Free Four Ways to Pharaoh Khufu by Alexander Marmer Page A

delivery.
    Wait , he thought. Relief flashed across the Medjay’s face. Our stele certainly didn’t weigh a mere one kilogram . For a brief moment Asim drifted back to a memory from fifteen years before, during his Right of Passage ceremony that signified his passage into manhood. That was the first and last time he had ever seen or held the sacred stele. Even though he was merely thirteen at the time, he clearly recollected lifting the weight of the stele physically onto his shoulder at the same time he ceremoniously shouldered the heavy weight and honor of protecting it.
    A ton of weight dropped off his shoulders as Asim realized there was no way the German could have mailed the stele through DHL’s Express service. But what does the receipt mean? It must be important for him to have hidden i t so.
    I need to let the Chief know . Asim pulled out an outdated version of a RAZR cell phone. At least he had something to report.
    “My great warrior, may Horus always be with you,” answered the firm male voice on the other end as he had recognized Asim’s number on the incoming call.
    “May Horus always be with you, Great Chief.”
    “Tell me the good news,” commanded the Chief.
    “I carried out your will, oh Great Chief!”
    “That’s definitely good news. I know Ra will be merciful today.”
    Asim thought that the Chief sounded pleased and boasted, “The deceiving thief is gone to the distant place from where nobody returns.”
    “I assume you left no witnesses. The risk is too great.”
    “He died inside Khufu’s Great Pyramid,” Asim paused before adding solemnly, “The very place he had defiled.”
    Asim relayed all of the earlier events of the day to the Chief. He meticulously reported following Schulze from his hotel to the Giza Plateau, slipping inside before Schulze entered the Great Pyramid, and how he had patiently waited with the small syringe filled with the chemist’s poisonous liquid. Even though he had not the slightest clue what fate was waiting for him, the German engineer, Schulze, had been doomed from the very moment he had stepped inside the Great Pyramid. In the very place he had defiled.
    “Yes, the very place he had defiled,” repeated the chief somberly. “Anubis, the guardian of the underworld will not be pleased with his soul so weighted down in sin. Schulze’s heart will outweigh Ma’at’s feather, and his condemned soul will be given to Ammit, the crocodile-headed devourer of souls.” The chief exhaled calmly and engaged in a barely audible prayer.
    There was a long pause, during which Asim could hear chief’s muted pleas to the guardian of the underworld before resuming the conversation. “Then, I presume you found what he stole from us and what we so vigilantly guarded for generations.”
    “Great Chief, be Horus my witness. I searched his entire body,” Asim gave Schulze’s body another disgruntled glance. “I found a DHL postal receipt on him that showed he mailed a package six days ago.”
    The chief exhaled loudly, agitation creeping into his voice. “There is no way he could’ve mailed the stele.”
    “You are correct, Great Chief. The weight of the package was a mere one kilogram,” Asim responded quietly. “But the postal receipt is the only clue. I searched his entire hotel room, but nothing was found there either,” Asim concluded with frustration and anger apparent in his voice.
    “My fierce warrior,” the chief’s voice interrupted him, sounding composed again. “We are the Medjay. We will never quit until righteousness triumphs and what was stolen from us is returned to its rightful place. The stele will be found at any cost. I have confidence that the German didn’t smuggle it outside of Egypt. And while it is still inside the country, it is within our power.”
    Asim knew the stakes were great and eagerly awaited the next set of instructions from his Great Chief.
    “Don’t call me; I will initiate the next call. Are you on the way to the