Opening page: Why would an atheist billionaire hire renegade Egyptologist Anson Hunter for a secret Egypt exploration - with shocking religious implications?

Opening Scene: CHAPTER 1. Lars Decan, tech genius and entrepreneur, was not a man to be underestimated. He had already brought the world to his feet and was now reaching out to other worlds through space exploration. Anson Hunter, alternative Egyptologist, thought of this as he was shown into the rich man’s presence in the sitting room of a plush suite at the Savoy Hotel in London, overlooking the River Thames and St Paul's Cathedral. Decan rose from a chair and greeted Anson with a dry clasp of a hand. He was a mid-forties man with penetrating dark eyes that exuded certainty. “Take a seat with a view of old-fashioned Christendom out there,” Decan said, gesturing to St Paul’s in the background. The lead-encased dome of the cathedral had a pale blue-green hue in London’s grey afternoon sky and put Anson in mind of the hymn There is a Green Hill, Far Away. “So you are Anson Hunter, renegade Egyptologist who likes to seek out forbidden texts and dangers from the ancient past.” “I have been known to prod in a few historical hornets’ nests over the years,” Anson admitted. The entrepreneur was a younger man of a similar cut to Anson, but had less of his beanpole elevation. The shoulders under the entrepreneur’s casual jacket showed signs of working out in a private gym. He was dressed down in jeans, T-shirt and jacket and trademark all-white Nike sports shoes, the new breed of super-rich without airs, ostentations of behavior, or appearance. Lars Decan nodded to the intermediary who had brought Anson into the hotel suite to meet him, a man by the name of David Kronsdorf, a Jewish alternative historian who looked like a bearded blond patriarch. “Well, we have quite a hornet’s nest for you this time, hey, David?” Decan said. “We want to enlist your help in a little exploration.” “What have you got in mind?” Anson said. “A generous fee.” “Okay. But an exploration in search of what exactly?” “Not what. Whom.” Along with the Jewish historian, the tech billionaire sat down and swiveled around a large titanium laptop computer on a table beside him and pressed a key. A jolting combination of images filled the screen. The earliest known image of the Son of God appeared superimposed over a carved relief of the ancient Egyptian falcon-headed god Horus. “Jesus,” Anson said. It wasn’t blasphemy, he thought, well not entirely. “Not Jesus exclusively,” the entrepreneur said. “Jesus and Horus and the theory of a pagan Christ from ancient Egypt.” Now Anson was tempted to use the name ‘Jesus’ in vain. Surely that hoary old Horus-Jesus heresy wasn’t rearing its twin heads once again? Why would someone of Decan’s stature touch it? “You mean the theory that the falcon-headed son of the god Osiris was actually the model for Jesus?” Anson said. “That’s some speculation even for a man who speculates for a living…”

The Smiting Texts, Hathor's Holocaust, The Ibis Apocalypse, The Night of Anubis, The Forbidden Glyphs of Thoth, The God Dig, Egypt Eyes, Artefact, Oracle of Siwa, Khufu's Curse, The Son of God Egypt Tomb, The Anson Hunter 1 - 3 collection, The Ogdoad, Quest for Egypt's Chaos Gods, novella

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