The Forbidden Tomb

by Chris Kuzneski

  The others remained silent as the city continued to rise, layer after projected layer. But instead of sprouting from the bottom, structures now materialized in a wave around the perimeter of the city as it sprawled farther and farther from the center.

  Sarah waved her hand through the projection, searching for a reflective surface, but her hand passed through the image. ‘How is this even possible?’

  Garcia ignored her question. He was having too much fun blowing their minds. ‘What you see is a reproduction of modern Alexandria. The city as it exists today.’ He tapped a few buttons on his keyboard. ‘Now if we overlay the previous map, we get something like this . . .’

  Several structures disappeared as others took their places.

  Garcia glanced at Cobb. ‘If you’d like, I can keep going until we have every detail from every page of the map.’

  Cobb nodded, his eyes never leaving the city.

  Garcia entered a new command, and suddenly the holographic images intersected and overlapped in every conceivable way – similar to the chaos of earlier when they tried to view the document as a single map instead of separate maps. In many instances, whole buildings appeared to be consumed by larger ones like hungry nesting dolls.

  Jasmine stared in disbelief. ‘This is incredible!’

  Sarah was more flummoxed than impressed, and she didn’t appreciate the feeling. ‘Seriously, how is this possible?’

  Garcia shrugged, revealing nothing.

  ‘Fine,’ she snapped. ‘I’ll figure it out myself.’

  He crossed his hands behind his head and smugly leaned back in his chair. ‘Be my guest.’

  Never one to pass on a challenge, Sarah stood for a better look. ‘Under normal circumstances, light would need something to interrupt its path, like a screen or something. Otherwise it can’t be seen by the naked eye.’

  ‘True.’

  She passed her hand through the image again, then watched Jasmine do the same on the opposite side of the table. ‘But there’s no screen here.’

  ‘Nope.’

  She leaned to the left and then to the right, hoping to learn more. ‘For a truly three-dimensional hologram, you need something in the air – dust, water vapor, something – to reflect the light.’ She rubbed her fingers together. ‘But I can’t feel anything.’

  ‘If you could, you’d be the first.’

  Cobb cleared his throat and tapped his watch.

  Garcia got the hint and ended the game. He pointed to the air-conditioning vent above the table. ‘This room uses specially formulated air. Its molecular composition is designed to reflect certain wavelengths of lights. When used in conjunction with the appropriate laser, you’re able to do something like this.’

  Cobb nodded knowingly. ‘It’s technology co-opted from the US military. The ability to project an image can be used in a variety of ways. For instance, it can fool the enemy into thinking our numbers are far greater than they actually are. In the not-too-distant future, we’ll be able to create a battalion of fake soldiers out of thin air.’

  ‘Correction,’ Garcia said. ‘Not out of thin air. Out of thick air.’

  Cobb smiled. ‘Duly noted.’

  ‘Is it safe?’ Jasmine wondered. ‘We’re not breathing in air loaded with lead or mercury or something like that, are we?’

  Garcia shook his head. ‘No, it’s perfectly safe. It’s a combination of—’

  Papineau cut him off. ‘I think your word is enough for now. The exact nature of the chemical elements is not important. If Hector says it’s safe, it’s safe.’

  Jasmine nodded. ‘If you say so.’

  ‘Soooo,’ echoed Sarah, who was still upset that she hadn’t been given enough time to figure out the device, ‘your toy is cool and all, but I don’t see how it’s going to help us find the tomb. I mean, a map is still a map – even if it’s in 3-D.’

  ‘Actually, it’s a lot more than that.’ Garcia extended his right arm with his hand facing up. Then he placed his left hand over his outstretched palm and slowly spread them apart. The movement, which looked like a gator’s jaw opening, caused the layers of the holographic map to separate. Just as the paper map had been divided into sheets, the virtual map was now displayed as a stack of separate levels.

  ‘Now watch this,’ he bragged.

  With a simple twitch of his finger, the program cycled through the layers of the map. Choosing one at random, he reached out and flipped his wrist to the side. As if by magic, the entire map began to spin on a center axis.

  McNutt grumbled, still unwilling to approach the table as the ethereal map floated in front of him like a creature from Ghostbusters.

  Meanwhile, Jasmine was ecstatic. ‘Hector, this is amazing! Seeing the city presented like this provides so much more perspective.’

  ‘How so?’ Sarah asked.

  ‘Within each layer there are noticeable developments, but the distinct layers appear to match perfectly with the changes that the city has undergone throughout the years. Hector, take us back to the bottom layer, please.’

  Garcia did as he was told.

  ‘The first layer represents the first three hundred years of the region. We know during that era the city was divided into five districts, or quarters, named after the first five letters of the Greek alphabet.’ She pointed to the model. ‘Look here and here. See how the city appears to be broken into five distinct regions. It’s exactly what we would expect to find. Each subset of the populace had its preferred area, much like you’d find in cities today.’

  ‘Flip to the next layer,’ ordered Papineau, who approached the table. It was his way of not only urging Jasmine to continue but to see if her theory was correct.

  Jasmine studied the map, looking for clues. ‘Notice the difference? Now the borders between the regions have all but disappeared. The neighborhoods have been intertwined, a likely result of the newer Roman occupation and the conflict with the Ptolemies who sought to regain the land under their name. Please, keep going.’

  Garcia flipped to the next map. The third level was almost incompatible with the previous version, as if the entire city had been razed and reconstructed.

  Jasmine smiled, knowing that a complete transformation had taken place.

  Papineau knew it too. Now convinced that Jasmine’s theory was accurate, he urged her to continue her narration.

  She happily obliged. ‘Alexandria was nearly erased during the Kitos War. It was rebuilt under the direction of the Roman emperor Hadrian. His city stood until 365. On July the twenty-first of that year, the city was wiped clean again by the tsunami that Jean-Marc mentioned earlier. What wasn’t destroyed by the flood – the so-called pagan temples – was torn down thirty years later when Christianity took hold of the city.’

  Garcia turned to the next map.

  ‘The Muslim conquest of Egypt changed the landscape yet again. It was the last major upheaval of control in Alexandria until the Ottoman reign of the fifteen hundreds. After that, the remaining redevelopment of the eighteen hundreds and nineteen hundreds was limited to localized damage inflicted during various battles and skirmishes.’

  Garcia flipped back to the modern city as Jasmine finished her lecture.

  ‘With these maps, we can trace the entire evolution of Alexandria from its inception to its current layout today.’

  ‘And most importantly,’ said Garcia, who was quite content working in the air-conditioned mansion, ‘we don’t even have to go to Egypt.’

  Sarah rolled her eyes. ‘I guess that means your table is going to magically find the treasure and beam it here like something from Star Trek?’

  He rubbed his chin in thought. ‘Maybe.’

  ‘Now that would be cool!’ McNutt blurted. It had taken a while, but he was finally warming up to the table. ‘Where did you learn how to do all of that?’

  ‘All of what?’

  McNutt tried to replicate some of Garcia’s hand gestures, but he looked like the town drunk trying to learn sign language. ‘That w
izard stuff.’

  Garcia laughed. ‘I was still working for the FBI when they introduced this system. It just so happens that they chose the Miami field office for the pilot program. That meant I was one of the first people in the entire bureau to get my hands on this technology. No pun intended.’

  Garcia brought his palms together, thrust them into the hologram, and then pulled them apart like he was playing the accordion. In response the image expanded, revealing a level of detail that was truly phenomenal.

  ‘I fell in love with the program almost immediately. I started putting it through its paces, seeing what it could really do, and it never let me down. But the bosses up the ladder couldn’t figure it out. They were too set in their ways. They were convinced that corkboards and slideshows were better methods of processing information. Freaking dinosaurs, if you ask me.’

  Jasmine mimicked his gestures. ‘How does it work?’

  Garcia pointed up. ‘There are motion-capture cameras mounted in the ceiling that monitor your movements. The computer translates certain actions as specific requests. That information is conveyed to the various lasers that actually draw the map. They adjust the image accordingly.’ He moved his hand like he was spinning a globe, causing the image to twist on its axis. ‘It’s very intuitive.’

  Jasmine reached out and grabbed the map, bringing the hologram to an abrupt stop. She smiled like a kid who had just learned how to ride a bike.

  Garcia beamed with pride. ‘Ten years ago it was cutting-edge science reserved for government entities. Now they’re using the same basic tech in video game consoles. Granted, they have more limitations than this, but the concepts are the same.’

  Enjoying his moment in the spotlight, Garcia reached down and plucked a building from the map. Then he cocked his arm and threw it toward McNutt. ‘Catch!’

  Still trying to wrap his head around the technology, McNutt wasn’t sure if the building would shatter on impact if he didn’t catch the hologram, so he gave it his all and jumped high into the air – only to topple over his chair and crash to the ground.

  The profanity that followed made Jasmine blush.

  Meanwhile, Garcia yanked his hand back as if he were playing with a yo-yo. The flying building suddenly stopped in midair, reversed course, and headed back toward Garcia, who caught it and placed it back on the map with a huge grin on his face.

  Sarah couldn’t help but laugh.

  McNutt continued to curse as he pulled himself back into his seat. It took him a moment to gather his senses. ‘What happened?’

  Papineau answered drily. ‘You missed.’

  7

  Cobb remained focused on the task at hand. He had to admit that the holographic map was far more impressive than the paper version. He hoped it would be more effective, too. ‘How long will it take to analyze the layout of the city and come up with a list of possible locations for the tomb?’

  Jasmine shook her head. ‘First of all, let me be perfectly clear: there is almost no chance – zero – that Alexander’s body is still buried in Alexandria. The area has been too well developed to hold out hope for a miracle like that. No, what we’re looking for are clues as to where and when the tomb was moved.’

  Cobb grimaced. ‘You’re one hundred percent sure that Alexander isn’t there?’

  ‘Well, no,’ she admitted, ‘I’m not a hundred percent sure about anything. But I can tell you this: people have been scouring the city for the last two thousand years, looking for Alexander. I choose to believe that if someone had credible evidence that he was still buried there, they would have found him by now.’

  Cobb pointed at the hologram. ‘But what about this? I thought this map was new evidence – something that no one else had at their disposal.’

  ‘True,’ she conceded, ‘the map is a revelation. It offers tremendous insights into a place that was literally erased by time. With these new pieces of the puzzle, the things we could uncover about the ancient city are . . . well, they’re limitless.’

  ‘I understand that and I’m happy for you and historians around the world, but I’m not concerned about the full implications of the map. For now, all I need you to do is figure out what it tells us about Alexander. That’s it. I simply need to know if the map will narrow down our list of possibilities; and if so, how long that process will take.’

  ‘Okay. I can do that.’

  Papineau cleared his throat at the head of the table.

  Cobb glared at him. ‘What?’

  ‘If you’re assigning tasks, does this mean that you’ve accepted my terms and will be leading the next mission?’

  The team glanced at him, hopeful.

  Cobb mulled it over. ‘I’m in . . . for now.’

  It was not the enthusiastic response that Papineau had been hoping for, but it was music to the squad’s ears. They knew Cobb much better than Papineau did and he would not accept a mission that was doomed to fail; particularly one with so much at stake. As crazy as it sounded, if a levelheaded leader like Cobb believed that they could find Alexander’s lost tomb, they knew it was more than possible.

  They knew it was likely.

  Instantly, a wave of energy surged through the team.

  ‘Jasmine,’ Cobb said, pulling their attention back to the matter at hand, ‘can you have something for me by the end of the day?’

  Jasmine grimaced and nodded at the exact same time. ‘I can have something for you, yes. But it won’t be everything. It might not even be close.’

  ‘That’s fine. All I need is a place to start. We can figure out the rest as we go.’ He turned toward Garcia. ‘Hector, I’m willing to bet that this program has a few more bells and whistles we haven’t seen yet. Hopefully some of that can help Jasmine better understand what she’s looking at. You’ll show her what the technology can do?’

  It was an order disguised as a question. Of everyone in the group, Cobb knew that Garcia had the most sensitive disposition. Appealing to his sense of importance was a small concession to keep him motivated.

  ‘Absolutely,’ Garcia replied. ‘We’ve barely scratched the surface. You should see what this thing can do!’

  ‘Another time,’ Cobb said. ‘Right now, I’ll leave it up to you and Jasmine. She’s the expert, but you’re her Yoda. Walk her through everything.’

  ‘My pleasure, it will be,’ he croaked in Yoda’s voice.

  Cobb spun in his chair and stared across the table at McNutt. He could only smile as McNutt continually reached out in an attempt to grab the holographic images. He was thankful that the Marine was battle-tested, otherwise Papineau would have kicked him out of the unit as Section 8: mentally unfit for service.

  Suddenly aware of Cobb’s staring, McNutt snapped to attention. ‘Yes, chief?’

  ‘What do you know about Egypt?’

  ‘It’s in the Middle East. Does that answer your question?’

  ‘No, but it’s a start.’

  ‘Control of the country is tenuous, at best. The national president has managed to piss off nearly everyone on both the Muslim and Christian sides of the aisle. In short, I think he’s fighting for his political life – if not his actual life. Based on violence at recent protests, I’d say Egypt is on the verge of civil war.’

  Cobb smiled, but not at the news. He found it amusing that McNutt, someone who seemingly viewed the world through cartoon eyes, was able to brief him on the political climate in the Middle East without any prep time, and yet a few minutes earlier he had just fallen over his chair in an attempt to catch a hologram.

  ‘Take the rest of the day,’ Cobb said to McNutt. ‘Find out everything you can about the region: who’s fighting who, where, and for what reasons. I want to know whom we can trust, if anyone, and whom we need to avoid at all costs. I also need a map of safe zones and restricted areas. Plus, I need a list of friendlies.’

  ‘Friendlies?’ McNutt said with a grin. ‘Chief, I haven’t been to that part of the world in years. And even when I was there, I was usually a tho
usand yards away from a target, laying low, waiting for an opportunity to strike. Establishing connections with the locals was a little above my pay grade.’

  ‘Not to mention his abilities as a human being,’ Sarah added.

  McNutt laughed. ‘See, she gets me. Yes, I’m adorable, and yes, women want to rip my pants off, but my sense of humor doesn’t really translate to other cultures.’

  ‘Doesn’t translate to ours, either.’

  ‘Exactly!’ McNutt said. ‘I’m not the guy you ask to make friends.’

  Cobb conceded the point. ‘Fine. Don’t worry about the friendlies. But I want you to get me everything else by the end of the day. Understood?’

  ‘Understood.’

  ‘Good. I’m sure Garcia can set you up with whatever you need.’

  On cue, Garcia pulled a laptop from a shelf in the corner and handed it to McNutt. ‘It’s already connected to our encrypted network. You have access to government and military databases, and just about anything else you can think of.’

  ‘How about Google?’ McNutt asked with a straight face.

  Garcia chuckled. ‘Yeah, it has Google.’

  ‘Then we’re all set,’ McNutt replied. He grabbed the laptop and hurdled the small wall that separated the conference table from the more casual side of the room. He plopped onto a plush recliner, opened the laptop, and starting typing.

  ‘He’s like an obedient dog,’ Sarah mused.

  ‘You’re right,’ Cobb answered. ‘When the time comes, he does exactly as he’s been told. Exactly. No surprises. That’s more than I can say for some people.’

  ‘Am I too much for you to handle?’ Sarah asked.

  ‘I’m not sure. Let’s go outside and find out.’

  ‘Wait . . . What?’

  ‘You and me, right now, out in the yard.’

  ‘Hold up. You want to fight me?’

  Cobb shrugged, as if to say he had nothing better to do.