Gates of Hell

by J. F. Penn

  Ben slammed the book shut, his mind on the simpler world of the early Jews. What was hell when you lived in the desert? It wasn't fiery torment. It was … of course, it could only be. Ben smiled and turned to the computer to call Morgan back.

  Chapter 19

  "The more I think about it, I'm convinced that this whole thing resonates with salt."

  "What do you mean?" Morgan asked, frowning at the screen as Ben's image crackled a little over the Skype connection. Jake and Mikael stood behind her, both listening closely to the conversation.

  "Bear with me," Ben said, his voice lively, the excitement of his realization driving him on. "The idea of Hell for the ancient Hebrews was a place of emptiness, a land where nothing would grow, a place of death where you couldn't even drink the water. Salt seasoned their food and was an integral part of sacrifice, as well as being used to preserve the dead in many cultures at that time. It's a powerful symbol of both life and death. Now look at the image again," Ben continued. "See, the chemical symbol for salt, NaCl, is scribbled on the edge of the page. The calligraphy makes it hard to understand but once I started looking, there were other things too. On the opposite side, you can just make out the word melekh, or King. It has the same gematria number as salt, which is 78. It's all there. Do you see?"

  "OK," Morgan said, a trace of doubt in her voice. "I can see those things in the text surrounding the Key, but how does that help us find where it is?"

  Ben hesitated. "This is where we have to extrapolate a little and I'll admit, I may be wrong about the location. But for the ancient Israelites and modern Jews, the Dead Sea is also called the Salt Sea. There are even some who believe that the site of Sodom and Gomorrah lies beneath those waters. Scripture tells us that Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt there, and now, similar salt pillars rise from the depths. Of course, the exact location of Sodom and Gomorrah has never been officially acknowledged so this is where you'll need the restricted archaeological surveys that I know have been done on the Dead Sea. I'm sure your ARKANE contacts can get those for you."

  Morgan turned to Jake and he nodded, pulling out his smart phone to send details to Martin Klein. Ben continued.

  "Did your father ever mention the Dead Sea, Morgan? Did he ever take you down there?"

  Morgan nodded. "Of course, we did the tourist trip to Ein Gedi and on to Masada, but there wasn't anything that particularly stands out from what I remember."

  "He was in Beersheba when he was killed," Mikael said, his voice flat. "We don't know why he was so far south in the Negev desert, but perhaps it was something related to the Key."

  Ben frowned at the unfamiliar voice.

  "This is Mikael Levy," Morgan explained, as Mikael ducked into the frame and waved a hand. "He worked with my father. He's helping us search for the Key."

  Ben smiled, and Morgan saw his relief that she had friends to help her.

  "Well, I think you should investigate the Dead Sea," he said. "From the drawing, we assumed the Key was made of bone, but perhaps it could actually be fashioned from salt?" He paused. "Go safely, Morgan."

  ***

  A few hours later, they were parked up near the water's edge on the western bank of the Dead Sea, a few kilometers south of the resorts that had grown up around Ein Gedi. During the drive down along the west bank of the Jordan River, Martin had sent them a GPS location based on classified sub-aqua archaeology and Mikael had called in some favors to get them appropriate scuba gear for the environment. Once again, Morgan was grateful for the access and connections that ARKANE provided.

  "I didn't even think you could dive the Dead Sea," Jake said, as they started to pull the gear from the back of the Jeep.

  "It's considered extreme and only for highly experienced divers," Mikael said, as together they hefted down a chest. He flipped open the lid, revealing kilos of lead. "You also need a lot of extra weight to get down. At over nine times the saltiness of the ocean, we'll be super buoyant." His eyes glinted. "Oh yes, and you'll need to wear a full face mask so you can't accidentally swallow any water while you're down there. The salt concentrate can swell the larynx and lead to near-instant asphyxiation."

  Morgan almost laughed out loud at Jake's deep frown, but she knew he wouldn't lose face by voicing his concerns. Mikael was right about the dangers in what they were attempting, but she knew that they were all experienced divers so it wouldn't be a problem – if they remained calm, of course. She looked back to the north. And if they didn't have to deal with any company.

  The guys began to strip, Mikael revealing a tightly muscled torso with just the right amount of dark hair. Morgan averted her eyes before he noticed her gaze. Jake kept his t-shirt on, and she felt a rush of concern. Would his injured body deal with the gear? Would his scars hurt in the salt?

  "Maybe one of us should stay up here?" she said. "Just in case Kadmon's guys find us."

  "You volunteering?" Jake said, his eyes blazing as he pulled on his wetsuit, the challenge obvious. Morgan shook her head.

  "Guess one of us wouldn't be much use against them anyway." She smiled innocently. "And who would want to miss out on the chance to dive this place?"

  She stretched out her arms and spun around to encompass the landscape in her reach. The low hills were shades of dust, an arid brown strewn with rocks and boulders. On the border of Jordan, Palestine and Israel, the Dead Sea was also the lowest place on earth, lower even than sea level. Salt encrusted the shoreline where the waters lapped, a languid blue that belied the hyper salination of its depths. It was a harsh environment, an eerie place that people drove through as fast as possible, fleeing the desert where nothing lived. The spirits that haunted here were withered and desiccated, their corpses mummified by the dry heat, their souls seeking a place to rest in this parched land.

  Seeing the two men were almost ready, Morgan pulled on her shorty wetsuit quickly, tugging the neoprene over her skin. The water temperature was like a warm bath all year round and with the additional gear, it was good to have at least some freedom of movement in her lower half. They dragged the weights to the water's edge, putting them on in the water, using its buoyancy to aid the completion of gearing up. They each buddy-checked the other, silent as they made sure they would all be safe. Mikael carefully inspected the seals on their face masks, and Jake checked his in return as Mikael attached a catch bag full of extra gear to his jacket with a carabiner clip.

  Finally, it seemed they were ready. Mikael took the lead, pointing his thumb down, indicating descent. Morgan dumped the air from her BCD jacket, exhaling as she let the weight pull her under, relaxing her lungs so she became negatively buoyant, sinking beneath the gentle waves. Under the water, Morgan breathed more easily, the rhythmic sound of her regulator lulling her into the relaxed state that diving aroused. The combination of long deep breaths, physical ease and a sense of wonder brought her alive down here. The world beneath made her excruciatingly aware of her physicality, the shortness of life and her tiny span upon the earth. Strangely, that insignificance brought her comfort, for when her bones were dust, this place would just carry on. The peace she experienced when diving was addictive and Morgan craved the depths, understanding those who chose to keep descending until narcosis made them uncaring of ever surfacing again. Down here, life could turn on an exhalation, when the diver sank past the ability to return.

  The weight that had been so constricting above water now enabled her to sink into the welcoming green, the buoyancy of the salt lifting the weight from her chest. Morgan tilted her body so she could sink further down. The pressure forced her mask against her face and she equalized instinctively. Her movements were natural, but this was unlike any other dive she had ever done. Whereas usually she would expect to be surrounded by ocean life, this environment was empty, at least to the human eye. In fact, there was a vital microbial and bacterial population here, thriving in the severe environment of the lake.

  A crystalline pillar loomed suddenly from the murky water and Morgan kicked her
fins gently, gliding towards it, keeping her arms folded against her chest so as not to touch anything by accident. Through her mask she could see the individual salt crystals that had coalesced over time into these giant columns, reminiscent of ice sculptures. The nodules looked like a strange form of coral, clumped together in cauliflower shapes to rise up through the cloudy water. There were other natural sculptures sticking up from the bottom, some like boulders and others with fingers pointing towards the blue sky above. Morgan spun in the water and looked behind her, the two figures of Jake and Mikael following behind. With the identical masks and tanks, it was hard to tell them apart.

  The turbulence from her fins lifted a coating of dust from the salt, clouding the water. For a moment, she lost sight of her companions and Morgan hung motionless, her senses alert. The skeletal figure flashed into her mind, its limbs outstretched, begging for salvation.

  A ping echoed through the water, a distinctive metallic sound. Mikael had attached an elasticated ball to his tank and by flicking it, he could at least communicate a little. Morgan swam towards the noise and the long forms of the two men were soon visible again. She gave the OK signal and Mikael turned to fin deeper, checking the compass heading on his computer console.

  They swam past freshwater vents that jetted into the bottom of the Dead Sea, the less saline water appearing as coils and eddies like smoke twirling up to the surface. After a few minutes, Mikael slowed as they reached a particularly dense area of salt structures. He hung, neutrally buoyant, in the water on the edge, checking his compass. Morgan glanced at her computer, noting depth and time. They would have to do longer decompression stops at this point, but they still had time left. Mikael pointed into the maze of salt pillars and then swam in, Morgan following with Jake behind.

  They finned between the pillars, and Morgan looked up and around her at the towering structures. So few people had even seen this place, it was pristine, untouched. There was a sense of the primitive, that perhaps these were ancient gods turned to salt, destined to lie forgotten here in the silence of millennia. There was a touch of the sinister as well; if it had been Sodom and Gomorrah, the tales told of this city would indeed haunt the depths. Morgan remembered a story told by her father from the midrash, where a young girl had taken pity on a beggar and given him bread. The people of Sodom were so corrupted that when they discovered her good deed, they coated her in honey and hung her from the city walls until she was stung to death by bees. The story had stuck in Morgan's mind and she could never eat honey without thinking of the girl on the walls. The Talmud said that the girl's dying screams had heralded the city's destruction, for they had driven God to obliterate the place where no righteous man could be found.

  Mikael stopped finning and hovered in mid-water by a thick pillar. He examined his dive computer carefully and then pointed at the nearby column. Jake glided closer and Morgan followed suit, peering through the murky water at the surface of the salt structure. At first glance it was like any of the others, a combination of glossy surface nodules and grey silt covering. But then Morgan saw what Mikael was pointing at. Engraved into the salt was the six-pointed Seal of Solomon, the image from the fabled ring that had given the King of Israel the power to command demons, a protective amulet against evil. The two interlocked triangles symbolized the impact of the spiritual on the physical realm – that as above, so below. It signified the mingling of opposites, the good and the evil natures, beginning and end, each as necessary to the world as the other. Morgan remembered her father teaching her this symbol, so resonant to Jews as the Star of David. She finned closer and lightly ran her fingers around the edge of the star, looking for what it might signify here.

  The swirling silt from the water had encrusted the engraving but as she brushed it away, she saw something else, an indentation where a hole had been plugged. Morgan's heart thudded with excitement and she began to brush away the silt. Jake came closer and with his spare regulator he released a spurt of air, revealing what was underneath.

  Chapter 20

  A hole ran horizontally into the rock, and there was clearly something metal within it. Jake turned and beckoned, moving away from the pillar to allow Mikael access with his catch bag of extra gear. Mikael's scuba diving contacts had recommended bringing down a special type of pump which super-heated water and used a nozzle to direct the flow, causing the solidified salt to melt under the high pressure. Now Mikael took it from his bag and, bracing himself against the next pillar, he directed the nozzle towards the metallic glint. The salt dissolved and swirled in the water like milk.

  After another minute, Mikael shut off the flow and they waited a second for the cloudy water to dissipate before finning back to look at the pillar. The shape of a small metal box could clearly be seen. Morgan met Mikael's gaze, matching his excited smile with her own and then turned to give an enthusiastic OK signal to Jake. Mikael blasted more of the salt away, until finally Jake was able to lift the metal box from the pillar and place it into the catch bag.

  Morgan could hardly wait to get back up to the surface, but they did the required safety stops as they ascended, ensuring correct decompression but taking longer than she would have wanted. As she hung mid-water, she caught Jake's eye and smiled at him. His grin matched hers. This was why Morgan loved ARKANE. It wasn't just the illicit knowledge, the sense of being on the edge of the unknowable. It was also the thrill of what they could do in the world, and she was glad Jake was back to enjoy it with her.

  Finally, the three of them broke the surface of the water and the weight of the lead hung heavy on them again. Morgan tugged off her jacket and weight belt, dragging them to shore, her legs trembling at being subject to gravity again, the freedom of weightlessness lost. Jake spluttered as he pulled off his mask too fast, getting water into his mouth. He spat and hawked his throat, grimacing at the violent taste. Mikael grinned, turning away quickly so Jake didn't see his amusement, and carried the catch bag up to the Jeep along with the gear.

  Morgan grabbed a towel and opened a can of Coke, handing another to Jake to wash out his mouth. The cool sweetness was refreshing and she began to feel connected to her body again as the post-dive headiness wore off. She tapped the catch bag.

  "What do you think? Should we open the box here, or wait until we can get it to a controlled environment?"

  "I'm sure we can get access to a lab at one of the universities," Jake said. "It would only delay us a couple of hours."

  Mikael opened the bag and pulled out the box, placing it on the edge of the Jeep. It was a camouflage dark green metal. Jake bent closer to examine it.

  "It looks like a World War II ammunition box," he said. "It should have kept the contents dry." He turned to Morgan. "Do you think your father put it there?"

  "I really don't know," she said. "But it seems there was a lot I didn't know about his life." She reached for the box and lifted it slightly with both hands. It was heavy and the contents shifted slightly.

  "I think we should open it now," Morgan said. "The Key looks pretty robust in the diagrams."

  Jake raised an eyebrow. "Uh huh," he said with a grin. "Not that you're impatient or anything. And if Marietti asks, I wasn't here for this part."

  Morgan smiled back, rebellion in her eyes, as Mikael grabbed a screwdriver from the back of the Jeep.

  "Here," he said, handing it to Morgan. "It's all yours."

  She put the tip of the screwdriver into the gap where the lid was tight against the rest of the box and began to lever it, going around the edges, shifting a millimeter at a time. Had her father sealed this years ago? If he hadn't left it there, he must have at least known of its existence. His drawings of the Key were so intricate that he must have seen it for himself. Morgan thought of him diving down into those murky depths, precious cargo in hand. Maybe he'd been running from something back then, too. Before that bastard Kadmon caught up with him.

  After levering slowly for a couple of minutes, finally something gave and the pressure relaxed. The sea
l broke and the lid popped up. Morgan examined the contents as Jake and Mikael leaned around to look at it too.

  "Well, that's disappointing," Jake said, voicing everyone's thoughts.

  The box contained a milky white sludge with lumps of solidified salt within it. Clearly, water had gotten into the box over the years, dissolving whatever had been there. Morgan poked the screwdriver into the contents, testing to see if there was anything underneath the viscous gunk. The tip just kept touching the metal container on the opposite side. A flood of disappointment made Morgan's heart sink. All this way for nothing. If the Key had been salt, then it was gone.

  Jake pulled out his phone, his expression serious. "I'll see what Martin can find out. There must be other options."

  Morgan walked to the water's edge and stood looking out towards Jordan on the opposite bank. She imagined her father standing here. What would he have been thinking back then? Had he been desperate to hide the Key, aware of its potential power?

  "I don't believe Leon would have put the Key down there," Mikael's voice was soft, as he came to stand next to her. "If he had wanted to destroy it, there would have been easier ways. I knew your father, Morgan. He was a smart man. This is just another test, I'm sure of it."

  She nodded. "I feel that way too, but where do we go now?"

  The sound of engines in the distance made them both look up and to the north. The noise carried on the still air and the vehicles were a while away, but Morgan sensed a wariness in Mikael's stance. She felt the same.

  "How about we think on this while driving south?" Morgan said, heading back to the Jeep. "I'd like to visit Beersheba anyway. Perhaps my father left something there before his death."

  Mikael nodded. "It's worth a shot."

  As they approached the Jeep, Jake finished putting the rest of the gear into the back and they hopped into the vehicle. They drove south in silence and Morgan gazed out at the harsh landscape, a deathly beauty that put life in perspective. Out here, it all became very simple: find fresh water or die. It was easier to be close to God, because civilization had been stripped away. In the cities, humanity found endless ways to divert attention from the bigger questions, but out here, with no distraction, you could only face stark truth. For a moment, Morgan wanted to stride across this hard place and mourn her father, alone but for the wide expanse of the sky above.