She loved it, but Decker was sceptical. He told her it “smelled wrong” now, whatever the hell that meant. Maybe he preferred it when it was all container chests and leaking oil pipes. Men.

  She pulled a bottle of mineral water from the chiller cabinet and stepped into the small “business area” behind the cockpit. Riley was up front with Decker, but Diana, Charlie and her bruised father were already awake after the night flight from Romania and chatting about the mission ahead of them.

  “Good morning, dear,” Atticus said. “Sleep well?”

  “Not at all,” she said, taking a seat and cracking the water. “I just can’t get the thought of the Ark out of my head.”

  “Not me,” Diana said. “I’m still thinking about just what on earth Korhonen was loading into that truck.”

  “Me too,” Charlie said, fiddling nervously with his straw hat. “Gives me the shivers just thinking about it. In fact, I’m starting to think this mission has beaten us.”

  Atticus smiled wisely. “In order to achieve anything, you must be brave enough to fail.”

  “Socrates?” Charlie said.

  The old professor shook his head. “No, Kirk Douglas.”

  Selena rolled her eyes and drank some water. “Oh, Dad…”

  “What?”

  “Nothing, I’m just glad you’re here, that’s all. Still alive.”

  He nodded with a pensive frown. “Call me old-fashioned, but so am I.”

  Diana started to tie her hair back. “You really think we’ve lost Hagen?”

  “I reckon we have,” Charlie said. “And thank fuck for that. We all know what kind of a man he is. The idea of letting him get his hands on the Ark of the Covenant is completely unthinkable.”

  Riley climbed through the cockpit door, whistling to himself. He pulled up at their table and looked at them with a very serious expression on his face. “All right tossbags, Cap says we land in ten minutes so strap your arses into something safe.”

  “How did you ever let this gem get away, Lena?” Atticus said, winking at the Australian.

  “We talked about this, Dad.”

  “My mixture was too rich for the lady,” Riley said. “That’s the sorry truth of it.”

  She rolled her eyes and stepped into the cockpit.

  “Riley says we’re hitting the deck in ten?”

  Decker smirked.

  “What?”

  “Nothing.”

  “What, Mitch?”

  “The hitting the deck thing,” he said. “Doesn’t sound like you.”

  She fought hard not to look embarrassed. “Just trying to speak in your vernacular.”

  “No problem, and yes – we’re hitting the deck in ten.”

  Without warning, she leaned forward and kissed him. He kissed her back, bringing his hand up to the side of her face, but it was crudely ended by the sound of her father clearing his throat a few feet behind her.

  “Not interrupting, am I?” Atticus said.

  “Er, well…” Decker turned his gaze to the instrument panel. “Just gotta check all these babies and make sure there aren’t any problems with…” his voice trailed off, and Selena climbed back into the first officer’s seat.

  “Oh, good,” Atticus said, glancing from Decker to his daughter. “Because I wouldn’t want to think you’d crash us into the Iranian desert because you were too busy kissing my little girl.”

  “Dad, I’m in my thirties.”

  He gave a grunt of disapproval, and then looked down at his phone. “Oh, smashing! Hassan’s agreed to show us around.”

  “Who?”

  “Dr Hassan Larijani. He’s an old friend of mine from Birkbeck. Fantastic archaeologist and a really good laugh. He’s flown in from Tehran just to lend us a hand.”

  “Where’s he meeting us?”

  “Airport,” Atticus said, frowning. “Where else do you think he’d be meeting us?”

  Decker smirked as he lined up with the runway and got final landing clearance from the tower. “All right, everyone – back to your seats and buckle up.”

  *

  Riley looked with astonishment as the luxury SUV pulled into view, sparkling in the Iranian sunshine.

  “Thought you said this Dr Laryngitis was an archaeologist?”

  “I did, and it’s Dr Larijani.”

  “Sure, but that’s a Bentley Bentayga, Prof. It’s worth nearly half a million dollars! Just how much do they pay archaeologists in Iran?”

  “The normal salary I would think, although I might have forgotten to mention that Hassan’s father owns one of Iran’s biggest business conglomerates.”

  Riley grinned, not taking his eyes off the metallic gold Bentley SUV for a second. “Now I’m with you. Think he’ll let me drive it?”

  “Not unless he’s insane, pal,” Charlie said, clapping him on the shoulder.

  Hassan drove them from the airport and east out of District 9 until they were cruising through central Tehran on their way to the National Museum of Iran. He led them past security and into the museum. They followed him as he led them through a labyrinth of corridors, the heels of his Italian leather shoes clicking on the ancient geometry of the Islamic floor tiles. Their host turned a beaming smile on them. “It’s just through here.”

  “It’s a beautiful museum, Dr Larijani,” Selena said.

  “Things are looking up for us, yes. After the sanctions it was very difficult for us to work with other museums, but now both the Louvre and the Hermitage are working closely with us on a number of very exciting exhibitions.”

  The corridor opened into a large, light-filled space. Statues from Persian antiquity were positioned around an impressive internal courtyard, and high above it all on the far wall was an extensive stained-glass window. Tourists meandered quietly here and there, politely observing the statues and studying the array of colors as the sun streamed through the window.

  “This way, please.”

  Hassan led them down a short flight of steps and they moved into the archaeology department. The tiled floor was now replaced by polished marble and stud lights in the ceiling illuminated a vast collection of artefacts, sculptures and statues from throughout the country’s long history.

  “Oh, my,” Selena said, almost gasping as she approached an enormous human head sculpted from gray, mottled marble.

  “Now that’s something else,” Riley said.

  “It’s a capital,” said Selena.

  “Looks like an old dude with a crown to me.”

  “No, I mean it’s a column capital – the head of a column. This one’s from an excavation in Persepolis – am I right, Dr Larijani?”

  “Indeed you are,” he said, glancing at it admiringly. He turned to Selena. “And please, it’s Hassan.”

  “Right you are, Hassan.”

  “Here we have precious objects discovered in digs all over Iran, from Persepolis to Qazvin and from Rey to Turang Tappeh. Over here is an impressive winged lion – a stone capital, such as this exhibit here – and even a wonderfully preserved inscription in cuneiform declaring the greatness of Xerxes himself.”

  “I’ll never forget where I was when I heard the news,” Riley muttered to Diana. She gave him a playful slap on his shoulder and shushed him as Hassan continued his informal tour.

  Hassan led them into his office – a neat space with a tiled floor and cool, blue walls. “Please, take a seat, and tell me how I can help you.”

  Atticus scrunched up his face. “What I’m looking for, specifically, is … We’re working on the theory that the ancient Babylonians took the Ark when they raided Jerusalem thousands of years ago, and that it passed down through the generations until finally reaching the palace of Nebuchadnezzar where it stayed for centuries after his death. After that things go a bit sketchy, but we recently found a key covered with inscriptions that lead me to think the Ark was stolen and became part of the Treasure of Babylon.”

  “Which was of course stolen by Alexander the Greek,” Hassan said casually.

  “Exactly,” Atticus said. “And we know from very well-established archaeological and historical records that this treasure disappeared after the death of Alexander.”

  “Indeed we do,” said Hassan. “And now I see why the discovery of Antipater’s tomb has come to mean so much to you, Atticus.” He grinned widely. “You are a sly old dog.”

  “Why, thank you, Hassan. Did you speak with relevant authorities as you said you would?”

  Hassan nodded. “Yes, and I have good news for you all,” he said with a broad smile. “The Minister of the Interior has given us permission to widen the excavation area at the site of Antipater’s residence, near the Iraqi border. I think the chances of finding his tomb are good. We can drive out there at once.”

  27

  Diana Silva peered out the modest porthole of the Grumman Albatross and studied the olive groves and sugar cane plantations of Khuzestan. The landscape wasn’t a million miles away from some of the dryer regions of her native Portugal, and the unique color of the olive trees took her back to lazy days on her grandparents’ farm in the hills of Beja.

  Thinking of family brought dark memories of the day Madan Rakesh kidnapped her parents and threatened to kill them during the Shambhala mission. She shut her eyes and wished away the memory of them bound and gagged. She prayed with all her heart that nothing like that would happen this time.

  Hers was a quiet life of research, spent mostly in the study of ancient symbols and long forgotten languages, not flying around the world in an old crate with treasure hunters and adventurers. But at the same time she was secretly happy that Selena had drawn her into this world of ancient enigmas and mysteries, and as the old plane banked to port and prepared to land, she smiled at the thought of helping her friends find the missing Ark.

  The airport at Ahvaz was a single runway and the air was dusty and hot as the plane bounced down on the asphalt. Thanks to a strong crosswind blowing in from Basra and the western desert it wasn't the softest of landings, but anything beat landing on water so she kept her complaints to herself when a smiling Mitch Decker emerged from the cockpit and opened the cabin door.

  “Let’s get this show on the road people.”

  Hassan Larijani had hired a substantial Jeep to drive them out to the site. Looking at the map had shown an isolated area a few kilometers from the Shatt al-Arab river where the mighty Euphrates and Tigris rivers converged before running into the Persian Gulf.

  There were no natural landmarks at the locations and certainly no man-made structures and when they pulled up there they saw nothing but sand and rock in every direction. Anyone looking at the area without their knowledge would have no idea what was directly beneath their feet.

  Decker adjusted his sunglasses as he climbed out the Jeep and shoved his hands in his pockets as he took a good, slow look at the place. The landscape brought back memories of his time in Iraq. As a pilot in the US Marine Corps he had served in several operations during the war, including many not too far from exactly where he was standing now.

  If he closed his eyes and listened to the wind as it howled across the sun-scorched drifting sands, he could hear the bitter sounds of war – the artillery fire, the screams, the whomp whomp whomp of helicopter rotors. He was a young man at the time, a baby with no understanding of the world.

  This place and Afghanistan before it had changed all that.

  “Earth to Mitch Decker!”

  He turned to see Selena at his elbow. She had gotten out of the Jeep and joined him, leaning up against the side of the hood. He was looking at the excavation site, with tents flapping in the desert wind. The entire site was empty of archaeologists, but its remote location meant there was no need for security. “Sorry, I was miles away.”

  “Talk about the middle of nowhere.”

  “Damn right,” he said. “You could hide an army out here and no one would ever know, never mind a goddam palace vault.”

  “Talking of which,” Charlie said with a sparkling grin. “Why don’t we get on with it? Hassan and Atticus have bet on who can find the tomb first.”

  The hours passed as they searched the excavation area for any sign of the tomb. Slowly, the hot sun sank ever lower in the west and a desert twilight began to gather when Hassan cried out. “I have it!”

  They ran to where he was standing beside a jumble of flat, broken rocks. He dropped to his knees and heaved another rock to the side. “Under here!”

  The idea of searching for the tomb in the darkness appealed to no one, and as they made their way down inside the broken, crumbling shaft the sense of relief was palpable, if mixed with a good dash of fear and anticipation.

  When they reached the tomb’s main chamber, it was obvious the place hosted an enormous amount of wealth. Gold and silver coins were scattered on the floor, and everywhere they looked were piles of priceless relics. In the center of it all was a modest, stone tomb, surrounded by yet more bags containing ancient jewellery propped up around its base.

  “Look at this gold!” Riley said.

  Selena raised an eyebrow. “We’re looking for his memoirs, not gold, Riley.”

  They burned up another half hour in search of what they were looking for, and it seemed odd to be moving piles of gold out the way to look for something else. Just when they were losing hope, everything changed.

  “This is it,” Selena said, pulling an old document out of an old chest. “These are Antipater’s battle memoirs.”

  A look of disbelief crossed Atticus Moore’s old face. “You mean we really found them?”

  She handed him the manuscript and rolled her eyes. “Look for yourself, Dad.”

  He took the document and fumbled for his glasses in the breast pocket of his crumpled linen jacket. Sliding them on his face, he stared down and started to study the crumbling papyrus. “Good God… you’re right. This is just what we need.”

  His mind flitted about with visions of Alexander the Great seizing the Treasure of Babylon and the Ark when he conquered Persia thousands of years later. “This is incredible! These are indeed the full memoirs of Antipater himself, just as we had hoped. They appear to detail all the battles he and Alexander the Great were engaged in, internal power struggles in the palace… everything. They cover his whole life, and then the final parts, the parts detailing Antipater’s death, are written by a soldier named Bastian.”

  “But does it tell us what we need to know about the Ark?” Decker said, bringing things back to business. “That’s what we flew halfway around the world to find, not a history lecture about Antipater’s diplomatic struggles.”

  Atticus looked at his daughter over the top of his glasses. “Selena, where did you find this heathen?”

  “Hey!”

  “It says that the Satrap of Persis, who at the time of Alexander’s great offensive was a man named Ariobarzanes, took the Ark and tried to flee east with it stop it from falling into the hands of Alexander the Great. It says that when Alexander the Great won the battle, his general Antipater seized it and kept it hidden under the king’s orders.”

  “What happened next?”

  Atticus returned to the crumbling text. “Antipater buried it.”

  Riley sighed. “Please tell me he painted a big red X over the top of where he buried it.”

  “No, he did better than that,” he said. “According to Bastian, here right at the end, when Alexander the Great died, General Antipater buried it with him, in his tomb.”

  “Alexander the Great’s tomb?” Selena said.

  “Yes.”

  Decker turned around in the spot and shook his head. “This is nuts! You mean the tomb half the world’s been trying to find for the last few thousand years?”

  Selena smiled. “Apparently so.”

  “Talk about two for the price of one,” Charlie said.

  Riley frowned. “So just who the hell was this Ariobarzanes?”

  Atticus said, “He was a satrap, or protector of the land – this land – over two thousand three hundred years ago. He was the top man around here when things started to go pear-shaped for the Persian Empire. It was Ariobarzanes who fought the infamous last stand between the Persian army and Alexander the Great at the Battle of the Persian Gate.”

  “A terrible battle,” Hassan said with a sad shake of his head. “Many of his men died that day and it heralded the Macedonians’ victory at Persepolis. It was the end of a great era in the history of my country.”

  “And the beginning of a new one,” Atticus said with a mischievous wink.

  Hassan grinned. “You could say that.”

  “And what about this Bastian bloke?” Riley asked. “Is he straight-up or some kind of joker. He could have written anything just to send the wrong kind of treasure hunter on a wild goose chase.”

  “Bastian was a warrior who fought with the general during many battles and became a trusted companion. According to what he has written here, he appears to be Antipater’s most loyal servant,” Atticus said. “And this is pure gold dust. It describes how Ariobarzanes fled with the Treasure of Babylon, including the Chest of Power as he calls it, to stop Alexander the Great from getting his hands on it. He describes it as having a terrible power – a fire that eats men alive. He says it pulsed and made the earth shake beneath their feet, and glowed like the sun.”

  “Encouraging stuff,” Charlie said.

  Atticus glanced at him, sensing everyone’s nerves. “He goes on to say that this Ariobarzanes fought valiantly that day but lost to the Macedon – that’s Alexander the Great, Riley.”

  “You’re shitting me?”

  “He must mean the Battle of the Persian Gate,” Selena said.

  Riley clicked his fingers and sighed. “You were a second before me. I was going to say exactly that.”

  “Shut up, Riley.”

  “You got it.”

  “Bastian goes on to say that General Antipater of the conquering forces of the ancient Macedonian army promoted him after the battle and made him his chief advisor, and he remained so until Antipater’s death. This is fascinating.”

 

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