The Great Thirst Boxed Set

by Mary C. Findley

  “No!” Keith cried out as the pale helicopter swung back into view and started peppering the ledge. David grabbed up his gun, cracked the door, and started firing at the attacker again. The Magnum helicopter wobbled and Keith tried to help him steady it.

  “We’re too loaded down for me to maneuver like this.” David let a curse slip through his teeth as he reached back to secure his weapon with his injured arm. “Sorry. Sorry. I’m going to try to set down.”

  “What are they doing?” Keith saw the belly of the other copter disgorge an object.

  “It’s some kind of weapon!” Cindee screamed. “Oh my God! They’re bombing the well!”

  David jerked the controls and the Magnum copter shot into the air, swinging over sideways and twisting them all in their harnesses. Keith hadn’t had a chance to strap in, still trying to finish bandaging David’s wound, and he was flung down against the winch in the floor headfirst. Stars shot through his vision but he managed to see, upside down, through the bottom of the plexiglass door, Talia launch herself off the cliff, feet first, toward the pool at the bottom of the well, just before the other helicopter vanished and blast went off.

  Chapter Fifty-eight – Static in the Headset

  “Mr. Bradley … Keith … Please, can you wake up? David can’t fly the copter. Please, we need help!”

  Keith opened his eyes and stared up at Cindee tugging his shirt almost off of him, trying to lift him out of the recess where he lay tangled up in the rescue harness. His head pounded but he saw David hanging halfway out of the pilot seat and felt the helicopter dipping and weaving crazily.

  A weird crackling sound made him remember that he still had the headset on. He assumed it had been damaged when he fell, but had no time to worry about it. Lurching forward, he applied more gauze to David’s wound and bound some cloth Cindee shoved at him around it as tightly as he dared. David’s eyes fluttered open and he raised a hand to tap the ear piece on his headset.

  “Yeah, I guess it’s broken,” Keith grunted. “Keeps making those noises. How do I level this thing out? Hey! David! C’mon, the copter is – like – flying drunk, or something.”

  The two of them fought with the controls for several minutes. David’s voice was barely above a whisper but Keith managed to follow his instructions from the co-pilot seat, which appeared to have duplicate controls. He was tempted several times to rip the headset off to stop that annoying click-pop-static sound. David could barely move but he continued to twitch his head and fiddle with the earpiece.

  “Okay, so where do we head now?”

  “There’s a hospital not too far from the Harappa site,” Cindee supplied. “We already had to take Jiggly there because he almost cut his finger off. Oh, my God … Jiggly.” She sobbed into her hands, trying to muffle the sound.

  David nodded and together he and Keith got the course set. David sagged back in his seat and whispered, “Alive,” fixing his eyes on Keith.

  Keith glared at him. “There is no way.” He was fighting tears so hard. That image of Talia sailing off the cliff feet first wouldn’t stop repeating in his mind, eyes open or eyes shut. “Can I take this stupid headset off? It won’t shut up with that – y’know – crackling and stuff.”

  “Alive.” David tapped his ear piece. “Morse code. A-L-I-V-E.”

  “You mean that’s Talia?”

  David nodded.

  “Of course, Talia of many languages would know Morse Code.” Keith wanted to hug David. “How do we make this thing go faster?”

  David smiled and pointed out the throttle. “I’ll tell Evangel you’re coming,” he whispered.

  “David will be fine,” Cindee reported as Keith prowled by the ER doors with two cans of AMP and she joined him in the waiting area. She grabbed one and had it open and half gone before Keith could ask if she wanted it. “They had to give him some blood but most of the time it was just nurses admiring his six pack. I didn’t think they were allowed to have lustful thoughts here.

  “Naddy … not so sure.” Cindee sighed deeply. “He did have a massive heart attack, and they have a surgeon coming to operate, but they complimented us on getting him here so fast and said there’s hope. He’s as comfortable as they can make him, and so is Sophie, in a recliner by his bed.”

  Keith didn’t want to remember that insane helicopter flight with David passing in and out of consciousness and his headset full of not-so-helpful hospital personnel trying to help him land on the roof, demanding patient vitals for Naddy, and filling his ears up far worse than the long-out-of-range Morse Code scratching that he longed to be able to hear again.

  “So how can I get back to the caves?” Keith demanded.

  “You can’t. Look at the news.” She pointed to a grainy broadcast showing black and brown clouds billowing up over a scrub-filled landscape.

  “Is that Gondrani?” Keith sank into a chair. All the voiceover and captioning was in … Urdu? … whatever …

  “They’re saying drought conditions collapsed more of the caves and somehow a brushfire got started,” Cindee grunted. “No, I don’t speak Urdu, or much of anything they speak here, but it’s all anybody that speaks English is talking about here in the hospital. Some people are even complaining about squatters being careless with campfires. Somebody sure had a cover story ready.”

  “Nobody said anything about the bomb, or the shooting? Nobody here saw that David was shot?”

  “The bullets passed in and out, I guess. They didn’t find any in him. I … I didn’t want any trouble, or too much attention, so I just didn’t offer any explanation. They don’t even know we came from Gondrani and not Harappa.”

  “Yeah. I guess that’s best. Those poor people living in the caves,” Keith murmured. “But … I have to get back there. I have to find Talia. Just because she’s alive doesn’t mean she isn’t hurt. She needs help.”

  “I know. I know. Look, in half an hour or so, Dr. Tariq Hamza, the local liaison who’s helping us with this dig, will be here. Sophie’s a mess, so I have to stick around and help her reassure him that … I’m not sure what we can reassure him of, but I need to be here to do that. Afterwards, we’ll get over to the Harappa camp and I can get the Land Rover. I know how bad you need to get to Gondrani, and I’m with you, but it’s the best I can do.”

  Keith nodded, drank AMP, and started pacing again, rubbing the back of his neck. “What about the tablets and stuff in the helicopter?”

  “They’ve promised no one will touch the helicopter until David can fly it out of here. That reminds me. He showed me how to lock it up. We need to go do that before Dr. Hamza gets here.”

  Keith and Cindee made their way up to the roof. Cindee secured all the doors to the helicopter and Keith noticed that the keychain had both a Star of David and a cross hanging from it.

  “David’s something else, isn’t he?” Cindee murmured as she fingered the ornaments on the chain. “He wanted me to stay, but sometimes you don’t have to understand the language to grasp the meaning. I couldn’t take those nurses clucking like hens over a new rooster, even in Urdu, or whatever. He was so embarrassed.”

  “Yeah, he is something.” Keith tried to ignore the wrench in his gut, watching Cindee’s transparent worship of David. He wanted to do a little worshiping of Talia, but at this point, he didn’t know if he’d even hear clicking in the headset. Alive. Just keep believing it. She’s alive.

  “Wow, that hen and rooster thing – it doesn’t sound like archaeologist talk,” Keith laughed.

  “I grew up on a farm,” Cindee replied. “Becoming an archaeology assistant was my way of escaping. Not so glamorous, after all. I still spend most of my time in the dirt. It’s just older dirt.”

  “Well, at least you have a sense of humor about it.”

  “Keith, don’t you wonder who sent that helicopter? And the gunmen at the hotel? Do you think it was that reporter who tried to kidnap you? We never had trouble like this on digs before. Everybody says how special you are, and you’re the ke
y to figuring this Testament stuff out. So, since they couldn’t kidnap you, are they just going try to kill all of us and snuff you out too?”

  “I wish I could say you’re crazy for thinking that. Jenny Kaine could be behind all this, yeah, but she’s just one reporter. She already tried to track us or make us sick by our Bibles. And she did that exposé to discredit believers. It failed pretty miserably. Now she’s shooting at people and blowing up ancient archaeological sites? She must be crazy.”

  They went back downstairs and checked on Sophie and Naddy. Keith thought his color and breathing were better. Sophie looked very worn and worried, but said the surgeon had informed the staff of his arrival time and any minute they would come to prep Naddy for surgery.

  “Find our Talia, Keith,” Sophie said. “Continue the work. Don’t be afraid of what men can do. What God can do is more. So much more.”

  “Sophie, Dr. Hamza will be here in a few minutes. I figured I could help you –”

  “I will deal with Tariq,” Sophie said, pushing them toward the door. “Go. Get the Rover. Find our Talia.”

  They caught an elevator and when the door opened David stood inside, grinning at them in spite of looking pale and just a little unsteady on his feet. His T-shirt looked a lot worse for the wear, and Keith could see a little of what the hens had been clucking about.

  “What are you doing?” Cindee gasped. “Did they release you?”

  “Here are the signed forms acknowledging it is against medical advice and absolving them of blame if I drop dead.” David waved a sheaf of papers. “I’m taking you in the helicopter to Harappa to get the Rover. The life of the flesh is in the blood, remember? I just needed a little more life, and now I’m good to go. Besides, you need a lecture about leaving me in the clutches of women I care nothing about, my Luna Moth.”

  Cindee turned scarlet. Keith covered his mouth with his hand and still snorted out a laugh. David swung an arm around Cindee and kissed her as soon as the elevator doors were shut. Then it was Keith’s turn to blush.

  “Are you sure you’re okay to fly? Because I am not that great with the co-piloting stuff, as I’m sure you noticed.”

  “I’ve been teaching Cindee,” David replied. “She’s all but licensed. She was just freaked out because of everything that happened. You can regather your strength for the task ahead in the back seat, Heart-holder. My Luna will catch us up on her beautiful wings if we start to fall.”

  Chapter Fifty-nine – The Big Bathtub

  They made it safely away from the hospital to the dig site at Harappa. Keith could hardly focus on the ancient city as the helicopter passed over it, but he had to ask one question, to be faithful to the people at Gondrani who had sacrificed their safety, their heritage, and maybe their lives, for the cause. “Where’s this big bathtub?”

  “You mean the great bath?” Cindee pointed and snickered. “Never heard it called a big bathtub before.”

  “The lady at Gondrani said we’d find more artifacts under there,” Keith said.

  “First we must find a way to get back to Gondrani and into that well,” David said.

  “I’ve been checking the news on my phone,” Cindee said. “I’ll drive us anywhere, but they’re saying the caves are off limits. Seismologists even recorded something they thought was a minor earthquake, which might have been the explosion, or might have been something the bomb disturbed. Look at these satellite images, Keith. You can see the fires all around the well site, and it looks more like an ash crater than a step well. Whoever bombed it knew what he was doing.”

  “So maybe Talia made it into that tunnel where they had the chambers for the rich people,” Keith said. “Those tunnels have to go somewhere. Are there any maps?”

  He got out his own phone and started searching while David landed the helicopter. “There’s some information in here about an ancient river … Yeah, the one they mentioned, with the big, long name.”

  “Saraswati-Ghaggar-Hakra,” Cindee said.

  “Okay, right. That one. The lady said she thought that river was deep underground, running under Harappa and Gondrani. We could hear it under the tunnel in the well down there.”

  “It’s so far, though,” Cindee said. “Even if we find out the well and the great bath are connected, it’s not like there’s a road, or even a clear path. How would we get through? And we could be in an upper cave level while Talia’s trapped down below somewhere. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Keith. I wish I knew what to do.”

  “We can take a look under the great bath,” David said. “It can’t hurt.”

  “So many people have worked at Harappa. You really think there’s something they haven’t found?” Cindee said. She shut up when she saw the look on Keith’s face. “Sure. Okay. Come on.”

  They changed clothes and instructed the dig supervisor to store the tablets and artifacts from Gondrani. Keith had to settle for some of David’s clothes since all of his were still at Gondrani.

  They grabbed some packs of food and medical supplies from the camp and made their way into the city with Cindee casting anxious glances at David. “Are you sure you’re up to this?” she asked him. “Shouldn’t you eat something, or rest, or …?”

  “My Luna,” David said softly, “when Evangel can eat and rest, so will I. You know how I am about paying debts. Perhaps, at long last, I can pay this one I have owed the Doctors Ramin for such a long time.”

  “Okay.” Cindee still kept sneaking looks at him as they moved on.

  Keith couldn’t imagine how David could keep going. God keep us all going, and Talia too.

  “I though a great bath would be … bigger,” Keith said as they started walking around the brick structure toward the southeast end. “I mean, I’ve heard about those Roman baths, and how big they were …”

  “Maybe the difference is that the Romans were self-worshipers,” Cindee said, “and these people, from what we’ve been learning, were serving the true God. I’ve read that this might have been used only in religious ceremonies. What if it was a baptismal pool?”

  “What if it was a place of healing, like the Pool of Bethesda?” David asked.

  Keith and Cindee stared at him.

  “Jesus healed a man at Bethesda,” Keith said cautiously, “but that whole thing about the angel stirring up the pool… people say that isn’t in there, really …”

  “So I’ve heard,” David replied. “And it doesn’t matter whether there was an angel, or it only happened at a certain season, or how healing might have taken place beyond the miracle Yeshua performed. Of course He healed that man. It was not the pool or the place. Yeshua showed that the power to heal came from the Father and not a physical place or thing. Still, people would not have brought their sick there if its reputation was completely a myth.

  “That man would not have kept lying there, praying, trying to get to the water, if no healing had ever taken place. The Jews at that time were not fundamentally superstitious or even spiritually believing people who expected angels or miracles. The Sadducees who ruled over them believed in no miracle, no spiritual reality, just as most Jews do today. Yet people came to Bethesda. They came, they waited, they hoped. Paul the apostle said, The Jews seek after a sign. Why? Because something, sometime, had happened there. Someone was healed.”

  “Yeah,” Keith agreed. “Maybe this was the Harappans’ place of worship. Maybe it was a place where lots of spiritually-powerful events took place. Why not? We tend to get scared when people talk about miracles, but they do happen, and a lot of them happen in water. Jesus told the blind man to wash in the pool of Siloam. Elisha told Naaman to dip seven times in the Jordan.”

  Cindee stepped down to the ledge that ran around the base of the steps going down into the bath. A fair amount of water stood in the bath from a recent rain. It was clean, and she knelt down and scooped up a handful.

  “Lord, please heal David’s arm,” she said, “so I don’t worry about him anymore. Thanks.” She poured the water on David’s bandage, almos
t playfully. He flinched, but only a little.

  Keith tried to busy himself looking for the Pipali image, not wanting to see a disappointment over this belief in a magic pool. But he found himself praying all the same.

  God, I could use a demonstration of Your power, myself. I want to believe you’ll save and protect my Talia, heal her if she needs it, and I know she must need healing, so, yeah, please, heal David’s arm. Please. Help my faith, because I need to believe in miracles if I’m going to believe my wife is okay.

  “The one thing they kept harping on at the hospital was not to get it wet, Luna,” grumbled David. “Now I have to change the bandage.” He started slowly unwrapping the gauze. “Or, maybe I don’t.”

  Keith saw a flash of white as David tossed the bandage at Cindee and she screamed. Man, she is a screamer. Keith turned around and saw that David’s arm had no sign of injury. He didn’t look the least bit pale or unsteady anymore, either. Cindee grabbed his hand and stared at his arm in disbelief. He folded it around her and kissed the top of her head.

  “Oh, I see the Pipali drawing,” David said, pointing over Cindee’s head. “Right down there.”

  Keith and Cindee followed his lead as he squatted and pointed out the petroglyph. Keith put his fingers into the design and traced along its edges.

  “Hey, come on, this is an archaeological site,” Cindee complained. She started digging in her bag. “We have to use gloves and brushes and be really careful not to compound the deterioration.”

  “We have to find Evangel,” David said, grunting as he pushed against the bricks. “The woman said there was a chamber under here?”

  “Yeah.” Keith joined him in exploring with his fingers, and after a moment something scraped and slid and the stairs moved aside, revealing another set beneath them. “Which one of us did that? What did we push? We have to be able to do this again.”