home and enter a war zone at almost ninety years of age? It was a mystery.” Stone paused. “But you must understand, Dr. Logan: I have a hundred, two hundred, such mysteries in the vault of my research lab in Kent. Some I discovered myself; others I have paid well to have unearthed. They are all interesting. But my time is finite. I will not commit to a project until I feel confident I have sufficient knowledge to guarantee success.”
The Midas touch, Logan thought. Aloud, he said, “I take it, then, this research assistant of Petrie’s wasn’t the last word on the subject?”
Stone smiled again faintly, and, as he returned Logan’s gaze, the stark, appraising look returned to his eyes. “Petrie’s housekeeper. One of my associates learned of her existence, traced her whereabouts, and interviewed her shortly before her death, in a hospice for the aged in Haifa. This was six years ago. She was rambling, semi-lucid. But under gentle questioning, she clearly recalled one particular afternoon in 1941, when Petrie was displaying a portion of his vast collection of antiquities to a guest. It was a guest of no importance, and Petrie entertained in this fashion frequently. In any case, on this particular occasion the housekeeper clearly recalled Petrie and the nameless guest exploring the contents of a wooden crate from one of the Egyptologist’s earliest excursions up the Nile. All of a sudden Petrie sat bolt upright, as if galvanized by an electric shock. He stammered for a minute. Then he quickly got rid of his visitor with some excuse. And then he closed and locked the door to his study-something he had never done before. That’s what made the housekeeper remember the incident. Within days, he departed on his final trip to Egypt.”
“He found something,” Logan said, “in his storehouse of artifacts.”
Stone nodded. “Something that had been lying there, in plain sight, all along. Or more likely, never carefully examined before the day that guest arrived-Petrie had amassed such a large collection that he barely knew its extent.”
“And I’m assuming-since we’re here-that you found that artifact.”
“I found it,” Stone said slowly.
“May I ask how?”
“You may not.” If this was meant as a joke, it didn’t show. “My methods are, shall we say, proprietary? Suffice to say it was a long, arduous, vexing, boring-and expensive-task. If you assumed I spent a lot of money to discover the journal and the housekeeper-and I did-I spent twenty times as much to learn what it was Petrie uncovered on that day in 1941. But I am willing to share the artifact with you-briefly.” And Stone reached for the cup of coffee, raised it to his lips.
Logan waited, expecting Stone to produce some carefully sealed relic case, or perhaps instruct Dr. Rush to retrieve an artifact from some secret corner of the dusty room. But instead, Stone simply took a sip from the tiny cup. Then he nodded at the worn coaster on the table, now stained with a faint damp ring of coffee.
“Pick it up,” he said.
5
For a moment, Logan hesitated. He wasn’t sure he understood. Stone merely returned his gaze, cup in hand, his expression unreadable.
Logan began to reach for the worn coaster, paused, then extended his hand-gingerly-and picked it up. As he did so he realized it was not earthenware, after all, but a thin piece of limestone, badly chipped at the edges. Turning it over, he saw faint pictographs drawn in pale brown ink.
“Not the original, of course,” Stone said. “But an exact copy.” He paused. “Do you know what it is?”
Logan turned it over in his hands. “It looks like an ostracon.”
“Bravo!” Stone turned toward Rush. “Ethan, this man impresses me more by the minute.” He looked back at Logan. “If you know it’s an ostracon, then you’ll also know its purpose.”
“Ostraca were discarded bits of leftover stone, pottery, almost anything, used for unimportant writings. Antiquity’s version of the notepad.”
“Precisely. With emphasis on ‘unimportant.’ They might have been used for bills of sale or for grocery lists. Which is precisely why I was using that as a coaster. A melodramatic touch, but it makes a point. To someone like Flinders Petrie, ostraca were a dime a dozen: occasionally interesting in the light they could throw on humdrum, everyday life in the ancient world, but otherwise of little significance.”
“Which is why Petrie would never have noticed it before.” Logan looked down at the faded limestone inscription. There were a total of four pictographs, badly scratched and faded. “I know very little about hieroglyphs. What makes this so special?”
“I’ll give you the short version. Have you heard of King Narmer?”
Logan thought a moment. “Wasn’t he the pharaoh who many believe unified Egypt?”
“That’s right. Before Narmer came along there were two kingdoms: upper and lower Egypt. ‘Upper’ meant farther up the Nile and actually lay to the south. Each had its own ruler, with his own crown. The kings of upper Egypt wore a white, conical crown, shaped almost like a bowling pin, while the kings of lower Egypt sported a red crown with a peak at the back. Around 3200 BC, Narmer-the ruler of upper Egypt-came north, killed the king of lower Egypt, and in so doing unified the country, with himself as pharaoh. It’s my belief that he was the first god- king of a long line that followed; and-who knows? — perhaps only a god could have united the two Egypts. He was certainly believed to have power over both life and death.” Stone paused. “Anyway, he unified something else, too. He unified the crowns of the two kingdoms. You see, Dr. Logan, the crown of the Egyptian pharaoh was a uniquely important symbol of power. Narmer of course was aware of this. So once Egypt had become a single kingdom, he wore a double crown-a combination of the white and red crowns, symbolic of his dominion over both lower and upper Egypt. And for the next three thousand years, every pharaoh that followed in his wake did the same.”
He drained the tiny cup, put it to one side. “But back to Narmer. The unification of Egypt was memorialized on a large siltstone tablet, depicting his defeat of the rival king. Scholars have referred to this Narmer Palette as ‘the first historical document in the world.’ It depicts the earliest representation of Egyptian kings ever found. It also contains primitive-and very distinctive-hieroglyphs.”
Stone held out his hand and Logan gave him the limestone fragment.
“What Petrie saw on this ostracon were hieroglyphs dating from that very early period. As you can see, there are a total of four.” Extending a slender finger, Stone pointed to them in turn.
“What do they say?” Logan asked.
“You’ll understand if I’m a little reticent about the details. Let’s just say that this is no insignificant laundry list. Quite the opposite. This ostracon is the key to the biggest-and I mean the biggest-archaeological secret in history. It tells us what King Narmer took with him when he journeyed to the underworld.”
“You mean, what’s actually buried in his tomb?”
Stone nodded. “But you see, here’s the rub. Narmer’s tomb-we know where it is, a rather sad little two- chamber affair in Abydos, Umm el-Qa’ab to be precise-held none of the things described on this ostracon.”
“Then what…” Logan paused. “You’re telling me the known tomb isn’t a tomb at all.”
“Oh, it’s a tomb, all right. But it’s not the tomb. It might be an early example of a cenotaph-a symbolic, rather than actual, tomb. But I prefer to think of it as a decoy. And when Flinders Petrie saw this ostracon-and understood that… well, that’s the reason he dropped everything at a moment’s notice; abandoned the comforts of retirement; and risked his health, his safety, and his fortune-in an attempt to find Narmer’s real tomb.”
Logan thought about this. “But what could possibly be so valuable-”
Stone raised a hand by way of interruption. “I won’t tell you that. But once you know the location of the tomb-I’ll leave that to Dr. Rush to explain-you’ll understand why, hypothetically, even if we didn’t know what the tomb contained, we would be utterly convinced of its incredible importance.”
Stone leaned forward, tented his fingers. “Dr. Logan, my methods are unusual. I’ve implied as much to you already. When I undertake a new project, I spend most of the total time and at least half the total expense merely in preparation. I research every possible avenue of success, bring overwhelming scholarly and investigative pressure to bear, before a spade first breaks ground. So it probably would not surprise you to learn that-once this ostracon and its message were in my possession-I gave the project a green light. In fact, it became my highest priority.”
He leaned back again, glanced at Rush.
