Area 51: The Sphinx-4 Read Free Page A

only blackness beyond.
    Burton hesitated. "You first."
    Kaji went through, and Burton followed. The door slid down behind him and the outline of the door disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.
    "Where are we?" Burton asked.
    They were in a larger tunnel that also descended, except something was wrong.
    The light from their lanterns

    -15-

    was absorbed about twenty feet away from them, fading into an utter darkness.
    "I have given you my word that you will see what you seek," Kaji said. "This is the way to the Hall of Records."
    "You go first," Burton said, which only brought a slight smile in response from Kaji.
    The Arab walked down the tunnel, lantern held in front of him. Burton bunked. It was as if the man were fading from sight, yet he was no more than ten feet ahead. Kaji looked over his shoulder, his figure faint. "You must have faith to go this way. Do you have the faith?"

    "I—" But even as Burton responded, Kaji faded from view, the lantern in his hand blinking out. There was nothing but that disquieting darkness—an unnatural black the likes of which Burton had never seen.
    Burton forced himself down the tunnel, feeling the darkness press against his skin, as if the air were becoming a liquid. He pushed forward, even as the light from the lantern faded to a very small dot dangling from a hand he could no longer see. He no longer felt connected to his body, to the world. He was in another place, another time.
    Light exploded into his eyes, momentarily blinding him. Burton staggered and would have fallen but for Kaji grabbing his arm. Burton blinked, his eyes trying to adjust.
    "'There—" Kaji's voice was a whisper.
    Burton's jaw dropped. He didn't notice the pain from his wounds as he took in his surroundings. He was on a ledge along the side of a huge cavern. Light came from a five-meter-wide orb overhead that Burton could not look at for more than a second or, like the sun, it burned his eyes. The far end of the cavern was at least half a mile

    -16-

    away. The walls were curved, consisting of red rock, cut smooth, reflecting the light of the minisun.
    “There is the Hall of Records." Kaji was pointing at the floor of the cavern, a hundred feet below them.
    "My God!" Burton exclaimed as he saw what was there.
    It was a replica of the Great Sphinx—but this one was not covered by sand, nor was it made of stone. The skin of the creature was a flawless black that absorbed the light. The head was larger, the nose not shot off. Indeed, it was larger than the stone one above. Fuller. The eyes caught Burton's gaze. They were the only part of the Sphinx not black. Blood red, with elongated red irises, they glowed from some inner fire. For a second Burton thought it was alive, a monstrous creature, before he realized it was inanimate.
    "'What is it made of?" Burton asked. "I have never seen the like."
    "B'ja -- the divine metal." Kaji said.
    Burton looked around. Stairs cut out! of the rock itself led down to the floor on which the Sphinx rested. Its paws extended almost sixty feet in front of the head, which rose seventy feet above the floor. The body stretched one hundred and eighty feet back from the head, making the whole thing almost three hundred feet long. Between the paws was a statue about three meters tall. Burton looked closely - it was the figure of a man. but one strangely shaped, with a body too short and limbs too long. The most startling aspect, though, was the head, with polished white skin, ears with long lobes that ended just above the shoulders, and two gleaming red eyes set in a long, narrow face. The stone that covered the top of the head was also red.
    "Who is that?" Burton asked. "A pharaoh?"
    "Shemsu Hor," Kaji said. "A Guardian of Horus."

    Barton had studied some of the ancient Egyptian

    -17-

    texts while in Cairo, and he knew that Horus was supposed to be the son of Isis and Osiris, the latter of whom was the supreme god of the underworld.
    "And what does it say below?"

    Kaji