Macy lowered her sunglasses for a better view. ‘Guess that explains the name. You think there’s more of it?’
‘There must be,’ said Nina. ‘It’d justify the effort of coming all the way out here. Egypt’s got almost no silver deposits, which is why it was considered so valuable back then. Anyone who found a seam would be very rich.’
Eddie looked up the canyon, which rose at a shallow angle. The sandy floor was easily wide enough for the Land Rover, only occasional fallen rocks presenting any likely obstacles. ‘Think there might be any left? Maybe we could scrape up enough for a silver egg cup or something.’
Nina grinned at the odd image. ‘We can see.’
They returned to the 4×4. Eddie carefully guided the Defender up the canyon, dropping them into shadow. Before long the ascent steepened, the turns becoming tighter.
Nina spotted something to one side and told Eddie to stop. ‘I think that’s our silver mine.’ Several roughly rectangular recesses had been dug into the cliff. ‘You’ll have to live without your egg cup, though. All the best stuff ’s been taken.’
‘Well, arse. Must be the right place, though.’
‘I told you,’ said Macy. ‘We just have to follow the direction of Mercury from the zodiac and we’ll find it.’
‘I dunno,’ Eddie said, sceptical. ‘A temple being buried by sand I can go for, maybe even something the size of the Sphinx . . . but a pyramid? They’re not exactly hard to miss.’
He started the Land Rover again. The ground became even steeper, the walls closing in. The Defender rounded another turn, and entered a tight channel, beyond which was visible nothing but open sky. They had reached the far end of the ravine.
Eddie stopped as they came out of the canyon, checking his compass and the GPS before pointing. ‘That’s the way the zodiac said to go. Macy, there’re some binocs in my rucksack - can you get them for me?’
Macy handed him the binoculars. ‘Can you see the pyramid?’
‘I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with . . . S.’
‘Syramid?’
‘Sand,’ was Nina’s more realistic guess.
Eddie nodded. ‘Shitloads of sand, I was going to say, but near enough. How far away is it meant to be?’
‘One atur,’ said Nina. ‘Six point eight-five miles.’
He checked to each side, still finding nothing. ‘There’s definitely nothing pointy.’ He entered new co-ordinates into the GPS. ‘If it’s there, this should take us right to it.’
They set off again, the vast empty plain opening out all round them. Nina kept watch on the GPS, its display counting down the distance. Four miles, three, two . . . There was still nothing visible ahead, no lost monument rising from the dunes. She looked at Macy. The eagerness on the young woman’s face was visibly fading with almost every foot they travelled.
One mile. Still nothing in sight. Eddie gave Nina another glance, his expression warning of impending disappointment. Half a mile. Less. The landscape ahead was indistinguishable from what they had already covered.
The GPS bleeped. ‘This is it,’ said Eddie, stopping the Land Rover. ‘We’re here.’
Macy jumped out, turning to see only endless empty desert. ‘I . . . I don’t get it,’ she said, running to the other side of the 4×4 as if expecting to find a different view. ‘We followed all the clues, we found the silver canyon . . . why isn’t it here?’
Nina put a sympathetic hand on her shoulder as Eddie clambered on to the Land Rover’s roof to survey the surrounding plain. ‘Hey, it’s okay. There might still be parts of it under the sand.’
‘Only parts of it?’
‘This is what archaeology is usually about - it’s very, very rare that a completely new site is found intact.’
‘They’re intact when you find them, though.’ To Nina’s surprise and dismay, Macy seemed on the verge of tears.
‘Hey, hey, what’s wrong?’ she said. ‘We haven’t even started checking the area yet. We might still find something.’
‘No we won’t,’ Macy stammered. ‘There’s nothing here. I’ve wasted your time - I’ve wasted everybody’s time, I almost got you both killed, and for nothing! Oh, my God, I’m sorry!’
‘What - why are you sorry?’ Nina asked helplessly. ‘Macy, why are you so upset?’
‘Because . . . because Dr Berkeley was right about me! And so was my professor, and so were my teachers at high school . . . and so were you.’
‘Right about what?’
Macy couldn’t look at her, tears trickling down her cheeks. ‘I’m-I’m-I’m worthless,’ she managed to say.
‘No, you’re not,’ said Nina, shocked by the young woman’s sudden and total collapse of confidence. ‘Why would you say that?’
‘Because I am. I’ve never had to work for anything in my entire life. I always got whatever I wanted just because I was rich and pretty and popular, and people did things for me.’ She bowed her head miserably. ‘And the one time, the one time, when I really, really try hard to prove I can achieve something myself . . . I completely fail and let everyone down! I let you down.’
‘You didn’t,’ said Nina. ‘Really, you didn’t. You said it yourself - if it hadn’t been for you, Osir would have gotten away with the zodiac and nobody would ever have known. And you have achieved things for yourself. You got a place on the dig.’
‘Only ’cause my mom called in a favour. Oh, God . . .’ She finally raised her head. ‘I wanted to be like you because I thought you were cool. I never realised how hard you worked, how much you went through. I thought that if I tried to be like you, everything would just come to me like it always did . . . but I was wrong, and now we’re in this fucking horrible place with nothing to show for it. Nothing!’
Nina couldn’t think of anything to say. Instead, she put her arms round the sobbing woman, trying to provide some comfort.
‘I’m sorry,’ Macy mumbled. ‘I really am.’
‘You don’t have to apologise for anything,’ Nina assured her. ‘And we should still search the area. Maybe there’s something to find.’
‘There won’t be,’ she said miserably.
‘Oi!’ said Eddie, jumping down from the Land Rover. ‘Enough with this fucking defeatism, okay? I just got my wife through one bout of it; I’m not having someone else start.’
Nina was about to berate him for his insensitivity when she realised his attitude had changed; his obnoxiousness was a deliberate set-up for something. ‘What is it?’ she asked instead. ‘I know that face - you’ve got something.’
‘Yeah, I’ve got something. It’s not a pyramid, but it’s man-made.’ He pointed northwest. ‘Over there.’
Nina saw nothing except more sand and rocks. ‘Where?’
He gave her the binoculars and pointed again. ‘Those rocks, the ones in a sort of L-shape?’
‘Yeah?’
‘They’re not rocks.’
The magnified view revealed something new. Two large stones, one flat on the ground touching the base of another poking up from the sands.
Stones . . . with straight edges. Not rocks.
Blocks.
The same size and colour as the ones used to construct the Osireion.
‘My God,’ Nina gasped. ‘It’s a building!’
‘What’s left of one, anyway,’ said Eddie.
Macy looked back and forth between Nina and Eddie, wondering if they were playing some cruel joke, before realising they were not. ‘Wait, you - you’ve found something? There’s really something here?’
‘We were just a bit off course,’ Nina told her, giving her the binoculars and pointing out the ruin. Macy gave a little gasp when she saw it. ‘See? I told you not to give up, didn’t I?’