“What’s the significance of that, sorry?” said Ella.
“The Ptolemaic Kingdom was a period of Hellenistic rule in Egypt.”
“Helen who?” Zara said.
“Hellenistic,” said Eva. “It means Greek.”
“So say Greek if you mean Greek.”
“Thanks for your input Zara,” Eva said. “I’ll be sure to publish an article in the American Journal of Archaeology about how we all have that wrong and be sure to change it.”
“You’re welcome.”
“So what was so special about Helen’s Greece?” Caleb said, winking.
Eva returned his smile. “This is when Egypt starts to change from the one we all think of, pyramids and mummies and pharaohs, and slowly starts to shift, first to Greek culture and then into Roman and Byzantine. It’s a critical time in the history of Egypt and Cleopatra was right there front and center during the pivotal point.”
“When did she die?” Mason asked.
“30 BC,” Eva said. “She was only thirty-nine. She died just a few days after Mark Antony killed himself by falling on his sword. He did it because he thought Cleopatra had already died. Her death is one of the great mysteries of our entire history. Orthodox opinion has always recorded that she killed herself with an asp bite, but some revisionist theories suggest she was murdered by Octavian. It was a bloody and electric few days in history.”
“And her tomb has never been found, huh?” Don French said.
“Their tomb,” Eva corrected him. “Cleopatra and Mark Antony were buried together.”
“I thought it had been found?” Ella said.
Eva shook her head. “No, but plenty of people claim they’ve found it. The most famous of which is the site at Taposiris Magna, a ruined, ancient city just to the south of Alexandria. The name refers to both the city and a temple there, and there is some evidence pointing to Cleopatra but the jury’s still out.”
“Nothing concrete, huh?” Caleb said.
“Not yet — not unless you count this.” She lifted Parennefer’s map and a smile widened on her face. “Our priest friend is very clear that the tomb is in the Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa.”
“The what?”
“The Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa, Eva repeated, slower. “It’s an ancient necropolis and a very famous archaeological site.”
A tense silence filled the space at the end of Eva’s sentence. She wondered if any of them truly realized the gravity of the situation. If the map could really lead them to Cleopatra and Mark Antony’s tomb, that alone would shatter the world of archaeology. The contents of a tomb of this significance might even change world history, and that was before you started thinking about something as ancient and dangerous as the Book of Thoth.
They had rescued her in Frankfurt, and watching them at work in London, Oxford and Paris has been an eye-opener in terms of how the evils of kidnap and theft were fought, but none of them had any real experience with the ancient world and priceless archaeological or historical treasures. It looked like they really were a team who needed each other. They needed her and she needed them, and for the first time since this nightmare had begun back in Boston she could really understand why Linus Finn and the Hidden Hand were so desperate to win this fight.
“Looks like we’ve got our hands full then,” Zara said. “Book of Thoth, Cleopatra’s tomb and an unspecified terror threat somewhere in Africa that could kill millions… if saving the world is our new mission statement, Jedediah Mason, I’m going to need a big raise.”
A low rumble of laughter went around the small team but Eva could feel something approaching anxiety among them, not least in herself. Things were moving up a gear and she started to get the impression they were setting out on a one-way road. The sort of people who lurked in the ranks of Occulta Manu were unlikely to forget an enemy, least of all one who had killed their own.
Ezra Haven had been very clear about the extent of their reach, and how high their influence went in government and international agencies. Was she really ready to have her life trashed like this? Up until Kyle Cage had kidnapped her she had been happy in her life as an archaeologist researching quietly for Ezra on the side, but now she could see that was rapidly turning into her former life.
“So when do we get started?” Virgil said.
“It’s not that simple,” Eva explained.
“Problem?” said Garrett.
“The main issue is that Cairo will never give permission to drill out a section of the catacomb walls without a lengthy application process. The Supreme Council of Antiquities is a strict regulator of all archaeological works in the country, and anyone with a professional need to excavate in Egypt needs to contact the council and secure its permission first.”
“I’m not liking the sound of this,” Mason said. “First, we have to break into the Vatican Secret Archives and now you seem to be telling us we have to blow our way into the catacombs, too.”
“I’m sorry, Jed,” Eva continued. “Even in normal circumstances this is a long and arduous process, but right now the Ministry of Culture is cracking down and has even banned all new excavations in Upper Egypt. Luckily, Alexandria isn’t in this region, but the chances of securing a permit at all are low, and in the next twenty-four hours the chance is zero.”
“So there’s definitely no way we can get a permit?” Ella asked.
Eva shook her head. “Applications have to be submitted at least three months ahead of the dig. They’ll want to see what the mission objectives of the excavation are, the names of everyone involved, exactly where and when we’ll be digging, you name it — they want it, in triplicate, signed in our blood.”
“This is a nightmare,” Mason said with a heavy sigh.
“It gets worse. When they get the application it then goes to the Permanent Committee of the Supreme Council for review, and it can move glacially slow — believe me, I’ve been through it many times. If we want to get into the catacombs in a hurry then we’re going in without permission.”
“And that’s against the law in a big way, I’m guessing?” Milo said.
“Oh yeah,” Eva replied. “The Egyptian Law on the Protection of Antiquities goes back to the early eighties. Excavating without government sanction can get you sent to jail for two years, and thieves smuggling antiquities out of the country get jail time with hard labor and a fifty thousand dollar fine. It’s not recommended.”
“Which is why we’re here,” Ella said. “Breaking into places is our bread and butter.”
“But getting in is usually the easy part,” said Caleb. “Looks like if we do the catacombs none of us is coming back to Egypt.”
“We don’t get caught,” Mason said. “We never have and we never will. We go in and out and we’re on the plane.”
“Damn right,” said Zara. “If we can get inside the Vatican’s Secret Archives we can do anything, remember what we said?”
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Chuck Ikard was one of the NSA’s top hackers, and he and Milo worked for several hours together, breaking into the Ministry of Culture’s online operating systems and searching for anything that might make their lives easier during the mission. Plans of the catacombs were easy to find, as were schematics of the city’s underground sewer systems. The recent discovery of a number of Ptolemaic buildings and tunnels in the city’s Shallalat Gardens had given Milo the idea that maybe one of those underground passageways might lead to the catacombs, but there was no evidence that any existed.
A sense of frustration increased in the room until one of the consulate staff members knocked on the door and pushed a trolley laden with sandwiches and coffee into the room. Milo cracked a window and a sea breeze blew in from Tea Island in the east.