Origins: The Reich Read Free Page B

red-haired soldier opened his stance and gestured toward the command tent.  “There’s something inside the tent that you need to see, sir.”
    Commander Allen beckoned for one of his men to join them on their way to the fabric pyramid.  “My team engineer will walk you through what you are about to see.”
    The engineer reached the tent first, held open the door, and soon followed his commanding officer and Terrance into the structure.  Sitting atop a folding table in the middle of the twenty-by-twenty foot fabric enclosed room sat a laptop computer with a set of screensaver lines dancing across the display.  Already seated at the table with his legs politely crossed was an Egyptian military officer who rose to greet the new entrants.
    “This is Colonel Azire.  He’s our liaison with the Egyptian military while we’re in his country,” Commander Allen announced to Terrance.  “He’s already aware of what you are about to see.”
    An inconvenient obstacle, Terrance thought.  He huffed a dismissive sound toward the Colonel and focused his attention on the computer monitor.  “Well?”
    The SEAL team engineer needed no further prodding.  He sat in front of the computer, wiggled the mouse, and proceeded to give a brief mission history while waiting for the device to come alive.  “We placed ground receptors around the perimeter of the Giza plateau and employed the Lacrosse Aperture Recon Satellite to bounce a signal down, which allowed us to map the interior of the monuments.”
    “Yes, I am well aware of the satellite re-tasking request,” Terrance responded.  “What did that significant cost and effort achieve for us?”
    “A lot,” the engineer answered letting the computer display convey the results. 
    On screen, the entire Giza plateau appeared on a high definition, multi-colored relief map.  The Pyramid of Khufu caught his attention first.  The massive monument, impregnated with four bright red rooms located in a symmetrical pattern around the structure’s middle layers, appeared to house pieces of machinery that the sonic density program was unable to identify.
    He quietly absorbed the information and moved on with his eyes to the Sphinx.  The monolith’s enormous body was glowing bright red.  The gigantic statue was hollow and housed another cluster of metal the computer could not identify.  What’s more, there was an underground tunnel leading to the chamber from the north.
    After a long, quiet moment of contemplation, Terrance shook his head from side to side in disbelief.  “I was briefed on these findings and yet, seeing it with my own eyes...”
    “What you are seeing, sir, is a tactical nightmare,” Commander Allen interjected.  “There is one subterranean way in or out and two targets are barricaded inside the Sphinx chamber behind a locked door that isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.”
    “Explain that,” Terrance ordered, regaining his hard composure.
    Commander Allen deferred to his engineer.  “The chamber door is made of a composite alloy I’ve never seen or even heard of before.  Forcing the door open would take equipment far larger than the tiny space allows.”
    “What about blasting it open?” Terrance asked. 
    “Absolutely out of the question,” Colonel Azire declared as he rose to his feet.
    “The prerequisite being that you use shaped charges in order to not damage the monument itself, of course,” Terrance amended for the Egyptian officer’s benefit.  He wanted nothing more than to see the man bound and gagged in the corner, but his protective instinct toward the Sphinx did provide a useful point of leverage.
    “Any charge strong enough to open that door would blow the entire statue clear to the moon,” the engineer answered.
    “What about neutralizing the locking mechanism,” Terrance offered.
    “Unless you NSA types have some code breaking equipment I’ve never heard about, that won’t work either,” Commander Allen chimed in.
    Save