The Secret of the Stones

by Ernest Dempsey

  “So, it had to be used in some kind of ceremony then,” Sean inferred.

  “Well, that is one of theories. Some historians think that the wall was used as some kind of sun worship temple. Since it stretches from east to west, they supposed that it was built to track the movement of the sun.

  “Others hypothesized that it was a sacred matrimonial place for Cherokee newlyweds. That story suggests that the couples would go there to spend their first night of marriage together.”

  Stopping to zoom in the overhead picture, he went on, “Another oddity of this site is the two dozen pits that dot the landscape within the wall. Most of the experts agree that these exist as a result of looting or people excavating the area throughout the centuries.”

  “Let me guess,” Sean said, “you don’t buy that. Do you?”

  Joe smiled up at him from the desk. “Of course not, buddy. All right, getting back to the wall, you see the outline of it on this overhead, right here.” His rough-skinned finger traced the outline of the wall on the screen. “Now, when I first saw this, the pattern completely slipped by me. I never realized what it was until I was researching something on another website.” He opened up a separate window on the Internet and typed in the web address for the British Museum of Ancient Egypt.

  Sean started to ask why the man was showing them something about Egypt when it suddenly hit him like a lead ball. On the museum’s intro page an outline of the Nile River appeared. His eyes grew wide at what his friend was implying. “No,” he stammered. “That’s not possible…” his words trailed off in disbelief.

  “Not only is it possible, it’s exactly what you think it is.”

  Allyson was unfamiliar with the geography of Egypt and didn’t seem to realize at what Joe was hinting. To make certain they both understood the implications of what they were looking at, Joe took the topside map of the wall at Fort Mountain, and flipped it vertically. Then, using an overlay transparency tool, he moved the outline of the wall over top of the window containing the map of the Nile. It was nearly a spot-on match.

  Abruptly, she grasped the magnitude of what she was seeing. “I don’t understand though. Why would that wall in North Georgia match a map of the Nile River?”

  Joe looked at her with patient, brown eyes. “Because Allyson...Egyptians built it.”

  28

  Nevada

  The black-and-gold antique telephone rang loudly. The old man wondered who would dare call at this hour of the night.

  Annoyed, he rolled over and clumsily pulled the device from its cradle, ceasing its painful noise. “Hello,” he answered in a sleepy voice.

  “Sir, things are progressing as planned.”

  Instantly, the gray head shook away the drowsiness. “What is your status?”

  “We are holding for the moment, sir.” There was a pause. Then, “What would you like me to do?”

  After a few thoughtful moments passed, he answered, “Wait until morning. Then eliminate the problem. Accidents happen all the time on country roads.” The final sentence was layered with insinuation.

  “There are…other factors.”

  No hesitation, “They are expendable.”

  “Understood.” The younger voice on the other end was direct, methodical. “What about…the other asset?”

  “For right now, simply observe.” The old man had grabbed his glasses from the nightstand and placed them on his nose. There would be no going back to sleep for a few hours now. “Make certain everything is proceeding according to plan.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “If the other asset deviates in any way, you know what to do.”

  “Of course, sir.”

  “Anything else I need to know?” It was time to wrap up this late-night conversation.

  “Not for now, sir.”

  “Good.” With that, he placed the phone back down. With both hands, he rubbed his eyes under the metal-framed glasses. Everything was going according to plan…so far. Still, he knew there were dangerous elements in play, and everything had to be properly managed.

  He was close now. Nothing could be taken for granted.

  29

  Cartersville

  Sean’s head was spinning. During the last hour he’d heard it all, or so he thought. He listened patiently while Mac went on about local legends and parts of American history that few others knew about. All of which paled in comparison to this last little bit of evidence with which he had been presented.

  “What does it all mean, Mac?” he posed.

  Joe had turned around to face the two, who stood a few feet away, dumbfounded by everything they’d been told. He still smiled, though his words carried some gravity. “Essentially, in a nutshell, ancient Egyptians were the first true settlers here in the New World. They came over between 3000 and 2500 BCE, as my best calculations indicate.”

  “But how?” Sean couldn’t wrap his mind around the idea. “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe that Christopher Columbus was the first person to sail here, but Egyptians?”

  “Well, it is much more likely than crossing some ice bridge in the middle of the coldest period in Earth’s history. Wouldn’t you say?” He turned back to the computer and entered another search for the words ancient Egyptian navy. After a moment, an article popped up on the screen in which a renowned archaeologist described finding an ancient fleet of Egyptian seafaring vessels.

  “Surely, you have read about this tasty little find,” Joe said with an implying tone.

  Sean and Allyson both shook their heads, clueless about what their host was saying.

  “Really? I’m surprised you didn’t know about this one, Sean.” Joe cast his friend a chastising glance. “Anyway, there are two fascinating things about this discovery. One, the place where the ships were found is in the middle of the desert. At first, no one understood why ancient boats would be there.”

  “Maybe they were really ancient tombs,” Sean blurted out.

  “Could be,” Joe agreed. “Except that they found none of the usual artifacts that would accompany something like that. It is now being learned, though, that thousands of years ago, a vast waterway penetrated deep into the land in that area. The second interesting fact was that the boats in the desert were not like other boats discovered in Egypt. Up until they had been unearthed, it was generally agreed upon that the ancient Egyptians only navigated the Nile River and the shoreline of the Red Sea. These ships, however, were designed for long-range sailing and were built from much sturdier material than the reed-and-pitch ferries that were used in fresh water.”

  “I actually did hear something about that,” Allyson chimed. “But then again, I work for a newspaper.” She was unsure about the significance until the man continued.

  “You see,” he explained, “this is the only theory that makes sense. And you can see the evidence right here in front of you.” Joe pulled up the cross-reference screen of the Fort Mountain wall and the Nile River. “And if you are still not convinced…remember the pits I was telling you about that seemed randomly located near the wall?”

  Sean nodded while Allyson just listened.

  Joe pointed to the computer screen at some little dots along the stone wall. “Each place there is a pit at the rock barrier, there is a dot on the map of the Nile. At first, I thought that they may have just been fire pits marking random areas. Then, when I looked closer, I found that every single dot indicates the location of an ancient Egyptian temple or city along the river. Pretty cool, eh?” His hands were open in a gesture as if he’d just done some kind of magic trick.

  What they were being shown was pretty amazing stuff. Sean still had doubts though. “I see the similarity between the wall and the river. And I get what you’re saying,” he answered. “But Egyptians from 3000 BCE here in America? I don’t know, Mac.”

  “Okay. Let’s forget the wall for two seconds and look at the similarities between the cultures. Something that a lot of people don’t even think to look at is the comparable design of
Native American pyramids with Egyptian ones.”

  Allyson butted in, “Wait a minute. I know they have pyramids down in Mexico and Central and South America, but we don’t have anything like that here in the States.”

  “Oh, contraire,” Joe’s Southern accent sounded funny saying a word rooted in French. “We have pyramids in three separate locations right here in the state of Georgia.”

  “How come I’ve never heard of them?” Skepticism covered her face as she inquired.

  “Sean, I know you know what I am talking about,” he answered her, looking at his friend.

  “Actually,” Wyatt began, “he’s right. In fact, you probably have heard of at least one of the three locations here in the state. Etowah Indian Mounds State park is a few miles from here, where Joe works. Then, there is Kolomaki down in southwest Georgia and Okmulgee a little south of here in central Georgia.”

  “I know about Etowah, but aren’t those just big mounds of dirt? I always thought the Indians just buried their dead there or something.” She still looked doubtful.

  Joe was enjoying the interaction, just happy to be an observer for a minute.

  “Not exactly. Archaeologists have never been permitted to excavate the areas completely, but with ground-penetrating radar and other instrumentation we have been able to identify that underneath the dirt, the mounds are concealing pyramids built from rock and gravel powder not dissimilar to the ones down in Central America.” Sean continued, “Also, if you look at the mounds from a distance or from the air, you can see the shapes of the pyramids more definitively.”

  While he was talking, Joe pulled up a website featuring pictures of the pyramids. He pointed to them so she could get a visual as they talked.

  “Unbelievable.” Her voice was barely a whisper.

  “Yeah,” their host responded. “It kinda is.”

  Sean decided to play devil’s advocate for a moment. “Unbelievable…except for the fact that the pyramids at Giza and most of the others in Egypt were used as burial sites. The ones in the Western Hemisphere were mainly for rituals of state religion.” His statement was blunt. “If they were built by the same people, wouldn’t they be used for the same purpose?”

  “Right you are,” Mac responded. “But excavations of many of the newly discovered pyramids of Central America have revealed large burial chambers. These rooms were filled with the remains of what are believed to be priests and royalty.”

  After a minute of quiet contemplation, Sean asked, “How long have you known about all this?”

  “I learned about some of it before I started working at the park. In fact, that’s partly why I took the job and left the forestry service. When I discovered the legends and saw the similarities, I had to do it.”

  “You said there was other evidence suggesting this?” Allyson pressed him.

  “Absolutely,” Joe agreed. “In the areas I mentioned, the Cherokee and ancient Mississippian villages and towns were designed exactly like those in Thebes, Luxor, Hathor, take your pick. The streets and city plans were extremely close from the looks of them. Another interesting fact is that the Indians in the Americas used totem poles, which are very similar to some structures in Egypt, save for the fact that the ones here were primarily made from wood. And last, but not least, the gods that the ancient Nile dwellers revered were very much like the animals held in high regard by the American Indians.”

  She didn’t know much about what these two guys were saying, but from what they’d shared so far, she was convinced. “So, how does this play into finding Tommy and the Golden Chambers?”

  “I like her,” Joe commented. “She’s direct. I hate beatin’ around the bush.” He winked at Sean and went on. “I would guess that whoever took Tommy is trying to find the Chambers of Ahkanan because it would be the most significant treasure discovery since Tut’s tomb. That’s a significant amount of gold, and as history shows us, people will do almost anything for money.

  “As the story goes, when the early Egyptian explorers came here, they were sent by one of their leaders, Prince Akhanan, to establish a new empire. Now, gold was something the ancients revered as powerful and sacred. To them, the value of the yellow metal was more spiritual than material. Of course, down through the ages, people’s perception of it became perverted through greed and the concept of supply and demand. But in the beginning, gold was believed to have supernatural powers, and it was treated as a gift from the gods.”

  Joe stopped for a second to let the information settle in before continuing. “You know what reason these settlers could have had for constructing giant golden rooms?”

  The visitors stared at the floor for a moment, deep in thought. Then Sean said, “My first thought would be that such a structure would show potential newcomers or enemies that their tribe was powerful, like a symbol of strength.”

  “And…” Mac persisted.

  “And not only were they a strong people, but they were blessed by the gods as exhibited by the amount of gold they had. The thinking being that no enemy would dare attack a city that was protected by the gods.”

  “Very good, my friend; both excellent points. But there are two other reasons for the rooms. One of the purposes we can extrapolate is that of religious control. The ancients understood that if they could not maintain some form of crowd management, the ensuing chaos would destroy them all. As the old saying goes, ‘He who owns the gold makes the rules.’ There is, however, another power behind the gold.”

  Again, Joe returned to the desk, his fingers flying over the keyboard. “I’m a big fan of the History Channel, ya know. Can’t get enough of it.” He turned his head for a second, grinning at Allyson. On the screen appeared the home page for the History Channel. After entering a few more words, some pictures popped up of golden boxes under the heading, Ancient ark technology.

  Allyson tilted her head quizzically. “That looks a lot like the ark from the Indiana Jones movie. Don’t tell me you’re looking for that.”

  Joe had to laugh. “Not at all, Ms. Webster. But I do believe the technology behind the ark may play into what we are looking for.

  “A couple of months ago, I saw a program on the History Channel about how the ark worked. I was fascinated about how they discussed the design and purpose of it. Many Christians around the world would give credit to Moses designing it. But, as the show pointed out, these people forget where Moses spent at least a decade of his life before going into the wilderness.”

  “In the courts of the pharaoh,” Sean said, citing the Old Testament.

  “Exactly,” his old friend gave him a smirk. “Down through the centuries, many arks have been discovered in Egyptian temples and burial sites. Until recently, their purpose had been thought to be ceremonial. However, as HC pointed out, there is an amazing science behind the purpose of the gold boxes. Have either of you read about the power of the Ark of the Covenant in the book of Genesis?”

  They both shrugged. “Maybe a long time ago,” she said. Her expression was as bland as cardboard.

  “Well, it is fascinating,” Joe didn’t let their ambiguity slow him down. “There are several instances where the people of Israel bore witness to the great power the ark possessed: Uzzah was killed instantly when he reached up and touched it to keep it from falling off a cart, the walls of Jericho crumbled before it, and the Philistines were struck with what seems to be some kind of radiation sickness after they stole the box from the Israelites. The program on the History Channel said the reason the ark had such amazing power was that it was essentially a superconductor for static electricity.

  “Researchers discovered that there are certain points on the surface of the earth that collect more of this electric energy than others. Not coincidentally, most of the hotspots for this geostatic power are where Egyptian temples were built. It seems the Egyptians had discovered a way to harness electricity. To what ends is still a mystery.”

  Sean was starting to understand, “So these arks were designed by the Egyptian leaders t
o control the people with displays of electric power. To the ordinary citizen, the arcs of lightning they produced would appear to be some kind of divine power.”

  “Yep,” Mac agreed.

  Allyson was also starting to draw the connection. “Do you think that these Golden Chambers were designed for a similar reason?”

  Joe shook his head. “I honestly don’t know. But I do know that Egyptians had a far greater understanding of gold and its uses in science than we could have ever imagined. Just makes me think that if they constructed four Golden Chambers, there must have been two reasons.”

  “Two reasons?” Allyson’s eyes scanned him curiously.

  “Most definitely,” Joe chuckled. Then he said, “If we find one chamber, we should be able to find the next one.”

  “Why is that?” she wondered aloud.

  His voice grew a little quieter, “The other reason the chambers were built was to point the way home.”

  30

  Cartersville

  McElroy’s dog perked his head up for a second and turned toward the back porch. His brown ears twitched, probably hearing a raccoon or some other nocturnal animal in the woods. Whatever it was, he lost interest a few seconds later and laid his head back down on the floor.

  “Home?” Sean asked. “You mean Egypt? That home?”

  Joe had presented an enormous amount of information over the last hour, and it was all starting to come together in a way that Sean would never have imagined.

  “Egypt,” Mac confirmed with a matter-of-fact nod.

  “So the chambers are some kind of beacons,” Ally said more as a declaration than a question.