“Wait a minute, Ling Lu was in Cambodia forty something years ago? Are you saying you were there too? Are you one of the... uh... uh... the... Aliens?”
“This is right. Yes, Ling Lu friend. When fighting started in Cambodia leaders feared for workers safety - we carry away to keep from injury - Ling Lu not carried away. I know she hide, I can no go get her. Must leave. She found by your man you call Big ‘S’. She find now?
“Find? Find...? Oh yeah...FINE. Yes, she is fine, married and doing fine. I’m confused Anhur help me understand what this is all about.”
“Our people have come here many times, in what you call past, we have developed many methods of travel. From present to future, from present to past, from past to future and future to past... there many ways you would not understand. But now our leadership is split, how you say... divided... some of them want to tell you very important ‘secret’ others say no we should not get involved with your planet’s destiny.”
“Can you tell me what the ‘secret’ is?”
“I am not told to say anything...”
“Do you mean, ‘you were told not to say anything to us’?”
“Sorry, yes you are correct.”
“What are you doing here in the middle of the night? You must have decided to tell what you know. Am I right?”
“Yes I need to tell knowledge to your man called Little ‘S’. He was one causing war at Pac Toul when workers carried away - is this not correct?”
“Yes, Anhur, he was with the party that found Pac Toul and Ling Lu. He is on an airplane at this very moment coming here to talk with us. He will be here tomorrow, actually in just a few hours.”
“This is good, how do you say big good?”
“Very?”
“Yes, this is very good. Tomorrow I will return and tell you and Little ‘S’ the secret.”
* * * ~~~ * * *
CHAPTER TWENTY
ROBERT EDWARD SCARBURG, JR. ARRIVES
It was 11:55 am Cairo time. Dr. Lou Scarburg’s phone rang.
“Hello...oh...hi Pa...you will be landing in fifteen minutes... good I’m on the road just outside the airport now heading in your direction... should be there by the time you touch down... okay, see you in a few... Bye.”
Lou, Gabby and Anhur were sitting at the Executive Terminal as the sleek white Gulfstream taxied up and cut the power to the two powerful Rolls Royce jet engines.
Gabby was still distraught, whimpering and softly crying.
The hydraulic exit door and steps were almost on the ground as the motors ceased their ear-piercing whine. A tall rugged man, wearing jeans and showing a hint of grey underneath the crimson and white University of Alabama baseball cap, stepped down the metal air stairs to the awaiting Toyota mini-bus.
Standing at the door of the bus was Lou and Gabby who greeted their granddad and pointed to the open doorway.
“Gabrielle, please hon’ don’t cry... you realize you are my favorite granddaughter.”
“Darn you Pa. You know I’m your ONLY granddaughter.” She said wiping the tears from her gorgeous emerald eyes as a slight grin appeared on her lips.
Her grandfather’s intent was accomplished.
At the top of the steps they stopped and Lou introduced his ‘Pa’ to Anhur. Anhur made a slight sound - turned slightly in his seat he nodded and quietly said, “Hello Little ‘S” and returned to his former rigid position.
Traveling the half hour back to the Flairmount Towers the three did not speak of the strange findings in the desert of Egypt. The entire conversation concerned Bud, Forrest and Olive Maria and the downed aircraft enroute to Mexico; however, Captain Scarburg had not heard any good news from the search mission.
Arriving at the Flairmount, Lou, Gabby, Captain Scarburg and Anhur hurried up to Lou’s room where Lonnie Joe and Roche had been anxiously awaiting their arrival. Bursting into the room Lou announced, “Pa’s here, now maybe we can get some answers.”
Entering the room behind Lou was Dr. Scarburg Jr. also known as Little ‘S’, the Captain and, of course, Pa. Following the Captain was, his still weeping granddaughter, Gabrielle along with SCAR’s Egyptian? bus driver Anhur al-Busiri.
“What’s the word on Forrest, Bud and Olive?” They wanted to know.
“Sorry, at the present we have no confirmed crash site and we have found no wreckage. On the bright side - the search team has found no victims either. They did find a large oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico off the eastern coast of Mexico in the Bay of Campeche but so far they have not been able to proof conclusively whether Forrest, Bud and Olive’s aircraft caused it. Just before landing I was informed that pieces of debris were being pulled from the water that appeared to be from a commercial aircraft.”
At the rear of the just arrived group Anhur stood silently and unobtrusive. Surprised at his presence in the room Lonnie Joe asked, “What is Anhur doing here?”
Lou answered first. “Anhur came to my room last night and wanted to explain a ‘secret’ to us but he wanted Pa here when he explained.
“What are you talking about?” Roche asked.
“I’ll turn the whole thing over to Pa right now - Dr. Scarburg if you please,” Lou said extending an inviting arm toward his grandfather.
Taking the floor Dr. Scarburg Jr. asked sobbing Gabby along with Lou, Lonnie Joe, Roche and Anhur to take a seat. Anhur remained standing.
“This story began in a stinking hole in the Cambodian jungle at a place called Pac Toul in 1967. We lost ten good men finding that terrible place but we found Tinker, uh, Ling Lu.
“She had been abducted from her University in Taiwan to work for this group of spacemen developing an assortment of marvelous futuristic machines. I was on a Special Forces team, led by my father Big ‘S’, whose mission was to find that place and seize or destroy any and all material before it fell into Russian hands. Army Intelligence had an idea that something was going on at Pac Toul and we were sent to find out what. We stormed Pac Toul loosing some fine fighting men in the process. But as I said, it wasn’t for nothing - we rescued Ling Lu. Ling Lu’s name in Chinese translates to “Bell” so we nicknamed her “Tinker” and brought her back to the States. While Tinker was working at the Pac Toul laboratory she was befriended by one of her Alien captors; an Alien who treated her kindly and became her friend and protector.
The Captain looked directly at Anhur, “Anhur I believe you were that Alien! And your name translates to the Egyptian mythical name of a sky god, meaning "sky bearer," or the Egyptian name of "brings back the distant one.
Anhur, head bowed, said nothing and made no indication the statement by Dr. Scarburg Jr. was correct or incorrect.
“The “visitors” had abducted a number of scientists to work for them but when we were getting close to Pac Toul a battle erupted between our team and a bunch of Russians. The Aliens tried to remove the workers to protect them but an accident resulted in the deaths of all the scientists except two, a man and a woman. We never saw the two survivors again; however, Tinker identified the woman as... as...”
“Who Dr. Scarburg? Who did Tinker say she was?”
“Helga... Helga Friedman... her name was Helga Friedman. She is the mummy you all have been examining. The data, blueprints and files we obtained from the Alien documents at Pac Toul enabled us to return to the U.S. and start SCAR.
“I don’t know if you all have ever been told how Bud and Lou got their names.
“You see, while in Thailand we were trying to escape with the Alien P.H.O.T.O. documents. P.H.O.T.O. is an acronym for Photographic Histories Of Telemetric Occurrences. Spook, Tinker’s husband now, enlisted the help of his two brothers Sam Lin and Si Lei. Along with Spook, Tinker and myself these two brothers were instrumental in the founding of SCAR. I won’t go into much detail but we nicknamed Sam “Bud” and Si “Lou.”
“It was because of the old time movie stars, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. Bud Abbott and Lou Costello both constantly argued with each other so did Sa
m Lin and Si Lei.” Laughing he said, “you had to be there to see the humor of it.
“We thought so much of Spook’s two brothers my son Trey (Robert Edward Scarburg III) named two of his three triples in honor of them; of course Gabby you are number three.
“Lonnie you and Roche have never met Trey. Lou and Gabby’s father is the current Assistant Director of SCAR at our facility in Washington.
“At this time I am going to turn the floor over to Anhur.”
Anhur slowly assumed a standing position directly in front of the group.
Little ‘S’ found a seat and leaned forward to insure he did not miss a single word that Anhur had to say about the ‘secret’. As the group watched intently, Anhur reached up removed his fez and tossed it onto the nearest empty chair. Next he grasped the end of his keffiyah and began unrolling it from his head. In a couple of turns his face began to become exposed. As more and more of his head appeared a simultaneous group “Gasp” was heard.
“What...? What...? Who... is this a trick...?” One of them feebly asked.
Anhur did not intend to shock those watching but as the wrappings dropped to the floor the group became mesmerized by the shocking sight being revealed to them.
As his head became more and more visible Anhur was exposing nothing but hairless ashen grey skin. The keffiyah and white fez had been covering a large misshapen elongated head.
Next he removed his large pair of sunglasses and the eyes slowly became visible - they could not believe what they were seeing. Insect eyes!! Anhur’s black almond shaped eyes reminded them of the eyes of a giant insect.
They were completely astounded. No one spoke. No one breathed.
A couple more un-wraps of the cloth disclosed more and more of his skin. One final turn and his mouth would be divulged; now the wrap was gone and...and...so was Anhur mouth.
There was NO mouth...another gasp!
Anhur began talking, slowly and quietly, but there was no mouth making the sounds. Where was the voice coming from? They reached the same conclusion. His voice was inside their heads.
“Do not be alarmed... I am Anhur from a planet called Sunev in the Constellation Osiris. Our race is thousands of years advanced from your human species. We have found ways to travel in time. Using this technology we come and go to your planet as we deem necessary. I speak to you using what your race calls ‘mental telepathy’. We speak ‘mind’ to ‘mind’...”
“Whoa... stop... Anhur, your speech is now perfect where before you seemed to be struggling to find the right words to use,” said Dr. Lou.
“You are indeed correct doctor. While I was disguised I must, through necessity, alter my voice and speech pattern. I have called you all together to explain a situation I have taken it upon myself and myself solely to now reveal to you.
“Our leaders have become very divided on a ‘situation’ you and your team found at the tomb of XM-78. I remember Mrs. Friedman at Pac Toul; she was a very capable scientist. Remember Dr. Scarburg when I asked ‘what is an Egyptian?’ Mrs. Friedman has lived or at least her body has been in Egypt for over 3000 years, but she is not Egyptian. She always considered herself to be German. But your archeology community would call her an Egyptian merely based upon her age.”
“Let me get back to the ‘situation’ - we left the warning on the wall over three thousand years ago.
“Some of our people did not want to leave the message at all, others, including me, thought it was the right thing to do. Our leaders agreed to leave the writings but were split on whether we should explain what it all meant. The opposing leaders sent the one who has been watching you to insure you did not discover the 21 December 2012 or its meaning.”
“I was one of those who wanted your race to understand the coming impending disastrous events.
“I came here to be your driver to insure you found the tomb. Babu and Isis were sent by the dissenting leaders to hamper your efforts. As you know, Babu and Isis did not look like I, they are from a different species on our planet. They are intelligent but in a sense like your domestic animals... such as your dogs. They do what we tell them. We refer to them as Evals.”
“Are the writings we found in Mrs. Friedman’s tomb the ‘situation’?”
“Absolutely, we left your race a phenomenal revelation thousands of years ago.”
Little ‘S’ asked, “Anhur we eventually figured out your note you passed to Ling Lu at Pac Toul. We believe Ezekiel, of our Holy Bible, was present and witnessed you and your Alien friends on one of your early visits to Earth. In fact, we finally understood the 1st Section was the Old Testament, Book 26 was the Book of Ezekiel, Chapter 1, Paragraphs 5 - 26. After reading those passages from our Holy Bible we realized you were trying to tell us who you were.”
“Correct my friend.”
“Guys,” said the Captain. “These passages also explain why the Aliens always leave four symbols - the symbols were on the front of their spacecraft - a Bull, an Eagle, a Man and a Lion. Those four figures are their ‘calling cards’.” If you check our Bible in the Book of Ezekiel, Chapter 1, Verse 10 they are described but we still don’t understand their importance. I have read it so many times I can quote it from memory. The Bible states, ‘As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.’
Anhur responded, “This is true Captain. This description in your Bible was not our first visit however. We came and helped build those marvelous stone structures you can see from this hotel window - the pyramids here in Egypt. We were there helping those you call the Mayans build their stone sacrificial pyramids and cities high upon the mountains. We tried, in vain, to implore the Mayans that human sacrifice was not a humane endeavor but their religious beliefs were to strong for us to overcome. We helped erect the stone megalith in England you call Stonehenge. The ancient Celts used it like you use the Old Growers Almanac - telling them when to plant, when to harvest and it forecast the movement of the heavenly bodies in the sky. We have a method of levitation where we can move objects weighing hundreds of your tons with the ease you would have in picking up an object weighing only one hundred pounds.
Someday Dr. Scarburg your SCAR scientists will decipher all our notes and writings that you retrieved from Pac Toul. Your people will be able to duplicate many of the techniques we have already discovered and currently use.”
“Anhur what about the Biblical passage on the scroll clutched between Mrs. Friedman’s hands? Why the locket with the date of Gabby, Bud and my birthday in it. Why does she have the same name as Gabby’s husband?” Lou asked.
“Slow down Doctor Scarburg... we knew over three thousand years ago someday you would discover Mrs. Friedman’s burial tomb. Remember we travel in the future and can move easily into the past. We knew we could garner SCAR’s attention by using her name and the triplet’s birthdate. And it was no accident that David Friedman and Gabrielle happened to meet at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. These events would insure you would find the tomb and the warning.
Anhur further emphasized, “ It IS possible future events affect the present and the present can have an affect on the past, and the present has a definite affect on the future.
“We time travel using parallel universes - you will discover this technique someday Dr. Scarburg.
“Mrs. Friedman, we sadly realize, missed out on her life in, what is called the present, but I assure you she more than made up for it in ancient Egypt. She was treated like a queen in her Egyptian life. No, not queen she was treated like a god - she was a doctor, a pharmacist and being able to catch glimpses of the future she was an excellent prophet. For a while she was actually the Egyptian Pharaoh. Her knowledge was renowned throughout Egypt - no, lest I say throughout the known world, in their time.”
“What about the bullet we found in Mrs. Friedman’s head, how could this happen?” Asked Lou.
&nbs
p; “It was a total accident - when we transported her back from 1967 to 1350 BC she had a small .22 caliber handgun in her procession - at the time of her transition we did not realize she had it. She had found it in the house at Pac Toul and planned to use it to affect her escape from our people.
Sometime during a visit by some of her Egyptian children - yes she married, as you correctly surmised Dr. Scarburg, Tutmose II and had children - one of them got possession of the pistol and while playing with the gun, it accidently discharged firing the fatal killing shot. It was just a terrible accident. Our knowledge is vast beyond your wildest imagination but even we cannot revive the dead.”
Little ‘S’ chimed in, “Anhur, back up. What did you mean ‘find the tomb and the WARNING. What is the warning?”
“Warning... yes I’m sorry to say Little ‘S’, may I call you Little ‘S’? It seems we have been friends for such a long time?”
“Sure Anhur, Little ‘S’ is perfectly fine.”
“Thank you dear friend...as I said before our people are divided between explaining the writing on the tomb wall and leaving you to figure it out or not. The others believe we should not interfere in your human events. I lean toward the explaining side. I think your race needs to know what’s coming.”
“Coming? What’s coming?
* * * * * *
Anhur continued. “The writing on Mrs. Friedman’s tomb foretell of a coming worldwide calamity which will befall your planet. Little ‘S’ you deciphered the note I passed to Ling Lu in Cambodia as taken from your Holy Bible - 1st Section, Book 26, Chapter 1, Paragraphs 5-26. This passage describes what the man called Ezekiel described as he saw our interplanetary space vehicle landing in a meadow close to where he was standing. We would not have descended and landed if we had known Ezekiel was present to observe us.
“Deciphering the first note was the most difficult, Little ‘S’, the second passage on the scroll should be easy.”
“Right,” said Little ‘S’, “the Bible. LJ look in the nightstand next to the bed. Please hand me the Bible.”
Big ‘S’ quickly took the Bible from LJ and handing it to Lou, “Would you please read the second passage from Mrs. Friedman’s parchment scroll.”