“Indeed. Do you think there’s anything else in the Library, something you might have missed?”
“Why?” She dragged her eyes away from the top of his head, which was reflecting the spotlight above the table.
“Because of what’s happening on Mars,” he said. “Two of the crew disappeared behind a door, and we haven’t heard from them since. There’s obviously a link between the two places, and the books don’t mention it. So maybe there’s something in the Library, something architectural? If we found it, it might help us find a way to get them out, or at least find out for ourselves what’s behind the door.”
Gail thought to herself for a moment. There had been one big puzzle, one that even the Professor had been stumped by. She looked into her wine, as if it would help her decide whether or not she would share this information with Henry.
“What is it?” he asked.
He’s not the enemy, she told herself. He just wants to help those poor people on Mars. And he’s always treated you well, hasn’t he?And it’s not a bad thing that he’s obviously attracted to you – if anything you should be flattered. When was the last time George showed this much interest in your work? In you? She held the stem of the glass and moved it round in circles, the centripetal force causing the wine to rise up the sides of the glass. Or was it centrifugal? Either way, I have to get out of here, and this is my chance.
She looked across the table and into his eyes.
“There is something we never solved. The contents of the Library were so incredible that the place itself was overlooked. Over the last few years it has been revisited, but never with the resources it fully deserved. Remember, it’s just a big empty room, now. It’s not even that interesting to look at, just a hole underground.”
Henry urged her to continue.
“Well, I don’t know how much you know about the original dig,” she explained, “but we pretty much forced our way in using a big drill.” He nodded implicitly. “OK, you know that, because the engineers were your guys, weren’t they?”
“Well, not mine, but certainly on the same payroll, yes.”
“Anyway, they cut a big hole in the wall, which has been used as the door ever since. There was talk of sealing the hole with a submarine-style hinged door, but it was easier to just move everything inside to a better location to preserve it; once the seal was broken, the environment inside the Library became environmentally unstable, open to the changing humidity of the outside world; everything was at risk, whether we closed the door again or not.”
“So if you cut a hole in the wall, where was the original, Egyptian door?”
“Exactly.” She let the word hang over the table like an unwelcome guest for several moments before continuing. “At first, before we got inside, it was something we had wondered. But inside the antechamber, all the other walls were bedrock. Only the one we drilled through had anything on the other side. Once we got inside, the contents of the Library blew us away, but even so it didn’t take long to work out that there was no obvious door.”
“So it’s never been found?”
“Not just that,” she had a sparkle in her eye. “We had so much to study from the Library and so much preservation work to undertake, it would have been scientifically irresponsible to uncover anything else before we had reasonably dealt with the initial finds first.”
“Initial finds? I thought you said you emptied the Library. What else are you expecting to uncover?”
“Think about it: if we found the Library by digging through the wall, we must have missed the main entrance, and any other rooms in between. Because of its location underground, and our searches above ground, the main entrance has to be some way off. So somewhere down there is something more than just a Library. I believe, and so did the Professor, that the Library held the main treasure trove, the hidden secrets of Amarna. But I also believe that once we find the door inside the Library, we’ll find something that Egyptologists have been trying to find for over a hundred years.”
Henry looked at her blankly, and she groaned. “You really don’t know much about this, do you?” she said rolling her eyes. “Nefertiti! The Library is part of the tomb complex of Nefertiti!”
“Incredible,” he said with genuine surprise. “So the Library is only part of an as yet unexplored tomb at Amarna, and you believe you can get inside?”
“I think that with the correct tools and equipment, we can. Do you think it’s worth a try?”
He thought for a few seconds. “I do. There’s obviously a massive difference in the two sites, in that one predates the other by a couple of hundred thousand years, and happens to be on another planet,” he laughed dryly. “However, they are also strikingly similar: they both contain the only known uses of the Aniquilus symbol, the Stickman, and they’re both ‘tombs’ underground. Finding out the secrets of how to open doors in the Library may help with Mars.” He curled his bottom lip and looked down. “And besides, it’s all we have to go on, so it’s better than sitting here doing nothing.”
Now, Gail, ask him now. Her idea to contact George had been darting in and out of her mind for hours, forming and reforming dozens of times from plausible scenarios to preposterous long-shots. Finally, in the last few minutes and moments, it had formulated into what could conceivably be described as a ‘plan’. She still had the memory stick in the envelope, but now she had a shot at something far more likely to succeed. She had one opportunity to put it into action.
“We can go to the Library,” she started. “But we’ll need unrestricted access, with machines and electronic equipment; that kind of thing is controlled by the Tourism and Antiquities Police, in conjunction with the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It takes weeks, months, sometimes even years to get that granted, with all the necessary paperwork.”
“Unfortunately, we don’t have that kind of time; and with al-Misri gone, I have no contacts there,” Henry said sadly, scratching his chin.
Gail swigged her wine and swallowed hard; deception wasn’t her forte, though perhaps the wine would help.
“I have an old friend in Cairo who can get us in, bypassing all of that red tape, for a moderate ‘donation.’” She looked over Henry’s shoulder as if in thought, before continuing. “If you send him an email, saying you need urgent access to the site and can be as generous as needs be, he should get that sorted. To make it plausible, you’ll need to pretend you’re doing some research, and need to check an inscription inside the Library.”
“Is that all I would need to tell him?” Henry asked.
“I’ll give you a picture from my tablet. You can attach that and say it relates to your studies. That should do the trick easily.”
He pondered the idea for a few moments, then nodded approvingly. “I don’t think we can reasonably wait even several days, so if it could work and he gets us in no questions asked, it’s got to be worth trying. Otherwise, I imagine they’ll just force their way in. But these guys know the importance of being discrete, so they’ll appreciate that. I’ll check it with Mallus in the morning, and we’ll get the picture on my laptop and send the email.”
She almost suggested they send it straight away, but stopped herself in time. Best not to seem too eager in case it gives me away, she thought. Instead, she finished her wine, and offered her glass to Henry for another refill.