INDY: HE'S A FRAUD. NO ONE NAMED ZOBOLOTSKY IN 19th PETROPOVLOVSKY REGIMENT. PROBABLY NEVER CLIMBED ARARAT. MARCUS
"Oh, no."
"What is it?" Shannon asked.
"Take a look." He passed Shannon the sheet of paper.
"What's it mean?"
"It means we've been taken."
"Now that I think about it, he doesn't seem like he knows any more about Turkey than I do," Shannon said.
"And he's only made a couple of general comments about his last trip," Indy added.
"So what're we going to do?" Shannon asked
Indy shook his head in disgust. "He's got some explaining to do before I take another step up this mountain with him."
Katrina was glad to see that Indy and Jack had finally reached the campsite. She was exhausted from the day's trek and she wasn't even carrying any of the supplies.
"Do you remember it being so tiring, Papa?" she asked.
"I've tried to forget about that part," he answered. "I'm only thinking about the Ark, and that we will soon see it."
She could hardly believe it herself that they would actually reach the Ark tomorrow. She was anxious not only to see it, but to photograph it. She'd been so relieved to find out that the police had recovered her cameras from Aya Sophia. But she felt guilty that Omar and Ahmet were carrying her equipment as well as the other supplies.
She would've liked walking with Indy or Jack, at least part of the day. But she knew Papa wanted her to stay by his side. Ever since their escape from the underground city, he wanted her to have as little as possible to do with either of the men. He'd made Indy his scapegoat for all their troubles, and she felt sorry for him.
In spite of the intimacies she had shared with Indy, it was Jack who preoccupied her. She thought about him so much, she couldn't even look at him anymore for fear he would see it in her eyes. He wasn't as handsome as Indy, or as self-assured. But he was struggling to find himself and she could understand that. She knew all about it. And he was a jazz musician; that fact alone fascinated her. She had never heard jazz before she migrated to the United States, and even though her father was against it, whenever she heard the music it triggered something deep inside her.
She knew it was no use telling Papa how she felt, not about jazz or Jack. It would only make things worse. At least for now. Besides, there was really nothing to say. Jack hadn't really told her how he felt about her. He seemed to watch her a lot, but he'd hardly spoken to her. She remembered, though, how he'd hugged her in the underground city after she'd driven away the Russian twins with the torch. It had been an emotional moment, when, for a few seconds, the barriers had broken.
The two Turks had caught up with Indy and Jack, and she and her father were only a few yards away when she heard the sound of barking. Several huge dogs—or maybe wolves—raced across the sparse landscape toward them. "Look, Papa!"
"Dikkat! Dikkat!" Omar yelled. "Hurry, danger."
"Up here!" Indy shouted from the top the rock he'd been resting against.
"Papa, run!" she screamed.
As they raced toward the rock the barks grew louder and were mixed with howls. Indy pulled Jack up, then both men helped Omar and Ahmet. They were just steps away when her father slipped. She stopped to help him and saw the charging dogs, their teeth bared leaping at them. She froze; it was too late. She covered her head with her arms and squeezed her eyes shut.
But the animals stopped short. She heard their snarls, felt their hot breath on the back of her neck. Slowly, she raised her head.
"Don't move!" Indy said in a low voice from the rock.
The dogs growled and pawed the ground. There were five or six of them. They looked like wolves, but they wore spiked collars around their necks. Then, beyond the dogs, she saw several men standing on the prominence staring down at them.
"Are they Janissaries?" Jack asked.
"No," Omar responded. "They're Kurds."
Slowly, the men picked their way through the rocks. They wore long beards, turbans, and simple outfits woven from raw wool. As they neared, Ahmet called out to them.
"Merhaba! Hello!"
The men didn't reply.
"Lutten kopegi tutun. Hold your dogs."
One of the men said something and the dogs whined and backed away, wagging their tails and holding their heads low. The men stepped forward, and examined the expedition's gear, and spoke among themselves.
"What do they want?" Zobolotsky asked.
This time Omar spoke to the men, and they answered him. "They want to know what we're doing here."
"Tell them," Katrina said.
Omar gave what seemed like a long, rambling speech. Katrina understood none of it. The one who seemed to be in charge, the oldest of the band, responded with a few terse words.
"He wants to know if you are Russians," Ahmet said. "They don't like Russians on their land."
Katrina knew that they were near the Russian border, and she'd heard Omar say there were hostilities between the Russians and the Kurdish tribesmen.
"Tell him we're Americans," Zobolotsky said.
"I already did," Omar said.
"Then ask him if he knows about the Ark," Indy suggested.
The old Kurd listened to the question, then waved his hand toward the mountaintop as he answered.
"He says that it's impossible to climb higher on the mountain. It's a holy place and is protected," Omar said. "The Ark is up there, of course, but they never would try to look for it. He says if we try to find the Ark, we will only meet our deaths."
"Optimistic fellow," Jack remarked.
At that moment, the old Kurd pulled a long knife from his belt and hurled it at Katrina. It landed next to her foot, where it had pierced the head of a snake.
The Kurd picked up his knife and tossed the snake. He directed a few words at Katrina, then said something else to Omar. He motioned to his band, and they moved away without another word.
"What did he say?" Katrina asked.
"He said the snake was poisonous and was about to strike you," Omar replied. "Then he told me that we better not kill any of their sheep or they will kill us."
Indy jumped down from the rock. "That sounds like a fair deal."
Katrina looked down at the ground where the snake had been and rubbed her hands over her arms. When she raised her head, Jack was staring at her. She could tell he wanted to say something. She smiled shyly at him and looked away.
"Let's move on to the shelter and get the camp set up," Zobolotsky said.
Indy spoke up. "Not quite yet. I've got a problem. I don't think you've ever been here before, Vladimir. I think you're lying about seeing the Ark."
"What are you talking about? You saw the Ark wood yourself, and you know that it is holy."
"All I know is that you were never in the Nineteenth Petropovlovsky Regiment."
"Why do you say that now that we are almost to the top of the mountain?"
"Because it only recently came to my attention. Okay?"
"You're crazy, Jones. Let's go, Katrina. We'll carry our own luggage. We don't need these madmen."
Katrina was startled and surprised by what Indy had said. But now something that had happened a few years ago suddenly made sense. Everything fell together and she knew that her father had been lying to her for years.
"He's telling the truth, isn't he, Papa?"
"What, are you against me now, too?"
"Don't you remember, Papa? I told you about the man who came to our house and was so glad that you were alive. He said he was in the army with you, but that you had disappeared during a battle with the Germans in 1917. When I told you about it, you said it must be another Vladimir Zobolotsky. But it was you, wasn't it? You were never in Turkey, were you?"
Zobolotsky looked away.
"Mother and I didn't hear from you for a long time, then you came home with this story about Turkey. Why, Papa, why?"
"Stop it." His face was lined with anguish. In a softer voice, he s
aid, "All right. It's true."
"But, Papa, what about the Ark wood? Is it just another lie?"
"No, it is from the Ark."
"But you just said—"
"I know what I said." He ran a hand over his face, gathering his thoughts.
Katrina could tell he was going to give a lecture, but she sensed this one was going to be like no other she had heard from him.
"I was a young doctor and I was sick of death," he began. "We were being sent to the front lines and I knew most of the men would die. Millions were dying. The villages were stacked with bodies. I was overwhelmed by blood and death. It was horrible. So I fled back to Russia, but I could not go home because I would be arrested for deserting. Instead, I joined the Bolsheviks."
Katrina could hardly believe what she was hearing. It was as if her father had been transformed into another man. She didn't know him anymore.
"What's this got to do with the Ark?" Indy asked
"I'm getting to that. I didn't tell the Bolsheviks I was a doctor, because I would have been too valuable. At that time I was very naive, and wasn't sure of where I stood about these political matters. They made me a courier, and that was when I found out about the Ark."
He explained how he and another man had captured a White Russian courier en route to the czar. They found that he was carrying photos and descriptions of the Ark and explanations of how it was found, and deep inside the man's satchel, Zobolotsky had found the Ark wood.
"You see, I was a religious man, and when I found this, I knew it was a message from God. I could not be a part of the godless Bolsheviks. I wanted to take the satchel myself, but the other Bolshevik courier wouldn't allow it. I know now that I should have killed him and sent the White Russian on his way to the czar, but everything happened so fast. All I managed to get was the Ark wood."
"What happened to the rest of it?" Indy asked.
"The courier delivered it to the command post. I suppose it fell into Trotsky's hands. As for myself, I fled home, and in the confusion of the revolution I escaped with Katrina to America. I never forgot what I saw in the courier's satchel, and of course I took the Ark wood with me. I knew that one day I would come here."
"Why didn't you just tell the truth?" Katrina implored.
"At first, I was afraid to admit that I had associated with Bolsheviks. I was worried that I wouldn't have been allowed to enter the United States. Then once I had told my story and people listened, I couldn't change it. No one would believe anything I said about the Ark if they found out I had lied about climbing the mountain."
"You're damned right there." Indy pulled the cable out of his pocket. "I wouldn't be here now if I'd picked up this cable while we were in Istanbul."
Katrina took it from him and read it, then handed it to her father without saying a word. In spite of Papa's explanation, she didn't understand how he could be such a religious man and at the same time live so long with a lie.
Her father crumpled the cable and tossed it down. "The important point, Jones, is that the soldiers of the White Russian Army did climb the mountain and find the Ark, and so will we."
"Unless the whole thing was a fraud," Indy said. "Maybe none of it was real. Maybe it was just a ploy by the czar to keep the Russian people on his side and against the revolution."
"I don't believe that," Katrina said. But now she was wondering about the Ark wood. Had she taken the real Ark wood or the false one from the safe that night in Chicago? Did it matter? Maybe it was all just her belief and had nothing to do with the wood.
"We'll find out soon enough."
"Now, can we move on to the shelter?" Zobolotsky asked.
The words were no sooner out of his mouth than the crack of a firing rifle cut through the cool mountain air. There was a moment of stunned silence, then Katrina screamed as her father collapsed. She dropped beside him. "No! No!"
Indy and Omar and Ahmet were yelling in Turkish and Jack and Indy in English. Two of them grabbed her father under the shoulders and another carried him by his feet. This couldn't be happening. She couldn't believe it.
A bullet ricocheted off a rock near Katrina's head. Jack pulled out a gun, dropped to one knee, and fired wildly. Then he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and they rushed toward the shelter.
In her mind she saw Papa a few hours earlier, pointing to this place where they would camp.
And where he would die.
Indy had no idea where the rifle had been fired from or who had fired it. What he knew was that Zobologsky was dead.
Shannon and Katrina were huddled together under the shelter of rocks as long shadows fell across the mountain. Her head rested against Shannon's chest and his arm was draped around her shoulder. Zobolotsky's body was covered with a tarp just a few feet away. Two hours had passed since the first volley had been fired, and they'd heard only one other shot, distant and muffled, fired about half an hour ago.
Indy stood on guard, his rifle pointed out toward the fading light. Omar and Ahmet had left to investigate after the last shot was fired, and they hadn't returned. He ducked back down under the shelter. "I'm going to start the kerosene stove and heat up the soup."
"Good idea," Shannon said. "Give me the rifle."
Indy tilted his head toward Katrina. "She going to be all right?"
Katrina looked up and nodded. "I'm okay," she said in a barely audible voice.
Just then several more shots were fired. Indy spun around, but it took him only a moment to realize that the shots had been fired from well out of their range.
"What the hell's going on out there?" Shannon asked.
"Don't know, but I'll find out." Indy crawled out of the shelter. "Be back in a little while."
"Indy, it's going to be dark in a few minutes."
"Good. They won't see me."
He moved off in the direction from which he'd heard the gunfire. He was worried that by now Ahmet and Omar were beyond help. But he couldn't just leave them out here.
He hadn't gone far before he saw a long shadow moving over the rocks, then another. Monstrous shadows. They were coming his way and he could see rifle shadows, too. He ducked behind a rock and took aim.
The one in the lead was in his site when he disappeared behind a rock. When he came into view again, one of the last rays of sunlight fell across him and Indy recognized Ahmet. Omar was behind him; they were alive.
"Hey, over here," Indy said in a hushed voice when Ahmet was with ten yards.
Both men ducked behind rocks, then Omar called out, "Indy, is that you?"
Indy stood up and ran over to them. "What was the shooting about?"
Both men started talking at once in a mix of Turkish and English. Indy couldn't make any sense of what they said. Finally, he took Ahmet by the arm. "Try again. Slowly this time."
"Okay. We walked in the direction of the shot we heard, and when we got close, the Kurds jumped out and captured us. We thought they were going to kill us, too."
"But it was the sheep, you see," Omar said.
"No, I don't see. What sheep?"
"The two Russians, the twins. They are the ones who shot Dr. Zobolotsky," Ahmet said. "Then they must have decided to celebrate their victory. So they shot a sheep for their dinner, but the Kurds saw them."
"And they killed them?"
He shook his head. "No, they only shot them in the legs so they die slowly. The Kurds showed us what they did, then they let us go. They only wanted us to see what they did to those who killed their sheep."
Indy looked up in the direction the Turks had come from. He knew that a wounded man could be as dangerous as a cornered animal. He didn't put it past the Russians to come after them, even with wounded legs.
"Let's go take a look," he said.
"This way," Omar said. They climbed over rocks for several minutes. The light had faded almost completely when they reached the base of a rise.
Ahmet pointed to the top of it. "We can see from up there."
They'd taken just a co
uple of steps when they froze at the sound of a ferocious growl that made the snarling dogs sound like puppies. "What the hell was that?" Indy asked.
Boris wasn't as badly wounded as Alexander, who was bleeding heavily from the bullet in his thigh. They had to get the bullets out, and Boris was ready to operate on his brother. After that, he'd tackle his own wound. He didn't trust Alexander to do the job, especially after he was done with him.
"What are we going to do? We can't climb down the mountain," Alexander complained. "We're going to die here."
"Shut up and pull the tourniquet tighter." Boris poured vodka over the wound. "Drink this. It'll help." He passed him the bottle; Alexander took several gulps.
"Okay, get ready."
Boris dug his knife into the wound, and Alexander screamed. But the scream was lost amid a bone-chilling growl from right behind them. Boris's knife slashed out of control down his brother's leg. He turned his head and saw two huge bears hovering over them. They must have stood ten feet tall with arms thicker than his own thighs. One of them bared three-inch incisors and growled again.
Boris raised an arm, and the bear swatted his massive paw at him, shredding his forearm.
"No! No!" Boris scooted on his back as fast as he could.
"Boris, help me," Alexander screamed.
The other massive beast picked up Alexander, wrapped his arms around him, and squeezed. Then he shook him as if he weighed nothing. The bear growled at Alexander, shook him again, then ripped out his throat.
But Boris didn't see it. He only saw the razor-sharp claws slashing at his head, then felt his face being torn from his skull.
From the top of the rise, Indy peered down and saw the Russians receiving the same savagely brutal treatment they had so readily dished out. They were sprawled on the ground, and a pair of gigantic brown bears were viciously tearing them apart. A few yards away, as yet untouched, was the carcass of the sheep, which the Russians would never eat.
Too bad, guys. Too bad.
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The Final Ascent
Indiana Jones and the Genesis Deluge Page 20