Two Sons From Egypt

<<>> Prologue <<>>

            Ambrose Lansing pushed his glasses onto his nose, blinking back the sweat that dripped down his brow and into his eyes. He stared into the gaping mouth of the tomb. “Find anything else?” he hollered.

            William Hayes did not answer, instead Ambrose’s own words echoed back from the dark cavern. He stood and rubbed the small of his back, turning from his perch atop the slope of Sheikh ‘Abd el Kurneh to squint through the blinding light at the still lovely ruins of the temple of Deir El Bahri. At this height the temple appeared carved from the very mountain that rose behind it, a lasting tribute to Egypt’s first female pharaoh, Hatshepsut.

            Even after all these years she was still an enigma. Yet one of her officers puzzled him even more, his relation to the Pharaoh still unanswered.

            He and Hayes had already excavated the man’s first unused tomb that boasted the rare privilege of lying beneath the Pharaoh’s temple court. His second was perched above the temple on the slopes of this same mountain, yet was never finished, nor was his body ever found as he had apparently fled Egypt, according to ancient texts, at 40 years of age.

            While excavating his second tomb Hayes had discovered this secret cache dug into the cliff-side, offering the strangest piece of all to the puzzle of this man’s life.

            A light flickered in the mouth of the chasm. “Well, are you coming or not?” William’s voice anxiously rose from the depths as if from the nether world.

            Ambrose glanced a last time across the palm fringed Nile to the metropolis of Thebes, the glinting glass of modern buildings mixed with the crumbling spires and pylons of the ancient kingdom. The sight offered him a sense of comfort before succumbing to the cavern of the dead. Pushing his glasses onto his nose, he adjusted his knapsack and carefully climbed down the rickety ladder into the yawning depths below. Once on solid ground he peered about in the dusty silence and involuntarily coughed, hearing his echo as if someone mocked him. He stood breathlessly still, waiting, fearing at any moment an unseen hand might reach from behind and latch onto his shoulder.< body="">