Chapter 9
"Stop!" Sheldon barred high-spirited Howard's way.
"You can't just enter the treasure chamber. Deathly traps are lurking everywhere. Take a look at your left" the whole group turned their head in the indicated direction.
"Do you see those razor-sharp blades behind the column made of solid gold?"
They all nodded. Now the linguist was pointing at a small rectangular elevation in the almost yellowish sand.
"That's the trigger. Easily to bee overlooked, right Raj?" he yelled.
Sheldon made a large arc around it to avoid any missteps. Amy did the same followed by Howard and Bernadette, always keeping an eye on the ceiling.
"Penny, we're waiting for you" the lector shouted but Sheldon shushed him.
"Don't be silly. She's way too clumsy for this rescue operation. With a bit of luck we're landing into a snake pit" he whispered. Leonard dared malignant glances at him. He was certain that Penny wouldn't cause as much trouble as Sheldon did.
Howard was looking around he couldn't do more than simply staring. These riches would open him the door to a career here in Egypt. He could leave his old homeland behind him, starting a new life, gaining on name recognition and being surrounded by beautiful women working as his secretaries, accountants and biography authors. But his dreams fell flat immediately when the eyes of Bernadette seemed to pierce him.
"Don't touch anything" she crunched between the teeth.
"Could someone please help me?" Raj holed up in the corner of the pit. He was intimidated by the crowd of scarabs which slowly cleaved a way towards him. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead. It wouldn't take much longer until the first insects would get under his skin and eat through his flesh. He was looking for a stick, a stone just something he could throw at the beetles.
Leonard looked around. There had to be a sceptre, an anch or at least a spear to fetch his companion and save his life.
"Maybe we should look for an inscription. It's possible that the pharaoh and his follower as well as his successors searched for a way of telling each other about the traps and how to avoid them" Amy suggested.
"We've got just one small problem" he pointed at the walls behind the mountains of gold. There wasn't a single spot left that hadn't been dotted with hieroglyphs. "It might take you and Sheldon hours to find a clue in this jumble of signs" the lecturer sighted. Sheldon stepped next to their leader. He squinted and tried to focus on the first few decorated squares right in front of them.
"It seems to me that this wall has been used to retell the story of Sethos I. whereas the wall behind Penny warns the intruders of entering the chamber; hence we can leave them out. What appears to be dubious is the wall behind the pit" Amy nodded.
"Are you able to read the inscription?" Penny wondered while handing Amy a notebook and a pen.
The librarian started to write down single words in Egyptian but she constantly shook her head making her friends understand that the message was too difficult to decipher. Sheldon glided his fingers along the wall. "Rajesh is not the first who fell victim to the Pharaoh's safety precautions. This is a legacy of an ancient grave robber. It says: Jb=j m snnw=j which means translated: I was alone only my heart was my companion. He must have landed in the same hidden hole as Raj did" he completed his consideration. "Does the inscription reveal how the grave robber escaped death?" Howard asked.
"No, the inscription ends with the word victory, he must have died in the repertory. Although he managed to climb out of the hole the exit doors were locked forever. Wait", Sheldon remarked a spot on the wall where the Medjajs must have gouged out the hieroglyphs. The only hint he could recognise was a series of signs that could be the solution to their problem. "wah=f wj nn dmj.t=j" he whispered. "The snakegod" Amy shouted. "Of course", she slapped herself on the forehead" Leonard looked irritated at her. "What do you mean by the snakegod?" he wondered. "The inscription quotes from a famous story of Apophis? Apophis was symbolizing the power of the chaos and the evil. The sun had to fight against him day after day. These hieroglyphs quote a particular part of the myth, they say: The snakegod took me in his mouth and sat me down without pushing me. There has to be a mechanism that moves this huge statue of a snake down to Raj. Quick, look around !" Amy ordered.
Bernadette called attention to a lever close to an oversized diamond next to Howard. "Pull it down" she squeezed and the mathematician executed this command. The mouth of the snake moved slowly down the hole and Raj held on to the serpent's fang. Howard lifted the lever and rescued Raj. As soon as the Indian was back on firm ground he fell on his knees and whimpered. Howard put a hand on his friend's shoulders and sobbed. "I thought for a moment that I had lost my best friend forever" he whispered into his ear.
"We shouldn't loose too much time. Has somebody recognized the kidnappers? Did they appear familiar to you?" Leonard asked. "I think they were with us on the boat and if I'm not mistaken we've already met them in Saqqara" Amy answered. "I'm sure they're after Bastets Box with fatal intentions" Sheldon assumed. "Let's go back to the coastal areas and wait for a boat to pass by. We need to reach Abu Simbel before the enemies!"