Prologue

Langford Digsite

Giza, Egypt

1928

Catherine Langford was ten years old. Her father wasn't exactly fond of her, and he didn't seem to like having her around, but he knew that his ex-wife wouldn't be happy if he just dumped her with another babysitter while he went off and dug things out of the sands of Egypt. She did seem to be having the time of her life, however, and she was happy that she was allowed to take anything she found home with her. Professor Langford supposed that it wasn't too bad to have her around.

Avi Senejian led him around the planks that made up the authorized path though the digsite. The great pyramid itself was providing plenty of shade for the two-to-three hundred people all working like demons to dig anything out of the ground that they could. The largest hole they had dug was basically a quarray they'd created. It went down at least fifty feet. Avi explained that they'd found some kind of quartz at thirty feet and forty-six feet.

Langford descended a ladder down ten feet, then another down to twenty, another to thirty, then to forty and finally, the last ladder led him to the current bottom of the hole. Avi was right behind him, and he had a flashlight taped to his helmet. Just before Avi got to the bottom, Langford felt something. Avi reached the bottom and asked, "What is it, Robert?" Langford shushed him. He felt it again―something was moving. "What is that?"

"Everyone out of the dig!" Langford shouted. Everyone scrambled up the ladders back to ground level, and the whole time the ground was still shaking. Whatever it was, something was moving. "Avi, was there any metal under there?"

Avi shrugged. "I'm not sure. All we found was that quartz-like stuff."

Langford turned to the crowd behind him. "Everyone, move back to a safe distance away from the dig!" Just as he said the words, the ground stopped shaking, and something happened. He looked down the dig and suddenly the ground was destroyed by what looked like a large explosion in water, like if a torpedo exploded without colliding with anything. It quickly lowered and the only thing remaining was a shimmering pool of water―at least, it looked like water. In all of Burt Langford's thirty-six years, he'd never seen water destroy dirt and rock. Avi walked up next to Langford and stared down at the pool as well. "What do you think it is, Avi?"

"Allah's judgement."

Just Below the Arctic Circle

Atlantic Ocean

1939

Captain Mitchell stared at the large crate in the cargo hold. Professor Langford had told him specifically to make certain no one else on the ship even touched the crate. The crew was not allowed to see it, not allowed to check it out once they got to the States and weren't allowed to touch it. He didn't understand why, but that Professor Langford's order. Langford had been his friend, so the order was easy to follow, but it still perplexed him.

The trip from Egypt to New York was not meant to be difficult. Point A to Point B simple, even. German U-Boats, however, had put a kink in that plan. They had to take a strange zig-zag pattern though the North Atlantic. Mitchell himself mapped out the course, long after they'd already gotten on the way. U-Boat captains would have to be extremely clairvoyant to predict his route when he couldn't even predict it.

The ship lurched to the right, directly toward the Arctic Circle. It was about five days now before they'd arrive at New York. All he had to do was plot the course and wait it out.