by K. T. Tomb
As she sat, she suddenly noticed a tree with a fruit high up off of the ground. The toddlers would never have been able to reach it. “What is that?” she asked Peter pointing to the fruit.
“I think they call that coco de mer,” Peter replied. “Why?”
“The toddlers would never have been able to reach that.”
“So?”
“Well, let’s think for a minute. The miniature trees were put here to give sustenance to the toddlers who happened upon the Fountain, right?”
“I don’t know. What are you talking about?”
“Well, the blood was poured from the chalice, etc. So, if that was done to create the Fountain, then can’t we assume that the trees were put here as well?”
“I don’t know, Phoe. I—”
“Get me one of those damned fruits!”
Peter did as she said and gave her a fruit. “What if they make the kids sick?”
“We have to take that chance. Besides, even as a toddler, I wouldn’t mind getting back at Carlo a little bit.”
“You are ruthless, Phoe.”
Carlo was brought to her and she gave him some of the fruit. Within moments, he was restored to the adult that he had been before.
“How did you get away? Where’s Mr. Imperioli? Who are all of these people and babies?” Carlo was obviously confused by the change. One moment, he had been drinking from the Fountain and the next he was surrounded by completely different people.
“It worked,” Phoe shouted. “Bring Angelo.”
Angelo was transformed as well, as were the other toddlers who had been brought along.
“Gather up more of the fruit and let’s get moving,” Ami reminded them. “Although the charge isn’t exactly close, we don’t know for sure how things are going to react here. We gotta move, now.”
***
“I really have to thank you for all that you’ve done, Ami,” Phoe said as Ami stood beside her in the hangar as she and her team prepared to board the jet.
“Well, let’s just say that we had a great deal of mutual interest in taking care of this problem.”
“You’re so cryptic,” she laughed.
“Do you think it is right what my wife and I have done?”
“You mean, not changing your two colleagues back?”
“Yeah. Was it really fair for us to want to hold on to our two boys? My wife simply couldn’t do it and, well, she might have been right about confusion and such. I mean, who knows what sort of effects may have taken place over a period of time. They were different than the toddlers you know—”
“Don’t overthink it, Ami,” Phoe interrupted. “Besides, if later you have a change of heart, you can always come back and change them.”
“I suppose you’re right.”
“What about the Fountain?”
“One of my guys went back and ran some tests. It’s fouled with seawater. It won’t do anything but give you a bad bellyache if you drink it now.”
“Actual human test?”
“Actual human test.” He rubbed his stomach.
“And here I thought you just had a little bit too much champagne when we were celebrating the other night.”
“Well, you need to get going. All your guys are getting on board.”
“Yeah.”
“Where you headed?”
“For now? Taos, New Mexico. I have a few more fences to mend and I have to take Charlotte home. After that, who knows?”
“You won’t be in trouble with the boss for not bringing back some water from the Fountain?”
“Who says I’m not?” She smiled; she was getting good at the coy look.
“Well, we both have some secrets then,” he replied, extending his hand.
Phoe took his hand, said goodbye and then turned toward the plane. After a few strides, she turned back. “Hey, Ami?”
“Yeah?”
“What happened to Imperioli?”
“He was offered a drink of water, after which, he didn’t seem to be himself.”
“I don’t suppose he knows about coco de mer.”
“Not a chance.” Ami grinned.
Phoe turned away and strode up the stairs into the jet. It was always satisfying to finish a dangerous job and bring everybody home in one piece. She had known enough times when that hadn’t happened but she tried to keep those times out of her mind.
“All right, folks. Let’s head to Taos!”
The End
Phoenix returns in:
The Ark of the Covenant
Return to the Table of Contents
THE ARK OF THE COVENANT
by
K.T. TOMB
A Phoenix Quest Adventure #5
The Ark of the Covenant
Published by K.T. Tomb
Copyright © 2015 by K.T. Tomb
All rights reserved.
The Ark of the Covenant
Prologue
After Pharaoh released the Israelites from Egypt, they began their return journey back to the homeland that God had promised to Abraham. Under the leadership of Moses and his brother Aaron, they crossed the Red Sea by a miracle of God and then started across the desert to ‘the land of milk and honey’; traditionally known as Canaan. However, the Israelites were a stiff-necked people and were made to wander in the desert for 40 years due to their disobedience. During their wandering, God provided a tabernacle, which was a portable temple where the priests would accept sacrifices and offer them to God for atonement. Within that tabernacle was the Holy of Holies, a particular part that was partitioned off from the rest of the tabernacle where the Ark of the Covenant was placed and it was upon the mercy seat of the Ark that blood from the sacrifices was sprinkled to serve as atonement for the sins of the people.
A symbol of God’s presence with his people, the Ark of the Covenant was a chest made of acacia wood and inlaid with gold. Within it were the stone tablets, upon which God’s one finger had written the Ten Commandments, a jar of manna, the bread from heaven with which God fed the Israelites in the desert, and Aaron’s healing staff, which had miraculously grown a bud. It was fixed with loops on the outside in order to be carried by a select group of the priesthood. The instructions and penalties for mishandling the Ark of the Covenant were very clearly outlined and God’s wrath was demonstrated on numerous occasions to prove that the covenantal chest was not to be trifled with. Touched or found in the company of those who were unworthy, plagues, tumors and even rays of fire would wipe out anyone who came near it.
With the Ark of the Covenant in front of them, the Israelites set forth to conquer Canaan, beginning first with the destruction of Jericho, when the Israelites carried the Ark around the city for seven days, and then with a mighty trumpet blast, watched the power of God as the walls of the city crumbled to rubble and those inside were delivered into the hands of the Israelites. From that moment forward, the Ark was at the forefront of every battle as the Israelites regained their homeland. It was brought into Jerusalem behind King David, who was said to have danced before the Ark wearing nothing but his loincloth as a symbol of his humility before God.
Thus, the Ark of the Covenant remained in Jerusalem and God’s presence remained with the people of Israel to protect their city and to receive their atoning sacrifices. The last Old Testament reference to the Ark is found in 2 Chronicles verse 35 when it was to be moved into the temple of Solomon during the reign of King Josiah, who sat on the throne from 640 to 608 BC. After that reference, no one is certain what became of this holiest of holy relics.
Chapter One
Thalia Phoenix was pretty sure that she was being followed.
It had become a pretty common occurrence for her, though she had never quite been able to shake the tingling feeling in her gut whenever it took place. Having spent a great deal of her life being observant of her surroundings, and, on occasion, fighting for her life, she’d developed a sense of that sort of thing. Just to be sure, she turned rapidly and looked directly at the man who
was pretending to be interested in the postcards in the small Santa Fe Plaza gift shop. His eyes turned away rapidly, but not before revealing a moment of disgust that he’d been caught.
She moved slowly toward the exit, pretending interest in a beaded leather bag with an outrageous number on the price tag. She could afford it, but having a collectibles shop of her own, she felt that the price was a little bit more than the actual quality dictated. When she was near the door, she quietly slipped out, hurried to the right, away from the windows of the shop she had been in, and turned down a narrow alley. From there, she picked up her pace and then turned down another alley. Within a few minutes, she had made several zigzags in the alleys and streets near the plaza. She pulled the cell phone out of her Versace bag.
“Charlotte,” she said, a little too sharply. “Meet me at the capitol building in about fifteen minutes; sooner if you can.”
Charlotte instinctively knew that something was wrong by her tone. “What’s up?”
“I’m being followed.”
“Okay, um, okay. I’ll be there as quickly as I can.” Though Charlotte had been on one of Phoe’s adventures before, the sudden, clandestine-like nature of the phone call rattled her a bit.
“Thanks.” Without listening for a reply, she disconnected the call and then punched the speed dial button to make another one.
“Captain Sanchez,” she said as soon as he answered her call. “How quickly can we be in the air?”
“I’ve got to get to the airport, file a flight plan, do a preflight… An hour and a half?”
“Can you make it an hour?”
“I can try, but I’m not promising anything. What’s up?”
“I’m being followed.”
“What else is new, but why the panic?” Phoenix was normally very cool about that sort of thing.
“Just a hunch.”
“Where are we headed?” Sanchez asked.
“Anywhere for the moment,” she responded. “Ultimately, Venice.”
“Okay, I’ll get on it. Be careful.”
“As always.”
“That’s not exactly reassuring.” He chuckled.
Phoe disconnected the call and walked briskly along the street. Having spent most of her life in Taos, she knew downtown Santa Fe very well. It was only a short walk from the plaza to the capitol building.
Though she had been there a number of times before, she had visited the Georgia O’Keefe Museum earlier that morning and had simply wandered over to the plaza. It wasn’t often that she was able to relax and do some window shopping. Window shopping was about all that she would do in the plaza. There were a few legitimate places to shop there, but she wasn’t really in the market for anything in particular. Her slow, leisurely pace was what ultimately led to her discovery of being followed.
At first, she had just passed it off as a man who was attracted to her soft features and slender form, but when he continued to appear in the same shops that she did, she started to feel like she was being followed, and the tingling sensation had begun. When she made her sudden move, she was instantly aware that he was not just an admirer.
As she walked down the side streets that ultimately led to the Santa Fe River Park and then to the state capitol building beyond, she formed a picture in her mind of what she had seen. His features were Slavic, perhaps Ukrainian or Romanian. Even though Taos and Santa Fe were often a draw for people from a number of different places in the world, the man she had seen simply didn’t fit. His reaction also revealed that he was up to no good.
The split second of frustration that was in his eyes told her that he was a professional, and that she’d made a fool of him. He had, no doubt, spent a couple of minutes chastising himself, and at that moment, allowed her to slip away from him. She recalled the features of his face, but mostly his eyes. There was something foreboding in them that had rattled her a bit. She’d seen that look too many times. It was a look that she’d seen on the few occasions that she’d nearly gotten herself killed.
Maybe I’m overreacting. Could someone like her, who lived on the very edge, afford to be flippant? As a Vatican explorer, she was shocked at how many people either wanted her dead or were waiting for the opportunity to snatch up whatever treasure she had uncovered. Being extra cautious had served her well. The larger questions on her mind, however, were: who and why?
She was more or less on vacation, having finished up her last assignment, finding the Fountain of Youth. Things had gotten pretty dicey toward the end of that one and she’d wondered if she and her team would make it out alive, but it hadn’t been any worse than some of the quests that she’d gone on before. So, had she pissed someone off or was someone just keeping track of her all of the time? The look in the man’s eyes hinted at the former, but it was hard to tell with men from that region of the world; they always seemed to have those cold, dead, killer’s eyes.
She went through the run-ins that she’d had over her last several quests, but was coming up with a blank when it came to having pissed off anyone from the Slavic region. The region, which had once been Yugoslavia and other Soviet satellite states, had been in turmoil for more than a decade, so most of that area had been dealing with their own problems and not particularly interested in the movements of an amateur archeologist. Was she still an amateur? She had been initially, but having gone through what she had over the past several years, she was becoming a hardened professional. I like the sound of ‘amateur archeologist’ better.
As she crossed the Santa Fe River and started across the park toward the Round House—which was the pet name for the New Mexico State Capitol Building—she realized that as good as it had been to be back in Taos tending to her shop, it was time to head back home to Venice. The thought shocked her a little bit the moment that it hit her. Was Venice home? Up until that moment, Taos had always been home to her. It still was on that deeper, rooted level, but more and more often, there was a longing for her penthouse apartment on the Grand Canal. Not more than a month or so before, she wasn’t sure that she was at home there. Maybe I’m just losing my mind.
New Mexico’s state capitol building didn’t have a lot of the glitz and glamour of most of the state capitol buildings in the U.S., but its unique adobe-like structure was a reflection of the Native American culture that was prevalent in her state. What it lacked in elegance, it made up for in uniqueness and when all was said and done, it served its purpose and was always well maintained. However, it wasn’t exactly on the level of the European architecture that Phoe had grown accustomed to. Was she becoming a spoiled rich girl? She found a bench with enough shade to keep her comfortable while she waited for Charlotte.
She had a home in a city and location that most people couldn’t afford; she had a private jet and limo complete with the staff necessary to have them ready at her whim. Plus, she could almost snap her fingers and make things appear. She had Simon Kessler and the Vatican to thank for that. All in all, she was happy with the way that her life was turning out; though she would have to admit that it was nothing like the life that she’d expected to have after growing up in Taos.
She saw Charlotte’s car as it came up Don Gaspar Avenue. She rose and started walking toward the lane where cars and buses pulled in to drop off and pick up passengers in front of the capitol building and made eye contact with Charlotte as the car came to a stop.
“Hey,” she said, opening the door and plopping into the seat without bothering to unburden herself of her purse and the few items that she had collected in a couple of small bags. “Thanks.”
“Where are we going?” Charlotte asked as the car started forward again and she maneuvered around a minivan dropping off several Navajo girls for a visit to their state’s capitol. She paused, glanced up Don Gaspar Avenue and then merged into the street and accelerated forward. She had to make a pretty quick move to get into the right-hand turning lane in order to get on Paseo De Peralta.
“Airport,” Phoe replied simply.
As the car c
ame to a stop at the intersection, Phoe looked over her shoulder, wondering if her follower had caught up with her.
Chapter Two
The Times Online
HEADLINE: Leak May Allow the World a Look at the Ark of the Covenant
The Ark of the Covenant, an ancient Jewish religious relic that seemed to have completely disappeared more than 25 centuries ago, will be exposed for all the world to see, due to a leak in the roof of the building where it is reported to have been residing since the 6th century BC.
The relic is believed to rest inside the Chapel of the Tablet in Aksum, Ethiopia, where it was allegedly brought by a son or grandson of King Solomon’s wife, the Queen of Sheba. Within the Ark are said to be the stone tablets upon which the original Ten Commandments were written, a jar of the manna from the desert journey of the Israelites in the wilderness, and Aaron’s staff, which miraculously grew a bud.
Though it is doubtful that anyone will be allowed to take a look inside the sacred Ark, it is likely that it will be exposed when it is moved out of the leaking structure until it is repaired. Thrill seekers, archeologists and religious leaders will likely descend upon the small town of Aksum in northern Ethiopia in the hope of getting a glimpse of this legendary…
“Here you go, Sunshine.” Charlotte’s voice sang out as she placed a plate in front of Phoe, interrupting the article that she was reading on her tablet.
What had she been thinking? It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but Charlotte’s enthusiasm about being brought along to Venice was making her rethink her decision. No one, even Charlotte, should be so perky in the morning.