Treasure of Babylon, page 20
part #2 of Avalon Adventure Series
Kurz looked at him. “If not a gunshot, then what?”
“Maybe a rock fell,” Lechner said.
Hagen’s eyes betrayed his worst fear. “We’re being followed. Bloch, go back and find out who it is, and count their guns. We will go on to this underground city and find the Ark.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Now, Dr Silva – get on the bridge.”
34
“Damn it, Dad!”
Atticus watched the rock he had dislodged as it tumbled down the side of the ravine and crashed into the ground with a deep thumping noise. They had been inside Mount Namuli for less than ten minutes and he’d already nearly given them away. “I’m sorry. Do you think they heard us?”
Mocumbi and his men exchanged a glance.
“Are you kidding?” Riley said. “I’m debating whether my family back in Australia heard us or not.”
Atticus’s face contorted with regret. “I’m so sorry.”
Forget about it,” Decker said. “There’s nothing we can do about it anyway. We keep going.”
Descending further into the darkness, they continued to make progress down the crumbling stone steps leading ever deeper into the mountain. The tunnel roof was a semi-circular arch supported by wooden struts. The centuries had taken their toll on them, and many had collapsed downwards under the massive weight of the earth and rock above. Charlie swept his flashlight beam across them and frowned. “I’m not like the look of that. If this roof falls in we’re as flat as pancakes in half a second.”
“We can’t think about that,” Decker said. “Hagen and his goons might have already found the Ark, plus they still have Diana. We have to keep going.”
“They are fascinating though,” Selena said. She approached one of the wooden supports and inspected it closely with her torch. “The workmanship is incredible for the period.”
“I’m more worried about us getting crushed to death than the carpentry skills of the Lost Tribe,” said Riley.
Atticus moved forward and joined Decker at the front of the line. Shining his light down the steps into the blackness, the American gave him a nod of acknowledgement. “How much further down do you think this thing goes, Professor?”
Atticus sucked his teeth and wobbled his head a little as he searched his vast memory of archaeological facts for an answer. “That I cannot answer, but I can say that the Phrygians created the famous Derinkuyu underground city in modern-day Turkey nearly three thousand years ago and they’re around two hundred feet deep.”
“Impressive,” Decker said. “We can’t have gone any further down than maybe a hundred so far.”
“But who knows what we’ll find?” Atticus said. Excitement and fear fought for supremacy in his voice. “The Derinkuyu complex could shelter over twenty thousand people – it’s vast! This could lead to an underground city even bigger and more complex than that.”
“Wait,” Decker said. “Down there – is that the bottom of the steps?”
Atticus tracked the American’s beam with his own and squinted down into the gloom. “By Jove, I think you’re right.”
“Not quite as deep as that place built by the Frigids, then?” Riley said, joining them at the front.
“Phrygians,” Selena said with an eye roll. “And don’t speak too soon because I see another decline, only this time it’s a tunnel, not more steps.”
“Bugger me, she’s right,” Riley said.
Decker saw it too. At the bottom of the steps they had just descended was a small, cramped landing area he had mistaken for the journey’s end, but leading away sharply to the right was a steep tunnel pushing even deeper into the mountain.
Charlie came up from the rear of the line and joined them on the tiny landing. “It goes down even more?”
“Looks that way,” said Decker with a sigh. “And we’re on the right path – look in the dust.”
“Footprints!” Atticus said, again squinting into the distance. “Are they from Hagen’s party or perhaps those left by the Lost Tribe?”
“Unless the Lost Tribes had military grip hiking boots,” Decker slowly turned to face Atticus with a sarcastic smirk, “I’d say Hagen’s party.”
“Ah, yes – quite right. I can see that now.”
They followed the tunnel to its conclusion and emerged on a narrow path snaking around the outside of an enormous pit. Decker shone his flashlight into it but the beam ran out in the darkness. “Wherever the bottom is, it’s further down than four hundred meters because that’s the beam length of this flashlight.”
Atticus was shocked. “Four hundred meters? Why, that’s over thirteen-hundred feet!”
Decker gave him a look. “Scary, huh?”
It stretched as far as they could see in either direction, but dividing the great black snake in two was a flimsy rope bridge.
“Stand back everyone,” Riley said, his voice deadly serious for once. “Anyone goes over there they’re going to have at least seven seconds to think about what it feels like to smash into rocks at terminal velocity.”
“Quick math,” Decker said. “Impressive.”
“SAS, mate. I’ve jumped out of more aircraft than you’ve had hot dinners. Now, let’s get across this bridge!”
*
“I went back as you ordered,” Bloch said. “And you’re right – Decker’s here.”
“Decker?” Hagen said, almost incredulous. They had spent the time since Bloch’s recce staring up at a series of inscriptions above an arch which marked a fork in the path. Now, Hagen turned to Kurz, his face red with rage. “I thought I told you to kill them!”
Kurz was at a loss. “I thought they were dead, sir. No one could have survived the gunfire in the Ziggurat.”
“Obviously you were wrong,” the Norwegian said with contempt. He contemplated shooting the Austrian for his incompetence, but a quick calculation told him that with Decker in the underground city he would need every man he had. “Where were they, Bloch?”
“They had followed the same route we took, except they went north after the main entrance gates when we went south. Now they’re at the bridge.”
“They must have seen our footprints in the sand,” Hagen mused, and a stony frown set on his face. “Old Atticus thinks he’s found a faster way to the Ark than you.” He turned to Diana. “What do you think of that?”
She said nothing.
“Luckily, I have more faith in you than Atticus and Selena have,” he purred, brushing the back of his hand against her cheek.
She recoiled in disgust, but kept her mouth shut.
“I want that Ark, Dr Silva, and I want it before your friends find it. Can you find it before the professors?”
“Why should I?”
“Simple rivalry, perhaps?”
“Drop dead, Hagen.”
He pulled the pistol from his holster, clicked the hammer back with a steady thumb and pushed the muzzle into the center of her forehead. “How about, if you don’t find it before the old man, I’ll put a bullet in your brain?”
Diana felt the cold steel of the gun’s muzzle pushing into her skin and swallowed her pride. “If you insist, Mr Hagen.”
He grinned and lowered the weapon. “Then hurry up.”
“We need to go this way,” she said, taking another look at the inscription above the archway.
*
Decker said a prayer before every single step he took on the swaying rope bridge. The planks of wood crumbled and cracked beneath his feet as he made his way across, and the frayed guide ropes felt like they were going to snap at any moment. He had told the others to stay behind and let him test it, but not even halfway across and he was starting to wish they’d searched further along and searched for a better way across.
After a few heart-stopping moments he finally reached the other side and cautiously declared the bridge safe for use, but only one at a time and with the greatest of care. Whether or not it would take the strain of them all coming back again was another matter, but for now it was all they had.
When they were all gathered safely on the other side, the former US Marine took a second to focus his thoughts and then began sweeping his flashlight beam around in the hope of finding a way forward.
“Wait!” Atticus said. “Did you see that?”
“What?”
“Over there – your torch shone on an archway!”
Everyone raised their flashlights in the direction indicated by the old professor and saw what he was talking about. A few meters to the west of their position beside the rope bridge was an archway carved into the side of the cavern, and above it a lengthy inscription.
“My God,” Atticus said. “It looks like a variant of Old Egyptian!”
“It is,” Selena whispered, already transfixed by the symbols. “The language of Moses.”
“So we were right,” Riley said. “One of the Lost Tribes really did find the Ark in Babylon and bring it south into Africa. Fuck me.”
“Over to you, Lena,” Decker said, casting a disapproving eye over the Australian.
Selena went to work, immediately studying the ancient carved symbols and slowly deciphering them. “I need Diana really, but from what I can tell, these really are very much like Old Egyptian, perhaps closer to Archaic Egyptian. It’s this language that evolved into Demotic and then Coptic, but here it’s been perfectly preserved inside this mountain.”
Decker cut to the chase. “What does it say?”
“It’s hard to translate literally, but it’s basically saying that this way leads to the Ark of the Testimony.”
Riley looked confused for a second. “That’s what we’re looking for, right?”
“Yes, dear,” Selena said. “That’s what we’re looking for.”
They followed the tunnel once again, and even Mitch Decker was starting to think they’d taken a wrong turn. Made a mistake. Gone wrong, down here in the darkest pit any of them had ever seen. It was hard to believe a place like this had been protecting the greatest historical relic of all time, and it was that thought that drove him on.
And they saw it.
Emerging from an archway at the end of the tunnel, they stepped out onto a ledge and saw it all, stretching away from them like an ocean, as far as their flashlight beams would light.
The Underground City.
35
“God damn it.” Decker scanned the labyrinthine streets of the underground city from the elevated position of the ledge. “It goes on forever. It must have taken centuries to build something like this.”
“But do you see any kind of shrine, or somewhere the Ark would be stored?” Atticus said.
“I’m not sure.”
“I see nothing,” Mocumbi said.
“Just admit it, old man,” Riley said as he took the binoculars from Decker. “You have literally no fuckin’ idea what you’re looking for.”
“He’s right,” Decker said with a sigh.
Riley passed the binoculars to Atticus. “We might get a bit further if you have a look.”
Atticus Moore took the field glasses and surveyed the winding streets and alleys from on high, stopping here and there to admire some architecture he liked. “I think our best bet is to head over there by the fountain. It looks like the heart of the city and a good place to search for a shrine, or some kind of religious space.”
They cautiously made their way down the steps and finally reached the same level as the city. Entering the ghostly tunnels, lit only by their own flashlights, Decker found it hard to believe that any population could survive in such a place, or even want to live like this.
They reached what looked like some kind of meeting place, in the center of which was an ornately carved fountain, now as dry as dust. What had once been a polished marble pathway led from the fountain over to a chamber in the far wall. Now it was covered in dust, spider webs and rubble like everything else, and Decker tried to clear the way with his boots as he led the way toward the chamber. Inside, they saw a small waterfall. The water tumbled out of a slit in the rock near the roof of the cave and crashed down into a churning lake.
“This has to be the way to the Ark!” Atticus said. “Absolutely without any doubt at all, this is the resting place of the lost Ark of…” His words ran out as he started to choke up. “It has to be.”
“How right you are, old friend.”
Decker felt the hairs on the nape of his neck go up. The animal part of his brain knew at once what had happened, and the rest of him caught up less than a second later when the gaunt, wicked face of Tor Hagen emerged from the gloom of the shrine chamber. Before anyone had a chance to react, the Norwegian dragged Diana out of the darkness and they all saw he had a gun pushed into the small of her back.
“Drop your weapons, now.”
There was no hesitation. Everyone could see that one false move and Hagen would blast a bullet through their friend’s back. Even with professional paramedics it would be touch and go, but in a place like this it meant certain death, and the look on Diana’s terrified face struck fear into all of them.
“Good,” he croaked. “Very good.”
“Let her go, Tor!” Atticus said. “You don’t need her now. We’re unarmed. You’ve got all of us.”
“It’s not as simple as that.” His voice was cold but steady. “It turns out Dr Silva is sharper than you are, old friend. She got us here before you, but only by a few seconds. I have not had time to admire my discovery yet. I have not had time to admire the Treasure of Babylon. I think for now, I will keep my hostage a little longer if that’s all the same to you.” Hagen moved closer to the chamber, dragging Diana behind him as he went. “Is there any sign of the entrance?”
“There, where the river flows from the tunnel!” Kurz shouted. “It looks like some sort of concealed entrance.”
“Is he right, Marchand?” Hagen snapped excitedly. “Is there a concealed entrance?”
“I’m not sure…”
Hagen pushed the French archaeologist hard between the shoulder blades and sent him stumbling forward to the river. “Go and see, man!”
Marchand moved forward and after a few moments stumbling about in the waterfall, he returned, soaked to the skin. He raised his right hand and gave the team a thumbs-up.
They followed him through the waterfall and emerged into a large cavern with white-painted walls. The moving water sparkled on the white paint, and there, on a small island in the center of the lake was what they had been searching for.
They had found the Ark.
Hagen staggered forward, barely able to control himself. “We are looking at the substance that created the universe itself!” He stared at the strange, glowing yellow metal with obsessed, glazed eyes that saw nothing but his own destiny finally coming to fruition. “God himself used this to create our world, and now it’s mine! Jericho will be as nothing compared with what I will use this power for.”
“Jericho?” Charlie asked.
“The Battle of Jericho,” Hagen snapped. “The Israelites marched on Jericho with the Ark. Once a day for seven days, seven priests walked around the city walls with the Ark, and on the seventh day they did it seven times. It was a ritual, in effect… the word of God. The priests then blew their horns and the walls of Jericho fell.” Hagen paused, and turned to point at their discovery. “It was the Ark’s power that destroyed the walls of that city and won the Battle of Jericho.”
“Still just looks like a big treasure chest to me, mate.”
“It’s no matter what you think,” Hagen said dismissively. “You will be dead within the hour.”
Drawing ever closer to the Ark, it started to glow. As he neared the island upon which it had sat for so many millennia, bolts of blue and orange electricity start to crackle and jump in the air. He came to his senses and stopped. Turning on his heel, he spun around and pointed a trembling finger at the French archaeologist. “Monsieur Marchand, it’s time for you to open the Ark.”
Marchand was conflicted. His round, sweating face showed he was excited but also very anxious. His eyes danced over the wood and gold chest but he was wringing his hands with uncertainty. “Of course… I have dreamed of this my entire life, mais…”
Hagen raised his pistol. “There is no but, Felix. Open the Ark.”
Marchand pulled a filthy handkerchief from the pocket of his khaki jacket and mopped his brow. He took a wobbling breath and looked from Hagen’s pistol to the Ark. He looked for a moment like he might be re-evaluating his whole life and reaching a terrible conclusion. When his eyes resettled on the gun pointed at him, he gave a brief, business-like nod and accepted defeat. “Oui, bien sûr… I go to the Ark.”
Hagen nodded with grim approval. “Now, Felix.”
Marchand stuffed the handkerchief back in his pocket and wiped his hands on the sides of his jacket. He took a deep breath and began the short walk over to the strange glowing Ark on the small island. The low hum they had all heard grew in strength until it was a pulsating rumble they all felt beneath their feet.
The Frenchman waded through the cool, blue water and stopped. It was obvious he was gripped by fear, but he tried to make it look like he was simply reporting his findings. “It’s getting warmer,” he called back. “As I get closer to it, the temperature is rising.”
“Move along, Felix,” Hagen called out. “You’re being paid to discover the Ark, so discover it.”
Leif, Marius and Oddvar stood behind Hagen, their dead eyes staring impassively at the final few moments of Marchand’s life. “Oui,” the archaeologist said absent-mindedly. “I am happy to discover the Ark of the Covenant.”
“He doesn’t sound too convinced,” Charlie said.
Atticus and Selena craned their necks forward as far as they could to see how the Ark was reacting to Marchand’s presence. “It’s almost like it’s sentient,” Atticus said in a whisper.
Kurz turned his submachine gun and belted the old professor in between his shoulder blades with the stock. “Silence!”
“Dad!”
Atticus fell forward on his knees into the dirt, and Selena and Decker scrambled to help him back to his feet.
