Intervention: A Science Fiction Adventure (21 page)

Twenty minutes later,
Christopher was in the airport looking for the best flights to take
him to his destination. “We have a nonstop to New York that leaves
in about half an hour. The flight is just about full, but there are
still a couple of first-class seats available.”

“That would be fine.
How does it look for a connecting flight in New York?” The helpful
girl behind the ticket counter looked at the information on her
computer screen.

“It looks like you’re
in luck. There’s one seat still open on flight two-eighteen. It’s
also a first-class seat. That flight is a nonstop from New York to
Cairo. Departs New York just a little more than an hour after your
arrival. Would you like me to reserve that seat for you?”

“Yes, that’s
perfect.” The ticket agent handed Christopher his tickets, checked
his bags, and he headed for the appropriate gate.

In no time at all
Christopher found himself in the airport in New York. He immediately
checked on his flight at the gate and obtained his boarding pass. It
would be a long flight, and even though they would serve a meal, he
thought it might be best if he ate in a restaurant at the airport
before the flight. He never had developed a taste for airline food.
After eating, Christopher stopped at a pay phone near the gate.

“Hello, Barb? I’m
sorry to call you at home, especially at this hour.”

“Christopher is
everything all right?”

“I’m fine.”

“Is your mother all
right?”

“Yes, she’s fine,
thank you. I can’t explain the reasons, but I’m resigning from
the agency effective immediately. I’m sorry to do this without any
notice, but circumstances force me to. You’ve been great, Barb, and
I’ll never forget you. Bye.” With that he hung up the phone and
boarded his plane.

The flight was very
long and provided a chance for Christopher to get some much needed
rest. It had been a long day, and a trying one at best. Christopher
hoped he wouldn’t wake up till the plane touched in Cairo. He was
pretty close to getting his wish. He awoke to the sound of a
stewardess requesting he fasten his seat belt in preparation for
their landing. He looked out the window to find that the sun had
already broken free of the horizon. After landing, he retrieved his
bags, and went outside to find a taxi.

Oh,
man, is it ever hot here. Hot and dry, but mostly hot
, he
thought as he found a taxi to take him to a hotel. After he checked
into a room, Christopher called the American embassy.

“Sam Gray,” the
voice on the other end said.

“Sam? It’s
Christopher Adams.”

“Christopher, what
can I do for you?”

“I’m here in Cairo,
and I need to get clearance to access the great pyramid. Can you help
me out?”

“That’s a tough
one, but I have a friend who might just be able to help out. Let me
talk to him and I’ll give you a call back.”

“Great. I’m at the
Hilton. I’ll wait for your call.”

Christopher called down
to room service and ordered some breakfast. He no sooner set the
phone down, when it rang. “Hello?”

“Christopher, Sam. I
talked to my friend with the local government and was able to
persuade him to allow you access to the pyramid. I had to call in a
few favors, but you’re all set. I’ll have the necessary papers
ready for you this afternoon. You can come by and pick them up any
time after three o’clock.”

“I can’t thank you
enough Sam. I’ll see you around three.”

After eating breakfast,
Christopher thought he would spend some time in the local market
place and get a feel for the local people. The market was a jungle of
vendors and stands selling about everything you could imagine and
some things you couldn’t. As Christopher walked along, many of the
vendors tried to interest him in their wares. A neatly dressed
American smelled like money to them. There was a noticeable lack of
organization to the market place—sort of an anything-goes
atmosphere. Yet he knew every square inch of space had been fought
dearly for. One other thing he noticed was that it smelled bad. It
was very hot. It was very dry. It was dirty, and most of all it
smelled bad,
really
bad. This was all quite a change for Christopher, but the chance to
finally have a try at unraveling the mysteries of the great pyramid
would be worth it. He thought it was odd that it took a situation
like Operation Down-size for him to take the time away to be in
Egypt.

After several hours of
looking at hand-woven rugs, garments, trinkets, and some very unusual
looking things that were supposed to be eatable, Christopher decided
to return to the hotel and freshen up before going to the embassy. He
found a taxi, and in no time at all was finding relief from the dry
heat in the shower of his hotel room.

It was a short trip to
the American embassy. Inside the main entrance, Christopher told the
guard, “I’m Christopher Adams. I’m here to see Sam Gray.”

The guard looked at a
clipboard. “Yes, Mr. Adams. He’s expecting you. One moment
please.” The guard picked up the phone and announced Christopher.
“Mr. Gray will be right down.”

A moment later Sam
appeared in the lobby. He shook Christopher’s hand and said,
“Christopher, it’s good to see you. Let’s go to my office.”
In Sam’s office, Sam continued. “I never expected to see you in
this part of the world.” He reached into the top drawer of his
desk, removing some papers. “I never would have thought you for the
archeologist type. I thought you were only interested in codes and
puzzles.”

“I believe the
pyramid to be nothing more than a great big puzzle, and I’d like to
try to figure it out.”

Sam looked at
Christopher with a look of amazement. “That’s incredible. Well if
it is, you’re the best person I know for the job. Here are the
necessary papers giving you permission to enter the pyramid. You’ll
have to take these to the Department of Antiquities. They control the
key to the entrance. In other words, they will have to let you in.
They’re located not far from here. If you hurry, you can get there
before they close up for the day, and with any luck, you’ll be
inside the pyramid tomorrow. If you need anything else while you’re
here, just let me know.”

Another short taxi ride
and Christopher was at the Department of Antiquities. Inside he met
with a scholarly old gentleman with a very strong accent. After
looking over the papers Christopher had given him, he turned to
Christopher saying, “Well Mr. Adams, you must have some very good
friends in some very high places. You are not an archeologist. I know
this because I know all the archeologists and I don’t know you. So
tell me Mr. Adams, why is it you have gone to so much trouble to gain
access to the great pyramid? To satisfy some childhood fantasy
perhaps, or could it be that you believe you can show us experts
something new, perhaps something we have overlooked? I assure you,
Mr. Adams, there is nothing new to be found in the pyramid. Yet I see
it in your eyes that you don’t believe me. No matter. Your papers
are in order, so, we will let you in, but not until morning. Be at
the entrance at dawn. I will have someone there to let you in.”

“Thank you. In the
morning then.”

Christopher returned to
his hotel room and started reviewing his hieroglyphics-to-English
dictionaries. After several hours of review, feeling confident with
his knowledge of the written language, Christopher opened a book
showing the interior of the pyramid. A game plan was needed and in no
time at all, he had one. He decided to start with a thorough
examination of the grand gallery, an inclined shaft leading up into
the heart of the pyramid, connecting the entrance to the highest
point of the interior of the pyramid: the King’s Chamber. Then he
would examine the King’s Chamber itself, including the small open
room just above it. He would descend to the Queen’s Chamber beneath
the King’s Chamber. Finally, he would descend to the very bottom of
what is perhaps the least examined room in the base of the pyramid.
This room was believed to be what was originally planned as the
Queen’s Chamber, but it was never completed. A sudden change of
plans is believed to be the reason. Feeling prepared as he could,
Christopher settled in for a good night’s sleep.

Christopher was up
quite early, filled with anticipation. He tried his best to savor the
morning shower he took knowing of the arid conditions that lay ahead
of him. He wasted no time checking his gear, being sure everything
was as it should be. Downstairs he took a taxi finding great pleasure
in telling the driver, “The great pyramid, please.”

The sun was beginning
to peek over the horizon when the taxi stopped in front of the
pyramid. Christopher paid the driver and looked around for anyone
from the Department of Antiquities, but he saw no one. He walked over
to where the entrance was cut into the rock so many years ago. Now
protected by an iron gate with a secure lock to keep curiosity
seekers and looters, who could take nothing but do potential damage,
from gaining entrance.

Christopher looked up
toward the top. It seemed so much bigger standing right there. Like
most people, he had seen pictures, but, when you’re standing right
in front of it, the size is nothing short of overwhelming. He turned
as he heard the sound of a vehicle approaching. It pulled up to
almost where he was standing. A small dark man got out and identified
himself as being from the Department of Antiquities. He would unlock
the gate to let Christopher in and then lock it behind him. He would
return at the end of the day to let him out. Once inside the gate,
the man turned on the power to the electric lights that had been
installed many years ago, illuminating the interior of the grand
gallery. The gate was closed and then locked; the man left.

Christopher took a few
steps into the mountain of stone and stopped. He looked around. Being
inside the pyramid was a sensation you had to experience. No amount
of imagination could prepare a visitor for the reality of actually
being there.

The electric lights did
a good job of lighting up the interior. Christopher began his ascent
of the grand gallery, slowly and carefully examining every inch of it
as he went. He had studied photographs of the interior and was quite
familiar with what he was seeing. After an hour and a half, he had
worked his way up to the King’s Chamber. After digging out one of
the bottles of water and drinking almost half of its contents, he
began with a small access above the King’s Chamber left from the
construction thousands of years ago. The small area was no more than
a space left open beneath enormous granite beams that distributed the
weight on the blocks of stone above.

The King’s Chamber
wasn’t much to look at. It was a room with two openings, possibly
air shafts once used for astral alignment, and an empty granite
sarcophagus. It was rectangular in shape and the size of a large
coffin with no top. The walls noticeably lacked any hieroglyphics or
carvings of any kind. The now empty, assuming it once wasn’t,
sarcophagus was worn smooth from eons of hands touching and rubbing
its once sharp edges and polished surface.

A partial decent
through the grand gallery brought him to another opening in the stone
that led to the Queen’s Chamber. Again, slowly examining every inch
for information along the way, Christopher worked his way into the
Queen’s Chamber. Again, like the King’s Chamber, there was not
much to indicate that this was once the resting of a royal. Again two
small shafts disappeared into the stone, but unlike those in the
King’s Chamber, they did not extend the entire length to the
outside, but ended mysteriously. Stopping briefly, Christopher
finished the contents of the first bottle of water, noticing the
increased need his body had for water in this environment.

Finishing his
examination of the Queen’s Chamber, he retreated to the grand
gallery and descended to a small corridor leading into the depths of
the pyramid. It ended in a small unfinished room that looked as if
the workers had abandoned it long before it was finished. He spent
nearly an hour examining every inch of the room. After he was
satisfied that he hadn’t missed anything, he sat on a piece of
unfinished stone where workers no doubt once rested to catch their
breath thousands of years ago.

Christopher removed
several food items from his backpack having decided lunch was long
overdue. As he made a makeshift meal from some packets of
freeze-dried food, he reviewed what he had seen. The first thing that
came to mind was what he saw, or rather what he didn’t see, in the
King’s Chamber. If the chamber had indeed been filled with riches
long since removed by thieves, one thing was still missing: If a
Pharaoh or King was buried inside the stone sarcophagus, it most
certainly would have been covered with a massive stone cover or lid,
undoubtedly made of the same granite as the sarcophagus. If tomb
robbers had emptied the chamber of its treasures, they would not have
bothered with a slab of stone. This would have been worthless to
them, or at least not worth the effort of removing a stone slab
weighing several tons. So where was it? Christopher believed it was
never there in the first place. Also judging by its size and the
limited access to the chamber, Christopher believed the sarcophagus
would have been placed in the King’s Chamber during the time of its
construction. Its lid would have also been placed there at that time.

It just didn’t make
sense. Something was missing. Christopher concluded that the King’s
Chamber, as well as the Queen’s Chamber, was nothing more than an
elaborate decoy, like how a magician’s right hand distracts you
from what the left hand is doing. These known chambers and passages
were meant to distract and mislead to draw your attention from the
real purpose of this structure. Another thing he noticed was that the
small chambers and narrow passageways didn’t account for the size
of the massive structure. There was still enough room unaccounted for
to hide a shopping mall and then some. No, the real purpose of this
pyramid still lay hidden somewhere within the stones.