The scion took out a compass and oriented himself toward the north, then consulted his map again. Yes, he was standing in the middle of the bailey. Now all he had to do was find some circles in the midst of all these squares. Lost in thought, he fairly tripped over the first one. Upon closer examination, he couldn’t see anything significant about it—a ring of flattened rocks and nothing else. He continued his search a little farther up the hill and spied the second circle. His pulse quickened as he glimpsed something much more important than the structure itself. He ran toward the spot with feverish anticipation and dropped to his knees. There was no mistaking it—the lily inscription. It was carved on a stone embedded in the earth—part of a line of stones encompassed by the circle. He’d found it! He’d actually done the impossible and found it.
Daniel sank back on his heels to contemplate his own personal needle in a haystack. He tilted his head to the side, studying the carving. It appeared as if the top portion of the stone had been cleaved away from the base at some time in the past. Then, at a more recent date, someone had restored it. He could see a seam of concrete running beneath the carving. He sat down cross-legged and sank his chin into his hands, meditating on this puzzle. The repair looked recent. It wasn’t weathered as the stones around it were. Well, that wasn’t particularly suspicious. Perhaps a careless digger had struck the rock while the site was being excavated. Certainly, the archaeological team responsible for Dholavira would have ordered it to be repaired if that were the case. Such an explanation was plausible, but something about that seam of concrete bothered him.
He referred to his notes on the site. The last dig had taken place nearly a decade before. This repair looked fresher than that. A chill ran down his spine as a new thought struck him. What if the relic thieves had gotten here first? What if they had found the artifact itself? His heart was racing with panic.
Daniel jumped to his feet and paced around the circle, searching for evidence of other footprints. Unlike the sands of Nabta Playa, the hard-packed ground at Dholavira wasn’t revealing any clues. Besides, if the trio had discovered something here, why would they take the time to repair a cracked piece of stone? Surely, they would have vandalized it to keep the Nephilim off their trail. What could it possibly mean?
Daniel’s heart rate slowed to normal. He dismissed his suspicions as vague paranoia. There was no evidence of digging anywhere near the circle. Even if his far-fetched idea was true and the relic thieves had beaten him here, they obviously hadn’t found the artifact. He slumped back down on the ground, peering at the bare circle and the line of stones that bisected it. He recalled the exact words of the riddle. “On an island tower she alights to drink, biding til her kindred fill the jaws of the lion.” He had found the island tower mentioned in the clue. In fact, he was sitting in the center of it, but the rest of the riddle indicated that there was something more to be discovered. In fact, the words of the verse implied that the artifact had never been hidden here at all. So where was it?
He took a legal pad out of his backpack and recorded every visual detail about the place. He noted the size of the circle, the number of rocks crossing the center, the position of the lily stone among them, the observatory’s position relative to the other structures surrounding it, even the location of its entrance door. He knew he was going to need that data when he contacted Chris to discuss the situation. Thankfully, the guesthouse had a strong enough cell signal for him to get through. It was well before dawn back in Chicago. He wondered if the librarian would bite his head off for calling so early. He chuckled to himself. Chris’s interest in the relic hunt was even keener than his own. His friend would take the call, no matter what the hour, especially when he learned what the scion had found. Daniel decided not to share his theory about the relic thieves with Chris. It was an idiotic notion. Of course, the trio hadn’t been here ahead of him. Of course, they hadn’t repaired the rock for his benefit. There was no earthly reason for them to do so. It was absurd. He shook his head at his own fanciful notions and jogged back to the guesthouse to place his call.
Chapter 44—Witch Doctor
Doctor Rafi Aboud idled the engine of his BMW at the entrance to the Nephilim compound. He waited for the two iron gates inscribed with the giant letters P and X to part. Glancing casually at the guard tower, he noted that surveillance cameras were trained on his automobile. It had been a long time since he had been summoned to his benefactor’s headquarters. In the interval since his last visit, security had obviously been tightened considerably. The guards motioned him forward. They carried rifles now. That was also new.
He drove up the gravel driveway to the main building. A nervous looking young man in a black suit was standing on the front steps, apparently waiting for him. Aboud got out of his car and was ushered inside then led down a series of vacant stone corridors. To his surprise, his guide wasn’t taking him to Abraham Metcalf’s office. Instead, the young man stopped in front of a door which was protected by two tall, muscular men.
