Brimstone Crimson

Chapter Eighteen: Dig Dug

September 12th 2012, 3:15 pm, Archaeological dig near Nadschaf, Iraq

The metallic sound of digging tools striking stone reverberated with staccato regularity throughout the dig site, filling the air with a fine dust that coated everything: equipment, animal and human alike.

Two men with Armani suits stood at the lip of the crater which framed the thirty foot deep site; their dress and demeanor standing in stark contrast to the rustic and khakied atmosphere surrounding them.

The first of the two Kings was a middle-aged man, stockily built and swarthy, his dark hair oiled back and in obvious competition with the desert winds. His older companion stood ram-rod straight with a lean and hard frame, his short-cropped, blond hair streaked with gray and a thin hawk-like nose over which he looked down upon the proceedings.

Like their fellow King, currently in America, this assignment was not normal fare for them, thus accounting for the incongruity of their appearance. However, a watershed event was about to take place; a discovery of such importance that neither of the three Kings wanted it to go unwitnessed. Therefore, expedition took precedence over propriety.

Within the wide, man-made crater, archaeologists from the University of Baghdad and their students had discovered an ancient bog of such density that the fossils pulled from it, thus far, had evidenced remarkable preservation. It wasn't, however, the interesting array of human and animal remains thus excavated from the strata that had drawn the Kings two thousand miles away from their current base of operations.

It was the single, intact skeleton of a twenty-four foot long humanoid that the University scientist's ground penetrating radar had discovered, just two days ago.

The information had come, via video conference call, directly from the site foreman himself the moment after the discovery was verified by technicians.

"It is a remarkable specimen!" gushed the Iraqi scientist, his thick accent barely able to contain his excitement.

"Our equipment located the skeletal remains shortly after sunrise. There appears to be no breakage. I have never seen humanoid skeletal remains of this size! The world shall be amazed!"

The Kings on the other end of the data stream had looked at one another, briefly, both knowing that the world would never hear a single word about the monumental find.

Grainy ground penetrating radar images of the colossal skeleton, shown in gray-scale, had been seen by means of the video feed on the Kings' encrypted display, thousands of miles away in Germany. Embedded within layers of ancient silt, clay and fossilized remains that were represented on the screen by various shades of gray, a clearly defined skull could be seen, complete with enormous, gaping eye sockets. The jaw bone was hinged agape but intact, showcasing flawless, pointed teeth. Although it was difficult to visually ascertain the size of the find, relative to a normal sized human being, a computerized grid and graph had been overlaid onto the image in order to demonstrate and accentuate the twenty-four plus feet of the giant's frame.

The conference call had ended with strict warnings to maintain total radio and media silence until the Kings had arrived at the dig site, personally, to oversee the final excavation of the find. As it was the Kings' money that funded the Universities' interests on this site, the archaeologists and their team were only too happy to oblige.

Concealed within their mountain hideaway, the two Kings had turned off the display and looked at one another.

So, another Nephilim has been found," said the swarthy King, thoughtfully. "The existence of such beings comes as no surprise to us, as you well know," replied the other. "We have in our collection similar remains from every corner of ancient Mesopotamia, collected over the past one hundred years, some even larger than the current specimen being exhumed."