The Pharaoh's Secret Read online

  The sight seemed to only deepen Renata’s regret. “I’ve always wanted to see the Pyramids up close. But I can barely see them for all the buildings. Looks like they’ve built the city right up to the nose of the Sphinx.”

  Even Kurt was surprised. “When I came here as a kid, we climbed all the way to the top of Cheops. As high as you could go. There was nothing between the river and the Pyramids except palm trees, green fields and growing crops.”

  He often wondered if a time would come when every square inch of the world would be covered by concrete. Not a place he wanted to live in. “How’s our friend doing?” he asked, changing the subject.

  “Still heading south,” she whispered. “But he’s crossing over to the far side. Angling toward the other bank.”

  Kurt whistled to get the pilot’s attention. “Take us over there,” he said, pointing.

  The pilot adjusted course and the boat tracked a diagonal path across the river as if heading straight for the Pyramids. As they got closer to the west bank, the skyline crowded out the tops of the ancient ruins in the distance, but a new sight came into view: a massive construction project along the river’s edge, complete with cranes, bulldozers and cement trucks.

  A lengthy section of the shore was being rebuilt.

  Buildings, parking areas and landscaping were nearing completion. Fences around the construction site were covered with huge banners declaring, in both Arabic and English, Osiris Construction.

  The work on land was impressive, but the engineering in the river was what caught Kurt’s eye.

  From where they were, he could see a channel cut into the riverbank. It was at least a hundred feet wide and a half mile long. Looking at the satellite view displayed on Renata’s computer, he could see it ran the entire length of the project like a canal. A thick concrete partition walled it off from the rest of the river, and churning white water was gushing from the far end.

  “What’s that all about?” Joe asked.

  “Looks like the rapids of a Montana gorge,” Kurt replied.

  The pilot shouted back to them. “Hydroelectric,” he said. “Osiris Power and Light.”

  Renata was already looking it up on the computer. “He’s right. According to the Internet, water is diverted from the river and forced to flow down the channel and through submerged turbines. It generates over five thousand megawatts per hour. Their website insists that Osiris Construction is proud to be building nineteen similar plants along the river, enough to provide all of Egypt’s future electrical needs.”

  “Not a bad way to generate power,” Joe said. “You avoid all the problems inherent with big dams and all the ecological damage they do to the river systems while still getting electricity out of the deal.”

  Kurt couldn’t disagree. In fact, a quick look told him the setup was similar to the generator system NUMA had used to light up the Roman trireme for excavation. But something was wrong. It took Kurt a minute to identify what it was. “So why is there a waterfall at the end of the channel?”

  “I don’t see a waterfall,” Renata said.

  “I’m not talking about Niagara Falls here,” Kurt said. “But take a close look. There’s a difference in the level of water coming out of that channel and the level of water in the river itself. Looks like several feet at least.”

  Both she and Joe shielded their eyes to see what Kurt was talking about.

  “You’re right,” Joe said. “The water is flowing down and out of that channel as if it’s coming down a spillway.”

  “Isn’t that what happens with a dam?” Renata asked.

  “Except there’s no dam here,” Kurt said. “By the laws of fluid dynamics, the water in the channel should be the same level as the water in the river. Not only that, the velocity of the water coming out of that channel should be slower than the river water because the channel water has to do the work of spinning those giant turbines. With a project like this, you usually have to deal with backflow, not a gusher at the end.”

  “Maybe they’ve figured out a way to accelerate the water that we’re unaware of,” Joe said.

  “Possibly,” Kurt said. “At any rate, that’s not our problem.” He turned back to Renata. “Where’s our friend now?”

  “Maybe it is our problem,” Renata said, looking up from the screen. “He’s docked right beside the construction zone and is proceeding on land. Looks like he’s about to enter the main building.”

  Kurt raised the small binoculars he’d brought along and looked over at the construction site. Even from this distance he could see a strong security presence. There were guards patrolling with dogs at their side, others checking cars that were arriving through the gated entrance. “It looks more like a military base than a construction site.”

  “A veritable fortress,” Joe said. “And our friend Hassan has taken refuge inside.”

  “Now what?” Renata asked.

  “We dig up anything we can find on Osiris International,” Kurt said. “And if Hassan doesn’t come out soon, we have to find a way in.”

  “That’s going to be a lot more difficult than sneaking into the museum in Malta,” Renata said.

  “What we need is an official excuse to be there,” Kurt suggested. “Something governmental. Any chance your friends at the AISE could make a call for us?”

  Renata shook her head. “We have about as much influence here as your country has in Iran. None.”

  “I guess we’re on our own, as usual.”

  “Maybe not,” Joe said, grinning broadly. “I know someone who might be able to help us. An Egyptian government official who owes me a favor.”

  “Hopefully, it’s a big one,” Renata said.

  “The biggest,” Joe said.

  Renata remained puzzled, but Kurt suddenly realized what Joe was getting at. He’d almost forgotten Joe was a national hero in Egypt, one of the few foreigners to ever be awarded the Order of the Nile. He could probably get whatever he asked for. “Major Edo,” Kurt said, remembering the man who Joe had helped.

  “He was promoted to brigadier general, thanks to me,” Joe said.

  “Is that why he owes you a favor?” Renata asked.

  “That’s not even the half of it,” Kurt replied for him. “You’re looking at the man who saved Egypt by preventing the collapse of the Aswan Dam.”

  “That was you?” Renata asked. The incident had made headlines around the world.

  “I had a little help,” Joe admitted.

  She smiled. “But you were the one?”

  He nodded.

  “I’m very impressed, Joe,” she said. “That would entitle us to a little help.”

  Kurt thought so too. He stepped toward the bow and said to the water taxi’s pilot, “Thanks for your time. We’re ready to go back to the dock.”

  The boat turned around. Now all they had to do was find Brigadier General Edo before Hassan left the building.

  43

  Joe sat on a plush chair in a swanky downtown office. The modern decor, subdued lighting and soft music gave off the aura of success. It was a far cry from the stormy night several years before when he’d first met Major Edo in a smoky interrogation room.

  And that was unfortunate.

  “So, I take it you’re not in the military anymore,” Joe said.

  Edo’s hair was longer, his Clark Gable looks even more evident now that he’d traded in his fatigues for a sharply tailored suit.

  “Advertising,” Edo said. “That’s the name of my game now. It’s much more lucrative. And it allows me to be”—he waved his hands around in an artsy manner—“creative.”

  “Creative?” Joe asked.

  “You’d be surprised how that’s frowned upon in the military.”

  Joe sighed. “I’m happy for you,” he said, trying to sound sincere. “I’m just surprised. What happened? You were prom
oted to general, last I heard.”

  Edo leaned back in his chair and shrugged. “Changes,” he said. “Big changes, you know. First, the protests. Then all the fighting. It became a revolution. One government fell. A new government took over. And then, of course, the protests began again and that government fell. Many in the military were purged. I was forced out with no pension.”

  “And you chose advertising for your new career?”

  “My brother-in-law has made a fortune in the business,” Edo said. “It seems everybody wants to sell someone something.”

  Joe wondered if there was any way Edo could still help them. “I don’t suppose you could get us a meeting with the head honchos at Osiris Construction?”

  Edo leaned forward and focused more sharply. “Osiris?” he asked with obvious concern. “What are you involved in, my friend?”

  “It’s complicated,” Joe said.

  Edo opened a drawer and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He stuck one between his lips, lit it and then began to wave it around as he spoke, never putting it back in his mouth. At least some things hadn’t changed. “I would leave Osiris alone, if I were you,” he warned.

  “Why?” Joe asked. “Who are they?”

  “Who aren’t they,” Edo replied. “They’re everyone who used to matter.”

  “Maybe you could be more specific?” Joe asked.

  “The old guard,” Edo said. “The military men who were swept out of power a few years ago. The military had been in control of Egypt since the Free Officers took over in 1952. They’ve been the hand on the wheel. Nasser was military. Sadat was military. Mubarak also military. They’ve been running things all this time. But it’s more than that. I’m sure you’ve heard the term military-industrial complex. In Egypt, we took that to a whole new level. The military men owned most of the businesses, they decided who got the jobs. They hired friends to reward them, enemies to placate them. But since the Revolution, things have been different. There’s too much scrutiny for things to go back to the old way. Osiris came out of that. It’s run by a man named Tariq Shakir. He was a full colonel in the secret police. He had great ambitions to lead the country someday. But he knows his past will prevent that from happening. So with the help of others in the old guard, he’s found a different way. Osiris is the most powerful corporation in Egypt. They get every contract. And not just from our government, but from others. Everyone is wary of them. Even the sitting politicians.”

  “So this Shakir is a kingmaker and not a king,” Joe said.

  Edo nodded. “He will never step to the forefront, but he wields great power both here and abroad. You’ve seen what’s going on in Libya, Tunisia and Algeria?”

  “Of course,” Joe said.

  “The new governments in those countries are made up of Shakir’s friends. His allies.”

  “I heard they were members of the old guard in their own respective lands,” Joe said.

  “Yes,” Edo said. “Now you see how it ties together.”

  Joe had the distinct impression they were getting in deeper than they expected with each turn, almost as if they’d hooked a small fish that had been eaten by a larger fish and was being chased by a giant shark.

  “Osiris has its own private army,” Edo said. “Castoffs from the regular units, men from the Special Forces, assassins from the secret police. Anyone too hot for the regular military can find a home at Osiris.”

  Joe rubbed his brow. “We still need to get inside that building,” he said. “And we don’t have time to wait for an invitation. Thousands of lives are at stake.”

  Edo tapped some of the ash from the end of his cigarette, stood and began to pace. Joe thought he saw something change in Edo’s eyes: a more calculating look took hold. He put his hand on the wall and looked up at the ceiling. He seemed confined by the office, almost as if he were too big to be contained by such walls.

  He turned to Joe with a snap of his heels. “It will probably be the end of my advertising career to help enemies of Osiris, but I owe you. Egypt owes you.” He crushed the cigarette out emphatically. “Besides, I’ve had it with this business. You have no idea what it’s like working for your brother-in-law. It’s worse than the Army.”

  Joe laughed. “We appreciate the help.”

  Edo nodded. “So how do you and your friends propose to get into the Osiris building? I’m assuming direct frontal assault and jumping from a helicopter are out of the question.”

  Joe nodded toward the reception area, where Kurt and Renata had been poring over diagrams and blueprints downloaded on her computer. “I’m not sure yet. My friends have been working on that. I’d like to hear the plan myself.”

  Edo waved them in. Proper introductions followed. And then they got down to business.

  “My colleagues sent me the schematics of the Osiris plant,” Renata said, stepping forward and placing the iPad flat on the desk so they could all see it. “Assuming these blueprints are accurate, we think we’ve found a weakness.”

  She tapped the screen until a high-resolution photo of the site was displayed. It included the river and the surrounding area. “The street-side security is multilayered and almost impossible to overcome, which means our only approach to the site is from the river. We’ll need a boat, diving gear for three and a mid-frequency laser—green will work best, but anything similar to a targeting laser used by the military will do.”

  Edo nodded. “I can get my hands on those things. Then what?”

  Kurt took it from there. “We motor upriver to this point, half a mile south of the site. Renata, Joe and I will go into the water and drift downstream, keeping to the west bank. We’ll slip into the hydro channel, bypass the first-stage turbines and continue down to a point just in front of the second impeller . . . here.”

  “Sounds easy,” Edo said.

  “I’m sure there will be complications,” Joe added.

  “Of course,” Kurt said, then turned to Renata. “Would you switch to the schematic?”

  Renata tapped the computer screen and a blueprint of the hydro channel came up.

  “We should have no problem getting into the hydro channel,” Kurt said. “But once inside it, we’ll have to navigate past the turbines. Since it’ll be night, we can assume they’ll be making minimum power, but that could change at any moment. And even if they’re at idle, the turbines will still be rotating slowly.”

  “Put them on the to-be-avoided list,” Joe said.

  “Exactly. And that’s best done by sticking to the inner wall. There’s plenty of room around the first set of turbines. Once we’ve passed them, we continue toward the second-stage impeller. Here’s where it gets interesting.”

  Studying the diagram, Joe noticed two things. The second turbine was larger. And there were two protrusions angled inward from the wall toward the edge of the huge rotating disk. They looked like the flippers of a pinball machine. He pointed to them.

  “Deflector gates,” Kurt said. “Designed to force more water over the turbine blades in times of peak power need. In the retracted position, they lie flat against the walls and some of the water bypasses the blades. But in the open position their edges line up directly with the cowling of the turbine. There’s no way around them except that we’re going to be out of the water before we get to the blades.” He pointed to a spot on the schematic. “There’s a maintenance ladder welded to the side of the gate here. We stick near the wall, grab on as we drift by and climb up.”

  “Seems fairly straightforward as long as the gates are retracted,” Joe said. “But what if they’re extended? Do you have any figures on what that does to the current?”

  “At full extension, the current is doubled and the exact amount of force will depend on the existing flow in the river. This time of year, it’s normally about two knots.”

  “Two knots isn’t a problem,” Joe said, “but four knots will be.”


  Kurt nodded. That was the risk they were taking.

  Joe considered the odds. There was no reason the station should be generating full power in the middle of the night. Peak power draws occurred in the afternoon.

  “Assuming we don’t get pureed,” Kurt added, “our next problem begins at the surface.”

  “They will most certainly have cameras,” Edo pointed out.

  Renata answered this time. “They do. Here and here. But these two cameras are pointed outward, designed to look for someone approaching the structure. Once we’re past the first set of turbines, there’s only one camera we have to worry about. It’s mounted here,” she said, pointing to a new location. “It scans the entire length of the catwalk on the inner wall. The same catwalk we have to use.”

  “That’s what you want the laser for,” Edo said.

  “Precisely,” Renata told him. “A focused laser can overload the sensor. So you’ll be in charge of that. Your best angle will be from a beach just upstream and on the opposite bank. Once you align it with the camera, the sensor will struggle to process the signal and they should see nothing but a blank screen.”

  Kurt continued. “Once the camera is blind, we can exit the water. Move along this catwalk and go in through this door.”

  “How long do I keep the laser active?”

  “Two minutes,” Renata said. “That’s all we’ll need.”

  “What about alarms and interior security cameras?” Edo asked.

  “I can disable them once we’re inside,” she promised. “Both the alarms and cameras are controlled by a software program called Halifax. The people in our technical section have given me a way to hack it.”

  Renata brought up the schematics of the interior. “We know Hassan entered through this door,” she said. “His signal stayed strong as he traveled this corridor and then presumably got into this elevator. Based on the signal getting weaker and then vanishing, we have to assume he went down to the lower level, not up. Which means he would be in the power-generation control room here.”