CHAPTER EIGHT

"Welcome to Luxor," said the tour guide, waving his arm toward the city. They were in an open-air bus with a canopy to protect them from the sun. When they'd checked into the hotel, they decided it would be better to remain together and booked the tour as a trip for old college friends.

"Luxor includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of Thebes. Currently, our population is about one point three million people, give or take," he laughed. "We pride ourselves in that our city is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world.

"We are known as the world"s greatest open-air museum, as the ruins of the Egyptian temple complexes at Karnak and Luxor stand within the modern city."

"Wait, the ruins are in the city itself?" asked Brix.

"Yes, my friend. It's wonderful to stroll by them any time, day or night. Across the River Nile lie the monuments, temples, and tombs of the west bank Theban Necropolis. We'll be visiting the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens."

The men sent signals to one another, worrying about the possibility of lives lost if someone were to hit one of the sites within the city limits.

"As I mentioned earlier, Luxor was the ancient city of Thebes, the capital of Upper Egypt during the New Kingdom. The city of Amun, later to become the god Amun-Ra, came from this place."

"Ra, who fought the snake god?" asked Garr.

"That's very good," smiled the man. "Yes, that's right."

"Thebes was also known as the city of the 100 gates. Of course, most of those gates are now destroyed. The importance of the city started as early as the 11th Dynasty." Their guide continued to drone on about the city, all the while the team making mental notes and signing to one another possible concerns about what was happening.

"The Pharaohs of the New Kingdom, in their expeditions tothe Kingdom of Kush, in today"s northern Sudan, and to the lands of Canaan, Phoenicia, and Syria saw the city accumulate great wealth and rose to prominence, even on a world scale."

"Wait, can you back up, sorry," said Forrest. "The Pharaohs went into Kush first, right?"

"Yes, that's right. They controlled the lands in the north of Sudan. Then the Kush took control of this land for a period of time. Very few people even know of it or speak of it, but it's true. The Egyptians took the land back but all but decimated the Kush people. They've disappeared."

"I wonder if they really have," whispered Ellie.

"I'm with you. I think maybe our Sudanese kidnappers are gearing for a takeover again, or someone using their story," said Leif.

"Following the Muslim conquest of Egypt, part of the Luxor Temple was converted from a church to a mosque. This mosque is currently known as the Abu Haggag Mosque today."

"Sorry, can you repeat that? The Luxor Temple is still partly a mosque?" asked Major.

"Yes, that's right," smiled the man. "Our first stop will be the thirteenth-century tomb of Thaw-Irkhet-If, the overseer of the mummification shrine at the temple of Mut and his wife."

There were so many people walking around the ancient sites it made Leif and his team absolutely ridden with anxiety. Had it not been for the calm presence of Ellie, they would have left, never to return. But filing through the crowds gave them all a chance to see who else was there.

There were tour groups from other nations — German, Japanese, French, and Greek. There were school children and university students. Occasionally, you saw lone tourists walking through with private tour guides such as theirs. But so far, no one that appeared to be Sudanese.

When they left the site, their guide took them to another that had not been completely revealed as yet. The site at Aten was thought to be three-thousand-four-hundred years old.

"Aten is the largest known city from ancient Egypt to be unearthed to date, and we haven't even begun to reveal all her secrets," said the guide. "It is believed that there could be thousands, if not millions, of treasures hidden below the city."

"Treasures?" frowned Sebastian. "What kind of treasures?"

"All the items we would find in tombs or graves. Gemstones, gold, turquoise furniture, everything!" he said excitedly. "One day, the world will know the importance of this city and the other lost cities of Luxor."

"Something is here," said Ellie. "Something is beneath Aten or believed to be beneath Aten, and maybe it's important. How do we find out what it is?"

"I think we need an expert."

"Hi, Thomas. May, nice to see you," said Leif, staring at the tablet. The others were circled behind him in their chairs.

"Hello, everyone. Hi, Ellie," she said, smiling and waving. "How can I help you?"

"Well, we need some information on what could possibly be found at Aten, near Luxor," said Leif.

"Holy cow, you guys really want the holy grail, don't you?" she smiled.

"It's important, May. Really, really important. Why would the Sudanese want this area?" asked Ellie.

"We've been down this road once before. Someone was stealing the artifacts belonging to the Sudanese people, formerly known as the Kush."

"They still exist?" asked Brix.

"In a matter of speaking, yes. Their ancestors exist. TheKushite Empire, or simplyKush, was an ancient kingdom centered along the Nile Valley in what is now northern Sudan and southern Egypt.

"The entire region was considered an early cradle of civilization. Kerma emerged as the dominant political force between 2450 and 1450 BC, controlling the Nile Valley in an area nearly as large as Egypt. Most of the area came under Egyptian rule between 1550–1070 BC. Later, they established a new kingdom, which is now known as Sudan. There was even a Kushite king of Egypt at one time."

"What caused their downfall?" asked Garr.

"What is every downfall caused by? Greed, war, climate. They relied on their trade of gold, and when that was robbed from them, they had nothing left to barter with. They were ruled by Egypt, Macedonia, the Romans, finally, back to the Kush. Unfortunately, the culture disintegrated and basically was enveloped into Nubia."

"May, is it possible that some of that gold survived all these thousands of years? Could it still be in Luxor or Aten?" asked Leif.

"It's highly possible and highly likely. They're finding new things all the time in that area. It's very exciting if you're an archaeologist. Egypt, specifically the areas of Cairo and Luxor were lost to the sand for so long. Now, with the invention of Lidar and other scanning tools, they're finding all sorts of interesting things.

"But here's what worries me. If someone is searching for something that belonged to the Kushites, it could be as harmful as it is revealing. The Kushites traded with the Egyptians long before they tried to control one another. Just because something is discovered there doesn't mean it was stolen. I would leave this dig to the experts."

"That's the problem. We can't really do that," said Ellie. "We think the people who took Mags were involved somehow with this, and we think they want to create internal strife and possibly war for Egypt, leaving it vulnerable to the Sudan."

"I don't know," said May, frowning, shaking her head. "I'm not sure how that would be possible. As much chaos as there is in Egypt, it's still a very powerful, very wealthy country. We're talking GDP power of trillions vs billions. Inflation in the Sudan is at almost fifty percent, their reserves are in the millions, whereas the Egyptian reserves are in the billions. I'm just not sure how they could survive that."

"I see," said Leif.

"Leif, let me stress this. All that may seem insurmountable, but where there is treasure, gold, antiquities, anything that might give someone sole control and power, there is motivation, and motivation is a powerful thing. You all know that."

"That's true," said Leif. "Thank you, May."

"My pleasure. I wish I could be there with you all, but you could throw a rock in any direction and hit an archaeologist. In fact, I'm going to send you the names of two people there now who might be able to help you."

"That would be great, thank you," smiled Ellie.

"Come home safe. All of you. You're missed."

"What now?" asked Forrest.

"I think we have dinner, and tomorrow, find May's contacts and see if anything strange has been happening at these dig sites. If someone is seeking evidence in favor of Sudanese control, we need to know about it."