Counterpoint (23 page)

Carla took photos and notes while Max
and Peter packed the artefacts and marked the wrapping. Then they
passed the items through the enlarged hole in the wall, and stored
them along one side of the tunnel.

They worked through the night until 7am
on Sunday, stopping regularly for food and water. Security would be
here at 8am.

Rubin’s stiff body was lowered back
down into the tunnel, the above ground ventilation pipe was
removed, and Peter put the stone roof slab back. He camouflaged it
with sand and drove back to the main compound in the Land Cruiser,
to avoid security.

Max and Carla stayed, in the sealed
tomb, to carry on with the work. Peter was due to return at 9am.
The air would still be quite fresh, cool and low in humidity until
then.

Peter was glad to be out in the air
again, for the last several hours he got more nauseous and suffered
stomach cramps. A good shit will sort it, he thought. The heat was
building up outside, and the air conditioning in the vehicle was
not coping.

The open plain of the excavation in
front of him appeared to run on into infinity, and the perfect
straight lines of the excavation walls were all wavy, like he was
high on some drug. Peter was halfway up the exit ramp when he lost
awareness of everything.

It was gone 9am and Max and Carla were
getting anxious, Peter should be back by now.

They stopped work and had a meal break.
They had done as much as they could, for now. The lorry could be
loaded as soon as it was available, though they knew that would
have to wait until nightfall.

It was now 11am, they had both rested.
The air was now getting stuffy, and Rubin was gassing a fair bit,
the smell of his decomposing body was seeping into the chamber.

Max had been thinking hard about their
predicament, Carla was starting to pace like a cornered animal, and
self-preservation was in overdrive. Offering a cuddle to calm her
was not wise in her mood.

The air in the tomb would run out very
soon, followed by a long and horrible death. The tunnel would
probably be discovered early Monday morning when site work started.
The mission will have failed, and The Organisation would be firmly
implicated in the desecration of the tomb.

The Egyptian Government would force the
site to be relocated after arresting all the heads of the Company;
billions of dollars were at risk. Peter is either out there waiting
for them to die and then move in to clear the artefacts for profit,
been caught, or was dead.

Max and Carla had no way out. The
two-ton roof slab was too heavy to lift; it was nearly 2.5 metres
above the tunnel floor anyway, so they had no way to reach it. The
rope ladder was somewhere outside and would have been no use
anyway. The sand against the edges of the roof slab prevented it
from sliding so they could not even form a large crack between
slabs to get air through.

Max was feeling depressed, so he
suggested they both explore the tunnel entrance again; there might
be something they could do.

“I don’t suppose we could blast our way
out using the gas bottle,” suggested Carla.

“That might be possible if we could
pack the bottle under the slab, but even if we could get it up
there, apart from Rubin’s body, we don’t have anything to pack
around the bottle to direct the blast upwards. Even if we did, the
shock wave would blow the wall down between the tunnel and chamber
choking us with dust.”

“And your better idea is?” She replied
calmly. Far to calmly to be calm inside, thought Max, she is doing
her best to be constructive and hold it together, I have got to
come up with something.”

A quick inventory included Rubin’s
archaeology tools, brushes, hammer, chisel, tape measure,
callipers, small saw and the like. There was nothing, long and
stiff, to use as a scaffold for a platform, enough to raise them to
the underside of the stone roof.

Max had a thought. He started to climb
between the two walls, feet one side hands the other. No, that will
not work. He could get up there, but no hands free to work. Doing
the splits was impossible; the walls were too far apart.

“Stand on my shoulders Carla, then try
and chisel the centre of the stone slab, perhaps we can break it so
it will fall in.” She climbed up and steadied herself against the
wall. Try though she might, the hammer and chisel were far too
dainty and barely scratched the 400mm thick stone.

Disheartened, she gave up.

Max had a
light bulb moment
he
went and got Rubin’s saw and tape measure. He cut three lengths of
plastic drainpipe slightly longer than the tunnel width. Then he
used the hammer and chisel to cut shallow, horizontal grooves, at
head height, in the soft sandstone walls. The pipes wedged in
neatly on the ledge formed by the grooves, side by side, forming a
weak platform. Next, he cut three more pipes, so they were like
props under the horizontal pipes and set them about 400mm out from
one wall.

With care, he climbed up and stood on
the platform and asked for the hammer and chisel. He started
cutting into the sandstone directly under the seating of the roof
slab. From memory, every time they raised the slab, the far end
inched closer to the tunnel. Cutting away the support here would be
the least work.

Three hours later, the slab started to
drop, and fresh air and sunlight were creeping in. Now Max had to
keep cutting until it fell free.

When Max made the platform, he
positioned it just under the end of the slab, and he knew that when
the slab fell, he had to leap clear. It would be a sudden collapse
when it came and there would be no warning.

Carla had been providing Max with water
to keep him going and now fashioned two dust masks from the sleeve
lining of her jacket. They both put them on. The next blow from the
hammer caused the slab to fall, smashing the platform as it fell,
just as Max leaped sideways to safety.

Buried in the sand and dust, they both
clawed their way free into the sunlight streaming down through the
opening.

Free at last!

Carla used Max as a ladder to climb
out. She took a moment to compose herself before finding the rope
ladder in the excavator and lowering it down to Max. Now he was
above ground, the satellite phone registered a signal again.

He called Sam and reported everything
that had happened. Sam confirmed everything was still in place for
the mission; the lorry would arrive very soon. They bought a brand
new one and had notified security to expect it, though, did not
explain the purpose of it. The driver would leave the keys inside
the front wheel, drivers’ side and get a lift back to his works.
Take the loaded truck back to where you find it and park it with
the refrigerator unit running, the fuel tank is full, and the
temperature has been set. Call me again when you get out of there
and the helicopter will meet you on the road from the plant and
bring you back to your hotel in Cairo.

Max thanked Sam and closed the call.
Solving the mystery about Peter would have to wait until the job
was done.

Max and Carla discussed what they
should do next.

They had to pull the stone roof slab
out of the tunnel so they could cover it up when security arrived
at 5pm. However, they only had the rope on the ladder to lift it
with, and that might not be strong enough. Even if that worked,
they were outside the tomb now and had nowhere to hide from
security on their visit.

There was only one safe answer; they
had to get strong rope and transport.

The heat was unbearable now; rivers of
sweat ran down their faces turning the dust to mud streaks. Their
clothes were a uniform light sand colour, but not the same as the
red sandstone floor of the excavation.

They both climbed up on the excavator
and drove back to the exit ramp as fast as they could. Then they
would decide if they could drive to the compound or have to sneak
in on foot.

Up at ground level, the open and barren
landscape offered no cover for the large yellow machine; they would
have to walk there in the full heat of the day.

They reached the compound 30 minutes
later, utterly exhausted and parched with the early afternoon heat
and dust. The only vehicles there were large contractor’s plant, so
they would have to walk back carrying everything they needed.
Without transport, this created a much bigger problem thought Max,
they were already exhausted, and the time was extremely short for
all they still had to do. In addition, once the tunnel was closed,
they had nowhere to hide from the 5pm security patrol. Carla had
already realised that, but without a plan, she kept quiet.

In the compound, they found a suitable
coil of thick rope to lift the slab, a shovel, and a wide yard
brush. Peter had their other shovels and tools in the Land Cruiser.
Looking around the compound, they could see there was nothing else
that could be of any use to them.

Max decided to discuss the problem of
hiding from security and the time constraints, now they knew they
were without transport. Its 2pm now, it will take nearer 45 minutes
to get back to the ramp with all this kit. A few minutes more to
get back to the tomb on the excavator, let us say an hour, tops, to
get back. We have to climb down, tie on the roof slab to the
excavator, pull out the slab, and move it in place. I reckon 30
minutes to get it all tidy and smooth with the yard brush. We have
to get well clear of the excavation, nearly 1.3km from the tomb, up
the ramp and out into the desert on foot. In our state, it is going
to take over an hour or about 4.30pm, to get well clear. We might
just make it!” Carla concluded, adding, “We have no alternative
anyway, so we had better get moving.”

Max took the heavy rope, leaving Carla
with the shovel and broom; they set of at a brisk walk back to the
ramp.

Now they had drunk all the water they
had carried with them, there was nothing to replace their sweat.
Max was worried about Carla because she was no longer sweating and
he could see from her fixed expression she was in a bad way.
Sunstroke, he thought, and took the shovel and broom from her as
she trudged on.

They reached the excavator and checked
the time; they were running late by a few minutes. The breeze
flowing through the cab as the vehicle roared across the excavation
brought some relief to them both. At the tunnel entrance, Max
helped Carla down from the cab, got her some water and left her to
rest in the shade while he tied on the stone slab and hauled it
back into position, covering the tunnel. He parked the excavator
back in its original spot and tidied the area.

“Time to go Carla” called Max and he
helped her up on her feet. The long walk in the blistering sun to
the ramp left them so weak they crawled up it to the top.

“We have got to get well away from
here,” said Carla hoarsely, “security will see us easily from their
truck if we just lay here on the ground; there is no cover at all.
The best I can come up with is to get beyond the heat haze and lay
in a shallow dip in the sand, perhaps cover ourselves.”

Max grunted agreement as he and Carla
struggled to their feet and headed into the shimmering haze. They
staggered on until the road was just a shimmering thin grey line in
the distance. Dropping to their knees, they sipped the warm bottled
water until it was all gone, then scooped out a shallow sandy
trench to lie in, banking up between them and the road. It was the
only feature, apart from small rocks, in this flat, barren
desert.

Carla woke up shivering; it was
night-time and there was the distant sound of loud music. She
raised her head to look at her watch and saw the laser light
display in the sky. It was 9pm; she panicked and shook Max
awake.

“We have to go! It’s 9 at night, and we
have to clear the tomb.”

Max had a hard job convincing himself
there was any point to all this tomb robbing, until he thought of
the consequences of being caught.

They got to their feet and headed for
the compound. The refrigeration truck was easy to find, the keys
were there, and it started easily. The new smell of the cab
upholstery raised their spirits somewhat.

They headed towards the excavation
without lights, there was a thin ground mist so hopefully, this
would minimise the chance being noticed. Halfway down the ramp they
put the lights on and drove hard to the tunnel.

The reluctance of the excavator to
start straight away now it was cold, caused them both to panic, but
it eventually fired up and took just a moment to raise the roof
stone.

Max used a small canvas cover from the
new truck as a large bag and with Carla working the controls of the
excavator, hauled the artefacts in it, above ground.

Max then demolished more of the wall
between the tunnel and chamber so the wooden coffin of Nahep could
be removed. It took all the strength of both Max and Carla to
dislodge the stone top of the sarcophagus, and sent it crashing in
pieces, on the hard sandstone floor. To reduce weight, Max removed
the coffin lid so only the corpse and bottom half, needed to be
moved up the tunnel, in one piece. They used two short pieces of
plastic pipe as skids under the bottom half of the coffin, dragging
it behind them with the rope. The lid was fixed back, and the whole
coffin roped to the excavator boom, and lifted clear, straight into
the back of the truck.

Rigour mortise was reducing quicker
than usual in Rubin’s body because of the heat earlier in the day,
and the extreme physical exertion he went through, prior to death.
The relatively limp corpse made handling difficult, accompanied by
the vile stench and gurgling of blood and gas within the wrapping.
He was also hoisted into the back of the truck.