“On occasion. But more commonly, scientific or psychical activity that can’t be easily explained through traditional disciplines.”
Her eyes narrowed. “And you do this full-time?”
“I also teach history at Yale.”
This seemed to interest her. “Egyptian history?”
“No. Medieval history mostly.”
The interest died as quickly as it had come. “Okay.”
“As long as we’re playing twenty questions, why don’t you fill me in on your background?”
“Sure. Got my PhD in Egyptology at the University of Cairo.” She waved a hand at the diplomas. “Studied under Nadrim and Chartere. I assisted them in the Khefren the Sixth excavation.”
Logan nodded. These were very impressive credentials. “Is this your first project with Porter Stone?”
“Second.”
Logan shifted in his seat. “Dr. Rush said you’d fill me in on the background. What you found at Hierakonpolis when you searched the Temple of Horus. How you managed to locate this particular spot for the tomb.”
Romero slid her hands into her pockets. “Why do you want to know?”
To Logan, this translated to Why should I waste my time telling you? Aloud, he said, “It might help me with my investigation.”
She paused. Then, slowly, she sat forward. “I’ll make this brief. Porter Stone managed to locate something called an ostracon-”
“He showed the replica to me.”
“Good, that’ll save time in explanations. Stone learned, from the ostracon and from several other scholarly investigations, that Narmer used Hierakonpolis as his staging point for building his tomb.” She looked at him. “You do know who Narmer was, right?”
Logan nodded.
“The first king of a unified Egypt.”
“I believe there’s been some debate about that. In the past, scholars believed King Menes should be credited with the unification.”
“Many scholars-myself included-believe that Narmer and Menes are one and the same.” She peered at him again. “So you do know ancient Egypt.”
Logan shrugged. “In my business, it’s helpful to know a little bit about everything.”
“And how far does this erudition extend exactly?”
Logan nodded toward the framed Egyptian wall painting. “Enough to guess that dates to the Amarna Period.”
“Really? What gives you that idea?”
“The busyness of the scene, the overlapping of bodies. The emphasis on the feminine form: hips, breasts. You don’t see that in earlier Egyptian art.”
For a moment, she looked at him. Then a smile slowly broke across her face. “Okay, Mr. Ghostly Detective. You’re clearly more than just a face from a magazine. Touche.”
Logan grinned in return.
She sat up again. “All right. Using geophysical analysis and remote aerial sensing techniques, we were able to identify what appeared to be the site of a funerary quarry. This was unusual, because the very early Egyptians usually buried their dead-even nobility and royalty-in sand pits. So as a result, March began a targeted excavation.”
“March?”
“Fenwick March. The head archaeologist for the project. He runs the show when Porter Stone isn’t around.”
“What did you find?”
“At first, what you’d expect. Early black-top pots with carbonized rims, pollen, paleozoological remains. But as work continued we realized just how large the site was.”
“Big enough to be the city where tomb builders and engineers were based?”
“Bingo. And then, we found this.” She stood up, walked over to a filing cabinet, and opened a drawer. Pulling out two rolled-up sheets, she walked back to the desk and handed one to him.
Logan unrolled it. He saw a color photograph of an ancient Egyptian inscription, incised and painted. It showed a seated ruler, along with lines and arrows and a variety of early pictographs.
“Recognize it?” Romero asked.
He glanced up. “It looks like some kind of stela.”
“Very good. A slab stela, to be precise. Know what’s written on it?”
Logan smiled. “My erudition only goes so far.”
“It’s a road map.”
“A road map? To where?”
Romero raised one hand, index finger extended. Then, very slowly, she pointed straight down, between her feet.
“My God,” Logan said.
“You must know how advanced the ancient Egyptians were in astronomy, in terms of mapping the sky. This stela was a map to show the engineers and builders how to get to the site of Narmer’s tomb during its construction. No doubt it was supposed to be destroyed, smashed to dust, once the tomb was complete. Lucky for us it wasn’t, because it allowed us to triangulate the tomb’s location to within a few miles. Once on the site, geological and scholarly analysis allowed us to narrow it down even farther.”
Logan thought of the Grid he’d seen on the flat-screen monitor in the dive Staging Area. “Incredible. Vintage Porter Stone.”
“Indeed. But Stone found something else. On the far side of that site.”
“What’s that?”
“A giant, square piece of black basalt. Apparently, the plinth for some kind of statuary-perhaps of Narmer himself. It had been polished to an agate gleam, even after all the intervening centuries. It contained something, too.” And she handed him the other sheet.
Logan took it. It was a photograph of another inscription, somewhat shorter.
“What is it?” Logan asked.
“It’s the reason you’re here.”
Logan looked at her. “I don’t understand.”
She returned the look with a smile, but this time the smile didn’t extend as far as her eyes. “It’s a curse.”
12
“A curse,” Logan repeated.
Christina Romero nodded.
Porter Stone had alluded to a curse. Logan had been wondering when the other shoe would drop.
“You mean, like the one supposedly on King Tut’s tomb? ‘Death shall come on swift wings’ and all that? That’s just a lot of rumormongering.”
“In the case of King Tut, you may be right. But curses were quite common in the Old Kingdom-and not only for private tombs. As the first king of a unified Egypt, Narmer wasn’t going to take any chances. His tomb could not be allowed to be desecrated-it could mean the dissolution of his kingdom. And so he left behind this curse as a warning.” She paused. “And what a warning.”
“What does it say exactly?”
Romero took back the photo of the inscription, glanced at it. “ ‘Any man who dares enter my tomb,’ ” she translated, “ ‘or do any wickedness to the resting place of my earthly form will meet an end certain and swift. Should he pass the first gate, the foundation of his house will be broken, and his seed will fall upon dry land. His
