The Pharaoh Key - prestonchild.com

1 THE Pharaoh KEYP haraohKey_HCtextF1 The Pharaoh Key 2018-04-10 19:17:09 iALSO BYDOUGLASPRESTON ANDLINCOLNCHILDA gent Pendergast NovelsGideon Crew NovelsCity of Endless NightBeyond the Ice LimitThe Obsidian ChamberThe Lost IslandCrimson ShoreGideon s CorpseBlue LabyrinthGideon s SwordWhite FireTwo Graves*Other NovelsCold Vengeance*The Ice LimitFever Dream*ThunderheadCemetery DanceRiptideThe Wheel of DarknessMount DragonThe Book of the Dead**Dance of Death**The Helen TrilogyBrimstone**The Diogenes TrilogyStill Life with Crows RelicandReliquaryareThe Cabinet of Curiositiesideally read in sequenceReliquary Relic By Douglas PrestonBy Lincoln ChildThe Lost City of the Monkey GodFull Wolf MoonThe Kraken ProjectThe Forgotten RoomImpactThe Third GateThe Monster of FlorenceTerminal Freeze(with Mario Spezi)Deep StormBlasphemyDeath MatchTyrannosaur CanyonLethal VelocityThe Codex(formerlyUtopia)Ribbons of TimeTales of the Dark 1 3 The Royal RoadDark BanquetTalking to the GroundDark CompanyJennieCities of GoldDinosaurs in the AtticPharaohKey_HCtextF1 Also by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child 2018-04-10 19:17:09 iiTHEPHARAOHKEYa gideon crew noveldouglaspreston&lincolnchildPharaohK ey_HCtextF1 Also by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child 2018-04-10 19:17:09 iiiThis book is a work of fiction.

2 Names, characters, places, and incidents are the productof the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events,locales, corporate or government entities, facilities, or persons, living or dead, 2018 by Splendide Mendax, Inc. and Lincoln ChildCover design by Flag. Cover photos: Phaistos Disk by Getty Images/Leemage/Contributor; compass by Getty Images/Comstock Images. Cover copyright 2018 byHachette Book Group, from In Praise of Limestone copyright 1951 by W. H. Auden. Excerpt from Atlantis fromW. H. Auden Collected Poemscopyright 1945 by W. H. Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creativeworks that enrich our scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft ofthe author s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from thebook (other than for review purposes), please contact Thankyou for your support of the author s Central PublishingHachette Book Group1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY Edition: June 2018 Grand Central Publishing is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

3 The Grand CentralPublishing name and logo is a trademark of Hachette Book Group, publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned bythe Hachette Speakers Bureau provides a wide range of authors for speaking events. Tofind out more, go to or call (866) of Congress Control Number: 2018935573 ISBNs: 978-1-4555-2582-9 (hardcover), 978-1-4555-2580-5 (ebook), 978-1-5387-1369-3(large print)Printed in the United States of AmericaLSC-C10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 PharaohKey_HCtextF1 Also by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child 2018-04-10 19:17:09 ivLincoln Child dedicates this book to hisdaughter, VeronicaDouglas Preston dedicates this book toAnna and Peyton ForbesPharaohKey_HCtextF1 Also by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child 2018-04-10 19:17:09 vPharaohKey_HCtextF1 Also by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child 2018-04-10 19:17:09 viTHE Pharaoh KEYP haraohKey_HCtextF1 The Pharaoh Key 2018-04-10 19:17:09 viiPharaohKey_HCtextF1 2018-04-10 19:17.

4 09 81 Gideon Crew sat in the fourteenth-floor waiting room ofLewis Conrad, MD, restlessly drumming the tips of his left fin-gers against the back of his right wrist, waiting to find outwhether he would live or die. An oversize envelope he dbrought with him, currently empty, lay beside his chair. DespiteDr. Conrad being one of the more expensive neurosurgeonsin New York City, the magazines in his well-appointed waitingroom had a greasy, well-thumbed look that deterred Gideonfrom touching them. Besides, they were of a subject matter People,Entertainment Weekly,Us that held little interest. Whycouldn t a doctor s waiting room have copies ofHarper sorTheNew Criterion, or even a damnNational Geographic?A door on the far side of the waiting room opened silently;a nurse with a file in one hand poked her head out, and hopeflared within Gideon s breast. Ada Kraus? the nurse said. An elderly woman rose to herfeet with difficulty, walked slowly across the waiting room, anddisappeared into the hallway beyond the open door, which im-mediately closed 1 2018-04-10 19:17:09 1As Gideon settled back into his chair, he realized it wasn trestlessness, exactly, that afflicted him.

5 It was a feeling of un-settledness that had kept him in New York City ever since thecompletion of his last mission for his employer, Effective Engi-neering Solutions. Normally he would have made a beeline forhis cabin in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico, gotten out hisfly rod, and gone was so strange. His boss, Eli Glinn, had vanished with noword. The company s offices in the old Meatpacking District ofLower Manhattan remained open, but the place seemed to beslowly winding down. Two weeks ago, his automatic salary pay-ment had stopped, with no warning, and last week EES ceasedpaying for his expensive suite in the Gansevoort Hotel, aroundthe corner from EES headquarters. Even so, Gideon had not leftNew York. He d stayed on for over two months as his arm healedfrom the last mission, wandering the streets, visiting museums,reading novels while lounging at the hotel, and drinking far toomuch in the many hip bars that dotted the Meatpacking , he admitted to himself why he d been hanging aroundthe city: there was something he had to know.

6 The problem was,it was also the last thing he wanted to know. But in the end hisneed to know had overcome his fear of knowing, and he hadmade an appointment with Dr. Conrad. And so two days ago, hehad been given a cranial MRI and now he was cooling his heelsin the doctor s waiting room, awaiting the : it wasn t restlessness. It was a powerful combination ofhope and fear pulling him in different directions: hope thatsomething might have happened to him during the past tenmonths that fixed his condition, known as AVM; and fear that ithad gotten here he was, waiting, hoping, and fearing, all tangled upin his head like the AVM DOUGLAS PRESTON & LINCOLN CHILDP haraohKey_HCtextF1 1 2018-04-10 19:17:09 2 The door opened again; the nurse stuck out her head. Gideon Crew? Gideon picked up the empty envelope, rose from his chair,and followed the nurse down the corridor and into a well-appointed doctor s consultation room.

7 To his surprise, the doc-tor was already seated behind a desk. On one side of his deskwere the beat-up medical records and MRIs that Gideon hadbeen carrying around with him in the envelope for the betterpart of a year. On the other side was a fresh set of pictures andscans the ones taken two days Conrad was about sixty, with a mild expression, gray eyes,and a sheaf of salt-and-pepper hair. He gazed kindly at Gideonthrough a pair of black-rimmed glasses. Hello, Gideon, hesaid. May I use your first name? Of course. Please sit down. Gideon was a moment of silence while the doctor cleared histhroat, then looked briefly from the old MRIs to the new. I takeit that you are already apprised of your condition? Yes. It s known as a vein of Galen malformation. It s an ab-normal knot of arteries and veins deep in my brain, in an areaknown as the Circle of Willis. It s usually congenital, and inmy case inoperable. Because the arteriovenous walls are steadilyweakening, the AVM is expanding in size and will eventuallyhemorrhage which will be instantly fatal.

8 There was a brief, uncomfortable silence. That s as good a summary as I could have made. Dr. Con-rad propped his palms on the edge of his desk and interlaced hisfingers. When you first learned of your AVM, he asked, didthe doctor give you a prognosis on how long you might expectto live? THE Pharaoh KEY 3 PharaohKey_HCtextF1 1 2018-04-10 19:17:09 3 Yes. And how long was that? About a year. When was that? Almost ten months ago. I see. The doctor shuffled through the images on his desk,cleared his throat again. I m very sorry to have to tell you,Gideon, but from these tests and everything else I ve seen, theoriginal prognosis was correct. Although he had half expected this indeed, he d had no realreason to suppose it would be different for a moment, Gideonfound he couldn t speak. You mean .. I ve only got two moremonths to live? Comparing your original MRIs with the ones we just did,the progress of your AVM has been textbook, unfortunately.

9 Soyes, I would say that is a likely time frame give or take a fewweeks. There aren t any new treatments or surgical options? As you probably have learned, most brain AVMs can betreated with surgery, radiation, or embolization, but the loca-tion of your AVM and its size make it impossible to be treatedwith those methods. Anything we did, either surgical or radi-ological, would almost certainly cause severe brain damage, ifyou survived at all. Gideon leaned back in his chair. All the anxiety and uncer-tainty that had been hovering around him the last several weeksnow settled down like a deadweight. He could hardly Conrad leaned forward. It s tough, son. There s nothingI can say to make it otherwise. It may not help to hear this, but:you know how much time is allotted you. Most of us don t havethat luxury. Luxury, Gideon groaned. Two months, a 4 DOUGLAS PRESTON & LINCOLN CHILDP haraohKey_HCtextF1 1 2018-04-10 19:17:09 4 When Warren Zevon, the rock star, knew he was dyingof cancer, someone asked him how he was coping with thatknowledge.

10 His reply?Enjoy every advice to you issimilar: don t become miserable and paralyzed with grief andfear. Instead, do something worthwhile and engaging with thetime you have left. Gideon said nothing; he merely shook his head. He felt why did he expect anything different? You re strong and mobile, and will remain so .. until theend. That s the nature of AVM. So I ll tell you what I tell myother patients facing the same situation: live every minute thebest way you can. A long moment passed while Gideon sat in the chair, motion-less. Dr. Conrad smiled at him from across the desk with thesame kindly expression. When he started gathering together thevarious reports and scans, Gideon realized the conference wasat an end. He stood up. Thank you, he neurosurgeon stood as well, handed him the paperwork,then shook his hand. God bless you, Gideon. And rememberwhat I said. THE Pharaoh KEY 5 PharaohKey_HCtextF1 1 2018-04-10 19:17:09 52 The chill March sun, streaming down 50th Street, struckGideon full in the face as he stepped out of the building andinto the afternoon rush of Midtown, blaring horns and exhaustmingling with the smell of a street vendor s roasting kebabs.