Indisputable Proof

by Gary Williams

  She knew the Archbishop was no doubt violating a long-held church secret. Bar thanked him with a gracious nod of her head as she took the key. “I promise your secret is safe with me.”

  “To my knowledge, it’s never been used,” Archbishop Gustavo remarked.

  Let’s hope I get a chance to try it, Bar thought.

  CHAPTER 55

  September 14. Friday – 8:39 a.m. Egyptian Time (7:39 a.m. Oviedo, Spain)

  1 hour 21 minutes until the start of the Feast of the Cross

  They returned to the triangular room where Diaz forced Tolen to carry one lantern while he carried the other. There, they retrieved the three stone jars wrapped in cloth, which Jade was charged with carrying. They were awkward, but she kept a firm grip. They went back to the rectangular room and ascended the steps to the second level where Tolen had broken through the wall. For the next several minutes, Diaz had Tolen break out the rest of the doorway while he held Jade at gunpoint.

  Once Tolen had broken away the last bit of stone with his hands and forged a doorway of considerable width, Jade studied the opening and beyond. The gulf between the ledge of the rectangular room and the second story of the triangular room would have been impossible to cross without the benefit of a running start. With the doorway opening next to a corner, they could back up the length of the rectangular room and race along the ledge. It would not be easy, but it should afford them sufficient speed to leap across the ten-foot gap.

  Peering across, there appeared to be nothing on the second story of the triangular room. Yet she knew that would not stop Diaz.

  “Tolen,” Diaz said, moving Jade to the side out of the way of the opening, “hand Jade your lantern.”

  Jade lowered the stone jars to the floor and took the lantern from Tolen. She brushed his warm hand as they made the handoff, and he looked into her eyes with an apologetic stare. She was still taken aback by his comment earlier that he only realized Diaz’s guilt after clearing Jade of any wrongdoing. The words had not only confused her, they had stung her heart. After all they had been through, how could he have doubted her?

  “You will be the first one across,” Diaz said to Tolen, backing Jade against the wall of the perpendicular ledge and out of the running lane.

  Tolen nodded his understanding. He examined the opening briefly and seemed to measure the distance across with his eyes. He turned, walked along the ledge in the opposite direction until he had passed the staircase and reached the far wall. His pause was so subtle, Jade barely noticed it. She could feel her own heartbeat racing as he broke into a trot, accelerated into a full run, and vaulted into the air just as he reached the opening. It happened so fast, Jade and Diaz had no idea if he had made it until they heard a muffled noise. They quickly gathered before the opening with one of the lanterns and saw Tolen rise to a stand on the far platform of stone.

  “You can make it,” he said, bending over and breathing heavily as he looked directly at Jade.

  “Move back,” Diaz instructed Jade. She took half a dozen steps along the ledge and turned toward him. Diaz turned and shouted through the opening. “Catch this.” He swung the electric lantern in his hand back and forth in practice before finally releasing it. Jade watched as it arced through the air and Tolen deftly caught it.

  “Put it on the ground to your far right,” Diaz ordered. Tolen complied.

  Diaz moved to the side, picked up the three stone jars in the cloth and took them out one at a time. With Jade still standing back, Diaz yelled across, “I’m going to toss these to you one at a time. If you allow one of them to fall and break, I will kill Jade.”

  Tolen nodded his compliance.

  Jade swallowed a hard lump.

  With little fanfare, Diaz swung the first jar and heaved it across the chasm. Tolen caught it with ease.

  Jade felt slightly better about her chances seeing how effortlessly the toss and catch had gone.

  The second jar flew across at the same arc and Tolen again fielded it, laying it to the side with the first jar.

  Diaz picked up the third jar. “This one is heavier,” he whispered more to himself than for their benefit. Diaz seemed more cautious as he made several practice swings before releasing it with an unexpected grunt.

  Jade’s heart sunk. She could tell instantly that Diaz had made a poor throw. There was virtually no arc, as the stone jar sailed across like a soccer ball kicked in a line drive and well short of its target. Tolen’s eyes flared and his body shifted awkwardly, sending a long shadow darting erratically to the side. He lost his footing and slammed down hard to his knees on the stone shelf, yet he somehow managed to field the jar, catching it in his stomach, then cradling it as he somersaulted forward, stopping inches short of tumbling off the ledge.

  He rose slowly and pulled the intact stone jar from its secure position in his midsection. Without a word, he stood it to the side with the others.

  “Nice catch, Señor,” Diaz taunted. He turned to Jade. “Your turn.”

  Jade’s pulse quickened. She hesitated.

  “I can shoot you, if you prefer,” he snarled.

  The guttural tone of Diaz’s voice spurned her into action. Across the way, she heard Tolen call out to her, “I’ll catch you. You can do this, Jade.”

  Jade walked somberly along the edge to the far wall. She closed her eyes, willing herself to remain calm. In college, as a gymnast, she could have made a jump like this blindfolded. She could still do it, she told herself.

  She opened her eyes. Diaz waited to the side of the doorway. Across the dark gap, Tolen stood perched near the edge of the second floor shelf. She knew the longer she waited, the worse her anxiety would tear at her. So she took a final deep breath and focused all her energies on speed, acceleration, and takeoff. She could do this. She had to do this.

  Jade burst into a gallop and drove her legs as hard as she could. Adrenaline kicked in, and she felt as if she were already gliding on air. She arrived at the opening in an instant, and, as her last step met the stone floor, she pushed off with all her might. She never looked down. Instead, she concentrated on Tolen as she closed on him in an instant. She flew into his chest, and the two tumbled backward onto the hard surface with Tolen absorbing most of the impact, breaking her fall. She quickly stood up, breathing hard, elated she had made it.

  “Very good,” Diaz called across from the other side. “Now, Tolen, catch this lantern.”

  Diaz threw it across, and Tolen caught it.

  Jade, standing beside Tolen, turned discreetly to the side and whispered, “What are we going to do?”

  “Nothing yet,” Tolen said quietly.

  His response took her off guard. She had been certain he was planning some sort of action.

  “Now, I want you two to take one of the lanterns, but leave the other lantern there. Also, take the three stone jars. Do not break them, or I will kill both of you, Jade first. Move all the way back to the point in the walls behind you. I’ll be able to see what you’re doing. Do not turn the lights out.”

  Tolen and Jade did as instructed. Jade arranged the stone jars against the wall near the far point of the triangle.

  “Any chance he won’t make it across?” Jade said.

  “We can only hope. With both lanterns over here, he’ll be running in near darkness on the ledge over there.”

  Diaz evaporated from sight as they watched the opening in the distance. Moments later, his stocky body came hurling through the air, and he landed with a harsh smack. He pushed himself up quickly. Although he seemed somewhat dazed, he immediately withdrew the pistol and aimed it in the general direction of Tolen and Jade. Slowly, he grabbed the other lantern, walked the distance, and joined them at the apex.

  “Jade, next to me now,” he demanded. He leveled the gun on her once again. Then he turned to Tolen. �
�The next step in locating the treasure must be here. Find it. Now.”

  Tolen made no move, and Jade felt a swell of fear.

  Diaz raised the pistol and pushed the barrel into Jade’s temple. “Are we now having an issue with words?”

  A tremble of fear ran up Jade’s back.

  Tolen lifted the lantern and turned. Wordlessly, he pointed to the converging point of the two sidewalls. Then he aimed his finger up, directing their attention to a cutout in the right stone wall about six feet high. It was a perfectly square, inset shelf, approximately five inches deep.

  Diaz waved both Jade and Tolen out of the way. He moved to the cutout and stood on tiptoe.

  From Jade’s vantage point, it looked empty. Diaz confirmed it. “There’s nothing here…” He settled back down and turned to face them, a smile spreading across his face. “…but there are three small circles at the base, spread out evenly. I believe we have arrived at the last doorway.”

  CHAPTER 56

  September 14. Friday – 9:06 a.m. Egyptian Time (8:06 a.m. Oviedo, Spain)

  54 minutes until the start of the Feast of the Cross

  “Even a novice like me can tell the three stone jars are supposed to be placed upon the shelf, precisely on the three small circles,” Diaz said as he reached for the first one.

  Jade silently concurred. It was probably a trigger to another opening. That was why the text mentioned all three jars were needed.

  Diaz arranged two jars on the inset shelf, then, keeping a watchful eye on Jade and Tolen, set the final stone jar atop the last circle. He stepped back.

  Jade watched and listened with anticipation as she held up the lantern.

  Nothing happened.

  After a prolonged silence, Diaz huffed, “Why won’t it work?” There was a desperate look in his eyes as he aimed the gun, targeting Tolen then Jade.

  Something Tolen had said struck Jade. It was what he had noticed back at the hotel on Patmos. Even though the stone jars were the same dimensions, the weights varied. “They have to be placed in a specific order,” she said.

  Diaz nodded in agreement. “Ah, yes, Mr. Joseph of Arimathea, ever the puzzle-master. I’m guessing they need to be arranged in the order of discovery?”

  Jade nodded. “I assume so.”

  It took Diaz a moment to rearrange as he had to check inside each jar for the contents. He reordered them left to right: myrrh, gold, and frankincense. He stepped away from the wall.

  Still nothing happened. “What now?” he wheeled to Jade and Tolen. “What now!?”

  “May we?” Tolen asked.

  Diaz stepped aside, motioning Tolen and Jade to the wall in obvious frustration.

  With Jade standing next to him, Tolen took the first jar and the third jar, and switched their positions. Jade had thought the same thing. Hebrew is written right to left. Diaz had set the jars in a left to right order.

  The moment Tolen reseated the jars, there was a rumble and a stirring at the wall before them. Beneath the inset shelf, a section of the wall retracted away with a shuddering scrape, revealing a square opening approximately four feet tall and three feet wide. Jade bent down, using the lantern to peer into it, when she suddenly felt a hard shove which sent her off balance and through the opening, where she fell to the stone floor.

  “No!” she heard Pascal Diaz shout behind her. There was a loud crack, a deafening blast, and Tolen came barreling through the opening a millisecond before the retracted stone door fell back into place. Tolen ended up sprawled on the floor next to Jade. The lantern had flown out of Jade’s hand, but was thankfully still working a few feet away.

  There was pounding on the stone door and muffled rants coming from Pascal Diaz on the other side.

  “What happened?” she asked excitedly, pushing herself up into a sitting position.

  Tolen stood, examining a fresh cut on his arm. “I pushed you through, knocked one of the stone jars to the ground, and dove inside. Diaz got off a shot but missed. As I had hoped, the moment one of the jars was moved, the door closed. I heard the jar shatter, so there’s no way he can follow us.”

  Jade took the hand Tolen offered, stood, and said with a worried look, “But we’re trapped on this side.”

  “We were trapped before. At least now we no longer have Diaz to contend with.” He turned, lifted the lantern to an upright position, and raised it. The light revealed a straight, inclining corridor. “Our only chance of finding a way out is that way. Let’s go.”

  The air was clammy, almost cold. The corridor was wide, approximately seven feet across and about the same height. The walls, ceiling, and floor were rough cut. Loose pieces of limestone made the footing treacherous, especially considering the grade they were traversing. The smell of stagnant air blended with a fragrance Jade recalled after a moment: cedar. The concept was absurd. Any wood locked in these catacombs would have decayed long ago, yet the aroma was palpable.

  They walked slowly, always mindful of the ancient traps they had encountered at Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb in Costa Rica, under the Petra on the Isla of Patmos, and here, where one tunnel had already caved in and become blocked with sand. Jade considered the deadly snares. For the first time, she realized a pattern: water in Costa Rica, fire on the Isle of Patmos, and sand here in the underground rooms in Egypt. Water, fire, and earth: three unique traps using elements of nature engineered to pose supreme challenges to anyone who ventured inside. The intricacies of Joseph of Arimathea’s designs were nothing short of genius.

  They reached a 90-degree left turn where the stone corridor continued to escalate at the same mild incline. Jade thought it odd but said nothing, following a half step behind Tolen. A few minutes later, they reached another 90-degree left turn. Now she was genuinely perplexed. “Where could this possibly lead? Shouldn’t we have reached the surface by now?”

  “Jade, I assume you solved the clue from the second stone jar just as I did. You realized ‘where the ancients knew no god but themselves in the desert’ referred to Egyptian Pharaohs, and then you remembered Dr. Cherrigan’s expedition in the tunnel below the hotel before he teamed with you last year.”

  She nodded. “Yes, but I never did figure out the first line: ‘Of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, only the Son is charged with holding the contents on high.’ ”

  “ ‘Of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost’ is a metaphor for the three pyramids on the Giza Plateau. The ‘Father’ is no doubt the Great Pyramid of Khufu, the ‘Holy Ghost’ equates to the second largest, the Pyramid of Khafre, and the ‘son,’ or Jesus, would represent the smallest of the three, the Pyramid of Menkaure. I believe that’s where we are now.”

  She stopped and drew in a surprised breath. “You mean, we’re…inside a pyramid? But none of the pyramids have mortuary tunnels which follow this pattern of incline with 90-degree turns.”

  “This isn’t a mortuary tunnel. Not long ago, a French architect named Jean-Pierre Houdin used state-of-the-art computer modeling to create a 3-D image so he could explain a theory he had regarding how the pyramids were constructed. The long-held notion of a straight earthen ramp had been proven impractical. The approaching ramp would have been exceedingly long, over a mile in the case of the Great Pyramid, in order to achieve a subtle enough incline to allow laborers to haul the millions of two-ton limestone blocks up on rollers. In essence, construction of such an earthen ramp would have been a greater effort than actually building the pyramid. Houdin’s contention was that a ramp was, in fact, used, but instead of approaching the pyramid from a distance in a straight line, the ascending ramp followed the sides of the pyramid at a seven-degree angle and was built from stone blocks as the pyramid went up, thus becoming part of the edifice. At the conclusion of the pyramid, the ramp corkscrewed its way to the top at right angles, following the sides of the pyramid like a staircase looping ar
ound and around. Then the builders enclosed the outer shell of the pyramid to conceal the ramp. Houdin theorized these ramps were still in place today, but Egyptian authorities never allowed him to test his theory. Satellite imagery was used to see inside solid objects for air cavities and appeared to show these inner ramps inside the Great Pyramid. I believe we’ve just proven Mr. Houdin’s theory to be accurate.”

  She stopped in her tracks momentarily, soaking in the information. “How can you be sure we’re in the Pyramid of Menkaure?”

  “The two other larger pyramids were once completely cased in fine, white Turah limestone. If you look to the side, you’ll see some pink granite. There, see?” Tolen came back to where Jade was standing and pointed to the right wall. Sure enough, a light pink hue could be seen.

  “The pink granite is a tell-tale sign, unique to the Pyramid of Menkaure. Only the first fifteen meters of the pyramid were enclosed in the pink granite. Above that, like the other pyramids on the Giza Plateau, it was covered in the Turah limestone. The pink granite on the outside was stripped away in the early 1800s.”