by David Wood
“Shellfish are unclean,” Dima said. “But I don’t see any trap door.”
Maddock had a feeling he knew what to do. “Blood is the key.” He reached for his knife, but Bones stopped him.
“Let me do it this time.” Bones drew his own blade, made a small cut on his forearm, and held his arm out.
The moment the first drop of blood hit the stone, it sizzled. They all took a step back and watched as the sculpture turned a deep shade of scarlet. The cavern began to shake, and Maddock feared they had just made a big mistake. Then, with a sharp crack, a huge section of rock broke free and slowly tipped backward and crashed down with a hollow thud.
Silence reigned as they stood enraptured by the secret they had just uncovered. It was hardly the first hidden door Bones and Maddock had discovered, but there was something about what they knew lay behind this one that made it different.
“I think,” Maddock said, “we found it.”
Chapter 44
Maddock could tell the moment he stepped through the doorway that he stood inside a massive space. He swept his light in a circle, revealing a mammoth cavern a good two hundred paces in diameter. All around, alcoves had been walled off with planks, creating makeshift stalls. In some places, the formations created by the magma formed ramps that led up to more alcoves. In total, three levels of irregularly spaced stalls and pens were set in the cavern walls. Water dripped from the ceiling and gathered in a huge pool that took up nearly half the floor space.
“It’s incredible.” Dima uttered the words in a soft, reverential tone typically reserved for sacred spaces.
“This must be where Noah tended the animals until the flood waters subsided,” Maddock said.
Bones walked over to the closest stall and tested one of the boards. “Sturdier than I expected. I wouldn’t put any weight on it, though. Where do you think they got the wood?”
“I don’t know, maybe from that big wooden ship they floated in on?” Maddock said.
“Fair enough. Excuse my slow brain. This is freaking awesome, so I’m a bit distracted.”
They rounded the pool, inspecting the stalls, but all were empty. No artifacts, no animal remains, only bare stone.
“Where do you think we are?” Bones asked. “Inside the mountain?”
“Somewhere far beneath it, I’ll wager,” Dima said, taking out a camera and snapping pictures.
“Deep enough for water to filter down, probably from the lake.” Maddock took one more look all around. “Since there’s nothing but stalls here, Noah and his family must have lived somewhere else. Let’s try the upper levels.”
Since not all the levels were connected with one another, it took a while to cover them, but after some searching, they found a passageway on the third level that led out of the cavern. The way was barred by a wooden gate that shattered when Bones tried to open it.
“Sorry. I thought I was being careful.” The big Indian eyed the ceiling of the passageway. “Watch your heads. Lots of low-hanging lava formations here. I wonder if Noah was pint-sized, like Maddock.”
“You know Maddock’s not short,” Dima said, smiling.
“It’s my thing. Don’t ruin it for me.”
“You seem to have a lot of ‘things’,” she said, ducking down to follow Bones into the tunnel. “Like collecting women?”
“Where did you get that idea?” Bones glanced over his shoulder at her and managed to crack his head on a low outcropping. “Crap! See what you did?”
“Sorry. I just wanted to see how you’d react.”
Bones winced and rubbed his head. “Let’s just say I’m capable of change if someone gives me a good reason.”
Maddock cleared his throat. “If you two would take a break from your episode of The Bachelor, you’d see what’s through that doorway.”
They’d come to the end of the passageway. Beyond it lay another cavern.
Bones turned slowly, careful not to hit his head again. “Whoa!”
This cavern was easily as large as the one from which they’d just come. Here, too, water dripping from the ceiling formed a pool in the center. Up above, the slow flows of magma formed twisted, bulbous shapes like deformed fingers interlaced. Six large, evenly-spaced alcoves stood around the perimeter. Inside those closest to them, Maddock saw signs of habitation: roughly-hewn furniture, stone bowls, and stone and iron implements.
“This is where they lived,” Dima said. “It’s hard to believe we actually found it.”
They took a few minutes to examine the living quarters up close, Dima recording it all with her camera. The furnishings and implements were crude, but their age and the history behind them made them remarkable. Maddock felt dizzy looking at evidence that Noah had, in fact, lived, and that the ark story was, at its essence, factual.
Bones picked up a stone knife and ran a finger along its edge. “I gotta say, this never gets old. I’m always blown away by what we find.”
Smiling, Dima reached out and gave Bones’ hand a squeeze. “What do you know? You do have a soul.”
Something about the shape of the cavern gave Maddock pause. He moved toward the center, stopped at the edge of the pool, and looked around. And then it struck him.
“All the alcoves are triangular,” he said. “They’re all about the same size and spaced evenly.”
“So?” Bones asked.
“Picture a floor plan of this space. What would it look like?”
Dima gasped. “A six-pointed star! Do you think this place was the original inspiration for the Star of David?”
“Could be. If Noah and his family found shelter here after the flood, this cavern with its safety and fresh water must have seemed like a gift from God. That would explain why Noah carved the shape on the altar stone.”
“Speaking of the altar stone,” Bones said, “that thing is huge. How do you think they got it from here to there?”
“I don’t know,” Maddock admitted. “Maybe the answer lies through there.” He aimed the beam of his light toward another passageway to their left. “I think we should give it a look.”
Up ahead loomed a high, arched opening. Tyson held up a hand, signaling for the others to stop. He could tell by the shape that this was an actual doorway, not another of the many tunnels through which they’d passed. It had taken a bit of trial and error and two more lost mercenaries for him to intuit the meaning of the symbols above the passageways, but he’d finally gotten them here.
Ahmed sidled up to him and craned his head, trying to peer into the darkness. “Do you think this is it?”
Tyson flashed an angry look at Ahmed. “If it is,” he said in a voice that carried only to his comrade’s ear, “let’s not announce our presence to anyone who might be inside. Understand?”
Duly chastened, Ahmed nodded and took a step back.
Tyson turned to face his men. He held a finger to his lips to indicate they should remain silent, and then he turned, moved to the doorway, and listened. He heard nothing, save dripping water. He doused his headlamp, moved forward a few paces, and listened again. Still nothing. Tyson considered this. It was possible that Maddock’s party had wandered down the wrong passageway and fallen prey to one of the same traps that his own men had, but he doubted it. Zafrini was brilliant and Maddock and Bonebrake had proven themselves to be resourceful. Tyson had to assume his quarry waited somewhere up ahead. He would have to take a chance.
He turned on his light and stepped out into a cavern. He could tell immediately that this had been a barn of sorts—the place was filled with pens and stalls, with a pool suitable for watering livestock at its center. His heart raced at the thought that thousands of years ago, Noah had tended animals here, and had probably guided them down the very tunnels up which Tyson and his men had come before releasing them into the world.
He looked around, taking in the sights, and felt tension knotting his muscles. This was a dangerous place. All around were spots from which an enemy could stage an ambush. Maddock and Bonebrake coul
d hide in any of the alcoves and fire at him and his men from cover. But what choice did Tyson have but to advance? They would move quickly and quietly, and strike with ferocity.
The Trident would prevail.
Chapter 45
Maddock led the way up a steep incline and out into another cavern, this one smaller than the previous two. What he saw there stopped him in his tracks. Though their entire search had been aimed at this moment, he hadn’t fully expected to find it.
“The ark. It’s here!”
Before them lay the shattered remains of a wooden boat. Despite its present condition, he could still make out the bow and stern, which remained largely intact. It was huge. Noah and his family could have scavenged boards from it for their entire lives and there would have been plenty to spare. He took a few dizzied steps forward, letting the sense of wonder wash over him. They had done it.
Dima hurried forward to run her hands along the boards of the legendary ship. “I can’t believe it.” She stepped back, took out her camera, and began snapping pictures. “It’s real! I always believed there was truth to the story but I figured even if the ark had existed, it would have crumbled to dust by now.” She paused, lowered her camera, and stood beaming at the magnificent sight. “It’s magnificent.”
“There’s something that doesn’t make sense,” Bones said. “How did the ark get underground?”
“I have a theory.” Maddock shone his light up at the ceiling, where the tangles of magma formed a latticework of stone. “I think this was a deep depression or a place where a section of the mountain collapsed and formed this chamber. If the water subsided quickly enough, the ark could have been sucked into it. Unable to climb out, Noah and his family made their home in the caverns. Over time the slow-moving magma formed the ceiling we see now. Like you said, it’s still an active volcano, after all.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t blow until we get out of here.” Bones shot a nervous glance at the stone above them. “I don’t fancy a race against molten rock, not even the slow kind. We should hurry up and…” Bones froze.
“What is it?”
Bones pointed to the wall to their right. “Dudes. Big stone dudes.”
Maddock followed Bones’ line of sight. Standing like sentinels against the wall were three stone men. Truth told, they were barely men at all. They resembled vaguely human-shaped stacks of thin, flat stone. Maddock didn’t know why he was surprised—the stone men had been a key part of the Book of Noah, but to see them in the…not flesh, exactly, was still a shock.
“The Watchers,” Dima said.
“They look like Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots,” Bones said. “Big, blocky bodies, broad shoulders, square heads and fists.”
“Hopefully they don’t wake up and start punching us.” Maddock moved in to get a better look. Seen up close, each was a mottled pattern of various shades of gray. The stones that formed the creatures were fitted together with such precision that he wouldn’t have been able to see the seams were it not for the contrast in the rocks that formed them. He ran a hand along the forearm of the closest Watcher and felt warmth spread through his body. Whether the sensation was real or imagined, he could not say.
“You know, these guys are sort of the heroes of the Noah story,” Bones said. “They built the ark and protected Noah and his family. I’ll bet they’re the ones who placed the altar stone over the entrance to the passageway.”
“I can’t think of a word to describe them. All the superlative I know just fall short.” Dima once again raised her camera and began snapping photographs of the stone sentinels.
Maddock would have been content to stand there and admire the Watchers, but Bones nudged him.
“Do you feel warm?”
“I do. I think it’s…wait a minute.” He reached into his pocket and drew out his Noah Stone. “The third stone! It’s somewhere close by!”
“It’s got to be on the other side of the ark. Let’s go!” Bones hurried over to the broken middle section of the ship, which now was little more than a giant heap of broken boards, and climbed over. When he reached the top, he whistled in surprise. “Bro, you have got to see this.”
“I see another passageway up ahead. Do you want me to investigate?” Ahmed seemed to have finally mastered the art of speaking softly. Perhaps being brought up short in front of the men had finally made an impression on him.
“No. I’ll go first.” After the booby traps, Tyson had sensed the mercenaries’ confidence flagging, and he’d made certain to take the lead as often as possible. Long ago he’d learned what he called the Teddy Roosevelt Principle—men would willingly follow a confident leader who was not afraid to put himself in the line of fire.
The passageway was steep, and he moved slowly along it. He had a strong feeling they would catch up with Maddock soon. They’d already found the place where the animals were kept, and the place where Noah and his family had apparently lived. What was left, except the last stone?
And the prize he coveted most.
When the mouth of the passageway came into sight, he halted. The others stopped behind him.
All was quiet.
Tyson concentrated, bringing his senses to bear. He heard the beating of his heart, the rush of blood in his ears, the slow intake of breath from the men who stood close by.
And then he heard the sound of voices up ahead, so soft he could not make out the words, but there could be no doubt—they had finally overtaken Maddock. Smiling, he turned to his men and nodded. The moment was at hand, but there was no cause for haste. This had to be done properly. It was time to plan their attack.
Chapter 46
On the other side of the remnants of the shattered ark, a dozen steps led up to an alcove. Maddock went first, the stone in his hand growing hotter with every step. He couldn’t yet see what waited for them at the top of the stairs, but he could tell that the alcove had been carved with images of the sea: cresting waves, leaping dolphins, and coiled tentacles. His breath caught in his chest. This had to be it. When he reached the top, he froze, his eyes locked on a wondrous sight.
“What do you see? Is it…” Dima choked on her words when she reached his side. Behind her, Bones cursed and stopped short.
The body of a man lay on a simple block of stone. His wizened skin was a light shade of brown and stretched tightly across his frame. Long white hair spilled over his shoulders. His snowy beard was knotted in a braid that ran down the center of his chest. He wore only crumbling loincloth and a shark’s tooth necklace on a silver chain.
“Noah.” Dima dropped to her knees before the legendary figure. “I can’t believe he’s real.”
But Maddock wasn’t looking at the body of the Biblical patriarch. “I, for one, can’t believe what he’s holding.”
His words seemed to rouse Bones and Dima from their stupor, and they finally took notice of the object Noah held in a literal death grip.
“A trident!” Dima said.
Lying diagonally across Noah’s chest was a golden trident. A little more than a meter in length and the thickness of a man’s thumb, the ancient weapon gleamed in the triple beams of their flashlights. Maddock’s eyes followed the line of the three-pronged fork upward to the tip of the center prong, where a familiar-looking black stone was embedded.
“The third Noah Stone,” he said.
“What does this mean?” Dima asked. “The Book of Noah said God sent the stones from the sky. This doesn’t seem to match the story.”
Maddock glanced at Bones, who nodded. They were clearly thinking the same thing.
“It could have come from the sky,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
Before Maddock could answer, the sound of running feet caught his attention. He whirled about and saw nearly a dozen bobbing lights moving into the cavern.
“Turn out your lights. The Trident is here.”
Dima dropped to the ground as bullets buzzed through the air like angry hornets, ricocheting off the half-dome of t
he alcove where Noah had been laid to rest. All around her, the brittle lava shattered, spraying her with sharp fragments. She couldn’t believe what was happening. It was all she could do not to scream and run in panic. Somewhere close by, she heard Maddock and Bones return fire. She forced her eyes to open and looked to see what transpired.
It was a dizzying scene played out in darkness. The attackers had turned out their headlamps, and now only bits and pieces of the cavern were illuminated for a split-second at a time by the strobe-like bursts of muzzle flash. She could track the movement of the Trident’s men by their torrents of gunfire, and Maddock and Bones appeared to be waiting to target those flashes. She spotted Bones, kneeling atop the ark’s broken stern. He fired off a single shot and then rolled to the side as bullets tore through the spot he’d occupied an instant before.
More gunshots, and then a distant cry of pain. She could tell by the spot from which the sound had come that one of the Trident’s men had gone down. Good! Of course, based on her observations, she estimated another ten or so remained. What were they going to do? Maddock and Bones couldn’t possibly hold out against so many, could they?
A flashlight flicked on in the bow of the ark, and the Trident replied with a torrent of lead. What was Maddock doing? He was going to get himself killed.
As soon as the thought passed through Dima’s mind, Maddock rose up from a spot three meters away and fired into the knot of Trident men. One screamed in agony. But the others returned fire.
A bullet clipped the ground inches from Dima’s outstretched hand and she cried out in alarm. “Oh my God!”
“Dima! Find cover!” Bones shouted.
His words jolted her into action. She belly crawled around behind the bier on which Noah’s body lay, and curled up in a ball, trembling.
“Running low on ammo,” she heard Bones say. Maddock didn’t reply
She’d always thought of herself as capable and independent, but now she was entirely out of her depth. She cursed herself for her cowardice and her inability to do anything to save them. A sudden rage flooded her, and with it came a renewed sense of determination.