Something to do with the Sun, the TV commentators said. A sunspot, the meteorologists said.
In the United States, all the morning news shows had made it
their story of the day and were looking to the White House, waiting for an address from the President.
But no such address came.
The White House remained mysteriously silent.
In Cairo, the Egyptian Government had been most accommodating to the American force.
The entire Giza Plateau had been closed to civilians and tourists for the day—all its entrances were now guarded by Egyptian troops—and an advance team sent by Judah overnight had been given free rein on the ancient site.
Indeed, while Judah had been at Luxor that morning, his advance team had been working diligently, preparing for his arrival. Their work: an enormous scaffold structure that now shrouded the summit of the Great Pyramid.
It was a huge flat-topped platform, made entirely of wood, three storeys high, and completely enveloping the peak of the pyramid. It looked like a big helicopter landing pad, square in shape, thirty metres long on each side, and its flat open-air roof lay level with the bare summit of the Pyramid. Indeed, the platform had a hole in its exact centre that allowed the peak of the Pyramid to protrude up through it. . . and thus allow Judah to perform his preferred Capstone ritual.
The platform's vertical support struts rested upon the step-like sides of the Pyramid, as did two cranes that rose high into the sky above the platform. Inside the baskets of these cranes were CIEF troops armed with Stinger missiles and anti-aircraft guns. No-one was going to interrupt this ceremony.
At 11:00 a.m. exactly, Marshall Judah arrived on a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter, surrounded by twelve CIEF troops led by Cal Kallis, and carrying with him in the back of the chopper
The Super Stallion swung into a low hover above the platform and in the swirling hurricane of wind it created, the Pieces were unloaded on wheeled trolleys.
Flanked by the heavily armed CIEF commandos, Judah stepped out of the helicopter, leading the two children, Alexander and Lily.
Wizard and del Piero came after them, handcuffed and guarded—brought along by Judah for no other reason, it seemed, than to observe his triumph over them.
Zoe, Fuzzy and Stretch (who had also been reunited with the team when Judah had revealed Lily) were being held in a second helicopter travelling behind the Super Stallion—a Black Hawk—that landed at the base of the Great Pyramid. They were being held for another reason: to control Lily. Judah had told her that if she disobeyed him at any time, Zoe, Stretch and Fuzzy would be killed.
On the short helicopter flight from Cairo Airport to the pyramids, Lily had found herself seated beside Alexander. A brief conversation had ensued:
'Hi, I'm Lily,' she said.
Alexander gazed at her airily, as if he was deciding whether or not to bother replying. 'Alexander is my name . . . my young
sister.'
minutes,' Lily said, laughing.
'Nevertheless, I am still the first-born,' Alexander said. 'To the first go certain privileges. Such as respect.'
'I bet you probably get out of doing your chores sometimes, too,'
Lily said.
'What are chores?' the boy asked seriously. 'Chores,' Lily said in disbelief. 'You know, things like cleaning out the horse-pooh in the barn. Washing up the dishes after dinner.' 'I have never cleaned a
'You've never done any chores!' Lily exclaimed. 'Man, you're lucky! Wow, no chores . . .'
The boy frowned, genuinely curious. 'Why do you do such things? You are high-born. Why would you even
Lily shrugged. She'd never actually thought about that. 'I guess . . . well . . . while I don't really like doing them, I do my chores to contribute to my family. To be a part of the family. To help out.'
'But you are
'I like helping them. I ... I love them.'
'My sister, my sister. We were born to rule these people, not to help them. They are beneath you, they are your inferiors.' 'They're my family,' Lily said firmly.
'To rule is lonely,' Alexander said, as if this was a phrase he had been told a lot and learned by rote. 'I expected you to be stronger, sister.'
Lily said nothing after that, and minutes later, they arrived at the Great Pyramid.
And so it was that at 11:30 a.m. on the Day of Tartarus, thirty minutes before the blazing sunspot rotated in direct alignment with the Pyramid, a ceremony began on the summit of the Great Pyramid at Giza, an ancient ceremony that had not been performed in over 4,500 years.
Standing on the platform, Judah clipped himself to a long safety rope, to take care of his fear of heights.
He gazed at the bare summit of the Great Pyramid, saw the ancient verse carved into it:
Beside this carving, in the exact centre of the bare stone summit, there was a shallow indentation carved in the shape of a person. The 'head' of this person-sized indentation was weathered and worn, but it was clearly that of Anubis, the jackal-headed and much-feared god of the Underworld.
And in the heart of this Anubis indentation—in the
Judah knew the purpose of the crucible. The Nazi archaeologist, Hessler, had too:
THE RITUAL OF POWER
AT THE HIGH ALTAR OF RA,
UNDER THE HEART OF THE SACRIFICIAL ONE
WHO LIES IN THE ARMS OF VENGEFUL ANUBIS,
POUR INTO THE DEATH GOD'S HEART
ONE DEBEN OF YOUR HOMELAND
UTTER THOSE ANCIENT EVIL WORDS
AND ALL EARTHLY POWER SHALL BE YOURS
FOR A THOUSAND YEARS.
A 'deben' was the ancient Egyptian measure of weight. It equalled 93 grams.
Judah pulled a glass vial from inside his jacket. In it was some amber-coloured soil, soil that had been taken from the Utah desert, deep inside the United States—soil that was unique to the United States of America.
Judah poured exactly 93 grams of the soil into the crucible. One
deben.
