Trifariam, The Lost Codex (2012) (23 page)

Then David left the chamber the same way he had come in and went back through the horizontal shaft with all the tourists following behind. James was at the back of the group, sharing his thoughts with his two friends.

“I think that this is the shaft we have to search. That’s probably the hidden chamber that the book talks about.”

Richard frowned. “I was thinking the same thing, but it’s going to be very difficult to get inside.”

The second passageway led to the Grand Gallery, an impressive room around twenty-five feet high and a hundred and sixty feet long. It was a kind of extension of the ascending passage which had led into it and forked into two, from which point they continued to lead upwards. The ground had been covered with wood which, combined with the handrails which had been fitted on both sides, made the ascent much easier for visitors. However hard he tried, James couldn’t find one measly gap between the stone blocks through which he could slide the edge of a piece of paper.

Richard laughed when he saw him. “If you don’t get a move on, you’re not going to win the car.”

At the end of the Grand Gallery, there was a small tunnel which led to the famous King’s Chamber. David began to go through it, but he stopped when he reached halfway and turned to face the tourists. “I told you before that three stones prevented access to the King’s Chamber, right? Well, those three blocks were supposed to have been placed here, where we’re standing right now. Their purpose was to prevent access to the real heart of the pyramid, the King’s Chamber.”

David stepped through the doorway.

The chamber was a fascinating room. It was about five hundred and forty square feet and twenty feet high, practically empty if it weren’t for the enormous red granite sarcophagus located to the far west of the chamber. The tourists moved closer towards them, the vast majority taking advantage of the moment and capturing it for posterity on their top-of-the-range digital cameras.

Both James and Richard noticed another shaft with the same dimensions as the previous one, eight by eight inches, located on another one of the walls. This, according to the map, led outside the pyramid.

David smiled when he saw that not person had noticed something extremely important in the chamber, so he tried to open their eyes. “Look at the size of the sarcophagus compared to that of the doorway.”

“The sarcophagus is bigger!” replied the girl who had nearly fallen when she was going down the first tunnel.

“Exactly! Clearly the sarcophagus was installed in this chamber before the Great Pyramid was built. Otherwise, it would never have got here; it wouldn’t have fit through the entrance.”

After seeing the chamber, the archaeologist ended the visit by leading the tourists to the exit. On the way, one of the older women who had been intrigued for a while now walked over to him, intending to satisfy her curiosity.

“When we came in, you told us that they were checking out the authenticity of the latest discoveries. What have they found?”

The question caught David by surprise. He thought about brushing her off by telling her the first thing that came into his head, but he had a feeling that the woman wouldn’t accept any old answer and she would keep on asking until her newfound curiosity was satisfied; he tried to give her a coherent answer. James, who at that moment was close enough, was able to hear the archaeologist’s reply in full.

“My colleagues are investigating the five upper chambers which lie one on top of the other above the King’s Chamber. It’s taking us longer than we expected because the chambers are very difficult to access, claustrophobic and they call for painstaking work. We’re working against the clock; tomorrow afternoon a group from Asia is visiting the pyramid to look inside one of the chambers and, thanks to their ten thousand dollars, they take priority. There’s also something strange going on in there; the batteries in the flashlights run out extremely quickly, making the work difficult. It’s as if the chambers are sucking the energy out of them.”

After spending almost two hours visiting Ancient Egypt, they eventually reached the exterior. Their pupils, used to the darkness of the pyramid, were suffering as they crossed the doorway and became aggravated by the desert sun.

Richard kept the guide chatting and, although the latter seemed to be a little on edge and in a hurry, it didn’t seem to matter to him and he kept on asking endless questions, probably about the square holes in the walls which measured eight by eight inches. Mary glanced at James’ face. His expression was serious, the complete opposite of how it had been a few hours ago, and implied that something was worrying him.

“What are you thinking about, James? You’ve been elsewhere since we went in to the Great Pyramid.”

“Don’t worry,” he replied. “It’s just that I was thinking about my little girl when I was inside. She loves Egyptian culture and we’d often talked about the three of us visiting it together. But that’s going to be a bit tricky now.”

“Don’t be silly. Why would it be difficult? Because you’re separated from your wife? What nonsense! How many people decide to split up with their partners and keep seeing their kids as usual? The children mustn’t pick up on how disappointed you are, and that way they won’t suffer. If I were you, I’d come back to visit during the summer, just the two of you. As for the mother… she can go to hell.”

“You know, I felt a bit sad because tomorrow is her birthday and I won’t be able to be with her. But, well, now I feel better and when all this is over, I’ll try to spend more time with my daughter. She’s fourteen on 22 March.”

At first, the date went in one ear and out the other. Even though it seemed to ring a bell, she didn’t think any more of it, but after talking to James she realized why the American archaeologists were there. Today was the 21 March! The day of the vernal equinox and it would be reflected in the Great Pyramid!

Without saying another word, she grabbed James’ arm and gestured for Richard to follow them. The two professors didn’t understand anything.

“What’s going on?”

“Quick! I know why the archaeologists are here!”

When they got to the raised area from which they could see the southern face of the pyramid, they were faced with a group of Egyptologists sitting on the plateau with a pile of recording equipment and photo cameras. The situation didn’t come as a surprise to Mary, but it did to her two companions. After a few minutes, David appeared on the scene to give precise instructions to the photographers. Meanwhile the Egyptologists were running to and fro, loaded up with reams of paper.

“What is going on here?” asked Richard, amazed.

“The Great Pyramid works like a gigantic astronomical device,” replied Mary. “After more than four thousand five hundred years, it still predicts the equinoxes and solstices from the way the light falls upon the stones. Look at the south face of the Great Pyramid, we have a few seconds until the clock strikes six in the evening.”

At that moment, around ten photographers with digital cameras resumed their prestigious positions along the platform from which they would look at the southern face of the pyramid without so much as a blink. The Egyptologists present didn’t stop scribbling down notes on their crumpled pieces of paper for a second, and the video recordings had already gotten underway.

“It’s started!” shouted one of them. Suddenly hundreds of cameras began to flash and didn’t stop for a full five minutes.

The southern face, which was originally completely lit, gradually began to get darker from the left edge. The effect was like that of a curtain which was being drawn towards the right. When the shadow got halfway across the face, it stopped. This process lasted approximately twenty seconds, splitting the southern face of the pyramid into two halves: the dark left and the illuminated right, and it remained that way for four or five minutes. Eventually the shadow continued until it covered the whole face.

Richard couldn’t believe what his eyes were seeing. Around him the photographers were shooting the last few frames while the recordings would go on until the very end.

Mary broke the silence. “This phenomenon takes place twice a year, on 21 March and 21 September, and it happens twice on each day, at dawn and dusk. In the morning a similar thing happens, only then the veil being drawn across is the sunlight illuminating the left part of the face.”

“But how can this happen?” asked Richard excitedly.

David had just noticed the presence of the three tourists and approached them. He had heard Richard’s question and answered him politely, before Mary had a chance to speak. “It’s very simple,” he said. “This effect happens because the Great Pyramid isn’t formed by four faces as is commonly thought, but by eight. This means that some halves of the faces cast shadow onto the others.”

David grabbed one of the many pieces of paper which lay scattered on the ground and on it he drew the actual contours of the base of the Great Pyramid, before showing it to the three young people. On the sheet, they saw the following:

After studying their faces of disbelief, he ran off; one of the photographers needed him.

“It must be in the shaft of the Queen’s Chamber, but how will we get it out?” asked the paleographer when David had left.

James smiled.

“L
adies and gentlemen, you will surely agree that the prototype has been a complete success. Not only does it fulfill all the functions for which it was designed, but we’ve also installed extremely advanced artificial intelligence software which would render obsolete even the all-powerful Google. In some ways… it will enable it to think.”

After those words, a round of rapturous applause broke out for at least thirty seconds, during which time the room was virtually in a world of its own. Anthony Miller looked down from his high lectern onto the audience who had attended the event. He was proud, happy, an indescribable feeling of joy shot his body from his head to his toes. It had been a very difficult job and at last it was over. The only thing left to do was to savor the sweet taste of success.

Anthony must have been about forty-three years old. He had studied Computer Engineering and was a specialist in the development of business software. However, after realizing that his work was boring him and that he wasn’t getting much personal satisfaction out of it, he decided to get increasingly involved in the field of robotics. This world fascinated him and it had him hooked from the first moment, so much so that he capped off his resume with two Masters degrees in Artificial Intelligence. These degrees allowed him to be a fundamental part of the project to the point where, after the tragic death of his superior in a traffic accident, Anthony was named as the new project leader. He would be in charge of steering their ship to glory.

His personality and way of working didn’t go down too well among his colleagues. They branded him too honest, and occasionally incredibly cruel and insensitive towards anybody who made a mistake. He was more thin than well-built, with snakelike facial features and a shaven head due to premature balding. Kitted out in a dark blue suit, shirt and bow tie, he was today revealing one of the best kept secrets of his personality: his good taste in clothes. He normally turned up to work in a tattered gray jumper and some jeans which were out of fashion. In keeping with his strong, serious character, his friends often talked about how easily the vein in his forehead would throb until it almost exploded.

From his lectern on a platform on the stage, Anthony watched as two of his engineers pulled back the white sheet, revealing what seemed to be a humanoid robot seated on a wooden chair and vacantly staring ahead. The audience went crazy when they saw how close it was to a real flesh and bone person.

His cellphone vibrated in the right pocket of his pants. He took it out and, after seeing who it was, rejected the call. “I give you the DYL-1.4.3, the first robot designed for man with the capacity to think. In a few months, it will be presented to the world before being mass produced. Its function is of course to help all those who purchase it in their daily chores, thus making their lives much simpler.” Anthony took a deep breath and glanced furtively at his notes. “We couldn’t be more optimistic; we are expecting first year sales to go through the roof and for DYL to reach 25% of American households.”

His speech was interrupted by another round of applause, this time much louder. Just then his cellphone began to vibrate again. After taking it out, he was surprised to see that James was calling him again, which was definitely out of the ordinary. It must be something important.

Anthony addressed the audience rather impatiently. “We shall now have a short ten-minute break. Please feel free to help yourselves to the light snacks in the adjacent suite. After we’ve regrouped, we will examine just what the prototype can do. Thank you.”

Anthony made his way to one of the side doors that led to a small office where the lecturers would meet to prepare their material. When he got there, he picked up the phone and answered it with a certain apprehension.

“James. What can I do for you?”