The Last Chamber (22 page)

The dark clouds in the distance eased a shadow over where the
companions stood. Without the warming light of the sun, the temperature seemed
to drop about ten degrees. Jabez pulled his cloak tighter around his shoulders.

Adriana nodded in agreement to what Firth had stated. “Your assessment
is accurate, Professor. But if there were a structure that large, it still
would have left behind a trace of something else.” To this, Firth’s face curled
in question.

“What do you mean it would have left something else behind? There is
nothing. Even if it was there, it is gone now.”

“Tell me, Professor. Have you ever been to the beach before?”

His face twisted further, clearly confused as to where her line of
thought was headed. “Yes. But what does that have to do with anything?”

She set one foot out in front of the other on the loose dirt. The
ground sloped slightly downhill running away from the stone sculpture. “When
you were at the beach, did you ever walk along the line where the water met the
sand?”

His frown couldn’t get any deeper. “Yes. I supposed, so. I’m not much
of a beach person, though.” Sean snickered at the last comment.

Adriana ignored his skepticism and continued. “When you walked on the
wet sand, did you ever let the water wash up over your feet?”

Firth was now exasperated. He put his hands on his hips and let out a
deep sigh. “Look young lady, I don’t know where you are going with this, but I
hardly think we have time to be discussing long walks on the beach.”

“I have,” Sean chimed in, answering the question for the grumpy
professor.

She smiled over at him. “And what happened when you let the water wash
over your feet?”

Sean had to think for a second. He hadn’t been to the beach in a
while. Standing there in the cold made him long for it even more. The warmth of
the sunshine, the calm sounds of the ocean waves crashing into the beach. Then
he remembered.

“Your feet sink a little into the sand. Right? They sink and sand
washes up around them. If you stand there long enough, your feet get covered
with sand.”

She nodded at him, her grin widening slightly. “Exactly.” Firth
crossed his arms, trying desperately to make the connection with what she was
talking about to their current predicament. “Now,” Adriana went on, “when you pull
your foot out of the sand, what do you have?”

Sean’s face lit up as he realized the answer. What she was saying
suddenly made total sense. “A footprint,” he said steadily, trying to contain
the epiphany.

“Precisely,” she said pointedly, moving her foot away from its spot on
the ground.

The men imagined seeing the footprint in the sand, as they would have
on the beach. Professor Firth still wasn’t convinced.

“That theory is fine and all, but a wet footprint in the sand washes
away eventually,” he spoke almost as if he were happy to rain on her parade.

Adriana was undaunted, though. She’d overcome more obstacles than a
grouchy English archaeologist in her life. And she’d prepared for his argument
in the same moments she had come up with the idea.

“When the waters of the great Biblical flood began to recede,” she
began, “a massive amount of water dissipated quickly, just as it would on the
ocean with the footprint. But if there were an extended period before rotting
and decay began and the boat disappeared, the footprint the vessel would have
left would have had more than enough time to solidify. It’s likely that the
area around it would have petrified into a rock wall.”

Firth considered her thoughts for a moment in stunned silence. Sean
and Jabez watched the older man intensely, waiting to see what he would say
next. Finally, he uncrossed his arms and put them behind his back.

“When did you come up with this?” he asked in a less harsh tone than
usual.

She waited for a second to see if there would be an insult
accompanying the question. When none came, she answered. “Just now. But it
makes sense. If the circumstances were right, after the flood waters receded,
it is possible the ark sank into the muddy earth. Then it would have only
needed time to do the rest.”

“So we are looking for a giant footprint?” Jabez needed clarification.

“In the shape of a giant boat, apparently,” Sean grinned. “I like it.”

Firth remained dubious for a few more seconds. “That is actually a
sound theory,” he surrendered. “It might just be exactly what we’re looking
for.” His mouth curled slightly into a narrow smile. “Good thinking, young
lady.”

Adriana appreciated the compliment. But she accepted it with a stoic
expression. “We haven’t found the thing yet, Professor.”

Armenian Mountains

The helicopter swooped around another rocky peak only to find another,
identical one on the other side. Below, the ridges and mountaintops sloped down
into valleys that rose back up to similar peaks. The mountain range seemed an
endless patchwork, extending far to the north and east, beyond the horizon.

Lindsey and his men had been flying around for the last hour, but with
no luck. They hadn’t found even the slightest resemblance of the ark.

DeGard spoke up from the rear of the chopper, filling the radio
headsets with his nasally voice. “I am sorry, Monsieur, but if there were an
enormous boat sitting out in the open, someone would have seen it by now.”

The air in the cabin was getting much colder, despite having all doors
closed. Lindsey pulled his coat around his torso just a little tighter. Kaba
looked over at him to get his attention then tapped on the fuel gauge. It was
getting low. They would need to set down soon, or head back.

Dark clouds had rolled in quickly from the west, and his concerns were
realized when tiny white flakes began swirling around the windshield of the
helicopter. They had brought supplies: food, tents, a little extra fuel, and
several other items normal civilians might take on a winter camping trip. He
had insisted upon it. Lindsey had always been of the mindset that it was better
to be too prepared than underprepared.

Kaba pointed to a flat area on one of the ridges nearby. “I think we
should set down over there. It’s one of the only flat places I’ve seen. Either
we land now or head back, Sir. It will be dark soon, and we won’t find anything
after dark.”

“Very well,” he nodded his head. “Take her down over there. We’ll set
up camp for the night and hope this storm blows over by the morning.”

His pilot nodded and steered the helicopter over to the appointed
ridge. As they neared the landing spot, wind shear picked up and wobbled the
chopper around. Kaba remained calm, making subtle movements with her feet and
hands to keep the flying contraption steady until it was safely on the ground.

Lindsey’s men opened up the side door, letting in a gust of frigid
air. A few snowflakes swirled into the cabin and settled on the hard floor
while the men pulled supply bags and containers from storage bins inside the
chopper. The rotors eventually slowed to a stop, but Lindsey had no intention
of going out into the freezing cold. Not yet. His old bones were already
sending pain signals to his brain. He imagined if he were to step outside for
very long, his entire body might lock up.

While two of the men were securing the helicopter with a few anchors,
Will grabbed a long nylon bag and dragged it over to where the ridge began to
rise towards the mountain peak. He figured up against the hill it would be at
least a little less windy. He unzipped the large bag and began pulling out a
beige-colored material similar to what the bag was made out of.

Once he’d piled up the fabric, he connected a small box with a knob on
the side of it to a plastic hole in the fabric. He switched the knob and an
electric motor came to life, sucking air through the box and pouring it into
the fabric. In just a few short minutes, the inflatable structure began to take
shape. While the air compressor filled the walls, Will quickly moved around the
perimeter to stake down each side of it so the wind wouldn’t blow the thing
away.

The other men had copied what he was doing and were inflating two
additional structures, slightly closer to the helicopter. He didn’t like the
idea of camping up on the top of the mountain in the dead of winter, but Will
knew that his employer was too old to try and make it down to the bottom of one
of the valleys. The hills were too steep and rocky for the fragile Lindsey.

By the time he finished pounding in the last stake, the air compressor
had completed its task. The inflatable domed structure stood about twenty feet
square, enough room inside for several people. Will figured he and Kaba would
sleep in that room with Lindsey. The old man seemed more and more anxious to
keep Will close. He wasn’t sure if it was because his employer felt a close
connection to him, or if it were just a matter of paranoia.

Kaba had finished shutting down the helicopter and had joined Will on
the far end of the quickly forming encampment. She carried a small black box in
one hand and a nylon bag strapped across her shoulder. She stepped through the
flap that served as a door and set the box down on the ground. Bending down,
Kaba flicked a switch on the side of the device and warm air began to pour out
into the inflatable dome. After the heater had begun warming the room, she
removed an inflatable mattress from the shoulder bag and set about getting it
ready.

A few minutes later, Lindsey was satisfied that his temporary quarters
would be warm enough, so he carefully stepped out of the helicopter and
shuffled past the two other, smaller domes. He stepped into the room and was
greeted by surprisingly warm air. Kaba was busy in one of the corners inflating
a second bed.

“I wonder if this storm is going to last long,” she looked up,
squatting near the inflating mattress.

Will had entered the quarters and shook his head. “I don’t know. But
the snow is really starting to come down. It’s got to be pretty rare in this
part of the world,” he cast a wary glance at Lindsey. “We could be up here a
while, Sir.”

The old man grunted, and loosened up his coat a little. He was amazed
at the amount of heat the heater could put out and at how well insulated the
structure was.

“We are too close to turn back now,” he said with conviction. “We know
that, based on what we looked at on the screen, the ark should be somewhere
near here.”

DeGard stepped into the inflatable and looked around, inspecting the
place for a moment before speaking. “I’m impressed. It seems you are a man who
likes to be prepared.” He strolled leisurely over to the far side of the tent
and spun around in a dramatic fashion. “I wonder. Are you prepared for the
possibility that we may never find what you are looking for?”

Lindsey coughed for a moment before peering at him through narrow
slits. “The ark is here, DeGard. I know it.”

The Frenchman threw up his hands. “Based on what? A hunch? If there
were a giant boat in the middle of these godforsaken mountains, we would have
found it by now. Someone, at least, would have discovered it centuries ago.”

“It is here,” Lindsey repeated and trudged over to the nearest
mattress and sat down. He had a tired look on his face. Will wasn’t sure if it
was from the exhaustion of the journey or from the frustrating banter of their
French companion.

“We will stay here for the night,” Will interjected, seeing the
conversation was going nowhere. “In the morning, Kaba and I will head up to the
top of the mountain and see if we notice anything out of the ordinary.”

Lindsey nodded then laid his head down on the mattress. He propped his
feet up on the edge of the inflatable bed and closed his eyes.

Kaba gave Will a concerned look. DeGard, too, was somewhat thrown off
by the old man’s odd behavior. Lindsey’s face had become pale, making him seem
even older than his years belied.

“Is he going to be alright?” DeGard said with mocking empathy.

Kaba shot him a warning glance. “He will be fine, Monsieur DeGard.
Your quarters will be with the other men. If I were you, I would get my bed
prepared for the night. From the looks of it, this storm is going to keep us in
until the morning.”

DeGard appeared indignant, but didn’t argue. Kaba clearly had no
problem with taking physical action if necessary, and the look on her face
expressed exactly that.

“Very well, Mademoiselle. I will leave you and your prophet. I only
hope he lives through the night. It would be unacceptable if I did not receive
my full payment.” He threw in the last insult as he stepped back through the
door and disappeared into the cold wind.

Will carried a blanket over to the bed where the old man was now
sleeping. He draped it over him and stepped back. “I know you want to kill
DeGard, Kaba.” Will spun around slowly and stared at her.

She stood up from finishing the last mattress and stared back at him.
“What do you care?” she asked.

Even in her winter coat, he could make out the outline of her taut
body. She had felt amazing the other night. And part of him wished they could
have a repeat performance. There was no privacy at the moment. He wondered if
she was thinking about the same thing. Quickly, he diverted his thoughts back
to her question.

“You should know that I get first dibs on him when the time comes. So,
take a number.” He smirked as he answered.

She strolled towards him deliberately, one step in front of the other.
“And why do you get to have all the fun?”

“Because I saw him first.”

“Fair enough. But at least let me watch when you do it.”

She stopped a few inches from him. Her chest heaved slow, deep
breaths. He wanted her. Suddenly, Lindsey coughed from behind where Will was
standing, and he turned to make sure the old man was okay.

The old man’s eyes were still closed. He must have just been racked by
a fit of coughs in his sleep. When Will turned back around, Kaba was headed out
the door into the cold.

“Where are you going?” he asked, curious.

“To get him a pillow and some more supplies. I hope we find the tree
soon. I don’t know how much longer he can make it.” She slipped through the
door and into the waning light of the early evening.

Will looked back over at the old man. Alexander Lindsey had saved his
life, and had given him a future he could have never dreamed. He owed
everything to Lindsey. And Will would do anything to save the man’s life and
bring his vision to fruition.