sank down to the earth. The long tapestry covered load it carried had
not been able to fit into the cabin, and was strapped across the landing
skids of the aircraft. The instant that the skids kissed the ground and
the pilot cut back the throttle, Jake Helm led out a team of a dozen men
to loosen the nylon retaining straps and lift the heavy bundle down.
Between them the gang of overallclad workers carried the stele to the
hut and eased it through the door. Helm hovered close at hand, issuing
terse orders.
A space had been cleared in the centre of the conference room, the long
table pushed back against the wall.
With extreme care the stele was laid there, and minutes later the coffin
of Tanus, the Great Lion of Egypt, was laid beside it.
Brusquely Helm dismissed the gang and closed and bolted the door behind
them as they left. Only the four of them remained in the room. Nahoot'
and Helm crouched beside the stele, ready to unwrap the woollen
tapestry. Von Schiller stood at the head of it, with Utte at his side.
"Shall we begin?" Helm asked softly, watching von Schiller's face the
way a faithful dog watches its master.
"Carefully," von Schiller warned him in strangled tones.
"Do not damage anything." He was sweating in a sheen across his
forehead, and his face was very pale. Utte edged rotectively closer to
him,, but he did not glance in her direction. He was staring fixedly at
the treasure that lay at his feet.
Helm opened his clasp-knife and cut away the tasselled cords that
secured the covering. As he watched, von Schiller's breathing became
louder. It rasped in his throat like a man in the terminal stages of
emphysema.
"Yes," he whispered hoarsely, tthat's the way to do it." Utte Kemper
watched his face. He was always like this when he made another
significant addition to his collection of antiquities. He seemed on the
verge of a seizure, of a massive heart attack, but she knew he had the
heart of an OX.
Helm came to the top end of the pillar and carefully opened a small slit
in the cloth. He eased the point of the blade into this opening, and
then ran it slowly down towards the base, like a zip fastener. The blade
was razor sharp and the cloth fell away to reveal the inscribed stone
beneath it.
The sweat burst out like a heavy dew on von Schiller's skin. It dripped
from his chin on to the front of his khaki bush jacket. He made a small
moaning sound as he saw the carved hieroglyphics. Utte watched him, her
own excitement mounting. She knew what to expect of him, when he was
caught up in this paroxysm of emotion.
"See here, Herr von Schiller." Nahoot knelt beside the obelisk and
traced the outline of a broken'winged hawk with his finger. "This is the
signature of the slave, Taita."
"Is it genuine?" Von Schiller's voice was that of a very sick man,
wheezing and gusty.
"It is genuine. I will guarantee it with my life."
"It may come to that," von Schiller warned him. His eyes were glittering
with the hard brilliance of pate sapphires.
This column was carved nearly four thousand years ago," Nahoot repeated
stoutly. "This is the veritable seal of the scribe." He translated
glibly and easily from the blocks of figures, his face shining with an
almost religious rapture: "'Anubis, the jackal-headed, the god of the
cemeteries, holds in his paws the blood and the viscera, the bones and
the lungs and the heart that are my separate parts. He moves them like
the stones of the bao board, my limbs serve him as counters, my head is
the great bull of the long board'!--'
"Enough!" von Schiller commanded. There will be time for more later. Go
now. Leave me alone. Do not return until I send for you."
Nahoot looked startled and scrambled to his feet uncertainly. He had not
expected to be dismissed so abruptly in the moment of his triumph. Helm
beckoned him, and the two of them went quickly to the door of the hut.
"Helm," von Schiller called thickly after him, "make certain that nobody
disturbs me."
"Of course, Herr von Schiller." He glanced enquiringly at Utte Kemper.
"No," said von Schiller. "She stay The two men left the room, and Helm
shut the door carefully behind them, Utte crossed the room and turned
the key. Then she faced von Schiller with her hands behind her and her
back pressed to the door.
Her breasts were thrust forward firm and pointed The nipples showed
clearly through the thin cotton blouse, hard as marbles.
"The costume?" she asked. "Do you want the costume Her own voice was
tight and strained. She enjoyed this game almost as much as he did.
"Yes, the costume," he whispered.
She crossed the room and disappeared through the door into his private
quarters. As soon as she was gone von Schiller began to undress. When he
stood mother-naked in the centre of the room, he threw his clothing in a
heap into one corner and turned to face the door through which she would
return.
Suddenly she stood in the doorway, and he gasped at the transformation.
She wore the wig of tight Egyptian braids and over it the uraeus, the
golden circlet with the hooded cobra standing erect above her forehead.
The crown was genuine, as old as the ages - von Schiller had paid five
million Deutschmarks for it.
"I am the reincarnation of the ancient Egyptian Queen Lostris," she
puffed. "My soul is immortal. My flesh is incorruptible." She wore
golden sandals from the tomb of a princess, and bracelets and finger
rings and earrings from the same tomb. All were authentic royal relics.
"Yes." His voice was choking, his face as pale as death.
"Nothing can destroy me. I will live for ever," she said.
Her skirt was diaphanous yellow silk, belted with gold and precious
stones.
"For ever," he repeated She was naked above the waist. Her breasts were
big and white as milk. She cupped them in her own hands.
"These have been young and smooth for four thousand years," she purred.
"I offer them to you."
She stepped out of the open golden sandals and her feet were slim and
neat. She parted the frontal split in the yellow skirts and held it so
that her lower body was exposed.
All her movements were slow and calculated. She was a clever actress.
"This- is the promise of eternal life." She placed her right hand on her
dense honey-coloured pubic bush. "I offer it to you.
He groaned softly and blinked the streaming sweat out of his eyes,
watching her avidly.
She undulated her hips, slowly and lewdly as an uncoiling cobra. She
moved her feet apart and opened her thighs. With her fingers she spread
the lips of her vulva.
"This is the gateway to eternity. I open it for you., Von Schiller
groaned aloud. No matter how often repeated, the ritual never failed.
Like a man in a trance he moved towards her. His body was thin, dried
out like a thousand-year-old mummy. His chest hair was a silver fuzz,
the skin of his sunken belly was folded and wrinkled, but his pubic hair
was dark and thick as the hair on his head.
His penis was huge, out of all proportion to the skinny old frame from
which it dangled. As she moved slowly to meet him it filled out and hung
at a different angle, and of its own accord the wizened foreskin peeled
back to reveal the massive purple head beneath it.
"On the stele," he grunted. "Quickly! On the stone."
She turned her back to him and knelt upon the stone, watching him over
her shoulder as he came up behind her.
Her buttocks were round and white as a pair of ostrich eggs.