The Moses Riddle (Thomas McAllister 'Treasure Hunter' Adventure Book 1) (8 page)

“What was that?” Dr. Sinistar asked.
Thomas didn’t hear him. His mind was racing ahead. He was no expert in Mayan history, but he knew the Plumed Serpent was the ultimate Mayan god. He also remembered that Virrachocas were the ancient men who “came from the east” to teach the Maya all they knew about organized society, farming, math and astronomy.
If the riddle was, in fact, written by Moses . . . it was a direct link between ancient Eastern cultures and the West! It would prove one of the biggest and most hotly debated historical theories! It would be a bombshell.
Thomas regained his composure.
“Nothing, Dr. Sinistar. I was just mumbling, a bad practice.” The riddle was starting to make sense to him now and he wanted to explode with joy. But he needed to finish this phone call, without arousing even more suspicion.
“This was a fascinating exercise, Dr. McAlister. You did say these words were from the same ancient text, didn’t you?”
Thomas sensed where Sinistar was going. He’d already indicated that he knew the words referred to the pre-Columbian, ancient Maya civilization. He had quickly put two and two together.
It should’ve been impossible for any reference to pre-Columbian Mexico . . . to be written in ancient Hebrew.
Thomas had to quickly produce a lie to deflect attention from his startling discovery. “No, I didn’t say that. You must have misunderstood me. How could they be? We have pre-Columbian Mayan references
and
ancient Hebrew.”
Dr. Sinistar continued. “That is what is so fascinating about these words. What on earth would an ancient Hebrew be doing talking about the Mayan Plumed Serpent or the ancient Virrachocas? This is all very odd, if you don’t mind me saying so, Doctor. Where, may I ask, did you get the piece that you’re translating? Martha did mention that the two of you were out at Saqqara today. Was it there?”
Damn it! Why had Martha told him they’d gone to Saqqara? There was so much text at Saqqara that was still not deciphered, anything was possible there. Thomas did not like Dr. Sinistar’s level of interest, and the man was continuing to assume the words were from the same text, even after Thomas had told him they weren’t. “I’m sorry, Doctor, but I cannot discuss the work any further, other than to reinforce that these words were not taken from the same text. I thank you heartily for your work, Dr. Sinistar. It was a tremendous help!”
“My pleasure, Thomas, my pleasure. Did you and Martha enjoy your trip to Saqqara today?”
Thomas wondered if Dr. Sinistar had already been looking into his whereabouts, to find out where he’d gotten the passage. He hoped it was not too late.
“Yes, we took a sight seeing trip, for old-time sake. I hadn’t been there in years and longed to see it again. It was just as I had remembered.”
“Do you plan to go back?” Dr. Sinistar asked. “Or is your work complete?”
“As I said, I’m on a pleasure trip, Doctor. I don’t plan to return to Saqqara, but I may tour some other sites.”
“A pleasure trip, so soon after what happened at Arizona State? You must have been a wise investor, Doctor. That American bull market must have been good to you.”
Dr. Sinistar was mocking him now, trying to draw him out. Sinistar knew he was on to something. He had either figured it out from the translation, or Martha had told him something about their discovery. Surely she would not do that! Thomas decided to check back with her anyway.
“I’ve been able to put away some travel funds. I needed a little break, before I start the job search again, and Egypt was a logical place. I hope you will excuse me, Dr. Sinistar. I really must be going now. Again, I appreciate the help. Good-bye.”
“Au revoir, Dr. McAlister.”
Thomas thought nothing of the fact that au revoir didn’t really mean good-bye. But rather, we’ll meet again.

I, son of Egypt, Father of Hebrews, never good with tongue or pen, am challenged to create a message that will at once conceal what I must hide while, at the same time, reveal what I must make known. I do it for you, because future, less destructive generations, must be allowed a window to eternity.

Broken once, it must be preserved for future civilizations to experience. It cannot be left here to the thieves and robbers, or worse. Here is my riddle, my challenge, to whomever considers himself worthy of revealing that which God has made

Like Egypt, it appears as one. Like Egypt, if you know her, it is two. This is not my original, but my only one. To the parched man; water. To he who is lost; bearings. To the godless;
salvation
. I take it west, to a place where the
Plumed Serpent
rules, where
Virrachoca
visited long ago, where it will be well maintained. It will be at an accouterment, worn by that great hunter in the sky, the same as the great complex at Giza. You will find it, in the middle of the eastern middle, marked by a circle on a square.

If you can determine the
treasure
, and have the vision to know where it lies, then you have a great responsibility. Greater than many before you, and most after, for you will be keeper of the window to eternity. In the wrong hands, the window may be forever broken, stranding all who come after it to eternal wandering. Moses.

To expedite his research, Thomas assumed two things: that the riddle was written by Moses and that Moses had hidden something of great value. Assuming these things would allow him to devote his time to uncovering the most critical piece of the riddle, which had become figuring out
where
it was. Treasure was treasure, and with no job and no family, he had become a treasure hunter. Whether it was Aaron’s staff, the Ark of the Covenant, or the Jar of Manna or something else entirely, he wanted it.

He focused on the last three sentences of the third paragraph. When he had first read the riddle, without filling in the missing words he had thought the word
West
referred to western Egyptian cities like Marsa Matruh or As Sallum. He reminded himself not to exclude far western Libyan cities, like Tripoli. But now, with Sinistar’s translation, entirely new ideas emerged. The portals of the past opened and, through them, he found himself looking across the Atlantic. He forced himself to relax and think clearly. It was all very far-fetched, and he needed to be sure.

The two words that made Thomas forget about the Egyptian cities and focus on much more exotic, western lands were Plumed Serpent and Virrachoca. Although Thomas was not an expert on any country but Egypt, he did have working knowledge of the history of several other ancient cultures. He knew there was only one ancient group that could be associated with both Plumed Serpents
and
Virrachocas. The Olmec of Mexico. The Olmec, who preceded the Maya, were the dominant culture in Mexico during the time frame in which Moses had lived.

Thomas slowed the frenetic pace of his thoughts. Did he really have a riddle, written on the wall of a temple in Egypt, by Moses, that referenced the Olmec culture? If he did, if Moses had referenced the Olmec, he—Thomas McAlister, fired professor of archeology—had discovered an extraordinary piece of history. The message from Moses would be heralded as one of the greatest discoveries of all time. Thomas smiled and said aloud, “This alone is treasure.”

After studying the riddle again, Thomas concluded that Moses had, in fact, referenced a continent believed undiscovered until Columbus. The Spanish had coined it the New World. Now, the modern world would learn that Moses had known about the continent almost 2500 years before Columbus was
born
!

Most archeologists would have dismissed his hypothesis immediately; for many others, it wouldn’t even have flowered in their minds. Thomas was one of the few Egyptologists who had always believed that there was a link between pre-Mayan and other far eastern cultures, including the Egyptians, Africans, and Chinese. Many books and theories had been put forth on the subject, some good, but only loosely based on fact, some bad—so extreme as to suggest that aliens were the link. Thomas stuck to rational arguments. Arguments that may not have been scientifically proven, but that made perfect sense.

Even expert Mayanologists, like Michael Coe, admitted there were similarities between eastern and western cultures and that there could be a link. Thomas fully understood that without proof, without hard data, conservative academics would never endorse the theory. The difference between himself and these other professors was that he was able to use his imagination. He was able to look at history as one might look at an impressionist painting. Up close, objects were barely discernable, often nothing more than lone, harsh brush strokes, but at a distance the brush strokes and colors blended and the subjects became clear. He didn’t need proof beyond a reasonable doubt. This wasn’t a court case. The circumstantial evidence was simply indisputable.

Children were still taught that Columbus discovered the “New” World. Some teachers added that Vikings may have beaten him to it. Others, who liked to be historically accurate, reminded kids that the Indians were already there. When the really bright kids asked where the Indians came from, the teachers usually said that they had trekked across North Eastern Russia to Alaska, thousands of years ago, when the Bering Strait was frozen. If it were a college class, the professor might add that maybe, just maybe, someone got in a boat on the western coast of Africa and paddled out to sea and the naturally occurring currents carried them to America. Which of course is exactly what Thor Heyerdahl did, and documented, in his famous book
Con Tiki
.

What the professors usually didn’t mention was that as far back as 2000 BC, both ancient Egyptian and ancient Chinese cultures were very accomplished mariners, and that it would have been quite easy for them to cross either the Atlantic or the Pacific oceans. If you took a northern route from England to America, across the Atlantic, there were so many route from England to America, across the Atlantic, there were so many foot ocean-going vessel right next to the great pyramid at Giza, as if to challenge future generations. It is still on display at Giza.

Thomas had always known and accepted that if Thor Heyerdahl could cross the Atlantic, the most violent of all oceans, on little more than a raft, the ancient Egyptians could surely have made it across in a 141-foot ship.

The problem for historians had always been that there was not one shred of physical evidence that anyone from the Old World had ever set foot in the new one before Columbus, except for a few Vikings. That wasn’t to say that there was no evidence at all. On the contrary, there were some very compelling arguments to be made for the mixing of cultures some very compelling arguments to be made for the mixing of cultures day calendar were almost identical to the names of the days in Eastern Asian civilizations. The quadripartite universe of the Maya, color, plants, animals and gods, were amazingly close to Asian ones. From a mathematical and astronomical perspective, the incredibly complex calculations that the Mayans used to predict lunar and solar eclipses were also similar to those of other cultures. The process for making their paper, called Amote, was also not unlike that used in other cultures.

There were many other less scientific similarities, like the Chinescolook of some Mayan pottery, and the Egyptian appearance of many Mayan statues, like the Chacmool idol at the Temple of the Warriors at the popular Mexican tourist destination Chichen Itza.

Thomas had always believed that, at some point in the very distant past, ancient cultures across continents had mixed. The idea fascinated and motivated him and he’d been teaching the theory for years. Standard course reading for his 400-level World Survey class in each of the last ten semesters had included Nelson’s
The History of Civilization
, Stevens’
Comparative Ancient Cultures,
and Jerrod’s
Through the Past Darkly.
These books had been approved by the Curriculum Review Board years ago. When the article, “Similarities across Antediluvian Cultures—Math to Mythology” was published, Thomas had to get it to his students despite the fact that it had been published immediately after the quarterly Curriculum Review Board meeting. It was his sharing of this idea with his students that had contributed to his being fired.

By not accepting the widely believed theory that the cultures on the two continents had evolved separately, he could believe that when Moses referenced the Plumed Serpent he was referring to the well-known Mayan god and when he used the term Virrachocas, he meant the ancient visitors to the Olmec and Peruvians. Thomas was able to conclude that Moses had taken the treasure across the Atlantic to what is now Mexico. What better place to hide a valuable treasure than a place where crime was punishable by death?

Thomas leaned back in his chair and lifted his shoulders several times to relieve his aching neck. Moses may have had difficulties giving speeches, but he had created a brilliant riddle that the people of his day couldn’t have solved. The people of Moses’ day did not know that another continent existed across the Atlantic Ocean. If mariners had known, they had never put their knowledge in writing. But somehow Moses had known about it. He had assumed that future cultures would have the wherewithal and means to locate the western continent after finding and accurately solving his riddle.
You were right, Moses.

If Moses had taken the treasure across the Atlantic, then the three pyramids, laid out like the stars forming Orion’s belt, must be somewhere in Mexico, Guatemala, or Belize. But, by God, how would he ever find them? Despite his limited knowledge of pre-Columbian Aztec and Maya, he did know that there were thousands of mounds and pyramids in Mexico. Looking for three arranged in a specific pattern could take a lifetime.

Happy with the progress he’d made, Thomas decided to stop for the night. His sub-conscious mind needed to work on the riddle. It needed to ferment. He had narrowed the
where
in the riddle to Mexico, at least for the time being. He had further to go on the
what
part, but at least he had a good list of possibilities.

The next day, Thomas called his colleague, Don Ozgood, who specialized in Mayan studies at Arizona State. “Don, Thomas McAlister here. How are you?”

“Why, I’m fine, Thomas. How are you? I hope you’re not spending time dwelling on the Board’s decision. A right bad decision. They keep that up and they’re going to have faculty recruiting problems. You’re sorely missed, you know.”

“Thanks for the kind words, Don. Appreciate them. I’m not dwelling on the firing too much. Listen, I’m doing a favor for a friend and it involves pre-Columbian Maya. You know lay folks, they think we archeologists are specialists on the whole globe.”

Thomas continued, “She’s looking to find some old pyramid or mounds that her father took her to as a child. They’re somewhere in Central America. She said there were three of them in a row. Since I have nothing better to do, I agreed to help her find them. What I’m wondering is . . . are there any site maps, maps of any kind actually, that would show me all the known pyramids in Mexico? Is there such a thing? It didn’t exist for Egypt until the seventies.”

“Hmmm, let me think about that for a minute. It’s going to be tougher than you think. There are hundreds of pyramids down there. No, more like thousands, most of them unexcavated and not mapped. Ever since the technology to do a good mapping has been around, the Mexican government has put tight controls on site hunting. I’ll tell you how I’d approach it, which wouldn’t be the only way.”

“If it’s what you’d do, Don, it’s good enough for me.” “There were two people who did a pretty good job of site mapping before the Mexican government took control. One was Karl Ruppert, way back in 1934. He mapped around thirty sites. He took readings by sextant. Ruppert’s stuff is pretty close to accurate. The map is hard to get hold of, check the Tozzler Library at Harvard. They should be able to produce it for an old alum.”
“Sounds good, Don.”
“The next decent attempt was made by Rod Frates, a rich guy from Oklahoma. I think it was 1983 that he mapped about 110 sites, with an early global positioning system. He found more pyramids than Rupert and was more accurate, but he won’t share the maps with anyone.”
“Just my luck. My friend will be disappointed. Her quest might end before it even begins. Know of any way I could get a copy?”
“It just so happens I have a copy. I got it from a very good Mexican friend, who is employed by Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia in Mexico. I could loan you a copy, but I’d have to ask you not to show it to another soul. I’m not supposed to have it. If this ever got into the hands of looters, it would spell disaster for the sites. Like I said, most of them are unexcavated and only show up on this one map. The Mexican government has become very secretive in recent years, so much has already been taken from that country.
Thomas worked to hold back his excitement. “If you send me a copy, you have my word I’ll show it to no one. When I’m through with it, I’ll either send it back to you or destroy it, whichever you prefer, Don.”
“OK, good enough. I’ll have to make a copy first. Where do you want me to send it?”
“Well, I’m in Egypt right now. If you could send it next day air, to my hotel, that would be great. Send it COD, of course. Thomas McAlister c/o The Four Seasons. Cairo.”
“Simple enough. By the way, if the site she’s looking for is well known, it might be on a public map. There are four maps you should probably have anyway:
Guia Roji
is published annually by the Mexican Government; the second is the standard topographical map published by the Mexican Insituto Nacional de Estadistica,
Geografia e Informatica
; the third is a
National Geographic
map, 1989 version; and last one is a Pemex’s road atlas. Try them, you might get lucky.”
“That’s what I’ll do, Don. I appreciate this, I really do. Have you got any idea where I could get copies of these four other maps?”
From experience, he knew that each map would show significant differences in everything from topography and form to distances. He wasn’t looking for a challenge. He wanted the path of least resistance. Plus, every day equaled money, and money had become a finite resource.
Don audibly sighed. “Well, I wouldn’t do this for just anyone, Tommy, but listen . . . I don’t plan to return to Mexico for another six months. If you want, I can send you mine, but promise me you’ll return them.”
“Don, you have my word. I swear it. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this.”
“You’re onto something, Thomas. I can hear it in your voice. Listen, this may not matter to you but I thought you’d like to know. Washington’s up for a seat on the University Board next month. We all think it played into his decision about you. A few of the current Board members are in with Brown. You weren’t their favorite person. The whole stinking mess is costing Washington big-time credibility with the professorial body.”
At Arizona State, a department dean’s salary was doubled while serving on the Board. He would also receive other executive privileges, like a car allowance and country club membership.
“Thanks for letting me know, Don. That makes some things a little clearer.”
“No problem. I thought you should know. Good luck with whatever you’re after. Hope you find it.”
Next, Thomas placed a call to his old friend, Dick Hightower, Director of Celestial programs at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. Dick could provide data on Orion: statistics, angles, and other pertinent information.
A new discipline had recently emerged in anthropology, called astroarcheology. It combined the discipline of archeology with astronomy. Thomas liked the concept, but he was no expert in the field. What he did know about Orion was that it was a constellation in the northern sky representing a hunter, and that the three stars that comprised the hunter’s belt were called Orion’s Belt. The three pyramids, at Giza, had been erected to mirror it.
Luckily, Dick provided all the information Thomas needed off the top of his head. Actually, he knew far more than Thomas needed. He explained to Thomas how to draw Orion’s Belt to scale, with a ruler. The angle was obtuse, 175 degrees, almost a straight line.
Thomas stayed in Egypt two more days. He received and studied the maps from Don on the first day. After an entire day spent leaning over them, he was unable to find three pyramids that matched the structure of the stars in Orion’s Belt. There were many pyramids that came close, since ancient Mexican cultures built more than one pyramid in a complex, but none that matched.
The second day, he took Martha to lunch. Afterward, she drove him to the airport. He let her know that Dr. Sinistar had seemed overly curious.
“He was extremely helpful to me, but he was too curious and inquisitive. Wanting to see the whole text, first saying he needed it for the translations, then later asking out of sheer nosiness. He grilled me about what I was going to do next in Egypt, where I was going, who I’d be seeing. It was like he knew I’d found something. Do you know what I mean? Should I worry about him?”
Martha nodded. “He hates it when he thinks someone might know something about Egypt that he doesn’t know. It’s like a competition with him. I should’ve warned you. You don’t need to be concerned, though. I’ve never known him to be unethical. And he doesn’t get around that much anymore, since he lost the use of both of his legs.” Thomas felt better, but only slightly.
Disappointingly, he was leaving Egypt with no idea of what the treasure was. He’d told himself he didn’t care, that the important thing was
where
it was, but inwardly he did care. He did not relish the idea of going on a wild goose chase. He felt he should have been able to figure it out by now. He had a riddle that had been carved into an ancient Egyptian temple, by a man who was born in Egypt, in a language that he was fluent in, in a time period he was expert in. The missing ingredient had to be the religious aspect. It was impairing his ability to solve the riddle. Thomas was not a biblical scholar but he’d have to become one fast.
Martha dropped him at the airport and kissed him good-bye. She hadn’t asked what he was looking for, or where he was going next. Questions like that were taboo among archeologists. She’d seemed content with his pledge to call her to explain everything when it was all over. He checked his bags and boarded the plane. He carried on all of Don’s maps and the other Riddle material. He wanted to do two things on the plane: learn more about Moses’ life from the Bible, and sleep. He removed the Bible from his Filson bag. He’d planned to sleep until lunch and spend the afternoon studying, but, after reading a few pages of the Bible, he couldn’t put it down.
One of the greatest mysteries of all time is who wrote the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. One of the most widely believed theories was that Moses wrote some, or all, of them. Of the five books— Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—scholars believed that if Moses only wrote one of them, it was most likely Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy was a summary of Moses’ exploits and, in a way, a summary of the other four books. It was written in the first person, by someone who was very close to what had taken place. Because Deuteronomy mirrored the other books so closely, and because the author was so well informed, scholars believed it might have been written before the other four books.
Thomas decided to read all five books, front to back. He had read the Bible in the past, and had often referred to it as an historical document, but had never focused on Moses. He was an hour into the flight when he read the first few lines of
Exodus
. What he read startled him.
Exodus
was all about Moses’ life, his relationship with God, and with Egypt. But, there was an unexpected contradiction in the account . . . and a surprise.
Thomas reread
Exodus
, Chapter 20, several times. After returning from Mount Sinai and a conversation with God, Moses had proclaimed,
from memory
, the Ten Commandments to his followers, who had assembled before him. The ten he recited were those that are well known to every Jew and Christian today.