“We figure they must have had some kind of cattle based on these images here.” Tommy pointed at one of the horned beasts.
“Early agricultural civilization?”
“Sure looks that way.” Tommy motioned for Sean to keep following. “Come on. You have to see this.”
The ground leveled off, and the two made their way through a part of the corridor that curved from right to left and back again.
“The archaeological team believes that this part of the passage is curvy because it represents a river.”
“Rivers were extremely sacred to ancient peoples. Probably because if they didn’t have water they would die.”
“Right. Come on. You gotta see this.”
Sean pointed at a split in the tunnel. “Which way we going?”
“To the right. That way was cut off by a cave-in. We may try to clear it out at some point once we’re sure it’s stabilized.”
Tommy took the path to the right and walked another twenty feet. He stopped suddenly in a giant chamber carved in the shape of a pyramid.
Sean nearly stumbled into him but caught his balance and stopped short.
Floodlights bathed the room in yellowish light, all focused on a central object.
“That’s… that’s impossible,” Sean said.
Tommy slapped him on the back. “That is exactly what I said when they told me what they’d found.”
“It can’t be. The timelines are too far apart.”
“Again. What I said.”
Sean gazed at the huge object with an absentminded stare and stepped toward it, as if in a trance. The floodlights reflected off it, casting a more golden hue to the room’s artificial illumination.
“So what you’re saying is you may have found something that will change our understanding of ancient history.” Sean stopped near the base and continued looking up.
“To be fair, I didn’t find it. I’m just the one hauling it out of here. That’s something we’re still working on. But yeah, what you’re looking at — for all intents and purposes — appears to be a sculpture of the oldest god in Egyptian mythology.”
“Nun,” Sean said, almost in a whisper.
“That’s what it looks like.”
The two Americans stared up at the golden sculpture. The likeness of the deity was close to eight feet tall and held a narrow boat over its head in two hands. The clothing, hair, and facial features were all reminiscent of images Sean and Tommy had seen of Nun.
“I mean, there are a few minor differences from what I can tell. But come on, that has to be it.”
Tommy agreed with Sean’s sentiment. “Creators of various sculptures, especially of deities, often had subtle differences between each one. We suspect that, often, that sort of thing happened just because the craftsmen weren’t a factory.”
“Kind of like the way records used to be made. They had to record each one separately. As a result, every record had slight differences in the sound.”
“Exactly.” Tommy crossed his arms and gazed on the image.
“This is big news, man. I mean, this connects ancient Tanzanian culture as the forerunner of Egyptian mythology.”
“I know. Kind of mind blowing, right?”
Sean nodded. “So what’s the plan? You guys pull it out of here and give it to the Tanzanian museum?”
Tommy snorted a laugh that echoed in the pyramidal chamber. “Yeah, something like that. It’s the first part we’re struggling with. We’ll figure it out. That’s what we do.”
“Good luck with that. This thing is a monster. I wonder how they got it in here.”
“Also a good question. It would have been impossible to bring the entire piece in all at once. That means it must have been done in sections. Further cross section analysis of it will give us that answer, and along with it the answer to removing the thing.”
The two stood for a moment, admiring the astounding work of art. Sean kept looking at it while he spoke. “Figure it was a place of sacred importance, huh?” He quoted Tommy’s line from earlier.
“Yep.”
They lingered for another minute before turning around and heading back down the corridor.
Tommy started talking about some other items of interest they’d discovered during their short time on site as they walked toward the fork in the passage.
“So that part was pretty exciting,” Tommy finished his sentence about a jar they’d found in pieces near the statue.
Sean cut him off as they rounded the turn leading back to the surface. “Wait. Did you hear that?”
Tommy shook his head. “Hear what?”
Sean took a step into the darker tunnel straight ahead and listened closer. “It sounds like diesel engines. It’s faint. You can barely notice it.”
Tommy listened closer but still heard nothing. “I think you’re hearing the generator from up above. Come on, there are a couple more things I want to show you.”
“There it is again. Can’t you hear it? It sounds like dump trucks or something.” He wandered cautiously into the dark tunnel. He stopped a few feet in and turned around. “You have a flashlight?”
“Yeah.” He pulled the light out of his back pocket and handed it to Sean. “But I already told you, there’s nothing over there. It’s blocked off. You can’t go more than a hundred feet before you get to the cave-in.”
Sean ignored his friend’s counsel and switched on the light. He pointed the beam into the passage ahead. The circular light flashed around on the walls, ceiling, and floor, showing an empty space.
“Do you mind if we check it out anyway?”
Tommy rolled his shoulders. “Be my guest. But there’s nothing back there.”
Sean was already moving forward into the tunnel, so Tommy had to catch up before he was either left at the split or consumed by darkness. He stayed close so he could keep an eye on where he was stepping.
The corridor bent around to the right, and soon the lights from the main shaft disappeared. Except for the flashlight, they were in pitch black.
“Kind of an eerie feeling, not having those lights around,” Tommy commented. His voice was unsteady.
“Shh.” Sean stopped moving. “There it is again.”
This time Tommy heard it too. “That’s weird. It’s definitely not the generator.”
“Right? That’s what I was saying. It sounds like diesel trucks.” Then he had a thought. “This tunnel doesn’t run under a road or something, does it?”
“Nope. Nothing but empty mountain here. Above us is just trees and rock.”
They kept going until they reached a point where huge slabs of broken stone were piled up on the path, blocking the way through. Sean stopped and leaned in — shining the light in and around the nooks and crannies — hoping to get a glimpse through to the other side. But it was completely shut off.
“See?” Tommy said, “I told you. No way through. That happens in these cave systems sometimes.”
Sean looked up at the ceiling and back down at the rubble. Something didn’t add up. “That happens in natural caves, Schultzie. Not usually in something like this.”
“Are you saying that someone did this on purpose?” Tommy shot his friend a sidelong glance.
“Hard to tell for sure, but this doesn’t look like it happened naturally.” He inspected the edges of the wall. “I don’t see any traces of explosives, but that doesn’t rule it out.”
“Yeah, but like I said, the archaeology team said this cave-in has been here for a long time. Maybe someone was looking around in here a hundred years ago and accidentally set off some dynamite or something.”
Sean scratched his head. “You said that the other archaeology team told you this had been here for hundreds of years.”
Tommy nodded. “Admittedly, I thought it was probably more recent too. But I thought maybe an earthquake or something.”