Free The Last Chamber by Ernest Dempsey

was never here.” He jabbed his
index finger at the opening to emphasize his point.
    Adriana shone her beam into the black corridor and, without
hesitation, stepped through the portal.
    “Are you certain that’s safe?” Firth asked, concerned.
    Sean grinned at him. “Pretty sure she knows what she’s doin’, Doc.”
Sean disappeared into the darkness right behind her.
    The two professors looked at each other and then at Sahid and decided
they should follow along as well.
    “I’m going to stay outside,” Sahid said tentatively. He clearly had no
interest in going into the forbidding passageway.
    The two archaeologists didn’t acknowledge his comment and carefully
passed through the door into the ancient tunnel.
    “I cannot believe that all the times I have been to Nekhen, I never
knew this corridor existed,” Firth remarked as they followed Sean and Adriana
around a sharp corner.
    “I have been here many times as well,” Abdulkarim commented in a
reverent voice. “I wonder how they knew about it? Or how the door opened?”
    The group plunged ahead, winding their way into the mountain until
they reached a point where the path began to slope down more dramatically. Sean
and Adriana both shone their lights down the long shaft, carefully watching for
anything suspicious or potentially dangerous. After a few minutes of creeping
down the corridor, they reached the end.
    Sean’s eyes narrowed as he saw a chest of gold and jewels on the
floor. His eyes scanned forward, seeing the other two chests in the room. He
cast his beam on the wall at the end and noticed the ancient writing. Adriana
stopped at a hole in the floor and flashed her beam into it.
    “Another chamber,” she stated and set a black backpack on the ground
next to the cavity.
    She knelt down on one knee and peered into the darkness below as Firth
and Abdulkarim eased their way past the first treasure chest. The two men’s
eyes were wide at the site.
    “It isn’t that far down,” she stated. “Let’s tie off this rope to the
stone boxes and see what we can find.”
    “I’m not going down there,” Firth protested. His face contorted in
disapproval.
    Adriana had already pulled a climbing rope out of her bag and was
hurriedly tying it around the two closest stone chests.
    “You don’t have to, Professor,” Sean said. “This is what we do at IAA.”
He helped their female companion finish testing out the rope then hooked his
flashlight onto his belt and repelled down the rope into the darkness.
    Adriana copied his movements and descended just as quickly below. The
two archaeologists stared at each other for a moment in disbelief then rushed
over to the hole and got down on their bellies to peer through the opening.
    Sean was standing on the floor shining his light around the room. The
visual the four were treated to was nothing less than spectacular. Gold panels
covered the walls around the entire chamber. Each piece of the shiny metal was
engraved with ancient writing and pictographs.
    “What do you see?” Firth shouted down into the lower level.
    “The walls are covered in plated gold, just like the ones we saw in
the other chambers.” At this report, Firth leaned his head forward and twisted
his head around. His eyes were huge as the beams of the flashlights bounced off
of the yellow element.
    “It’s breath taking,” Firth commented reverently. “I’ve never seen
anything like it in all my life. How did they do it?”
    The Egyptian archaeologist had poked his head through as well and was
enamored by the sight. “All these years I have worked this area and never
realized what lie beneath my feet.”   He shook his head.
    Sean moved quickly through the room towards a pedestal he’d
illuminated with his flashlight. When he arrived at the stone structure, he
became immediately disconcerted.
    “It’s not here,” he sighed. “I was afraid of that.” He ran his hands
along the sides, hoping there might be a hidden button or