Chapter 20: Release

Major Darius Rashida had been a member of the Sons of the Viper all his life. However, he had avoided the trap of his father's fanaticism. Darius had entered the military immediately after graduating from Cairo College, the oldest college in Egypt.

Cairo College had been established in 1908. It had survived two world wars, terrorists, riots, and an unstable government. Darius and his fellow students were proud of their college. Many of them, including Darius, had broken the law to ensure their college would endure.

His exposure to different fields of thought, and his military training, had created a pragmatic frame of mind in the young army officer. He believed in the goals of the Sons and supported them in every way possible, but he didn't believe in dying for them. Living to fight another day was always best, for him and his men.

Darius's first action after the Imam left, was to create three teams. The sole purpose of the smallest team was to suppress fire from the snipers around the Great Pyramid. He didn't want them to attack the snipers. Just keep them from shooting, while staying under cover themselves. The second largest team would do the same thing for the snipers hidden around the Khafre Pyramid, and those hidden in the Necropolis. The largest group would attack the Khafre group of Order soldiers, under cover of the suppressing fire. It was a good plan, but its success depended on how determined the Order was to hold their ground, and Major Rashida was surprised at their determination.

He was surprised because he believed this was an elaborate ruse. The Major was pretty sure these men were intended to draw his men from where the true need for protection existed. For men simply trying to fool them, the Order was being very tenacious. Still, by occupying these Order soldiers, he was preventing them from going to the aid of anyone else. Darius was sure the Imam would find the true target, and they both would have done their job this day.

Major Rashida ordered a third attack, and surprisingly, drove the defenders back. It wasn't a rout. The Order was falling back in an organized manner, as if it had been preplanned. He worried that the Order had already accomplished their mission, and were preparing their escape, or were preparing an ambush.

"Press harder," Major Rashida yelled urgently. "Rout them. Don't let them escape."

The harder the Egyptian soldiers, and Muslim Brotherhood pressed, the quicker the Order retreated. Finally, they had the Order trapped. There was a jumble of stones to the southwest of the Khafre Pyramid, with open desert all around. The Order was trapped, and surrounded. There was no way for them to escape.

The thought flitted through Major Rashida's mind, wondering how all the men opposing them had fit in the jumble of stones. He dismissed the thought. More Order fighters must have been killed than he realized.

"Now," the Major called to his men, after catching his breath. "Let's finish this. Attack!"

His men opened fire, and advanced on the shelter. One rifle fired back, with one shot. His men continued firing, and advancing. They vaulted over the parapet of stones to get at the Order's soldiers, and found nothing.

Major Rashida walked through the stones and wondered where his enemy went. They had all seen them enter this jumble of rocks. They had seen the muzzle flashes of the rifles firing back, but they were gone.

Darius saw moisture that had collected in a depression in a rock. He squatted, and tentatively touched the moisture. It wasn't blood; it was cool, and clear. The liquid hadn't been exposed to the air for very long. The dry air of the desert sucked up moisture like a sponge. He sniffed it, but couldn't detect a smell.

Major Darius Rashida looked up, and saw words etched in stone. The top word, on a single line, said, 'Pray' in Arabic. He could tell that the stones had been freshly etched. The coloring of the stone in the etches was different than the surrounding stone.

He sneezed.

He couldn't figure out how the stone could have fresh etching, done in the middle of a battle. Who could do it? How could they do it? Why would they do it?

The lines following the admonition to pray chilled the Major. They said, 'Your world, as you know it, is about to change. Your only hope of salvation is to pray. May God be with you.' It was signed, simply, 'Seeker'.

He sneezed again, and he noticed as the men around him began sneezing, too. Darius wondered if he should take his enemy's advice. That is when he FELT the men around him. He began to pray, fervently.

Cody had led the soldiers through the tunnels, and finally stopped in a chamber. The exit had already been opened by Gabir. He could hear the last of Gabir's group going up the stairs. Cody urged the man behind him to hurry up the stairs, and to keep praying. By the third man, Cody's urging included mental instructions. By the tenth, Cody was no longer speaking, because his thoughts were much clearer, and carried much more information.

Jabari was the last man in line, and he paused beside Cody.

"Someone is behind me. I can hear someone walking back there. I didn't think they could get past that wall, where we entered the tunnel, that you slid back into place," Jabari said.

"They didn't get past it," Cody replied. "This is the group that entered the tunnels at the Sphinx. Can you feel them yet, with your mind? They're getting close."

"We need to go, Seeker," Jabari said urgently. "You go ahead of me! I'll cover you!"

"No, Jabari," Cody said calmly, and with a little smile. "I believe the leader of the Sons of the Viper is with this group. I have felt ... I think I need to meet him. In one of the futures, he is able to help reduce the loss of life. It is a dim hope, but would you risk your life to save millions of people?"

Jabari's jaw firmed as he turned to face the tunnel, and he said, "You will not wait alone, Seeker. I can't answer your question, because I can't imagine any future in which a dog of a Viper could be responsible for saving lives. All they have done, in all of our histories, is kill and destroy."

"I know, Jabari," Cody said soothingly.

Cody felt the last tenacious claw of the shroud being pulled from his mind by the antidote. He calmed Jabari, mentally, before reaching out to the group approaching the chamber. He examined their weapons, and set the knowledge of how to disable them aside. His prescience told him that a demonstration would be necessary if he had any chance of gaining their leader's support. The manner of the demonstration was what concerned Cody.

"Jabari, start up the stairs. Wait out of sight. If something happens to me, get to the top," Cody ordered, silently. "Gabir knows how to close the entrance from the outside. Make sure that he does. Then, go back to the Sphinx. The other entrance will close when the keys are removed from the lock. Gabir and my Mom will know what to do."

"No, Seeker," Jabari said aloud, in protest.

"This is my burden," Cody admonished him. "Now, go!" he ordered sternly.

Jabari was nearly out of sight, up the stairs, before he realized his feet were moving.

Cody set the nearly empty flask on the bottom stair, and turned to face the tunnel. He held the blazing staff up as if it were the beacon of truth.

A sneeze preceded the Lebanese soldier dressed in civilian clothes, as he rushed from the tunnel. He was waving his rifle around frantically, and his eyes looked wild.

"Peace," Cody's thought boomed through the soldier's mind. "Pray, and be at peace," the thought continued, and the soldier relaxed.

Two more Lebanese solders exited the tunnel, but slower than the first. They, too, had been engulfed by Cody's mental admonition, as had all their men in the party.

Colonel Baccus was the tenth man to file into the chamber at the foot of the stairs. The Imam was right behind him.

The first thing the Colonel did, after stepping around his men, was to fire his pistol at Cody.

The bullet struck low on the right side of Cody's chest. The force of the impact from the heavy caliber pistol threw Cody back, slamming him against the wall, before he crumpled to the floor, stunned.

The Colonel whirled on the Imam, his pistol aimed at the old man's chest.

"You brought us to this!" Juno Baccus accused, his voice shrill. "We're all going to die because of you! They've poisoned me. I can feel it. They've poisoned all of us. All of us are sneezing, and I can feel something trying to touch me. My mind itches, and I can feel the demons trying to reach me! All of us will die because you led us here," he raved.

Colonel Baccus began to squeeze the trigger, intending to execute the old man, when Cody began laughing. The Colonel whirled, wide-eyed in shock.

"Colonel Baccus," Cody said, as he carefully levered himself to his feet with the staff, still chuckling. "You have the curious ability to act without thinking. I wonder if that is a survival trait, or the sign of a lazy mind."

The Colonel squeezed the trigger on his pistol, and the click echoed in the chamber.

"Your pistol no longer works, Colonel," Cody explained calmly, fingering the hole in his jacket where the bullet had struck. "The primer in your bullets was the most volatile of the ingredients of your weapons. Removing one electron, from the chemical composition, was the easiest solution to make the compound inert. The primer will not explode, and your weapons will not work."

"Kill him," Colonel Baccus screamed, reaching for a knife.

The upraised staff in Cody's hand flared, and a nebulous creature was standing beside him. The men crowded back against the wall, and several weapons clicked, as men attempted to fire them.

Enki would tolerate no more foolishness from his children. This was a pivotal moment, and the childishness must stop.

Enki was taller than Cody, his stork-like head nearly touching the ceiling. Feathers draped his head, neck, and shoulders like a mane of hair. Broad, heavily-muscled shoulders and chest indicated a need for flight in his evolution. His wings ended in three thick, feather-like digits that were clearly articulate enough to use tools. Cody remembered the three jointed finger he had seen in the tomb, and was saddened. Enki's feet looked like claws that could grip a limb, or the ground when running.

"You will cease the violence," crashed through their minds.

"The demon," Colonel Baccus screamed in terror before turning, and running back into the tunnel.

"His mind has been damaged by hate and violence," Enki's thoughts flowed through their minds. "Leave him for he is lost."

Each of them felt like crying over the sadness they felt in those thoughts, from an alien, grieving at the loss of a human soul.

"I am Enki, of the Anunna," the apparition announced in their minds. "I am the architect of the shroud that has held mankind in thrall for many millennia. Your nature is as God intended, but my shroud has hampered your progress. My brothers instructed your fathers to stop the spread of the knowledge of the gods. Their meaning has been lost to you in history. Your fathers assumed the knowledge was technology, when it fact, it was the shroud. My Seeker has released the antidote to the shroud. You are feeling the stirrings of your free minds. It is too late to stop the spread of the antidote. Do not waste this opportunity."

The apparition turned its head, and looked at Cody, weariness clear in its stance.

"I have used the last of my energy, my Seeker," Enki thought tiredly, though all of them could hear the words in their minds. "I have been in this realm for far too long. I pray that my actions and efforts are looked on with favor when I am judged. If not, I may see you again, in another form, in this realm. If I am judged worthy, I may see you in another phase of God's plan, in a higher realm. Now, you must light the way for your brethren."

The image of the last Anunna on earth faded away.

The light from the staff dimmed, coinciding with the absence of the alien. Cody knew that it wasn't simply a trick of the eyes.

"Imam Almasi," Cody said, his voice loud in the chamber, and commanding everyone's attention. "Are you truly an Imam, or is your position simply a role that you play in order to lead the Sons of the Viper?" his question demanding an answer.

Niu holstered the pistol that he forgot was in his hand. His mind was stunned. The leader of the Order had been shot, but he hadn't pulled the trigger, and the Order leader hadn't died.

'The future is not written in stone, ' echoed through Imam Almasi's mind.

'My vision of Baccus pointing a pistol at me had been true, ' Niu thought. 'and the leader of the order prevented his intended goal, ' followed on the heels of the first thought. He hoped that it was his own thought. The fact that it could be someone else's thought, frightened him.

"Every decision provides the opportunity for a new future," Cody said aloud, as if answering Niu's darting thoughts. "We are allowed to choose our future, but it is up to us to have the wisdom to choose wisely. I ask you again, Imam Almasi. Are you an Imam for your people? Are you a true teacher for your religion, or are you the head of an organization attempting to throttle mankind's progress?"

The questions registered with Niu, this time. He knew they had been asked before, but it was hard to concentrate. It was difficult to focus on what was important, and it took a moment for him to process the questions. It took longer to process the answer. He felt like his mind was on a pinnacle, and could tip in either direction. He knew that the decision he made would be the most important decision of his life.

"I am Imam Almasi," Niu announced in a hoarse voice. "I am a teacher of my people," he then said, in a clearer voice, "I will lead my people."

"Then teach them to pray," Cody commanded. "You, and they, are changing. You are becoming the vessel that God meant you to be. The transition can be troubling, but prayer is the key to surviving the transition without mental, or physical, damage."

"I will, Seeker," Imam Almasi conceded, bowing his head slightly in acknowledgment.