Chương 19: Interlude II

26th Century BC - The Giza Plateau, Egypt The Great Pyramid was still white. Two million blocks of Tura limestone, polished until the casing caught the sun and threw it back hard enough to blind a man at half a mile. Joints so tight a copper blade could not find purchase between them. From the desert floor, it looked less like something built and more like a geometric fact the sand had finally uncovered.

The Master Mason was inspecting the final casing stones near the summit when the woman appeared beside him on the scaffolding. She wore a simple linen wrap, her feet bare on the hot stone. No one ever heard her approach. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"The capstone must be set before the solstice. The crown is the mechanism, not the shell. If the apex fails to meet the light at the exact coordinate, the connection is lost, and we will not get another alignment window for eleven centuries." She ran a finger along the seam he'd just checked.

"Ensure the copper tracks within the shafts are unobstructed. No grains of sand, Mason. Not one." Two million blocks of limestone and the lives of two generations, and the woman hadn't glanced at any of it. Her attention was on a capstone that hadn't been placed yet and copper channels hidden inside the shafts that no living person would ever see again once the casing was sealed. She looked toward the horizon. The Mason watched her read the sky as though it were a clock only she could see.