Island of the Sun

by Matthew J. Kirby

  Nathifa paused a moment, looked at Eleanor, and said, “The first reason is simply that I hate the G.E.T. digging around in our historical heritage, and I want them gone. I don’t know why the UN has given them such power.”

  “Do you know about the Preservation Protocol?” Eleanor asked.

  “I’ve heard of it. Just rumors.”

  “It’s real,” Eleanor said.

  Nathifa blinked and turned her gaze to the flowing water. “That is . . . unsettling.”

  “You said first reason,” Eleanor said. “Is there a second?”

  “The second is that I agree with Dr. von Albrecht. He knew those things should not be used. Now we know they must be stopped. So I do this for my family. My parents and my sisters. My . . . friends.”

  Amaru did what he did for his family, too, though that motivation led him to make a very different choice. The more Eleanor thought about this whole conflict, the more complicated it seemed, and the less willing she became to judge anyone for how they responded to it.

  “What about you?” Nathifa asked. “How old are you?”

  “Twelve,” Eleanor said.

  “Twelve,” Nathifa said. “And why is a twelve-year-old doing this?”

  It was a harder question to answer than it seemed. Jenna and Claire, Eleanor’s friends back home, certainly wouldn’t have come this far. They wouldn’t have stowed away on Luke’s plane in the first place. The truth was that Eleanor had made her choices without stopping to think too hard about them. She had simply acted in the moment, doing what she thought was right. The G.E.T. had to be stopped not because they were evil, but because Eleanor knew their chosen course of action to be wrong: the Preservation Protocol, choosing who would survive and who would freeze, keeping secrets from the world for its own good. Everyone deserved to make their own choices, not to have those choices made for them.

  “I want to save everybody,” Eleanor finally said.

  Nathifa nodded.

  “You mentioned your parents and sisters,” Eleanor said. “I guess you’re not married?”

  “No,” Nathifa said, her demeanor becoming sad and distant. “In my country, it is forbidden to marry the person I want to marry. So I will remain unmarried until it is allowed. My parents find this very distressing.”

  “Who do you want to marry?” Eleanor asked.

  Nathifa shook her head. “I should not say.”

  Though curious, Eleanor let the question go.

  They traveled upriver for several hours, through a darkened countryside of farms and fields, in the pockets of which glowed periodic cities. Occasionally, towering shadows hulked along the banks. Nathifa said they were old abandoned ships, cargo vessels and cruise liners that could no longer navigate the shrunken river and had been left to rust.

  As the night deepened, Eleanor grew tired and lay down on one of the bench seats. Luke woke up just as her eyes were about to close, and he took a turn keeping a lookout, while von Albrecht took the ship’s wheel from Nathifa. Eleanor then slept, and when she next woke, Nathifa was back at the helm, while von Albrecht dozed nearby, and the sky had just barely crossed the border between night and day.

  A few hours later, they stopped for fuel in a small town, but they did not leave the boat and were soon back on their way. As they traveled up the river, Finn grew even more sullen, and every so often he would turn around and stand at the back of the boat, staring down at the wake they’d left behind them. Eleanor’s mom and Betty tried to console him, and even Luke made an attempt, but Finn rebuffed and ignored them. But then von Albrecht approached him. Eleanor sat close enough to hear what he said.

  “My father was an architect.” Von Albrecht smoothed his hair back. “He was very famous. He left his mark. Even though he died when I was but a little older than you are, I never felt that he was gone. Everywhere I looked, I saw his life’s work, his buildings, and I heard an echo of his voice in my head. I still do. His monuments ask me what I have done. What mark have I left?”

  Finn turned away from the water and looked at von Albrecht. “How do you answer them?”

  “I have always looked away from them in shame,” von Albrecht said. “I have left no mark. I have been mocked my whole career. No one has given me any respect, until quite recently. You know this, I am sure.”

  Finn nodded.

  “But this,” von Albrecht said. “What I am doing right now, here on this boat? This is important. More than anything I have done. After this, I will no longer look away in shame.”

  Finn’s posture had slackened, just a bit, as though someone had loosened his strings.

  “You will see your father again,” von Albrecht said. “When you do, he will ask you what you have done since he last saw you, because that is what fathers do. I wonder, what will you say?” Von Albrecht then clasped his hands behind his back and walked back up to the front of the boat.

  Finn stood there, alone, staring at his feet for a minute or two. Then he cast one more glance down the river before showing the water his back, and came to sit next to Eleanor. “So let’s get this done,” he said.

  “We will,” she said.

  “You know what’s weird?”

  “What?”

  “I’m mad at Julian. I have been this whole time.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he’s there with my dad and I’m not.”

  “I don’t think that’s so weird.”

  “Everyone says I’m just like my dad. But Julian is the one he’s proud of.”

  “He is proud of you,” Eleanor said. “I’ve seen it.”

  “He will be,” Finn said.

  Whereas the others, including Eleanor, had been trying to reassure Finn, Von Albrecht had simply challenged him. Eleanor had to admit that it had worked.

  The day passed mile by mile, and the river flowed into monotony, the villages and farms all appearing similar to one another by the afternoon. Most towns had their own bridges, and as the boat crossed under them, sharp-winged birds dove from their nests in the girders and sliced the air around them, chirping and scolding. Stilted ibises patrolled the shore, stabbing the water with their long beaks, and Eleanor even glimpsed an enormous Nile crocodile sunning itself on the muddy shore, indifferent to the passage of their boat.

  “There aren’t many of them left,” Nathifa said. “It’s getting too cold.”

  “He looks like he’s keeping plenty warm,” Luke said.

  “No,” Nathifa said. “It’s too cold for the eggs. They incubate in the sand, and almost none of them hatch now. But the mothers keep laying them and guarding the nests long after their young should have been born. It’s very sad.”

  “They guard their nests?” Betty said. “I’ve never thought of crocodiles as especially maternal.”

  “Oh, yes,” Nathifa said. “A mother will watch the nest for three months and then protect her young for two years.”

  Eleanor agreed with Nathifa. It was very sad. But this was happening all over the world, and there were hundreds and maybe even thousands of species that were already gone. Extinct. With thousands and thousands more in danger. In all the worry over human life, sometimes Eleanor forgot about the rest of the earth’s inhabitants. They suffered too. And when they were gone, no one would remember.

  A few hours later, the evening sun reached that point where it lustered the world; the water, the reeds along the bank, people’s eyes and skin, all of it seemed to glow from within. They reached the city of Luxor, and from the river Eleanor glimpsed the columns and walls of its ancient temples rising up above a fringe of palm trees. Nathifa guided the boat to a dock on the opposite shore from the ruins, and they unloaded the packs and duffel bags from the forward compartment.

  “How will we get to the Valley of the Kings?” Eleanor’s mom asked.

  “Taxi,” Nathifa said. “Then camel.”

  “Seriously?” Finn asked.

  “It is a priceless archaeological site,” von Albrecht said. “The government closed it to touri
sm several years ago. Motor vehicles are restricted. It’s three miles into the Theban hills, and I’d like to get there before dark. So, yes, camels.”

  They were unable to find a van large enough to take them all and ended up in two cars. Eleanor searched for but saw no evidence of G.E.T. presence here, at which she felt relief, as the taxis drove them through town, then out of it into farming country and across a wide irrigation canal. They then turned onto a road that followed the waterway for a mile or so north before another turn onto a winding road. As they proceeded along it, toward a range of hills, they passed another temple on the left.

  “That is the mortuary temple of Seti the First,” Nathifa said.

  “What’s a mortuary temple?” Finn asked.

  “A memorial to commemorate the reign of a ruler,” she said.

  “So it’s not where they turned them into mummies?” he asked. “Where they removed their brains and internal organs and everything?”

  She smiled. “No, it’s not.”

  Not far beyond the temple, they arrived at a gated road with a small building adjacent to it. Several camels roamed a paddock nearby, grunting and grazing. The taxis stopped to let them out in front of the gate, and Nathifa approached the building as a guard wearing a kind of police uniform emerged to greet her. They spoke in Arabic, and she showed him her badge, gesturing toward the rest of them as they waited. The guard finally nodded and walked around toward the paddock as Nathifa returned.

  “He’ll saddle the camels for us,” she said. “We should make it before dark.”

  “What did you tell him?” Eleanor’s mom asked.

  “You are archaeologists from the United States,” she said. “I’m here to show you the tombs. My badge said the rest.”

  The sun was flirting with the horizon by the time the guard brought their animals around, and it was getting quite cold. Eleanor had never been near a camel before and hadn’t realized how large they were, well over six feet tall at the shoulder. Everything about them seemed big: their yellow teeth, their wide hooves, their makeup-commercial eyelashes that had to be three inches long. They also smelled terrible, like acrid urine, and manure, and some other animal odor she couldn’t identify. The guard set about strapping their packs and duffels to the animals’ saddles.

  “You’ll need to ride two to a camel,” Nathifa said.

  “Are they safe?” Eleanor’s mom said, standing some distance from them.

  “Oh, perfectly safe,” von Albrecht said. “Just don’t insult them. Camels hold grudges.”

  The guard used a spoken command to get the animals to fold their long legs and kneel, and then divided the riders up according to size. Eleanor ended up with Luke, and Finn ended up with von Albrecht. Betty rode with Eleanor’s mom, and Nathifa took a camel to herself. Eleanor slipped her foot into the stirrup and climbed onto the saddle, while Luke did the same behind her.

  “Just a warning: lean backward as they stand,” Nathifa said.

  Eleanor did, and was glad for it, because the camel stood up one end at a time and nearly toppled her to the ground. Once up, she marveled at the height of her saddle, the ground below seeming very far away.

  The guard then roped the animals all together in a single column, with Nathifa at the head, and they set off.

  “They know the way,” Nathifa said. “Just settle back and enjoy the ride.”

  “That god-awful smell makes it a bit difficult,” Luke said.

  Eleanor had to agree with that, but she enjoyed the ride nevertheless. Some distance past the guard station, they entered a shallow canyon and lost the sun. The road carried them through the cold and shadowy recesses of washes and gullies, winding deeper and deeper into the hills. In the failing light, the geology around Eleanor had a pale, rocky, almost lunar quality, far enough from the waters of the Nile to remain barren and desolate. She felt grateful the camels knew the route, because she would have quickly become lost.

  After they had ridden for a bit, they arrived at a tattered, haunted encampment. Large canvas tents stood in various states of disrepair, some with holes and torn pieces fluttering in the breeze, some fallen down around their broken metal skeletons. Without a command or warning, the camels knelt down, and once again Eleanor nearly hit the sand below her headfirst. After the riders had all dismounted and unstrapped their gear, the camels stood and returned the way they had come.

  “They really do know the way, don’t they?” Betty said.

  “Even if they are out of practice,” von Albrecht said, glancing about. “Look at the state of things. When was the last time anyone was here?”

  “It has been several months,” Nathifa said. “No funding.”

  “What is this place?” Eleanor asked.

  “A camp for archaeologists and other researchers,” Nathifa said. “We’ll take one of these tents for the night, and then begin work tomorrow. Come.”

  She led them to one of the better-looking tents and untied the flaps over the doorway. Inside, by flashlight, they found a dozen cots, a couple of folding tables and chairs, and a rug on the ground barely visible through a layer of sand that had apparently blown in. Everyone claimed a cot and lay down. Eleanor’s emitted a bleating sound as the synthetic fabric stretched beneath her. Luke’s actually buckled, crashing him to the ground, and he had to choose a new one. Von Albrecht pulled some thermal blankets out of the duffel bags and handed them around.

  “Do you sense anything?” her mom asked.

  “No,” Eleanor said. “We must not be close enough yet.”

  She lay on her back, pulled the blanket up to her chin, and stared up at the ceiling of the tent. A hole to the right of just above her head held a swatch of stars. Eleanor stared through the opening a few moments and then closed her eyes. Tomorrow, they would begin the hunt among the pharaohs’ tombs for the Concentrator. Thought she couldn’t feel it yet, she knew it was out there, somewhere close by.

  CHAPTER

  20

  ELEANOR WOKE TO THE SOUND OF ZIPPERS AND OPENED her eyes. Her mom, von Albrecht, and Nathifa were reaching into the packs and duffels and laying out the instruments and equipment on the tables. There was a laptop too, but when Finn reached for it, Nathifa waved at his hand.

  “That’s a G.E.T. laptop,” she said. “We shouldn’t use it. I probably should not have brought it with us, but I wasn’t thinking.”

  “Is it connected to their network?” Finn asked.

  Eleanor wondered why he would ask that.

  “Not at the moment,” Nathifa said. “Let’s keep it that way, okay?”

  Eleanor rose from her cot and walked up to stand beside her mom, stretching her arms up above her head. “What’s all this for?” she asked.

  A moment passed before her mom looked up. “To get us a bit closer to the Concentrator, so you can pinpoint its location.”

  Eleanor recognized one of the devices as a telluric scanner, a piece of equipment she’d seen up in the Arctic.

  “How is it you can sense them?” von Albrecht asked.

  Eleanor looked at her mom. “We don’t know.”

  “Is it safe for you?” Nathifa asked. “This . . . connection?”

  Eleanor nodded. “Sure. I’ve done it—”

  “We don’t know if it’s safe,” her mom said. “We don’t know what it is or how it works. Truthfully, I’m very uncomfortable with it.”

  “But we’ve talked about this before,” Eleanor said, more to her mom than to Nathifa. “We don’t have any other options. Do we?”

  Her mom said nothing.

  “Do we?”

  Still her mom didn’t answer, and Eleanor realized the matter would probably never be settled. Her mom would never accept this about her, and Eleanor discovered she was more okay with that than she would have thought.

  Nathifa looked back and forth between them, then turned away. “Right, so . . . I think we’re ready to begin scanning.”

  Eleanor’s mom brushed her hands together. “Good. Let’s do it.”
r />   She, von Albrecht, and Nathifa each picked up a scanner and walked out of the tent, where Finn, Luke, and Betty were waiting. The valley reached away from them toward a high, pyramid-shaped mountain peak, the morning sunlight striking its eastern face. The canyon walls rose up on either side of them, gradually sloping in some places, leaping vertically in others.

  They proceeded as a group along the valley floor, down a wide path with branching side trails that stretched toward shadowy doorways set right into the rock.

  “Each of those is a tomb,” Nathifa said. “I think it’s perhaps best to begin scanning here. It’s likely the ancient Egyptians would have discovered the Concentrator while digging out one of these.”

  “How many are there?” Finn asked.

  “Sixty-three that we know of. There are likely still more waiting to be discovered, but considering everything that’s happening now, I don’t know that we’ll ever find them. Just think—if the Freeze continues, there will be dozens of tombs, a record of an entire civilization, floating though space on a dead, frozen rock.”

  “Not if we can help it,” said Eleanor.

  They passed many of the tombs, but the telluric scanners they carried gave no indication of where the Concentrator might be.

  “How big are the tombs?” Finn asked.

  “Some have but one chamber,” Nathifa said. “Others have many. The one known as KV5 has one hundred twenty rooms. It was built for the sons of Ramses the Second.”

  “Incredible,” Eleanor’s mom said.

  “Yeah, but what about the Great Pyramid?” Luke asked. “For a tomb, it’s even—”

  “The pyramids are not tombs,” von Albrecht said. “They never were. They were used to gather and store the earth’s telluric currents concentrated here.”

  Luke held up his hands. “My mistake, doc.”

  “Speaking of currents,” Betty said, “are you getting any Concentrator vibes, Eleanor?”

  She shook her head, reminding herself that it had taken time, and some dangerous underwater exploration, to find the Concentrator in Peru. Locating each one had proven a unique challenge; it was clear that whoever put them here didn’t want them to be easily discovered. Eleanor hadn’t necessarily expected it to be easy here in Egypt either. But at least she was fairly certain no diving equipment would be needed.