“Yes. Doesn’t that seem odd?”
“I guess so. But you can’t think Willum’s chest is the Ark of the Covenant.”
“I don’t think it is, no. But I don’t think we can totally eliminate the possibility. And from what I’ve read the sizes match up also.”
He sighed. “I guess you might as well research it more.” He smiled. “Just don’t tell Willum.”
Amanda returned to her easy chair overlooking the lake.
After an hour of research, two things had become clear: First, the Ark disappeared about 2,500 years ago; and second, the Arizona desert was one of the few places in the world where the Ark was not believed to be hidden.
According to the Book of Exodus, the Ark was built in accordance with detailed instructions given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. The Ark—approximately the size of a blanket chest—was constructed of wood and plated with pure gold. A pair of golden angels sat at either end of the Ark’s cover, their outstretched wings nearly touching at the center of the chest. A pair of gold rings was attached to each side of the Ark; as she had already learned, through each pair of rings a wooden pole was inserted to carry the Ark. Once constructed, the Ark contained and transported the Ten Commandment tablets.
The Old Testament prominently featured the Ark in the early history of the Jewish people. Often they carried it into battle, where its seemingly-supernatural powers made the Israelites almost invincible. Sometimes the power of the Ark turned on its Jewish caretakers, killing priests or others who approached or touched it. In 586 BC, the Babylonians captured Jerusalem and destroyed King Solomon’s temple, which had housed the Ark—after that date there is no further mention of the holy relic. The Ark was either destroyed with the Temple or had been removed and hidden prior to the destruction.
Amanda sat back and stared at the lake. So had the Ark been destroyed? It seemed unlikely—the Babylonian siege lasted some thirty months, during which time the caretakers of the Ark would surely have foreseen Jerusalem’s imminent collapse and had time to save Judaism’s most holy relic from destruction. So where was it?
The leading theory postulated that the Templars learned of the hiding place of the Ark while searching for treasures and fighting infidels in the Middle East and, sometime in the 12th Century, brought the relic back to Europe. Later, when the Church turned on the Templars, they would have either hidden the Ark in Europe or removed it to some safe haven—perhaps North America. Oak Island in Nova Scotia was frequently mentioned as a North American hiding place, while Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, Warwickshire in England and Chartres Cathedral in France were the locations most often mentioned in Europe.
Of course, there was no certainty the Templars ever found the Ark in the first place. If not, the Ark might remain hidden in the hills of Jordan, where many believed the prophet Jeremiah secreted it during the Babylonian invasion. However, still other authorities believed the Ark had been removed from Jerusalem in the centuries prior to the Babylonian invasion—one popular theory held that Solomon’s son Menelik, the product of an illicit rendezvous between the Jewish king and the legendary Queen of Sheba, stole the relic and brought it home to his mother in what is today Ethiopia.
Amanda let her mind wander, trying to make a pattern out of the whirlwind of information. The writing on the Los Lunas Stone in New Mexico matched the script on the Moabite Stone, which was dated 800 BC or about the time the Ark may have first gone missing. Similarly, the rune stone Smoot found was dated about 1200 or about the time the Templars may have found the Ark and brought it out of the Middle East. Unless, of course, their French ancestors—many of whom descended from Jewish royalty and who may have known where the Ark was hidden—had somehow obtained the Ark before then and brought it across the Atlantic for use as the centerpiece of a new Jewish colony, a New Jerusalem….
Amanda sat back and stared out over the lake. She was just wildly speculating. Was it likely the Ark was in Arizona? No. But on the off chance someone had dragged the relic to the deserts of the Southwest, there must have been a compelling reason to do so. And the first step to figuring out that reason would be to learn as much as she could about the mysterious relic.
She spent another ninety minutes on the Internet, jotting down dozens of theories and observations regarding the Ark. Even after discounting many of the most outlandish claims, she easily filled up three pages of a legal pad. Cam joined her in the living room just as she finished up.
He sat on the arm of her easy chair. “What you working on?”
“Ark of the Covenant.”
“Still?” He smiled. “Did you find it?”
“All I can say for certain is that it’s not in our basement.” She scooched over. “Sit.”
He slid next to her and slipped his arm over her shoulder. “Before we get into this stuff, did you get a chance to look at the images I sent to Smoot last night?”
“Not yet. I’m deep into the Ark, probably too deep. I could use a break; talk to me.”
“I was just looking for a reason to justify my renewed interest in seeing his rune stone—after we blew him off it would seem strange if suddenly I did a one-eighty. Funny thing is, there are actually some pretty interesting connections between his artifact and some Templar stuff in Europe. You should come with me when we hike up to look at it—Astarte can stay with Georgia for the day.”
Amanda smiled. “Did you think I would let you go without me? I was ready to hide in the trunk if necessary.”
“Good. You can protect me from the snakes.”
“How very Eve-like of me.”
He looked at her questioningly.
“I took a comparative religion class at university. There’s one version of the Adam and Eve story which says Eve slept with the snake to prevent it from killing Adam.” Before Cam responded she leaned over and kissed him on the mouth, lingering for a few seconds against the warmth of his mouth. “A shame we don’t have time for me to play temptress at the moment.”
She kissed him again quickly and sat up. “So here’s what I’ve learned. First, there’s a lot of evidence that the Ark was some kind of energy-producing device. Like a giant battery or capacitor.”
“You mean God didn’t live inside?”
“Negative. But I can see why ancient peoples believed He did. The Ark was pretty frightening.” She turned back to the first page of her list. “Okay, fancy this. First, it seems the Ark was some kind of weapon. The Israelites brought it into battle, it knocked down the walls of Jericho and it somehow smote their enemies.” She smiled. “For those who don’t speak the Queen’s English, that means killed.”
“Thanks. Does the Queen know where the Ark is?”
“Also negative. Anyway, anyone who got too close to the Ark was zapped or burned, just like our Arizona prospector. I counted four different passages in the Old Testament describing people suffering ‘blasts of Heavenly displeasure.’ Only the priests, who wore special gold vestments and carried the Ark using poles, knew how to handle it. Even then there are stories of tying a rope around the ankle of any priest who went near the Ark so they could pull him away if it zapped him.”
“I can think of some priests I wouldn’t mind seeing get zapped.”
Amanda smiled and looked at her notes. “Second, many people who went near the Ark were disfigured by it. Did you know Moses wore a veil after overseeing the building of the Ark?”
“No.”
“The Old Testament says he wore the veil because his face radiated after speaking with God. I think he got burned by the Ark and wanted to cover his scars.”
“Interesting.”
“And the same thing happened to Miriam, his sister. Supposedly God afflicted her with leprosy because she spoke out against Moses. Later the leprosy was cured. But leprosy was incurable back then. I think rather she suffered facial burns like Moses.” She looked down at her notes. “And get this: There is always one priest in Ethiopia whose job it is to guard the Ark, or at least what they claim is the Ark—that
’s all he does for his entire life. And for some reason he always ends up going blind from cataracts. They call it milk-eye.”
“So Moses had a radiant face, Miriam had something like leprosy, and our Ethiopian priests have cataracts. Sounds more like radiation than normal burns.”
“Are cataracts caused by radiation?”
“Can be.”
“Interesting theory. In fact, it ties in with my third point. During one battle the Philistines captured the Ark and brought it home with them. But anyone who came near the Ark suffered from skin rashes and boils and tumors and fingernails falling off.” She paused. “And get this, also hemorrhoids.”
“Hemorrhoids?” Cam chuckled.
“Yes. The Hebrew word is emerods. All this comes straight from the Old Testament.”
“Count me out then. The Ark—if that’s what it is—can stay up in that cave.”
“My brave hero,” she smiled.
“But seriously, all those ailments can all be caused by radiation. Even hemorrhoids. My uncle went through radiation treatment for cancer a few years ago.”
“So why would the Ark be radioactive?”
“The Ten Commandments were inside the Ark, right? Maybe they were carved on some kind of meteorite?”
“Good theory, but meteorites are not radioactive—despite what people think.”
“Maybe uranium then?”
“Perhaps.”
Cam leaned back and closed his eyes. “So the Ark is some kind of power source, almost like a giant battery. And it also seems to be radioactive.”
“Which would explain why Solomon finally built a temple around it and kept it deep inside. It was the only safe way to handle it.”
“Let’s go back to the battery idea. I read about something a few months ago—can you Google ‘Baghdad Battery’?”
Amanda did so. Apparently a 2000-year-old working battery was unearthed in Iraq back in the 1930s. A cylinder of copper had been rolled around an iron rod and placed inside a terracotta jug. “Here’s a drawing posted on the internet,” she said.
BAGHDAD BATTERY DRAWING
Experiments on the battery showed that when vinegar was added to the jug, the device produced an electric charge. “They built a replica for a TV show and it almost knocked the host unconscious when they hooked him up to it,” Amanda said, “So, if batteries existed 2000 years ago, who’s to say they didn’t exist even earlier?”
“And think about the design of the Ark. It was built of acacia wood, which would be a good insulator. And the pure gold which covered the Ark is an excellent conductor.”
“I read the Ark was never to be placed on the ground.” The pieces were beginning to fit together. “Presumably grounding it would cause it to lose its charge.”
“Right. And on the top of the Ark are the two winged angels, leaning over the cover toward each other—that would be a perfect arrangement for a spark gap.”
Amanda turned in the chair. “Spark gap?”
“Sorry. When I was a kid I was a bit of a science geek. Picture a lightning bolt moving from a cloud to a tree—the air between them is a spark gap. If the Ark was some kind of battery or capacitor, the electricity would jump from angel to angel in the form of a bolt of electricity. It would, as you said, zap anyone standing close by.”
“And it says here some author in 1999 built an Ark replica and proved it was an electromagnetic accumulator, whatever that is.”
“I think that just means it stored power, like a battery.”
“Geek is right,” she smiled. “Would it be possible to redirect that electricity?”
“I suppose so. Maybe with a bronze disk of some kind, mounted between the two angels.”
“So they could turn those sparks into a weapon?”
Cam nodded. “I suppose so, sure.”
“And the walls came tumbling down.” Amanda sighed. “All very interesting. But it still doesn’t explain how the Ark might have ended up in Arizona.”
CHAPTER 5
Normally there would be no way Clarisse would miss out on tomorrow’s hike up Mustang Mountain. Not only did it promise to be an interesting adventure, but she didn’t totally trust Willum’s new associates and it would be a good chance to get a better sense of them. But with them occupying Willum’s time she would be able to focus on something far more promising than a treasure chest. This white powder of gold Willum had discovered, or rediscovered, could be exactly what she needed.
Willum had gone into town for supplies; as soon as he left the compound she slipped into his saucer with the spare key she held for him. She locked the door behind her and flicked on a floor lamp. Careful not to disturb anything, she opened the floor hatch, descended the metal stairs and followed the passageway to Willum’s lab.
She had never been in the lab before, and she didn’t know exactly what the white powder of gold substance would look like, but she did know Willum tended not to clean up after himself. So it only took a few seconds to find a plastic bag filled with a powdery substance resting next to a scale. She lifted the bag and held it up to the light—it looked like corn starch.
Did the powder really have the miraculous powers the ancient Pharaohs believed it had? She emptied half the contents into a plastic bag of her own, turned off the lights and left the lab. For some reason the witches’ spell from Macbeth popped into her head. “Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn, and cauldron bubble.” She laughed aloud, hoping it didn’t sound too much like a cackle.
Whistling, Willum parked his Land Cruiser in front of the saucer and unloaded the supplies. Most of them were for tomorrow’s hike—water, energy bars, a flashlight, a first aid kit.
Clarisse strolled out to greet him, as she often did. He remembered how Gregory, as a toddler, used to stand behind the screen door, bouncing with joy, when Willum pulled into the driveway. Clarisse didn’t exactly bounce but she always seemed pleased to see him. “I have an idea,” she said, smiling.
“Uh-oh.”
“One of the compounds up in Montana is doing a two-day fast, nothing but water.”
“Why?”
“They want to see how the residents react to it. Are the defense posts manned? Does the chain of command break down? Can people tough it out? You were in the military so you understand what this is like. But most of our people are civilians.”
Willum nodded. “Okay. When should we do it?”
“No time like the present. Let’s start after dinner tonight, and we’ll end it Thursday dinner.”
He smiled. “Just in time for my hike.”
“It’s only an hour-and-a-half.” She patted his belly. “You’ll be fine. Lots of water is all you need.”
Following Smoot’s directions, Cam and Amanda found the gas station south of Tucson. Their flight had landed without incident the night before; as promised, Georgia had arranged for the same Ford Explorer to be waiting for them at the car rental lot.
“You know,” Amanda said, “this is the first time we’ve left Astarte since she’s been with us.” Georgia planned to take her to the zoo.
“Really?”
“I’m certain. Three months.”
“Well, she needed some stability after what she’s been through.”
A text came in on Cam’s phone. “It’s from Willum,” Cam said. “He’s a mile away.” Cam unloaded their packs. “Last chance for the bathroom.”
“I’m good. Do you need to check your blood sugar level?”
“Just did. You have enough sunscreen?” Amanda was extra-sensitive to the sun and burned easily; a desert hike would be a challenge for her.
“Yes. And a hat.” She smiled. “We sound like an old married couple.”
Cam kissed her lips. “Good.”
When Cam had first met Smoot, he knew nothing about the man. Now, at their second meeting, Cam knew about his Survivalist activities along with, according to Georgia, his rabid militancy. But the man who stepped out of the Land Cruiser looked more like a 1960s peace activist than a
trigger-happy radical.
Wearing a yellow Grateful Dead t-shirt, a straw cowboy hat and a pair of jeans, the burly Smoot smiled and ambled over. A patchy pink rash discolored his cheeks and forehead. “Thanks for coming.” He shook his head. “I wouldn’t have blamed you if my paranoia scared you off.”
Cam shrugged and shook Smoot’s hand. “No harm done.”
“I’m guessing you might be a bit nervous.” He smiled. “Or maybe I’m projecting my paranoia onto you. But if you want to inspect my pack, you’ll see that I’m not armed. Other than a pocket knife, that is.”
Cam shook his head. “No need.”
Amanda looked at Cam, who nodded. “I hope you don’t mind if I tag along,” she said. They had wanted to meet Willum again before making the final decision on Amanda joining them.
“Not at all.” Smoot motioned toward the gas station. “Do you guys have enough water and food?”
Cam nodded. They had stocked up after landing yesterday. “We should be good.”
“Just one more thing then.” Smoot handed Cam a piece of paper. “This is a confidentiality agreement. You agree not to tell anyone about the site, and also agree anything we find belongs to me.” He shrugged. “Sorry if it sounds paranoid.”
Cam glanced through it. “Fair enough.” He signed it and handed it to Amanda to do the same.
“Okay then,” Smoot said. “We can leave your car here.”
Smoot turned off Highway 82 about a mile from the gas station and bounced south along what would have been called a logging road in New England. Here, apparently, ranchers used the rutted paths to access their herds. Periodically, Cam got out of the front seat to unlatch a gate so they could pass.
“Make sure it closes tight,” Willum said. “The ranchers get pretty pissed off when their cattle go missing.” He lowered his voice. “Plus sometimes the animals wander out onto the highway.”
As they drove, Amanda explained what they had learned about the Ark of the Covenant.
“Do you really think that’s what this chest is?” Willum asked.
Powdered Gold: Templars and the American Ark of the Covenant (Templars in America Series Book 3) Page 11