Free The Atlantis Stone by Alex Lukeman Page B

marked on the map and found this temple. It's in about the right spot, so we all assumed this was what was meant. But this is too new, too recent. I'd guess the building dates to eleven or twelve hundred BCE, during the New Kingdom period. The pillar in the photograph goes back to King Menes, two thousand years before that. No way the Russian who marked that map found it here."
    "Maybe this was built over an earlier site."
    "That's possible. But if it was, they would've torn everything down and used the materials in the new building. That was common practice in ancient Egypt. Look at this place. They would never have left that column lying around."
    "So what do you want to do?"
    "We're here. We might as well go in but I don't think we're going to find what we're looking for."
    The interior was cool and dim, a pleasant change from the heat and harsh light outside. The walls were painted with hieroglyphics.
    Selena studied the writing. "I was right. This was built in the reign of Ramesses X. That puts it almost at the end of the New Kingdom."
    Ronnie said, "Nothing on those walls that says 'this way to Atlantis?'"
    "Smartass. It would make things a lot easier, wouldn't it? This is a dead end."
    They went outside and back to their car. Another vehicle had pulled into the parking lot. A man and a woman were getting tickets. They looked European. The soldiers had quit their game and given in to boredom.
    "You notice those M-16s they got?" Ronnie said.
    "Dirty," Nick said.
    "My DI would turn purple and scream if he saw someone with a rifle like that."
    "Mine would have the poor bastard doing push-ups while he was yelling at him."
    "With his foot planted in the middle of the guy's back."
    "Yup."
    "Are you two done remembering the good old days?" Selena studied the map. "If this is even close to accurate, that spot where the pillar was found has to be nearby."
    Nick gestured at the empty desert stretching away to the horizon. Heated air rose in shivering ripples from the sands.
    "We can't go wandering around out there hoping to stumble on it."
    "If there's another ruin, the ticket taker might know where it is."
    "Then let's go ask him."
    "You wait here. He's more likely to tell me if you're not standing around looking threatening."
    "Threatening?"
    "I saw the way you looked at that guard when he offered to give me a private tour."
    "I wouldn't call that threatening. Annoyed, maybe."
    "If you say so. I'll be right back."
    Katerina Rostov and Dimitri moved away from the ticket shack toward the temple. They pretended to be interested in the architecture.
    Selena got out of the car.
    "There she is," Katerina said.
    "How do you want to handle it?"
    "We can't do anything here. We watch. And wait for an opportunity."
    "She's going over to the shack."
    The two Russians watched Selena talking to the attendant.
    "She slipped him a bribe," Dimitri said. "Now he's talking to her like they're old friends."
    "She's going back to the car."
    They waited until the car left the parking lot and headed west, toward Libya. Katerina and Dimitri walked back to the shack.
    "Excuse me," Katerina said. "We wondered what our friends were talking to you about."
    "Friends?"
    "Well, not friends exactly, but we're all staying at the same hotel."
    Katerina slipped a hundred pound note across the counter. It disappeared under the attendant's hand.
    "They wanted to know if there were any other ruins in the area."
    "Are there?"
    The attendant seemed disinterested. Katerina slipped another note across.
    "Yes, there is a much smaller temple a few kilometers from here, but it is not visited much. I would not advise it."
    "Why not?"
    The attendant shrugged. "Some people do not like foreigners around here. The place is isolated."
    Perfect, Katerina thought.
    "Where is this ruin?"
    "You go out to the main road and turn west toward the border. Two kilometers from here there is a track turning south into the desert. Follow that for another five kilometers and you'll come to