Ark Found

Chapter 33

The inside of the place, off-limits to the public, was simpler than they had imagined. Only two rows of small pews occupied the floor, and a dais supported a lectern, with a large cross on the wall behind those. Unlike the main church, this small chapel was set up only for very small, private services. Clearly, it was designed for one purpose, which was to support the reliquary in the center of the room between the dais and the row of short pews.

The Ark of the Covenant?

About the same “true-to-life” size as the other fakes they’d seen, the ark was on plain display at the front of the chapel, the same rectangular box adorned with cherubs and gilded in gold, including the carry poles. It looked the same, but was it? They were about to find out when they heard a noise.

A rasping, sort of a snorting sound coming from up by the pews. Carter recognized it as something produced by either an animal or a human and immediately took a defensive crouch position. His hands went to the fixed blade knife he’d worn in a sheath attached to his belt, concealed beneath his untucked long-sleeved shirt. Jayden also ducked below the pews and listened. After a few seconds it became apparent that they were hearing snoring. Someone was sleeping on the bench. In a normal church, this would be understandable, but this was a private building, moderately secure with the razor wire fence and off-limits to the public.

So who was it?

Carter and Jayden approached the pew from opposite sides, weapons drawn. Each had only a blade, no firearms since they didn’t want to raise eyebrows by trying to obtain one in a foreign country. As he reached the end of the short pew and raised his head to just above eye level over the top of the wood, Carter almost had to suppress a laugh.

Laid out on the bench was an elderly man wearing long, flowing robes and ornate headgear. A large cross on a gold necklace hung loosely across his chest as he slept.

Carter and Jayden met again just behind the bench. “Dollars to donuts that’s the Guardian of the Ark!” Jayden whispered, laughter in his eyes.

Carter nodded his concurrence. “We need to secure him while we check this place out. You tie him up while I look at the ark. I’ll help you if we wakes up.”

Jayden agreed and removed the length of rope from his pack he’d brought along for this contingency. They definitely didn’t want to hurt the monk, so they had come prepared. While Jayden snuck up on the guardian, Carter moved to the ark.

He considered it for a moment from a security standpoint; he didn’t need to trigger any alarms, silent or otherwise, so he scrutinized the assembly carefully, looking for signs of wires or any other electronic components. Seeing none, he then turned his gaze upward, to make sure there were no lasers aiming down, no tripwires or any other exotic apparatus, out of place as it would seem here. Nothing.

He walked right up to the ark and after staring at it closely, slowly shook his head. He could see paint peeling slightly in spots, revealing the plywood beneath. He placed a hand on it and felt the dull, non-metallic surface, definitely not gold gilt.

“It’s just another replica.”

Jayden looked up from having just trussed up the terrified monk and gagging him with a cloth in case he tried to scream. The old man calmed down somewhat when Jayden told him they were not going to hurt him, and that they would untie him before they left.

Jayden told the guardian, “Excuse me,” and walked over to stand next to Carter, who had a sheepish look on his face.

“Why am I not surprised?” Jayden asked.

Carter shook his head. “I’m really sorry. We should have just stayed in Turkey.”

“It’s cool, bro. Hey, I was wondering how far they take this charade out anyway, you know — like, do they go so far as to have replicas of the stone tablets inside the thing, too? I wanted to find out in the other churches, but somehow I thought it might piss people off to pry the thing open.”

Carter shrugged. “Since we’ve gone to this much trouble, before we leave we might as well find out.”

“I’ll find something to stand on.” The ark was on a raised pedestal that prevented them from being able to reach the top to open it, or see if it even opened.

“It’s probably just sealed shut on top, would be my guess,” Carter said while Jayden brought a chair back he’d taken from a corner. Standing on that, he was able to get a look at the top of the construction.

“Huh.”

“Huh, what?”

“It does look like it has an actual seam that goes all the way around. Let me see if I can lift—” A grating noise was heard as Jayden lifted the lid and slid it a short distance to see whether nor not it was fixed in place. “I’m sure it’d be a lot heavier if this whole thing was really gold plated,” he said, pushing it a little farther off center. “Hey Carter, go around the other side and get ready to catch this thing if it slides all the way off, okay? I don’t want to make a lot of noise, or break it. Hear that, Guardian — we’re being as careful as we can over here. Just a quick look, and we’re out of here.”

Behind his gag, the monk made vigorous protestations suggesting that he was not at all happy with this turn of events.

Carter trotted around to the opposite side of the replica ark and said that he was ready. Jayden slid the lid, complete with wooden carved cherubic fixtures, further across the top of the container until the edge closest to him dipped into the box. He shoved it further until it started to slide over the far side. “Here it comes!”

“Got it.” Carter eased the lid, still heavy even though it was made mostly of plywood, down to the floor. He lay it down flat so as not to damage the intricate carving work on its top, and then called up to Jayden. “So are there fake tablets in there or what?”

Jayden did not reply. Carter looked up to see him staring down into the ark. He saw him aim his small flashlight down into it.

“Jayden?”

“Oh there’s something in it, all right, but not stone tablets. You’re not going to believe this. Get up here!”

The bound guardian continued to vocalize unintelligibly behind his gag while Carter found another chair and set it next to the one Jayden was using to look into the model ark. Carter stepped up onto the chair, put a hand on the edge of the open ark to steady himself, and then, following the beam of Jayden’s flashlight, gazed down into the structure.

Jayden was certainly right. No tablets occupied the inside of the ark. In fact, there was no inside of the ark, not really. The outside, including the stand that the ark rested on, was merely a shell to conceal the floor below. Although it appeared from the outside like the ark was supported by the dais, or stand, in fact the two were part of the same deceptive construction, forming a hollow barrier around this particular section of floor.

“Looks like a combination safe embedded into the floor,” Jayden said, shining his flashlight on it.

“Let’s check it out.” Carter climbed up and over the ark façade, gripping the open edge and then allowing himself to drop straight down for about six feet until he landed on the floor inside the frontage. The bound priest was moaning louder than ever now, and Jayden tried to placate him, saying that they’d be right back, before he, too, dropped into the deceptive “ark.”

The floor here was the same as that surrounding the fake ark, except for the combination lock set into it, along with a metal handle. Carter produced his own flashlight and immediately began scanning it, aware that if anyone else were to enter the chapel right now, they would be in very serious trouble. He focused on at first what the lock was set into. It appeared to be part of a cutaway square section of flooring that was two feet on a side.

“It’s big for a safe,” Carter said, kneeling down to take a closer look at the locking mechanism. “At least this thing is easy enough to understand.”

Four dials, each set to zero. The numerals “1” and “2” also visible on the dials. “I assume they’re zero through nine,” Carter said. Jayden nodded his agreement.

“Four number combo. Let’s try pulling the handle. We’d feel pretty stupid if it was already open, right?”

Carter tried pulling the handle, but predictably, it had no effect. “Thing’s tight, doesn’t budge a millimeter,” Carter said. “We need to know that combination.” He shone the flashlight around the inside of the fake ark some more, as if it would be scrawled on the wood somewhere, but there were no obvious clues.

“I know who would know what it is.” Jayden’s eyes widened as he looked up out of the shielded floor safe, toward the monk.

Carter took a deep breath. “We can ask him. But we can’t hurt him.”

“I don’t think there’s any point in even asking him. I can’t threaten an old priest, anyway. Besides, what do churches keep in their safes? Maybe the donations they collected at the public house of worship next door? C’mon, we’re not bank robbers, we’re treasure hunters.”

But Carter appeared not to even be listening, as he shrugged off his backpack and extracted from it the original map from the Titanic. “Do me a favor and hold your flashlight under this, will you?”

Jayden moved his light into position. “I thought we already went through this,” he said. “The three invisible lines?”

“Yeah, but I’ve had more time to think about it with our travelling, and there’s something I want to try. Hold on, we might need this.” He reached into his pack once again and this time pulled out the Holy Bible he’d taken from their hotel room. “Hold this, too, will you?”

“Sure, I’m not allergic, I don’t think.” Jayden took the Bible with a smile. “Just don’t make me swear on it with my right hand, I’ve had enough of that already in my life.”

“I’ll bet. Now hold the light steady, right there…” Carter positioned the map precisely over the light until he could make out the three invisible ink lines.

“One thing about these lines. They’re not drawn straight from point A to point B, but curve way out of the way to accomplish the same thing. Why is that?”

Jayden shrugged. “Map maker was no good at drawing straight lines? They didn’t have rulers back in those days?”

“Try again.”

Jayden stared at the map. “Artistic license? It just looks better that way?”

“Now that could be, but I hope not. Plus, they were done in invisible ink, so aesthetics probably weren’t a consideration. Let’s look at where these lines go and what they connect.”

“Okay sure, no hurry or anything. We’ve got all night down here, I’m sure.” He made a goofy expression that indicated he was being sarcastic.

“So first line, from left to right, goes from the lake on Mt. Ararat to here, Axum.”

“Okay. So why were the other two lines even needed?” Jayden asked.

“Let’s see. The second, middle line, is from Mt. Ararat to Israel. And the third line goes from Israel to Axum, passing through the Red Sea, the only one of the three lines to cut across any major body of water.”

“Still don’t get it.”

“I know this isn’t exactly our private study hall,” Carter said, looking over at the bound priest, “But let’s unpack this a little.”

“Be quick about it.”

Carter nodded. “The significance of each line: As you said, the line from Ararat to here is obvious. It’s where Noah’s Ark was, to a place long rumored to be the final resting place of the Ark of the Covenant.”

“Right, so the others?”

Carter traced a fingertip along the map, following one of the invisible contours. “Ararat to Israel. So, real quick: Ararat has two lines leading away from it: one to Axum, and one to Israel.”

“What happened in Israel?”

Carter thought for a moment before speaking. “We know that Ethiopia is heavily associated with the Queen of Sheba lore.”

“Okay, so Sheba who had the kid with King Solomon of Jerusalem, the son who eventually brought the Ark of the Covenant back here to Axum.”

“Right, Menelik. And that makes sense because there’s also the third line connecting Israel to Axum; that could literally represent Menelik bringing the ark back to Ethiopia. Also, the Red Sea is clearly a Moses reference.”

“Because he parted it.”

“Yeah. And of course he’s the one who brought the Ten Commandments down from Mt. Sinai. So that’s what all these invisible line-connected places have in common.”

Jayden shook his head. “Those are all great stories, man, but we need some numbers here.” He pointed to the combination lock in the floor. “Four of them.”

But Carter seemed not to hear him. He was staring at the map, utterly transfixed as if oblivious to the world around him.

“Carter, seriously, if we can’t figure this thing out right now, we’re just going to have to come back. We know there’ something down there. We can—”

“Let’s try one thing.”

“Numbers, Carter, we need those numbers.”

“Right, so how about this: it’s weird to me that the lines are curved instead of straight, like we were talking about. So what if the lines are curved so that they have to pass through more countries or distinct regions as dictated by the lines on this map.”

“Explain, hurry.” Jayden looked over at the trussed monk, who was trying to shout from behind his gag.

“The left line passes through…” His pointer finger parsed the map as he counted. “Six countries or regions.”

“Okay, six.”

“The middle line passes through only one demarcated region or country.”

“One, got it. So that’s six, one.”

“And the third line passes through, let’s see here…”a total of nine countries.”

“Okay,” Jayden said, “That gives us six, one, nine.” He made a sour face as he looked down at the floor lock. “But it’s a four digit code. Come on, Carter, this is a waste of time!”

But Carter did not panic. He stared some more at the map, lost in deep thought. Jayden was just about to interrupt when he looked up and said, “Queen Sheba, King Solomon… Jayden, it’s Kings!”

“Huh?”

“The verse in the Bible.” Carter nodded to the book in Jayden’s hand. “Look for it. In the Book of Kings, verse 6:19.”

Jayden opened the book. “Okay, but there are two Books of Kings: 1 King and 2 King.”

Carter hesitated for a second and said, “Maybe there’s only one of them with a 6:19?”

Jayden flipped through the pages, running his finger down a particular passage, holding his place and flipping to another section where he did the same. “Sorry, but both of them have a verse 6:19.”

“Okay, then just read both of them, starting with the one you’re on. What’s it say?”

“This is from 2 Kings.” Jayden read aloud from the scripture. “This is not the road and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you are seeking.”

Carter chuckled softly. “I think we can rule that one out. So what’s verse 6:19 from 1 King say?”

The sound of pages turning was the only noise in the chapel for a few seconds. Then Jayden read aloud: “The inner sanctuary he prepared in the innermost part of the house, to set there the ark of the covenant of the Lord.”

“Bingo!” Carter stood up and put the map away back into his backpack.

Jayden’s face transformed into a mask of wonder as he still stared at the Bible. “Yeah, now we’re talking! Inner sanctuary… innermost part of the house…” He stared at the section of floor with the lock.

“Now I’m thinking this definitely isn’t a safe.” Carter also stared at the locked section of flooring. “It’s a trapdoor.”

“That makes good sense, but we still need the combination.”

Carter looked up from the Bible and smiled at him. “What did we just do? Think of the verse number: 1 Kings 6:19.”

Jayden’s eyes widened. “Four digits: one, six, one nine! I’ll do it!” He quickly knelt and turned the dials until they were positioned to 1 6 1 9 from left to right. “They’re lined up. Pull it!” Jayden backed away from the trapdoor and Carter leaned over to grab the handle.

He pulled it upward and the section of floor lifted away with silent ease, on well-oiled hinges. Carter was able to pull the floor piece up and back until it rested in place, exposing the square cut opening in the floor. Jayden moved in with his flashlight and shined it down into the new space.

“There’s a ladder. Bare stone floor about ten feet down. That’s all I can see from here.”

Carter grabbed his backpack off the floor and put it on. “Let’s check it out.”

“Ladies first,” Jayden said, stepping back and aiming his light down the open trapdoor.

“Feels nice and cool down there.” And with that, Carter descended the ladder.