The Codex (An Armour of God Thriller Book 2)

by Daniel Patterson

  Mikkel's eyes lit up with the retelling of the legend.

  "The Inuit, those who hide from the cold, ran inland, but the Norse," Mikkel said in proud, hushed tones, "they stayed to fight. They fought bravely but did not win. The creature pursued them, hunted them. Many lives were lost. Women left without husbands—children left fatherless. Nothing could stop the creature. There was no relief.

  "In the darkest hours, Hallormr the Hardened stood by his people, guarding those who could not guard themselves. And just when all hope was lost, Hallormr prayed to God for help. And God came from Heaven and cast the creature into the Abyss and sealed the ice over his head.

  "It is there that the monster waits. Waiting for the end of times when a great battle will commence. The day God will return and destroy the dragon once and for all."

  Sydney turned a skeptical eye toward Zack. "What does this story have to do with moulins?"

  "Mikkel is a descendant of the early Christians," Zack explained. "His ancestors believed moulins were the entryway to the Abyss."

  "But I still don't see how—"

  "You don't recognize the story?" Zack interrupted. "I thought you knew your Bible."

  "I do..."

  "You don't recognize Revelation 17:8? 'The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and yet will come up out of the bottomless pit, and go to its destruction.'"

  "Seriously Zack?"

  "And there's Revelation 20:3... 'Cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more.' And Isaiah 27:1 'In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon.'"

  "So that's your master plan? Go trekking down a shaft to look for some giant serpent monster that eats murderers and liars?"

  "And adulterers," added Mikkel.

  "Not any monster—Leviathan," Zack said, only half joking.

  "What artifacts do you think you're going to find? Belongings victims dropped trying to run away? Bits of jewelry and pottery the dragon didn't digest?"

  Zack hated that she was making this expedition sound silly. "You never know what you will find. Archaeology isn't an exact science."

  Sydney glared at him with her jaw set. "Uncle Sal approved this expedition?"

  "You're not the least bit curious? In the field, sometimes legends are the only clues we have to go on. They usually have a grain of truth to them," Zack said. "Sometimes more than a grain."

  "Oh, this one has more than grains. It has corpses," Mikkel added with a wink.

  "I don't want to add two fresh ones," Sydney snapped.

  Zack turned to Sydney. "There's no giant serpent monster."

  "I'm not afraid of monsters..."

  "So then trust me. What could go wrong?"

  "Do you make it a habit of ending conversations with the words you want to be chiseled on your gravestone?" Sydney asked.

  "You know, Mr. Cole," Mikkel mused, "John Lennon once said he found America by coming to Greenland and turning left."

  "I didn't know that. Is there a lesson in that?"

  "Yup." Mikkel nodded his head at Sydney. "Means you should have left her in America."

  Zack didn't understand the joke but laughed harder than he probably should have just to end the argument.

  Sydney didn't look amused. "So, how long have you known each other?" she asked, trying to change the subject.

  "What's it been now Mikkel? Five? Six years?"

  "Six years."

  "Mikkel is a mountaineering guide. He knows all the best climbing and hiking spots in Greenland. He helps me keep my skills sharp."

  "Your skills don't need sharpening." Mikkel laughed. He shook his head and turned to Sydney. "We met through a mutual friend. Mr. Cole funds the academy I run."

  "Academy?" Sydney asked.

  "It's not really an academy," Zack said. "Mikkel teaches kids how to rock climb."

  "Oh lady, Mr. Cole is modest. We lost our funding, and Mr. Cole donated the funds to keep us open. We couldn't do it without his support. Now he comes every year. Sometimes twice. He says it's to sharpen his skills, but I think it's for the kids. The kids love him."

  Sydney looked at Zack, but he ignored her, gazing out the passenger window.

  She wasn't going to let it drop that easy. "Tell me more about the program, Mikkel."

  "It's for kids who are underprivileged. Most don't have money, and some don't have parents. We give them an outdoor adventure and they learn wilderness skills, learn about leadership, strengthen their faith in God, and have a good time. A place where kids can be kids."

  "That sounds incredible. I didn't know that Zack was such a philanthropist."

  Sydney looked at Zack again, but he kept his eyes on the passing landscape. He didn't like that she was trying to piece him together or size him up. He wasn't some puzzle she could solve to understand the bigger picture.

  "How long to the hotel?" Sydney finally asked when Zack refused to comment. "I can't wait to take a long hot shower."

  "Oh, we're not going to the hotel now, lady," said Mikkel. He looked over at her with a big brown-toothed smile.

  "Then where are we going?"

  "That-a-way," Mikkel said, nodding forward.

  "How much farther do we have to go?" Sydney asked.

  "'Nother mile or so this direction," Mikkel smiled.

  "And what direction is that?"

  He shook his hand at the windshield. "That-a-way."

  Zack laughed.

  Sydney didn't.

  "Uh, Mikkel, I think Sydney would feel better if you could tell her where, exactly, you're taking us."

  His friend looked at him quickly with a wink. Screwing up his face, he made his accent thicker yet. "We have to go past the second polar bear, then left at igloo."

  The potholes in the road got worse as they went along.

  "And then where?" demanded Sydney.

  "Yes, where?" asked Zack.

  "To the chopper. I think you want to have a look-see today, spend the night in Tasiilaq, and get an early start tomorrow."

  "Isn't that kind of a long flight for a helicopter?" Sydney asked.

  "Only about four hours."

  "And we can make it all the way to Tasiilaq?"

  "Oh sure, done it many times. And chopper is the only way to get to the moulin."

  "Great!" Zack said. "A little reconnaissance before dinner."

  "Great," said Sydney.

  "Don't you worry lady. Mikkel flies as good as he drives." They hit a pothole that threw everyone three inches out of their seats. "You guys hold onto something now. We are gonna go off road a little."

  "There was a road?" Sydney quipped.

  Mikkel grinned just before making a sharp left turn and driving across the tundra. Dwarf shrubs grew everywhere, and Mikkel drove through them without a care, avoiding a few stunted trees and boulders along the way.

  Sydney braced herself and stared straight ahead as the truck bounced and jittered along into a barren wilderness that had once been blanketed in thick snow and ice.

  Chapter Seven

  FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER THEY came to a ten-foot chain link fence topped with barbed wire.

  Mikkel brought the truck to an abrupt stop with a rattle of rusty metal and got out without a word. Several buildings that appeared to be held up by nothing but duct-tape dotted the rocky lot. A dozen or so goats wandered aimlessly about while the world's most apathetic border collie watched from the top of a large, sun-warmed rock.

  Zack was glad to be able to stretch his legs. Sydney looked relieved to be out of the truck. The sun broke through the clouds and lit up Sydney's face and dark hair, igniting the gold flecks in her green eyes and making her look out of place in this wasteland. He repeated the mantra, Father Giovanni's niece, Father Giovanni's niece...

  Mikkel busied himself unlocking the four massive padlocks that secured the gate. Sydney watched him questioning
ly. "These are very expensive goats," he said to her.

  He led them to the largest building—a barn. Inside, Zack found the stack of climbing equipment that he had sent ahead and went into inventory mode. He always checked things over himself. He'd had too many mishaps trusting other people, which was why he preferred to work alone.

  Where are the climbing stakes? Oh yes, there they are. And the rope and harnesses, too. Good.

  Sydney stood just outside, staring in horror at a machine that looked like it once could have been a helicopter. She squealed when one of the goats bumped her from behind.

  "You got food in your pocket?" asked Mikkel.

  The goat followed Sydney. "What?" she said.

  "Food... Gulla will like you very much if you do."

  "Well, I don't," Sydney said, pushing the goat's probing nose away from her pockets.

  Mikkel shrugged. "I could use a hand with the chopper..." He turned the crank on one of the machine's skids and a set of small wheels emerged.

  Zack went to the other skid, lowered the wheels, and the men pushed the helicopter outside. Mikkel moved very well for a man of his age and size, climbing to release the rotor blades and click them into place. He performed a quick pre-flight check that consisted of peeking into the fuel tank and shrugging. "Good enough," he announced. "All aboard!"

  Zack laughed. He lived for this type of excitement. He didn't know if the man possessed a driver's license, let alone a pilot's... He grinned at Sydney, "The adventure begins!"

  Sydney had turned deathly pale but was reluctant to stay alone with the amorous goat. She was about to climb into the helicopter when Mikkel stopped her.

  "How much do you weigh?" he demanded.

  "One hundred twenty pounds," she replied.

  Mikkel looked at her skeptically.

  Zack chuckled. When her eyes met his, he looked away and tried to stop himself from grinning.

  "One thirty-four," she said firmly.

  Mikkel allowed her aboard. Zack followed.

  "Aren't you going to ask what he weighs?" Sydney said, blocking Zack's entrance.

  "No," said Mikkel. "I don't care what he weighs."

  "Then why did you ask me?" Sydney asked.

  Zack looked her in the eye, every glimmer of a smile gone now, and said, "I weigh one eighty-seven."

  "Don't tell me," said Sydney, exasperated. "Tell him!"

  "He said he doesn't care."

  "I don't care either!"

  "Well then, move and let me in my seat."

  Sydney huffed and then sat down on the bench seat with a childlike pout.

  Zack was happy to play the annoying, arrogant man Sydney seemed to think he was. It was easier to keep her at arm's length. He could be nice if he wanted to, but he didn't want anyone actually to enjoy working with him. That meant they would want to do it again.

  Sydney untangled her seatbelt and strapped herself in while Zack did the same up front. He glanced back. Sydney bowed her head and clutched a gold heart-shaped locket that hung from a delicate chain around her neck. She appeared to be saying another prayer.

  Probably not a bad idea considering the condition of the helicopter.

  Chapter Eight

  FROM THE AIR, GREENLAND was nothing like the frozen wonderland Zack had seen in pictures.

  Amazing how one climactic event could change so much of the landscape. On the one hand, it was terrifying to think of that kind of devastation. On the other, it was an archaeologist's dream. There was still snow to be seen, but here where the glacier once was, thousands of rocks dotted the flat landscape. And everywhere, water flowed in little rivulets and larger streams.

  Zack pressed a button on the side of his helmet, activating the communication system. "Were these streams always here?"

  "Nope," Mikkel answered with a frown. "When the ice sheet melted many coastal villages flooded. Bridges washed out. Roads were undercut and erased off the map, things like that. There was a village over by Sisimiut that's no longer there. The authorities are still trying to account for everyone. Went over there to help with search and rescue. Not good."

  Sydney remained silent in the back seat of the chopper. Zack didn't know if she was stunned into silence by the scope of the natural disaster or paralyzed by fright.

  Either way, he appreciated the break and tried not to let the aerial view of the dozens of camps belonging to other explorers ruin his good mood. Some of them had been here for at least a week, and some of them had some very sophisticated setups... but he reminded himself that none of them were going where they were going.

  Chapter Nine

  AFTER ANOTHER COUPLE HOURS, the deafening sound of the helicopter that had drowned everything out suddenly stopped.

  Mikkel jerked his head up, grunted, and then announced, "Folks, I got good news and bad news..."

  Then the helicopter began to drop.

  Sydney found her voice—a high soprano that blended with Zack's tenor and Mikkel's baritone as the machine plummeted sixty feet straight down. When the skids hit the ground, the chopper bounced once and then trailed off as they finally settled in a cloud of dust and ice.

  "We're here... Helheim Glacier!" announced Mikkel. "That's the good news," he added.

  Before he could speak, Zack was interrupted by a flurry of activity from the back seat as Sydney tore off her seat restraints and scrambled over him to exit the helicopter and run. She turned around and looked back at them after thirty feet. "Get out! Hurry before it blows," she shouted.

  Zack exited too but tried to maintain a bit more dignity.

  "It won't blow," Mikkel assured them from his seat behind the controls.

  Sydney fell to her knees and looked to the heavens. "What happened?"

  "Rotors stopped. They do that from time to time. That is the bad news. Or maybe that is also good? It depends on how you look at it." He grinned and got out of the helicopter.

  Sydney threw her hands up. "How can it be good news? We could have died, and now we're stuck out here in this frozen wasteland!"

  "This one's temperamental," Mikkel shrugged. "Got some loose bolts, creaky belts. Brittle hoses. I'll probably get her going again in a few minutes." He fondly patted the side of the helicopter.

  "Wait a minute, did you say Helheim Glacier?" Sydney demanded, still keeping a wary distance. "Helheim, like the story, Helheim?"

  "Exactly where you wanted to be, right, Zack?" Mikkel said in a calm tone as he inspected the machine.

  "Pretty much," Zack agreed.

  "But not without any equipment!"

  "We have all the gear we need for today..." Zack said, hoisting his backpack out of the passenger compartment.

  Sydney continued, "We have no food, no water..."

  Zack pulled three bottles of water from his backpack and offered one to Sydney.

  She glared at him, but she took it. "Well, there's certainly no repair station out here! No shelter. It's going to get colder by the minute. It's a good bet there's no phone reception..."

  Zack checked his phone. "I've got a pretty decent signal. Want me to call you a cab? Gonna be pretty expensive this far out... and I'm sure they only take local currency, right, Mikkel?"

  "For sure," he said.

  "Did you visit the money exchange at the airport?" Zack asked Sydney.

  "You know I didn't..."

  "Mikkel—you got any cash?"

  "I got maybe three krone." Mikkel had climbed down the helicopter and was now rooting around inside the passenger compartment.

  "You two think you are so funny!"

  "We don't think we're funny. We know we're funny," Mikkel said emerging from the passenger compartment with a toolbox. "Don't worry so much. Got everything I need in here. Fixed it before. Shouldn't take very long, a few hours at most. Why not enjoy the scenery?"

  "You said a few minutes..." Sydney looked panicky.

  "A few minutes. A few hours...same thing." He took the toolbox and climbed back up the helicopter.

  "Protein b
ar?" Zack offered. "I've got carob-raisin or white chocolate-cranberry."

  "Shut up," said Sydney, finally defeated.

  Zack grinned at her. "Welcome to the world of field work."

  Mikkel stuck his head back out of the chopper. "Oh, by the way... One of your holes is twenty meters that way," he pointed east. "I told you we were here."

  Zack looked in the indicated direction. Mikkel had nearly landed in it.

  He walked over to the edge of a hole in the ground. It was an almost perfect circle cut into the rock, with rounded edges and smooth, wet sides. Clear evidence of water erosion. A moulin had bored this hole down into the earth. Zack leaned out over the edge, looking down into a shaft that was quickly swallowed by darkness. So if the hole was here, that meant...

  "Mikkel, this hole must have been carved out over a few millennia. Are you telling us the ice sheet was standing where we are right now? For that long?"

  Mikkel nodded. "Helheim was tall here. Icebergs have been breaking away all summer. The sides of the glacier were at least fifty meters high, right in this spot. Been there all my life. Longer. Now," he shrugged, "just gone."

  Zack set his pack down near the hole's edge and zippered it open. He pushed through the contents, looking for—

  "Glow sticks?" Sydney said, bending down to hand him a couple taken from the top flap of her pack.

  He hadn't even noticed that she'd followed him. He took it, too surprised to be annoyed by her presence.

  "I told you this isn't my first field expedition," she said.

  "I'm glad you're starting to act a little more professional."

  Maybe she was more than just a beautiful face. Zack cracked the sticks and gave them a couple of good shakes before he tossed them down the shaft. He and Sydney watched them go, carefully leaning in to watch them drop until they clattered against a gentle spiraling bend that swiftly carried the luminescent green glow away and out of sight.

  "How far do you estimate?" Zack asked Sydney.

  "Fifty feet down before it curves."