That the ancient boat was only a few hundred feet away.
“It’s a go?” Prenner asked.
“Absolutely.”
The point man led them down the slick slope until they were right at the edge of the disturbance. Prenner flashed his light down into the chamber.
Brandt gulped as the Ark came into view. It was as impressive as it sounded in the Bible.
Sallah stood next to him, soaking wet, mumbling a prayer under his breath.
Brandt glanced over at his wife, to see her eyes wide open with wonder.
This is what his wife lived for. She loved him. She loved the kids. But give her an Ark any day of the week.
And Brandt would give it to her if he could, just to see that look on her face.
“Shall we?” Brant asked.
“We most certainly shall,” Rebecca replied.
“I’ll get the ropes ready,” Prenner said.
“Ropes? My man, we don’t need no stinking ropes.”
With that said Lopez switched on his jet pack and raised up and over the rubble and down between the slabs, lowering himself into the Ark’s chamber.
They truly did live in an amazing era.
* * *
Davidson noted that both Lopez and Prenner had picked up on his landing technique as he stayed above to set up a perimeter. He would like to go down there and experience the discovery of the Ark with Rebecca, however that was not his lot in life.
He had chosen to be a sniper and therefore usually be above the fray.
The rain was coming down even harder than it had been before. If this was happening of all over the world, mankind was in pretty dire straits.
How Brandt and Rebecca could pull this one out of the fire, Davidson didn’t know, but he did have faith.
He set up his nest under one of the large stone slabs. It wasn’t always about being the highest, it was about being the most strategic. And after Venice, he was not going to get caught with his pants down again.
If the Chinese had such good satellite imagery of the area, they probably already knew that the team was here. And the Foremen were probably on their way. Plus, who knew what random poppy field patrols were out here.
You certainly didn’t want to stay in the Noshaq region for long unless you would like to get captured for ransom or a nice public execution.
Davidson, lying on stomach, positioned his rifle barrel between the streams of water coming off the edge of the rock.
He did a perimeter sweep just out of routine. There was nothing out here but broken rock and mud.
Give it an hour though, and it might be Grand Central Station.
* * *
Rebecca took in that nice deep breath of antiquity. It was heady stuff. They had been careful to land as far away from the Ark as they could. It was simply amazing the Ark was in such pristine shape. Of course that was before the ceiling was blown off and water had come streaming in. Now the object would probably only last a few more decades before it crumbled to dust.
She had Prenner and Lopez clicking pictures, documenting the solemn occasion. Sallah was working his way around the ark from the opposite direction.
Another thing they were losing was the writing on the walls. The ink appeared to be water-based, more than likely squid ink, and was beginning to run as the water dripped down the walls. Much of it they had already seen in Noah’s tomb and the book of Enoch, but she was sure that there were still some secrets to be revealed.
Her body shook with anticipation. A new find was always so invigorating. Mind reeling with implications of this discovery.
It was going to cause major quakes across the Judeo-Christian world, but why the Chinese cared still nagged at Rebecca. Why kill the entire team to keep the location secret?
There has to be more here than simply the Ark. It was hard though to think of anything else but Noah’s creation, when it was sitting right there.
She has a mockup of it of course, and even the life-size ark in the Netherlands. This though, this was something altogether different. You could see the gouges in the wood from the barnacles on the hull. There was even the light aroma of hay in the air.
She felt so incredibly privileged. It made her sad to think that Bunny would never see such a sight.
Which only meant that she had to do double the work, to show her protégé when she returned back to DC.
“Remember to turn the camera onto panorama view,” Rebecca instructed Lopez.
The corporal turned around with a facial expression that said, “My middle name is panorama.”
CHAPTER 20
Stark was cried out. Bunny still wasn’t stable, but she wasn’t dead. That had to count for something. He had prayed to any otherworldly entity, and one of them must have heard him.
The only thing the nurses and doctors could talk about was the miracle that Bunny was still alive. Streams of interns and residents came through the room to ooh and ah.
He was rather tired of it.
He felt nearly as bad as Bunny’s monitor showed. Exactly how long had it been since he’d slept more than an hour or two here and there?
Stark felt uncomfortable not telling Davidson about Bunny’s stroke, but when he’d discussed it with his mom and Tika, the team was at a critical juncture. They had found the Ark, however there were multiple teams descending on the cavern.
The warm gooey stuff was about to hit the fan.
He was just glad he was on this side of the Atlantic.
So the decision had been made, to wait until the team was safely secured, before telling Davidson. During such a stressful time the man deserved to go longer believing that Bunny was improving.
One of the many, many doctors stepped into the room and opened her mouth to speak.
“Nope,” Stark said.
“But I--”
Stark put his hand up palm out. “Sorry, but we are closed for the day. I can’t hear how she’s either about to die or you have some miracle cure. Please, just let us rest.”
The young doctor, she looked like an intern, didn’t seem to know how to respond. Which was kind of the point. He couldn’t take any more doctors just talking for talking’s sake.
As strange as it sounded for a card-carrying atheist to say, it was now in God’s hands.
As the rain pounded against the window, and the parking lot down below completely flooded, it look like all of their lives were in God’s hands.
* * *
Brandt walked around the Ark. He had to say that this was one of the Biblical stories that Brandt had wished was allegorical. His heart was torn. He loved his God, however this Ark represented a tale where his beloved God had killed either all the other humans on earth or at least a huge swath of them.
Why?
And here they were in the middle of a planet-wide mega-storm that threatened billions of people. And they were at ground zero of it. What did God want? Were they supposed to use this Ark and save whomever they could?
Standing here in modern times, that seemed wholly unlikely.
But Brandt did have a feeling that he was brought here to do something to intercede and save as many as he could.
Rebecca had moved on from photo cataloging all the passages on the walls, simply because the rain had washed most of it away, and was now turning her attention to the Ark itself.
Sallah had already climbed inside and was exploring the interior of the Ark.
The men had taken up defensive positions. Stark’s mother had informed them of multiple hostiles on the move. The team certainly couldn’t depend on either Afghan or Pakistani help, and since this mission was off the books, the US wasn’t going to intervene. His bosses liked their plausible deniability.
Once again it was up to the team to get their tails out of this fire.
“Well?” he asked his wife.
“Which ‘well’ are we talking about?”
True, this chamber had raised far more questions than it had answered.
“The one I’
m thinking of right now, is why did the Chinese freak out about this chamber?”
Rebecca frowned. Apparently she had the answer to this, but wasn’t very happy about it.
She pointed to a part of the wall that was now just a black smear. “This section and many others repeatedly stated that any man of God, by whatever name he was called, in his heart should rise up against his oppressors.”
“That’s all?”
“All? China has an increasingly large underground Christian population. To have that population rise up? A disaster. And it would give other Christian groups a reason to pressure China. It could upset the entire applecart.”
“Or the Chinese could’ve just let them practice freely.”
“Which kind of goes against the whole communist doctrine.”
“Anything else I should know?” Brandt asked his wife.
“I am developing a theory, but I need to investigate further,” she said gazing into his eyes. “I take it that it isn’t going well out there.”
Brandt nodded. He had Stark’s mother restrict the weather and disaster updates to his channel only. He didn’t need the rest the team getting worried that the world was drowning. They were high enough up that they wouldn’t see the effects for a few days, however most of the world was now fighting life-threatening floods.
“And we are about to come under attack as well?”
He couldn’t lie to his wife. Brandt nodded again.
“Well,” she said with tears coming to her eyes. “You should get up top then.”
Brandt went to step forward to comfort his wife, but she shook her head, waving her hands in front of her.
“No, I refuse to do that. We are not saying goodbye. Do you understand me?”
Brandt did and to prove it, turned on his heel and walked over to get his jet pack.
Time to stop thinking. Time to start fighting.
* * *
Davidson watched in wonder as Brandt, Lopez, and Prenner rose from the chamber. Their jet packs glowing an icy blue. What a world they lived in. He was almost jealous.
Despite the heavy rains, the three hovered in front of Davidson.
“Report,” Brandt ordered.
“We have a moderate contingent, maybe fifty to sixty men, of whom I can only assume are the Foremen coming from the west,” Davidson answered. “A smaller force of twenty men, looking to be Taliban, heading down from the north. And a much larger assembly of about two hundred Chinese from the east.”
“So doable?”
God, how he loved his commanding officer.
“Yes, sir.”
“You gotta love these jet packs,” Lopez exclaimed. “But we’re a little low on fuel. So keep the acrobatics to a minimum.” Then he flashed a smile so brilliant that it shown through even this dark storm. “I know, sounds funny coming from me!”
“I would recommend hitting the Taliban first, sir,” Prenner commented.
“I agree,” Brandt replied.
Then without any further ado, he turned on his axis and flew away. The other men followed, streaking through the sky.
That was a sight you certainly didn’t see every day.
* * *
Rebecca knew that she’d better get her stuff together or all was lost. Not just for her team, but for the world.
And this wasn’t some kind of hyperbole, ego driven smack talk. The world’s fate really did rest in her team’s hands.
What if she were wrong? What if her theory doomed mankind, rather than saved it? She really hated being in this position, yet she consistently got herself here. She probably shouldn’t search for Noah’s Ark, if she didn’t want to find it and the responsibility that came with immersing herself in its history.
Sallah came out from the Ark. His frown was deeper than her own. “My hands are tied. I am a Foremen. I cannot do what must be done.”
She understood. He must have come to the same conclusion as she. After so many mentions of how man determined the flood. So many mentions of how a handful of people could be spared by the ark.
Or…
She wasn’t ready to say out loud what the “or” was.
Rebecca did what Rebecca always did when her heart was uncertain.
She threw herself back into her studies.
* * *
Brandt would never say this aloud to Lopez, but these jet packs were the bomb. They raced toward the Taliban. And exactly what he hoped would happened, did.
These were tribesmen that had never even seen Flash Gordon. They were riding donkeys for Pete’s sake. When they saw the men in the sky, half of the tribesman scattered back down the mountain. Which only left less than dozen or so.
The team opened fire from the air, pelting the remaining Taliban.
That was possibly the fastest routing of terrorists in world history.
Donkeys brayed as their owners kicked them, hurrying them back down the slope.
The team turned in unison, rushing over to the advancing Foremen. These men were little more seasoned. They did not scatter upon their arrival.
They were going to have to take care of that.
Brandt shot up into the sky, with his men following. He then came back down at a steep angle firing as he did. They must have been out of Davidson’s range as he did not join the barrage.
That was fine. They could do this themselves.
As bodies dropped, screaming in the heavy rain, most of the Foremen lost their nerves. The back half deserted and the front half broke. Another few moments of intense gunfire, and the Foremen were routed.
Both had been the easy ones though. The Chinese to the east were the real problem.
And they made that fact very clear as they fired missiles at the Ark chamber.
Reversing course, they sped their away across the slopes.
Davidson’s first shot rang in the air. The good news? The Chinese were in range. The bad news? The Chinese were in range.
“Brandt, I need you,” Rebecca said in his ear. She sounded calm but firm. This wasn’t an emotional “I need you.” And despite another missile hitting the cavern shaking rock down, Rebecca wasn’t talking about needing him for physical protection either.
That meant she had a plan. And that he wasn’t going to like it.
“You guys okay without me?”
Lopez snorted. “Hell yes! All the more glory for us.”
Prenner’s expression didn’t look like he agreed, but he didn’t complain.
Brandt had no choice but to turn around and head back to his wife.
* * *
Inside the chamber, the sky was falling, quite literally. With the missile fire and its fallout, Rebecca and Sallah had needed to take cover under a large slab of rock. Now without the protection of the roof, rain was pouring into the chamber at such a rate that the Ark could be floating any moment.
Rebecca feared if the Ark became completely mobile, it would all be over. Their options were exhausted. She shouldn’t have taken the time to seek confirmation. She should have just told Brandt and gone for it.
She had wasted precious minutes on her insecurity. Now how many people would pay for it?
Then there was a flash of blue light and Brandt descended into the cavern.
“This had better be good,” Brandt said as he landed lightly in front of their hiding place.
Rebecca rose, this wasn’t going to be an easy conversation.
She took her husband’s hand. “I need you to remember that you trust me. Even if it sounds little crazy, my advice is based in reason.”
“Just tell me, Rebecca.”
Yah, that had never gone over so well. In fact she still held secrets from their very first mission that she feared could devastate her husband.
Rebecca took Brandt’s hand.
“I think that this is all a test by God. I think the Ark is a test. I think Noah realized this and felt he’d made a mistake.”
“Hon, I really don’t understand what this has to do with--”
; Rebecca put her fingers up to his lips. “The Ark this time is an equal test. Either we get in it and save as many people as we can, or we destroy it and cast our fate with the rest of mankind.”
“Destroy it, what good would that do?”
Rebecca knew that this information was going to be hard for Brandt to take in. “I think God is asking us whether or not the rest of mankind is worth saving. If we take the Ark, we are saying no they are not. Noah realized too late that by obeying God’s word to the letter, he doomed so many. He had forgotten that God gave man free will for a purpose.”
Brandt’s eyes narrowed. “But if we reject the Ark, then you are saying that mankind is worth saving?”
Rebecca nodded.
“You don’t think that’s a leap?”
“Of course it is, but it is the only path forward where we have any choice at all. Where we, mankind, determine the flood.”
Brandt’s eyes searched her face then finally he nodded. “And how do you propose to do this?”
“Prenner left his munitions pack behind. I think I’ve seen him do it enough, so I rigged the Ark.”
“Then what are you waiting for?”
“It can’t be me,” Rebecca stated. “I am not faithful enough. I fear if I or the Chinese destroyed Ark, it would seal our fate.”
Rebecca nodded her head toward Sallah. “And he won’t. He is as surely blinded by the majesty of the Ark as Noah was.”
* * *
Davidson did his best to help, as Lopez and Prenner darted in and out above the Chinese troops, trying to reduce their number.
They must have taken out at least fifty so far, but that’s still left one hundred and fifty to go. The Chinese soldiers were well-trained and not flustered by the jet packs, as the other assailants have been. They had recovered quickly from the initial surprise, and not a single soldier had deserted.
And Lopez and Prenner were crazy good at the jet packs. Pivoting on a dime. Shooting up in an instant, then diving down into the troops to scatter their rigid fighting pattern.
“I think I’m running low,” Lopez said, just before he fell from the sky.
“I’ll try--” Prenner announced just before he too plummeted to the ground. Like a pro, he hit and rolled.
Luckily, the men fell between Davidson and the front of the enemy line.
The 3rd Cycle of the Betrayed Series Collection: Extremely Controversial Historical Thrillers (Betrayed Series Boxed set) Page 21
