The Secret of the Stones by Ernest Dempsey (reading fiction .TXT) 📕

old man had grabbed his glasses from the nightstand and placed them on his nose. There would be no going back to sleep for a few hours now. “Make certain everything is proceeding according to plan.”

“Yes, sir.”

“If the other asset deviates in any way, you know what to do.”

“Of course, sir.”

“Anything else I need to know?” It was time to wrap up this late-night conversation.

“Not for now, sir.”

“Good.” With that, he placed the phone back down. With both hands, he rubbed his eyes under the metal-framed glasses. Everything was going according to plan…so far. Still, he knew there were dangerous elements in play, and everything had to be properly managed.

He was close now. Nothing could be taken for granted.

29

Cartersville

Sean’s head was spinning. During the last hour he’d heard it all, or so he thought. He listened patiently while Mac went on about local legends and parts of American history that few others knew about. All of which paled in comparison to this last little bit of evidence with which he had been presented.

“What does it all mean, Mac?” he posed.

Joe had turned around to face the two, who stood a few feet away, dumbfounded by everything they’d been told. He still smiled, though his words carried some gravity. “Essentially, in a nutshell, ancient Egyptians were the first true settlers here in the New World. They came over between 3000 and 2500 BCE, as my best calculations indicate.”

“But how?” Sean couldn’t wrap his mind around the idea. “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe that Christopher Columbus was the first person to sail here, but Egyptians?”

“Well, it is much more likely than crossing some ice bridge in the middle of the coldest period in Earth’s history. Wouldn’t you say?” He turned back to the computer and entered another search for the words ancient Egyptian navy. After a moment, an article popped up on the screen in which a renowned archaeologist described finding an ancient fleet of Egyptian seafaring vessels.

“Surely, you have read about this tasty little find,” Joe said with an implying tone.

Sean and Allyson both shook their heads, clueless about what their host was saying.

“Really? I’m surprised you didn’t know about this one, Sean.” Joe cast his friend a chastising glance. “Anyway, there are two fascinating things about this discovery. One, the place where the ships were found is in the middle of the desert. At first, no one understood why ancient boats would be there.”

“Maybe they were really ancient tombs,” Sean blurted out.

“Could be,” Joe agreed. “Except that they found none of the usual artifacts that would accompany something like that. It is now being learned, though, that thousands of years ago, a vast waterway penetrated deep into the land in that area. The second interesting fact was that the boats in the desert were not like other boats discovered in Egypt. Up until they had been unearthed, it was generally agreed upon that the ancient Egyptians only navigated the Nile River and the shoreline of the Red Sea. These ships, however, were designed for long-range sailing and were built from much sturdier material than the reed-and-pitch ferries that were used in fresh water.”

“I actually did hear something about that,” Allyson chimed. “But then again, I work for a newspaper.” She was unsure about the significance until the man continued.

“You see,” he explained, “this is the only theory that makes sense. And you can see the evidence right here in front of you.” Joe pulled up the cross-reference screen of the Fort Mountain wall and the Nile River. “And if you are still not convinced…remember the pits I was telling you about that seemed randomly located near the wall?”

Sean nodded while Allyson just listened.

Joe pointed to the computer screen at some little dots along the stone wall. “Each place there is a pit at the rock barrier, there is a dot on the map of the Nile. At first, I thought that they may have just been fire pits marking random areas. Then, when I looked closer, I found that every single dot indicates the location of an ancient Egyptian temple or city along the river. Pretty cool, eh?” His hands were open in a gesture as if he’d just done some kind of magic trick.

What they were being shown was pretty amazing stuff. Sean still had doubts though. “I see the similarity between the wall and the river. And I get what you’re saying,” he answered. “But Egyptians from 3000 BCE here in America? I don’t know, Mac.”

“Okay. Let’s forget the wall for two seconds and look at the similarities between the cultures. Something that a lot of people don’t even think to look at is the comparable design of Native American pyramids with Egyptian ones.”

Allyson butted in, “Wait a minute. I know they have pyramids down in Mexico and Central and South America, but we don’t have anything like that here in the States.”

“Oh, contraire,” Joe’s Southern accent sounded funny saying a word rooted in French. “We have pyramids in three separate locations right here in the state of Georgia.”

“How come I’ve never heard of them?” Skepticism covered her face as she inquired.

“Sean, I know you know what I am talking about,” he answered her, looking at his friend.

“Actually,” Wyatt began, “he’s right. In fact, you probably have heard of at least one of the three locations here in the state. Etowah Indian Mounds State park is a few miles from here, where Joe works. Then, there is Kolomaki down in southwest Georgia and Okmulgee a little south of here in central Georgia.”

“I know about Etowah, but aren’t those just big mounds of dirt? I always thought the Indians just buried their dead there