“At first researchers at SCAR thought it could be another ancient Mayan column calendar. One other Mayan Long Count calendar column had been found in Quirigua, Yucatan peninsula, Mexico, in 1929.

  “However, pictures obtained of this recent object verified it was indeed a Long Count calendar but it contained some very interesting features never seen before on Mayan glyphs. Let me tell you about the Mayan Long Count Calendar.

  * * * * * *

  MAYAN LONG COUNT CALENDAR

  “The Mayans designed the Long Count calendar to last approximately 5125.36 years, a time period they referred to as the Great Cycle. The Long Count Calendar is divided into five distinct units:

  One day = kin

  20 days = uinal

  360 days = tun

  7,200 days = katun

  144,000 days = baktun = 394 years, numbered 1 to 13.

  “To find the Long Count date that corresponds with any Gregorian solar calendar, it counts days as the basic unit of time, putting them into years of 365 or 366 days; and repeats completely every 146,097 days, which equal 400 years, and this is also 20,871 seven-day weeks of seven days. Of these 400 years, 303, the “common years”, have 365 days, and 97, the leap years, have 366 days. The average calendar-year length of Gregorian calendars is exactly 365.2425 days, or 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 12 seconds. To find any day on our modern calendar date, you’ll need to count the days from the beginning of the last Great Cycle, but determining when the last cycle began and matching that up to a Gregorian date has been the problem.

  “An English anthropologist Sir Eric Thompson used the Spanish Inquisition to calculate the Mayan-to-Gregorian date conversion, known as the Thompson Correlation.

  “Sir Thompson took events that occurred during the Inquisition that were recorded on both the Long Count calendar of the Mayans and the Gregorian calendar of the Spaniards. Scholars then matched both calendars and compared them to the Dresden Codex, one of four Mayan documents that survived the Inquisition. This codex confirmed the date long thought by Thompson to be the beginning of the current Great Cycle—Aug. 13, 3114 B.C.

  * * * * * *

  21 DECEMBER 2012

  “Using this methodology in recent years the end of the Long Count calendar has been computed to end on 21 December 2012. This Gregorian date is denoted as 13.0.0.0.0 on the Long Count Mayan calendar, signaling the end of the current Great Cycle.

  “However, Mayan scholars and natives dismiss the apocalyptic theories, noting that the end of the calendar would be regarded as a time of celebration, much like modern-day New Year festivities. Some have even said humorously ‘The Mayans just ran out of rock!’

  “Is there something important that should be known about the Winter Solstice date of December 21, 2012? The answer is a definite -Yes.

  “On the first day of winter in the year 2012 a rare astronomical and Mayan Long Count event will occur. In scientific terms, the Sun will reach a point where the intersection of the Milky Way and the annual path of the sun through the universe coincide. The Milky Way extends in a general north-south direction in the night sky. The plane of the ecliptic is the track the Sun, Moon, planets and stars appear to travel in the sky, from east to west. It intersects the Milky Way at a 60-degree angle near the constellation Sagittarius. The cosmic cross-formed by the intersecting Milky Way and the Maya called the plane of the ecliptic the Sacred Tree. The trunk of the tree, the Axis Mundi, is the Milky Way, and the main branch intersecting the tree is the plane of the ecliptic. Mythically, at sunrise on December 21, 2012, the Sun - the Mayan Father - rises to conjoin the center of the Sacred Tree, the World Tree and the Tree of Life.

  “In common English our Sun and all the planets will be in perfect alignment with the center of the Milky Way galaxy on this date.

  “This date ends the Great Cycle; however, it must be understood - it was believed there were NO MAYAN INSCRIPTIONS or WRITINGS that ever predicted the ACTUAL date the end of the world would occur at the Great Cycle’s conclusion; however, a partial monument, identified as Number 6 was found in Tortuguero, 35 miles west-northwest of Palenque in southern Mexico indicated the 13 Baktuns will be finished at 13.0.0.0.00 Ahaw 3 K’anki’ which corresponds to Friday 21 December 2012 on the Mayan Long Count calendar. On this date the their god Bolon Yokte K’u will descend from his heavenly realm to earth. The problem with the interpretation of monument 6 is the archeologists used only the right hand ‘wing’ of a t-shaped stone now broken. The other pieces are either completely shattered or as yet undiscovered.

  “Remember earlier I said the date of 21 December 2012 is a ‘computed’ date based upon a starting time frame that began 5126 years ago. No Mayan calendar would actually represent the date in glyphs (Mayan pictorial writings); however, a picture sent to SCAR of the unearthed column calendar shows the actual Mayan date at the top of the column as 13.0.0.0.0 on one side and on the opposite side in ENGLISH is the date “21 December 2012!”

  “I sent another SCAR team headed by Lou along with Gabby to Egypt to check out another site that also exhibited the Aliens tell-tell signatures. We believe the two archeological sites might, in some way, be connected.”

  “Krissy, now to you better understand?”

  “Captain, I lost you when you started talking about those long count calendars - I was really ‘down for the long count’, but forget about all that what about those ‘Edison’ machines? I thought you said they could read photos or inscribed items?”

  “We can and we did use them Krissy - that’s why the urgency in checking out these two sites for ourselves. Something is real strange and mystifying about both places. I’ll be able to tell you more when I get the field reports back.”

  * * * ~~~ * * *

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CAIRO, EGYPT

  Air France© flight 25/509 just landed in Cairo (CAI) from Paris (CDG). The flight was long, 15 hours 20 minutes total travel time from Washington, D.C. by way of Paris. Local time: 6 August 7:45 pm - sundown - as the four Americans SCAR scientists met the stifling rush of hot Egyptian air as they descended the exit steps onto the scorching hot Cairo tarmac.

  August in Cairo - a city of sweltering heat. The sun was beginning to dip down beyond the western horizon but sunset brought no relief from the oven-like temperature. The big electronic temperature clock mounted above the entranceway into the terminal read “41.1 C” / “106.0 F.” The temperature up to 100 degrees was displayed in yellow - past 100 the numerals change to red. These were now red and red means hot...hot...damn right it was hot - blistering hot.

  Dr. Scarburg, team leader, looking up at the red numbered 106, trying to make the others feel better he said, “It may be hot but just remember (as he sucked in a breath of jet fuel tainted air) this is the same air the Pharaohs once breathed.”

  One of the other team members, in the rear, could be heard softly mumbling sarcastically, “I hope the hell not. If it is I know why they’re all dead now.”

  Dr. Louis ‘Lou’ Edward Scarburg, the first born (by a whopping 2 minutes 12 seconds) of the set of Scarburg triplets; the second of the three was his twin brother Buddy 'Bud' Scarburg, both PhDs and grandsons of Captain Robert Edward Scarburg, Jr. and great-grandsons of Robert Edward Scarburg, Sr.

  Accompanying Lou Scarburg to Cairo was the princess and baby of the Scarburg triplet’s younger sister Gabrielle Scarburg Friedman. The Huntsville SCAR Facility Director of Operations, her older brother Forrest, stuck her with the nickname “Gabby.” When Forrest was somewhere around five or six years of age Gabrielle would talk and babble excessively about anything and everything. Whatever she was saying this one particular time must have touched Forrest’s last nerve. He yelled, “Damn shut the hell up. All you do is ‘gab’, ‘gab’, ‘gab’.” He still vividly remembers the dusting his father Trey gave his little bottom. Gabby remembers it too, but with a sly smile, but ‘Gabby’ it was and ‘Gabby’ she has been ever since.

  Gabby had been
married to an Israeli Army Captain named David (pronounced Da-void) Friedman. Captain Friedman, a member of the Israeli elite Special Forces unit the Sayeret Magian was killed during Israel's Second Lebanon War of 2006. The war started when the Hezbolian para-military forces abducted two Israeli soldiers.

  Captain Friedman was killed in Operation Beach in 2006 trying to rescue one of his wounded men. He and Gabby had only been married four months, three days, and seven hours according to her figures.

  Gabby and David met at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

  Gabby was somewhat of a maverick - as she matured she rebelled against her father and her two brothers. They all loved digging into dusty centuries old ruins - studying the ancient lives of the long dead famous and infamous. Back then she wanted no part of these ‘dead people’ and particularly did not want to follow her siblings scholarly road.

  She thought herself to be more genteel.

  Gabby spent her early collegiate career at Yale University obtaining a Doctorate in Renaissance Studies coupled with an Early French Renaissance Art minor. Upon her Magna Cum Laude graduation she found being the proper educated southern young lady did not pay very well so she got a job with her father working with SCAR in their research department. The longer she worked with the statues, artifacts and objects obtained in long forgotten burial places the more she began to appreciate that these object were also art - just a different sort. It was then she decided to change her career field and delve into the world of SCAR’s clandestine atmosphere.

  She moved to Israeli and was working on a degree in Hebrew Studies with a minor in Middle Eastern Languages when she first met David Friedman. David’s interest had been in Political Science. After graduation both began their mandatory Israeli military service - Gabby with the 'Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations (IISO) better known as the Mossad - David with the Israeli Special Defense Force.

  She is a 'two fur' - possessing two degrees and holding duel citizenship in both Israel and the United States. Maybe, appropriately, she should be called a ‘four-fur’.

  Gabby joined this SCAR expedition upon the special request of the CIA Director to Israeli's Director of IISO. The CIA Director was well aware of the archeological find in the Egyptian desert and its importance. He correctly surmised Dr. Gabrielle Scarburg Friedman should be on the team. No, he KNEW there was a reason she had to be a member. “Why me?” Gabrielle thought. “I’m not an archeologist like Bud and Lou? Why did the Director want me on this trip?”

  Looking at this beautiful petite woman no one would have guessed Mrs. Gabrielle Scarburg Friedman, olive skinned with green-eyes in her 28th year, was a bundle of sheer elegant 5’4” exquisiteness which masked her expert knowledge and use of the Israel martial art Krav Maga form that was taught to Mossad operatives for self defense as well as knife fighting and sentry removal. One glance into her sparkling emerald eyes had men remembering their mesmerizing allure hours after their first encounter.

  Who would believe she is also an 'expert' in the use of handguns, rifles, explosives and other means of quickly disposing of human life. Speaks fluent Hebrew, Arabic, English and is conversant in two or three other languages to include Russian and Chinese. One of her best attributes - she did in no way resembled her two twin brothers.

  Top this all off with the fact she is bundled into a body most women (and all men) would die for. Men describe her using words associated with something to do with bricks and outhouses.

  Her glistening shoulder length ebony hair gleamed in the sun as if oil has been applied to it, but no, her hair was all natural as were all her other parts - god-given. All the parts were perfectly proportioned and in the right places. She had her luxurious hair pulled back tightly into a ponytail and covered with an Alabama Crimson Tide baseball cap - Crimson with a big white cursive 'A' on the front.

  Gabby was an Auburn University football fan. Auburn being the biggest nemesis of the University of Alabama; in fact, her graduate degrees were obtained from Auburn ‘The loveliest village on the plains’. She liked the hat nevertheless, since it had been a gift from Forrest, her older brother. Forrest a graduate of the University of Alabama was one of the Crimson Tide’s biggest fans and a vocal opponent of Alabama’s arch foe - the Auburn Tigers. He never failed to remind Gabby the quote ‘the loveliest village on the plains’ was taken from Oliver Goldsmith’s poem, “The Deserted Village.” He said, “the poem’s title - apt description.”

  Walking behind Gabby was Jacque Jollett - tall, bronzed, and handsome - a perfect specimen of the male gender. A Scotsman by birth but an American by choice; his slight Sean Connery Irish brogue would give him away easily even if his looks would not. His curly black hair seemingly saying to women, ‘Come, run your fingers through at your own risk.’ His piercing sky blue eyes had that alluring ‘come hither’ look. His tanned features quickly help identify his Italian lineage.

  No one had come up with a proper nickname for him - they didn’t need one - he had his own - “Roche.” Pronounced as “Rocky.” He did not like ‘Jack’. Why ‘Roche’- no one knows, maybe because the French ‘Jacque’ rhymes with ‘Rock’. Some say it was a reference to the legendary Irishman who stood outside of social circles and spat on all who would try to change his ways. Others say it came from his Special Forces’ days - he would stand, fight and was as hard to dislodge as a ‘Rock’. Jacque the Rock; regardless, he only had a first and last name; his parents never gave him a middle name. The two small metal oblong Army dog tags which still hung on their silver chain around his neck clearly were embossed: JOLLETT, JACQUE, NMI. The NMI was the Army’s way of saying ‘No Middle Initial.’

  He may prefer ‘Rocky’ as the team called him but to Gabrielle he was always Jacque. He loved the way she pronounced ‘Jacque’. Accenting the name as the proper French would say... ‘Shoock’... allowing the word to slip silkingly off her tongue... J a c q u e. He especially liked the contortion of her alluring red lips as she puckered them together and softly spoke his name… Jjj aaa cque.

  Jacque began each day as the day before, sporting a days growth of stubby black whiskers and his thread-bear sleeve-less green Army tee shirt with the words, ‘SPECIAL FORCES’ on the front. It was unknown whether he wore the tee shirt for comfort or to show off his bulging shoulder muscles; regardless everyone got the picture. He had one creed: when he said ‘Jump’ you didn’t question the order you only asked: ‘How high?’ Hardworking and always mission driven - dead serious about the job at hand but not one to take orders. That was the reason he ended his military career and was now a PFC (private f***ing civilian). He had been offered OCS (Officer’s Candidate School) a couple of times but thought, ‘Hell if I can’t take orders how in the Hell can I give’em.’ Second he just didn’t like Army officers. Could tolerate them - thought them a bunch of whooshes and college kids. He only had one rule: “f**k with me and I’ll f**k you over.” Many men had learned this lesson the hard way. He was the first to get up in the morning, long before the sun arose, and bedtime came early. A couple of his only vices were a love of the corn squeezing from his good ol’ home state of Tennessee: Jack Daniels® and the squeezing from a fine lady.

  He really believed in ol’ Ben’s creed, “Early to bed early to rise...” usually with a fair maiden of the opposite sex. Jacque was unwed and what could be referred to as quite ‘a ladies man’ and considered quite a catch.

  Those who fell out as early as he would, most days, find him sitting sipping black coffee, puffing on an unfiltered Turkish cigarette and gently sharpening his already razor sharp 10” Ka-Bar fighting knife.

  He had been a U.S. Army Special Forces Master Sergeant leading advance teams into Iraq prior to and during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. In fact, at 22:54 (10:54 pm) hour local time on the night of 17 January 1991 Jacque, face smeared with camouflage paint, lie hidden in the brush and dirt outside the Muthenna Airport in Bagdad, Iraq. Did he know how to use his Ka-Bar? Ask the Iraq defenders his team encountered on their
way to Bagdad - skip that, I don’t believe they can personally respond to that question.

  His Special Forces A-Team had infiltrated to the outskirts of Saddam Hussein’s personal airport and zeroed their laser beams in on hand picked targets for the F-117, “Stealth” bomber’s, “smart” bombs to follow like they were attached to a hidden wire. They didn’t miss and there was no collateral damage.

  He had spent a good part of his military career under his wool Green Beret in the Middle East including Egypt. He was fluent in Arabic and a number of local dialects spoken over the northern region of Africa including Hebrew. Jacque’s presence on the team was due to his expertise with the region and the local population, especially the nomadic Bedouins. He knew the land and the people very well. This is where he had acquired the taste for the Turkish cigarettes. Smokes that others said tasted like they were made from camel dung.

  If trouble was at hand he was the man you would want close by.

  * * * * * *

  He followed closely behind Gabby watching intently her swaying hips as she gracefully moved toward the terminal building. She instinctly felt his eyes glued to her derriere. This made her emphasize her sway more aggressively to aggravate him farther.

  Roche’s infatuation with the beautiful Gabby had begun earlier in the day as the two of them sat side by side on the flight from the Charles de Gaulle International in Paris to Cairo International.

  From the minute Gabby and Jacque met in France there was an instant perceivable spark between the two. During the flight from Paris, Jacque, seated in the center seat, had to stand a couple of times and let Gabby, seated in the seat next to the window, slide past to go to the lavatory.