God's Lions - The Dark Ruin (15 page)

Cautiously, the group climbed up the next hill and stopped. To their amazement, they found themselves staring at a crater that resembled a small volcanic vent usually found scattered near extinct volcanoes—but the geologic maps they were using showed no evidence of any ancient volcanoes in this region of Turkey. This surprising feature created a natural walled-off area inside the hill that would have been virtually invisible to anyone walking around the outside of the hill.

Jagged black rock could be seen poking up through the tall brown grass that covered the edges of the crater—another marker for volcanic activity in an area where no such activity was said to have occurred. Exchanging glances, they gingerly stepped closer and peered down into the bottom of the crater, and there, lying in plain view, was the thing they had all come to see.

Rising toward the sky they saw a circle of dark shapes standing on a raised area that was strangely devoid of any vegetation. The shapes were huge, and they reminded Leo of the megalithic stone circles they had seen at the other site, only these stone giants were at least twice as high.

Demir let out a low whistle. “What is that?”

“I have no idea, Colonel,” Leo said. “Why don’t we go have a look?”

Feeling like a sky diver preparing to jump from a perfectly good airplane, Leo led the others as they began their sliding descent down the rocky sides to the bottom of the crater. Grabbing loose tufts of brown grass, they tried to slow their descent as loose rocks tumbled down beside them, until finally they found themselves standing on level terrain in the seemingly airless and stagnant world at the bottom of the crater. Before them, a raised stone platform supported a ring of carved blocks of stone that towered above their heads, and they were black, as if they had been burned.

“This is fantastic!” Morelli exclaimed. “These columns must be thousands of years old, but it looks like there’s been a very hot fire here sometime in the past. This has to be the Dark Ruin. I mean ... look at the charred surfaces ... and there are carvings of animals I’ve never seen before.” Morelli was already scrambling up onto the stone platform surrounding the pillars when suddenly a red mist began to form across the bottom of the crater.

Looking back at Demir and the Turkish soldiers, Leo held up his hand. “Uh ... Anthony ... I think you need to back away from there.”

In his haste to explore, Morelli had barely noticed the reddish haze now surrounding him. “What’s happening?”

“I don’t know ... but ... The satellite phone attached to Leo’s belt began to buzz.
Now what?
Keeping his eyes on Morelli, Leo lifted the phone and placed it to his ear. “Hello?”

“Get out of there! Get out of there right now!”

The static on the other end was making it difficult for Leo to hear as he held the phone to his ear. “Who is this?”

“This is Eduardo Acerbi, Cardinal, and you and your friends have only a few minutes to live unless you get out of there right now!”

“Where are you?”

“We don’t have time to talk. I’ll call you back in a few minutes ... now run!” The line suddenly went dead.

Looking back toward the raised area, Leo saw that Morelli’s next few steps would place him right in the center of the space. “Anthony! Stop! Don’t go any farther.”

Morelli froze as he jerked his head back toward Leo. “What is it?”

“We’ve got to get out of here!”

“Now?”

“Yes ... right now!”

“Who was that on the phone?”

“Eduardo Acerbi ... and he knows where we are.”

“Acerbi? That’s impossible! The man just had a stroke.”

“Apparently he’s recovered enough to talk. I recognized the voice. We need to move away from here ... now!”

Turning away from the towering blocks of stone, Morelli’s eyes grew wide as he ran through the reddish haze. Looking at Leo, he jumped from the platform and began to run just as everyone else started clambering back up the sloping sides of the mist-covered crater.

Most soldiers who have seen combat will all agree that time seems to bend in strange ways when an individual is suddenly faced with his or her own mortality, and this was just what Leo and Morelli were experiencing in their slow-motion race up the sides of the crater. Half-way up, they felt a series of tremors in the earth which caused them to look back down over their shoulders. The Dark Ruin was now completely covered in the thick red mist, and as they continued to scramble up the steep rocky sides of the crater, they saw several large boulders break loose from the rim in a heaving cloud of dust before beginning a downward plunge straight for them.

Moving sideways in a frantic, crab-like motion, Leo ducked as one of the tumbling giants flew over his head and crashed down behind him with a thud that rippled the ground in all directions. The Earth heaved once again before suddenly growing quiet, but in the abrupt silence they heard a sound that made the hair stand out on the back of their necks. Growing steadily, they could all hear the muffled sound of laughter. It seemed to be echoing all around them and came from everywhere and nowhere all at once, as if it were trying to pass from one dimension into another like a stranger’s shadowy finger pushing against a gossamer curtain late at night, looking for someone inside. No one present had ever experienced anything like it before, even when they had all battled demons in the Negev Desert. This was something new, and for the first time since they had set out for this place, Leo felt real fear. “
Run
!”

Reaching the overhanging edge of the crater, the Turkish soldiers swirled around to aim their guns down toward the red mist and whatever lay inside as everyone rolled over the lip of the crater and half ran and half fell down the grassy incline, until finally they came to an out-of-breath stop at the top of the next hill. The sound of laughter had disappeared, replaced instead by the sound of flapping wings.

Leo cocked his head and listened. The sound reminded him of a flock of large birds flying just overhead, but there were no birds anywhere to be seen. Frozen with fear, they continued to listen and watch, spellbound, until finally the flapping stopped and the Earth heaved one last time before all was quiet again. Like steam from a kettle meeting cooler air, the strange happenings of the past few minutes had evaporated just as suddenly as they had begun, and in the quiet aftermath no one had any doubt that a sudden phone call had just saved all of their lives.

For some reason, Leo’s fear also seemed to evaporate. He felt like a twenty-year-old again, energized by what he had just experienced. Whatever lay buried beneath that hill possessed a cosmic malevolence so violent that its presence had triggered an equal and opposite force within him, making him more acutely aware of the forces at play in a celestial realm that was invisible to those who haven’t been invited. Whatever it was, the mere presence of two men of God had set it off before they had even had a chance to make real contact. This was nothing like the entity they had encountered in the Negev Desert or in the Chapel under the Vatican, and Leo knew that whatever it was, it was much, much worse— if there could be such a thing.

Leo’s satellite phone rang once again, jarring everyone’s already frazzled nerves. “Hello?”

“I see you made it out alive, Cardinal. It’s good to hear your voice.”

“Is this really you, Eduardo?”

Leo heard a faint chuckle on the other end of the line. “Yes, Cardinal. I guess you could say I’ve made a miraculous recovery. I’ll explain everything to you when we meet.”

“Where are you?”

“Paris.”

“Paris?”

“Yes, and this call never happened. I’ll explain everything soon. I want you to send two of your most trusted people to meet with me in person. Don’t come yourself ... you’re being watched.”

“Watched?”

“I’ll call you with instructions tonight when you’re safely away from there.” The line suddenly went dead again. Leo looked around and found Colonel Demir sitting among his men, gazing over at the hill they had just retreated from. His men were strangely quiet. The easy banter usually traded back and forth between elite soldiers after the adrenaline rush of potential combat was absent, replaced instead with the quiet introspection that comes to those who’ve been exposed to something they can’t explain.

“Colonel, could you have one of your choppers fly us to our boat in Antioch?”

“Of course, Cardinal.” The colonel rose to his feet and brushed the dirt from his hands as he scanned the sky. “I have three birds in the air circling just out of sight.”

“Good. Would you ask them to meet us at the edge of town?” Leo paused for a moment. “Oh, and Colonel, make sure your people stay away from that hill. Whatever’s over there doesn’t want to be disturbed, and I can promise you your weapons will be useless against it.”

“Our weapons ... useless?” Leo could see the color draining from Demir’s rugged face once again. “What the hell’s over there, Cardinal?”

“I’m not sure yet, but I think it’s safe to say the word
hell
is most appropriate. No matter what happens, you must keep your men away. Whatever’s over there has probably been there for thousands of years, and it’s very powerful. Somehow it sensed our presence, which means it’s even more dangerous because there’s an intelligence attached to it. We don’t want to rush into anything until we know what we’re facing.”

“What about posting guards?”

“Just stay away for now, Colonel. It’s not going anywhere. I’m not sure of the boundaries, but at this point I think it’s safe to assume that anyone who gets too close to that hill could be in mortal danger.”

With the sweat of fear and exertion staining the collar of his uniform, the colonel swiveled in his knee-high boots and began barking out orders to his men just as an exhausted Lev Wasserman finished climbing the last few feet to the top of the hill and collapsed in the tall grass.

“What now, Leo?”

“I just asked the colonel if he could spare one of his choppers to fly us back to the Carmela. Things are beginning to spin out of control here in Turkey. Our cover is blown and there are threats coming at us from every direction. I believe our best course of action is leave until we have a better handle on just what it is we’re facing.”

Reaching into his front shirt pocket, Lev produced a half-smoked cigar and lit it with a match. “I agree, Leo. I think I’ve had enough of this place for awhile.”

* *

As soon as the Turkish chopper landed on the dock next to the Carmela, the group onboard scrambled aboard the yacht to decide their next course of action. Crowded together with the rest of the team in the main salon, they all sat drinking coffee, transfixed by Leo’s description of the supernatural events that had occurred in the hills outside Orencik.

Listening to his story, Ariella shivered. “Reminds me of the Negev Desert. Do you think we’ve stumbled onto another site similar to the one we found out there?”

“I don’t think so,” Leo said. “This place seems different somehow.”

“How so?” John asked.

Leo set his cup on the table. “I’m not sure. It’s just different. Think about when you were back on your parent’s ranch in New Mexico, John. You said you used to ride up into the mountains and sit among the ruins of the ancient cliff dwellers. Did you notice any differences?”

“Yeah, all the time. Some were built by different tribes, and the construction was similar, but there were subtle differences in things like the shapes of doorways and the way they laid out the rooms.”

“Exactly. That’s the way I feel about the site in Orencik. It has a different feel about it from the site we discovered in the Negev Desert.”

Walking into the salon, a young crewmember handed a satellite phone to Leo. “Excuse me, Cardinal, but there’s a call for you. The caller said you were expecting it.”

Leo stood with the phone and walked out onto the back deck. After a few moments, Leo returned and resumed his place on a couch facing the others. “That was Eduardo Acerbi. He’s in Paris. He wants to meet with two members of the Bible Code Team in two days, and he specifically requested John and Ariella. He refused to give any other details over the phone except for one ... a meeting place.”

“I think Alon and Moshe would be better choices,” Lev said. “This is a field mission, and John and Ariella aren’t ready yet.”

“He said it has to be them or the meeting is off.”

Lev rose from his seat, his face beet red. “Then it’s off. Since when does Eduardo Acerbi dictate orders to us?”

“Please, Father,” Ariella said. “Let us go. You said the same thing when it was my time to go into the Israeli Army for my mandatory service. I survived then and I’ll survive this now. You have to let us fly from the nest sometime.”

“She’s right, sir,” John said. “We’re all equal members of the same team.”

“Why did he specifically request them, Leo? Did it occur to anyone here that it could be a trap meant to lure us all out in the open for some kind of rescue effort if they become hostages?”

“He doesn’t need to lure us out, Lev. He already knows where we are. He’s afraid of something ... very afraid. I could hear it in his voice. He said he wouldn’t be able to call us again, because after today his calls would no longer be secure ... even with his encrypted software. He specifically told me not to come because I was being watched, as are you. Apparently, the comings and goings of John and Ariella are of no concern to whoever is watching us for the very reason you mentioned earlier. They’re not considered to be field agents.”

“He said we’re being watched?” Lev stood and began to pace. “Who the hell is watching us?”

“I have no idea,” Leo said. “Eduardo hung up before I had a chance to ask.”

The voice of Alex Pappas could be heard up on the bridge shouting orders to release the lines from the dock as the floor beneath their feet shuddered with the startup of the engines two decks below.

“We need to decide now, Lev,” Leo continued. “Eduardo said he has to meet with John and Ariella in two days. After that all bets are off.”

“Why the urgency?”

“Needless to say he was very cryptic, but he kept insisting that they had to arrive in Paris within the next forty-eight hours, because after that it won’t be safe for them to fly.”