CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

"Your sisters are beautiful, just like you," said Elena. "You are definitely identical, yet there are subtle nuances that make you unique."

"Thank you," smiled Ellie. "I always thought Emelia was the prettiest, Maddie the smartest, and Mags the most adventurous."

"And you? Which one are you?"

"I think most of the time I'm lost. Until I reconnected with Leif," she grinned.

"You're a lovely couple. Are you the oldest of the quads?"

"Yes. It's me, Maddie, Emelia, and Magnolia. Of course, we're only separated by a few minutes each, so I'm not sure birth order matters for us."

"Beautiful names for beautiful girls," she said to the woman as the SUV bounced along through the streets of Luxor.

"What about you and," she jerked a thumb to the front seat and Major. Elena smiled at her.

"I'm not sure. We had an amazing night together, at my suggestion, by the way. I know he'll leave, and I have to stay. I have to finish my work here."

"Didn't you say that they were keeping you from a dig? I mean, if that's really what you wanted to do, maybe you could join May on our team."

"Maybe. She's actually mentioned that a few times. What about you and Leif? You seem desperately in love."

"We are. We were, and we are. It's a long story, but we made some stupid mistakes when we went our separate ways after high school. We were young and inexperienced and thought we knew everything."

"Didn't we all," laughed Elena.

"It was a surprise when it was his team coming to meet me to find our asset, which I had only just learned was my sister."

"That must have been awful," said the woman, grabbing her hand.

"When you're a multiple, there is a piece of you in each of the others. You feel when they're sick, when they're happy, when they're sad. I always knew when something was wrong with them. I knew that something was going on with Mags lately, and as it turned out, it was because she and Walker had been seeing one another again.

"We've all gotten so busy with our careers; we've gotten away from the things that our parents instilled in us. Family first. Sisters forever."

"That's easy to do," said Elena. "After my father died, all I wanted to do was pick up where he left off. My mother wasn't happy about that. She thought I should marry a nice Egyptian boy and have a lot of children."

"But you didn't."

"No, I didn't. Turns out that my mother had been seeing someone the entire time she and my father were married."

"I'm sorry, Elena."

"No, don't be. I wanted to hate him. I wanted to hate her, but the truth is, she's happy with him. Happier than I've ever seen her. I think when she married my father, it was because her family thought it was a good match. She thought it would be exciting to marry a man who would travel the world on adventures. Except my father never left Egypt except to see me in London.

"I wanted to hate her, but she and my stepfather are happy. He owned a chain of grocery stores here and retired not long ago. They live near the sea now, waiting for me to give them grandchildren."

"Do you want children?" asked Ellie.

"I do. I didn't think I did, but recently, something has changed for me." Ellie nodded, looking toward the front seat and the big, wide body of Major.

"He's a good man, Elena. I don't know what will happen with the two of you, but he's a very good man."

"I know. I knew that right away. The fact that he made me catch on fire was only an added bonus." The women burst into laughter, causing the men to turn and stare at them.

"Sorry. Girl talk," laughed Ellie.

Pulling up to the guards at the gate, Elena smiled from the backseat, handing the guard her identification.

"Good morning, Dr. Fayek. Which tomb are you going to?"

"We'll be visiting Queen Sitre's tomb," she said, smiling.

"That's a popular one," smiled the guard. Elena cocked her head, staring at him. "Oh. I mean, there was a group out here at six a.m. to get in. Someone important. We got the call that we were to let them in."

"Have they left?" asked Leif.

"Yes, sir. They left about an hour ago."

"Are you certain they didn't touch anything? Damage anything?" asked Elena.

"I don't believe so," said the guard. "We have everything on camera now."

"Thank you," said Elena as they drove off.

"Good to know about the cameras," said Brix. "I'll make sure we put a freeze on those while we're down there. Where is Queen Sitre's mummy?"

"The mummy is at the museum in Cairo," said Elena. "The conditions out here are too harsh to leave them here. We have dummies of the mummies." They all grinned at her, and she laughed, shaking her head.

"That makes sense, though. If they were left out here, it could be a nightmare," said Sebastian.

"So much has been stolen, lost, broken, sold. It's terrible," said Elena. "The fact that the world knows about Tutankhamun is remarkable. It was totally accidental that his tomb was untouched and found. Every time I see a monument damaged, a historic site or building destroyed, my heart cracks knowing that Egypt suffered the same fate because of people who didn't want to honor her history."

"Burying someone with gold, jewels, diamonds, and other goods is a pretty tough thing for a starving man to ignore," said Alistair. "I'm not saying it's okay, but it's a temptation."

"I agree. In hindsight, they should have hidden the tombs, not just boobie-trapped them. I think they thought that the fear of the gods' retribution would be enough. I don't think they realized that not everyone in Egypt believed as they did."

"You know, I look at all this rock, sandstone, and sand. Mounds and mounds of sand and think that you're always looking for a needle in a haystack," said Garr.

"That's exactly what it's like," she smiled. "Every person, poor or rich, was usually buried with something. Even the smallest of figures, the shabtis, could be just an inch or two high. Some were larger, more elaborate, but others were carved from common stone or wood if you were poor."

"How many did Tut have?" asked Brix, truly curious.

"Four hundred and thirteen," smiled Elena. "Three hundred and sixty-five for each day of the year, thirty-six overseers for every week, weeks were ten days long in Tut's time. And twelve monthly overseers. They were made from silver, lapis, jade, and marble. All intricately carved."

"I can only imagine what Carter must have thought when he opened that tomb," smiled Brix. "I mean, to be digging all that time, and then, suddenly, there it was. The biggest find in history."

"It's something every archaeologist dreams of," smiled Elena.

"Elena, you mentioned the numbers of shabtis. Are the Egyptians tied to numbers? I mean, do they believe they have magical benefits or significance?" asked Ellie.

"Ancient Egyptians definitely did. Two, three, four, or seven, and their multiples were all considered sacred to them. The basic symbol for plurality among the ancient Egyptians was the number three: even the way they wrote the word for "plurality" in hieroglyphics consisted of three vertical marks. Gods were often written about in groups of threes or triads, signifying their importance. Like the god Atum when he became three with Shu and Tefnut, and then Horus, Osiris, and Isis. Even beatings were often delivered three times for crimes committed to prove the importance of the number.

"Other examples are similar with four, five, and seven. Seven was considered the symbol of perfection and completeness."

"What did you say?" asked Alistair.

"Seven. It was considered the symbol for perfection and completeness."

"Like Princess Farah is the seventh daughter. I got a text from back home. The Saudi family knows nothing of what she's doing and, obviously, doesn't condone it. But she is the seventh daughter of the seventh wife of the seventh son." Leif looked back at the others as he parked the vehicle.

"Oh, shit. She thinks she's completing a circle or legacy or something."