Curse of the Pharaoh: A Brock Stone Adventure

Stone followed with a side kick that buckled the guard’s knee. The man grunted, drew his sidearm. Stone gave him a chop to the wrist just below the base of the thumb and the weapon fell to the ground. Another well aimed punch to the temple and the goon was out.

Behind him, there was a commotion near the fire. A shot rang out. Constance screamed. Stone turned and drew his Webley but before he could make a move, Hawk sprang up out of nowhere and struck the man a heavy blow with the flat of his tomahawk. The man staggered. Hawk plunged his Bowie knife into the thug’s hamstring, then caught the man in a chokehold before he could cry out.

“Consider yourself lucky my boss is keeping me on a leash,” Hawk said as Kane’s guard lapsed into unconsciousness and slumped to the ground.

“Nice work,” Stone said. “But did you really have to stab him?”

“No.” Hawk flashed a wolfish grin. “But if you won’t let me kill, at least let me draw blood.”

“Fair enough. Let’s bound and gag these men and stash them in the tent.”

“And then?” Trinity asked.

“Then we enter the temple.”

25 The Ritual

They descended into darkness. The tunnel sloped sharply downward. The air grew cooler as they moved along. Dust coated every surface.

“This place gives me the creeps,” Alex said.

They came to a spot where the passageways diverged. They examined both passageways and saw no obvious differences between the two.

“Which way do we go?” Trinity asked.

“We could try one, and if it doesn’t lead anywhere, try the other,” Alex suggested.

“I prefer to make an educated guess whenever possible,” Trinity said. “If anyone actually bothered to look into the passageways, they would see that the passage on the right is a dead end.” She shined her light down the tunnel. Fifty paces away it terminated in a blank wall.

“It’s the one on the left, then,” Constance said.

She led the way down the tunnel on the left, followed by Alex and Trinity. Stone was about to step through when something caught his eye. There was something different about the section of floor just ahead of where Constance walked. It was sunken ever so slightly, only a fraction of an inch.

“Constance, stop!” Stone shouted.

It was too late. Her foot touched the sunken space and the floor gave way under her weight. A split second later, a door slammed down, missing Stone by an inch. He and Hawk were now stuck on the opposite side of the door. The immediately tried to raise it, but to no avail.

“It’s no good,” Hawk said. “It’s too heavy.”

“Booby trapped,” Stone said. “The designers put the trigger a short distance down the passageway in order to trap the intruders on the other side of the door.” He called Trinity’s name, pounded on the stone door.

Hawk put his ear to the door. “I can’t hear a thing. It’s too thick.”

“Look for a release mechanism.”

They searched every inch of the area around the doorways but found nothing to open the door.

“What are we going to do now?” Hawk asked. “They’re trapped and the other tunnel leads to nowhere.”

“I’m not so sure about that. If this way is booby trapped, there must be a way through on the other side.”

“A false wall?” Hawk asked.

“Let’s find out.”

They made their way to the wall that blocked the opposite passageway. They searched for a release mechanism but didn’t find one. Hawk tried lifting it and pushing it without success.

“I’m stumped,” Hawk said.

They stepped back and took a second look. Stone’s sharp eyes picked out two images engraved on the door. He brushed away the dust to get a better look. On the left was the ram-headed symbol of the Egyptian god Amun. On the right was the eye of Osiris.

“I’ve got a feeling there’s one right answer and one very wrong answer,” Hawk said.

“Let me think,” Stone scratched his chin, puzzling over the problem. “Amun is the god of sun and sky. Osiris rules the underworld.”

“Good and evil?” Hawk asked.

“Not necessarily. Osiris was the god of death and rebirth.”

“We want to go down, don’t we?” Hawk stepped forward, put his hand over the eye, and gave a firm shove. The door swung open.

“Nicely done,” Stone said.

The corridor led them deep underground. As they descended, Stone realized the ushabti was emanating a faint glow. He frowned. What could that mean?

There was no time to wander. They heard voices up ahead, turned a corner and saw light and movement. Stone sensed a large, open space up ahead.

They crept forward and emerged on a ledge looking down into a torchlit chamber. A square pyramid of crystalline cubes stood at the center of the space. It was about twelve feet tall. The light danced across its surface and deep inside it a dot of blue light flickered.

A sarcophagus lay before the pyramid. Kane, Fischer, and Ratliff were examining it. Trinity, Alex, and Constance stood to one side, guarded by two armed thugs.

At Fischer’s command, four of Kane’s goons removed the sarcophagus lid and set it aside to reveal a casket. Painted on its lid was the image of a lion-headed woman.