The Ark tl-1

by Boyd Morrison

  “Is this about Ramadi?” Locke asked.

  Grant nodded slowly. It was one of the few times Locke had seen him deadly serious. It made him nervous.

  “This guy was the best,” Grant said. “My superior NCO. Since I wasn’t company top hat any more, I was back to being a master sergeant then. Cutter was first sergeant, but he went by his nickname, Chainsaw, because of the way he cut the enemy to pieces. I refused to call him that, mostly to piss him off. He could sniff out insurgent hiding places no one else could find. He was a legend in the Rangers. Everyone knew him. Cutter had a better score than anyone else in the team.” Score, Locke knew, meant number of enemy kills.

  “I could see that Cutter was on the edge of going too far,” Grant continued. “He enjoyed the kills too much. Started notching his weapon. He had so many notches the damned thing looked like my mother’s sofa after our cat got his claws on it. Then it all came to a head in Ramadi.”

  Grant paused for a moment. Locke didn’t interrupt. This obviously wasn’t something Grant found pleasant to talk about.

  “We were on an incursion looking for a suspected insurgent cell in a neighborhood in the north side of the city. We went in on foot for stealth, but we had chopper evac ready. Cutter had the cell zeroed in one of the few undamaged houses. We were approaching when a guy popped up out of nowhere with an RPG. Cutter got the rocket man in one shot, but not before the blast took out our lieutenant. That set Cutter off.

  “We infiltrated the house, but we were only supposed to nab the suspects. Cutter wasn’t having it. He ordered us to terminate them. So we did as ordered.” Grant said it flatly, but Locke could make out the underlying pain in his voice. “But it didn’t stop there. Cutter went outside and herded all the families hiding in the nearby houses out into the street.”

  Locke could sense what was coming.

  “Said he wanted to question them,” Grant said. “Then Cutter opened fire. Men, women, children. Maybe all of them innocent. Didn’t matter to Cutter. As soon as I realized what was happening, I tackled him. The families scattered, or what was left of them. Cutter and I got into a fight right there in the street, and that’s when a sniper opened up. He hit Cutter twice, in the shoulder and the groin.

  “With Cutter down, I was the ranking sergeant. I called in our helo evac and got us out, including our dead. Cutter went to Ramstein. Word was that his shoulder was fine, but they had to lop off his private parts. I got out two months later. Never saw him again. But I know he remembers me.”

  “You think he saw you today?”

  “If he did, it must have been killing him not to take me out right there. I’m sorry, Tyler. With so many people in the hangar, I didn’t notice him. If I’d seen him, maybe those deputies would still be alive.”

  Locke thought back to Grant jumping onto the truck to save him.

  “It could have been a lot worse,” he said.

  “It’s already pretty bad if Cutter’s involved. Whoever hired him wanted the best nut he could find. And if they got Cutter, they probably got a bunch of other top-notch vets along with him. He’d know who to recruit, who’d be loyal to him, and who was willing to do the wet work. Maybe we should get the General involved.”

  Locke rolled his eyes at the mention of his father. “Did Miles put you up to this?”

  Grant put his hand on Locke’s shoulder. “Look, I know how you feel about your dad, but he’s a pretty powerful guy, and he’s got a lot of resources.”

  Locke sighed. “Believe me, Grant, if I thought he could do something that we couldn’t do on our own, I would go to him.”

  Grant looked doubtful. “Really?”

  “I would be swallowing a bucketful of pride, but I’d do it.”

  “I’m sure he’d be willing to help.”

  “I’m sure he would, too. That’s the problem. Then I’d owe him big.” Locke stood. “Now, I’d better call Agent Perez and let the FBI know what we’re up against. Maybe they have more on the two who came at us in Seattle.”

  “Any more on the connection between Coleman and Whirlwind?” Grant asked.

  “Not yet,” Locke said. “Things have been so busy I haven’t had a chance to get back with Aiden. He’s supposed to call me when he gets anything.”

  “I’m going back to the hangar to see if we have any other clues. Maybe Cutter left something behind, although I wouldn’t bet on it.”

  Grant left the viewing room with Locke, and they parted ways when Locke turned to head towards the room he’d set up for Dilara in the main office building. He dialed Perez while he walked. The FBI agent answered on the second ring.

  “Dr. Locke, you’re just the person I wanted to talk to.”

  “You have the identities of the men in Seattle?”

  “I do.”

  “Ex-Army special forces?”

  “How did you know that?”

  Locke told him about Chainsaw Dan Cutter and the stolen suitcase.

  “I’ll get him on our most wanted list right away. But he may have gone to ground.”

  “Have you had any threats to the Genesis Dawn?” Locke asked.

  “No, but I’ve beefed up security as much as I could. Without a direct terrorist threat, there’s not much more I can do.”

  “Agent Perez, something is going down on the Genesis Dawn. It might be at the gala or it might be at sea. Either way, you’re talking about 8000 lives at risk. Don’t you take Dr. Kenner’s story seriously?”

  “Of course we do. But we’re also focused on the Hayden crash right now. Washington doesn’t want to cause a nationwide panic that bioweapons might be loose on American soil. They are, however, giving me a lot of leeway and manpower just in case this leads to something.”

  “What about the suitcase that was taken from our TEC?” Locke asked. “It was probably how the bioweapon was smuggled on board Hayden’s airplane.”

  “We’ll be examining every suitcase that goes on board the Genesis Dawn, but I don’t even know what I’m supposed to find inside.”

  “You’re going to be there yourself?”

  “I told you. I’m taking you seriously. But all you’ve told me is that the Genesis Dawn is a possible target. How am I supposed to protect the world’s largest cruise ship from an attack if I don’t know what to look for?”

  Locke thought about that, lamenting that he’d let a possible link to hard evidence get away. If he had stopped Cutter, he’d have a much better rationale for stopping the cruise.

  Locke hadn’t yet told Perez about Whirlwind and the link to Project Oasis that he’d found at Coleman’s. It was another unsubstantiated rumor, just a hunch that Coleman’s death wasn’t an accident. He didn’t have any proof. But he needed to impress upon Perez the need for vigilance.

  “Agent Perez, I have reason to believe this all may be connected with something called Project Oasis.”

  “What’s that?”

  “A bunker, constructed underground to house hundreds of people for months at a time. I believe that whoever killed Hayden has a functional bunker ready to go.”

  “And how do you know that?”

  “Because I worked on the project for two months. It had a different name, but it was the same project.”

  “And that’s why Coleman was killed,” Perez said, catching on quickly. “They were covering their tracks.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Do you have evidence about Oasis?”

  “No. Someone purged all of Coleman’s files about the project. I was lucky to find the little I did.”

  Perez sighed and spoke mechanically. “I’ll let my superiors know what you’ve found, but without evidence, it’s going to be hard to convince them to do anything else. How big was the suitcase?”

  “The size of a carry-on. The one on the Genesis Dawn may be bigger, but it would still be something portable.”

  “If there’s anything suspicious, Dr. Locke,” Perez said, “we’ll find it. Don’t worry.” The tone was condescending, as if the FBI agent were s
oothing a doting mother sending her child off to kindergarten. Locke didn’t like being talked down to, and despite what Perez had said, Locke didn’t think he really was taking the threat seriously.

  “That’s good to hear, Agent Perez,” Locke said, “because if you don’t, someone’s going to get on that ship with a device that will kill every single person on board.”

  THIRTY-THREE

  Locke walked into the office he’d set a aside for Dilara to find her surrounded by books that overflowed the desk she sat at.

  “A little light reading?” he asked.

  “Your company was kind enough to retrieve my father’s notes and research that I put in storage. They arrived by FedEx this morning. After I heard the news that he was missing, I looked through them for clues, but I didn’t find anything useful, so they’ve just moldered since then. I thought this would be a good time to go back through them.”

  “His research on Noah’s Ark?”

  Dilara nodded. “It was his obsession. He believed in the historical relevance of the Bible, that there was a basis in fact for the Flood story. If he could find Noah’s Ark, it would show that the Flood had actually occurred.”

  “It might also piss off a lot of people if it showed it didn’t happen exactly as the Bible told.”

  “My father didn’t care about that. He cared about truth. He was curious. He loved the thrill of discovery, no matter what the discovery contradicted. And he didn’t believe that the Bible was an infallible document delivered directly from God’s mouth. He thought that the Bible was fallible precisely because humans had manipulated it throughout the centuries.”

  “You mean the translations?”

  “Exactly. The Bible has been translated from the original Hebrew to Greek to Latin to English. He knew it was possible that, along the way, errors were introduced in the text. The multiple English translations alone show that it can be interpreted in different ways.”

  She pulled out a sheaf of notes.

  “These are his handwritten transcriptions from the Douay-Rheims version of the Bible, which most scholars view as the most accurate English translation. Specifically, Genesis seven through ten. Look at this line here.”

  Genesis 7:17: And the flood was forty days upon the earth: and the waters increased, and lifted up the ark on high from the earth. The words “lifted up the ark on high from” were crossed out. In its place, Arvadi had written a new phrase.

  Now the line read, And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and the ark was high up above the earth.

  “Doesn’t seem that different to me,” Locke said. “Is there anything else?”

  Dilara pointed to the next line.

  Genesis 7:18: For they overflowed exceedingly: and filled all on the face of the earth; and the ark was carried upon the waters. Arvadi changed “was carried upon” to “hung above.”

  For they overflowed exceedingly: and filled all on the face of the earth; and the ark hung above the waters.

  “Still seems like splitting hairs,” Locke said.

  “I agree. But there’s one more that’s even stranger.”

  On the next page, he saw, Genesis 8:4: And the ark rested in the seventh month, the seven and twentieth day of the month, upon the mountains of Armenia. This time, he had replaced only one word. Instead of “upon,” it said, “within.”

  “‘And the ark rested in the seventh month,’” Locke read, “‘the seven and twentieth day of the month, within the mountains of Armenia.’ What’s the significance?”

  “Armenia is generally interpreted to mean Ararat. But why he would change that ‘upon’ to ‘within,’ I’m not sure. There are two peaks of Ararat: Mt. Ararat and Little Ararat. Perhaps he thought the ark rested between the summits.”

  Locke looked through the pages and found one more line underlined several times.

  Genesis 9:15: And I will remember my covenant with you, and with every living soul that beareth flesh: and there shall no more be waters of a flood to destroy all flesh.

  Destroy all flesh. Exactly what happened on Hayden’s airplane. Locke shuddered at the coincidence.

  “God’s covenant with Noah after the flood,” Dilara said, and then began reciting from memory. “‘And the bow shall be in the clouds, and I shall see it, and shall remember the everlasting covenant, that was made between God and every living soul of all flesh which is upon the earth.’”

  “What do you think all these notes mean?” Locke asked.

  “He told me his pet theory a number of times, but he never had the historical data to back it up, so I dismissed it. Now I feel so stupid.”

  “Don’t be too hard on yourself. For decades, the best scientists in the world discounted Wegener’s theory of continental drift. Now any geologist who disputed it would be considered a crackpot. What was his pet theory?”

  “That a mysterious scroll called the Book of the Cave of Treasures was the key to finding Noah’s Ark. It contained a secret so explosive that no one would believe it unless the actual Ark was found.”

  “Let me guess. He never told you the secret.”

  Dilara shook her head. “He said he was very close to finding it. In the days before he went missing, he had a breakthrough. The last time I spoke with him, he told me it was only a matter of weeks before he would stun the world with his pronouncement, and that I would be able to hold my head up and be proud of him. I thought it was another of his wild goose chases until Sam Watson came along and turned my world upside down.”

  Dilara leaned back and ran her fingers through her hair. The silver locket on her neck reflected the desk lamp and caught Locke’s eye. The locket that Dilara’s father had sent her just before going missing…

  “So you think the breakthrough was finding the Book of the Cave of Treasures?” he asked.

  “That’s as good a guess as any, but I’ve looked through all of these files. There’s nothing like that here.”

  “He would have wanted you to find it, right? In case he couldn’t complete his quest?”

  “I suppose so. But he never told me where the scroll was.”

  “Maybe he couldn’t. Maybe whoever killed him would have taken it if they had known about it.”

  “Then where is it?”

  “You said that your father never took that locket off, that you were surprised to receive it. May I see it?”

  She unclasped the necklace and handed it to Locke. He opened it and saw the picture of her mother.

  “Sam said my father wanted me to have it because he thought he might be killed.”

  “Do you know why he sent it to you?”

  “He said it was a birthday present.”

  Locke looked at the photo again. In the quick look he’d gotten at the oil platform after the helicopter crash, he hadn’t noticed that it had suffered water damage from Dilara’s time in the ocean. The photo was bowed out, as if something had expanded behind it. He took out his Leatherman and unfolded the knife.

  “Do you mind? I won’t harm the photo.”

  Dilara looked confused, but she nodded her assent. Locke pried at the photo until the plastic covering came loose. The covering and photo fell to the table, along with a tiny piece of paper.

  Dilara looked stunned.

  “I think there was another reason he wanted you to have this,” Locke said. He carefully unfolded the paper until it was a flat square no more than an inch on each side. A fine pen had written precise lettering, but the ink had run.

  “That’s my father’s handwriting,” she said quietly. “Even with the smudges, I recognize it.”

  Locke compared it to the notes and saw that she was right. He could make out three letters. B C T. Then a 1 followed by what looked like more numbers that had been rendered illegible by the smeared ink.

  “B C T,” Locke said. “The Book of the Cave of Treasures?”

  Dilara leaped to her feet with excitement. “This note is telling me where it’s stored! He must have hidden it before he di
ed!”

  “And if we can find it, it will lead us to Noah’s Ark.”

  “But the note’s ruined,” she said. “We’ll never find it now.”

  “Not necessarily. We’ve got some highly sensitive instruments here at the TEC. I’ll have our lab see if they can pick up what it says. In the meantime…”

  His cell rang. The display said it was Aiden MacKenna. Locke answered it.

  “Aiden, give me good news.”

  “Well, I might have something for you,” Aiden said in his Irish burr. “I finally had some time to delve in Sam Watson’s background. He worked for a small drug company named PicoMed Pharmaceuticals. Some kind of think tank. They’ve never produced an FDA-approved drug. I tried to hack into their servers, but it’s completely inaccessible. It smells like a military cover, but the odor is a little off.”

  “Why?”

  “I backtracked through our military and government databases. No mention of them at all. If they were getting funding from the government, they’ve covered it up well.”

  “How does that help us?”

  “Their CEO is someone named Charles Folsom. Ever heard of him?”

  “No. Should I have?”

  “Not really. Just a shot in the dark. Let’s move on to Project Whirlwind. Since we don’t have any idea who funded Oasis, I thought I’d start there. You remember the company behind it?”

  “Sure. Juneau Earthworks. So?”

  “They folded three months ago.”

  “That’s pretty convenient.”

  “I thought so too, so I checked their business registration. They were a Delaware S Corporation. The CEO listed: Henry Joseph.”

  “I don’t get it.”

  “Henry Joseph and Charles Folsom have one interesting thing in common with Rex Hayden’s brother. All of them were heavily involved with the Holy Hydronastic Church.”

  “You’re kidding!”

  “I did a little digging and found that most of the church’s funding comes from one source. A private corporation called Garrett Pharmaceuticals.”

  “As in Sebastian Garrett?”

  “You’ve got it. He’s the leader of the church. I saw that Gordian once worked on a contract for Garrett Pharmaceuticals. Did you meet him?”