Read Online Seti's Heart by Kiernan Kelly - Free Book Online Page B

But Ethan had worked on the translations day and night, and when the meaning had finally become clear it had rocked the team to their cores.

    Every one of them was aware of the legend of Seti, the king who had been cursed by his namesake god. No corroborating evidence had ever been found that indicated that Seti ever really existed, and yet the myth persisted, references found in papyri scattered throughout the region. It was said that, cursed and entombed in his sarcophagus as punishment for his transgressions, Seti would walk the earth again after five thousand years, doomed to an eternity of wandering.

    But gleaming in the lantern light of the dig was what the team was certain was the final resting place of Seti. The facts were irrefutable. The figure sculpted onto the sarcophagus wore a torc that not only signified the mummy within to have been a king, but the style of the torc dated the sarcophagus to a time before the Sphinx had been built. The hieroglyphics proclaimed him to be Seti, the one who had defied the god Setekh, just as the legend had claimed, and spoke of the curse in great detail.

    Most interestingly, the sarcophagus had proven impossible to open. Crowbars snapped when applied under the lid. Chisels, no matter how hard they were hammered, could not move the lid a hairsbreadth. True to the myth of Seti, no man could open the tomb until the curse was lifted.

    Could the rest be true as well? Would Seti awake in just another half century, fully restored after five thousand years? He would if Ethan’s translations of the hieroglyphics and his dating of the tomb, were accurate.

    It was a bet that the small group of anthropologists was willing to take. For fifty years they’d kept their discovery a secret from the rest of the world. Perry used his position as a curator with the National Museum of Natural History in New York to secret the sarcophagus away. It had remained hidden in the basement of the Museum for a half a century, untouched and unviewed by anyone but himself.

    Three of the team, Petrovski, Roman, and Hill, had left Egypt to pursue careers in academia, all three becoming full professors at prestigious universities. They’d lived comfortable lives, retiring within ten years of each other. Now all three lived in retirement communities in Florida, golfing and basking in the warm sun, waiting for their chance at immortality.

    Ethan – the least scrupulous of all of them, had transformed himself from an anthropologist into a grave robber. He’d pillaged site after site, stealing Egyptian artifacts and selling them on the black market. Over the years, he’d parlayed his wealth into a fortune.

    All the while Perry had continued to slave away in the bowels of the Museum, as poor as a church mouse, the ever faithful watchdog.

    He hadn’t cared. When Seti awoke and they had drained the secret of immortality from his veins, wealth would mean little. Perry would be a god.

    Now the one slim straw Perry had been grasping at was gone, and all because of Ethan’s egotistical claim that his data had been foolproof.

    Perry ground his teeth as impotent rage washed over him in great waves. Damn Logan Ashton! If he hadn’t been forced by Administration to take Logan on as an assistant, then Seti would have awoken to find Perry waiting for him, not that snot-nosed graduate student. Perhaps Perry might have been able to garner the secret of everlasting life from Seti before Ethan and the others were even aware that Seti had returned! Perry would have had the entire world at his feet and Ethan’s wealth in his pocket.  

    Now he’d be lucky if he survived long enough to see Seti recaptured, to witness what the miracle of his rejuvenation had wrought. Perry’s health was on a serious decline. His heart had been irreparably damaged by the treatment for his liver disease. The doctors had given him a month or so to live.

    Pain clawed at Perry’s chest as his anger grew. He removed a prescription bottle