The Last Chamber (27 page)

“You did fine,” she encouraged. “But we are twenty minutes from the
CDC, so hold that vial by its top in front of the vent to keep it cool until we
get there. We ain’t out of the woods yet.”

Armenian Mountains

DeGard helped himself to an empty chair near a stack of cargo boxes
and pulled it over to where he’d been standing across from Lindsey. He eased
into the seat and folded his hands together while crossing one leg over the
other. He peered at his employer expectantly, eagerly awaiting the tale this
supposed diary of Sir Francis Drake held.

Alexander Lindsey’s patience was beyond thin with his French
assistant. The man didn’t seem to understand social cues. It shouldn’t have
surprised him that DeGard didn’t know when he should stay or leave. All Lindsey
had wanted was a few hours of quiet to analyze Drake’s diary and try to figure
out the riddles behind the three tests. In the short time he had been studying
them, he had not found a solution. Not yet, anyway.

He wondered if the Frenchman would be able to lend any help on the
matter, but he doubted it. DeGard was there mainly for his abilities to
interpret ancient languages. And while he certainly had some other talents in
terms of historical knowledge, Lindsey didn’t consider DeGard to be a critical
thinker when it came to riddles. Still, if by some miracle the man was able to
help, it would be worth it.

“The three tests the alchemist told Drake about were designed to try
the three parts of a human being’s makeup. The spiritual, mental, and
physical.” Lindsey allowed his voice to trail off at the end of the sentence.

“So, what are the tests this supposed alchemist spoke of to Drake?”

“The first one tests a man’s spiritual purity. The alchemist told Sir
Francis that only the most righteous may eat from the table of God.”

DeGard’s eyebrows lowered slightly at the clue. “What does that mean?”

“I suppose we will have to see when we get there. But in the Bible, it
mentions that the meek will inherit the earth. And there are many comparisons
to humility and righteousness. Perhaps that is an additional clue.” Lindsey
shrugged as he offered the theory.

“Perhaps,” the Frenchman stuck his thumbnail just inside his lip and
bit down on it gently, considering the thought. “But what is the real
definition of meek? Some interpretations of that could mean that the people who
are mentally disturbed are meek.”

“I hardly think that is what the verse meant by the word
meek,
”
Lindsey scoffed. “And besides, the notes in the diary clearly say that humility
is the key. I’m merely stating there is likely a correlation between the two
words, not some other crazy definition.”

DeGard threw up his hands in surrender. “My apologies. I was merely
offering an alternative point of view.” He shut up for a few seconds, just long
enough for there to be an awkward silence in the tent before speaking again.
“So, what is that supposed to mean, about the righteous eating at the table of
God?”

The older man nudged his spectacles a little closer to the bridge of
his nose and proceeded to finger his way through some of the pages of the book
until he reached what he was looking for. He turned it around so his
archaeologist could read the ancient handwriting.

At first, DeGard’s eyes were wide as he leaned forward, realizing that
the book could indeed have belonged to Sir Francis Drake. Then they narrowed as
he tried to read the faint words. After a several seconds, he leaned back in
his chair again and pressed an index finger to his temple.

“The most righteous,” he said to himself. “I suppose that the
righteous proceed slowly, without arrogance. They take their time to move and
are very calculated.”

“Or it could be a death trap,” Will interjected from the opposite
corner. “And we could all end up dead.”

Both of the men engaged in the conversation snapped their heads in
Will’s direction. He had never lifted his eyes away from the task of cleaning
his gun. At present, he was busily running a cleaning tool down the barrel of a
handgun.

“Of course,” Lindsey attempted to ignore the cynical comment. “It must
be some kind of test. There is a text in the Bible that mentions that as well.
It says to the humble are wise, and the wise stand for the right.”

DeGard nodded slowly, still uncertain. Lindsey could tell the
obnoxious man was a little energized by the riddles, though.

“What is the next one,” the Frenchman asked.

Lindsey flipped through a few more pages and stopped again. “The
second is titled as the physical test and says that only the strong shall pass
through to taste eternal life.”

“That’s all? I would think there would be something more than just
that.”

Again, the old man turned the book around so DeGard could see for
himself. After he read it, the Frenchman moved his hand to his chin to process
the new information. He said nothing, simply staring at the floor as he
considered the problem.

“I haven’t been able to figure that one out, either,” Lindsey spoke
for both of them. “It is vague, to say the least. But the last clue is even
more ambiguous.”

One last time he flipped through a couple of pages towards the end of
the book. He craned his neck slightly to better read the faded words on the
page. “This one reads that many shall wander in darkness, but the wise will
reach to the heavens and find the path to immortality.”

DeGard frowned, obviously taken aback by the strange riddles. “Did
Drake not ask for a few more clues? This was all he wrote down?”

Lindsey nodded. “Pretty much. Though, there is one catch that Drake
mentions.”

“Which is?”

“He says that when one arrives at the entrance to the chamber, there
will be three doors, not one. It says that the seeker will not know which test
he will face first.”

“So, the person who finds it will just have to be lucky,” DeGard
realized.

“He goes on to talk about an expedition into the mountains to try and
find the entrance to the chamber, but he and his crew got lost. Several of his
men died along the way. Eventually, he says they turned back and returned to
their ship, and eventually home to England.”

“So, Francis Drake tried to find Noah’s Ark,” DeGard said in a hushed
tone, more to himself than anyone else.

“It would appear so.”

The Frenchman still seemed full of doubt. “I still wonder about the
authenticity behind this story. He could have been a raving madman by that
point in his life. How do you know it isn’t some fairytale told by an old
sailor, who had spent too many years at sea?”

Lindsey cocked his head to the side like someone who had just won a
chess match or proven themselves to be right in a debate. His chin wrinkled
slightly as he grinned.

“Because, at the end of the diary, there is a line I have only seen in
one other place on the planet.
Immortality is for the righteous.”

Atlanta, Georgia

Joe and Helen waited patiently by their car in the parking lot of the
Center for Disease Control. He had driven by the place on occasion when in the
area, but had never gone inside. Something about a place that housed every
major disease known to man, and probably some that weren’t disclosed, made him
more than a little uncomfortable.

They had both calmed down somewhat since leaving the Biosure facility,
but their nerves were still on high alert. Each time a car entered the parking
lot, they perked up and kept a wary eye on it until it had passed by or
disappeared in the rows of automobiles.

Neither of them had said much until five minutes before arriving at
the CDC building. Joe had called Dr. Solomon and asked her to meet them in the
parking lot. He hadn’t wanted to risk taking the vial inside. And they had
already pressed their luck with security a few times that day.

A woman exited a side door of the enormous gray building and
immediately headed their direction. Her sleek, brown hair was pulled back in a
long ponytail. She wore a white lab coat, gray slacks, and a badge hanging from
one of the front pockets on the coat. Her creamy skin radiated in the afternoon
Georgia sunlight. She was a beautiful young woman.

“That her?” Helen asked as Dr. Solomon weaved her way through the
cars.

“Yep.” Joe nodded slowly.

Helen seemed confused. “Why hasn’t Sean asked her out? She’s
stunning.” It was a rare thing for Helen to offer admiration, and Joe let her
know he was shocked with an awkward glance.

“They’re better as friends,” he commented. “Actually, they’re better
as casual acquaintances.” He didn’t say anything else on the topic because the
subject of their conversation was nearly in earshot.

His wife wore an expression that clearly stated she suspected there
was more to the story than met the eye.

“Hey, Jenny. Thanks so much for meeting us,” Joe smiled as the woman
approached.

He opened up his arms and embraced her. She accepted the hug warmly,
and returned the gesture, wrapping her lithe arms around him.

“It’s good to see you, Mac.” She smiled wide as she let go of Joe,
revealing the brightest teeth Helen had ever seen.

“This is my wife, Helen.”

Dr. Solomon extended a hand, which Helen shook firmly. “It’s a
pleasure to meet you, Doctor.”

“Please, call me Jenny.” Her smile extended almost all the way to her
brown eyes. “So, Sean says you have something I need to take a look at?”

Joe took the vial out of his pocket and placed it in the palm of her
hand. She held the tube up in the sunlight, carefully inspecting it. The clear
liquid shimmered in the light.

“Sean didn’t say much. But I’m under the impression he believes this
is some kind of virus.” Her last comment sounded more like a question.

“That’s what he said,” Joe responded. “We did a little digging around
after he called me and discovered a huge shipment was due to leave the Biosure
facility.”

Helen cut in. “The strange thing was that there were no shipping
dates. It was as if all the shipments were on hold, waiting for something.”

Dr. Solomon gazed at the liquid for a few more seconds before lowering
it out of the sunshine. She then slipped the vial into one of her lower lab
coat pockets.

“That’s odd,” her eyes went back and forth between Joe and his wife.
“Usually, those kinds of things don’t just sit around for very long. The pharm
companies are all about profit. And the sooner they can get a product to
market, the more money they’ll make.”

Joe and Helen exchanged a confirming glance.

“Biosure is a huge corporation,” the doctor explained. “They have
holdings in the billions, from what I understand. Their network is huge. I’ve
only met a few people from there, no one high ranking. But even the lower level
employees reek of something slimy.”

“What do you mean?” Joe crossed his arms, interested in what Dr.
Solomon had to say.

“I don’t know, exactly. It’s hard to put my finger on it. But I get
this weird feeling like they run that business like it’s a cult or something.
Everyone I spoke to from there seemed like they had been brainwashed. It was
really weird.”

The married couple shared another suspicious expression.

“How long do you think it will take before you know something about
that vaccine,” Joe pointed at Dr. Solomon’s pocket.

“I can do an analysis on it today. It will probably be a few hours.
I’ll need to run a few other tests to confirm whatever it is. But if it is as
serious as Sean implicated, I want to get it done as quickly as possible.”

Helen seemed concerned. “Joe and I speculated on that. But we aren’t
medical people. Just how dangerous would some kind of super virus be?”

“It’s hard to say,” the doctor took on a grave demeanor. “We’ve been
on the lookout for this sort of thing for a long time. The Spanish flu was a
superbug that killed nearly one hundred million people in 1918. The strange
thing was that the people it killed were usually the stronger, healthier
individuals. Their immune systems reacted to the flu virus by going into a sort
of hyper mode, and ended up killing the people by causing too much damage to
their organs and tissue.”

“Any idea what caused it?” Joe cocked his head to the side and raised
an eyebrow.

“Not really,” she shook her head. “It was during World War I, so all
the troops being in such close quarters didn’t help. Plus they were constantly
moving around from place to place, so that aided in the spread of the epidemic.
No one really knows for sure, though, where ground zero was.”

Joe pondered what she’d said for a moment before speaking again. “I
remember reading about the Spanish flu as well as some other biological
catastrophes that occurred in history. The plague was another such instance. No
one was sure about the origin, but how it was spread was easy to identify.”

“Correct.”

“There was something else,” he continued, “I remember reading about those
epidemics that are still somewhat of a mystery.”

Helen looked surprised as she turned to listen.

“Eyewitnesses in both accounts, with the plague and with the Spanish
Flu, claimed to have seen dark figures outside their villages and towns before
the illnesses struck. I don’t know what that means. It could be nothing.”

“Are you talking about extraterrestrials, Joe?” Helen made it sound
like she was disappointed in him.

“Not necessarily. The accounts merely suggest that someone or
something was behind the outbreak, that’s all.”

Dr. Solomon felt the pocket to make sure the vial was still there.
“Well, I better get inside and check this out. If it is something like what
happened in 1918, the implications would be far worse now. The world is so
interconnected, a bug like that would have catastrophic effects on the
population. Literally, billions could be at risk.”

“Thanks for helping us with this, Jenny,” Joe said and gave her a
last, quick hug. “Call me when you know something.”

He and Helen were getting in the car as Dr. Solomon walked away when
she stopped and turned around. “By the way, Mac.” He stopped just inside the
passenger’s side door. “Be careful. I’ve heard some strange things about people
who tried to cross paths with Biosure. Nothing was ever proven, just stories.
But when you hear something more than once, it makes you think.”

“Will do,” he assured. “Thanks again.”

Helen started up the car as Joe slipped into the seat. “Looks like we
ought to sleep with the light on tonight,” She said and steered the car back
out onto the road.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “And with a bullet in the chamber.”