Free The Cydonia Objective (Morpheus Initiative 03) by David Sakmyster Page A

emerging over a thick forest in the east, past the width of the Nile. There is a deep, lush jungle where the other two pyramids should be, and the causeway leading up to the Sphinx has been neatly landscaped, the trees and bushes pared back from the great marble stones. And the Sphinx itself—different. Its head is larger, leonine, and proportional to the immense body; it faces the rising sun, and its eyes hungrily follow the dawn.
    But then the golden capstone above the smooth, reflective walls of the Great Pyramid begins to glow. Brighter and brighter. Turning from gold to silver, blindingly bright.
    And then a beam stabs out, straight up and out, thrusting into the azure-violet sky…
    …arcing toward a single pinpoint of reddish-white light. A faint star.
    A planet.
    "Mars!" Alexander whispered as he came back to the present. Caleb's light was back on. His father rubbed his eyes, and cautiously traced the slot with his index finger. "Did you see it?"
    "I… saw something. A man where you're sitting. Putting the tablet in there, and then directing some kind of light beam out the top of the pyramid, toward what I think was Mars."
    Caleb cocked his head, looked sharply at Alexander. "You really...?"
    "Didn't you see it too?  You've got to believe me. It was a long time ago, had to be. Only this pyramid and the Sphinx were there, but Egypt wasn't a desert. There was a jungle, and-"
    "I believe you."  Caleb leaned forward, rubbing his head. "I don't want to believe you, but I do. There have been a lot of crackpot theories about this site, this pyramid. I never gave much thought to some of the more outlandish ones, like that the Great Pyramid was an ancient power source, or a weapon used by extraterrestrial 'gods' in their own petty wars. But now..."
    "But now it doesn't seem so… crackpotty."
    Caleb smiled. "Nice word, Alexander. No it doesn't, but I didn't see all that. I saw something else, I was focused on the man."
    "The Pharaoh guy?  What about him?"
    "It seemed," Caleb said, "he wasn't really there."
    Alexander blinked, trying to recall what he'd seen. The man sitting there, holding the tablet. All that heat and power passing into him, through him. "Oh."
    "Yeah," Caleb said. "I think that was just his projection, whatever it is Montross learned how to do."
    "And Grandpa."
    Caleb nodded. "But somehow, while in that out of body phase, he could still touch the Emerald Tablet. Move it, insert it." 
    "Like I was able to move the lever under the Sphinx!" Alexander's eyes shined with the memory.
    Caleb nodded as he shined the light into the groove, trying to see anything down there. "And that's the key, I think. To what the Emerald Tablet can do. It interfaces with consciousness, or our souls, or something. One and the same and phased together with the spirit, the Tablet's full power can be consciously controlled, wielded."
    Alexander whistled. "So what did I see them attacking?"
    "I can't say, yet. But I don't think it helps us now. This… place. This facility is dormant. I can feel it. Even if we brought the Tablet down here, I think they—whoever they were—Thoth's enemies maybe, dismantled the core. Maybe it was in some ancient war, something that turned this lush land into a desert. Whatever it was, this facility, this pyramid, is nothing now but a tomb. Our tomb, unless we can get out."
    "Perhaps," said a new voice. "I can be of assistance."
     
    #
    Alexander spun around, fumbling with his light. Shining it this way and that, finally zeroing in on the presence: back at the passage entrance that led into this chamber. A lone figure stood there.
    It took him a moment to see that it was a woman. Someone in a long gray cloak. Actually, he realized, a sari. Draped over her shoulder and wrapped around her body. She had short hair, white, and her face was beautiful despite its age.
    "Easy," Caleb whispered. "I think I know her, but how-?"
    "-Did I find you?"  The woman approached, her own flashlight aimed down, a large