The Cult of Osiris Read Free

round the temple wall.
    Part of the plateau's north end had been cordoned off by orange plastic netting where repairs were under way on the high wall. A couple of small cabins and a tent-like structure
    stood amongst stacks of bricks and piles of rubble. It was such a mundane sight that while Macy had seen it every day as she entered the Sphinx compound, she had never actually noticed it before. Certainly nobody ever seemed to do any actual work there.
    There was someone there now, though. As well as the men at the gate, other guards patrolled the compound to make sure no tourists tried to get up close and personal with the Sphinx. But the man waiting for Gamal and the others wasn't patrolling. He was guarding the construction site.
    The lighting changed, more lasers and spotlights slashing the black sky. The guard watched the display, only turning away when the visitors reached him. Brief words were exchanged, then he let them through the netting.
    Gamal reached the tent and pulled aside a flap, revealing lights within. The other two ducked through, and with another furtive backwards glance Gamal followed. Macy jerked back behind the temple wall, wondering if he'd seen her, before realising how dumb she was being. So what if he had?
    She peeked out again. The guard was strolling along the netting perimeter, looking bored. Through the gaps around the tent flap, she glimpsed activity within.
    The movement stopped.
    Macy kept watching, but it didn't resume. What were they doing in there? Unless all three men were squashed together at one end, the tent didn't seem big enough for them to keep out of sight. If anything, it now looked empty, but she couldn't see how that was possible. It was right against the high wall.
    She noticed something else, though: a faint plume of smoke. No, not smoke - fumes, chugging up from the end of a hose. But there wasn't a generator in sight.
    So where were the fumes coming from?
    Interest now well and truly piqued, she rounded the corner, keeping low behind a pile of dirt. But she quickly realised her stealthiness was pointless; to reach the construction site, she would have to cross a wide, open space, and unless the guard was blind he couldn't miss her.
    But in a few moments, mavbe he would be blind . . .
    She knew what came next in the sound and light show, having heard it every night. The narrator was about to begin his tale of Khufu, builder of the Great Pyramid - and the lights would briefly drop to black before illuminating Khufu's monument at full brightness.
    Macy closed her eyes, waited . . .
    The lights went out.
    She opened her eyes again and raced for the tent. Only a few seconds before the Great Pyramid lit up like a beacon—
    Dramatic music thundered from the loudspeakers, the Great Pyramid exploding into view to the northwest. Macy reached the gap in the netting and skidded to a halt behind one of the stacks of bricks. She glanced round it and saw the guard staring at the floodlit structure.
    She let out a breath, feeling something she hadn't felt since first arriving in Egypt: excitement. No, that had been more like anticipation, but this was a genuine, almost child-like thrill. This was fun!
    Holding in a nervous giggle, she looked at the tent. Now that she was closer, she could hear the chug of a generator - but only faintly, and with an odd echo. She checked again that the guard wasn't looking in her direction, then crept to the tent.
    Nobodv was inside.
    The helP/ Macy wondered aloud, slipping in. One end was taken up by a makeshift cubicle of cheap particle board. Since it was little more than three feet wide, she doubted Gamal and the others were huddled within.
    But she lost interest in it when she saw what was at the tent's other end.
    A trestle table had construction blueprints spread out across it; she recognised the topmost as a plan of the Sphinx compound. What had caught her attention, though, wasn't on the table, but hanging on the tent wall above it. Large colour