Touching the butt of a wooden truncheon hanging from his broad belt, he brayed, “You newcomers?”
Ryan nodded. “Yeah.”
The man grinned, revealing black gums from which every other tooth seemed to be missing. “I’m Shukeli, sort of the warden around here. You’re on the noon-to-sundown shift, block-moving detail. You’ve got a couple of hours yet. Follow me.”
Shukeli lumbered back in the direction from which he had come. J.B. and Ryan followed him for what seemed like a very long time. Finally, the man stopped in an area so shrouded in shadow it was only a few gray degrees above pitch-black.
Pointing to a pair of frayed pallets on the floor, Shukeli said, “There you go. This is as good a place as any.”
Ryan glanced around. “It appears we have this good place all to ourselves.”
Shukeli chuckled. “It’s private, all right. Nice and quiet back here.”
“And dark,” J.B. commented.
“And dark,” Shukeli echoed agreeably. “Sometimes men need the dark, need it private.” His voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper as he ran his fingertips up Ryan’s right biceps. “I know you know what I mean.”
“Sure,” Ryan said, and hit him as hard as he could in the middle of his swag belly.
The stomachs of some fat men are deceptively solid. Shukeli’s wasn’t—it was all flab and at the moment of impact, Ryan’s fist sank into it like a finger jabbed into dough.
Shukeli doubled up, gagging, clutching at his middle. A string of saliva drooled from his lower lip. He didn’t fall, and Ryan didn’t act on his impulse to jack a knee into his face. As the man fought to get breath into his lungs, Ryan reached out and ran a finger under his double chins, up to his ear. He pinched the lobe savagely, twisting at the same time.
Shukeli made mewling noises. Ryan leaned down and whispered into his ear, “I know you know what I mean, you stupe bastard. We’re not interested in your blue-boy pastimes. Keep that in mind and we’ll get along fine for the short time we’re here. You don’t keep that in mind and you die. Understand?”
Shukeli’s “Yes” was a faint burble.
Ryan released him. “Good. Let us know when it’s time for our shift.”
The warden tried to straighten, but opted to remain in a slightly stooped posture as he shambled away on unsteady legs.
Looking after him, J.B. said sourly, “We’re not winning any popularity contests in the holy city of Aten.”
“Good,” Ryan replied flatly. “I’d be a hell of a lot more worried if we were.”
Chapter Eighteen
Ryan had never really devoted too much thought to how ancient peoples had constructed massive megalithic structures. Even the magnificent step pyramid he and his friends had seen still standing in the jungles of Amazonia several months before had failed to rouse his curiosity.
He retained a memory from a picture book he had read as a child, an illustration depicting half-naked slaves working like oxen, yoked to huge stones and dragging them up earthen ramps while overseers lashed their straining backs with whips.
When he and J.B. followed the workers out of the barracks at the afternoon period of labor, he received a distinct surprise. Near the end of the long line of aproned men, they marched out of the walled compound and into open ground. They looked up the great pyramid, a man-made mountain gleaming white and awesome in the noonday sun.
Both he and the Armorer gaped at the most massive and finely engineered structure they had ever seen. It was almost too awesome to comprehend, and Ryan had to consciously resist the impulse to pinch himself. As it was, he stared so long and so hard without blinking in the blaze of sunlight that his eye began to sting and water. He and the column of workers were a hundred yards from the pyramid’s base, yet the immensity of it completely filled his field of vision.
J.B. muttered, “It’s got to be four hundred feet tall, and about seven hundred feet square at its widest point. God only knows how many millions of blocks are there.”
A rangy, middle-aged man standing behind him said blandly, “Actually, once the capstone is put in place, it’ll be 481 feet tall. It’s 756 square. There are probably about two million blocks. It’s designed to be an exact duplicate of the Great Pyramid of Cheops at Giza.”