The Last Chamber (7 page)

Sean and Adriana had moved further into the chamber and were standing
near the far wall. “Where does this go?” Sean asked, shining his light into a
narrow doorway.

Abdulkarim and Firth looked up at what had caught their interest. A
perplexed frown washed over their faces. “I don’t understand. That passageway,
this recession in the floor, neither were here before,” the Egyptian stated,
confused.

“He’s right, Sean,” Firth confirmed in a baffled tone. “I have been to
this location at least half a dozen times. That was never here.” He jabbed his
index finger at the opening to emphasize his point.

Adriana shone her beam into the black corridor and, without
hesitation, stepped through the portal.

“Are you certain that’s safe?” Firth asked, concerned.

Sean grinned at him. “Pretty sure she knows what she’s doin’, Doc.”
Sean disappeared into the darkness right behind her.

The two professors looked at each other and then at Sahid and decided
they should follow along as well.

“I’m going to stay outside,” Sahid said tentatively. He clearly had no
interest in going into the forbidding passageway.

The two archaeologists didn’t acknowledge his comment and carefully
passed through the door into the ancient tunnel.

“I cannot believe that all the times I have been to Nekhen, I never
knew this corridor existed,” Firth remarked as they followed Sean and Adriana
around a sharp corner.

“I have been here many times as well,” Abdulkarim commented in a
reverent voice. “I wonder how they knew about it? Or how the door opened?”

The group plunged ahead, winding their way into the mountain until
they reached a point where the path began to slope down more dramatically. Sean
and Adriana both shone their lights down the long shaft, carefully watching for
anything suspicious or potentially dangerous. After a few minutes of creeping
down the corridor, they reached the end.

Sean’s eyes narrowed as he saw a chest of gold and jewels on the
floor. His eyes scanned forward, seeing the other two chests in the room. He
cast his beam on the wall at the end and noticed the ancient writing. Adriana
stopped at a hole in the floor and flashed her beam into it.

“Another chamber,” she stated and set a black backpack on the ground
next to the cavity.

She knelt down on one knee and peered into the darkness below as Firth
and Abdulkarim eased their way past the first treasure chest. The two men’s
eyes were wide at the site.

“It isn’t that far down,” she stated. “Let’s tie off this rope to the
stone boxes and see what we can find.”

“I’m not going down there,” Firth protested. His face contorted in
disapproval.

Adriana had already pulled a climbing rope out of her bag and was
hurriedly tying it around the two closest stone chests.

“You don’t have to, Professor,” Sean said. “This is what we do at IAA.”
He helped their female companion finish testing out the rope then hooked his
flashlight onto his belt and repelled down the rope into the darkness.

Adriana copied his movements and descended just as quickly below. The
two archaeologists stared at each other for a moment in disbelief then rushed
over to the hole and got down on their bellies to peer through the opening.

Sean was standing on the floor shining his light around the room. The
visual the four were treated to was nothing less than spectacular. Gold panels
covered the walls around the entire chamber. Each piece of the shiny metal was
engraved with ancient writing and pictographs.

“What do you see?” Firth shouted down into the lower level.

“The walls are covered in plated gold, just like the ones we saw in
the other chambers.” At this report, Firth leaned his head forward and twisted
his head around. His eyes were huge as the beams of the flashlights bounced off
of the yellow element.

“It’s breath taking,” Firth commented reverently. “I’ve never seen
anything like it in all my life. How did they do it?”

The Egyptian archaeologist had poked his head through as well and was
enamored by the sight. “All these years I have worked this area and never
realized what lie beneath my feet.”
 
He shook his head.

Sean moved quickly through the room towards a pedestal he’d
illuminated with his flashlight. When he arrived at the stone structure, he
became immediately disconcerted.

“It’s not here,” he sighed. “I was afraid of that.” He ran his hands
along the sides, hoping there might be a hidden button or something their
predecessors may have missed, but he found nothing.

Adriana leaned her head around on both sides of the object, but
likewise found nothing of note.

“I can’t believe they beat us to it,” Sean was exasperated.

“What’s going on? What are you looking at over there?” Firth shouted
from the other end of the room.

“Lindsey and his group have already been here,” Sean replied. “And
they got the only clue that can lead us to the next chamber.” He lowered his
voice and stared at Adriana. “We’ve lost the trail.”

Egyptian Desert

Lindsey’s caravan of vehicles sped along the desert road leading back
to Cairo. DeGard sat silently, staring out the window into vast, empty
landscape. He’d not said much since they had left the Nekhen Temple. It seemed
the incident where his employer pointed a gun at him had resulted in an adverse
effect.

The older man was busily tapping on the touch screen of his phone,
attempting to send a text message to Will. Will Hastings had been his most
trusted and loyal agent. The fact that Lindsey hadn’t heard from him since
they’d left Cairo was troubling. Based on their last conversation, Will had
followed Wyatt and his companions onto a train bound for Luxor. He’d said the
problem would be taken care of. If that were the case, Lindsey would have heard
from him. But he hadn’t. And in the old man’s mind, that was disconcerting.
He’d called a few times and sent a text message, all with no reply.

He slipped the phone back into one of his pockets and let out a deep
sigh as he peered out the tinted window.

“Problems?” DeGard asked cynically.

Lindsey decided to ignore his question and ask one of his own. “You’re
entirely certain that this is the place we are looking for?” Lindsey
interrupted DeGard’s thoughts, pointing at a map on an iPad.

The Frenchman turned his head slowly and glanced at the image then
nodded. “Oui, that is the place.” His voice was low and he turned back to
staring out the window after his short reply.

“It’s just that, well, it doesn’t look like there is much in that
entire region save for an old monastery that was built nearby.” He scrolled
around the area on the map with his finger, zooming in occasionally to examine
a new point of interest.

“You don’t pay me a ridiculous amount of money to be wrong, Monsieur.
You asked me if that was the place described on your little rock. It is the
only one on the planet that makes sense. If you wish to continue on without me,
pay me my money and I will be gone. I will bid you adieu and good luck.” He
never stopped looking out the window while he spoke.

Lindsey caught his irritation, but offered no apology. Instead, he
just shut off the iPad and stowed it in the seat back in front of him.

Outside the car, the sun baked landscape whirred by. Everything had a
light tan color to it, the color of sand. There were a few occasional trees,
but most of them were over near the riverbanks along the Nile. The only sound
in the cabin for several minutes was the clacking of the tires when they’d hit
a piece of road that had been patched with tar. Otherwise, it was the
monotonous whine of the engine.

“Why do you seek immortality?” DeGard’s snide voice cut the silence
and he looked over at Lindsey with accusatory eyes.

Lindsey raised an eyebrow at the unexpected query. “My reasons are my
own,” he responded in an ominous tone. “But unlike those who came before and
failed in their quest for eternal life, my purpose goes beyond the mere desire
to live forever. It is my purpose. It is my destiny to shape the world into a
better place, void of wickedness and wrongdoing. With immortality, comes time.
And with unlimited time, I will someday be able to create a better world.”

DeGard frowned at the answer. It sounded like the ravings of a madman,
but he dare not say that. Instead, he decided to be subtler.

“There have been great leaders throughout history who sought various
sources of immortality and spoke of a better world. Along the way they murdered
millions of people they thought would not fit in with the plan of the future.
Do you have such intensions, Monsieur Lindsey? Will you kill millions to make
the world what you believe to be better?”

“I will do what is necessary!” the older man snapped. “I do the work
of God. There can be no questioning His orders. I am his ambassador to a dying
planet full of thieves, rapists, murderers, whores, and filth. I will do
whatever it takes to make the Earth new again.” His voice continued to heighten
until he finished the last few words. His wrinkled, ashen face had flushed red
and a vein popped out on his forehead. DeGard gazed at him, beyond words at
what he’d just witnessed.

He calmed himself down before he spoke again. “In the book of
Revelation, it talks about a new earth that God will bring. My mission is to
create that new earth.” Lindsey turned his head and glanced out the window as
they passed a small train of camels. “To you, I’m sure it must sound insane.
You probably believe me to be a mad man, power hungry and hell bent on a
pointless venture. I assure you, I am quite sane. And I will see my mission
through to the end. It was for a great purpose The Order of Golden Dawn was
created.”

“Golden Dawn? That group has been gone for nearly a century,” DeGard
snorted.

Lindsey shook his head slowly. “No. It was merely sleeping. And like
the sleeping church in Revelation, it has been awakened to perform a great
task: the cleansing of this world.”

“Cleansing?”

“Yes,” the older man nodded. “We will purge the world of the wicked
and begin it anew. The Order of Golden Dawn will establish the true one world
government.”

DeGard scowled. “As long as you pay me my money, I do not care what
you do with your little group. Just see to it that I get what I was promised.”

“You will. And more, I assure you. Check your account if you wish. I
have already made sure the order has made a significant deposit into the bank
you specified before.” Lindsey handed the tablet to the archaeologist who took
it with some hesitation.

DeGard glanced cautiously at his employer then pulled up his bank
account on the device. After entering in his security information, he was
greeted with an astounding number at the top of the page. His eyes grew wide.

“And there is more where that came from, my dear professor. Imagine
all the carnal pleasures you could buy.” DeGard ignored the last comment.

“I wondered why we didn’t take some of the treasure from the chamber.
It would have been worth millions,” his voice trembled.

“As you can see, money is not an issue for us, Monsieur,” Lindsey
turned his head again and looked off into the distance. A few jagged hills rose
up from the desert, brightly illuminated by the mid-day sun. “There is plenty
more where that came from, I assure you.” He took the iPad back from DeGard
whose face still seemed shocked.

“Now,” Lindsey changed gears, “Tell me about this Valley of the
Eight.”

DeGard rolled his eyebrows and shrugged. “There is not much to know.
Obviously, the area is the alleged resting place of the ark of Noah from the
Bible’s Old Testament. The story claims that after the great flood, it came to
rest high on the mountain. No one has ever been able to confirm it, though.
With the severe weather patterns the mountain surely experiences, an object
made from wood could not have lasted very long. If there is anything left, it
would be buried.”

“I would think that satellite photos would reveal something of such an
enormous scale,” Lindsey commented thoughtfully.

“Precisely. If there were anything to be found, it would have been
seen by satellites, planes, something. Despite centuries of decay and erosion,
there should be substantial evidence of something that size.”

“Evidence? What kind of evidence?” Lindsey leaned closer across the
back seat.

“We would at least see an outline of the wreckage. Imagine you are
walking on the beach and the ocean waters wash up to your bare feet. When the
water withdraws, your foot has sunken into the sand a little. If this happens
several times, your foot will be a few inches deep in the sand.” He
demonstrated with his hands as he explained the process. “When you remove your
foot, the outline of it remains in the sand until the water returns and washes
it away.”

Lindsey’s eyebrows knit together, trying to comprehend what the
Frenchman was saying. “Just what is your point?”

“The point, Monsieur, is that on the top of that mountain, there was
no other source of water. If the flood story were true, the waters would have
receded and left a major indention in the soil, soil that eventually would have
petrified into stone or rock formations outlining the shape of a large boat.”

“Interesting,” Lindsey seemed to contemplate the new information. “So,
if the ark is not there, where could it be?”

“Who knows? I, for one, do not believe in fairy tales, Monsieur. That
story is a legend, a myth. There are many cultures around the world with the
same plot. What should make the one from the Bible any different?”

Lindsey let out a derisive snort. “You see, Monsieur DeGard, when you
say many cultures share the story, that fact makes me believe in it even more.”

“Each person has their own beliefs. But if the ark truly does exist, I
highly doubt it will be found on the mountain of Ararat. I will say, though,
that based on the stone you have in your hand we may very well may find
something else.” DeGard pointed at the disc Lindsey was holding loosely in his
fingers.

“What might that be?”

“I do not know. I suppose we will find out, although we may have
trouble climbing the mountain. It will be cold this time of year. We do not
know which area in which to look. And then, of course, there is the problem
with the government.”

“Problem?” Lindsey asked naively.

“Oui. The government does not take well to westerners climbing the mountain
and digging around. And if the government does allow it, the locals will not.”

“I see,” Lindsey gave a slow nod. “Well, I suppose we will just have
to figure something out that will take care of those little issues.”