God's Lions: The Secret Chapel (23 page)

“Thanks, Alon. Praise God the man is alive.”

John stood back from the rim and peered down at the twisted shape of the now-silent backhoe, its lights still pointing eerily skyward. “That’s one big hole in the ground.”

Ariella stood beside him. “This is probably the subsurface anomaly we saw with the ground-penetrating radar yesterday. There’s probably some sort of cavern under us.”

“Let’s get everyone back away from this area right now,” Lev said. “This whole region is obviously unstable. We’re going to have to approach our excavation in a whole new way. We’ll have to wait for daylight to resume operations.”

Two hours later, a small pool of light framed a patch of desert sand outside the entrance to the communications tent, where the group had gathered back in camp. Everything had been moved away from the gaping hole in the ground, and the exhausted group was sitting quietly inside, contemplating sleep, when one of the sentries ran into the room. “Look outside!”

Leo jumped to his feet. “What is it?”

“You’ve got to see this for yourselves.”

The group hurried outside, where they beheld a sight in the distance that would remain with them for the rest of their lives. Coming from the center of the excavation was a brilliant red glow emanating from the newly formed hole in the ground. It lit up the sky above them. A sound resembling the cries of a wounded prehistoric beast filled the air as everyone edged toward the camp’s perimeter to witness the surreal sight before them.

“I think we’ve awakened something,” Lev said.

No one would sleep tonight.

Over the camp, dawn was approaching. Small groups huddled together around campfires as they watched the red glow fade away with the arrival of the sun. The site was eerily quiet now and they could see nothing moving in the distance.

The camp’s leaders were sitting in the mess tent, drinking coffee, and trying to decide if they should even consider going back to the excavation site. The bizarre reddish light and eerie sounds that emanated from the vicinity were enough to call a halt to the operation right then and there before anyone else was hurt, or worse.

John poured his second cup of coffee while Camp lay curled up at his side. “I think we need to notify the government, or army.”

“And tell them what?” Alon said. “That we’ve been led out into the desert by a code in the Bible? That a giant hole appeared in the desert and we saw strange lights and heard weird noises coming out of it? Some of our friends in the army already know we’re out here, and they’re available if we need them.”

Lev asked one of the cooks to make him some eggs and returned to his place at the table with the others. “Last night, I decided that we needed a geological survey of the area before we go back there. A professor friend of mine teaches geology at the university. He used to work with the oil man I bought the mobile kitchen from. Nava flew him in this morning. He’s out at the site now, doing a survey.”

“I just talked to him on the radio,” Moshe said. “He told me he had to gather some more data about the substructure around the hole before we go anywhere near it. He wants to use one of the choppers to take a second set of ground-radar images from the air and then set off some small explosions around the perimeter for a seismic profile of the area.”

“No. Absolutely no explosives,” Lev said from across the table. He was holding his head in his hands, not even bothering to look up. “We have to go down into that hole as soon as possible. I just want his best guess.”

“That’s lunacy,” Alon barked. “It’s too dangerous. I’ve set up a security perimeter around it, and no one goes anywhere near that hole until it’s been declared safe.”

Lev raised his head and looked around the room. His eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep. He seemed exhausted to the point of disorientation.

“It will be much more dangerous the longer we wait. I sense we’ve awakened a dormant force, one that is now gaining strength as we speak. This is the evil force the code warned us about. This force is protecting something down below us and the longer we wait, the stronger it becomes. Our chances of finding whatever it’s protecting diminishes by the hour.”

Moshe frowned. He was alarmed at Lev’s state of exhaustion. “How do you know what’s down there without a survey?”

Leo became uncharacteristically defensive. “If Lev says something is down there, then we have to believe that it’s down there. We don’t need a survey.”

Moshe wasn’t convinced. “Are you sure, Lev? I mean, you look terrible. When’s the last time you slept?”

“I sleep as much as I need to. Time is running out. Trust me on this, Moshe.”

At the opposite end of the tent, John, Ariella, and Daniel sat together with a diagram of the excavation site, furiously scribbling notes and engaged in an animated discussion. When they were finished, Daniel grabbed the diagram and placed it on the table in front of the leaders. “We believe that the cave-in was simply the result of the backhoe breaking through a thin part of the earth’s crust that covered a large underground cavern.”

Ariella pointed to the diagram. “According to the ground-radar studies already done, this anomaly in the substructure beneath the desert floor was really the top of a dome covering a cavern below. The weight of the backhoe was just enough to break through into a large chamber. The walls of the cavern are solid rock, so there’s no longer any danger of another cave-in. All we have to do is anchor ourselves from above and rappel down into the chamber below.”

“How extensive is this subterranean cavern?” Leo asked.

“The radar images we’ve taken show that it’s gigantic. We’re on top of it right here where we stand. John says it’s comparable to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.”

“She’s right,” John said. “I’ve reviewed the data. This thing is composed of multiple passageways and chambers, both above and below each other. It’s a gigantic three-dimensional maze.”

Alon pulled the map closer to study it. “What about that strange red glow and all those weird sounds we heard?”

“That’s the part that bothers me,” Ariella said. “I’m not so much worried about a cave-in as I am about that odd reddish light. I spoke to the geologist about it before he went out to the site this morning, and he said that, theoretically, we could have released some trapped gas that looked red in our halogen floodlights. I definitely smelled the odor of sulfur when I was out there. As far as the noise is concerned, who knows? We could have disturbed a pack of wolves or something in the area.”

“I think we disturbed a lot more than just wolves,” John said. “I’ve never heard wolves that sounded like that before. It was otherworldly.”

Lev looked up from the diagram. “There are no wolves in the Negev Desert. What we’re facing is much worse. I think it’s time to put it to a vote. All those in favor of returning to the site and seeing what’s down there, raise your hands. If there aren’t enough votes to go, we pack up our stuff and leave today.”

Everyone in the room was focused on Lev. No one flinched or raised an opposing view. Leo was the first to raise his hand, followed by Lev, Ariella, Daniel, and John. Soon hands began to rise all around the tent, until everyone present had their hand in the air.

“Good,” Lev said. “Grab your stuff and let’s get to work. I’m sending a team down into the cavern.”

The gaping crevice stood silent before them. Alon, John, Ariella, and Leo had been tagged as team one, the team chosen to descend into the first chamber of the cavern. Team two was composed of Lev, Daniel, and Moshe, along with the two helicopter pilots and a paramedic from the staff. This team was the designated rescue team if something happened to team one. Long metal spikes were being driven into the ground to secure the ropes that team one would use in their descent to the floor of the cave. Their preparations had taken longer than anticipated, and the sun was now high overhead. It beat down on the camp with waves of choking heat that mixed with the dust of the desert.

Nava and Gabriella maneuvered their helicopter next to the site as team one tested the headlamps of their helmets and strapped into special climbers’ harnesses. They threaded long color-coded nylon ropes through carabiners, slipped on heavy leather gloves, and connected the earpieces in their helmets to radios attached to their belts. Alon went first, slowly backing his way over the edge. He fed the rope through the metal carabiners and descended along the rock face, passing the twisted wreckage of the backhoe, until he had reached a solid rock floor forty feet below the rim.

Once the team settled on the floor of the cavern, they saw that they were encircled by a sheer wall of rock that made the surface seem even farther away. The backhoe was wedged precariously above them between two large outcroppings of rock. It was obvious to them that the slightest movement could shift its balance, causing the whole machine to come crashing down on top of them.

Seeking a safer area to begin their exploration, they inched their way around the cavern until they came upon a massive slab of rock leaning inward against the wall surrounded by some rotten timbers and an old rusted lantern.

“Someone’s been down here before,” Ariella said.

“Yeah,” Leo agreed. He ran his hand over one of the rough wood timbers sticking up through the sand. “It looks like someone tunneled down here sometime in the past and then covered it back up.”

John approached the giant rock and peered around it. “Hey, check this out. There’s a tunnel here.”

Ariella looked over his shoulder while Leo squeezed in between them. “Yeah. It’s almost perfectly round, like it was bored out with a machine.”

“Or fire,” John said, running his fingers over the tunnel wall. “The rock here is solid black, like it was melted.”

Leo stopped and considered their next move. The decision was made for him when Ariella switched on her helmet light and brushed past, heading into the tunnel without flinching. The men exchanged glances and took off in pursuit. In her excitement to see what lay ahead, Ariella was quickly leaving the men behind.

“Slow down, Ariella,” John shouted. “We don’t know what’s down here.”

She turned and looked back over her shoulder. “Only one way to find out.”

With their macho image shattered, the men continued to follow her through the tunnel as they snaked their way deeper into the earth.

Before the team had entered the cave, they had forgotten to switch on their radios, so Alon asked everyone to stop and turn them on before they proceeded any farther into the underground labyrinth. Instantly, they were greeted by Lev’s near-hysterical shouting from the surface.

“Ariella! Leo! Can you hear us?”

“Yes, we read you, Lev. Is everything alright?”

“Some kind of large black cloud just formed above us. It came out of nowhere. It’s as dark as night up here. The wind is really starting to pick up, and the sand is blowing so hard we can’t see more than five feet in front of us. Something’s happening, and you all need to get out of there. Now!”

Before they had time to react, Ariella screamed from somewhere ahead of them in the tunnel. The men ran forward, rounding a corner where they came to an abrupt stop. Ariella was standing perfectly still with her back to them. She was facing what appeared to be an old woman dressed in black flowing cloth from head to toe with only a slit at the level of her eyes. The figure was standing in the middle of the tunnel, blocking the way, a gargoyle-like sentinel placed there to keep intruders from passing farther into the cave. Without warning, blood-red light shot from unseen eyes hidden beneath the robes. In an instant, the group realized that this was no old woman. A loud, piercing howl began to emanate from the thing as Leo thought for an instant that he saw it begin to change shape.

“Run!” Alon shouted, grabbing Ariella by the hand and pulling her away from the black-robed figure. They ran, stumbling over the few rocks on the smooth floor, their hearts pounding and their breathing coming in rapid gasps. Reaching the end of the tunnel, the group fell against each other into the open cavern. Looking up, they saw, to their horror, that the sky had turned black, when only minutes before, bright sunlight had flooded the area.

The wind was blowing violently above them, causing dirt and debris to swirl about the circular walls of the cavern. The otherworldly howling was becoming louder and shriller, while the unmistakable smell of sulfur filled the air. John had been the first to exit the tunnel under the mammoth slab of rock, followed by Ariella and Alon, leaving Leo standing between them and the thing in the tunnel.

In the open cavern, the three outside began to make their way to the ropes, feeling their way along the rock wall. The wind was beginning to blow even harder. Loose rocks from above started to tumble down on the backhoe, causing it to roll sideways. It began to slip from its perch, sliding an inch at a time from the ledge. With the screech of metal against rock, it tilted farther and finally dropped straight down into the cavern below. John was the first to see it falling. He turned and shoved Ariella back into Alon under the protection of the thick slab of rock over their heads, but it was too late for him to follow. He hugged the wall and prayed as the backhoe crashed in front of him and a jagged piece of twisted metal slammed into the rock directly beside his head. Slowly, he took in a breath and opened his eyes. He was alive. The backhoe had missed him by inches.

John could feel Ariella’s small hand tugging at his shirt and pulling him back under the rock slab. The three huddled together, bathed in the smoky red light coming from the tunnel. Leo stood his ground in front of the entrance, peering inside at moving shadows beyond the opening. Would the thing, whatever it was, come after them?

He remained standing at the entrance, a human barricade between the tunnel entrance and the others, afraid to blink while staring into the reddish gloom. He rubbed his eyes and looked again. In the haze beyond, he could make out something moving just within his field of vision. His eyes burned as he continued to stare into the void. He saw something move. He focused and then recoiled when he saw what appeared to be the shape of an ancient winged beast silhouetted against the misty red light.