Kamal snorted and disconnected the call, then stormed out of the room.
Alyssa’s head jerked up at the sound of the turning lock. She rose from the chair that constituted the solitary piece of furniture in the small, windowless room and stared at the door as it slowly opened. She focused on the face of the young woman entering. Her features made the notion of make-up seem garish, like using highlighter to trace over a butterfly’s wings. Her violet eyes were locked on Alyssa’s, the dark auburn hair in perfect contrast to her pale skin and the short white dress that covered her slender body.
“Tasha? What—?” she started, then scowled, sudden realization dawning. “You’re one of them!”
Alyssa lunged at her.
Tasha nimbly danced aside and grabbed Alyssa’s arm and hair, letting her momentum carry her into the wall. She pinned Alyssa’s arm behind her back and pulled her head back by her hair. Alyssa screamed as the jolt sent a flash of searing pain through her injury.
“Stop!” Tasha said. “I’m not going to hurt you!”
Alyssa struggled against her grip, surprised at Tasha’s strength. “Let me go!” she hissed.
Tasha relaxed her hold, and Alyssa squirmed out. She backed into the corner of the room and glowered at the other woman.
“Why are you doing this?” Alyssa asked, her voice shaking.
Tasha appraised her silently, a stony expression on her absurdly beautiful face. Then her eyes softened. “George Renley,” she said.
“Renley?”
“He saved my life… gave me everything I could have dreamed of. The best education, finest training.”
“Trained you how to lie and do his dirty work.”
“You have no right to judge me,” Tasha shot back. “I came from nothing.”
“You’re still nothing,” Alyssa spat back. “Just Lord Renley’s little whore.”
Tasha slapped her. Alyssa gave a bark of laughter. “Seems like Drake isn’t the only one who can’t control his anger.”
“The only reason you’re still alive is because you’re useful to him.”
Alyssa looked at her silently.
“He tried the gear on one of his men. It… didn’t end well. He needs you to help him get inside and find Horus’s body.”
Alyssa’s gasp betrayed her surprise.
“Did you really think you were the only one who knew the truth?” Tasha asked, her voice taunting. “The Society has proclaimed it for decades. The crystal is the key to—”
“Fuck you and your society.”
Tasha regarded Alyssa with a steady gaze, her expression distant and unreadable. Finally, she spoke. “It wasn’t always like this, Alyssa. When William’s father was in charge of the Society, he and George Renley shared a vision. He respected George, valued his council. Now, with William at the head—things are changing. We are at a knife’s edge—”
“I don’t care about your pithy quibbles—” Alyssa cut in, scowling.
Tasha moved closer. “Alyssa,” she said quietly, leaning into her, “listen to me—” She stopped when the door opened and William Drake entered the room. He studied them with a condescending look.
“Enough girl talk. Let’s go.”
Alyssa sneered at him. No words, just protest. Her eyes burned into him.
Drake grasped her by the front of her blouse and brought his mouth close to her ear. The smell of the expensive Scotch on his breath turned her stomach.
“You will do exactly as you’re told,” he whispered and spun her around then shoved her out of the room ahead of him. He turned to Tasha. “Bring her friend.”
Drake moved alongside Alyssa and motioned her to walk.
“It seems that you are still of use to me, Miss Morgan. For reasons I can’t fathom, you seem to be the only one who can access the information on the crystal and live to tell about it.”
Alyssa looked straight ahead, her lips a thin line.
“Edgar Cayce—and your grandfather—predicted this discovery many decades ago. We are merely fulfilling their destiny.” They stopped in front of a tall wooden door. Drake turned to her. “You should feel quite honored, Miss Morgan. You are contributing to the evolution of the human race.” His voice was clipped and filled with a dark fervor. “We stand at the threshold of the birth of a new species. Humanity is about to be awakened from its ashes of complacency.”
Alyssa trembled as the fire in his eyes froze the skin beneath her clothes. “You are insane,” she whispered.
Drake’s eyes narrowed in a harsh squint before his lips curved up in the barest imitation of a smile. He opened the door. “Get inside.”
Alyssa peered into the wood-paneled room. She gasped at the dozen men and women sitting at a long table. They turned to her as she entered.
The head of the table was empty. Renley sat at the right of the head, the leather-bound notebook on the table in front of him. “Ah, Miss Morgan,” he said. “We have been anticipating your arrival.”
Alyssa flinched at his voice. “How could you?” She glared at him. “We trusted you. I—” she stopped as Tasha walked into the room through another door, her gun pointed at Paul walking in in front of her, his face bruised.
“Paul!” Alyssa yelled and rushed to him. Drake jerked her back.
“Enough!” He pointed at the empty chair at the foot of the table with the VR setup in front of it. “Now you will tell us how to enter the Hall of Records.”
Alyssa tensed and shook her head. “You are all lunatics,” she said, lips trembling.
Drake pulled the Kel-Tec auto pistol out of his jacket and pointed it at her head. “You will do as you’re told or you will die right now.”
Alyssa hugged her shoulders and gave a half-hearted shrug. “You’ll just kill me, anyway.”
Drake flashed a mocking smile. “Very perceptive.” He nodded at Tasha. She hesitated, seeming to fight an internal battle. Drake stared at her, his eyes burning into her. Finally, she pulled out her pistol and pointed it at Paul—and fired.
Paul screamed and clutched his left arm. He glowered at Tasha, as his chest rose and fell in ragged, shallow gasps.
Tasha pointed the Ruger at Paul’s head, a rueful expression crossing her face.
Drake stared at Paul. “The next one won’t be as painful,” he said quietly.
“Stop!” Alyssa yelled, sobbing. “Please stop!”
“I’m sorry, Paul,” Alyssa said between sobs. She slumped into the chair. Her hands trembled as she pulled the VR helmet to her. She turned on the LIDAR and booted up the laptops. As she calibrated the settings, she hesitated an instant then keyed in the setting for maximum power.
She met Paul’s gaze as he stared at her, pale-faced, cradling his arm to his body.
“Ally, no…” he whispered.
Alyssa closed her eyes and lowered the helmet over her head.
25 Nile Basin
I have become death, destroyer of worlds, king of a thousand enemies.
I open my eye. The sun beats down with brilliant intensity as I behold the hybrid statue in the distance. Carved out of the native limestone bedrock and covered with black onyx, it is almost two hundred fifty feet long and seventy feet high at its head. Half cat, half human, this monument shall be a fitting tribute to my people… to my mother. It shall be the only homage to my race that I will leave behind for all to gaze upon. Another rests in my hand, and shall remain unseen.
I descend the stairs to the tunnel. Twelve years in the making, the Sphinx is now complete, as is the Hall under it, my resting place beneath the sheltering arms of my mother. I smile for the first time in a decade. For the first time in ten years, I feel at peace.
I glance to my side. Horemheb strides beside me, pain carved into his strong features. We enter the long tunnel that will lead us under the statue. Horemheb turns to me, his dark eyes glistening.
“My Lord, I do not understand. Why?”
I stop and face him, my single eye meeting his pair. I place my right hand on his shoulder, his
posture rigid like a carving under my touch.
“For the past thirty years, you have been my finest warrior and most trusted advisor.” I pause, the sound of my voice ringing through the tunnel. “My loyal friend.”
His expression shifts at hearing the word. He lowers his head.
“My Lord, I do not deserve—”
“I would have been dead a long time ago if it had not been for you. And on this day, yet again, I must ask you to bear the burden of my trust.”
I bring the pyramid-shaped crystal in my hand to him. “My memories, my feelings, my life—all inscribed into this gem. One day, it shall be unearthed by my descendants, and I will live again. But today, my final memory shall be written. And I have entrusted you, my loyal friend, to carry out this final bidding.”
I turn once more to the door ahead of us, and we stride side by side in silence, the soft sounds of our steps echoing in the tunnel.
We reach the stone door to the massive chamber beneath the statue. I study the falcon carving. My companion, my sentinel… my birthright. I have lived with the blood of the falcon for more than eight decades, bestowed with the gifts of his magnificent sight, his strength and speed, his intuition. I move my hand to the ornate patch that covers my left eye. How close I came to losing these gifts completely. The memories of my other losses threaten to rise. I breathe deeply and control them. Not on this day. Not now.
I lift the crystal to the door. It sinks smoothly into the triangular opening beneath the falcon’s talons, and the familiar blue light fills the tunnel. I extend my hands in the blessing of our people, my two hands forming a single triangle between the thumbs and forefingers, and place them against the crystal. I feel its warmth pulsing under my skin as I steadily press on it until it glides effortlessly into the door. Moments later, the sound of stone grinding over stone fills the tunnel as the heavy door slides open, revealing the entrance.
I remove the crystal from the talons and enter. The illuminated walls guide our steps deep into the tomb to the vast inner chamber. We stop at the threshold of the hall, and I behold the cavern that stretches beneath me, and the stone pyramid that fills it. It is the same pyramid that I ascended the day I was reborn as a Hybrid, the day I felt the blood of the falcon coursing through my veins for the first time. Thousands of my men labored for years to disassemble the sacred symbol of my people. They carried it on a hundred ships on our voyage home to be reassembled brick by brick in this subterranean hall. It is the only memory of my cursed home that is worthy of my race. It is the only structure that shall remain from the island kingdom of Atlantis, and it shall be buried deep beneath the earth, hidden from view.
We follow a stone ramp to the bottom of the chamber and draw near the stairs of the pyramid. Our feet stir the thin layer of fog that covers the base of the structure, created as the warm air near the ceiling collects moisture when it cools and falls to the ground. We reach the stairs and begin the long climb. Three hundred and forty-three steps separate us from the summit.
My memories turn to the first time I ascended this hallowed structure. My mind fills with images of a time long dead.
When we reach the peak, Horemheb stares at the ornate sarcophagus and the inscription device resting at its side.
“After my memories of this day have been inscribed into the crystal,” I say to him, my voice steady, “after I am frozen in time, you will destroy the device.”
He nods silently.
“You will release the weapon in the tunnel and bury the door.”
His jaw clenches, but he nods again. He sinks to one knee and lifts the golden helmet up to me.
I take the helmet and place it on my head. I give the crystal to Horemheb, and he places it into the inscription device. He bows his head as I enter the sarcophagus.
I am Horus.
He looks up. One last time he meets my gaze, his eyes unwavering and hard, his tears slow and silent.
Son of Isis and Osiris.
“Now,” I say and close my eye.
I shall know no fear.
26 Outside of Cairo
Professor Baxter’s assistant jumped at the sound of his boss’s hand slamming into the lab bench.
“The genes from her blood sample are too fractionated to reconstruct,” Baxter said, the veins in his forehead straining against his skin. “How the hell am I supposed to…?” He stopped and scrutinized at the display. “Yuri?” he said. “Come look at this.”
His assistant scurried over and stood next to him.
“What does that look like?” Baxter pointed to a region of the DNA sequences on the monitor.
Yuri took off his glasses and leaned forward. He contemplated the display intently for several moments. “That appears to be an attachment sequence for a virus.” He stared at Baxter. “It almost looks as if…” He shot a glance at the biosafety hood that contained the samples of the virus extracted from Kade Morgan’s blood.
Baxter stood up and took out his phone and dialed it. He tapped his fingers on the back of the chair, listening to the ringing. After the fifth ring he threw the phone on the bench and groaned, irritated.
“We need to amplify the DNA from the girl’s blood sample. Start the cycle on the amplifier. When it’s completed, introduce the virus into her DNA and then run them through the sequencer again.”
“But exposing the DNA to the virus will only destroy—”
“Don’t argue. Just do it.” Baxter spat back. “I’m going to the dig site. Call me with updates.”
Alyssa’s body was on fire, stars bursting behind her eyelids. She screamed, sealed up in a universe of constant pain. Slowly, much too slowly, the pain began to recede and her screams turned to shuddering sobs. She felt a hand touching her cheek. She tried opening her eyes. Her eyelids would not obey.
A distant voice cut through the agony. “Alyssa! Alyssa, can you hear me?”
Gradually, the blaze in her body transformed into a dull ache. The absence of pain was a blessing. She slowly opened her eyes and focused on Paul. His expression was pure terror.
“Alyssa…” he whispered and gently lifted a strand of hair from her face. “Are you okay?”
“No.” She eyed the crude dressing on his arm. “You?”
He looked down wordlessly, his tight lips an answer.
She put her hand on the ground and lifted her head. She started as her fingers dug into soft sand. She looked past Paul and took in her surroundings. I’m in a tent. Tasha stood over them holding a pistol, staring down.
“Where are we?” Alyssa asked.
“You were unconscious for over an hour,” Paul said. Alyssa winced as she slowly got to her feet, Paul straining to support her with his uninjured arm. “They brought us to the dig site.”
Alyssa frowned, confused. “I thought the entire excavation site was quarantined.”
“Haven’t you learned by now that I achieve my objectives, Miss Morgan?” George Renley’s voice rang out as he and William Drake entered the tent.
She whirled and faced them, sneering.
“Tell us what you saw,” Drake said.
She remained silent, glaring at her captor in a futile act of defiance.
“I will not ask again.”
Alyssa’s shoulders slumped as she willed the anger out of her voice. “I know how to get in,” she said. “I will take you to Horus.”
Drake pointed to the biocontainment suits on the floor next to them. “Suit up. Both of you.”
He turned to Tasha. “Make sure our guests suit up properly. It would be a shame if something happened to them while we still have need of their services.”
Ten minutes later, Alyssa trudged along the smooth stone floor of the tunnel, encased in the white biosafety suit. She tried to ignore the throbbing from her wound as she focused on the lights from her headlamp cutting bright slices into the darkness ahead, bouncing off the stone walls with each shuffling step. She glanced to her right. Drake marched next to her, holding the gun awkwardly in his gloved hand
, staring into the tunnel ahead. Behind him, Paul trailed with staggering steps, nursing his arm in a makeshift sling, flanked by Renley and Tasha.
As they approached the end of the long tunnel, Alyssa spotted the figure on the ground. Renley cautiously moved to the body and knelt beside it. Alyssa watched him leaning over the remains of his grandfather, his expression unreadable. After several seconds he rose.
She felt a push from Drake toward the door. “Open it.”
She moved up to the magnificent carving in the center of the door. “I need the crystal.”
Drake handed it to her wordlessly, and she slowly inserted it into the opening beneath the talons of the falcon. She gasped as the talons locked around it, and brilliant blue light illuminated the corridor.
Alyssa touched the thumb and forefinger of one hand to the thumb and forefinger of the other, forming a triangle. She brought her hands to the crystal. She held her breath and pushed evenly along its perimeter, her fingers grazing the blue light.
The light turned white and the crystal slid, without any resistance, entirely into the door.
For several seconds nothing happened.
Then the sound of the airtight seals releasing filled the tunnel, and the door slid back with a grating sound.
27 Giza Plateau
The helmet of the biocontainment suit bounced in the passenger seat as Kamal steered the white Land Rover onto the moonlit desert, leaving the comfort of the paved four-lane highway behind. He sped through uneven terrain toward the large tent that stood halfway between the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx. He tightened his grip on the steering wheel and shot a nervous glance at the large oxygen tank that was squeezed tightly between the passenger seat and the dashboard. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and turned the air conditioning to maximum, trying to ignore his soaked clothes underneath the Level 4 biosuit.
Heir of Ra (Blood of Ra Book One) Page 20
