Exodus (6 page)

Julius pulled out his smart phone.

“I’ll get Martin looking into it immediately,” he said. “Perhaps he can find a link between this group and Natasha El-Behery.”

“It might explain the mode of the murder but not the reason why. Can you tell me what Dr Gamal was working on specifically?” Morgan asked.
 

Khal walked slowly to the sarcophagus and put his hand on the bloodstains there, as if to honor the sacrifice of his friend. Morgan could see his grief and pain as well as his need for answers.
 

“We’ve been researching the Ark of the Covenant for the last few months, as a spin-off from our Akhenaten research. It was a direction that might have brought us more international funding. These new governments have yet to understand the power of Egypt’s past in the tourism of the future so we need more investment to maintain and restore the artifacts that you see before you.”

“I’m not entirely clear on the link between the Pharaoh Akhenaten and the Ark of the Covenant,” Morgan said. “Could you explain?”
 

“Of course.” Khal seemed grateful to find some distraction in historical fact rather than dwelling on present misfortune. He pointed at one of the giant busts, a pharaoh with aristocratic bearing and sharp, slanted jaw, soft full lips and a slim nose.
 

“That’s Akhenaten, known as the heretic king because he tried to change Egypt to a monotheistic religion worshipping only the Aten, a manifestation of the sun god. He moved his capital to Amarna and took control from the high priests. The period he reigned over was also characterized by a different type of realistic architecture and sculpture, with more lifelike figures and more humanity.”
 

Khal pointed at a section of a wall painting where figures of women played amongst bullrushes. “Akhenaten’s worship of the Aten was more personalized than that of any Pharaoh before him. The Great Hymn to the Aten was found in the rock tombs of Amarna and speaks of the creator god in a similar way to the biblical scriptures. But what is more important to us is that when he died, Egypt returned to polytheism. His statues were defaced and his city left in ruins.”

“So how does that relate to the Ark?” Morgan asked.

“We know that Moses was an Egyptian, but our research suggests that he was a priest in Amarna during Akhenaten’s reign and there discovered his own unique faith. Once Egypt returned to monotheism, he found a group of people who would follow him, the oppressed slave caste of the Hebrews. He eventually led them out of Egypt into the Sinai in the biblical Exodus. So it was Akhenaten who started monotheism, but Moses who transformed that into the beginnings of the Judaism we know today.”

Morgan nodded. “If we assume that Moses made the Ark in the desert after the Hebrews had left Egypt,” she said, “why does returning here help us to find where it might be now?”

“I was helping Abasi with this research,” Khal said, “and we have uncovered even more evidence that the Ark was of Egyptian origin. Come upstairs and I’ll show you.”
 

Khal led the way through the halls to the Tutankhamen Galleries with Julius and Morgan following. He stopped in front of the death mask of King Tutankhamen, the young face resplendent in shining gold, inlaid with precious stones and with kohl black obsidian eyes. The statue wore a blue and gold striped nemes head-dress with the cobra and vulture emerging from the forehead, a plaited ritual false beard lying on its chin.
 

“It’s magnificent,” Morgan said quietly.
 

“The mask originally covered the head of the mummy, which remained in the Valley of the Kings but two of the coffins are here, along with other treasures from the tomb.” Khal pointed towards other cabinets which held objects that glinted and gleamed with golden light.
 

“Imagine what it must have been like to discover all this,” Julius said, his fingers on the glass and Morgan could see a schoolboy’s passion in his eyes.
 

Khal strode down the aisle, “But the discoverers paid the ultimate price, the so-called curse of the Pharaohs.”
 

“Press over-reaction surely?” Morgan said. “Wasn’t the cause of death an airborne contaminant they all breathed in when the tomb was opened?”

“That depends on your belief,” Khal’s eyes twinkled a little and Morgan was unsure what he really believed. “‘
Death shall come on swift wings to him who disturbs the peace of the King
.’ That’s a curse found on some of the Old Kingdom tombs.”
 

Khal stopped in front of a huge glass cabinet, containing golden objects for the Pharaoh in his afterlife and the canopic jars used to store the internal organs of the deceased. The canopic chest was made of a translucent, almost luminous calcite, ivory in color and delicately fashioned into the form of pharaohs’ heads. Texts were picked out in contrasting blue pigment with labels to identify the liver, lungs, stomach and intestines. The King’s chariot was ethereal, light and airy on gold wheels with thin spokes and rims, as if the god king weighed nothing at all. Gold leaf picked out the intricate decoration, as poles stretched forwards for the powerful horses that would never run in front of this chariot again.
 

“Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922,” Khal continued, “and it was the death of his team that made the curse a reality. The financial backer of the expedition, Lord Carnarvon, died of blood poisoning within weeks of the tomb being opened and several other members also died. Regardless, it was the greatest discovery in the Valley of the Kings because it hadn’t been looted by thieves, and it remains the finest example of royal burial practices.”

“So what’s the relationship to the Ark?” asked Julius.
 

Khal turned and pointed to the display behind them. An engraved chest the size of a small altar sat on four carrying poles. Upon it sat the jackal figure of Anubis, his slanted black eyes looking towards the distant horizon. As Morgan gazed at the intricate carvings on the side of the chest, she spoke the words from the book of Exodus.
 

“Make a chest of acacia wood, overlay it with gold. Cast four rings for it and fasten them to the sides. Make poles of acacia wood, overlay them with gold and insert the poles into the rings to carry it.” She turned to Khal. “It is similar to the Ark, but what about the cherubim? And Exodus speaks of the hammered gold on the lid of the chest.”
 

In the brief moment before Khal could reply, Morgan heard running feet and a muffled shout. She shot a look at Julius. He would know the sounds of this place better than her and he was reaching for his weapon.
 

“Get down,” she shouted as two men ran into the room and opened fire on Tutankhamun’s treasure.

The huge case shattered and a hail of glass rained down as Morgan instinctively turned away, shielding her face with her arm as she pulled Khal down with her behind the marble of Tutankhamun’s canopic chest. Julius ducked low and returned fire at the doorway, bending and sliding Morgan his spare gun with one arm as bullets sprayed the room.
 

Morgan snatched up the gun and fired towards the doorway, her heart thumping as she tried to assess the situation. Clearly they couldn’t hold this group off for long, and she began looking around for a way out, cursing that they hadn’t anticipated Natasha’s return visit.
 

“The alarms will have gone off,” Khal shouted to Morgan above the din. “The security team won’t be far away because the museum has always expected a run on the treasure.”
 

“I doubt they’re here for King Tut,” Morgan said, returning staccato fire.
 

The attack suddenly stopped and there was a brief silence, before a woman’s harsh voice called out to them.
 

“I want the final notebook, Dr
El-Souid. I know you’re there and that you still have it. The late doctor’s notes clearly specify that it contains the information I need. I will let you live if you hand it over quickly.”

Morgan knew that the voice was Natasha’s, although she was concealed by the entranceway and out of the range of fire.
She turned to look at Khal. He shrugged, mouthing ‘sorry’ as he pulled a battered spiral-bound notebook from his jacket pocket. Julius looked furious and Morgan knew he would have put more protection in place if they had known there was another notebook.
 

“I’m counting to five and then my men will come in,” Natasha said. “You have no chance against automatic weapons and you know it. I
will
find that notebook and you will suffer a worse fate than Dr Gamal if I have to speak to you on more intimate terms.”

Morgan cursed to have her enemy so close with no way to get at her but she knew she had to stay out of sight. So far, Natasha wouldn’t know of her involvement, and she wanted to keep it that way. She motioned to Julius that she wouldn’t speak, that he should answer. He nodded but she could see he was favoring one side and as he turned Morgan could see the blood on his shoulder. He’d been hit.
 

“We’re willing to negotiate,” Julius called across the room.
 

“One,” Natasha called.
 

Julius glanced over with concern and then looked at his watch. The response time of the local police and security services was known to be over ten minutes and the guards downstairs were presumably neutralized, so they couldn’t win this.
 

“Two.”
 

Morgan whispered to Khal. “Have you studied what’s in here already? Can we give it to her without jeopardizing our mission?”
 

“There are two theories in the notebook, each taking a separate route for where the Ark could be hidden. The African theory follows the Ark into Ethiopia and the Sinai route follows the Egyptians. There is strong evidence for both possibilities, but at the beginning Abasi is sure that the African route is the more likely. It’s only in the last pages that he reveals a new clue about Sinai.”

“Three. I’m getting impatient here,” Natasha called.
 

Morgan grabbed the notebook from Khal and carefully ripped the last four pages from it, pulling the little pieces of torn paper carefully from between the rings that bound it to hide the deception. She folded them, handing them back to Khal, who put them inside his jacket pocket. The notebook looked as if it hadn’t been touched.
 

“Good plan,” Khal whispered. “This will give her both options, but the emphasis is on the African research. Abasi doesn’t say exactly what he found in the Sinai desert, but I know where we need to get to and these last few pages give us some clues.”

“Four.”
 

Natasha’s voice was cold and Julius was looking flustered. “Hurry up,” he hissed. “We can’t survive if they come for us.”
 

Morgan could see that the pain and shock of his wounded shoulder was affecting him, and she missed Jake in that moment. Together they had been unbeatable but now she felt alone.
 

“Five.”
 

Morgan put the notebook on the floor and slid it towards the door, careful not to show her face. It stopped a few feet away.
 

“That’s it,” Julius called. “That’s the final notebook. Now leave us.”
 

A burst of gunfire erupted, providing cover as a man slipped out and retrieved the notebook. Then silence. Natasha would be examining the notebook. Morgan knew there was a risk of the missing pages being noticed but as the seconds ticked on, it seemed that perhaps the ruse had worked. Then the sound of running boots echoed down the hall and the team were gone, along with the notebook.
 

Khal sat on the floor and leaned back against the shattered glass as Morgan rushed over to help Julius, who was slumped on the floor, holding his arm as blood oozed out from beneath his fingertips.
 

“You need to get going, Morgan,” Julius said through clenched teeth. “You have to find the Ark before Natasha.”

Morgan nodded, looking over at Khal, who had pulled out the notebook pages and was reading them intently.
 

“I’m going to need some help though.
Dr
El-Souid, how do you feel about a field trip?”
 

DAY 3

Aksum, Ethiopia. 8.16AM

As the small plane banked towards the town sitting at the base of the mountains, Natasha caught a glimpse of low-slung buildings, dusty grey-green against the landscape. A land of fable, she thought. Her father had told her stories of when Ethiopia had been a powerful civilization, although most had forgotten that now. He had taken antiquities from the area, with hardly any difficulty since it was a place forever underestimated and misunderstood by the West. Yet Ethiopia was most likely the cradle of civilization.
 

Here were found the fossilized remains of ‘Lucy’, the earliest upright walking hominid dated at over 3.5 million years old and the earliest known stone tools were also discovered in this area. The West only remembered the images of skeletal children broken by years of famine, but Ethiopia, once known as Abyssinia, had been a great kingdom. It had been a naval and trading power that ruled the region from 400 BC well into the tenth century, the most powerful state between the Eastern Roman Empire and Persia.