The Forbidden Tomb

67

Despite Manjani’s impassioned speech about the star map, Garcia was forced to point out the obvious. ‘I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but like I told Sarah, I don’t believe we have enough information to crack their code. In fact, I’m sure of it.’

‘Why not?’ Cobb asked.

‘Determining latitude by looking at the stars is relatively easy. Once you find the North Star, you can measure its angle from the horizon to figure out your latitude.’

‘So what’s the problem?’

‘There’s no horizon on the map. It’s just not there. And even if it were, we would run into the much larger problem of longitude. To calculate it accurately, you need to know the time difference between an event that occurs at the prime meridian and when that same event occurs where you are.’

‘Wait,’ McNutt said, obviously confused. ‘How can the same event take place twice in different parts of the world? Are you talking about time travel, or clones? Or time-traveling clones? Oh my God, I’d definitely watch that movie.’

‘Actually,’ Garcia said, ‘I’m talking about celestial events that are perceived differently all over the world.’

McNutt grimaced. ‘Somehow your explanation made it worse.’

Garcia changed his approach. ‘Think about high noon. Not noon on your clock, but solar noon — the moment at which the sun reaches the highest point in the sky. That moment happens at some point everywhere on earth, but it doesn’t happen at the same time in every location. If solar noon is at 11:56 at the prime meridian, but it occurs at 12:04 where you’re standing, then you can calculate your longitude as long as you know the difference in time. At one degree for every four minutes, you’d be two degrees west of the prime meridian.’

Cobb stroked his chin in thought. ‘Not to complicate the issue even further, but was there even a prime meridian back then?’

‘Surprisingly, there was,’ Manjani replied. ‘The astronomer Ptolemy defined the first set meridian sometime during the second century. And guess where he was from? Alexandria. It’s not the same standard used today — his line ran through the Canary Islands — but it was known throughout the educated world and it was definitely known by the priests of Amun. They would know the concept better than most.’

Garcia groaned in frustration. ‘Once again, I’m not challenging their expertise. All I’m saying is that this particular star map can’t be used to plot longitude and latitude to the level of precision that we’d require. It simply doesn’t have enough information.’

Manjani was disappointed, but not defeated. He knew that the map would lead them to Alexander’s tomb, he just didn’t know how.

McNutt cleared his throat. ‘I know this might be a little late — I kind of drifted there when you mentioned time-traveling clones — but I think you’re giving these priests way too much credit. I mean, how can they be experts if they can’t even draw the sky right?’

Cobb glanced at him. ‘What do you mean?’

McNutt pointed at the star map on the screen. ‘There are stars on here that don’t exist. You know that, right?’

‘How could you possibly know that?’ Sarah demanded.

‘This isn’t my first trip to the Middle East. I’ve spent hundreds of nights looking up at this sky, with nothing to keep me company but my spotter and my M40. We used to make a game of it — naming stars after all the things that we missed back home.’

‘You memorized the constellations?’ Papineau asked.

McNutt nodded. ‘And all the other stars, too. We didn’t know their real names, so we improvised. The Arabian Goggles. The Rusty Trombone. The Angry Dragon.’

Sarah rolled her eyes, knowing damn well that he probably learned those terms while on leave in Tijuana or Bangkok. ‘So what are you saying?’

‘A dozen of these stars weren’t on my list.’

‘You’re sure?’

‘I’m positive! I never had a chance to use the Arctic Helicopter.’

Cobb glanced at Garcia. ‘What do you think?’

Garcia shrugged as he considered the possibilities. ‘If we’re talking about a couple of stars, then there’s always a chance that they burned out during the last two thousand years or so, but if we’re talking about a dozen, there has to be another explanation.’

‘Such as?’

‘Specks of dirt on the lens. Particles of dust in the air. Imperfections in the rock. And, of course, the most obvious choice: McNutt is bat-shit crazy.’

McNutt laughed. ‘Maybe so, but I’m not wrong.’

‘Then prove it,’ Cobb said as he tossed a magic marker to McNutt. ‘Show us which stars don’t belong.’

McNutt was up to the challenge. So much so, he rushed to the oversized screen and started to circle stars before Garcia or Papineau had a chance to stop him. ‘This one. And this one. And this one, too. And both of those…’

From his seat at the table, Manjani used a notebook to keep track of the celestial anomalies by charting the dots that didn’t belong. Once McNutt was finished, Manjani stared at his drawing in disbelief. ‘I’ll be damned.’

‘What is it?’ Garcia demanded.

‘Your friend is right. They aren’t stars. They’re ancient Egyptian cities.’

Manjani drew a frame in the shape of Egypt’s border around the points he had plotted, then turned the paper around for everyone to see. ‘They follow the path of the Nile, from Abu to Alexandria.’

Papineau was skeptical. ‘You’re sure?’

‘Not positive, at least not yet — but it certainly makes sense. To avoid detection in Alexandria, the high priests of Amun hid in plain sight. They blended in with the culture around them. Why should their secrets be any different? This is a map within a map. The star map protects the map of the land, just as they protected the tomb. In their world, it fits perfectly. Even if the grotto was found by those who didn’t belong, this was an added level of security that would ensure the tomb’s safekeeping. In ancient Egypt, few people studied astronomy on this level. Only the priests would have known how to distinguish the cities from the stars.’

‘He’s right,’ Garcia said as he superimposed a map of ancient Egypt over the collection of rogue dots on the screen. The two layers lined up perfectly.

Papineau was pleased but not overjoyed. ‘That narrows our search to about fifty cities, most of which don’t exist anymore. Regrettably, we don’t have the resources or personnel for that type of investigation, not with our timetable.’

‘What if I can narrow it down for you?’ Manjani asked.

‘That would be great.’

‘How?’ Cobb demanded.

Manjani pointed at the screen, drawing their attention to a pair of dots far to the left of the others. Given the location of most of the cities along the Nile, these dots would be found somewhere in the middle of the Sahara. ‘One of these isn’t a city.’