Look inside 'THE SMITING TEXTS'

Chapter 1


THEY INTERCEPTED him as he came out of Baltimore-Washington Airport, two men wearing suits and an air of officialdom like a brisk cologne.
“Mr Anson Hunter, the British Egyptologist?”
Egyptologist? That sounded good. Very establishment. Anson stood a bit taller, which placed his beanstalk elevation a few inches above theirs. The man could have said independent, renegade Egyptologist and phenomenologist, lecturer at out-of-town halls and auditoriums, writer, blogger and alternative theorist as well as leader of occasional, fringe tour groups to Egypt. But instead the man had said ‘Egyptologist’.
“Who wants to know?”
“You are invited to Johns Hopkins University. They wish to hear you speak.”
Anson goggled. Johns Hopkins and Anson Hunter? His moment of elation quickly faded. They didn’t belong in the same sentence.
“A nice thought, gentlemen, but venerable institutions like Johns Hopkins don’t wish people like me to speak. They would prefer us not to breathe.”
Anson had arrived to give a lecture on ancient Egyptian ritual smiting power and execration texts at a hired Masonic hall that evening.
He tried to move past, but the men blocked his way, smiling with steely politeness.
“Please come with us, Sir.”
“There must be some mistake.”
The spokesman frowned and reached inside his coat.
Hell, Anson thought, what is this? Has mainstream Egyptology finally sent a hit squad?
The hand came out of the coat. Anson resumed the business of breathing. The man flipped open a wallet, by way of introduction.
Anson glimpsed a crest – an eagle inside a circle and the words:

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Also a name, Browning. He was a broad-faced man with steady eyes.
Why me?
Anson’s ex-wife May had always said that he had the burning eyes of fanatic. Had they picked him out as a likely threat to the US homeland? This Johns Hopkins stuff was just a cover for an arrest.
He suddenly felt very alien.
“I’ve been a mild threat to conventional Egyptology for years,” he said, “but I hardly rate as a security risk.”
“We need your help, Mr Hunter.”
The other man relieved him of his suitcase and also took his briefcase containing his laptop.
“Careful, there’s an explosive PowerPoint presentation in there,” Anson said.
Browning flicked a glance towards Anson’s briefcase, but a sense of humour overtook his instinct to protect the homeland. He allowed himself a flinty smile.
“Ah, yes. Almost had me going there.”
“Would you please explain why Johns Hopkins Near Eastern Studies Department would be even faintly interested in my theories?”
The man lowered his voice.
“It’s not that Department that wants you. Johns Hopkins is also the Centre of Excellence for a new Homeland Security Centre. Goes by the full name of the Centre for the Study of High Consequence Event Preparedness and Response. You’ll be addressing a consortium that’s studying how the nation can best prepare for and respond to a range of unexpected large-scale incidents or disasters.”
“Me?”
The only large-scale disaster he was familiar with was his own career – his failure to swing the world of Egyptology, with very few exceptions, to his alternative theories. But maybe his luck was changing. Any invitation to speak at Johns Hopkins – anywhere at Johns Hopkins, even in a restroom - was too intoxicating to pass up. Not that his abductors were giving him much choice in the matter.
They led him to a waiting black sedan that purred on the kerbside.
He shrugged, climbed into the back with one of the Homeland men and sank into baffled acceptance. The sedan slid away into traffic.
This was the smoothest of smooth abductions. But they had his attention. He decided he quite enjoyed being whisked away into intrigue.
He was still troubled however.
“I’m not exactly sure where we’re going with this. What has US Homeland Security got to do with ancient Egypt? Or me?”
The Homeland man who sat in the front beside the driver, threw a mystified look over his shoulder.
“Beats me, I’m a practical man. I’ll leave it to others to explain.”
“Then there’s the small matter of my engagement. I’m booked to give a lecture tonight. Hundreds of people will be disappointed. Well, dozens.”
“Cancelled already. Just consider it a change of venue.”
It was quite a turnaround from out-of-town Masonic hall to Johns Hopkins University. A bit presumptuous of them, but he could be flexible.

© Copyright Roy Lester Pond 2008/2009

(UPDATE) Anson Hunter, alternative Egyptologist, and US Homeland Security

The Smiting Texts in the company of US Homeland Security etc

My archaeological thriller, The Smiting Texts, was first launched in the UK and generated a fair bit of internet activity.

It features an alternative British Egyptologist who is called on by US Homeland Security when a mysterious threat arises from Egypt's ancient past.
 
It seems Anson Hunter, alternative Egyptologist, theorist, phenomenologist and expert on dangers from the ancient past, just can't help finding himself in the company of the intelligence community.

Amazon Kindle edition (2014 update)

In the Smiting Texts, Anson Hunter is intercepted at a US Airport by Intelligence people and hired to consult with them about an esoteric danger to the US and its allies from the ancient past, relying on his arcane expertise. And this link continues throughout the 10 book series. In The Ibis Apocalypse Anson is teamed up with a glamorous Mossad agent.

(UPDATE 2022) It is a link that intrigues me. There is now a series of Anson Hunter novels cementing the alternative Egyptologist's links with the Intellgence community. And I have continued it in my Daniel Cane series (Egypt murder mysteries about an archaeologist turned detective). (Excerpt.) “There is something I have not shared with you, Daniel,” the Egyptian Antiquities man said, “something told to me in strictest confidence by Egyptian national security. Besides those on the team, other nationals are interested in our discovery. Intelligence agencies have long watched discoveries in Egypt with interest, perhaps for signs of inexplicable sciences or maybe devices from the ancient past. We don’t know why in this case. Is the world crazy enough to believe in Stargate technology and the military advantages such an advanced science might offer them? Both Harry’s filmmaking investigations and Clive Banyon’s private research institute are said to have received injections of funding support from the CIA. They have long been interested in paranormal investigations such as remote viewing and channeling. Maybe they just like to use these shadowy explorations as cover. But the Russians are curious too, as is a Chinese archaeological mission in Egypt. Everyone is watching.” A spy using the cover of archaeology? Could that include a member of their archaeological mission? Why? Chasing ‘stargate technology’ in search of superior military knowledge? It would provide a strong motive for trying to safeguard the continuation of the mission, since the prospect of a complete shutdown of the site by the Egyptian authorities would be disastrous for further investigation. But hard to believe. And yet, archaeology and espionage had a symbiotic relationship. The practice appeared in fiction such as The English Patient and in the history of espionage. No less a hero than TE Lawrence of Lawrence of Arabia fame used the ‘colour of archaeology as a red herring’ to hide surveillance activity. Archaeological missions could legitimately take agents to sensitive geo-political areas such as the Middle East, where digging the dirt literally allowed them to unearth military and political information in an unobtrusive way. Archaeologists also happened to be good at geography and mapping and were experts at deciphering cryptic codes. Egyptian hieroglyphics proved that. A media story had even dubbed the practice ‘The spies who came in from the dig’. The next question. Which one of the team could be a hidden spy?

ROY LESTER POND - EGYPT ARCHAEOLOGY THRILLER FICTION ON AMAZON

UPDATE: Hidden danger today from ancient Egypt's mysterious past? Begin an 11-book 'binge read' series on Kindle and paperback

Egypt-based adventure thriller. Ancient secrets, modern global conspiracies

THEY INTERCEPTED him as he came out of Baltimore-Washington Airport, two men wearing suits and an air of officialdom like a brisk cologne.

“Mr Anson Hunter, the British Egyptologist?” 

So begins fiction thriller "The Smiting Texts".  

Why has US intercepted a renegade Egyptologist? Is he the key to investigating an ancient esoteric threat to the US today...? A clash between two superpowers thousands of years apart, ancient Egypt and modern America.

 

Ancient Egypt is not about to rise again and "clobber us", or so Egyptologists assure us. Even though the remains of the pharaohs have survived the aeons and the peculiar lustre of eternity still clings to the remnants of Egypt's past.

Ancient Egypt is a dead civilization, they say.

And yet...

As 'The Smiting Texts' affair shows, the ancient Egyptians did believe in supranormal power - smiting rituals and execration texts, expressed through pottery, papyrus, bone and architecture. Remote killing, you see, was a state instrument of power. The priests would write execration texts on the sides of jars and then utter the words of threat formulae, before ritually smashing the jars in order to bring enemy nations to their knees. Nobody doubted that enemies of the state would weaken or simply be flattened, knocked down dead as if by an atomic blast.

Smitten by Egypt

You've seen those archetypal smiting scenes - Rameses the Great, giving a clutch of vile foreigners a headache by bashing in their craniums with a diorite mace.

My archaeologist hero Anson Hunter investigates unseen forces from the ancient past

This was not just a piece of wishful propaganda, although it was certainly that too. No, it was a detonation. These were esoteric armaments. In fact, the ancient Egyptian firmly believed that the power of such imprecations could reach out beyond temporal boundaries and smite across the ages...

USA’s Superpower vs ancient Egypt's Supranormal power, in The Smiting Texts - first in the Egypt series

     Secrets and hidden danger - Egypt adventure fiction

AMAZON Paperback and Kindle

ANSON HUNTER RANGE UPDATE (AMAZON KINDLE & PAPERBACK)