The Hunt for the Tree of Life (Book One 1)

by Zulu, Arthur

  “Saturday, 9 P.M. Eastern Standard Time. At Citizens Restaurant, America’s Main Street.”

  “I will find my way there, Muse. Thanks for the favor.”

  “I am indebted to you, Cramwell. See you.”

  As soon as Professor Muse hanged up, he placed his finger at Ecclesiastes chapter 1 verse 2 and read: “The greatest vanity!” the congregator has said, “the greatest vanity! Everything is vanity!”

  Look at that, he thought. So elegant, so simple. The answer is in the second line of that verse.

  The Hebrew language rises in a crescendo like the beginning of an orchestra till it reaches a climax. A theme idea is started, developed, and brought to a finish.

  In fact, the theme of the whole twelve-chapter book of Ecclesiastes is found in the penultimate verse of chapter 12. He opened to Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verse 13 and read: “The conclusion of the matter, everything having been heard, is: ‘Fear the [true] God and keep his commandments. For this is the whole [obligation] of man.’”

  Thank God for Professor Bright Cramwell!

  He began to recollect his Bible readings: Adam and Eve were in Eden in the Middle East. When God drove them out of the garden, they exited east of Eden since the garden was surrounded by mountains except at the East end.

  After Cain killed Abel, he also wandered east of Eden to the Land of Fugitiveness or Nod. Noah and his family probably lived east of Eden before the Deluge. His ark, after dancing around the global ocean for more than a year, finally rested on Mount Ararat—a short distance North-north-east of Eden.

  And Noah’s rebellious offspring commenced false worship at Shinar, South of Eden, not too far away.

  All these things happened almost in the same area! Why was it so? In fact, even if the Flood had moved Eden and the tree of life round and round, they would still be in the original place—in the Middle East!

  He stood and read the Methuselah poem hanging on the wall:

  The Flood came and swept the tree of life away, even Eden+o

  Yet, the tree and the garden remain, as God decreed at the beginnin’+o

  The Garden of Eden and the tree of life are in the original location, Professor Muse said affirmatively to himself.

  They had not moved!

  He smiled and wrote his interpretation of the mysterious poem for the White House.

  Professor Cramwell sat meditating over the discussion with Professor Muse. He laughed at his friend’s choice of words. Champagne Submit. Not even a Beer Summit. His friend was talking the language of the White House. It was good to be close to the corridors of power.

  He thought about the assignment that would have made Professor Muse call him and discuss in Harvardspeak. Whatever it was, it must be something religious. Yes, some Biblical task.

  And that was strange. Very strange.

  He tried to make sense out of the Harvardspeak phrases: Hebrew prosody. Oracular in Alpha or Omega. Inquisition Nemesis.

  Maybe his friend was being poetic. He might just as well be working for some End-time pastors trying to figure out the Final Hour. The second coming of Christ. And there are so many of those Armageddon pastors in America.

  Talk of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse in the Bible book of Revelation. His students would easily know their symbols but when it came to knowing when the ride began, they are stumped.

  Or it could just as well be that Professor Muse was looking for the key to some secret vaults in the Vatican.

  He laughed again. He would ask him many questions during the Champagne Summit.

  These were only guesses. Cramwell’s musings. What does he know?

  There are many secrets in Washington.

  Chapter 3

  If interpreting the poem was Herculean, its discovery was no less. It led to an encounter between the navies of the United States and China in the Aegean Sea. The clash was widely reported by the media.

  The United States Navy was the first to spot the object of interest – a large stone – deep in the sea. The stone, it was thought, had broken away from around Eden and rolled down into the Aegean Sea during the Deluge.

  However, what was of interest was not the stone itself, but what, according to Hebrew tradition, Methuselah had written on it. Getting those lines was worth eternity!

  The American naval fleet cordoned off the area soon after the find. The excitement was palpable on the faces of the naval officers and felt in Washington. But the poem was not visible yet.

  It sure must have been inscribed on the reverse side of the stone facing the sea bed. Turning it upside down was not a feat, but doing so without damaging the poem was.

  There were delicate matters that mistakes should not be made. And this was one of them.

  There had been intense activity at the Chinese intelligence headquarters in Beijing. The secretly launched surveillance satellite had been zeroing in on the intense American naval activities in the Aegean Sea. It peered under the sea; a large stone was seen.

  The mission controller was sure of what the Americans had found. Quickly, he sent a coded message to Mr. Bo Yong, the Chinese security chief.

  Moments later, the security czar was sitting with the Chinese President Wing Wang.

  “We have got them, Mr. President,” said Yong placing a report on the president’s desk.

  “Americans think that they are the smartest people on earth,” said the president after reading it. “Race down the naval ships, Mr. Yong! I like this fight. And remember this: We either get it or nobody,” he said, a mischievous smile playing on his lips.

  The security chief nodded and dashed out.

  Back in his office, Bo Yong sent out the president’s orders. Moments later, Chinese naval ships began cruising to the Aegean Sea.

  NATO had been doing joint military exercise down the Mediterranean Sea. The exercise was covered by CNN and BBC. Such maneuvers are regular features. There has recently been a rise in piracy and terrorist activities in North Africa. So it was meet that the NATO joint exercise at the Mediterranean would scare the life out of the pirates and terrorists.

  The commander of the NATO military fleet had just exchanged signals with the American and Chinese military intelligence. He seemed satisfied with their answers. U.S. is a member, China was an observer.

  But both American and Chinese intelligence had sold the general a dummy. For he never knew of any stone in the sea bed with the Methuselah poem. And that was their quest.

  When the Chinese naval ship arrived at the Aegean Sea, a dozen American naval ships were in a V-shape formation about one nautical mile from Izmir, Turkey. The Chinese had figured out the exact location of the hunted stone from the space surveillance satellite, but the Americans were in control. The Chinese could go no further or else risk an outright military confrontation. What next?

  The Americans saw the advancing Chinese ships. Late comers. They would have turned the stone and taken photos of the poem before their arrival. Poor communists!

  None but China gets this poem, the president had warned.

  The Chinese went out for the only option. The controller in Beijing was alerted. Sadly, he shook his head, pressed the button of a guided missile, and within minutes the precious stone was smashed to smithereens!

  The pandemonium caused by the missile explosion and the resultant tsunami could better be imagined than described. Ships sank. People panicked. And sea creatures fled. The reverberation was felt from North Africa to Europe.

  The NATO commander and his officers were initially shocked. But later came the moment of truth.

  “To the rescue!” he immediately ordered his officers. And NATO airplanes and ships went to action. CNN and BBC crew followed. It went down as the greatest NATO military rescue in peace time. Air force planes flew floating naval officers suspended on ropes to NATO ships, while other sailors swam into small rescue boats from where they climbed into the ships.

  The media went into frenzy with sensational news headlines: “Meteor Sinks War ships.” “Unkn
own IBM Destroys Naval ships.” “US and Chinese Navies do Battle.” “Blood Flows in the Med. Sea.” “Et’s Declare War.”

  Only CNN and BBC television viewers could tell the true story. Because the NATO exercise was telecast live. And the viewers saw no dead bodies. Save for brave sailors catching loose ropes or climbing into boats. Like a movie . . .

  The meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York was over. Everyone was surprised. Because the American-Chinese clash was not discussed. Neither was it on the agenda. Only the activities of rogue states were on the table. Nations like North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, and Somalia.

  The UN scribe, was most worried. Why did America and China not bring up the matter? he asked himself. Well, they are both permanent members of the world body and they would do what is right at the proper time, he surmised.

  The Chinese and American heads of state were surprisingly seen shaking hands and smiling into the cameras. They seem to be saying to each other, I got you! Members wondered if that was a new kind of diplomacy.

  So they accepted the official line: accident. No one knew that there was more to it than meets the eye and that each party had a cause for celebration.

  “Did you say that our naval officers photographed the poem before the missile strike?” the United States President Bill Godsend asked the Attorney General Paul Lawman, the mission coordinator.

  “Yes, Mr. President,” he replied. “But the camera is in the captain’s cabin of the sunken ship.”

  “All’s well since no lives were lost,” the president replied. “The task now is to recover the camera and the film from the deep sea.”

  NASA had launched a spy satellite for the hunt built by the National Reconnaissance Office – one of the big five security agencies in the U.S.

  After the American-Chinese clash, it was combing the seas for USS Katrina, the sunken American naval ship that had the camera and the film of the Methuselah poem.

  And they felt secure in their secrecy.

  Yet, China was watching . . .

  “That is the American spy satellite trailing their damaged naval ship, sir,” said the Chinese controller to Mr. Yong at the intelligence headquarters. He nodded. “And at the sea bottom are American naval ships monitoring and wanting to salvage the wreck.”

  “Can you see anything special in the wrecked ship?” he asked.

  “Nothing yet,” the controller replied.

  The Chinese had turned their spy satellite to spy on the American surveillance satellite spying the seas, moments after it was launched. They resorted to this old communist game in their bid to outsmart the Americans and be the first to find the tree of life.

  And when it comes to espionage, no one can beat China!

  Admiral John Fisher had not had a job like this in all his years in the United States Navy. How he would have loved to find the camera in the deep sea.

  Yet, it couldn’t be said that he had failed. His officers photographed the poem several times before the Chinese missile strike. Now, finding the camera in the mangled ship in this vast sea was another feat.

  Thanks to NASA, they could see the ship driven by current under the sea. He and his officers had hoped for fine weather to enable them to seize and haul the ship aboard. Yet, the opportunity hadn’t come. So they merely followed the ship.

  There was a sea current that flowed westward at that time of the year in the Mediterranean Sea. The wind drove the wrecked ship under the sea through the many Greek islands to Crete.

  They continued to Sicily known as the Island of the Sun in classical mythology, where Helius, the Titan sun god, kept his oxen.

  The westward journey continued north of Africa through the sea.

  It was now almost certain that the damaged ship was heading toward the Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco. That narrow strait, thought Admiral Fisher, was the best place to trap the rolling ship if everything went well. Because if the ship finds its way through the strait to the Atlantic, it would become a wild-goose chase.

  So he led ten ships to block Gibraltar, while two were left following the spoilt ship from Sardinia. Under the sea, USS Katrina kept moving toward the straight.

  And Fisher and his officers kept waiting.

  The Katrina rescue at Gibraltar was progressing apace. As Fisher speculated, massive rocks underneath the straight stopped the ship’s advance into the Atlantic. The twelve naval ships encircled the area for the salvage mission. A crane on board one of the ships for the lifting was positioned.

  Two divers went into the sea. They were to examine firsthand the ship’s state—especially the captain’s cabin—and look for an opening to hook up a chain from the crane to the ship.

  The first dive brought good news: The cabin was intact. Admiral Fisher and his officers cheered. The second confirmed that there was a point at the ship’s hall for the chain hook-up. They cheered again.

  The crane then lowered a big and long chain with a hook into the sea. Divers attached it to the damaged ship. The lifting began. It was a slow and careful process.

  The ship was lifted high above the water. The sailors cheered wildly. As it was about to be hauled on board, the hook yanked off from the point of attachment and fell back into the sea. The sailors gave a cry.

  And the Chinese were watching . . .

  The ship's rescue mission now entered the dreaded phase at the Atlantic. This S-shaped ocean, the second largest after the Pacific, is divided by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

  This long North-South sub-oceanic mountain, home to groups of several islands, stretches up north from Iceland down south toward Antarctica. It is thought that the Americas parted from Africa and Eurasia from this long ridge millions of years ago.

  The United States Navy was not completely caught napping. They had a contingency plan.

  An American submarine had been waiting at the bottom of the Atlantic off the seaport of Tangier in Morocco, north-west of Africa. So when Katrina raced from the strait into the vast ocean, Admiral Fisher’s ships and the submarine kept tabs.

  There is a deflecting force that circulates ocean current to the right on the North Atlantic and to the left in the South Atlantic called the Coriolis Effect. Therefore, when Katrina entered the Atlantic Ocean, it started moving up clockwise.

  The Mid-Atlantic-Ridge prevented the ship from crossing left. So it kept to the right side of the ridge speeding past dozens of seamounts and volcanic mountains called guyots.

  But off the Bay of Biscay between West France and North Spain, the current ebbed, and the ship got stuck in a trench.

  It was now time for the first Atlantic rescue. Admiral Fisher’s officers repeated the Gibraltar salvage exercise. The crane lowered a second chain 3,000 meters to the ocean’s bottom. Two divers went deep to hook it up to Katrina.

  Unfortunately, it was shark territory, and the rescue was then put on hold.

  And China was watching . . .

  “We will get the ship,” Admiral Fisher assured his officers. “It is not for nothing that we have been at sea for six months.”

  His officers seemed weary. When would they be able to win this Atlantic race? How much longer would it take for them to seize this ship and ferret out the Methuselah film? Had China not overtaken the United States in this hunt?

  However, Neptune, the sea god, seemed to be on their side. For an eddy lifted up the ship from the trench and the north-east race continued. But it was not until they reached the British Isles that another rescue opportunity presented itself.

  Katrina was blocked in its north-bound journey by a giant seamount. This attempt must not fail. It was close to the end of the year, and the sea was getting colder.

  The sailors were about to reach the ship when they were jolted by an earthquake east of Greenland. The quake caused a storm, which prevented the mission.

  The storm dislodged the ship from the seamount and was now moving through the Norwegian Sea toward the Arctic Circle. The hardest part of the salvage mission began. The
water was freezing and the naval officers were freezing to death too. Then at 300 longitude just before Barents Sea, north of Norway, the ship froze. All hope was lost!

  One good thing though is that Arctic waters freeze at the top, not at the bottom. So while Katrina remained frozen on top, the American submarine was watching in the waters beneath.

  Fisher and his officers were encouraged, knowing that soon the hunt would end. But they had to accomplish a feat—break through the ice to the ship’s location, climb the top of the frozen ship, cut into the captain’s cabin, and recover the camera.

  There was nothing that intrepid sailors with the right tools could not accomplish. For days, Fisher’s ships were breaking and advancing through thick ice. When they finally reached Katrina, the Admiral led the team in the arduous task of cutting through ice to the ship. They finally cut into the captain’s cabin where for hours they searched for the camera.

  Then an officer touched something hard and square.

  It was it!

  The discoverer quickly grabbed it, gave a shout, and handed the small camera over to Fisher. They all crowded around him. He cleaned out the ice and held up the camera with the words: “Mission accomplished, officers!”

  And the Chinese spy satellite took a photograph . . .

  Mr. Bo Yong was discussing with his two Chinese officers, who brought him the photo.

  “So this is what they have been looking for at the Atlantic?” he asked, sounding nervous.

  “Yes, sir,” replied one of the officers. “I think they took a picture of the Methuselah poem before we came.”

  “They have beaten us to it,” added the other. “But the hunt is not over yet.”

  The security chief shifted uncomfortably in his seat on hearing that. His eyes were glued to the picture.

  “It isn’t over,” he said and sent a coded message to the secret agents in the Chinese Consulate in New York, which reads: “Get the Methuselah poem immediately from the Americans!”

  With that, he rose reluctantly to brief the president. And the two officers left.

  A mixture of curiosity and satisfaction showed on the faces of the twenty Chinese spies huddled in the Chinese Consulate in New York after listening to the wiretapped telephone conversation between professors Muse and Cramwell.