Touchstone (Meridian Series) (33 page)

       “Then
we would have to move to the Pre-Dynastic times. The oldest-known temple in
Egypt
is at Tell Ibrahim Awad in the eastern Nile Delta—at least as far as we know
now. It was the dedicated to the God Thoth, who appeared in the benevolent
figure of a baboon.” His eyes flashed as another thought occurred to him. “Thoth
was
also
the Egyptian god of writing!”

       “Interesting,”
said LeGrand. “How old?”

       “About
3400 B.C.—Before its discovery, the oldest-known temple was at Hierakonpolis,
which dated to 3200 B.C.”

       “A
good candidate. We looked at it. There was nothing there.”

       “See
here,” Nordhausen gave him a frustrated look. “Why make this a game of twenty
questions? If you have information on the location of the stone, then speak up,
man!”

       “I
was told to sound you out and discover your thinking on this matter before
divulging our best guess. But, as time is pressing, I will tell you that we
believe the touchstone lies at the base of the Sphinx.”

       “At
Giza
?” Nordhausen gave him an incredulous look.
“That was thought to be built by Khafre, around 2600 B.C. There’s a stela erected
between the legs of the beast that bears his name.”

       “It
was placed there by Tuthmosis IV in 1400 B.C., long after the monument was built.
We believe the Sphinx is far older than Khafre’s pyramid at
Giza
,
and that he had nothing whatsoever to do with its making. Oh, you will find similar
rumors in your RAM bank data if you look. The work of Dr. Robert Schoch, John
West, and the noted archeologist Michael Poe all assert the Sphinx may date
well into the Paleolithic.”

       “That’s
nonsense,” said Nordhausen. “None of that research has been proven. It’s mere
speculation. Besides, the use of hieroglyphics was developed in the
Old Kingdom
, much later. Even if there were a hidden chamber beneath the Sphinx,
as many have suggested, why would they hide their touchstone there? You said
yourself that the pyramids were too obvious a target. The Sphinx is even more
prominent, more compelling.”

       “Good
arguments,” said LeGrand. “Our research people made them as well. But a lot
happens between your time and ours. We have a great deal more information to
bring to the quest. Let me be brief and say that we believe there
is
a
hidden chamber beneath the Sphinx—or at least the place where it once rested.”

       That
last remark took the professor off his kilter. “What’s that? Are you saying the
Sphinx was destroyed in the years ahead?”

       “Yes,
it was destroyed, but not in the years to come.”

       Now
Robert was beside himself. “That’s ridiculous. Certainly it was damaged. Why,
the French soldiers used it to calibrate their artillery fires during their
expedition to
Egypt
. It’s a pity I didn’t get a chance to see
them try
that
little stunt. I would have knocked them senseless! Speak
plainly—was the monument destroyed or not?”

       “It
was destroyed thousands of years ago, when the
Nile
floods were
so severe one year that they changed the course of the river itself.”

       “Don’t
be daft, man. The Sphinx exists in our time! What are you talking about?”

       “Well,
it should be obvious that I’m
not
talking about the Sphinx at
Giza
.”

       Maeve
had been listening silently, inwardly amused as the two men jousted over the
history. Now she spoke up, determined to move the discussion to some
conclusion.

       “They
come in
pairs
, Robert. Have you ever seen the image of a Sphinx carved
without another in tandem?”

       Nordhausen
turned to her, more to see if she was serious by checking the expression on her
face than anything else. He could quickly see that her remark was not made in
jest.

       “Exactly!”
LeGrand was quick to reinforce this new track. “They come in pairs. Well said.
To put it plainly—we found the mate to the Sphinx you know today. It was
located on the eastern bank of the
Nile
, directly opposite the existing monument.
Together they served as the guardians of the lower
Nile
—a
kind of gateway, if you will. It was destroyed when the
Nile
flooded and changed its course. The remains of the monument were carried off by
the locals after that, to use in other construction projects. Nothing remains
at the site—at least where we believe the second Sphinx once rested. In fact,
the city of
Cairo
has completely covered the area.”

       “Amazing,”
said Nordhausen. “And you have confirmation on all this?”

       “We
are relatively certain of the location, in spatial terms. And we know, for a
fact, that both monuments did indeed have a hidden chamber beneath them. You’ve
heard the pronouncement of Edgar Cayce. He claimed there was a hidden chamber
beneath the western Sphinx, the one at
Giza
, that was hermetically sealed. He said it
contained hidden knowledge of the history of the world, dating from a remote
golden age the Egyptians called
Zep Tepi
. A remarkable man, mister
Cayce. He was correct, of course—only he got the location wrong. The history chamber
was hidden beneath the
eastern
Sphinx—which is long since gone. Now… does
that sound like a clever place to hide a record of events—carved in stone—so a
man might take a rubbing on papyrus, and carry it about in a completely
unbreakable code? No modern man has ever set eyes on this second Sphinx. It is
lost, a distant rumor whispered across the ages, yet it is as close, in
practical terms, as the cellar of some unknowing peasant in the suburbs of
Cairo
.”

       The
silence in the room was a testament to the impact of LeGrand’s revelation. The
professor could hardly believe it, yet he was torn between his natural
skepticism and the desire to immediately plumb the depths of this new research.
He was the first to voice the obvious conclusion, and the reason for LeGrand’s
desperate visit.

       “Then
you mean for us to go there? You have the location?”

       “You
have numbers?” Kelly spoke next.

       “We
can give you the exact spatial location, and a good read on the temporal locus
as well.” LeGrand smiled, convinced that his job of persuasion had been
successful.

       “A
good read?” Kelly wasn’t happy. “It can take an Arion system days to crunch
temporal coordinates. The farther back you go, the more processing time you
need. We’ll be lucky to keep the Arch spinning for another two hours!”

       “We
took care of that for you. It was a bit of a task. The trick was not the
calculations, but how to get them to you. I am deeply honored to present you
this, Mr. Ramer.”

       LeGrand
reached into his cape pouch and produced something, a small shiny disk that
Paul immediately recognized.

       “I
believe you called these things DVDs, am I correct?” LeGrand extended the jewel
case to Kelly, handing him the disk.

       “Where
did you get that?” Paul seemed incredulous now.

       “You
know very well where we got it,” said LeGrand. “You and the professor were
quite upset about it.”

       “You
mean you ran a mission to retrieve DVD media from our time?” Kelly voiced the
obvious conclusion.

       “That
would have been easy,” LeGrand explained. “But it would have taken time and, as
simple as it sounds, it would have been risky.  So, we encrypted the data in
the video stream of this disk when we found it—the one we already had.” His
eyes flashed at Kelly now, with a knowing glance. “We timed everything to sync
well with the computers of your age. Now all you have to do is play this DVD
through your system control module, and the entire operation will be perfectly
coordinated as the video plays itself out. It was really quite devious. The R
& D people are to be complimented.”

       “I
don’t understand,” said Kelly.

       “You
will,” LeGrand said softly. “At least I hope you will.” His eyes softened as he
spoke.

       Paul
looked up, a conclusion plan on his face. “It’s the DVD we placed in your
memorial site, Kelly. That’s why the grave site was tampered with. The
Assassins were on to your plan as well, and they were trying to get at the DVD to
prevent its discovery. Am I right?”

       “Close,”
said LeGrand with a smile. “It may be that the Assassins have a clue to what we
are about to attempt, but they had nothing to do with the incident at Mr.
Ramer’s memorial. We did that. Our agent in place for this milieu was
instructed to secure it at all costs. We had to be sure we got to the DVD
first, you see. It caused a bit of a ripple in the
Meridian
, and yes, the danger to your friend was very real, but you and
the professor fixed that by publishing the backup you had hidden here in the
lab. We kept the original, and we encoded it with our mission parameters… And
there you have it.” He pointed to the disk in Kelly’s hand.

26

They
all looked
at the DVD. Paul
remembered the moment when he first discovered it, while archiving data from
the
Palma
mission. Watching Kelly working in the lab
as he struggled to get the travelers back on target after the disastrous
keystroke error that sent them to the late Cretaceous had brought a tear to his
eye. He knew then that it would be the only fitting tribute he could offer at
Kelly’s memorial.

       “How
far back is it,” he said. His eyes fixed on the disk. The prospect of another
mission was daunting, but he knew they would have to try. Robert and Maeve had
only just returned from Rosetta. He was the only other experienced traveler
here with a quantum matrix signature on file in the system database. Kelly had
never shifted using this equipment.

       “A
bit beyond the excursion to Rosetta,” said LeGrand. But not nearly as far back
as your runabout after the KT event. Quite remarkable, if I may say.”

       “How
far,” Paul asked again, and his tone said get to the point without any
uncertainty.

       LeGrand
heard the impatience, the urgency in Paul’s voice, and was suddenly very
serious. “We make it 10,500 B.C…. or thereabouts.”

       Maeve
had an uncomfortable expression on her face. “Good then,” she said. “Are you
ready, Monsieur?”

       “What…
Me?” LeGrand gave her a bemused smile. “Oh, I’d love to go,” he explained, “but
it’s really quite impossible. I can’t pull a double shift, I’m afraid. Nothing
has been programmed, and time is already waiting for me back home.” He jerked a
thumb over his shoulder to some unseen future. “She won’t allow me to switch
trains here. It’s out of the question.”

       “Just
as I suspected,” said Maeve unhappily. “So you want one of us to go in your
place. You want the burden of all we might accomplish, and the blood, on
our
hands.”

       “Really,
Madame, must you be so gloomy?”

       Nordhausen
spoke up, tossing a new idea into the argument. “Why don’t you just raid the
location of the site in your time? If you know where it is, just get together
an assault team and storm the place.”

       LeGrand
stroked his chin. “You don’t understand,” he said. “We’re no longer in control
of our time. They are! Besides, even if we could destroy the site in our time
it would do us no good. The damage to the Meridian has already been done by
then. No…The moment is now…the question is
now
. The other side has just
moved a Pushpoint, something very old, and lost and utterly insignificant, save
for its effect on the discovery of the Rosetta stone. We haven’t the time to
find out where or how they accomplished that, so we came up with this
counterstrategy as a last hope. You only get one chance, you know. It’s a bit
like Judo. Your adversary makes an attack, and you must respond, then and
there, and find the leverage to use his own energy against him. Soon the transformation
will be complete, Paradox will have run its course, and we would be living in a
nightmare world again—believe me, I know of what I speak.”

       The
look in his eyes revealed real fear now. “Islam will have spread the world
over,” he said softly. “The West will be overthrown… everything, democracy, capitalism,
the artwork, music, literature—remember what the Taliban did to the Buddhas of Bamiyan?
That was just an appetizer. They will tolerate no other religion but Islam… There
is no God but God, and Allah is his name, and Mohamed is his prophet—over,
final, done. You have no idea what it will be like. It’s not going to be a
simple book burning raid here and there. Fahrenheit 451 is nothing compared to
the destruction of our culture that will follow if
Palma
is allowed to re-occur. That’s what they did, you see. They’ve worked it so
that
Palma
 
happens
—just as it was supposed to.
Oh, believe me, we’ve done our very best to prevent that. It’s been a real
struggle, but we’ve held them at bay. Now the advantage conferred by their
hieroglyphic code is just enough to give them the edge.”