No time bomb, just an attaché case left by a careless member of the museum staff or maybe one of the overseas visitors. It caught his eye. It sat behind a sandstone altar, a black valise with letters stenciled in gold ‘S.H.’
Saleh Haroun.
Anson grabbed the case and started to run.
“What are you doing, Mr Hunter?”
Browning, the Homeland Security man, blocked his way.
“Get out of my way, Browning. It’s not an explosive PowerPoint presentation in here. Something far more deadly than one of my talks.”
“Is it yours?”
“Of course not.”
The steady eyes in the broad face regarded Anson calmly.
“Then put it down, please.”
“Don’t you know me by now? I think there’s something in here that’s going to take this temple, and us, to eternity. Do you still think I’m a fake and a liar?”
“It’s not my place to made decisions about you. Just put it down.”
“But think of the homeland, Browning, for God’s sake.”
“That’s my job. Down, please.”
Chapter 98
HE HAD RUN into disbelief, one more time in his life.
This might be the last.
What did he do now? Put down the case and walk away, or run like hell and try to get as far away from this temple as he could – while there was time?
‘A bomb in a briefcase, another crazy theory,’ he read the thought in the calm face of the US homeland protector. But the evil I am talking about is a long, long way away from this stalwart’s home ground, an ancient force, evoked inside a darkened sanctuary, before images of gods he could never comprehend.
Anson turned his eyes to the temple. The stone portal and the twin columns of the temple rose into the apex of the glass pyramid like bundles of growing papyrus stalks with lotus blossoms bound in among them. A sun disk above the stone portal, flanked by the outspread wings of Horus, looked like a winged missile.
The outer walls writhed with scenes, in carved relief, of the gods… the gods of Egypt who would soon be blasted to eternity, smashed into grains of exploding sandstone. Maybe he had been running away from a head-on assault on conventional beliefs for too long. It was time to face scepticism head on.
Chapter 99
“HAVE IT your way.”
Anson bent to put down the case at the security man’s feet, but instead of letting go of it, launched himself, taking Browning with the full force of a shoulder in the midriff. Browning grunted and spilled over.
Anson ran out and vaulted over the rope. He ran towards the river and the crowd.
“Coming through!” he yelled.
People turned, gaped, scattered. Ahead was the river, broad and calm, the moon and spotlights turning its surface silver. “Out of my way!” Anson began a slow motion spin like an athlete throwing a discus, the case swinging out in an arc in his hand. Puzzled guests shrank away. He released. It described a brief parabola in the sky, over their heads and above the river before hitting. A mighty gout of water arose like a mushroom cloud and the river bank shook. It rained on the crowd. When the screams stopped, a silence fell over the scene.
Chapter 100
ANSON PECKED at the keyboard of the laptop.
What really happened? I am an alternative theorist, so there are two theories, theirs and mine. First, let’s start with the official version.
‘Egypt’s Minister of Culture has been the near victim of an assassination attempt by extremists unknown.’ Now for my alternative theory. A little digging on the internet revealed that the Homeland’s checking on disaffected Sufis involved in Egyptology had stopped a little short. The Minister for Culture was himself a Sufi who had lost his brother, a journalist, as a result of an Israeli attack on Palestinians. The bomb in the temple on the Potomac was not meant for Saleh Haroun. He was too distant from the explosion to be at risk. The sandstone blocks of the structure were certain to absorb the main force of the blast. It was a bomb meant to destroy a temple, an attempt to reactivate a terrible smiting that had occurred in ancient times. The temple had been built in a fervent revivalist period, just before the monuments of Egypt came under threat from the tide of Christianity, with potent symbolic meaning in its position and placement.
It was an apotropaic and lethal container of power, built over the site of the lost Labyrinth and the seat of the gods, and charged with divine and demonic power, designed to be activated by smashing in order provide a mighty force of protection and destruction. Knowing now that the temple had been built above the Labyrinth, the words of my father’s Labyrinth potsherd clue now make sense: ‘The angry gods above, and the power of Osiris and the forty-two gods who reside with him in the Duat below, will seize Egypt’s enemies like trapped birds.’
Did the first destruction of the temple and the tumbling of its blocks mark the crumbling of Christian Rome’s vast empire? A totally devastated temple. Are those blocks, now reassembled, saturated with the emanations of power from what lay beneath? Is it primed again, a ticking time bomb? My father must have known about the meaning of the temple and of its threat, but perhaps, as a sceptical man of science, he did not believe in the inscriptional evidence buried under the temple nor accept the peculiar ferocity of the temple’s images. But others did, others with unshakeable belief in unseen forces of power. It is a charming temple and a delight to the eye, but America might be prudent never to take its eyes off it. Yes, it’s an alternative theory. I think that Bloem, Browning and their cohorts believe, or prefer to believe, the official line. Melinda seemed to waver. She gave me credit for tracking down my father’s discovery and she still harbours some sympathy for a more metaphysical view of the ancients. But as for the Holy Grail of acceptance by my academic peers, that remains as elusive as ever. I think if I ever become accepted by the mainstream, it may be time to give up.
A lost labyrinth found, and then lost again. And a lost half-sister found, and then lost again. We shared a renegade spark, it seems, although she was willing to go much further, to kill. For all her Islamic faith, she died in a hell, amid the shrieking stone of a collapsing underworld. I am still lost in a maze of conflicting feelings about her and about my father. One good thing has come out of it all, however – Kalila. No, two good things. Kalila and Abuna Daniel. As much as I am able to sustain relationships, I will try to keep these ones alive.’
Anson saved the note and closed the lid of his laptop. It was a pity he couldn’t upload this theory to his blog. He didn’t fear controversy, but he wanted to be welcome in Egypt again. Like the labyrinth, the truth might have to remain buried for now.
The End
Other Adventure and Mystery Thrillers by Roy Lester Pond
The Egyptian adventure series featuring Anson Hunter, alternative Egyptologist, battling dangers from the ancient past:-
THE SMITING TEXTS. (Anson Hunter)
A clash of civilizations… ancient Egypt and modern America. (Paperback and Kindle). First in a series of Egyptology adventure mystery thrillers. The murder of an Egyptologist rings alarm bells with the US Department of Homeland Security. Before he knows it they co-opt his son, controversial historian Anson Hunter, into an investigation that has stunning implications for US security. Yet soon their search attracts the attention of radical Islamists as well as the Egyptian authorities. Dark suspicions surface, suspicions that
Anson's father found evidence of a secret that will shake the foundations
Of every major world religion. Soon, whichever way they turn, Anson and his team find themselves trapped in a labyrinth of intrigue and menace that becomes too hideously real. Anson Hunter's special knowledge as an alternative Egyptologist, theorist and phenomenologist may be the key to stopping a catastrophe.
HATHOR’S HOLOCAUST. (An Anson Hunter novel)
Can a rogue Egyptologist stop an ancient Egyptian apocalypse of plague and global scorching? (Available in Amazon Kindle edition and paperback.) An apocalyptic danger ha
s arisen from the ancient past in Egypt today bringing a threat to the Middle East and also to the West - of plague, pestilence, fiery destruction and global scorching. Anson Hunter, controversial, alternative Egyptologist, theorist, blogger and phenomenologist is the hero of this historical adventure novel with a rich mythological vein. Followed by Western Intelligence organizations, shadowed by a mysterious androgyne assassin, he must race to avert a crisis in a quest spanning USA, Britain and Egypt. Who is behind the plan to trigger an apocalypse? Neo-religionists, Torchbearers with a dangerous New Age agenda, Christian dispensationalists who are eager to bring on the 'end times' or radical Islamists with a hatred of the West? In mythology, Ra Egypt's sun god, hurled an execration upon a rebellious humankind and, in a hot rage, despatched the scorching Eye of Ra, a holocaust sun in the form of the goddess Sekhmet, to destroy them. A marauding lioness, her breath spread pestilence and plague and her claws and teeth death as she swept through Egypt in an orgy of killing. Then Ra had second thoughts and halted her apocalypse. But the execration had been uttered and it was always feared that the inherently unstable agent of destruction - the Female Soul With Two Faces - would one day return to finish off what she had started, cleansing the earth.
THE IBIS APOCALYPSE. (An Anson Hunter novel)
Ancient Egypt’s forbidden power… the world’s fate written in stone. (Amazon Kindle and paperback.) Third in the series of Egyptology adventure mystery thrillers after 'The Smiting Texts' and 'The Hathor Holocaust'...Was Egypt's magical Book of Thoth originally carved in stone - on a stela - rather than written on a scroll? Anson Hunter, controversial alternative Egyptologist and theorist, is obsessed with locating the forbidden Stela of Destiny before the wrong people get hold of it. The Stela, or stone book, of Thoth, Egypt's god of magic, is the most powerful and malefic source of esoteric texts ever written. The texts bring frightening power but also a terrible backlash. Twice in history the contents have come to light - the first time in the reign of Rameses the Great, linked with the Plagues of Egypt and the suffering of the Hebrews, and in 1939 when a German Egyptologist took rubbings of the stone texts to Hitler's Germany before the horrors of World War II. Israeli Intelligence and its allies in the USA become alarmed when the Destiny Stela threatens to break into history once again. As they are all too aware, the Stela of Destiny is the Holy Grail for organisations and conspirators with dangerous political and religious agendas, both in the USA and in Europe. Anson embarks on an investigation under the cover of shooting a screen documentary, pursued by enemies and shadowed by striking Israeli Mossad agent Zara Margolin and suspicious Egyptian authorities, in a hunt that covers USA, UK and secret archaeological sites in Egypt. Can he find and penetrate the deadly series of chambers of the Sanctuary of Thoth that guards the Stela of Destiny before a dangerous new dawn breaks for humankind? 'The Ibis Apocalypse' is a danger-fraught adventure that unfolds against the background of ancient Egypt's enthralling legend and mythology.
THE NIGHT of ANUBIS (An Anson Hunter novel)
Fourth story in the Anson Hunter series, this novel crackles with the mystery of the numinous - and with high tension. A taut, fast moving mystery adventure with a startling twist, it brings nightmare echoes of the ancient Egyptian underworld to life today. A golden horde of attackers disguised behind the masks of ancient Egypt’s gods and goddesses… Divine gatecrashers at a dinner party of the world’s top Egyptologists aboard a luxury Nile cruise boat… Suddenly a rich US entrepreneur and sponsor of archaeology, Thompson Rush, finds himself facing an intervention - an ancient Egyptian style judgement… or is it a reckoning for all of Egyptology? Who are the invaders? Criminals? Fundamentalist ideologues? Neo-pagans? Some secret masonic-style conspirators with ancient Egypt and the mystery religions as their inspiration? And what is the secret discovery that the masked interrogators are so desperate to unearth, ‘a golden monument to stand in its glory beside the sphinx and the pyramid’? Could the revelation have consequences for all of humanity? Anson Hunter, rogue Egyptologist, must go on a nightmare dig at gunpoint. A guerilla style dig in search of Egypt’s lost treasures… a lost pyramid pinpointed by satellite… a second Great Sphinx in the underworld… and a cataclysmic revelation for all of humankind. He must try desperately to save a boatload of souls, including his friends, the glamorous Egyptologist Dr Melinda Skilling, the young high-tech Space Archaeologist Dr Katy Parkinson and the mysterious collector known as The Diplomat.
THE FORBIDDEN GLYPHS (An Anson Hunter novel)
Imagine a cache of writings of unthinkable power.
Renegade Egyptologist Anson Hunter does. In fact he has a controversial theory that somewhere in Egypt lies the lost library of Thoth, guarded by his consort the goddess Seshat.
In legend, this library contained all the forbidden knowledge of ancient Egypt, both human and divine, including secrets of lost technology that built the pyramids.
Anson's theory throws him into conflict with international seekers who have dangerous agendas for the world.
To save a loved one, Anson Hunter must seek the forbidden glyphs in an ingenious lost sanctuary guarded by traps set by the calculating goddess Seshat.
THE EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY MURDERS
A mummy named Isis is taken to a hospital for a non-invasive imaging scan… so begins a mystery and a string of deaths.
An ancient cycle unfolds in modern day London - and a search for eternal love.
Can Jennefer, a young trainee museum curator and Jon, a police antiquities unit detective, stop the killings in time before a terrible culmination of events?
THE OBELISK PROPHECY
The exciting fiction sequel to ‘The Egyptian Mythology Murders’.
Detectives and Egyptologists are in sister professions. Now the unusual team of Jennefer, an Egyptologist museum curator, and Jon, an arts and antiquities policeman, is back together in ‘The Obelisk Prophecy”.
Egyptian obelisks are potent symbols that pierce the skies around the world. London, New York, The Vatican…
But now one obelisk represents the clue to a world-threatening mystery.
Working against secret enemies the team must race to find and penetrate the riddle of the one obelisk on earth that holds the key to salvation.
THE EGYPTIAN CROCODILE CURSE
When a new blockbuster ancient Egyptian exhibition arrives, mysterious events and a string of killings soon follow.
The investigative team of Jennefer, a curator, and Jon a police antiquities detective, must track down the shocking truth in a hidden underworld beneath the city - and discover a shocking secret from ancient Egypt, linked to a modern day conspiracy that takes its impetus from the ancient past.
In the unnerving footsteps of THE EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY MURDERS and THE OBELISK PROPHECY.
TEXT MESSAGES FROM ETERNITY
On an Egyptian archaeology dig, 'impossible' warnings appear - text scrawled on an ancient tomb wall - seemingly sent through the layers of time.
Is a vanished archaeology team member trapped in Egypt’s ancient past during an age of terror – and sending warning messages to today?
‘WARNING! ANCIENT GLOBAL THREAT…’ the graffiti message appears in a newly found Egyptian tomb, along with a modern biohazard symbol.
What mysterious plague has hit the population of Egypt in the reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his young co-regent, the sun-struck Akhenaten? Why is it seen as a judgement by the angry sun god Ra?
Lucas, a physician and World Health Organisation expert on pandemics, must find its source and the antidote in time to save the ancient past and the future.
Especially when his lover, the lustrous Italian-born Egyptologist Giulietta, is exposed to the deadly contagion. Can he warn her in time and save her and can they ever hope to be reunited?
“Roy Lester Pond joins my favourite Egypt authors like Christian Jacq.”
“A furious pace keeps the reader engrossed.”- Goodreads
EGYPT TRAP
Keep an eye on a mysteriously obsessed
young wife visiting the archaeology sites of Egypt? How hard could that be?
A damaged ex-detective is hired to shadow a girl with painted eyes on a trip to Egypt…
Is she leading him step by step into a murder conspiracy and the mystery of a lost ancient Egyptian queen?
Dan Loader reluctantly accepts the job. A damaged, former-detective from a police Art and Antiques unit, he is already traumatised by an ordeal at the hands of antiquity traffickers. Yet he desperately needs something to help him hold his life together and following the girl looks like a soft surveillance task, more so as he becomes increasingly drawn to her.
Rich, independent Kate Barnsdale is a beautiful, haunting young woman
surrounded by an unmistakable aura of ancient Egypt. Her obsession with a lost, mythic Queen from Egypt’s 6th Dynasty seems to be taking over her life.
When she insists on travelling to Egypt alone to follow her mysterious urgings, her husband hires Dan to shadow her secretly and watch over her.
But is Dan being drawn step by step into a murder conspiracy that involves the secret of a mythic queen from Egypt’s ancient past?
Crime and suspense with the mystery twist of ancient Egypt.
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