The Genesis Key by James Barney Page B

with me.”
    One at a time, Sargon and Ahmed descended into the pit. At the bottom, Sargon pulled out a pocketknife. He picked up the slack end of the nylon rope, which lay loosely coiled at the bottom of the pit, and measured off several arm lengths—about twenty feet in all—until he reached a point in the rope that dangled about four feet above the floor. “Can you reach this high?” he asked Ahmed, pointing to a knot just above his hand.
    Ahmed reached up and verified that he could.
    With that, Sargon quickly sliced the nylon rope with his knife, just below the knot. He then gathered up the remaining loose rope on the bottom of the pit and said to Ahmed, “Come with me.”
    â€œHey!” Jabar yelled from above, “where are you going?”
    â€œWe’ll be right back,” Sargon responded. “Stay where you are.”
    Sargon went first through the hole into the anteroom and then helped Ahmed through. He carefully trained the flashlight away from Daniel Talbot’s lifeless body to prevent Ahmed from seeing it. “Keep walking . . . not much farther,” he said as the two of them traversed the narrow passageway toward the large room at the end.
    â€œWow!” Ahmed said as he entered the burial chamber.
    â€œAmazing, huh?”
    Ahmed nodded in agreement.
    â€œOkay, here’s what I need you to do.” Sargon tied a knot at one end of the rope and walked to the far side of the sarcophagus. He threw the knotted end over the giant stone structure, so the rope was now draped across the top. Sargon and Ahmed stood on opposite sides.
    â€œGrab that knot and put it between your feet.”
    Ahmed complied.
    â€œNow, hold on tight. You’re going up!” With that, Sargon pulled hard on his end of the rope, using the sarcophagus as a crude pulley. “Can you get on top yet?” he asked, wincing in pain.
    â€œI’m up!”
    Sargon tossed the boy the flashlight and instructed him to inspect the top of the sarcophagus for markings. “What do you see?”
    Ahmed reported back in a baffled tone, “I see . . . nothing. ”
    â€œIsn’t there writing on the stone? Tell me what it looks like.”
    There was a long pause. “No, there’s no writing.”
    â€œAre you sure? There must be something —symbols, pictures, markings, anything?”
    â€œNo, mister, there’s nothing. Just a smooth, flat stone, like I said.”
    Sargon was confused. There had to be more markings on this tomb somewhere. The one on the base of the sarcophagus didn’t make any sense. “Okay, jump down,” he said. “We’ll have to think of something else.”
    They returned to the anteroom, where Sargon instructed Ahmed to crawl back through the hole and into the pit. Sargon stayed inside the anteroom and shouted instructions through the hole. “Grab that metal pole,” he yelled, using the flashlight’s beam to direct Ahmed to a long metal pipe sticking out of the smoking debris pile. The pipe had once formed part of the scaffolding. “Can you pry it loose?”
    â€œYes, I’ve got it.”
    â€œOkay, pass it to me.” With some effort, the two of them finessed the twelve-foot metal pole through the access hole and into the anteroom and passageway. “Now, tell Jabar to send down one of those flat metal shovels that are lying around up there.”
    Ahmed nodded.
    â€œAnd make sure it has a sturdy handle,” Sargon added.
    After a few minutes, Jabar sent down a suitable shovel to Ahmed, lowering it carefully on the rope.
    â€œNow pass me the shovel,” Sargon ordered, “and the bucket, too.”
    Ahmed complied.
    Five minutes later, Sargon and Ahmed were back in the burial chamber with the implements they had just retrieved. Sargon went to work quickly as Ahmed held the flashlight. First, Sargon inserted the wooden handle of the shovel into the metal pipe, making