Chapter 10

Rachael held a meeting with Mia, Mister Gamil, and Johnny; late in the morning of the day after the trip to Nubia. Spread out on the top of the picnic table was a map of the tunnels drawn on two large sheets of easel paper. Mia had done a masterful job as she had even drawn surface features in dotted lines.

“Mister Gamil, I want you to have a heavy steel fence and gate installed at the end of the main corridor, right here,” she said as she stabbed her index finger down on the map.

“Then,” she continued, “I want one here to block access to these side tunnels. Once we get the gates in place, I am going to announce this find and request permission to continue the project. The Ministry of Antiquities can open the front section to other researcher or the public but access to the rest needs to be strictly controlled, preferably by me.”

Then she had a thought and snapped her fingers. “I am going to call Doctor Drake my Department Chair and invite him here. He usually visits every dig anyway. I’ll have him approach the Ministry of Antiquities; he has good rapport with Minister al-Anani.”

Johnny had a thought too.

“I’ll bet your dad could help, Rache,” he said.

Rachael gave him a funny look.

“What do you know about my father?” Rachael asked.

“My mother works for NASA and they are friends, he’s the one who got me this job,” Johnny replied.

She looked at him incredulously.

“And you just now thought to tell me that!” She yelled angrily.

Johnny recoiled from her anger. It was as if he was reliving their first meeting. He stood up and said through gritted teeth, “we need to have this conversation in private.”

“Fine,” she spat, and she stormed into her trailer, Johnny stomping right behind her.

The others at the table were looking back and forth at Johnny and Rachael as if they were watching a ping-pong match.

“Those two are like gasoline and matches,” Mia said.

Inside the trailer Johnny and Rachael squared off.

“Why would your father getting me this job bother you? I am as good a medic as you could find. Not to mention I’ve done everything you asked of me. I haven’t done anything wrong except maybe fall in love with your suspicious, ill-natured, up tight ass,” he snarled.

He probably should have gotten up and stormed out in righteous indignation, but when he saw her lip quiver as if she were about to cry, he reached over and took her hand.

“I’m sorry Rachael,” he said, his voice softer, “but part of my job was to watch out for you and keep you safe because kidnapping is a cottage industry in some Arab countries. I didn’t think I could do that unless I was inconspicuous, and you knowing my purpose might jeopardize that.”

She sniffled and squeezed his hand.

“You should have told me Johnny. I love you too, and I trust you, but my father spends way too much time minding my business. I can’t help but think he hired you to spy on me for him.”

She didn’t sound angry any longer, only sad and disappointed. That made Johnny feel like an ass, even though he hadn’t done anything wrong. This was one of the times his empathy was more a curse than a gift.

“If that was his plan it isn’t working because I haven’t talked to him since the conversation at my parents’ house. There was a preprogramed satellite phone among my supplies, but I’ve never used it,” Johnny said.

And then, as with many couples after a fight, there were apologies and make up sex. One minute they were at odds, the next they were tangled up like Olympic Wrestlers.

Then Rachael was on her knees, her hair in Johnny’s fist, his dick in her hand on the way to her mouth.

“No one has ever treated me like this,” she moaned as she gobbled him down.

“That’s because no one has ever loved you as much as me,” he replied as he tugged her hair just the way she liked.

That night they did not dream, instead, they had a collective nightmare ... and it began like this...

It was early morning and Alarec, Ruth and Li Na were mucking out stalls at the cult’s stables. It was a duty every priest drew once a week. Kopi was standing at the stable’s entrance dressed in a pristine white robe laughing at her husband and wives. Standing around Kopi was an escort of four armed priests.

“I am so sorry I can’t help you,” Kopi said, and she didn’t mean a word of it, “but the Amunaten wants me to visit my mother today.”

Alarec growled and lunged toward her with a shovel full of dung laced straw. Kopi squealed and jumped back.

“You will pay for this tonight, junior wife,” Ruth said.

Kopi shivered, “Yes, senior wife,” she said.

An hour later a fuming Princess Henuttawy stood in front the gates of Luxor Palace arguing with a royal servant.

“I’m sorry Princess but you will have to come back another day to see the Queen, she is resting and can’t be disturbed,” said the smug looking functionary.

“By whose order?” asked Kopi.

“The Hêtshepsu made the decision on the advice of the court physician,” he answered, as he shut the wicket door in her face.

Kopi stood in front of the gate for a few minutes and regained her composure, just as the Amunaten taught her. She sighed and turned her escorts.

“Let’s go home,” she said dejectedly.

Only she never made it.

When Kopi didn’t return in time for lunch, her family began to worry. They waited one more hour then went to the Amunaten with their concerns. Thirty minutes later a heavily armed platoon of warrior priests led by Kopi’s husband and wives moved briskly down the Avenue of Temples.

The platoon moved at a trot all the way to Luxor Palace where they encountered the same supercilious servant as Kopi.

“Princess Henuttawy was here but she has been gone for hours,” he said dismissively.

His tone changed radically when Alarec’s big hand shot forward and grabbed him by his scrawny neck and lifted him off the ground until they were eye to eye.

“Which way did she go?” Alarec growled.

Gagging and gasping the servant pointed back up the avenue.

Alarec grunted and lowered him to the ground.

“If something has happened to our wife, you are going to die a horrible death for turning her away,” Alarec promised.

The servant gulped, nodded and hurriedly slammed closed the wicket door.

Alarec spread his troops out across the avenue, and they looked for anything out of the ordinary. They found it in an alley next to the Temple of Sobek in the form of blood in between the paving stones. It wasn’t a lot of blood because someone had spread sand across the stones, but it was fresh. And it was all the reason Alarec needed to pound on the heavy doors of the Temple of the Crocodile with the haft of his battle axe.

The door swung open revealing a dimly lit but richly furnished interior. Beyond the door stood a man wearing brass chainmail over a green tunic. He held a round shield made of the tough hide of a crocodile in his left hand and a short javelin in his right. A green painted metal helmet in the shape of a crocodile’s skull protected his head. Behind him stood six similarly dressed soldiers.

“Ah,” said the man, “we’ve been expecting you Priests of Amun. The High Priest of Sobek bid you to enter by yourself. You are safe here and your soldiers can rest in the shade while you visit.”

Alarec was having none of the Captain’s bonhomie. He rested the head of his axe on the ground and leaned toward the Soldier of Sobek.

“Give me Priestess Henuttawy or prepare to die,” he growled.

The Captain held up his hands in a placating gesture.

“She is unharmed and waiting for you in the Sanctuary, right this way,” the Captain said as he gestured into the Temple.

Alarec looked at Ruth curiously. Ruth gave an affirmative nod, so he followed the Captain. Ruth and Li Na fell in line and the six guards flanked them as they walked into the temple’s inner sanctum.

The sanctuary was not as dimly lit as the rest of the temple and even more richly furnished. The walls were hung with large intricately woven tapestries from Nubia and the floors covered with thick rugs from Canaan. Another twenty or so soldiers were arrayed around the wall of the large room.

The trio of Amun-Ra Priests were marched around a large throne-like double chair that sat on a dais overlooking a large pool. Around the edge of the pool huge crocodiles lounged lazily. They were kept near the water by a low wall that surrounded the pool. Above the pool a large section of the roof was missing. The opening provided sunlight for the crocodiles.

When the members of the Cult of Amun-Ra cleared the edge of the dais, they stopped dead in their tracks and Ruth gave a strangled cry. Their shock and surprise were caused by the sight of Kopi sitting in the lap of the corpulent Supreme Priest of Sobek, a goblet of wine held precariously in her hand. Her right breast was exposed, and the priest’s pudgy fingers were pawing at the large orb.

Alarec growled deep in his throat and took a step toward the fat priest. Instantly half a dozen spear points were aimed at his chest. Ruth laid a cautioning hand on his forearm.

The priest smiled smarmily.

“Welcome the Temple of Sobek. My I introduce you to the new High Priestess of Sobek and my consort, Henuttawy.”

Kopi stared glassy eyed at Alarec and jerkily nodded her head.

“I no longer serve Amun and I am no longer married to you,” she slurred in a haughty voice.

The fat priest chortled, “she has chosen the better man and better God. So be on your way foreigners, lest you end up in Sobek’s Pond like the four fools who were holding my consort captive.”

Alarec drew himself up to his full height and glared at the rotund priest and his former wife.

“So be it,” Alarec said in a voice laced with venom. “You can have the traitorous fickle bitch. But you will have to answer to the Amunaten for the loss of his priests.”

Then Alarec spun on his heels and stalked out without so much as a backwards glance. Dumbfounded, Ruth and Li Na scurryed to keep up with his long purposeful strides.

Hala interrupted the dream when she woke everyone up with her thrashing around in the bed and yelling in her sleep. Johnny woke up Hala and held her until she stopped shivering and moaning.

Once Hala had calmed down she was able to tell them her part of the dream.

... I was turned away from the palace by some fool of Inumut’s, so my escort and I turned around and headed home. We made it as far as the Temple of Sobek when a child ran out between buildings crying for help. When we followed him into the alley, we set upon by a big group of men wearing disguises.

They quickly overpowered us and killed the other priests. Then they dragged me and the bodies of my escorts into the temple. Tresumut, the High Priest of Sobek, forced me to drink this bitter tasting liquid that made me disoriented. I remember them throwing the bodies of our fellow priests in to crocodile pool and being forced to drink more. After that is a blank.

Hala cried when Rachael explained what they had observed.

“I don’t remember any of that!” she exclaimed.

“Calm down Sweetie and let’s figure out how to get you out of there,” Mia said.

It was only natural that the rescue plan come from Johnny, but ... and it was a big but, could he take the plan back to Alarec in a dream and if he could, would he be in time?

Johnny questioned Hala about her Kopi memory of coming into the temple by a side door. He had questions for Mia about Li Na’s skill with a bow and if any other priests were as skilled. He had a plan worked out in his head, but he kept it to himself for fear that Hala would accidently reveal it to the obviously drugged Kopi.