The Vault of Hercules

Chapter 13

Nina bent her knees as she prowled around the artifact. Her dark eyes were wide open as if she were trying to see more than the obvious with every inch she perused. As she progressed along the sides, her fingers trailed the intricate designs carved into the wood.

“The gold inlays are fake, did you know?” she remarked.

“Yes,” he agreed, “but that’s just the thing. This isn’t the Ark of the Covenant at all. It only resembles it, but any trained eye will discern the obvious discrepancies present in the piece.”

“Like the Swastika?” she stared at Purdue with a deliberate mock amazement. “Duh!”

“But do you find anything peculiar about rest?” Purdue pressed.

“This is so weird. Where did you get this?” she asked. “Was this why you were in Ethiopia?”

“Aksum, to be exact,” he answered. Purdue was leaning against the doorway, his shirt untidy and hanging outside his pants. He did make some effort to tame his wild, white-blond hair, but had only managed to keep the sides of his head neat. “Notice the obvious differences between the Biblical Ark and this one? Is it just me, or should these people have known that this was not the Ark containing the tablets Moses received the Ten Commandments on?”

Nina looked at him, still sporting a scowl. “Wait, they think this is the real Ark?”

“That's just it, Nina. Either they have no idea that this is something else, or they know and they revere this chest more than the actual Ark. Either way, it’s a mystery to me why this one was made.”

“Look, they play it pretty close, whoever made this thing,” she suggested as she felt her way along the smooth, gilded patterns and corners. “Right down to the Cherubim on the lid, but I bet this isn’t the one Ron Wyatt claimed to have discovered.”

“Ron Wyatt?” he asked.

Without looking up from her scrutiny, Nina quickly explained. “The late archaeologist who claimed to have discovered the Ark of the Covenant, along with a myriad of other Biblical relics,” she sighed. “But his work was never respected by scholars, Creationists, scientists, et al.”

“So what do you think about the more modern markings?” he urged.

“Look, according to the Book of Exodus the Ark was supposed to have been fashioned entirely from gold and with four rings of gold at the corners. You know, two-two,” she described, “on the sides to put the rods through that they used to carry it. Now, those staves were supposed to be made of shittim wood…”

Purdue chuckled. Nina tried not to smile at his juvenile response, but she couldn’t help but find his channeling of Sam Cleave's sense of humor funny. “Also known as seyal wood,” she continued, “it was supposed to be covered with gold, but both you and I both know that this isn’t gold.”

“It looks like pyrite,” Purdue remarked. “Fool's gold.”

“That is precisely what it is, old boy,” she winked. “Yet they still revered this knock-off?”

He nodded.

Nina was perplexed. “Look, these people are not exactly well educated, but it’s quite evident that this is not the Ark. Have you checked inside?” she asked. It was the question Purdue had been waiting for.

“I have no idea how,” he replied. “What do you think kept me up all night?”

“Oh shit! So you have no way of opening this?”

“I could easily open it by force, but I first wanted to know what I’m dealing with.”

“Wow, you are just all grown-up lately, aren't you?” she jested. “When did you grow this responsible hormone you seem to have cultivated, Mr. Purdue?”

“Oh, you know, it comes with almost getting killed constantly,” he smiled. “Do you think the Nazi's left this relic as a replacement, perhaps? Could they have stolen the real deal and left this as decoy?”

“Not that I know of, Purdue,” she sighed. “I would dare to guess that this is an entirely different artifact that holds its own secret. The fact that it resembles the Ark of the Covenant is merely coincidence, I think. But we will only know what its purpose is once we open the lid and have a look to see what they were up to.”

Purdue cleared his throat. “You know, I’m not one to be influenced by entertainment and films and such…”

She rose to her feet, “But you’re afraid that your face might melt off?”

Purdue had to smile. She was right. He was concerned about the influence of what could be inside the chest. But after all he’d been through to procure it — the lives it had cost — it was his duty to investigate the contents.

Nina was equally fascinated by the purpose of the chest, but on a strictly historical basis.

“It is rather enticing, isn't it?” She smiled as she folded her arms and stood by Purdue's side. “I mean, this is almost like the antithesis of the relic itself. It is like the… the Anti-Ark.”

Purdue sniggered. “I do like that one!”

From the shelf Nina took an aluminum ruler normally employed to measure carpentry and set it carefully along the side. Purdue helped her hold it fixed to the lid's flanks.

“Look at this,” she carried on, her eyes spying every detail of the religious icon. “The measurements are precisely accurate with those reputedly dictated to Moses for its construction, if memory serves me correctly. However,” she raised an eyebrow, “the etchings are wrong. Even the Cherubim on the lid are facing away from one another, unlike the effigies on the actual Ark. Their wing tips are said to meet in the middle.”

“So, if this is not the Ark,” Purdue checked with Nina, “then it was made deliberately as decoy? Or was it made for an entirely different purpose?”

“Like what?” Nina inquired.

“I don't know,” he shrugged, “but maybe it wasn’t meant to hold the stone slabs of the Ten Commandments, Nina. Maybe this trunk is something entirely unique and different, only fashioned to look like the Ark of the Covenant to mock the Bible or something. Don't you think it’s just too uncanny how this chest resembles a legendary relic, yet at the same time represents some form of blatant opposition to the original artifact?”

“I honestly don’t know, Purdue,” Nina said softly, letting her hands slide alongside the smooth surface of fool's gold to appreciate the work put into such a close likeness. “Look, I don't know why they made this piece, only that it’s an obvious counterfeit of the real deal. What worries me is the fact that they knew it was not the true Ark, and yet they died for it, defended it, and chased after it.”

“I understand,” he said. “The only answers we’ll ever obtain from it lie inside it.”

Nina looked at Purdue with a cautious leer, taking one more look at the gilded coffin hidden in the depths Wrichtishousis before looking him straight in the eye. She tucked her hands to her sides, sighed, and said, “Then get on with it. Let's open it and get it over with.”

Purdue didn’t show it, but Nina's green light had him overly excited, as scared as he was of what could be hidden inside. She stepped aside as he fetched one of his own inventions from the cupboard, a small device shaped like a bug.

“Alright, I have to know,” she said, gazing at the crawly robotic thing Purdue held in his palm.

“Nothing special,” he said modestly. “Just laser and SONAR technology, my dear. First B.U.G. will

study the contents of the item by means of x-ray technology, so please, keep well out of the way.”

“B.U.G.?” she frowned, just bracing herself for the insight to come. Purdue switched on the steel, tortoise-shaped gadget, lighting up it's flattened base with red lights and erecting its antennae to receive the motion transmission that penetrated the interior of the trunk.

“Yes, my dear,” Purdue affirmed.

“And that stands for…?” she asked inquisitively.

Purdue looked uncomfortable, his eyes searching the floor. “The abbreviation is for Bloody Ugly Gizmo,” he clarified, leaving Nina in humorous purgatory, uncertain of the sincerity value of his statement. Purdue looked up at her through his glasses. “No, really.”

Nina burst out in a fit of laughter, forcing Purdue to smile. “You suck at naming stuff,” she snorted.

“I know. I know,” he blushed. “But that’s what it is, right?”

“Too right!” she dipped her head bemusedly. “So, let it sniff out the contents. We don't have much time before we have to give Sam something to do.”

“Of course,” Purdue agreed. He placed the strange gadget on the golden lid of the chest and waited for it to start recording information. Its sonic pulses registered the structural and chemical composition of whatever lay inside. With high-pitched beeps every two seconds, it assessed and recorded the information as it walked along the length of the box. Nina was impressed, scrutinizing the amazing fashion in which the device moved. It honestly did look and behave like a bug, inching along on six appendages that were perfectly fixed by tiny ball joints to the silvery body of the bug. Purdue didn’t care to gloat about his latest invention. Rather, he spent the waiting moments wondering what the data would yield. The myriad of possibilities staggered him. Had it been the actual Ark of the Covenant, there would at least be some indication of what could be contained in the chest. But this was something else. It was built for a different purpose altogether, and because this function was still a mystery, it presented Purdue with some concern.

“There could literally be anything in there. You do know that, right?” Nina said suddenly, as if she had read Purdue's thoughts. He nodded in agreement. She folded her arms and cocked her head. “Imagine if it contained something unprecedented. I mean, obviously, but what if we find something we didn’t know, like an alien object or a chart of minerals and chemicals our Periodic Table doesn’t have.”

“Intriguing,” Purdue replied. “Maybe it only contains old letters sent by men who fought wars in Egypt and Tunisia, some medallions, and a bit of spice.”

“Smartass,” she scoffed. “Typical of a scientist to take all of the wonder out of a well-placed scenario.”

“I'm all for wonder, my dear Nina, but you have to agree that at times like these it is hardly wise to set one's heart on wishes and dreams.” Purdue shrugged. “Believe me, I’ve been having way too many sobering experiences of late, convincing me that there is hardly any magic left in this world, apart from that we construct for ourselves.”

“I refuse to entertain that notion,” she insisted, watching the buggy device complete its journey. It sounded one long beep as the red light under its belly died, announcing that its gathering of data was complete.

Purdue smiled and slammed his palms together for a good rub. “The moment of truth.”