The group, now guided by James, walked over to the entrance to the Great Pyramid after showing the security guard the document signed by the General Secretary of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities. He didn’t phone to confirm the visit - he seemed to know what the situation was.
They went up to the fifth row of stones. James went in first but clearly gestured for the rest of the group to wait. It seemed as though he was checking that the site was ready, but really he was looking for the cable to the surveillance cameras.
After a few minutes, the crowd was beginning to get restless and even one of the security guards decided to see why they still hadn’t gone in. His voice rang out through the tunnel, which in the case was parallel to the ground, and it startled James at the very moment he had found one of the cables. The guard was close, but he still couldn’t see him clearly. He took the virus transmitter out of his bag and inserted the cable into the pincer, pressed the button and watched it tightly grip the wire, tearing off part of it and inserting its sharp prongs.
The nanorobots’ mission had begun.
“What are you doing in there?” asked the guard as he caught up to him.
James, who by now was standing up, started to walk towards him with a serious face. He tried to distract attention from the place where he had left the transmitter. “You’re a disgrace! Perhaps you know how important those people waiting for us are? They’ve paid millions for everything to be perfect and I don’t see any security precautions which would make at least make their visit safer. Unacceptable!” he shouted.
“But sir - “
“Don’t try to convince me! There are very influential people in that group: politicians, business leaders, engineers, even people with royal connections. It is disgraceful that not even a safer handrail has been fitted. I’m considering reporting you immediately to the relevant authorities, have no doubt about it.”
“But… we - “
“Enough! Go up immediately and tell them they can start coming in.”
The guard was completely confused. He ran up to the exit and gestured for them to go down, while James wiped away the sweat from his forehead with a cloth. He was bursting with adrenaline; he had really been sensational and thought on his feet.
The tourists entered the Great Pyramid and made their way along the horizontal shaft, negotiating their way around the difference in floor level. James was waiting for them at the end, just at the shaft which led up to the Grand Gallery.
The group remained quiet, nobody uttered a word and, naturally, there weren’t any flashes from digital cameras. When they entered the Grand Gallery, one or two softly ran their fingers over the walls, but the majority walked on with their hands clasped together near their stomachs and their heads slightly bowed. They seemed to be getting ready to start their spell of meditation.
James stood to one side when they entered the King’s Chamber. The group began to take out their mats and place them down all over the room, with practically the same distance between each. They adopted the typical asana posture from yoga, sitting on the floor with their legs crossed and hands resting on their knees. James followed their lead and did exactly the same.
Silence fell.
Outside the pyramid, Anthony was working on his laptop at top speed. The virus had been a complete success and although the position of the transmitter wasn’t ideal, the signal came through perfectly and the nanorobots had done away with the site surveillance and PA systems. Taking advantage of the fact that the group were meditating in the room, along with James, he filmed about a minute-long video of what was happening. He ran it through a powerful computer program which replicated the recording an infinite number of times, in order to put them all together and create a long video of around six hours’ duration. Next there was a blackout in the control room which lasted for one-thousandth of a second and was invisible to the human eye. This allowed Anthony to run the film he had created.
The same was done with absolutely every other camera situated inside the pyramid, although in this case the job was less laborious. It was enough to capture a frame of what was happening in each chamber before relaying it to the computers in the control room. Nobody would be aware that they were looking at a photograph rather than the real film.
Eventually a faint whistling was heard in the room, inaudible to the group of tourists who by then were already in another world. That was the signal. Nobody even noticed when James stealthily rose to his feet and tiptoed around those who were scattered about the room.
Everything had better turn out right, for their sake, he thought, terrified.
Although his three friends had complete control of the whole video surveillance circuit, along with the lighting and communication systems in the pyramid, he had a feeling of deep anguish as he proceeded alone through those long tunnels. He walked through the Grand Gallery almost without blinking, petrified in case some guard could spring up at any moment, giving him the shock of his life. He observed how the lights eerily switched on and off, in sync with his steps. The cause behind such a phenomenon was Anthony, who was watching his every move via the laptop and was guiding him by lighting up the path. However, he was careful to switch off the lights after James had passed by, in order to avoid arousing suspicion. He passed through the tunnel which led to the Queen’s Chamber. The smell was completely different from that on his last visit, it was even damper still. The sense of isolation inside had probably made his senses more acute, to the point where he paid attention to all those insignificant things that had passed him by before.
The Queen’s Chamber lit up just as James entered the doorway. The room, shadowy and gloomy, made him much more uneasy than the thought of being in an old alleyway in the most dangerous part of the United States at the dead of night.
James’ heart almost stopped when he saw something moving, slinking from one side of the wall to another. He turned round sharply, over and over, in every which way, trying to work out what it was. He would run away if necessary. To cap it all, he heard a voice from the afterlife ring out behind him, making every last hair on his body stand on end. He couldn’t hold back the scream which escaped from his mouth.
“It’s your shadow, James. Don’t be such a baby.”
He instantly recognized the voice as that of his dear friend Richard, speaking to him through one of the speakers installed in the chamber. For a moment, he wanted to swap places with him so he could feel how the darkness and loneliness of the pyramid could make you lose even your sense of judgment.
He took the robot out of his backpack and went about setting it up right in front of one of the security cameras, under the remote supervision of Anthony. In his mind, he recalled all the steps that Anthony had previously explained to him, and he executed each with amazing accuracy. This was partly so he could avoid having to hear that unearthly voice which, in Anthony’s case, would be even more haunting.
Once everything was set up, he inserted it into the southern shaft in the chamber, which measured eight by eight inches. The shaft was rather steep, so it was a stroke of luck that the robot did not rely upon wheels and instead moved via a tank-like mechanism. After switching on the remote control, the robot emitted an electric sound, like that of a radio-controlled car, and the front lights automatically lit up. The monitor in his hands crackled into life, showing what the robot could see from the entrance to the hole. The picture wasn’t too clear, but even so it started its ascent up the incline.
For the first few feet, the robot bounced from wall to wall until James managed to gain control and right it, little by little. After twenty minutes, the information panel on the remote was already giving a reading one hundred and fifty feet. James tried not to miss even the tiniest detail etched on the walls, while the robot proceeded without having found any obstacle.
He sometimes felt the presence of somebody who was watching him from the shadows. Unable to hide his distress, he turned to look into the penetrating, defiant blackness which emanated from
the entrance to the chamber and seemed to want to engulf the whole room. Shaking, he occasionally shone one of his flashlights at the exit, calming down when he saw that nobody was prowling around him in the darkness.
At two hundred and fifty feet, the robot eventually stopped before what seemed to be a stone wall with two copper knobs and a small hole made by a drill.
Mary had brought him up to speed with all the latest investigations that had taken place inside the Great Pyramid before he went in. In the nineties, a group of scientists managed to use a robot to enter one of the eight inch square shafts for the first time; at the end, they were confronted with a block which sealed the tunnel. In spite of the significance of their findings, it wasn’t until nine years later that a group of experts re-entered the hole, this time under the leadership of the professor of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, and with the help of National Geographic. They drilled the rock, creating a tiny two-and-a-half-inch long hole which ran from one side to the other. They later inserted a fiber optic camera, broadcasting the events to the whole world. The surprise was greater still when they saw what was on the other side; an empty space which was eighteen inches deep and, at the back, was another block!
A never-ending loop of questions had tormented the minds of experts for decades. How did they manage to place those blocks, sealing access to the Secret Chamber? What was the reason for them being there? And, most importantly, what was hidden behind them?
Forty-five minutes had already gone by since he had left the King’s Chamber and, in some way, his fear was subsiding as his desire to find something increased. He examined the narrow passage with the help of the robot’s camera, discovering that it just as Mary had said. Even the tiny hole made by the drill was there.
I should blow up the stone block, he thought, even though he knew it wasn’t the most viable option. If the Egyptian authorities found out what he intended to do, he would be sent to prison for life. However, he didn’t have any choice.
He used the hydraulic arm to fit the first set of explosives into the center of the door. According to Anthony, it would only destroy whatever was in a four-inch radius.
I hope he’s right.
He brought the robot back quite a distance, around nine feet, so that the impact from the shockwave wouldn’t cause it damage. His thumb trembled on the button, unsure about what he was about to do. When panic finally released its grip and a feeling of bravery washed over him, he eventually noticed a strange engraving on one of the side walls.
He had failed to notice it during the ascent, perhaps due to him gripped by fear. He turned the camera until the drawing appeared clearly, filling the whole screen of the monitor. What he was looking at left him rooted to the spot for several minutes. He was unable to react.
“Oh my god!” he said at last. “Incredible!”
Chapter 32
A small cloud provided the three people inside the vehicle with a few seconds’ welcome relief from the overwhelming heat inside. In the back, Anthony, dressed only in a sweat-soaked, sleeveless white tank, was feeling flustered as he watched James’ movements on the monitor. On either side of him, Mary and Richard showed they disapproved of his decision by shaking their heads.
Inside the pyramid, James carefully examined the entrance hole, hoping that something had slid down it and put in an appearance.
Outside the pyramid, the questions came thick and fast.
“Why didn’t he press the button?”
“What the hell is he doing?”
“I’m gonna ask him just that, before he does something crazy,” said Richard furiously, knocking the microphone out of his hands.
“Wait!” shouted Mary. “Look at the hole, the robot’s coming out. He probably tried to detonate the explosives but it didn’t work. Are you sure you connected the cables correctly?”
Anthony didn’t even credit her with a response, he didn’t agree with a word of what Mary had said. Billions of dollars were poured into research and development testing, earmarked exclusively for subjecting prototypes to the most inhospitable conditions and thus greatly improving the performance of the device. Anthony was therefore the only one who was nonplussed when James suddenly relieved the robot of all its explosives, as well as the cylindrical drill used to make holes. He immediately took out the book he had found and after leafing through several pages, he found what he was looking for - the golden triangle.
“James, what the fuck are you doing?” Richard’s voice boomed out of the speakers in the Queen’s Chamber. “Blow the freaking door up! You’re wasting too much time!”
It was as if the world had stopped inside that dark chamber. His friend’s words reached him like soft whispers which he was unable to make out clearly, he could only guess what Richard was saying. All his attention was focused on the image that the camera had captured at the end of the narrow shaft.
He pored over it, comparing it to the copy he had in his hands. Although the image wasn’t clear, he could make out slight similarities between the two. The engraving on the wall was triangular in shape and they were both virtually the same size. However, the drawings inside did not match perfectly; whereas those etched on the wall seemed to be grooves made in the stone itself, the lines on the object were in relief.
What if it’s a kind of lock and key mechanism? The idea had been flitting around James’ head since he discovered the engraving. He tried to turn them together by looking for a point at which they could join together, something he seemed to achieve when he placed them face to face. The raised lines on the object seemed to fit perfectly with the grooves of the image on the wall. I’d better check they fit together before I smash down the wall.
Richard was back on the warpath. “What are you doing? Can you hear me?”
Although it was cool inside the chamber, sweat was beginning to run down James’ forehead. A handkerchief fashioned into a crown and wrapped around his head stopped his hair from sticking to his face. His thoughts were of course elsewhere and he couldn’t waste a second giving explanations. With a quick flick of one of the joysticks, he correctly engaged the three-fingered hydraulic arm; it gripped the triangle with ease, with a finger on each of its sides.
He immediately placed the robot back inside the hole and pushed the joystick forward, indicating to the robot to start its ascent. His grin and the brief thumbs-up he gave with his right hand were enough for his friends to understand that James had found something and was in the process of checking it out.
Thanks to James’ newfound mastery of the controls, the robot reached the top much quicker than before, returning to where it had previously stopped. Once there, the machine’s body turned in all directions in search of the strange engraving on the wall.
When he eventually managed to find it, he gently extended the hydraulic arm and tried to insert the triangular object into the marking on the wall. It was no easy feat; the process was hampered by the lack of light in the shaft, together with some interference. However, on the third attempt he managed to insert it into the wall with great precision.
Nothing interesting happened for the next few minutes. He was confused. He had imagined all kinds of outcomes: that a hidden door which led to the Secret Chamber would open, that the blocks would give way and let the robot through, or even that some compartment would open unexpectedly, dropping down the piece of the fragment they were looking for.
I was sure it would work. Despite some disheartening thoughts trying to dissolve what little hope he had left, he tried to keep a cool head. The piece fits perfectly in the wall. It must go there! His brain processed all the possible solutions at incredible speed, trying to fit together all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle. I’m missing something… what could it be?
Clearly, if the shape fitted perfectly in the wall, then it could not be anything other than a lock and key system. The problem was how to turn the key.
He wasted more time mulling it over than he anticipated, while he paced around the chamber in a ci
rcle without feeling the least bit scared. The reigning loneliness had become his loyal ally. His friends were following his every move via the surveillance cameras and without saying a word. James was completely unaware of their presence.
I’ll take it out and then put it back in.
With a sharp turn of the joystick he directed the hydraulic arm to the triangle inserted in the wall. It was perfectly in place and the gap between each of the three sides was a mere fraction of an inch. He tried to insert one of the fingers into the crevice. He intended to place one on each side, grip the object and pull it out.
Everything was going marvelously until he tried to insert the second finger. He lacked enough skill at the controls and he couldn’t avoid pressing the object further inside. It was at that moment that a strange sound echoed in the depths of the tunnel, accompanied by a dense cloud of dust that shot down the shaft and out of the hole, throwing the professor backwards. Coughing and with the aid of a flashlight, he peered into the dust cloud and observed how the robot’s camera was still focused on the golden triangle. It had literally been pushed inside the rock.
When he turned the camera to focus on the stone which was blocking the way, it seemed to literally vanish into the ceiling, giving a glimpse of a second block which had already been discovered years before. Much to James’ surprise, just as the first one disappeared, the second began to lift up and reveal a third stone just a few inches away, just as Mary had predicted. This last one was also being lifted up, thus clearing the way.
“What’s happened, James?” asked Richard, impressed by the dense dust cloud that had emerged from the hole. “Did you manage to break down this first wall?”
James nodded, unable to stop coughing due to the dust; even though he hadn’t broken it, he had done something similar. It was unfathomable how the Egyptians had succeeded in designing such a complicated contraption in so little space. Truly astounding.
Trifariam, The Lost Codex (2012) Page 21
