by K. T. Tomb
THE
ARK OF THE COVENANT
A Phoenix Quest Adventure
#5
by
K.T. TOMB
Acclaim for K.T. Tomb:
“Epic and awesome!”
—J.T. Cross, bestselling author of Beneath the Deep
“Now this is what I call adventure. The Lost Garden will leave you breathless!”
—Summer Lee, bestselling author of Angel Heart
“The best adventure novel I’ve read in a long time. K.T. Tomb. I can’t wait to read the sequel. Count me a fan. A big fan.”
—P.J. Day, bestselling author of The Sunset Prophecy
“K.T. Tomb is a wonderful new voice in adventure fiction. I was enthralled by The Lost Garden...and you will be, too.”
—Aiden James, bestselling author of Plague of Coins
OTHER BOOKS BY K.T. TOMB
STANDALONE ADVENTURES
The Last Crusade
The Kraken
The Adventurers
The Swashbucklers
The Tempest
Ghosts of the Titanic
The Honeymooners
Curse of the Coins
Drums Along the Hudson
THE CHYNA STONE ADVENTURES
The Minoan Mask
The Mummy Codex
The Phoenician Falcon
The Babylonian Basilisk
The Aquitaine Armor
THE EVAN KNIGHT ADVENTURES
The Lost Garden
Keepers of the Lost Garden
Destroyers of the Lost Garden
THE PHOENIX QUEST ADVENTURES
The Hammer of Thor
The Spear of Destiny
The Lair of Beowulf
The Fountain of Youth
THE CASH CASSIDY ADVENTURES
The Holy Grail
The Lost Continent
The Lost City of Gold
THE ALPHA ADVENTURES
“A” is for Amethyst
“B” is for Bullion
“C” is for Crystal
THE ISLANDS THAT TIME FORGOT
Dinosaur Island
Ape Island
Snake Island
SASQUATCH SERIES
Sasquatch
Sasquatch Found
The Ark of the Covenant
Published by K.T. Tomb
Copyright © 2015 by K.T. Tomb
All rights reserved.
Ebook Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Dedication
The author wishes to dedicate this book to the late
Roger Ebert.
The Ark of the Covenant
Prologue
After Pharaoh released the Israelites from Egypt, they began their return journey back to the homeland that God had promised to Abraham. Under the leadership of Moses and his brother Aaron, they crossed the Red Sea by a miracle of God and then started across the desert to ‘the land of milk and honey’; traditionally known as Canaan. However, the Israelites were a stiff-necked people and were made to wander in the desert for 40 years due to their disobedience. During their wandering, God provided a tabernacle which was a portable temple where the priests would accept sacrifices and offer them to God for atonement. Within that tabernacle was the Holy of Holies, a particular part that was partitioned off from the rest of the tabernacle where the Ark of the Covenant was placed and it was upon the mercy seat of the Ark that blood from the sacrifices was sprinkled to serve as atonement for the sins of the people.
A symbol of God’s presence with his people, the Ark of the Covenant was a chest made of acacia wood and inlaid with gold. Within it were the stone tablets, upon which God’s one finger had written the Ten Commandments, a jar of manna, the bread from heaven with which God fed the Israelites in the desert, and Aaron’s healing staff, which had miraculously grown a bud. It was fixed with loops on the outside in order to be carried by a select group of the priesthood. The instructions and penalties for mishandling the Ark of the Covenant were very clearly outlined and God’s wrath was demonstrated on numerous occasions to prove that the covenantal chest was not to be trifled with. Touched or found in the company of those who were unworthy, plagues, tumors and even rays of fire would wipe out anyone who came near it.
With the Ark of the Covenant in front of them, the Israelites set forth to conquer Canaan, beginning first with the destruction of Jericho when the Israelites carried the Ark around the city for seven days and then with a mighty trumpet blast watched the power of God as the walls of the city crumbled to rubble and those inside were delivered into the hands of the Israelites. From that moment forward, the Ark was at the forefront of every battle as the Israelites regained their homeland. It was brought into Jerusalem behind King David who is said to have danced before the Ark wearing nothing but his loin-cloth as a symbol of his humility before God.
Thus, the Ark of the Covenant remained in Jerusalem and God’s presence remained with the people of Israel to protect their city and to receive their atoning sacrifices. The last Old Testament reference to the Ark is found in 2 Chronicles verse 35 when it was to be moved into the temple of Solomon during the reign of King Josiah, who sat on the throne from 640 to 608 BC. After that reference, no one is certain what became of this holiest of holy relics.
Chapter One
Thalia Phoenix was pretty sure that she was being followed. It had become a pretty common occurrence for her, though she had never quite been able to shake the tingling feeling in her gut whenever it took place. Having spent a great deal of her life being observant of her surroundings, and, on occasion, fighting for her life, she’d developed a sense of that sort of thing. Just to be sure, she turned rapidly and looked directly at the man who was pretending to be interested in the post cards in the small Santa Fe Plaza gift shop. His eyes turned away rapidly, but not before revealing a moment of disgust that he’d been caught.
She moved slowly toward the exit, pretending interest in a beaded leather bag with an outrageous number on the price tag. She could afford it, but having a collectibles shop of her own, she felt that the price was a little bit more than the actual quality dictated. When she was near the door, she quietly slipped out, hurried to the right, away from the windows of the shop she had been in and turned down a narrow alley. From there, she picked up her pace and then turned down another alley. Within a few minutes, she had made several zigzags in the alleys and streets near the plaza. She pulled the cell phone out of her Versace bag.
“Charlotte,” she said, a little too sharply. “Meet me at the capitol building in about fifteen minutes; sooner if you can.”
Charlotte instinctively knew that something was wrong by her tone. “What’s up?”
“I’m being followed.”
“Okay, um, okay, I’ll be there as quickly as I can.” Though Charlotte had been on one of Phoe’s adventures before, the sudden, clandestine-like nature of the phone call rattled her a bit.
“Thanks.” Without listening for a reply, she disconnected the call and then punched the speed dial button to make another one.
“Captain Sanchez,” she said as soon as he answered her call. “How quickly can we be in the air?”
“I’ve got to get to the airport, file a flight plan, do a preflight… An hour and a half?”
“Can you make it an hour?”
“I can try, but I’m not promising anything. What’s up?”
“I’m being followed.”
“What else is new, but why the panic?
” Phoenix was normally very cool about that sort of thing.
“Just a hunch.”
“Where are we headed?” Sanchez asked.
“Anywhere for the moment,” she responded. “Ultimately Venice.”
“Okay, I’ll get on it. Be careful.”
“As always.”
“That’s not exactly reassuring.” He chuckled.
Phoe disconnected the call and walked briskly along the street. Having spent most of her life in Taos, she knew downtown Santa Fe very well. It was only a short walk from the plaza to the capitol building.
Though she had been there a number of times before, she had visited the Georgia O’Keefe Museum earlier that morning and had simply wandered over to the plaza. It wasn’t often that she was able to relax and do some window shopping. Window shopping was about all that she would do in the plaza. There were a few legitimate places to shop there, but she wasn’t really in the market for anything in particular. Her slow, leisurely pace was what ultimately led to her discovery of being followed.
At first, she had just passed it off as a man who was attracted to her soft features and slender form, but when he continued to appear in the same shops that she did, she started to feel like she was being followed and the tingling sensation had begun. When she made her sudden move, she was instantly aware that he was not just an admirer.
As she walked down the side streets that ultimately led to the Santa Fe River Park and then to the state capitol building beyond, she formed a picture in her mind of what she had seen. His features were Slavic, perhaps Ukrainian or Romanian. Even though Taos and Santa Fe were often a draw to people from a number of different places in the world, the man she had seen simply didn’t fit. His reaction also revealed that he was up to no good.
The split second of frustration that was in his eyes told her that he was a professional, and that she’d made a fool of him. He had, no doubt, spent a couple of minutes chastising himself and in that moment, allowed her to slip away from him. She recalled the features of his face, but mostly his eyes. There was something foreboding in them that had rattled her a bit. She’d seen that look too many times. It was a look that she’d seen on the few occasions that she’d nearly gotten herself killed.
Maybe I’m overreacting. Could someone like her, who lived on the very edge, afford to be flippant? As a Vatican explorer, she was shocked at how many people either wanted her dead or were waiting for the opportunity to snatch up whatever treasure she had uncovered. Being extra cautious had served her well. The larger question on her mind however, was who and why?
She was more or less on vacation, having finished up her last assignment, finding the Fountain of Youth. Things had gotten pretty dicey toward the end of that one and she’d wondered if she and her team would make it out alive, but it hadn’t been any worse than some of the quests that she’d gone on before. So, had she pissed someone off or was someone just keeping track of her all of the time? The look in the man’s eyes hinted at the former, but it was hard to tell with men from that region of the world; they always seemed to have those cold, dead, killer’s eyes.
She went through the run-ins that she’d had over her last several quests, but was coming up with a blank when it came to having pissed off anyone from the Slavic region. The region, which had once been Yugoslavia and other Soviet satellite states, had been in turmoil for more than a decade, so most of that area had been dealing with their own problems and not particularly interested in the movements of an amateur archeologist. Was she still an amateur? She had been initially, but having gone through what she had over the past several years, she was becoming a hardened professional. I like the sound of amateur archeologist better.
As she crossed the Santa Fe River and started across the park toward the Round House, which was the pet name for the New Mexico State Capitol Building, she realized that as good as it had been to be back in Taos tending to her shop, it was time to head back home to Venice. The thought shocked her a little bit the moment that it hit her. Was Venice home? Up until that moment, Taos had always been home to her. It still was on that deeper, rooted level, but more and more often, there was a longing for her penthouse apartment on the Grand Canal. Not more than a month or so before, she wasn’t sure that she was at home there. Maybe I’m just losing my mind.
New Mexico’s state capitol building didn’t have a lot of the glitz and glamour of most of the state capitol buildings in the U.S., but its unique adobe-like structure was a reflection of the Native American culture that was prevalent in her state. What it lacked in elegance, it made up for in uniqueness and when all was said and done, it served its purpose and was always well maintained, but it wasn’t exactly on the level of the European architecture that Phoe had grown accustomed to. Was she becoming a spoiled rich girl? She found a bench with enough shade to keep her comfortable while she waited on Charlotte.
She had a home in a city and location that most people couldn’t afford, she had a private jet and limo complete with the staff necessary to have them ready at her whim and she could almost snap her fingers and make things appear. She had Simon Kessler and the Vatican to thank for that. All in all, she was happy with the way that her life was turning out; though she would have to admit that it was nothing like the life that she’d expected to have after growing up in Taos.
She saw Charlotte’s car as it came up Don Gaspar Avenue. She arose and started walking toward the lane where cars and buses pulled in to drop off and pick up passengers in front of the capitol building and made eye contact with Charlotte as the car came to a stop.
“Hey,” she said, opening the door and plopping into the seat without bothering to unburden herself of her purse and the few items that she had collected in a couple of small bags. “Thanks.”
“Where are we going?” Charlotte asked as the car started forward again and she maneuvered around a minivan dropping off several Navajo girls for a visit to their state’s capitol. She paused, glanced up Don Gaspar Avenue and then merged into the street and accelerated forward. She had to make a pretty quick move to get into the right hand turn lane in order to get on Paseo De Peralta.
“Airport,” Phoe replied simply.
As the car came to a stop at the intersection, Phoe looked over her shoulder, wondering if her follower had caught up with her.
Chapter Two
The Times Online
HEADLINE: Leak May Allow the World a Look at the Ark of the Covenant
The Ark of the Covenant, an ancient Jewish religious relic that seemed to have completely disappeared more than 25 centuries ago will be exposed for all the world to see due to a leak in the roof of the building where it is reported to have been residing since the 6th century BC.
The relic is believed to rest inside the Chapel of the Tablet in Aksum, Ethiopia where it was allegedly brought by a son or grandson of King Solomon’s wife, the Queen of Sheba. Within the Ark are said to be the stone tablets upon which the original Ten Commandments were written, a jar of the manna from the desert journey of the Israelites in the wilderness, and Aaron’s staff, which miraculously grew a bud.
Though it is doubtful that anyone will be allowed to take a look inside the sacred Ark, it is likely that it will be exposed when it is moved out of the leaking structure until it is repaired. Thrill seekers, archeologists and religious leaders will likely descend upon the small town of Aksum in northern Ethiopia in the hope of getting a glimpse of this legendary…
“Here you go, Sunshine,” Charlotte’s voice sang out as she placed a plate in front of Phoe, interrupting the article that she was reading on her tablet.
What had she been thinking? It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but Charlotte’s enthusiasm about being brought along to Venice was making her rethink her decision. No one, even Charlotte, should be so perky in the morning.
“Crepes and strawberries for you, and here is your coffee.” Her tone made Phoe wonder if she was expecting a tip when the meal was over.
In truth, Phoe had
enjoyed having her friend in her home, which often felt so empty and so far away from the world where she grew up. They’d done plenty of sightseeing in the past several days and Charlotte had insisted on spoiling her, but at times, especially in the early morning, it wore thin. “Thanks,” she responded in a sleepy voice, setting her tablet aside and looking at the spread in front of her.
“So, what are we going to do today?” Charlotte asked, sitting down in front of her and watching her eat while sipping a cup of coffee.
“What haven’t we done yet?” The words were muffled a bit by the food in her mouth.
“We’ve checked almost everything off of my list except the opera, and…” Her eyes lit up as she pushed a colorful flier across the table toward Phoe. “They just happen to have one taking place tonight.”
Phoe pulled the flier toward her and discovered that it wasn’t just any opera, but La Traviata by Verdi. With the thought of being able to enjoy that special treat in Venice, she was suddenly much more awake and eager to face the day. “I’ve always wanted to see that one. There’s not a better place in the world to experience it either.”
It was actually a good thing that Charlotte was there. Had she not been there, then Phoe wouldn’t have been out on the town and would never have known about the opera. What am I going to wear?
“What am I going to wear?” Charlotte squealed.
“Hmmm… it seems that we are going to have to spend the day shopping,” Phoe replied. She wasn’t normally a shopper. The term “girly girl” would never be used to describe her, but, as with every woman, when it came time to show off and look one’s best, she became all too eager to spend the day being one.
Just as Phoe began warming up to the idea of spending the day shopping with Charlotte, her cell phone rang. When she looked at the caller ID, her heart sank. It was Simon Kessler calling and that meant only one thing; he wanted something. Usually, when Kessler wanted something, he wanted it yesterday.
