The Last Secret of the Ark

by James Becker

  The other indisputable fact is that the box drains and the flood tunnel must have been part of the original construction: it had to have been built as a piece. Therefore, the coconut fibre also had to have been part of the original construction. And that leads to an obvious and unarguable anomaly.

  In 1993, samples of the coconut fibre were subjected to radiocarbon-dating analysis by Beta Analytic Incorporated, and the results were unequivocal. Far from matching the analysis of the wood samples, which dated to the mid seventeenth century, the coconut fibre dates were centuries earlier.

  Two samples were sent. The first one produced a date range of 1168 to 1282, and the second a range of 1036 to 1298, giving a mean date of about 1229. Further analysis and expert opinion by the company produced a hand-written conclusion that, with ninety-five per cent certainty, the fibres dated to between 1168 and 1374. Radiocarbon dating can provide quite wide variations for several reasons, but the general or average figure is sufficiently accurate to allow certain conclusions to be drawn, and the most obvious is that, based on the radiocarbon dating of the coconut fibre, and hence the Money Pit’s original construction, it was probably built in the thirteenth or fourteenth century. The earlier dates for the fibres most likely mean that an expedition was sent to collect this material before the Money Pit was constructed.

  That means that many of the wilder theories about what may have been buried in the vault – such as Marie Antoinette’s jewellery, pirate treasure, valuables looted from the British invasion of Cuba, or the treasure of the Fortress of Louisbourg – can be immediately dismissed because the dates don’t work. Whatever was or is in the vault had to have been put there when the structure was built, and the most obvious contender is the missing treasure and assets of the Knights Templar, because those dates certainly work. The Templar treasure vanished in 1307, which fits almost perfectly with the radiocarbon dating.

  All of which of course begs the question: what about the wood found in Smith’s Cove, the mysterious U-shaped structure and the slipway, and the wood hauled up from the depths under Oak Island by the hammer grab on almost every episode of the Curse of Oak Island television show? The short answer is that long after the Money Pit vault was constructed, a different group of people must have spent time on the island, more or less in the second half of the seventeenth century, again based on the radiocarbon dating of wood samples. They clearly did work of some sort underground and in Smith’s Cove, and then disappeared, leaving behind an enigma.

  They also probably left behind two bodies buried deep underground. Two fragments of human bone were recovered from about a hundred and sixty feet and subjected to both DNA and radiocarbon analysis. One came from the Middle East and was dated to between 1682 and 1736, while the other was of European origin and was dated to between 1678 and 1764.

  Whoever these people were, they certainly did some kind of deep excavations, because of the depth from which wood dating to around 1650 has been recovered.

  Without going too far into the realms of pure speculation, perhaps the most probable explanation is that the people who appeared on the island in the seventeenth century knew exactly where and how something had been buried in the underground vault, and had visited the island to recover it. They may have known about the flood tunnel because they were the descendants of the people who had constructed it. In which case, when the present team of explorers finally locate and gain access to the buried vault – which they have the technological ability to do, without question – they might find that the cupboard is bare. Which would be unfortunate on several levels.

  The one conclusion that can be drawn about the Money Pit is that it is certainly well named. Ever since Daniel McGinnis stuck his spade in the ground in the last decade of the eighteenth century, it has not only consumed enormous amounts of money spent by explorers trying to reach the hidden vault, but has also taken the lives of at least six men, or eight if you include the two bodies that probably lie deep below the surface.

  And to date, as far as is known, none of them has managed to recover anything of any value from their labours. A money pit indeed.

  The Templars in Massachusetts

  Although there is no completely unambiguous proof to confirm that Prince Henry Sinclair visited this part of North America with a coterie of Knights Templar at the end of the fourteenth century, the circumstantial evidence is nevertheless compelling. The anomalous relics mentioned in this novel – the inscribed stone on the beach, the coins from Genoa found at Chester in Nova Scotia, the Westford Knight memorial, the Boat Stone and the Newport Tower – are all real and are exactly as described.

  They are dismissed by mainstream American archaeologists because they refute the accepted timeline and history of the North American continent, and are regarded as coincidences, misidentifications or straight fakes. These statements – and I use that word advisedly, because they are only statements, not arguments backed up by anything bearing even the most distant relationship to a fact – are difficult to sustain if the relics are given even the most cursory possible examination.

  The Boat Stone, for example, displays a clear and unambiguous drawing of a medieval ship, and geological weathering analysis – a proper scientific technique – gives an approximate age of the carving on the rock of six hundred years. It can’t be a misidentification because the carving is too clear and precise for that. So if the Boat Stone is a fake, detractors have to explain why the fake was prepared in the fourteenth or fifteenth century. Instead they just ignore it, and pretend it doesn’t exist. That’s so much easier.

  The reality is that some six hundred years ago, somebody spent some considerable time preparing that carving for a reason that today we can only guess at, and the simplest possible and most obvious explanation is that that individual knew exactly what a medieval ship looked like because he had arrived on the American eastern seaboard in one as either a passenger or a member of the crew. Nothing else makes sense.

  The Mossad

  The Hebrew title of the Mossad is המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים, or Mossad Merkazi le-Modin ule-Tafkidim Meyuḥadim, meaning ‘the Central Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations’. It’s the principal Israeli intelligence agency, responsible for collecting intelligence, and for counter-terrorism and covert operations of all types. It answers directly to the prime minister of Israel and to nobody else, and is not bound by the laws of the country. Or by the laws of any other country, come to that. In terms of personnel, it’s the largest intelligence organisation in the West apart from the American Central Intelligence Agency, and, uniquely among the Western agencies, it has an undeclared but clear policy of assassination of people perceived to be enemies of the Israeli state, employing a unit known as the Kidon. This is a part of the Caesarea department, and since the end of the Second World War it has been reliably estimated to have carried out at least 2,700 assassinations.

  The agency’s headquarters are in Tel Aviv, but like everything else the Mossad does, the location is not advertised or widely known. In fact, the Mossad works from a group of nondescript buildings that look as if they might belong to an insurance company, located between a shopping centre and a cinema complex near the Glilot highway intersection.

  The attitude of Israel in general and the Mossad in particular to what might be loosely termed ‘foreign relations’ is essentially biblical. Basically, it’s ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’, and terrorists and other undesirables know perfectly well that if they kill an Israeli or do anything to harm or threaten the country, the Israelis will kill them. It’s a very simple and probably quite effective policy, which is one reason why Israel and its assets have always been seen as hard targets, unlike much softer nations like Britain, where the worst that can happen to most terrorists, assuming they don’t get killed in the act, is a fairly comfortable life in prison, paid for by the very people they tried to attack and kill. Unless, of course, they can prove in court that they had a deprived chil
dhood or some other extenuating circumstance and manage to walk free with just a slap on the wrist to have another go.

  Zerubbabel and Zeru

  Zerubbabel, as is stated in this novel, was an Old Testament figure who initiated the building of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. The Zeru organisation is a product of my imagination, but the idea of a Third Temple being constructed on the Temple Mount in this troubled city is an ever-present shadow over the future of Jerusalem. As the entire purpose of such a temple would be to house the Ark of the Covenant, the implications for Jerusalem would be extremely serious if the relic were ever to be discovered.

  It would probably be better for the future of humanity if the lost Ark – assuming it still exists – remained lost for all time.

  About the Author

  James Becker is an author of conspiracy, espionage and action thrillers. He spent over twenty years in the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm. Involved in covert operations in many of the world’s hotspots, he brings a high level of detail and authenticity to his work. He also writes action-adventure novels under the name James Barrington and military history under the name Peter Smith in the UK.

  Also by James Becker

  The Titanic Secret

  The Ripper Secret

  The Dante Conspiracy

  The Templar Heresy

  Cold Kill

  Trade Off

  The Hounds of God

  The Lost Treasure of the Templars

  The Templar Archive

  The Templar Brotherhood

  First published in the United Kingdom in 2020 by Canelo

  Canelo Digital Publishing Limited

  31 Helen Road

  Oxford OX2 0DF

  United Kingdom

  Copyright © James Becker, 2020

  The moral right of James Becker to be identified as the creator of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  Ebook ISBN 9781788639040

  Print ISBN 9781800320277

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Look for more great books at www.canelo.co