by Jack Parker
"Is it supposed to be this rough?" Lari questioned from her seat to the right of Ash.
"I don't really know I've never flown before." Lari's widened eyes met with Ash's panicked ones.
The plane touched the brown field below and slowly came to a stop. The main door popped open and the stairs folded out.
"Wasn't there supposed to be a guide here?" Dom scanned the area that seemed to be barren for miles. Just in the distance, six white and gray horses and two riders appeared practically out of thin air.
When they approached they spoke to the four in their native tongue. "Marhaba," (welcome) the man said, who apparently was their guide.
Ash, Lari and Dara all turned to Dom when the man spoke the foreign language. Dom was the only one who spoke eight different dialects, not including English.
"Int betetkalem inglizi?" (Do you speak English?) Dom spoke as if he had spoken Egyptian all his life.
The man shook his head while the woman rider nodded, "Ana batkallem englizi." (I speak English) This made Dom sigh with relief.
"I am Salacia and this is my brother Amon," She motioned to Amon with a slender hand, "I am sorry but he doesn't speak any English." There was no accent apparent in her voice. She could have passed as an American if she wanted to.
It was now the rest of the groups turn to sigh in relief, "One of you had said that you wished to visit the Pharos Lighthouse?" Salacia asked, still focused on Dom.
"Um, yes," Ash broke the silence of the trio. "We don't have much time to visit the lighthouse. We only have a few days."
Salacia translated the message to Amon whose grim face seemed to turn even grimmer."…mesh mumken," (Impossible) Dom managed to catch the last words from the brother who spoke in a hushed tone.
"My brother does not believe that you can visit the lighthouse in only a limited number of days."
"Could we at least try?! Please," Ash was not one for begging but it seemed that he had changed his ways.
Salacia's mystic chocolate eyes filled with compassion. She turned to her brother once more, and this time, it was her turn to beg.
* * *
"You cannot be serious!" Dara practically yelled from her dapple gray horse, "I'm not getting in there and you can't make me!"
It was close to mid day now and the group of six was now standing at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. They were told that they would have to scuba dive to the bottom of the sea in order to see the remains of the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Dara had been the only one not willing to get into the scuba suit and then the ice cold water.
"Dara! We don't want to leave you here alone so put on that suit!" Ash was not in the mood for Dara's complaints. She had complained enough on the Jet. That much whining can give a guy a serious headache, especially when he didn't bring any pills to relieve the pain.
"I'm not getting wet," she stated calmly. Ash sighed in frustration and opened his mouth to say something else when Dom spoke up.
"I'll stay with her,"
"You will?!" Ash and Lari said in a shocked unison. How anyone could stay and listen to her whining was beyond them.
"I don't know anything about the Seven Wonders. I wouldn't know what to look for," he confessed, "You two are the only ones out of this party that actually knows a lot about them."
Lari zipped up her suit from the zipper placed on her back and picked up her oxygen tank, "Let's go Ash." Ash glanced in her direction toward the edge of the speedboat then looked back at the prissy brunette and the translator.
"Are you sure, Dom?"
"No worries, I don't need to see it," There was something in his eyes that told Ash otherwise but he just nodded in understanding.
Amon was driving the speedboat with Salacia, Ash, and Lari as his three passengers. They didn't get far when Ash asked Salacia to stop the boat.
"Wakeff hena men fadlak," (Stop here please) she relayed to her brother who in turn, turned off the motor and dropped the rusted anchor into the sea.
"So do we know what we are looking for here?" Lari asked Ash while putting on her oxygen tank and grabbing her glow-in-the-dark goggles.
"Not quite but I'm sure I'll know when I find it," he said with less confidence than he originally intended.
Ash and Lari grabbed their cameras and put their goggles on. Both placed hands on their goggles and fell backwards into the icy water so the tanks of oxygen wouldn't come up to hit them in the back of their skulls.
The water was dark and partly murky save for the rays of sunlight here and there. Only Lari had sense enough to bring a flashlight with her so Ash stayed close.
As they descended deeper and deeper into eve colder water, they were able to point out large blocks. Most had red flags attached to them which made it easier for them to see them in the dark waters. Ash swam down to a certain block. It seemed to have large letters written on it which only a certain part of the lighthouse had.
It's the base of the lighthouse, Ash thought gleefully.
Ash tapped Lari on her small shoulder to get her attention off a fallen, algae-covered sculpture. She acknowledged him and soon they both swam down to the block together, light focused on the faded writing.
Alpha, rho, tau, sigma, omega, Ash went over the letters he saw in his mind while Lari just stared, apparently in her own little world.
The inscription, what was the original inscription? Ptolemy, no...Sostrates, Sostrates, Sostrates son of Dexiphanes of Knidos on behalf of all mariners to the savior gods!
Ash was overjoyed. They were actually looking at the base of the Pharos Lighthouse. His joys were halted when a blinding light made everything invisible to him. Lari grabbed his waving arm when she saw what the effect of the flash on the camera had on him.
When Ash gained his sight back he remembered to give Lari a menacing glare before getting even closer to the block.
As he inspected it further he noticed a slight discoloring in the brick. When he touched it, bits of the aged plaster flaked off the stone. Ash felt a large pang of guilt when he saw that he was destroying parts of the lighthouse, though it wasn't enough to really cause any damage.
This time Lari touched it, a green section of algae was lifted off the stone to reveal more of the strange color on the block. It looked black when the rest of the block was a muted gray. Lari pounded with her fist on the regular part of the stone then on the discolored part. The sound was mostly subdued by the mass array of water but when Lari pounded on the darker part there was definitely a hollow sound.
Ash tried to stop her when she chipped off more and more of the plaster until finally a small box was revealed. Ash took a picture of the box embedded in the stone before Lari separated it from the stone prison. The black box was perfectly in tacked and amazed Ash even more than it amazed Lari.
It had to hold the next clue.
* * *
A mysterious figure hid in the shadows of the building behind Dom and Dara. Dara, who was sitting like a mermaid on a protruding rock a foot in the water, was inspecting her nails while Dom was sightseeing within twenty or thirty feet away.
The figure slithered in and out of the shadows trying to find the missing group members until he was interrupted.
"El-saa kam?" (What time is it?)one of his culprits asked him.
"Sitta," (Six) he replied unhappily.
"Shukran," (Thank you) the man replied sensing that he made a mistake for asking.
Not a minute later a speed boat was heard in the distance and a smile spread across both men's faces.
* * *
Dom came back to Dara, who stood to greet the divers. The boat was driven up onto the beach and had barely stopped moving when the pair jumped out, a box in hand.
"Was your mission successful?" Dara said half expecting what came next.
"We found the next clue!" Lari exclaimed, joy evident in her emerald eyes.
"But you weren't even gone that long!" Dom was more shocked that all of them put together.
Lari unhooked the broken lock
on the box to reveal its contents. The next map piece with unmistakable symbols.
Chapter Six
Inscrutability
Mediterranean Sea
November 1, 1970
John's cold and wet hands softly ran across the lock on the small black box. The silver and partly rusted lock that was holding the box securely shut looked fairly easy to brake. Picking up an oversized rock from the sandy brown floor, John hit it hard on the small lock, breaking it. The flimsy latch was hanging by a thread now as John opened the lid.
An Egyptian man, not much older than John, now stood before him. The man's dark shadow being the first thing that had alerted John to his presence.
"Esmak eh?" (What is your name?) John didn't seem scared nor surprised when the man approached him.
"Esmi Amon," (My name is Amon)
"Tasharrafna," (Nice to meet you.) John finally took a moment to look at the contents of box before him, "Mumken tsaa'dni?" (Can you help me?)
Amon nodded and smiled.
* * *
Present
October 31, 2005
Lari carefully removed the third clue from the box and slid off a protective plastic covering.
"Look at the symbols. It has to be Mo-" Lari started.
"Morse Code," Dara whispered under her breath, "I'm kind of rusty in that area."
"Well not everyone is," Dom slid the clue of Lari's hands to get a better look at it, "Does anybody happen to have a pad of paper lying about?"
Dara dug into her purse and took out some old receipts that were in her wallet, "How about this?" She then handed him a bright pink pen as well.
"Is this the best you can do for a pen?"
"I'm sorry but it is all that I have," Dara smiled sweetly at Dom before he started writing out letters on the back of one of the large receipts that she had given him.
A couple minutes later Dom proclaimed," I've got it!"
* * *
Several of the soldiers dressed in black listened intently as Dom announced the thing that they were all waiting for.
More soldiers appeared from behind another building, these soldiers dragging a person bound and face covered with a dark brown sack.
One soldier from the party already stationed for spying on the young Mr. Zaztep noticed the prisoner. He ran over to him and when he removed the sack that was concealing the prisoner's face the soldier paled, "No,"
* * *
"Oh good, it's something simple," Dom said sarcastically, "The Great Pyramid of Giza."
"What are you talking about? That's a simple clue." Lari was confused as to why he would think it wasn't simple, "Isn't it?"
"Do you have any idea how big that pyramid is?!" Dom was shocked that she had no knowledge of the pyramid what-so-ever, "It was the tallest structure on Earth for forty-three centuries!"
"That's pretty big then," Ash said; also not know much about the pyramid, "But we still have to go."
Dom started speaking to Salacia and Amon once more who were standing quietly by the motorboat observing. No one was expecting the answer they were given when Dom had asked the siblings to take them to the Great Pyramid.
"La," was the only answer they had gotten from the quiet Amon.
"'La'? What does 'La' mean?" Lari was asking for an answer to a question that she already knew the answer to.
Dom sighed, "'La' means 'No',"
* * *
All of the soldiers' attentions were now on the newly revealed man.
"Are you crazy?! Sir, he could ruin everything!" The top soldier remained quiet as he placed the sack back over the man's head.
"Any news on the latest clue? Has it been found?" The top soldier asked all of the others.
"Found and solved, Sir," came a ringing voice in the back of the mass of black before him.
"And?" He said emphasizing with his hands.
"The Great Pyramid of Giza, Sir," the same voice answered again.
"Good, good. We should go now. It will be easier to track them in the pyramid if we leave before they do."
"But Sir, they have no guide. The one's they had before have refused to take them to the pyramid." Again the mysterious voice replied.
"That's not a problem. Not a problem at all."
* * *
"What do you mean they said no?!" Dara had now gone into a state of panic as there old guides walked away toward the setting sun.
"Calm down Drama Queen, it's not the end of the world," Lari said; hardly trying to calm her down at all, "We can always get another guide or two if we need to."
"Hey, who's that?" Ash pointed to spot where Salacia and Amon once were, and where a rider in black now stood.
Chapter Seven
Finding a Way
The Great Pyramid
11:29 p.m.
The black rider, Elias, had been kind enough to give the group directions to the Great Pyramid without a second thought. He had even been so kind as to escort the friends most of the way there, claiming that he had family near the Pyramid that he had been desiring to visit for some time.
Now the four stood in awe at the site of the large pyramid towering before them.
Flashing lights near the entrance caught Ash's keen eye, "Did any of you see that?"
The other three had puzzled expressions plastered on their faces.
"See what?" Dara was curious to find out what he was talking about.
"I think that you're just seeing things, Ash." Commented Lari, "Which isn't surprising since none of us have slept in quite a while." She finished before being the first to start climbing up to the pyramid's entrance. The others followed shortly, flashlight beams before their feet.
They took one step, and then another step, and another before they finally made it to the door. The black cloth that was covering the entrance was easily pushed aside for the weary travelers to pass.
Dara was the first to notice something strange about the walkway, "Why did they build the pyramid so tall when we are clearly going down instead of up?"
"There are more tunnels that just this one," Dom explained, "Some go down while others go up, up to where the king was rumored to have been."
"Well, where's the 'up' tunnel?" She asked trying to keep the conversation going.
"Right in front of us," declared Lari with her flashlight at the new tunnel to the right of her further up ahead in the old tunnel.
"We should split up then," Ash walked ahead of Lari and faced his companions, "Lari and I will take this tunnel up."
"And Dara and I will take the tunnel down." Dom added; taking a hold of Dara's shaky hand.
"Are you sure it's wise to split up in a place like this?" Dara's trembling voice echoed in the tunnels.
"Dara you have Dom," Ash tried to get her calm down fast so they wouldn't loose any more time, "He probably even knows this pyramid like the back of his hand. You will be fine. We all will."
With that, the pairs went their separate ways into the even darker tunnels ahead.
Ash and Lari didn't get far before they came to what seemed like a dead end.
The dark brown granite slab blocking their way looked thick and partly discolored by age.
"What do we do now?" complained Lari, "It's not like we can pull it open like a door."
"A door…" Ash mused. He remembered reading a section of one of his father's old journal's once where John spoke of a hidden door in the sandy wall. It was almost impossible find but it was possible.
"Lari," Ash began, "There's a door here."
"Really, I don't see one." She used her flashlight to bring light to the sand covered walls but there was no door in sight.
"No Lari, it's hidden." Ash started knocking on the tunnel walls with both his flashlight and his fist.
"Where would the fun be if it wasn't?"
* * *
"Dom, how much longer is this tunnel?" Dara whined for the third time in only ten minutes though it seemed longer to Dom.
"Do I have to threaten your life to
get you to shut the hell up?" Anger was so clearly evident in his voice.
"No it's just- wait…what's that?" Dara pointed to something glinting in the light radiating from the two flashlights.
"I don't know but-" Dara sped in front of him to the item, "Dara, no!"
Dara was hardly near her destination when the floor gave way from beneath her feet. She fell so fast that she couldn't even bring herself to scream.
* * *
The clanging of the flashlights finally halted when Lari heard a hollow sound behind a section of the wall. She pushed the wall and it moved quietly and gently open almost like a door would have done.
