The Last Secret of the Ark

by James Becker

  ‘You think somebody knew about this that long ago?’

  ‘It stands to reason,’ Bronson said quietly. ‘I don’t believe that the entrance to the tunnel wouldn’t have been discovered soon after New Ross was settled. And I’ll bet you that whoever found it built a barn or something to hide it, and that the building there now is one of a long line of replacement structures. And you obviously know what that means.’

  ‘Yes. Somebody has been keeping this place a secret since the late-medieval period, because it’s not recorded in any of the archaeological records of Nova Scotia. And that does make me wonder about who they are and what their purpose is.’

  ‘Well, we may be about to find out.’ Bronson gestured in front of them, where the last half-dozen fluorescent lights illuminated the end of the tunnel and revealed a dark opening over to their right.

  ‘Keep going,’ the tall man ordered from behind them.

  As Bronson led the way towards the opening, another lighting circuit clicked into life. Not fluorescent tube lights this time, but wall lights mounted in sconces that appeared identical to those in the tunnel.

  ‘They must’ve been triggered by a PIR sensor,’ he said. ‘And that’s definitely twenty-first-century technology.’

  The space they entered was another tunnel, slightly wider and taller than the one they’d just walked down but only about twenty yards long, with a pool of darkness ahead of them. As they approached, another set of lights slowly started brightening to reveal a circular chamber, a dark shape to one side of it. And then a spotlight, obviously mounted somewhere on the roof of the chamber, snapped on, the beam bathing the shape in brilliant light.

  Bronson and Angela stopped at the entrance, transfixed.

  There, directly in front of them, gleaming golden as if newly polished, was the fabulous Ark of the Covenant, resting on a shallow plinth. It seemed almost to glow in the spotlight, and Bronson thought he could detect a faint humming sound coming from it.

  The tall Israeli emitted a sound somewhere between a moan and a yell and rushed forward, brushing Angela aside as he did so. He stopped about a yard from the Ark, put his pistol on the ground and knelt before the relic, lowering his head in prayer.

  Then he stood up, took a couple of paces forward and tentatively reached out to touch the lid of the Ark. The instant he did so, there was a sharp crack and he tumbled backwards and fell to the ground. But he was up and on his feet in a moment.

  He picked up his pistol and turned back to face the other two Israelis, who had also entered the chamber, moving in front of Bronson and Angela.

  ‘This is the true Ark, the casket of God,’ he said. ‘And I have felt its power.’

  The walls of the chamber were covered with hanging drapes, and as the Israeli spoke, one of them fluttered and drew back to reveal the classic figure of a medieval Knight Templar in full armour with a battle sword in his hand.

  To Bronson, it was surreal, bizarre and unbelievable: three armed Israelis facing a medieval knight standing on one side of a subterranean chamber lit by electricity, with the Ark of the Covenant on the other side.

  ‘Who dares enter this sacred place?’ the knight demanded, his voice seeming to be magnified by the chamber. As he spoke, he lifted his sword in a threatening manner.

  The tall Israeli didn’t hesitate, just raised his pistol and squeezed the trigger. The chamber rang with the sound of the shot. At that range there was no possibility he could miss, but the medieval figure didn’t even flinch, just swung the battle sword in a lethal arc towards the intruder.

  Bronson could hear the hissing sound as the blade cut through the air.

  The Israeli stumbled backwards, pulling the trigger twice more at point-blank range.

  And as quickly and as inexplicably as the knight had appeared, the figure simply vanished.

  Bronson took a couple of steps forward, intending to grab one of the pistols held by the other two Israelis, whose attention was entirely on the Ark and the events unfolding in front of them.

  But before he got close enough to seize a weapon, a heavily built black-clad figure materialised behind him and pushed him and Angela through the drapes on the left-hand side of the chamber and into a small room illuminated by a dim bulb in the centre of the ceiling. Almost before they could react, the figure closed a steel door and turned the key on the inside. Then he – it was obviously a man – turned to them, pointed at a flat-screen television mounted on the wall and said, ‘Keep quiet and watch.’

  The screen was divided into quadrants, each displaying the feed from a surveillance camera positioned inside the chamber of the Ark. And what it showed was the three Israelis in a state of confusion.

  * * *

  As soon as the apparition had vanished, Gellerman strode across to the hanging drape from behind which the knight had appeared. He pulled back the curtain and found himself facing a featureless steel panel, with no sign of the body of the man he had just shot. He grabbed at the other drapes to reveal similar steel plates.

  He whirled around, scanning the chamber, then looked back at the panel and rapped on it with the butt of his pistol. It sounded completely solid.

  ‘I don’t know what’s going on here,’ he said, ‘but it doesn’t matter. We came for the Ark and we’ve found it, so let’s get out of here. Get Bronson and Lewis to carry it.’

  Dayan turned round to carry out Gellerman’s order.

  ‘They’ve gone,’ he said.

  ‘They must have run down the corridor. Get after them. There’s nowhere out there they can hide.’

  Dayan rushed out of the chamber but returned in a matter of seconds.

  ‘They aren’t there,’ he said. ‘I can see all the way to the far end of the corridor. They didn’t go that way.’

  The three Israelis stared around them. Very obviously something was going on that they didn’t understand.

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ Gellerman said. ‘You two, grab those.’ He pointed behind the plinth on which the Ark sat to where two stout wooden poles leaned against the wall. ‘We’ll take it right now.’

  Dayan and Chason strode across to the relic, threaded the poles through the rings on either side of it and picked it up – not without difficulty, as it was clearly heavy.

  As they lifted it, the spotlight illuminating the Ark snapped off and the lamps in the sconces began to dim. From somewhere in the chamber a noise that sounded like a distant multitude of people shouting and screaming became audible, its volume rapidly increasing until it was a deafening roar. At almost the same instant the shadowy figures of another half a dozen fully armed Templar knights suddenly appeared around the perimeter of the space, each chanting the medieval Latin battle cry of the order – In hoc signo vinces – and raising his battle sword. They closed in on the three men, whose wide eyes and horrified expressions clearly showed their abject terror.

  ‘Get going!’ Gellerman shouted, spinning round and snapping off a fast volley of shots at the threatening figures as the other two men stumbled out of the chamber carrying the Ark between them. None of his bullets had any obvious effect, and the muzzle flashes and echoing bangs simply added to the surreal and bizarre scene that was unfolding.

  As the three Israelis ran from the chamber, the figures of the knights followed, but only as far as the entrance. There, unseen by the three fleeing men, who were running as if their very lives depended on it, the six knights flickered out of existence and the lamps in the wall-mounted sconces slowly began to brighten.

  * * *

  Inside the hidden room, the man in black picked up a remote control, aimed it at the television screen and pressed a button. The view changed to cameras located at intervals along the long corridor, and in silence the three of them watched the Israelis carrying their prize towards the open door at the end. Once they had disappeared through it, the unidentified man pressed a button on a small control panel beside the television, and the door closed. He pressed another button, and the camera feed showed two large e
lectrically controlled bolts snapping into place.

  ‘We’re now secure,’ he said. ‘I think that went quite well, don’t you?’

  Angela stared at him. ‘Would you please tell me what the hell is going on here?’ she said. ‘Starting with who you are and then moving on to what just happened.’

  ‘Gladly. My name is Michael Rogers, and I’m a Templar knight.’

  That didn’t help very much, and Angela’s expression suggested that she was, if anything, even more confused than she’d been a few minutes earlier.

  ‘Let me introduce you to the others,’ Rogers said, ‘and then we’ll explain what’s going on.’

  He unlocked the steel door and stepped outside, Bronson and Angela following closely behind him.

  In the Ark chamber, where the now-empty low plinth sat like an accusing witness, the first person they saw was the Templar knight in full regalia, who was clearly unharmed despite what they’d seen happen just a few minutes earlier.

  ‘That went well, Brother Michael,’ the Knight said. ‘A very successful operation.’ He switched his glance to Bronson and Angela. ‘I imagine you have a few questions.’

  ‘You have no idea,’ Angela said. ‘Let’s start with why, who, what, when, where and a side order of how. First of all, who are you and why aren’t you dead? I saw that Israeli shoot you at point-blank range.’

  ‘My name’s Roger Pemberton, and like Brother Michael, I’m also a Templar knight. As for why I’m alive, the Templars in the medieval period had armour made of steel. Ours is made of layers of Kevlar, and there’s lots of padding under this tunic. But I was in no danger at all, because that wasn’t me in the chamber. Or to be exact, what you saw out there was me, but at the same time it wasn’t.’

  ‘What?’ Angela demanded, her voice clouded with frustrated confusion. Or perhaps confused frustration.

  ‘I think he means we’ve been watching a performance,’ Bronson suggested. ‘A projection, or maybe using mirrors, something like that.’

  Pemberton nodded. ‘Actually, we’re a little more sophisticated than that. My part in that scene was played out a lot earlier and recorded. What you saw was a hologram. Just like the six knights who appeared when the Ark was lifted.’

  ‘What did you mean when you said it was a very successful operation?’ Bronson asked. ‘As far as I can see, you’ve been doing some kind of play-acting, and as a result of that, those three Israelis have got away with the Ark of the Covenant.’

  ‘Well, yes and no, really. Let me begin at the beginning. I find that’s usually quite a convenient place to start.’

  Chapter 66

  Pemberton pulled aside another of the drapes lining the chamber and led the way into what looked like the kind of comfortable sitting room normally found in a gentleman’s club. It had wood-panelled walls and half a dozen leather easy chairs, the space illuminated by concealed lighting. One of the chairs was occupied by a slim man with dark hair and eyes, his features dominated by a nose that looked as if it had been designed for a slightly larger face. He was casually dressed in jeans and an open-necked shirt.

  He stood up as they approached, gave a wide smile and extended his hand.

  ‘You must be Angela Lewis and Chris Bronson,’ he said. ‘You’re very welcome here. My name is David Gillon.’

  Bronson’s feeling of confusion at the bizarre turn of events only deepened as he shook hands with another stranger who knew exactly who he and Angela were.

  ‘David works for an institute in Jerusalem,’ Pemberton said. ‘Michael and I are just local boys.’

  A faint glimmer of light illuminated in Bronson’s brain.

  ‘An institute or the Institute?’ he asked.

  Gillon nodded. ‘Very perspicacious, Chris,’ he replied.

  ‘What are you talking about?’ Angela sounded about ready to explode with frustration.

  ‘We appear to have stumbled into the middle of an operation run by the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence organisation,’ Bronson said. ‘But I still have no idea what’s going on.’

  ‘Sit down, both of you,’ Pemberton said, ‘and we’ll try to explain.’ He took a seat himself on one side of the room, his armour clanking. ‘Now, as we told you, Michael and I are both Templar knights. And unlike various assorted groups of nutters and fantasists around the world who claim to have Templar roots, we’re the real deal. We can both trace our lineage back as far as a man named Gérard de Villiers.’

  ‘The last Templar Master and Preceptor of France,’ Bronson said. ‘The man who commanded the galleys that sailed from La Rochelle in 1307.’

  ‘You know your Templar history, Chris. The short version of our story is that the surviving knights who reached Scotland maintained their beliefs and traditions after the order was purged, but abandoned their oath of celibacy. They were the guardians of much of the assets of the order, and of course of the Ark of the Covenant, and remained a separate group within the Hospitaller order. I’m sure you already know that a number of Templars accompanied Prince Henry Sinclair to Nova Scotia in 1398 to create a secure repository on this side of the ocean. They brought some of the treasures of the order with them, as well as the Ark.’

  ‘The Ark,’ Angela pointed out, her voice registering a mixture of irritation and confusion, ‘that you’ve just let three Israeli thugs walk away with.’

  ‘Not exactly,’ Gillon said, ‘but we’ll get to that in a minute, I promise.’

  ‘Our ancestors constructed what is now called the Money Pit on Oak Island,’ Pemberton continued. ‘The booby-trap system they built is still working today, though I suspect the treasure concealed there will ultimately be recovered. They also built this complex to house the Ark for all eternity. You’ve possibly heard of the title baronet of Nova Scotia?’

  Angela nodded. ‘It was a settlement scheme created in the seventeenth century to get people to buy land in Nova Scotia. If they bought a big enough plot, they also became a baronet. I presume your ancestors bought what is now New Ross?’

  ‘Bits of it, yes,’ Pemberton replied, ‘including this bit, obviously, and we still hold the titles. Then there was the argy-bargy with the French when they claimed the colony back from the English, so it wasn’t until early in the nineteenth century that our ancestors were able to permanently settle here. Our families have guarded the Ark ever since. The tunnel and this complex are original, built by Prince Henry Sinclair’s men. We just added the present barn – it’s about the tenth building that’s concealed the entrance – these rooms around the chamber, the cameras and lighting and the electronics.’

  ‘Who knew the Ark was hidden here?’ Bronson asked.

  ‘Our families,’ Roger said, ‘but something of this magnitude is difficult to keep entirely secret, obviously, and because of the origin of the relic we felt obliged to tell certain very senior Israeli intelligence officers that we had it. Not politicians, obviously. Then about a year ago we were approached by a colleague of David here because the government of Israel believed it was facing a problem. Not an immediate problem, but one that had the potential to destabilise relations in the Middle East on a permanent basis. Have you ever heard of a man named Zerubbabel?’

  Bronson and Angela both shook their heads.

  ‘I’m not surprised,’ Rogers said. ‘I’ll let David tell you the rest.’

  ‘He was a character in the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament,’ Gillon said, ‘and he gets an occasional name-check in the New Testament as well. He allegedly led the Jews back to Judah after the Babylonian captivity, and more importantly, he was the man who initiated the building of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in about 520 bc. Those three Israelis are members of a group of radical activists who took his name for their own organisation, though it’s normally shortened to just Zeru. They chose that name because their entire aim is to build the Third Temple in Jerusalem, and they believe that the trigger for this to start, the sign from God, if you like, would be the recovery of the original Ark of the Covenant.


  ‘Zeru has been a thorn in the side of the Israeli government for the last three decades, and the consequences of them initiating their plan would be utterly catastrophic, and not just for Israel. Jerusalem is now, and has been for most of recorded history, a divided city, where Christians, Jews and Muslims live in close proximity and uneasy harmony. Almost anything could destabilise the city and the region, and something like the Ark of the Covenant being discovered could inflame passions to the extent that open warfare would break out between the three religions, especially if radical Jews attempted to seize the Temple Mount to try to build the Third Temple. So my organisation decided it was time to do something about it. We needed to effectively destroy Zeru as a political force.’

  ‘By giving them the Ark?’ Angela almost shouted.

  ‘By giving them the Ark,’ Gillon repeated in a much quieter voice. ‘Because that Ark is not quite all that it seems to be.’

  ‘But we saw that Israeli get knocked over when he touched it,’ Bronson pointed out. ‘I thought that was the kind of power the Ark was supposed to possess.’

  ‘Allegedly, yes. What you actually saw was a man being knocked off his feet by a discharge of static electricity. We built up a decent charge in the box before you arrived.’

  ‘I thought I heard a humming sound,’ Bronson admitted.

  ‘Exactly. We wanted to put on a good show for them and we guessed that the leader – his name is Josef Gellerman – would want to touch it. We thought that literally giving him a shock, doing the business with the holograms and making the two of you apparently vanish into thin air would make the three of them grab the Ark and run with it. Which is exactly what they did.’

  ‘We didn’t want to give them time to stop and think about what was happening,’ Pemberton clarified. ‘We wanted them to think they were involved in a real paranormal experience created by the Ark to try to stop them taking it away. If they’d stayed in the chamber and looked around, they might have found the projectors and realised it was all a set-up. A piece of theatre.’