wels, and in
places they could see the silver ribbon of the Nile. Rick turned and
looked at the radio telescope at Sahara Wells, its great parabolic
reflector gleaming in the brilliant moonlight.

He was content. As a last adventure, and with the permission of Winston,
the three had decided to climb the pyramid by moonlight. Now the
mysteries of the Egyptian cat and the strange signal from space were
behind them. In eleven hours they would be air-borne, and tomorrow night
they would sleep at home.

Hassan spoke. "I sorry to see you go. You come back, maybe?"

"Someday," Scotty said.

Rick added, "When we show my sister that picture of you with the fancy
clothes and that scimitar you borrowed, we'll have to bring her to see
you in person. She won't believe her eyes."

Hassan chuckled softly. "Tell her I will be her bodyguard, to protect
her from Youssef, if he ever gets free from jail. I will even protect
her from our so terrible Egyptian cats!"

The three sat down on the rough stone at the top of the pyramid. Once
the great monument had risen to a sharply pointed capstone, but the
blocks had been removed and only a tall wooden pole showed how high the
pyramid had once reached.

Rick looked up at the stars and traced the outlines of the familiar
constellations, Orion, the Twins, Taurus, the Big Dog, and the Little
Dog.

Out there, far beyond those constellations, a spaceship had once passed,
sending unknown signals to an unknown destination, eventually to be
intercepted here, within sight of the pyramids.

"I wonder what it was," he mused aloud.

Scotty needed no explanation. "Does it matter, if it was some kind of
intelligence?"

Rick shook his head. "Not really. It was nearly five thousand light
years away, so it took five thousand years to reach us. So when the
signals were first sent, this pyramid hadn't even been built. Egypt
hadn't been united."

Scotty added, "And in the Upper Nile Kingdom, people were worshiping
Bubaste...."

"... and Egyptian cats," Rick finished.

The boy glanced up at the stars again and saw the tight cluster of the
Pleiades. Across the world, the constellation was just coming into view
of anyone standing on top of the mountain known as El Viejo, the Old
One.

The slow stirring in the earth deep under El Viejo would take a few
months to grow, but already events taking form would plunge Rick,
Scotty, and the Spindrift scientists into the midst of mob violence,
armed revolt