Ark Found

Chapter 34

Carter swept his flashlight around the space while Jayden climbed down. He could see a bulky object not far away, but a panel on the wall caught his attention first. Walking to it, he found what he was looking for: a light switch. Flipping it up bathed the room in clean fluorescent light from tubes hanging from the ceiling that flickered to life. Next to the switch on the wall was a thermostat. Odd, Carter thought. A climate-controlled room wired for electricity beneath a church out-building in a small Ethiopian town.

“Oh my God!”

Jayden’s voice caused him to turn around, and then he laid eyes on it, too.

Another Ark of the Covenant, full size, occupied this subterranean room. On first glance it looked like the other replicas they’d seen, but after gazing at it, subtle differences became apparent. The intricate embellishments, etchings and carvings on the sides and lid, for one thing. Strikingly detailed, a powerful statement of original artistic might, patience, and attention to detail. Another difference was that the light gleamed off of its golden surfaces in a different manner.

Carter couldn’t help himself, he seemed to be drawn to the object, this cynosure of the room. He traced his fingertips along the sides of the ark, and instantly recognized the cool, smooth touch of metal, in stark contrast to the wood-covered paint the other replicas had to offer.

“Jayden?”

“Yeah.” Jayden slowly made his way from the ladder to the ark.

“If this is a replica, it’s not like the others. It’s very well made. I think this is gold….” Carter walked around the ark while passing a hand along it. The cherubs on the lid were also golden. The only part of it that was not gilded with gold were the two carry poles, one on each side, each of which passed through two golden rings affixed to the ark.

The ark was set on top of a recessed area of floor such that they were eye level with the top of it when standing in front of it. Jayden reached out a hand and touched the lid. “This is gold. Sure is some fancy replica.”

“Why would they have the climate control for a replica?” Carter asked.

“The obvious answer to that is that it’s not a replica. We could be looking at the real thing, here, Carter. But, if it is the real thing, why is security so low? A fence and one employee to guard the Ark of the Covenant? Does that seem right to you?”

Carter walked slowly around the ark while he answered. “Maybe people spend so much time openly disbelieving and in some cases mocking the idea that the ark is real, that they don’t have to guard it all that well. The easiest way to prevent people from stealing something is to make them think they don’t have it, or that it doesn’t exist in the first place.”

“Well I can think of one way to find out.” Jayden put both hands on the lid. “I don’t see a hinge, so instead of flipping up, I think it has to be lifted off, so if you go around to the other side, we can—”

“Don’t open it! Freeze, put your hands up or I will shoot!”

A furious-sounding male voice echoed in the underground chamber. Carter looked up from his position next to the ark to see Daedalus standing high on the ladder, gripping it with one hand while the other aimed a pistol fitted with a sound suppressor at his head.

“Fancy meeting you here, Daedalus,” Carter said.

“Stalker,” Jayden added.

Daedalus quickly dropped the rest of the way down the ladder without lowering the weapon. “Thieves,” he countered. “I believe you have something you stole from me.”

“Your sense of humor?” Jayden jabbed.

Daedalus shot him a withering stare.

“You’d think a man with a gun pointed at his head would take things more seriously.” Daedalus shifted the barrel of the weapon from Carter to Jayden.

“Here,” Carter said, touching one of the straps of his backpack, which he wore over both shoulders. “It’s in here. The map, right?”

Daedalus grinned. “The map from the Titanic which led us to first Noah’s Ark and then the Ark of the Covenant? Yes, you are correct in thinking I want that back.”

“And you!” he yelled sharply to Jayden, “get your filthy hands off of this holy object before I shoot them off!”

Jayden lifted his hands from the ark and took a step back while narrowing his eyes at the Treasure, Inc. founder.

“I’m going to take my backpack off and toss it over to you so you can take the map, okay?” Carter asked.

“Do it very slowly,” Daedalus commanded, now walking away from the ladder a few steps toward the ark. “Any questionable moves and your life is over. It will be difficult enough for me to conjure a scenario where I can allow you to live after this, anyway, so don’t give me a reason not to have to figure it out.”

Carter employed sloth-like motions to remove the backpack so that he was holding it by the strap with one hand out in front of him. “I’ll toss it over to you, a few feet in front of you.”

“Got to warn you, though, D-man, we ran outta toilet paper up there on the mountain, and so I might have used the map to wipe my—”

“Silence, you buffoon!” Daedalus waved the gun at Jayden. “You are the farthest thing from worthy of this place.”

“We’ll see.” Jayden remained defiant under gunpoint, arm’s length away from the ark.

Daedalus crept up until he stood over the backpack and slowly knelt in front of it. “You can just take the whole bag if it will speed things up. I think that’s in both of our best interests, seeing as none of us were actually invited here,” Carter said. “Consider it a souvenir.”

“Not so fast,” Daedalus countered. “Fool me once… as they say. I need to see the map.”

“Fine. Inside main compartment, zipper pouch on back, remove the false bottom in that, it’s in a Ziploc bag.”

“Once you have the map, then what?” Jayden queried. “You plan to steal this giant box by yourself and take on the entire country of Ethiopia to get it out of here?”

“I will have to come back for it, but whatever happens to it from here on is no longer your concern.”

“I don’t think it’s even possible to get it out of here,” Carter said. “It looks like this entire chamber was built around the ark after it was in place. Like they never intended for it to be removed again. The trapdoor entrance is far too small for it to fit through, and there are no other exits down here, just four featureless walls and the floor.”

“The fake ark up there was only an empty structure that led to a trapdoor,” Jayden said. “What if this one is the same? A fancy fake, but still a fake, and maybe, if we open the lid, it’s just a hollow structure that leads somewhere below the floor.”

“I think this is the genuine article,” Carter said, “but there’s one surefire way to find out, because we all know what should be inside of it, if it is the real deal.”

“True enough,” Jayden said. “Think about it, Daedalus. We could all be fighting over nothing. Let’s open it!”

Daedalus looked up from unzipping Carter’s bag. “The lid does look too heavy for one person to manage. Go ahead, as they say in your country. Make my day!” Daedalus erupted into obnoxious cackling as if what he had said was the funniest thing ever uttered. But when he saw Carter and Jayden standing there watching him, he was quick to anger. “Now!” he yelled, centering the barrel of his pistol on Carter’s chest. Carter moved to the opposite side of the ark from Jayden.

“On three, ready?” Jayden said, making eye contact with him. Daedalus moved a step closer, beyond eager to see what the reliquary held.

“One,” Jayden began, positioning his two hands on the edge of the ark’s lid.

“Two.” Carter did the same on his side. Daedalus took one more step closer to the nearest end of the golden spectacle.

Jayden shifted his feet ever so slightly. “Three!”

Jayden and Carter strained with both arms, pushing with their legs, and the lid began to lift away from the gilded container. Daedalus moved yet another step closer to the ark. Carter was exerting nearly his maximum physical strength to do it, but the cherub embellished slab rose from the box.

“Okay, slide it my way, I’ll ease it down,” Carter breathed. Jayden started to do that, but then he suddenly removed his left hand from the lid. As the heavy lid began to fall back down on the ark, Carter caught the briefest glimpse inside. It was not enough to absorb any serious detail, but sufficient to see that it did in fact have a bottom corresponding to the depth of the box, enough to confirm that it was not a fake façade like the one above.

He saw something inside of it, too. Gray and large, not part of the box itself. And that’s all he had time for, because after that, the lid was slamming back down on the top of the ark and Jayden was in motion.

The Asian-American former SEAL’s left hand dropped in a flash from the lid to the wooden carry pole beneath. At the same time as the lid slammed down, Jayden slid the pole through its double rings with a whip-like motion of his left arm. The result was to send the carry pole flying through the air toward Daedalus like a spear. The ends of the carry rods were even tapered, lending them a small bit of favorable aerodynamics.

Jayden was in motion toward the Treasure, Inc. crime boss even before the tip of the pole rammed into Daedalus’ stomach, doubling him over while Jayden ran to him. Carter saw what was happening and set himself into motion toward their foe a second later.

Still doubled over, Daedalus brought his gun hand up toward Jayden, but Jayden dove, extending his hand in midair to knock the arm down. He was successful, with Daedalus able to squeeze off only a single shot that missed Jayden, and the ark, lodging harmlessly against the wall behind the relic. But missing the shot didn’t mean the antiquities thief had given up. On the contrary, he kicked the pole toward Jayden on the floor and then charged at him, keeping his head down like a battering ram.

Jayden’s right foot came down on the pole and it rolled, causing him to nearly twist his ankle. In fact, he probably would have if it weren’t for the fact that Daedalus’ head bashed into his chest, sending him flying backwards into the ark.

Carter intended to come to Jayden’s aid but when he saw the gun fly out of Daedalus’ hand, clatter onto the floor and slide toward the corner, he went after it instead, seeking the endgame that having control of the weapon would bring.

When Jayden slammed into the ark, he screamed out in pain as his shoulder collided with the metal-plated wood. It was stout and stable enough to wobble slightly, but not tip over. But the lid, which had come back down askance after they dropped it, now slid off of the ark. Jayden was on his back and saw it coming in barely enough time to roll out of the way, avoiding having his skull crushed when the corner of the lid impacted the floor where his head had been a half-second earlier.

Daedalus scrambled up from the floor and launched himself onto Jayden, who began throwing short jabs into his assailant’s chest and ribcage. Carter reached the dropped pistol and picked it up. He checked the magazine and made sure a round was loaded into the chamber, then cocked the hammer.

“Jayden, just back away from him. I’ve got the gun, back away!”

Yet Daedalus was proving to be a tenacious fighter. He took the blows Jayden threw up at him and rained down a couple of his own, his longer reach compounding his on-feet advantage while Jayden struggled to get off the floor. The fact that he still wore his backpack back made smooth rolling on the floor impossible, but he was able to get halfway over onto his side, then roll away from his back and fling his top leg into a devastating kick that landed on the side of Daedalus’ face.

The treasure magnate grunted as a gob of blood emptied from his mouth and soiled the floor. Jayden crab-walked backwards a couple of feet, onto the ark lid which had landed upside-down.

“Freeze, Daedalus. That’s enough!”

Daedalus looked up at Carter with hatred in his eyes, but stopped moving. Jayden backed up a couple of more feet and then rose.

That’s when they heard the sirens.

“Someone see you come in?” Carter asked Daedalus.

But the treasure man only laughed softly while blood dribbled from the corner of his mouth.

“Could be that we tripped a silent alarm,” Jayden surmised.

“Either way,” Carter said, leaning down to scoop up his backpack off the floor, “it’s time for us to go.”

“Watch him!” Jayden eyed Daedalus, who was in the process of regaining his feet.

“Not yet!” Carter barked at him. “You wait right there on the floor until we’re up the ladder. You get up again and I’ll shoot.”

Daedalus eased back down to the floor while Jayden backed away from him, still not willing to turn his back to the dangerous and power-hungry fighter. Carter kept the gun trained on Daedalus until Jayden had reached the ladder. The sirens were louder now.

“Come on, Carter,” Jayden said, a hint of desperation in his voice. “Although from my brief stay here, I think I’d prefer Ethiopian prison to Iranian prison, we do not want to try to explain our way out of this if at all possible. Carter? Are you listening, because those aren’t exotic birds making that noise out there, they’re police sirens.”

“I’ll never go to jail,” Daedalus spat. “My connections are too strong. But you two will rot in hell for this.”

Yet Carter ignored him, too. He was transfixed by something he saw on the floor, over by the ark. He handed the pistol to Jayden. “Keep this on him one second.” Then he strode over to the ark in a few long steps and knelt. The corner of the ark’s lid had broken when it hit the floor, and Carter picked up the broken piece, about the size of his palm. In its fractured state, he could see the thin layer of gold and then the dense, dark wood beneath it.

“Carter, now! I’m heading up the ladder.” Jayden bellowed.

Carter pocketed the ark fragment and ran to the ladder, never taking the gun off Daedalus. Jayden was already at the top, pausing to assess the situation in the main chapel. The sirens were very loud now.

“Until we meet again, Daedalus. In the meantime, if the Ten Commandments are in there,” Carter said, realizing that he hadn’t even looked inside the now completely open ark, “I suggest that you learn a thing or two from them. There are definitely a couple that apply to you.”

With that, Carter spidered up the ladder with the gun in one hand. Jayden had already topped over and was standing in the chapel, so he didn’t pause at the top but did the same. Once on his feet, he turned around and pointed the gun down at Daedalus. “Come up now. I don’t want you messing with the ark or whatever happens to be in it. Get out of there now.”

Even with the oncoming police, Carter tried to get a glimpse of the uncovered ark from the top of the trapdoor, but the ark was too far back in the room to be seen from here. Daedalus moved to the ladder. He stared up at Carter, stone-faced, and began to climb.

Outside, the police cars sounded like they were pulling up in front of the main church.

“Got to do one thing,” Jayden said, running to the guardian he had tied up. Reaching the pew, he bent down to remove the bonds, when he saw the gunshot wound between his eyes.

“Oh Geez!” He felt the pulse but knew what the outcome would be. “He’s dead, Carter!”

Carter now considered the pistol’s sound suppressor in a new light. No wonder they hadn’t heard the shot that killed the Guardian. He yelled down into the covenant room.

“Daedalus, you scum! You cold-blooded murderer! You killed a bound man! You’re a monster. You don’t even deserve to be in the presence of that ark down there, genuine or not. None of the beauty or riches that humankind has to offer mean anything to you. Maybe that’s why you seek to hoard them, hoping that someday some of it will sink in and erase your ugliness? But it won’t. You’re too far gone.”

“I see flashing lights, Carter!” Jayden called from the partition at the front of the chapel.

Carter ran halfway to the front, then took a left to the wall beneath a window. “Let’s not go out the front. This way.” He pulled the wooden lattice off the window, then ripped through the screen. He could hear Daedalus climbing up out of the ladder.

“Stay back for sixty seconds after we’re gone, Daedalus, or I’ll shoot.”

Eyeing the outside, he saw it was free of police, so he jumped through. He heard Jayden’s feet pounding through the chapel and then landing on the dirt behind him as he ran for the section of fence where they’d cut the razor wire.

The Omega Team pair bolted around the chapel corner and then made a beeline to the cut fence section. They could hear the blare of police radios now, car doors slamming, officers talking. Looking back int hat direction, could see the pulsing hues of red lights. Jayden scaled over first, then Carter. Jayden pointed toward a grassy hill with some tree cover, in the opposite direction as the chapel and main church.

“This way, let’s go.”

“Go, I’ll catch up.”

Jayden looked at him like he was crazy. Carter puled a handkerchief from his backpack’s outer pocket and used it to wipe down Daedalus’ gun. “I don’t think we need to get caught with this, do you?”

Jayden shook his head. “Good idea. Toss it. Let’s go.”

Satisfied he’d wiped the trigger, grip and all parts of the weapon clean, Carter then tossed it over the fence into the chapel grounds.

Then they turned and ran for the hills.