Map of Bones (Sigma Force 2)

The Eurasian woman glanced up to him. Raoul found her mixed heritage repellent, but she served her purpose. His eyes traveled along the length of her bare midriff and chest. Two minutes alone with her, and he’d have that constant disdainful smirk smashed off her face.

But for now, the bitch had to be tolerated.

This was Guild territory.

Seichan had insisted on accompanying the assault team. “Only to observe and offer advice,” she had purred. “Nothing more.”

Still, he spotted the speargun among her stack of diving gear.

“We evac in three minutes,” Raoul said.

They would go overboard as the hydrofoil slowed to turn around the peninsula, just sightseers getting a closer look at the old fort. They would swim into position from there. The hydrofoil would hang back, ready to intercede with its guns if necessary.

Seichan tugged on her zipper. “I’ve had our radio man intermittently jamming their communications. So when their radios go fully out, they’ll be less suspicious.”

Raoul nodded. She had her uses. He’d give her that much respect.

With a final check of his watch, he lifted an arm and made a circling gesture with a finger. “Mount up,” he said.

1:26 P.M.

BACK IN the tunnel entrance to Alexander’s tomb, Rachel knelt down on the stone floor. She worked on her project, preparing to prove her point.

Gray spoke to Kat. “You’d better get back out in the water. Check in with Monk. It’s been longer than the couple minutes we had told him. He’ll be getting edgy.”

Kat nodded, but her eyes glanced around the room, settled on the tomb pyramid. Reluctantly, she turned and headed back down the tunnel toward the entry pool.

Vigor finished his own inspection of the tomb chamber. His face was still aglow with wonder. “I don’t think it will fire like that again.”

Gray nodded at Rachel’s side. “The gold pyramid must have acted like a capacitor. It stored its energy, perfectly preserved within its superconducting matrix…until the charge was released by the shock, creating a cascade reaction that emptied the pyramid.”

“That means,” Vigor said, “that even if the Dragon Court discovers this chamber, they’ll never be able to raise the riddle.”

“Or gain the gold key,” Gray said, patting his thigh pouch. “We’re finally a full step ahead of them.”

Rachel heard the relief and satisfaction in his voice.

“But first we have to solve this riddle,” she reminded him. “I have an inkling of where to begin, but no answer yet.”

Gray came over to her. “What are you working on?”

She had a Mediterranean map spread on the stones, the same map she had used to demonstrate that the inscription on the hematite slab depicted the coastline of the eastern Mediterranean. With a black felt marker, she had carefully drawn spots on the map and assigned names to each.

Sitting back, she waved an arm to the tomb chamber. “The phrase—‘as it is above, so it is below’—was originally meant to bring the star’s positions into our own lives.”

“Astrology,” Gray said.

“Not exactly,” Vigor argued. “The stars truly ruled ancient civilizations. Constellations were the timekeepers of seasons, the guideposts for travel, the home of the gods. Civilizations honored them by building their monuments as a reflection of the starry night. A new theory about the three pyramids of Giza is that they were aligned as such to match the three stars of Orion’s belt. Even in more modern times, every Catholic cathedral or basilica is built along an east-west axis, to mark the rising and setting of the sun. We still honor that tradition.”

“So we’re supposed to look for patterns,” Gray said. “Significant positions of something in the sky or on the Earth.”

“And the tomb is telling us what to pay attention to,” Rachel said.

“Then I must be deaf,” Gray said.

Her uncle had figured it out by now, too. “The bronze finger of the Colossus,” he said, staring out at the tomb. “The giant pyramid, perhaps representative of the one at Giza. The remnants of the Pharos Lighthouse above us. Even the drum-shaped tomb might hearken back to the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus.”

“I’m sorry,” Gray said with a frown. “The mausoleum of what?”

“It was one of the Seven Wonders,” Rachel said. “Remember how closely Alexander was tied to them all.”

“Right,” Gray said. “Something about his birth coinciding with one and his death another.”

“The Temple of Artemis,” Vigor said with a nod. “And the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. They’re all connected to Alexander…to here.”

Rachel pointed to the map she was working on. “I’ve marked all their locations. They are spread throughout the eastern Mediterranean. They are all localized in the same region mapped out on the hematite slab.”

Gray studied the map. “Are you saying we’re supposed to be looking for a pattern among the seven of them?”

“‘As it is above, so it is below,’” Vigor quoted.

“Where do we even begin?” Gray asked.

“Time,” Rachel said. “Or rather the progression of time, as hinted at by the Sphinx’s riddle. Moving from birth to death.”

Gray’s eyes narrowed, then widened with understanding. “Chronological order. When the Wonders were built.”

Rachel nodded. “But I don’t know the order.”

“I do,” Vigor said. “What archaeologist in the region wouldn’t?”

He knelt down and took the felt marker. “I think Rachel is right. The first clue that started this all was hidden in a book in Cairo, near Giza. The pyramids are also the oldest of the Seven Wonders.” He placed the tip of the marker on Giza. “I find it interesting that this tomb lies under the Pharos Lighthouse.”

“Why’s that?” Gray asked.

“Because the lighthouse was the last of the Wonders to be built. From first to last. This might also indicate that wherever we go next might be the end of the road. The last stop.”

Uncle Vigor leaned down and carefully drew lines, connecting the Seven Wonders in order of their construction. “From Giza to Babylon, then on to Olympia, where the statue of Zeus towered.”

“Alexander’s supposed real father,” Rachel reminded.

“From there, we go to Artemis’s Temple at Ephesus, then Halicarnassus, then the island of Rhodes…until at last we reach our own spot on the map. Alexandria and its famous lighthouse.”