Free Pyramid of the Gods by Aiden James, J. R. Rain Page A

feeling like an idiot for pursuing a phantom. If this turned out to be a terrible decision, I’d never forgive myself. “I just want to make sure this is the right room before getting too involved here. Marie and Ishi can help me ascertain this is the right room.”
    “ The right room? Do you not see all this gold around us?” Motumbo pointed the flashlight in every direction. Brimming with gold items, it was most definitely the right room. “You would leave me to remove all this gold by myself? Humpf! Go on then! If I bring out the gold myself, then I keep it myself. No split of fifty-fifty! Do you understand?”
    “ Yes,” I said, prepared for similar disdain from Marie and Ishi. Surprisingly, they both said they were ready to leave with me, empty handed. “We’ll be back.”
    He shrugged and turned away, cradling gold items in his shirt.
    The voice called again, and I led the way into the darkened tunnel with Motumbo laughing behind us. Marie held onto the back of my shirt, and my guess was Ishi held onto the back of hers. As if knowing we were on the way, the voice began singing in a lovely voice...although in a language that was unfamiliar. But at least the song gave me something to follow. We shuffled along while I worried about falling into a deep shaft nearly all pyramids are known for. Incredibly, no sooner than I entertained the thought, the golden glow reappeared, roughly thirty feet ahead of us. We ran to catch up to it.
    “ What in the hell is this all about?” Marie whispered to me, when we caught up to the mysterious light. “First I hear a woman singing, and then—”
    “ You heard it, too?”
    “ We all did,” said Ishi.
    I prayed we didn’t suddenly lose the help by discussing it out loud. “I heard my name called, back where Motumbo is gathering his loot.”
    The tunnel’s incline had been steadily descending for the past minute, but leveled out again. As it did, the light grew brighter and veered to our left. It, and the unseen songstress, stopped, as if waiting for us to catch up and take over the lead. We stepped into darkness, and the light stayed with us, its glow drifting over our heads until it expanded to completely illuminate another enormous room. Like the last room, it was filled with riches. Unlike the last one, the gold, gems, and what looked like an odd assortment of other minerals, were in raw form. Stored in large orderly piles forming the perimeter of an immense circle, a walkway ran from its center to a tall staircase. Everything glistened spectacularly beneath a fiery sphere that came to life the instant the other light came in contact with it.
    The piles were huge, reminding me of the neat piles of landscaping rocks and gravel at a plant near my home in California. Only, in this case, the sheer wealth of gold, diamonds, sapphires, and other objects resembling split meteorites would be staggering—perhaps more valuable than the Hittite gold artifacts in the other room, given the variety.
    “Well, what do we do about this?” asked Marie. “You have the site rights, and the Egyptian government is entitled to the lionshare of everything here—including what that asshole is stealing from the other room. But, there’s enough here to make us all wealthy. I’m thinking...”
    Her voice trailed off as the flaming sphere flickered, along with the other light that had steadily dimmed to a soft, ethereal glow. It was almost like whatever had spoken to us and brought us here, wanted us to consider that maybe nothing here belonged to any of us.
    “ Maybe we can’t take any of it,” said Ishi, while Marie and I looked warily around us.
    The flickering stopped, and a new sound emerged. But it wasn’t the hollow voice luring us like a Siren. No, it was the sound of men, excited and shouting angrily in Sudanese.
    It took a moment to register, but Motumbo’s men hadn’t deserted him after all. They were back, and from the growing din of their footfalls echoing against the