"You know I don't."
"Are you certain? Examine the proud features. Do they not look familiar?"
"I don't know too many noseless pharaohs," Remo growled.
Chiun nodded. "Then you must move the Lion that Faces the Sun."
"What kind of test is this?"
"A difficult one," said the Master of Sinanju.
"Har-de-har-har-har," said Remo.
He began to walk around the Sphinx. It was gigantic. That was no surprise, but walking all the way around impressed Remo with its sheer immensity. He felt like a dwarf beside one of its limestone toes. How a technologically primitive people had erected it was beyond him. That it had stood there for nearly five thousand years impressed him. And as he came back to the face, so incredibly ancient, the knowledge that time had eroded its glory saddened him.
"When it was built, it must have been the greatest thing in the world," he said.
"It was," breathed Chiun. "Now look at it."
"Yes, look at it. It is still great, but there are many great things in the world and this magnificent beast of limestone is but a honey cake set out to attract human ants and their money."
"If there's a way to move this thing, I don't see it."
"There is. And if you do not discover it, we will never see Kush."
"Suits me."
"But not me. You may begin at any time."
Remo checked the Sphinx. He looked enough like a tourist the local police didn't bother him. The other tourists ignored him. A camel spat in his direction, but Remo avoided the expectorant without turning. His body sensed pressure waves and moved him out of its path.
At the right front paw, Remo casually leaned his back against the member. His feet dug into the limestone platform on which the Sphinx was built. He pushed his body in both directions.
Somewhere a computer beeped. "It moved! It moved!"
Remo came around the paw and said, "What moved?"
The UCLA professor was jumping up and down with undisguised glee. "The Sphinx. It moved! My instruments registered positive movement."
"You're crazy. I was right next to it."
The man squealed with delight. "It moved a nanometer."
"How small is that?"
"Barely a billionth of a meter."
"Maybe it was the laser that moved."
"Impossible. It was the beam that reacted to the movement, not the laser case."
"What direction?"
"Northeast."
"I'll go check. You go that way."
Remo ran to the rear of the Sphinx, looked both ways and leaned his back against the rump. His feet hissed as the heels sunk into the sand-dusted platform on which the Sphinx reclined.
Up by the head another beep came. "It moved! It moved again!" Remo came running.
"Which direction?" he asked the excited man.
"Northeast. The same direction."
"I didn't see anything."
"Something's making the Sphinx turn toward the northeast."
"Tell you what," said Remo. "You go back to the rump. I'll watch the head."
"Yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you."
Remo took the same spot by the front paw and leaned his back against the Sphinx as if tired. His body became one with the great idol. So when he exerted pressure, it responded down to its limestone-block toes. There came a beep and another shout of exultation. "It moved! It's a miracle. The Sphinx is moving!" As the UCLA professor came running back toward the head, taking Instamatic pictures every step of the way, Remo returned to his spot at the rump. This time he laid his hands against the ruin and leaned into it.
The beeping became a protracted squeal, and when Remo was satisfied, he stepped away and found the Master of Sinanju.
"That enough?" Remo asked Chiun.
"Huk moved it just as far with only two pushes."
"Huk didn't have lasers to deal with."
The UCLA professor was leaping into the air, pumping his arms excitedly. "The Sphinx moves! I've proved it. The Sphinx moves!"
"Personally," Remo called out, spanking limestone dust off his hands, "I think your equipment's on the fritz."
The man's face fell. "It's the best money could buy."
"You have all these witnesses, and no one saw a thing."
The UCLA professor got down on hands and knees, trying to see under the Sphinx. "Maybe it's on a pivot. Like a weather vane. We should dig it up. I'll bet we find a pivot."
"You know how much time and money that would cost?"
"Millions," the man cried. "Millions and millions. This is too big for UCLA. This is a Yale grant. I'll need a Yale grant. Excuse me. I have to call the States."
As he ran off, Remo asked Chiun, "Now what? Do I push it back or what?"
"No."
"No? You mean that's it?"
"It is enough for this century. I have pushed it and now you have pushed it. If you ever sire a worthy successor, he can push it. Eventually it will face the proper direction."
"What's the proper direction?"
"Toward my village of Sinanju, of course."
"How long will that take?"
"Only another two thousand years."
Remo looked up at the crumbling face. "Think the old guy will last that long?"
"Not if these pesky tourists continue to clamber atop it."
"Not our problem. Where to next?"
"The Egyptians called it wretched Kush."
"Give me a name I understand."
"The Greeks named it Ethiopia. To the Romans it was Africa."
"I'm not up for Africa."
"We could journey to Hyperborea instead."
Remo frowned. "I never heard of Hyperborea."
"I will give you a choice. Hyperborea or Africa?"
"Is this a trick question?"
"Only to the ignorant."
Remo reached into his pockets and pulled out two coins, the Greek drachma and the Roman denarius. "How about if I flip a coin? Heads Hyperborea and tails Africa."
"I will accept this."
Remo flipped the coin, and the face of Hermes landed up.
"Hyperborea it is. Sure hope it isn't hot and steamy like Africa."
"It is not."
"By the way," asked Remo as they sought a cab back to Cairo, "what did you mean when you said they threw away their brains?"
"When a pharaoh died, his body was prepared for entombment with preserving niter and bitumen, should he reclaim it at a later time. It was wrapped in specially prepared linen, and the organs extracted and preserved in jars. Except for one organ."
"The brain?"
"The brain."
"Why did they throw away the brains?"
"Because while the Egyptians understood the function of the heart and the liver and the gall bladder, they did not know the purpose of their own brains. And so if there is an afterlife for pharaohs, it must be a terrible place because they have no brains in their skulls to enjoy eternal dominion among the Imperishable Stars."
And amid the blowing sands of Giza, which would one day overtake Cairo itself, Remo Williams laughed softy. Until Chiun said something that wiped the smile from his face and caused a chunk of ice to settle in his heart.
"When I am a mummy, Remo, see to it that my brain reposes in the correct receptacle."
Chapter 9
The flight from Cairo to Hyperborea stopped at Copenhagen, Denmark, which Remo took to be a good sign. They changed planes in Iceland, which made Remo's brow furrow with worry.
While they refueled at the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik, Remo noticed with relief that it was very green. A stopover in Greenland made him decide whoever had named both places must have dropped his notes. Iceland was green and Greenland was icy.
And when the crew changed at Godthaab, Greenland, and the Danish stewardesses who kept nibbling on Remo's ears became Eskimo stewardesses who tried to rub their cold noses against his warm one, Remo took this to be a very very bad omen.
So when the gray seas below the Air Canada's wings became choked with cakes of ice, Remo was not particularly surprised.