski nodded; he thought that might well be the understatement of the year. Pulaski's eyes lit on the black rectangle sitting in the middle of the floor.

"What's that Ellis? It doesn't feel as if it belongs here."

Ellis felt a flutter in her chest at his use of her first name. Then she scowled the feeling back down.

'That stone tells the story of Sulihotep, the high priest of the cult that created this grotto. I think it was brought in here after his death to commemorate him," Ellis explained.

Pulaski nodded as he walked around the object.

"What I mean is that the stone or whatever it is seems out of place period. I've never seen anything like it. Do you notice how it is completely nonreflective? It appears as if it totally absorbs the light from your work lamps. And the inscriptions are so perfectly uniform they appear machine made."

Pulaski was idly tracing his fingers over the glyphs as he spoke. Ellis was casually leaning against the stone looking at what he was pointing out. Elgin's curiosity drew her to the stone also; as soon as she touched it too, it flared brightly and a jolt of electricity knocked them all unconscious to the ground.

Egypt 1216BC

Mery, Tiy and Panahasi arrived at the outer gates of the Luxor Palace about thirty minutes after Sulihotep. They had run the three miles from Karnak and were breathing heavily. They sat down in the shade of the wall, grateful for the small coolness it offered. Hasi sat between the two women, and passed Mery his goatskin water bag. Mery drank gratefully then passed the bag to Tiy. The women leaned against the big Northman, seemingly drawing strength from him. Mery swept her gaze toward the three temples that were almost under the shadow of the palace wall. They were the outer temples of the Luxor temple complex. She knew that all three housed sects that fawningly tried to curry favor with the Pharaoh and jealously guarded any they gained. Ramses was an astute man, though, and seldom interfered, one way or the other, with religious matters. That neutrality also meant that he turned a blind eye to internecine wars among the various religions.

"I like this not, Husband," Mery said.

"Nor I," said his other wife, Tiy.

Mery, Tiy and Hasi had been married for six months. The women's love for Hasi even surpassed their devotion to Master Sulihotep. In fact, Sulihotep had planted the seed of that love among the three of them then nurtured it to fruition. Sulihotep found great satisfaction in that the three people he loved most in the world, loved each other so fiercely. Sulihotep had trained the twins in how to be good wives and they had tamed the big barbarian in a most pleasant way. It was the perfect match.

Hasi, taciturn by nature, simply nodded. He was most wary of the unnatural quiet around the temple of Khonsu, the Moon God. The sect of Khonsu was powerful in Luxor, and had a fanatical following. Part of the power of the Khonsu came from the sect's vast wealth that was horded in the form of silver. In Egypt, silver was more valuable than gold. Silver was the color of the moon so it was natural for silver to be the precious metal of the Moon God.

Their wait was only twenty minutes before the big cypress gates swung open and Sulihotep emerged. The master did not exit the palace gate alone, as a large man carrying a shepard's staff accompanied him.

"Where is the chariot you arrived in, Master?" Tiy asked worriedly.

"I fear the Great Ramses forgot it in his haste to be rid of young Moses." Sulihotep replied, jerking his head towards his new companion. Moses was in his late middle years but to someone as old as Sulihotep that made him a youngster.

Moses replied hotly, "I would take no boon from the enslaver of my people, anyway."

Sulihotep clapped him on the back and laughed. "You may feel differently soon, my obstinate friend, for I smell trouble in the air."

The old man's words were prophetic, for no sooner did they leave the shadows of the Luxor Palace wall than the ornate doors of the temple of Khonsu swung open. Two silver bedecked priests held open the large doors as a double columned procession of silver and blue clad soldiers exited the building. The soldiers spread out to the left and to the right ending up in a 'V' shaped formation the open ends of which terminated ten meters on either side of Sulihotep and his party. At least thirty soldiers preceded the sedan chair of the High Priest of Khonsu and a double file of twenty heavily armed priests followed it. Everything and everyone were covered in the Khonsu colors of silver and midnight blue; the display was blindingly gaudy.

The four large Nubian slaves carrying the sedan chair sat it gently on its legs and a pair of young priests rushed forward to open the chair's curtain. The High Priest of Khonsu was reclining on a stack of silken pillows. He was a corpulent, florid faced, beady-eyed man less than half Sulihotep's age.

"Greetings, Ancient Amonaten, the servants of the Great God Khonsu welcome you," the fat priest said, his voice high pitched and squeaky.

Sulihotep inclined his head in acknowledgement; nothing in his demeanor advertised his loathing of the swinish High Priest of Khonsu.

"Greetings to you, Khonsututamen, much honored am I with such an elaborate welcome."

Khonsututamen waved his hand dismissively, "We have friends in court. Inumut himself is a loyal believer, so your presence was not unexpected."

Sulihotep nodded. That was most unwelcomed news because the Grand Vizier ruled Egypt in Ramses' stead when the Pharaoh was off waging war or on the hunt. If the Grand Vizier was a convert to the Khonsu, it bode ill for the Cult of the Return of Amen-Ra.

"One can never have too many friends, Noble Khonsututamen, but I fear you must excuse us as we have matters to attend. May Amen-Ra grant you all you so richly deserve," said Sulihotep.

"Ah yes, your One God — I fear his emissary to you inadvertently ended up as our guest last night."

The fat man clapped his hands and an object came flying over the sedan chair. The thing landed with a thud and rolled almost to Sulihotep's feet. The object was the severed head of a young man, his once handsome face set in tortured rictus. The Khonsu high priest grinned evilly.

"He said the message he had to deliver was locked in his head and only you had the key. Well there is his head; you should not need the rest."

Sulihotep looked down at the severed head for a second then looked back up at Khonsututamen. His yellow eyes flickered with surpassed rage.

Twenty-five thousand miles overhead CSS-Five observed the scene with abject horror. He manifested his shock with a massive electro-magnetic pulse that cleaved the fabric of the space-time continuum over Luxor. The blast of EMP struck the area between the followers of Khonsu and Sulihotep's party in the form of a ball of lightning that knocked everyone to the ground stunned. The old priest recovered first. He jumped up, wrenched the javelin from Hasi's hand, spun around, and hurled it with near superhuman strength at the recumbent Khonsututamen.

Sulihotep's aim was equal to his strength as the javelin struck the High Priest of the Khonsu in the right eye with such force that the bronze spearhead exited the rear of the fat priest's skull and pinned him to the silk pillow upon which he reclined. It was deathly silent as everyone picked themselves up and watched the death throes of Khonsututamen. Sulihotep looked at what he had done with great sadness; it was the first human life he'd ever taken. He was saddened not for what he'd done, but for the lack of remorse he felt for doing it. The eerie silence was broken by a quavering, unearthly wail as first one then another of the priests of Khonsu whipped themselves into a bloodthirsty frenzy bent on revenge.

Hasi stepped in front of Sulihotep and drew his sword; his wives did the same on his left and right. The pale skinned warrior and his wives were no sooner in place than a wave of vertigo washed over them. The wave brought with it strange beings that seamlessly took up residence in unused portions of their minds. The beings did not try to take control of them as if it were some demonic possession; instead, they seemed to be just as confused by the turn of events as their hosts. Tiy recovered first and made the sign of Sobek, the Crocodile God, by touching her stiffened fingers to her thumb in imitation of Sobek's jaws. All three looked at Sulihotep in fearful awe as their strength seemed to double and wondrous skills came upon them.

"Fear not my children," the old priest said with a reassuring smile, "for it seems the Gods have joined us. Now make room for me so that we can account for ourselves side-by-side."

Then Sulihotep turned to Moses, "This would be a good time for you to leave, my friend, this is not your cause."

"My God is a just God, Old One, I will stay so that his might is on your side," Moses replied.

"Has it occurred to you, young Moses, that we might be giving different names to the same God?" Sulihotep asked.

As they talked they continued to edge backwards. They had a small measure of good fortune as about half of the mercenaries hired by Khonsututamen melted away with the death of their patron. Sulihotep and his group managed to reach the palace walls without being surrounded before the battle joined. They formed a semicircle that terminated at the wall, Tiy on one end, Mery on the other. Hasi was still in the center but Sulihotep and Moses with their staffs were each between him and one of his wives. The mercenaries attacked with cautious discipline, but the priests attacked as if they were maddened Jackals. The soldiers soon withdrew as the berserk priests relentlessly speared or cleaved anyone in their path. Sulihotep and Moses wielded their staffs to deflect spears and axes as Hasi and his wives slashed and stabbed at the enraged priests.

Even with their enhanced strength and skills, Hasi, Mery and Tiy were barely beating back the press of bodies attacking their small band. They were breathing hard and their formation was slowly being pressed against the wall when the palace gates flung open and three chariots rumbled through them. The chariots made an arcing turn and fell upon the back of the mob of Khonsu's fanatical followers. Sulihotep whooped for joy as he recognized the Nubian charioteer who had ferried him to the palace earlier. The giant was laying about him with lance and sword, hacking a path towards Sulihotep's hopelessly outnumbered band.

Unfortunately the distraction caused by the chariots allowed a priest of Khonsu the opening he needed; he lunged forward, spear braced before him. Panahasi, the barbarian foundling, saw the spear headed for the blind side of Sulihotep, his friend and mentor; unhesitatingly Hasi stepped into the path of the ferociously thrust spear. Hasi dispatched the priest with a mighty cleave of his sword even as the spear sunk deep into his chest, then Hasi fell to the ground, his life blood gouting out onto the sand. Mery and Tiy screamed when they saw him fall and fought like furies to where he lay. The dervish like assault by the wives of Hasi, coupled with the trampling charioteers, finally drove the remaining priests of Khonsu back into their temple.

Mery and Tiy turned toward Sulihotep who was kneeling beside the mortally wounded Hasi. The old man gave them a kindly reassuring smile. He jerked his head in the direction of the fallen Khonsu priests and their mercenaries.

"Find me the least wounded among them, and be quick my daughters, for we haven't much time."

The women jumped up and searched through the semicircle of fallen priests and soldiers. In less than a minute they returned dragging an unconscious priest.
Joe J