God's Lions: The Secret Chapel (21 page)

“At least now we know it’s a key of some sort,” John said.

Leo handed the brick to John. “John, you need to watch this brick like a snake in the room until we need it, whenever that may be. I think Lev will be overjoyed with this new information. Have you told him yet, Daniel?”

“No, he drove back into camp to get some more supplies. I thought you might like to surprise him with the news.”

The three men sat in the shade of the tent, drinking cold water and taking turns examining the ancient brick, while, at the excavation site, Ariella was in her element, digging in the dirt. A female staff member by the name of Maya was working next to her in the trench and paused to take a drink from her canteen. “You know, Ariella, Satan’s not going to let us dig something out of the ground that belongs to him, load it on a truck, and just drive out of the desert with it. What do you think we’re really looking for?”

“In archaeology, you just keep digging until something is slowly revealed. You can’t rush it. We’re going to have to take our time and be patient. That’s what makes the experience so exciting. It’s like unwrapping a present and you can’t wait to see what’s inside.”

Maya removed a pale blue baseball cap and poured water over her head, letting it drip off the ends of her short black hair. “There are all kinds of rumors going around camp. Some of the staff are really spooked. One of them even decided he’d had enough and quit. He rode back into town with the truck that brought the backhoe out here this morning.”

“You know as well as I do, Maya, that some people are just not cut out to ... hello?” Ariella’s spade had just struck something hard in the sand. “What’s this?”

“It looks like metal,” Maya said. “Should I call Lev on the radio?”

“Good idea. Ask him to bring my camera.”

Ariella produced a brush from her pocket and began brushing away the sand from the object while Maya grabbed her radio and called Lev who was still back in camp. The excited chatter on everyone’s radios alerted Leo and the others to rush out to the site to see what Ariella had found.

Arriving at the freshly dug trench, they saw that Ariella and Maya had just finished removing most of the sand from around the top of a buried object. “It’s metal alright,” Ariella said. “It looks like the paint’s been burned off by something really hot.”

News of the discovery was spreading. Everyone stopped what they were doing and began to crowd around as Ariella and Maya continued to reveal more metal, making it obvious that they had uncovered only part of a much larger object buried below.

Lev had finally arrived with Ariella’s camera and began shouting orders. “Everyone grab a shovel. We need to enlarge this trench, but be very careful. We’ll take a reading with the metal detector to get an idea of its size and dig around it, then work our way in.”

The enthusiastic group began to dig without thought to the heat, and within an hour, the burned remains of a vintage World War II era military truck began to materialize.

Ariella jumped up on the edge of the widening excavation and began taking pictures. “This is probably one of the man-made objects we spotted with the infrared pictures we took earlier.”

Farther away from the truck, one of the workers pushed a shovel into the ground, and a definite crunch could be heard.

“Stop!” Ariella shouted. She ran over to the area where the worker was standing and jumped down into a newly excavated area where a second object had been discovered. Once again, she began to methodically brush away the dirt, gradually revealing something that caused those around her to gasp. She had just uncovered the unmistakable face of a blackened skull. As some of the workers unconsciously began to back away, Leo made the sign of the cross and uttered a silent prayer.

As the significance of their discovery began to sink in, Lev knelt down to assist his daughter, slowly revealing a complete skeleton next to the remains of the truck. Burned bits of clothing, along with leather boots and metal buttons with insignia, were all that remained of what obviously had once been a military uniform.

Ariella wiped some dirt off her forehead and looked up at Lev. “What do you think this is, Father?”

Lev peered down at the skeleton. “I’m not sure. I think the better question would be
who
is this? These remains could be from the fighting during the 1940’s. It looks like this vehicle took a direct hit from a bomb of some sort. Let’s take some pictures of the buttons and the insignia and e-mail them to the university in Jerusalem. We should have some sort of identification of the uniform within a few hours.”

Daniel, working on a hunch, grabbed a metal detector and began walking in a straight line away from the perimeter. The needle on the meter spiked, and he heard a loud tone in his earphones. The sound faded before increasing in intensity again as he approached an area where the detector registered another large metal object. He made some notes and walked back to the excavation to confer with Lev and Ariella.

“I think what we have here is an entire convoy of trucks,” Daniel said. “The readings go on in a straight line, and the objects are roughly the same size as the one we just uncovered. There is one object smaller than the rest at the end of the line. It’s about the size of a car.”

Lev looked out over the site. “Let’s dig that one up first. It’s probably the commander’s vehicle.”

One of the men jumped into the backhoe and they struck out for the end of the line along with several workers. Within twenty minutes, they began to uncover the burned remains of a jeep. Some of the drab olive paint was still evident, but nothing else remained to give any hint at the country of origin.

Digging more carefully now, Ariella began to use a small spade. She worked the soil around the jeep until she began to see bones. They were the blackened bones of a hand. Replacing the spade with a brush, she gently spread the soil away from around the bones until she spotted the edge of a small white piece of paper lying close-by in the sand. Reaching down with her fingers, she gently lifted up what appeared to be a partially burned photograph and held it in her hand. Tears began to form in her eyes. The scorched but well-preserved picture was that of a young woman and a baby, and somehow, Ariella knew that she had just uncovered someone’s husband and father.

It was past noon, and the sun was directly above the site, turning the desert floor into a furnace and prompting the medic to call for a halt to any further work until the temperature fell to safe levels. Lev lifted his daughter from the site as everyone gathered around and Father Leo blessed the body of the soldier. With a sense of overwhelming sadness, they all climbed into the back of a truck and rode back to camp in silence.

While lunch was being prepared, the group recovered in the refrigerated air of the communications tent. Pictures of the items Ariella had found were e-mailed to the university and within the hour, the team had received confirmation that the military convoy they had just uncovered was British. In a strange twist, they were informed that, coincidentally, a thirty-man patrol had vanished in this desert in 1948 when the British had been in the process of pulling out of Palestine after the U.N. partition of the Holy Land. All efforts by the British government to locate the patrol had failed due to strange weather phenomenon that hampered the search until they were forced to quit. The final report read, “Loss of unit in presumed military action with unknown aggressors.”

“They never knew for sure what happened to those men,” Lev said. “At least their families can have some closure now.”

“Do you think it has anything to do with what we’re looking for?” Leo asked, hoping Lev had some sort of picture in his mind of what had happened out there in the desert.

“Probably just a coincidence.” Lev seemed lost in thought, as though something else was troubling him.

Moshe was at the communications console, finishing a conversation on his satellite phone, when he looked up at the two leaders. “We have a political issue to worry about now. We’ve uncovered a military grave site, and it’s already getting attention in Jerusalem and in England. We need to step up our operations.”

Leo glanced over at Lev. “What do you think about going to a twenty-four-hour schedule? It will be cooler at night, and we still have a lot of ground to cover.”

The sweat was beginning to dry on Lev’s head in the coolness of the tent as he ran his hands through his hair. “I’ll have another generator and some more floodlights flown out tonight. One of my staff got heat exhaustion today and had to be flown to the hospital in Jerusalem. Some more of my top people are flying out here in a few hours to help.”

“We also have another problem,” Moshe said. “The young man who quit this morning and hitched a ride into Jerusalem on one of our trucks has vanished.”

“What do you mean vanished?” Leo asked.

“He jumped out of the truck when it came to a stop at a red light and ran away down a side street.”

Alon entered the tent, catching the last part of the discussion. “He must have been pretty freaked out about something.”

“No, there’s more. We checked his name against our database and couldn’t find him. He’s not one of ours.”

“How the hell did that happen?” Alon practically shouted.

Moshe twirled one end of his moustache. “He must have found his way onto one of our trucks on the way out here last night. He never would have made it through security onto the grounds at the villa, so it probably happened when the trucks stopped for gas in Jerusalem. We have a lot of new students living at the villa now, and many are still new to each other. He probably just kind of blended in after everyone was getting back into the trucks from the restrooms. He was smart enough to know that we would be on to him today, so he pretended he’d had enough and hitched a ride out of camp.”

“Great security.” Alon was beside himself. Although Moshe was the security chief for the entire organization, Alon had been given direct command over camp security, and it had been breached.

Alon spoke through clenched teeth. “Have we found out who he is or what he was looking for?”

Moshe watched Alon continue to seethe. “We don’t have a clue at this time. He could have been one of those Vatican security people who have been following Leo and John.”

“That thought had crossed my mind,” Leo said.

Moshe wanted to help calm Alon. “Well, it’s too late to do anything about it now. We’ve run a security sweep of the camp to check for bugs and explosives. Nothing’s turned up. Why don’t we all go over to the mess tent and have lunch? We can’t resume work on the dig anyway until it gets cooler.”

“That sounds good to me,” John said, feeling hungry as usual. “I think I’ll go check on Ariella and see if she’s hungry too.”

Lev winked at Leo. “Good idea, John.”

The men walked toward the mess tent, discussing the day’s events and planning for the work ahead that night. Alon was so angry about the security breach he was unable to talk. His face was red, and he brushed off any attempt to make him feel better. The others decided it was better to leave him alone for a while.

For the next few hours, the camp came to a virtual standstill courtesy of the blazing afternoon heat. Alon’s fiancée, Nava, entered the mess tent and sat next to Ariella. She leaned in close and spoke in a soft voice. “I need to get Alon out of here for a while before he drives me and everyone else crazy with his security precautions. We’ve been engaged to be married for a little over a year now, and I can count the times we’ve been together on one hand. My schedule as a military helicopter pilot is so demanding that I’m afraid we’re going to drift apart. Do you have any ideas?”

Ariella thought for a moment before answering. “Why don’t I get John, and we’ll all go on a little picnic to a place I know close-by?”

“That’s a nice idea, Ariella, but don’t you think it’s a little too hot for a picnic? Where is this place?”

“There’s an oasis I’ve been to that’s like a little paradise in the middle of the desert. It’s surrounded by palm trees and has a clear freshwater pool. There’s even a spring-fed waterfall. The problem is, it’s about seventy miles to the west of here, and it would take hours to get there by land.” Ariella gave Nava an exaggerated wink, hoping she would catch the hint.

“Not if you have a helicopter.” Nava smiled. “I’ll have Gabriella fire up the chopper while I go find Alon. You and John grab the food and wine and jump onboard.”

“Who’s Gabriella?”

“My new copilot. You should see the looks on the other soldier’s faces when we land and they realize two girls are providing their air cover.”

After obtaining a basket full of fruit, cheese, and wine from the mobile kitchen, the group of happy campers climbed onboard the helicopter and lifted off across the desert toward the oasis. Alon had initially balked at the idea of leaving the camp in the wake of a security breech, but one look from Nava alerted him to the fact that this outing with her had a higher priority.

John decided against taking the backpack containing the ancient brick and asked Leo to keep an eye on it until he returned. Sitting by the open door of the Blackhawk next to Ariella, he looked down and watched the desert rush by below. “How do you know about this place, Ariella?”

“I did some research for a college project there one summer. We were looking for a species of fish that lives in the spring. They live only in this one spot on earth and are highly endangered. That’s why we try to keep the location a secret from everyone except the Bedouins who’ve used the oasis for hundreds of years. Its thirty degrees cooler next to the waterfall, and I always wanted to go back there with someone special to share it with.” Ariella stared into John’s eyes when she said this, giving him a clue to her hidden meaning.

Soon, the helicopter was circling low over a lush green dot in the middle of the stark landscape. They landed at the edge of the oasis and trekked under the palm trees to a large pool of crystal-clear water. A tall rock formation towered above, where a pristine spring at the summit created a waterfall that fell twenty feet into the turquoise pool beside them. Without hesitation, the group stripped off their shoes and ran for the water, diving fully clothed into the cool depths.