CHAPTER 2
MORE QUESTIONS ARISE

MITCH and Alex brought the duffel bag containing the chest to the lab where they knew Jack and Bob would still be working. As usual, they were the only two left. Mitch and Alex found them surrounded by numerous empty chip bags, chocolate bar wrappers and cans of Coke, for Jack, and Diet Coke, for Bob.

“Hey guys,” Alex greeted them, “how was work today?”

“Ahh, now there’s a sight for sore eyes,” Jack said, smiling widely. “We thought we were the last two people on earth.”

“I see you’ve already had dinner,” Mitch added, looking around amusedly at the junk food bone yard.

“Well, had we known we were having company, we would have saved some,” Bob replied sarcastically, as he wiped his hands on his old, worn Star Wars t-shirt. Bob was a rather messy, rotund sort, with thick, scraggly black hair.

“Yeah, thanks anyways, looks like it was very appetizing,” Alex said with a hint of disgust.

“Don’t knock it Alex, desperate times call for desperate measures,” Jack said with mock seriousness. He was a short, skinny fellow, with light brown hair and a long pointed nose.

Jack and Bob were the best of friends as well as co-workers. They were lab technicians, who help analyze and date the finds that the archaeologists bring in. Together, they refer to themselves as ‘Rogue Squadron’, in reference to their favorite films.

“So, to what do we owe the honor of this visit?” Bob asked.

“Well, we have some things we need to open in a controlled environment,” Mitch replied. “Which is why we came to the lab.”

“These things will need to be dated as well,” Alex added.

Mitch placed the duffel bag on the table, pushing some piles of papers out of the way in the process. “This is just between us, we need you both to swear an oath of secrecy.”

“Done,” Jack answered for both of them. “What’s in the bag?”

Mitch unzipped the bag, pulled the chest out and set it on the table.

“Wowza! Where did you get that?” Bob asked.

“We found it at the end of our dig today after the workers left,” Alex said. “Actually, it was kind of by accident.” She looked at Mitch, a silent communication passing between them, and continued, “I ran to get some tools when I tripped over it, buried in the sands.”

Mitch said nothing.

Bob laughed a big, booming laugh, “You tripped over it? Wow, impressive!”

“Hey, stuff it big boy, that’s how they found the entrance to Tut’s tomb. Besides, the important thing is we found it, no matter how glamorous the technique.” Alex crossed her arms and gave him a challenging look.

Jack added, “Didn’t a donkey find the Valley of the Golden Mummies by stepping in a hole?”

“Jack…” Alex warned.

“Ok, ok, so what’s in it? Have you opened it yet?” Jack asked.

“We did,” Mitch replied. “Remember your oath!” He lifted the lid. Jack and Bob pulled in close to look at the two shining cylinders lying inside.

“Cool,” Jack said.

“Whoa…what do we have here?” Bob exclaimed furrowing his brow.

“We don’t know exactly what they are,” Alex said.

“Have you opened them?” Bob asked.

“No, not yet,” Alex answered. “That’s why we came to see you two. If there are documents of some sort in there, we want them handled very carefully.”

“Understood,” Bob replied. “Bring them over here,” he said as he motioned them to the environmentally controlled unit they used in the handling of delicate artifacts. The enclosed unit had misters in it, which provided humidity to protect fragile or brittle objects. On either side were built in gloves, used to reach inside the specially designed plastic housing, without damaging the artifact.

“Thanks Bob, we were hoping you guys could help…you see, we haven’t exactly shown this to anyone else yet,” she said.

“Not even to boss-man Dusti-lame?” Jack said, grinning mischie-vously.

Mitch and Alex just shook their heads.

“Sneaky smugglers, aren’t you?”

“They have good reason to be, Jack,” Bob replied in their defense.

“I know. I’m just impressed. Personally, I fully support these actions!”

Mitch brought the chest over to Bob and carefully removed one of the cylinders. He handed it to Bob, who had a look of amazement on his face as he felt the smooth metal in his hands. “I’ve never seen or felt anything like this. You say you found this on the site you were working on?”

“That’s right,” Alex answered.

“What are they made of?” he asked.

“We have no idea,” Mitch answered. “Metallurgy isn’t our strong suit.”

“I see,” said Bob as he looked at the mysterious cylinders.

“Guess you’ll need our help on that too.”

“Yup,” Alex answered.

Bob smiled. He liked feeling needed by his two highly educated pals. “Well…this might be an obvious observation, but we’ve seen a lot of items from that site, and, well…this doesn’t exactly fit the profile, you know. I mean, the ankh is obviously Egyptian, but…”

“Bob, we know. We know exactly what you’re saying, please just open them,” Mitch interrupted.

Bob looked at them then looked over at Jack, who raised his eye-brows and shrugged. “Fine,” he said, placing both cylinders inside the casing. He looked closer at them, his attention riveted. “These are extraordinary! They must be priceless.”

“That’s kind of what we were thinking,” Alex agreed.

“You guys are going to be famous! Hey Jack, we should get their autographs now, while they’re still not worth anything! We could make a fortune selling them on eBay!”

“Focus Bob,” Alex playfully admonished him. “Can you see a way to open the cylinders without damaging them?”

“Hey, that’s why they pay me the big bucks,” he laughed.

“You’d better not be getting big bucks if all I get is little bucks!” Jack piped in.

“None of us get big bucks, Jack, we’re lucky to get anything more than food and shelter,” Mitch said. “Now quit distracting him!”

They all watched as Bob closely examined the ends of one of the cylinders. He reached for a small tool and began to trace the edge of one of its ends. Slowly, he began to pry at the tiny groove, pausing every few seconds to re-examine it. Finally, it gave way, the lid popping up slightly.

He looked up at Mitch and Alex whose noses were nearly pressed against the case. Alex gave him a nod, indicating for him to proceed. Bob carefully pried the top off and after taking a deep breath, angled the cylinder a little to let whatever was inside, fall gently into his waiting gloved hand.

They all gasped at what slid out. It was a book, bound with a soft cover, about ten inches by fourteen inches in dimension. Inside it had several pages made from papyrus.

Alex grabbed Mitch’s shoulder. She could feel he was as tense as she was.

In the top right hand corner of the dark brown cover were some symbols embossed with a form of gold leaf.

“Those are similar to the symbols that are on the chest,” Alex whispered to Mitch. “Bob, flip through a few of the pages, gently.”

They watched as he painstakingly turned the first few pages, which were quite bent having been rolled up for so long. The pages were filled with the same strange type of symbols as on the cover, none of which Mitch or Alex could read.

“Wow!” Bob exclaimed. “Look at this, the papyrus is still in excel-lent condition, the writing doesn’t appear to be faded at all. Those cylinders must have been airtight to keep the papyrus from drying out and becoming brittle. What time period would you guys say this belongs to?”

Mitch and Alex looked at each with wide eyes. Both were silent for a moment.

“We’re not sure Bob,” Mitch replied, his heart pounding.

“You can’t read these?” Bob asked, pointing to what he thought were ordinary hieroglyphs. He couldn’t read them himself, but he knew that Mitch and Alex were experts at translating ancient Egyptian writing.

“No,” Alex answered, her mind racing. “Let’s open the second cylinder.”

Again, Bob carefully pried open the ornate top, and out slid two individual papyri. Slowly and carefully, he unrolled them, as everyone held their breath.

The first papyrus had a painting of what seemed to be some kind of strange funeral scene. The other papyrus had a painting depicting an outdoor ceremony or celebration with what seemed to be a royal couple standing with their hands outstretched, as if in blessing. The figures in the painting were wearing long flowing robes. The man was tall and clothed in emerald green, the woman in a golden gown. Both had large amulets around their necks. Their skin appeared tanned and painted with a lovely golden sheen. Their hair was jet-black and each wore golden circlets atop their heads. The plates of food and bushels of crops beside the royal couple would indicate they either had a good harvest or were hoping for one.

“Who are they?” Bob asked. Without answering Alex glanced over at Mitch and instantly recognized he was having the same problem as she was. “Guys, this couple – who are they?” he repeated. Mitch shook his head.

“We don’t know,” Alex responded.

Bob raised his eyebrows, surprised at her answer. “It’s a pharaoh and his queen though isn’t it?”

Neither Mitch nor Alex answered him. They just continued to scrutinize the painting for clues as to who these people were.

Jack was now leaning over both Mitch and Alex, his bony fingers digging into their shoulders.

“Ow, Jack, you’re puncturing my skin,” Alex complained. Mitch laughed.

“Sorry,” he said. “Then move over, I can’t see!” He then realized that they still weren’t answering Bob’s last question. “What is it? You guys have funny looks on your faces.”

“We’re just having trouble placing this, that’s all,” Alex answered, not making eye contact with him. “We don’t recognize the figures. I think we have some homework to do.”

Jack kept looking at them. He knew them well enough to know something was up, “Really?” he asked. “This has you stumped? Well, this is a momentous day. You two usually know everything!”

Alex swatted him. “Stuff it!”

Jack laughed. He loved to get a rise out of people.

“We may not be able to place it right now, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be able to at all,” Mitch replied. “Bob, can you close the book again, I’d like to copy down the glyphs from the front of it.” He took a seat and jotted them down as best he could into the small leather-bound notebook he always carried with him.

“All right guys, we now need to find out how old these things are and what the story is with those cylinders,” Mitch stated as he got up. “This may be one of the most important discoveries in our lifetimes or it may be an elaborate hoax, either way we need to put it into some kind of context for starters. Jack, Bob, you two start working on deter-mining the age of the scrolls, the chest, and the cylinders. Alex and I will work on putting these things into context as best we can and searching for any other references to this royal couple. And let us know if we can safely take the scrolls out to analyze them more closely.”

“Gee, is that all? We can have that for you by morning,” Jack said with as much sarcasm as he could possibly muster. “Anything else?”

“Jack, we’re sorry to do this to you, but we don’t have much time. We can’t keep this hidden for too long,” Alex said. She put her hand on his shoulder, “We’re going to be pulling some late nights too. We’ll owe you huge.”

“Yes, you will,” he said smiling at her.

Alex shook her finger at him.

“Hey,” Jack quickly replied, “if you and Mitch want to keep this hidden, we’ll have to wait until no one is around in the evenings, or else get up extra early before anyone shows up. We can’t very well have this stuff laying around for prying eyes to see, now can we? And you know Bob and I are not morning people. We’re vampires, thank-you very much!”

Mitch and Alex laughed, shaking their heads.

“But vampires who drink Coke!” he added.

“Diet Coke!” Bob interjected.

“Speak for yourself,” Jack replied.

“I just did!” Bob protested, taking a playful swipe at Jack’s head.

Jack ducked in the nick of time.

Mitch and Alex laughed again at the comical display. If there was one thing Jack and Bob loved, it was mystery and intrigue.

“Hey, before you go, can you guys tell us anything else?” Bob asked. “These are the most unusual items I’ve ever seen. I mean, from first glance the scrolls look incredibly old, but these cylinders they were in…this doesn’t make sense to me.”

“Believe me, Bob, we are as surprised and confused as you are,” Alex said. “We just don’t have any other answers for you right now. Without speculating, it would be helpful to determine even a ballpark age of any of this. That’s going to tell us a lot of what we need to know and point us in the right direction at least. We wish we had more information, that’s why we’re counting on you two. Huge!” she said smiling.

“Alex, I’m also going to make a sketch of this chest so we have some things to study while we leave the rest with them,” Mitch said as he sat down again and made as accurate a copy as possible of the chest and its intricate markings.

“Ok, done,” Mitch said, closing up his notebook. “We’ll touch base with you guys in the morning. If you need anything else, if there’s any-thing we can do to help, please let us know.”

“Oh, we will,” Jack replied emphatically.

“Call us the minute you find anything out,” Mitch said. “And thank-you both!”

“Yeah, yeah, just make sure to keep the Cokes coming!” Jack re-plied.

“And remember, diet for me!” Bob called out as Mitch and Alex prepared to leave.

“We won’t forget!” Alex said, waving.

They walked to the door, and looked at one another. “I don’t know what to say, Alex.”

“I know,” she replied.

“What the hell do you think we’ve found?”

“Something big.”