Solomon's Throne

by Jennings Wright

  Mr. Wandere assured them, happily, as he was making quite a large profit on the entire enterprise, that he would find them wherever they were should Mr. Xavier call back. They determined to be back at the office within an hour, and stole a half hour to walk the beach and take some photos on their respective iPhones. It was a gorgeous location, right on the Indian Ocean. Dhows were sailing far offshore, fishing. There were paths down through coastal forest to the beach, but no other buildings, as far as they could see in either direction. They walked, hand in hand, in the warm water, pants rolled up, stealing some quiet time.

  They were sitting at a table, shaded by a thatched umbrella, when Mr. Wandere came running out of the office waving the phone over his head.

  “Bwana! Bwana! Telephone, sir!” He handed the phone to Gideon with a flourish and a grin. “Thank you, please!”

  Gideon took the phone. “Mr. Xavier? You found it? Great! Hang on a sec, let me get Rei’s paper.” Rei passed him the notebook and pen, and she and Mr. Wandere both stood by as he talked, nodded, questioned, took notes, and ended with, “I’m not sure, probably have to fly. Let me discuss it with Rei and see what can come up with. I’ll call you back… If Mr. Wandere doesn’t mind?” He looked at the manager, who nodded eagerly.

  After Mr. Wandere took his phone back to the office, promising that they could use it any time at all, Gideon explained what Mr. Xavier had discovered.

  “Good news, bad news, I guess. Apparently the “stone houses” are in Zimbabwe. Something called Great Zimbabwe. And as an aside, the word Zimbabwe actually means “stone houses”, if we’d only known. Anyway, it’s 175 kilometers from Harare, where the main airport is. And Zimbabwe’s not exactly stable, so we don’t want to go driving alone through the countryside. There is a small airport at Masvingo, which is only 10 miles away from Great Zimbabwe, though. The bad news is that we’re going to have to go back to Inhambane to fly out. Mr. Xavier has a membership through the AmEx card that gives him jet hours. So he can have a plane get us tomorrow, and take us to Masvingo.”

  “Back to Inhambane, though? That makes me nervous…” Rei chewed her lip.

  “I know, honey. But we can’t drive to Great Zimbabwe; it’s just too far, and even more unsafe than our friends the monks. Otherwise, we’d have to drive back to Maputo, and that’s two days. I think we’re going to have to risk it. We can stay here tonight, leave at first light, and go right to the airport. And that lets us put the Prado in the airport parking lot—I’ll call the mechanic and tell him, and leave some more money in the glove box. I don’t see that we have much choice…” Gideon shrugged.

  “You’re right. I know. I’m just fed up with those guys making everything so complicated! OK, call Mr. Xavier and tell him we’re going.”

  Mr. Wandere was very sad to see them go, as they’d paid him for the air time and a ridiculous “general use fee” for his phone, as well as giving him a huge tip. However, he made sure they had a good breakfast, hot coffee, and some fruit to take with them. He gave them directions directly to the airport, and promised the utmost in discretion should anyone ever come and ask about two wazungus in a Prado.

  They made the drive back in good time, and left the Prado in the lot. They had called the mechanic who had rented it to them, and told him where it was, and he’d assured them he had a spare key. They told him that he could keep anything they had to leave behind, and imagined he’d be quite pleased to find that included a motorbike and two helmets. They made sure, however, that there was nothing that could be traced to them or to Xavier International anywhere in the vehicle.

  The word ‘airport’ was perhaps a bit extravagant for the actual facility. It consisted of a tin shed, mostly rusted out, a rickety wood tower with a shredded wind sock, and two runways. As they walked through the building to the table that served as the desk, they saw a gleaming jet sitting on the runway. The young man sitting at the desk, in a very official looking uniform for such a small airport, looked up at them.

  “May I help you?”

  Gideon nodded to the plane, while Rei took the immigration exit cards and quickly began to fill them in. “That’s our ride. Will you please tell the captain that we are here?”

  The man nodded and got up. He walked outside, consulted with another African standing outside the shack, and then walked to the plane. He went around to the other side, and up the steps. After a moment he descended and returned.

  “The captain says he will do the pre-flight check. You may stay here and he will come for you. Twenty minutes.” The young man rather nervously looked out the window. Following his gaze, Gideon saw that the older man he’d spoken to was on a cell phone, facing away from them.

  “I think we’ll take a seat on the plane and wait, thank you. It’s been a long day already, and we’d rather relax.”

  Looking somewhat disconcerted, the young man asked, “Papers, please?”

  Rei and Gideon withdrew their passports, and opened them to the Mozambique visa. Rei laid the exit cards next to them. The man made a show of looking them over, but in the end there was nothing he could do but stamp them and point them to the door. They gathered their bags and hastily walked to the plane. Gideon saw the man with the cell phone look at them, and then to the window of the building, in surprise.

  “Hello?” Gideon called out as they ascended the plane’s stairs. The captain came out looking surprised.

  “They told me you wanted to go in twenty minutes. Sorry—I was just finishing my sandwich.” He held it up apologetically.

  “Interesting, since he told us you had to do a pre-flight check. We need to go now, though, if we can.”

  The captain shrugged. “Sure. We just got here—no need for a pre-flight.” When the Quinns had gotten themselves and their bags into the plane he pulled shut the door. “Hey Jimmy!” He yelled forward. “Start ‘er up. We’re a go!” He got their gear stowed, showed them the seats, and told them to buckle up. The plane’s engines started, and he went to the cockpit.

  Looking out of the window, Gideon saw a Toyota Land Cruiser screech to a stop in front of the tin terminal, and two men in black jumped out, in time to see the airplane start its taxi down the runway.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  The flight in the Cessna Citation took only an hour. They landed smoothly at another small, two runway airport in Masvingo. Looking out, Rei saw that the other runway was grass, and couldn’t help feeling glad for the asphalt one they were using. The terminal building and tower looked interchangeable with the one in Inhambane, down to the rusted roof and the wide open doorway. The petrol tanks were placed under a thatched roofed building off to the side. It was, overall, a run down but adequate stopping place.

  Not used to much traffic, the couple of workers at the airport made them feel most welcome, with bottles of water and sweet biscuits. Their captain, an American named Joe McMillan, told them that he was instructed to wait for them, and that he and the co-pilot would be staying at a local hotel. He gave them his cell number, and told them to call with a head’s up when they knew when they’d want to leave. He started to go back to the cockpit.

  “Wait, Captain. How about we go with you? We probably can’t get to where we’re going at this point, it’s a bit late in the day. Maybe you can book two rooms at the hotel Mr. Xavier suggested, and we’ll start first thing in the morning. Hopefully it’ll just be the one night, and we’ll be on our way this time tomorrow…”

  McMillan amiably agreed, and they gathered their bags and went to wait in the terminal. A taxi had already been called, a small old van that had seen many better days. The old driver was sitting in a rickety folding chair next to the vehicle, dozing. When they came out he awoke, and helped them put their suitcases into the van, where they sat to wait.

  “Those monks will be able to find us, because Captain McMillan would have filed a flight plan…” Gideon said morosely.

  “Yeah. I know. I think maybe we need to go on out to the site, even if it is the afternoon… If they can
get their hands on a plane, they’ll be right behind us.”

  Gideon sighed. “Probably. Getting your hands on a private plane isn’t as easy as it sounds, but you’re right.” He climbed out of the van and went inside to speak to the driver. A few minutes later he came back.

  “The driver said that the site is open until 6:00. We’re about a half hour away. So we’ll have a couple of hours, but I don’t know how we’ll find anything in that time. He said the place covers almost 1800 acres!”

  Rei’s face blanched. “1800 acres? We’ll never find it!”

  “Maybe we just need to get a map. They must have some kind of guide map for visitors. And then we’ll have to figure out the most likely places, like we did in Cape Town. I don’t see anything else we can do… We can’t wander around looking for a big X. We’d be there for months!”

  Rei nodded, discouraged. They didn’t know anything about the site except the location from Mr. Xavier, and now this disconcerting news about the size and scope of it. How would they ever look over that much land? It was impossible.

  “There is some good news,” Gideon continued. “The African Sun has internet…”

  They arrived at the African Sun Hotel, and realized that it was actually called the Great Zimbabwe African Sun, and was adjacent to the site. Hence the front desk was more than willing to supply them with a site map, and instructed them on the satellite internet connection, available in the lobby area only. Rei took her backpack and sat in a comfortable chair while Gideon was shown to their room by a uniformed attendant.

  After much surfing, Rei realized that she wasn’t going to get very much information online. Most was supplied by either the World Heritage Sites website, which was largely an overview, or by tour companies, which offered much the same. Wikipedia, not necessarily the most reliable source, listed eighty-five references, but most weren’t available online. Sighing, Rei closed her computer.

  She was having a cup of hot African tea and studying the site map when Gideon returned. “The rooms are in Captain McMillan’s name, not Xavier or the jet company. Hopefully that’ll slow them down, although it’s obviously the hotel closest to Great Zimbabwe, so if they assume that’s where we’re headed, they’ll figure it out soon enough. Whatcha got?”

  “Not much on the internet… But I think I can narrow it down. Not that I’m right, obviously, but we have to start somewhere. Here look…” She turned the site map so he could see it clearly.

  “Now, Great Zimbabwe has absolutely nothing to do with Christianity or the Catholic Church, so we don’t have any hints there. But now that we know what he’s hiding and how, we know he needed privacy to do it, and would choose somewhere he thought would last for a long time.” She pointed to a circle on the map. “Here, there’s a conical tower. It probably didn’t have anything to do with religion in any way. But the walls are twenty feet thick, and it’s fifty-six feet wide at the base. The tower is still standing today, thirty-six feet high, so it’s obviously solid. I think that’s a good possibility, probably on the inside, as they would have been hidden while carving the X and digging.

  It’s part of an area called the Great Enclosure, which is the most preserved part of the ruins. It might be wishful thinking on my part, though. I’d say the second choice would be here,” again she pointed. “The Hill Complex. This is the oldest part, and there were a lot of artifacts found there, including the soapstone birds that are on the Zimbabwe flag. Supposedly this was the home of the kings, and of King Solomon’s mines, and we’re looking for King Solomon’s throne, so that might have appealed to Father Eduardo, if he even knew it. It’s hard to know what those early explorers knew or understood about the site, though.” She shook her head.

  “Those both look good, Rei. At least it’s a start…” Gideon put his arm around her.

  “I know. It’s just so huge! If I’m wrong—even if I’m right, really—there is so much ground to cover. Literally.”

  “We’ll start there, at the tower. Because we’ll be hidden, too. And then we’ll go to the Hill Complex. And if we don’t find it… we’ll just try to think it through again.” He folded the map. “Fast.”

  After dropping her laptop in the room, Rei found the room attendant and asked directions to the site of the ruins. They thought it was better not to telegraph to the staff at the front desk that they were already exploring, so they made sure to go around and out of sight of the main hotel buildings as they walked. The African sky seemed huge and almost white, acacia trees dotted here and there. There were many kinds of birds that they had never seen before, and they could see small groupings of duiker and warthog. While they were not alone at Great Zimbabwe, the tourists seem to be on the way out, rather than on the way in.

  They purchased tickets, and quickly followed their map to the Great Enclosure. It was amazing sight, and must have been quite shocking to stumble upon when the Portuguese first found it in the 1500’s. Huge stone structures, of indeterminate but obviously ancient age, rose up out of the grass. Complex buildings, still in remarkably good shape, dotted the area in three distinct areas. Of course, the brochure pointed out, the Europeans had assumed that white people had been here before them and built it, as they couldn’t fathom the native Africans having such skill.

  Parts of the enormous wall had tumbled down, and candelabra trees and acacia had invaded the buildings. The grass was brown, awaiting the rainy season. The large conical tower was shaded by a large narrow tree that seemed to have placed its entire canopy over the gap left by the missing roof. They walked through a long corridor between the outer wall and an inner wall, both twenty feet high and at least ten feet thick. Rei felt a bit claustrophobic, and was glad to come out in the small courtyard where the entrance to the tower was.

  They hadn’t met anyone inside the Great Enclosure, but now they encountered an elderly couple who seemed to be examining the tower brick by brick. Rei looked at Gideon, eyebrows raised. Her question was clear, “Are they looking for it, too?” Gideon shrugged and went to make conversation.

  “Hello! This is amazing isn’t it?” He swept his arm to encompass the tower.

  “Oh indeed!” said the man, a strong South African accent apparent. “The wife and I have been wanting to come here for ages, and finally we just said, ‘why not, we’re not getting any younger!’ And besides it’s not that far from home. Of course you can hardly get into the country, with this crazy government, at least if you’re white. But then we’ve been on the other side of that coin, so I suppose we can’t complain. Isn’t this just magnificent? Margaret and I are trying to see how many stones and bricks were used to make this tower. We thought we’d count them within a cubic meter and multiply, but the wall’s so thick it’s impossible. Probably been done already, of course, but we amateur archeologists like to check the professionals’ work, you know.” The man laughed and took a deep breath. “Oh, my, look at the time! I think our driver was coming back twenty minutes ago… Margaret, dear, we must go. We shall reevaluate our plan and return tomorrow. Good bye now!” And he turned to walk off, his wife in tow.

  The Quinns watched them walk away, and laughed. “At least we’re not counting bricks!” Rei said.

  Once inside the tower, they stood in the center and looked at the walls in the filtered light coming down from the roofless top. The floor was dirt and scattered stones. The stones in the wall were laid well, with no mortar between. There did not appear to be any original carvings, although there was the sort of carved graffiti that all such sites seem to attract. They still only had the one small flashlight, so they decided to start at the entrance and work around counter clockwise. They looked up and down, from head height to the floor.

  Halfway through they found a mark that appeared to be the bottom “V” of an X. Excitedly, they began digging into the dirt directly underneath, but found nothing down to a depth of eighteen inches. Rei examined it again.

  “This doesn’t look the same as the other X marks we’ve seen. I mean, it’s hard to kno
w, it’s so old. But Father Eduardo seemed to make a deep center mark and the edges sloped up. The other marks were about four inches tall. This one is more squared off, fatter, and taller.”

  Gideon filled the hole and tamped down the soil. “Onward…” he said, and brushed off his pants.

  They didn’t find anything else in the tower that pointed to Father Eduardo’s clue. The sun was much lower on the horizon and it was getting dark inside the tower. Standing outside in the fading light, Gideon looked at the outside wall.

  “Should we take a quick tour around the outside? Can’t hurt… “

  Rei said, “There’s enough light if we split up and go fast. But I don’t really want to walk across that bit of flatland back to the hotel in the dark!” Gideon thought he heard her mumble, “Creatures…” as she jogged around to the back of the tower.

  They went as quickly as they dared, trying to balance speed with careful searching. Neither found anything. When they met in the middle, they were discouraged. While not having said it, both had felt that the tower was their best bet, and finding nothing was very frustrating.

  “Damn.” Gideon put his hands on his hips and looked around. “It’s just so freaking big!”

  Rei pulled on his arm. “I know. We’ll go back to the hotel and look at the map again. But can we please just go?”

  They hurried along the path that linked the World Heritage site to the hotel. The sun was almost gone, and the stars had come out in great array. Rei didn’t notice. She had her little flashlight out, and was shining it back and forth in agitation, talking to herself.

  “What animals live in Zimbabwe? Do they have lions? Of course they have lions, it’s Africa… And probably hyena. God, I hate hyena, they freak me out… What else? Leopards? I’d like to see a leopard. From a car.” A bat swooped down, chasing an insect, and Rei let out a shriek. “Oh my Lord! Run!” She started off down the path, but Gideon grabbed her.