The Cult of Osiris

Records, but the stylised figures of the constellations were arranged in the same way around the central pole of the sky.

‘Well, I can see Leo and Scorpio,’ Eddie said, indicating the forms of a lion and a scorpion, ‘but I don’t recognise a lot of ’em. I can’t even see the Plough.’

‘It’s there,’ said Macy, pointing at a shape slightly off the centre.

‘What, the leg of lamb?’

‘That’s what the ancient Egyptians thought it looked like,’ Nina said. ‘But pretty much all the major constellations - Libra, Taurus, Aries - are there, just in slightly different forms. The modern western zodiac was taken more or less directly from the Egyptian one, with a few name changes.’ She pointed up at a particular figure. ‘Orion, for one. The Egyptians knew him as someone else, a major figure from their mythology. See if you can guess who.’

Eddie took a stab. ‘Osiris?’

‘Ding! Ten points.’

Macy took out a colour printout of the section of the zodiac Nina had captured on video. Rad had enhanced it as best he could, providing two versions - a straight blow-up of the video frame, and a copy in which he had adjusted the perspective in Photoshop to make it look as it would viewed from directly below. The low quality of the original image meant that both pictures lacked detail, but the Sphinx zodiac’s painted figures made picking them out an easier task.

She compared the printout to the zodiac overhead. ‘They’re pretty close, but there are some differences. This red circle here, it’s not on the one from Dendera.’

‘If it’s red, it’s probably meant to represent Mars,’ Nina realised. ‘I don’t know how much the positions of the constellations would change over a few thousand years, but the planets would be in different places after just a few weeks. It’s how you can work out the date when a particular zodiac was made - if Mars is in Aquarius, Venus is in Capricorn and so on, you can use a computer to list all the times when the planets were in that exact configuration.’

Eddie looked at the printout, then back up at the ceiling, a thoughtful expression forming. Nina was about to ask what he’d noticed when Macy snapped her fingers. ‘Oh, oh! This is different.’

She tapped a figure on the printout, offset from the lighter sweep of the Milky Way against the dark background. ‘This guy - I think it’s Osiris again. Same colour as his other constellation - green.’

‘Osiris was green?’ said Eddie. ‘Was he a Vulcan or something?’

‘Green was the colour the Egyptians associated with new life,’ said Macy. ‘But this guy,’ she pointed at the figure again, ‘he’s not on the big zodiac.’

Nina looked more closely. ‘Is that something next to him?’ Beside the second, smaller Osiris was a little yellow-orange shape.

‘Another planet?’

‘I dunno . . .’ Even in low resolution the symbol of Mars was clearly circular, whereas this was distinctly angular.

Three angles. A triangle.

A pyramid.

‘No way,’ gasped Macy, coming to the same conclusion as Nina. ‘No. Fu—’ She gave Nina an embarrassed look.

‘It’s okay,’ Eddie said, grinning. ‘You can swear.’

‘King. Way! Macy finished. ‘That’s the Pyramid of Osiris!’

‘It must be,’ said Nina, looking to the ceiling for confirmation. Though the paint on the Dendera zodiac had long since flaked away, the carvings remained in perfect clarity . . . and there was no trace of either the additional figure of Osiris or the small triangle on the relief above. ‘When the position of the stars overhead exactly matches what’s shown on the Sphinx zodiac, you’re at the location of the Pyramid of Osiris!’ She noticed Eddie shaking his head. ‘What?’

‘Doesn’t work like that,’ he said. ‘Yeah, you can use the stars to navigate. But you can’t just look up, compare what you’re looking at to a star map, and know if you’re in the right spot or not - not without a sextant and an almanac with all the star positions on that day of the year.’

Nina’s excitement evaporated. ‘Oh.’

‘But that’s not the only thing. The zodiac they nicked from the Sphinx, they think it’s a map, right?’

‘Right . . .’ Nina said, unsure where he was heading.

‘But like I said, it can’t be just a star map, so it’s got to be some other kind of map.’ He looked up at the ceiling. ‘Problem is, this ain’t exactly portable, is it? So when you go out to find the pyramid, you’ll need to make a copy. Only when you do . . .’ He grinned lopsidedly. ‘This’ll freak you out. Got a pen and paper?’

Macy produced a ballpoint and notepad and held them out to him, but he shook his head again. ‘No, Nina, you try this. I want to see your face when you work it out.’

More puzzled than ever, Nina took the proffered items. ‘Okay,’ said Eddie, ‘now hold it upside down, right above your head, and draw the shape of the room.’

Tilting back, Nina drew a rectangle on the page above her. ‘All right, now what?’

He went to the room’s empty end. ‘Say this is the north wall. Write north on your map - but keep it held upside down.’

She did so, on her drawing marking the wall he was facing with an N. ‘If that’s north, then obviously the opposite end’s south,’ he said. ‘So write that too. Now,’ he raised his right arm and pointed at the wall to that side, ‘that means this wall’s east, and the last one’s west. Okay?’

‘Yeah, got that,’ said Nina, adding the appropriate letters.

Eddie turned back to her with an expectant smile. He turned clockwise, pointing at each wall in turn. ‘North, east, south, west - “Never Eat Shredded Wheat”. Matches what you’ve just drawn, right?’

‘Yes, and can I look down now? My neck’s starting to crick.’

‘Yeah, sure.’ With relief, she brought down the notebook. ‘Okay, this is the freaky part. Turn your map so that your north’s pointing at the north wall.’ She did. ‘Now, what’s wrong with your picture?’

Nina stared at her drawing, just a rectangle with a letter against each side, not sure what she was meant to be seeing . . . until it struck her like a slap to the forehead. ‘Hey!’ North was north, and south was south - but on her crude map, east and west had reversed positions from reality, east on the left of the page and west on the right. ‘That’s . . . that’s just weird.’

‘Told you it was freaky,’ said Eddie. ‘Mac showed me that when I was doing navigation training. It’s one of those things that’s so obvious, you never even think about it until somebody points it out.’

Macy looked at Nina’s drawing. ‘I don’t get it.’

He passed the notebook and pen to her. ‘Go on, try it for yourself.’

‘So how does that help us find the Pyramid of Osiris?’ Nina asked as Macy bent backwards and started drawing.

‘To be honest, love? Not a fucking clue.’ They both smiled. ‘It just means that the zodiac they nicked isn’t a straightforward map. Shaban and his lot might have a job figuring it out even with the whole thing to look at.’

‘Let’s hope so.’

Macy lowered the notebook, looking between it and the walls with dawning comprehension. ‘So east and west swap round when you look up or down . . . That is so wild.’

‘Yeah, see?’ Eddie said. ‘Not such a boring old fart now, am I?’

‘I never said you were boring!’ she objected.

He grunted, but any further comment was cut off as an officious man in a tweedy suit came to the doorway, speaking in rapid-fire, supercilious French.

‘Sorry, mate,’ said Eddie, even though he and Nina were fluent enough to get the gist of what he was saying. ‘English. Well, I am. They’re American.’

‘English and American. I see. I hope you are enjoying your visit to the Louvre,’ the man said, manifestly not caring whether they were or not. ‘But I am afraid I must ask you to leave this room. A VIP has requested to view the Dendera zodiac in private.’

‘Oh, a VIP!’ said Eddie with exaggerated brightness. ‘Well, of course we’ll shift out! Don’t want a VIP to have