Unearthly Power

by R. K.

  “Just who are you boys and how did you lose your boat?”

  “What do you mean we have guests?” A red-headed woman, obviously the man’s wife, asked as she walked through the cabin door in the process of tying her robe. “Oh, hello” she said, a bit startled. She looked to be similar in age to her husband, but in much better shape. She was a slight woman who took care of herself physically, attested to by the lack of any significant wrinkles. Her entire face lit up when she smiled and her enthusiastic energy was infectious.

  “Hello ma’am. I’m sure glad we found someone out here. We’ve been adrift for several days now,” Sean said with a smile of appreciation.

  “Oh my lord! Have you had anything to eat? You must be thirsty. Can I get you something to drink? Does anyone know you’re out here?” she said as her mind went from one thought to the next without waiting for a reply to any of her questions.

  “I’m sure they would like both. Now go get them something to eat and drink and I’ll take care of the rest.” Her husband assured her.

  “You poor boys,” they heard her say as her voice faded from inside the cabin.

  “You’ll have to excuse my wife. She’s not really excitable; she’s just that way all of the time.”

  They grinned at him in understanding. The man seemed to be in his mid-fifties, around six feet tall, pushing a little extra weight around his mid-section, and balding. He carried himself in a competent manner, sure of himself.

  “Now who are you and what are you doing out here?” he asked again indicating he would not accept anything less than a full and satisfactory answer.

  Sean decided to take the lead. “We have—had—a treasure hunting boat. There was an explosion onboard—we think it was in the engine room—and we had to abandon ship.”

  “Just the two of you?”

  While Alex started to say no, Sean jumped over him and said, “Yes. Just us.”

  The man was nobody’s fool and he noticed the exchange. He decided to let it go for the moment as he saw no threat in these two, and they were clearly in desperate need of assistance. When his wife returned, she had enough food to feed five or six people along with several bottles of soda and beer. He was about to tell her to go back inside and get some water, but the two younger men grabbed for the beer first. He decided to say nothing.

  Rosie entertained them with questions and outrageous suppositions on what they had experienced in their ordeal. Between bites of food, they nodded their head in agreement whenever she hit on some small aspect of truth. When that happened, she was fast on to another anecdote of what they must have been through. The boys needed the food more than anything, but the beer was ‘heaven sent.’ They were barely finished with the first one when they began to feel its effects. They didn’t leave a single crumb of food.

  “Wow. It never tasted this good before,” Alex said.

  “Yeah, and you should probably limit the beer to one. You are both suffering from exposure, dehydration, and mild mal-nutrition. You need proper fluids, not alcohol, food and some sleep. Lucky for you we have two single beds in the forward cabin.”

  “You don’t know what this means to us . . .” he started to say before his voice trailed off.

  “Sam. Sam and Rosalie Carter,” he said as he held out his hand.

  “I’m Sean Rylan, and this is Sebas . . .”

  “My name is Alex Tate,” Alex interrupted as he shook hands with the owners of the boat and glowered at his friend. “You almost sound as if you’re a doctor, Sam.”

  “Actually, I am. Cardiologist-Heart surgeon.”

  “Well Dr. Carter, I’m glad you like fishing too, or at least boating. I don’t really think we need your special services, but a lift to shore would be great,” Sean replied.

  “We’ll take care of that tomorrow. In the meantime, just call me Sam.”

  “And you boys can call me Rosie,” his wife offered with a friendly smile and a high pitched voice. She sat next to her husband holding his hand demonstrating an innate display of affection.

  When the boys finished eating everything she brought to them, and drank down several bottles of water each, they agreed to turn in for the night and answer any other questions in the morning. When Dr. Carter reached down for the wooden staff in an offer to assist them, Sean quickly cut him off and picked it up himself.

  Dr. Carter gave him a surprised look while Sean tried to excuse the situation. “Sorry. This is something special to me and I keep it close at hand,” he offered lamely.

  “No problem,” Sam said. “Come with me, I’ll show you to your room.”

  He knew there was more to the story than they were being told, but he didn’t think it would mean any trouble to him and his wife. He turned off the exterior light, looked around as if in anticipation of seeing something else out on the water and then followed the rest of them inside the cabin.

  ~ Eleven ~

  Early the following morning, the women were awakened by the entry of their assigned guard. He carried with him a tray full of food and a pot of coffee. He set this on the floor, and returned to the hallway. A moment later he stepped back into the room and placed several hangers of clothing on the inside door handle. He left without saying a word, and once again they heard the distinct sound of the door being locked from the outside.

  The bed was comfortable, and surprisingly, they both had a decent night’s sleep in spite of everything they had been through. Dee got out of bed first and walked to the tray, picked it up off the floor, and put it on the night stand. Tori removed the clothing from the door and laid it on the bed.

  “Why do I have the feeling these will fit?” she said in a way that indicated she already knew the answer to her question.

  Dee shrugged her shoulders and was in the process of pouring the coffee when she said, “Try it on. They are going to have to tell us what this is all about sooner or later. Might as well take what we can get.”

  Tori agreed and then tried on one of the outfits. They ate their breakfast in silence and decided that whatever their host had in mind, he was not going to be joining them anytime soon. They washed up, put on their new clothes and waited. Tori was in the process of asking yet another question about Dee’s brother when they heard the door being unlocked.

  “Come with me,” their guard said as he held the door open.

  Dee thought for a moment about pulling him into the room, locking the door behind them and then looking for the nearest exit. It sounded good in her mind, but she admitted to herself it was most likely a foolish notion with little chance of success. She smiled at him as she walked by knowing that he had no idea what she was thinking. He acknowledged her smile, but without a hint of emotion.

  They stood to the side when they were in the hallway, and he stepped in front of them to lead them up a plush carpeted stairway of only six steps. The priceless objects she noted earlier seemed to be without end. She flirted with the idea of knocking over one of the vases, but decided it would achieve nothing more than a little personal satisfaction. She knew the signs of frustration were starting to develop in her mind, so she did her best to control her emotions. Sooner or later they may need to take action, and she would need her full thinking abilities when that time came.

  When Dee turned to look at Tori, she noticed that she was also impressed by what she saw in the home. Tori returned her look and smiled, in part to show their shared response to their surroundings, but also in a show of moral support.

  After walking down a seemingly endless corridor, the hallway angled to the right and their escort held his hand out in a gesture indicating they should continue through the open doorway. They did so and found the room practically empty. They each took a seat in the only two plush leather chairs available. They could easily see out of the floor-to-ceiling windows on either side of the room. No other signs of humanity were observable within the range of their view. The only other object in the room was what appeared to be a canvas covered box which sat in the corner. They didn’t s
ay a word while they waited to see what would happen. On their first night there, Dee suggested that the rooms might be ‘bugged.’ Tori’s first reaction was skepticism, suggesting that Dee had an over-active imagination. When Dee didn’t say any more about it, she thought back to what had already happened to them and decided she may be right. From then on they were careful with what they said out loud.

  They heard the muted footsteps fall from the hallway behind them as Silas Chandler walked into the room and closed the door. He walked in front of their chairs and turned around to face them. Dee paid close attention to every detail of the man standing before them. His image would be burned into her memory. He finally looked into the eyes of each of the women before he began to speak.

  “The reason I engaged your father for this expedition,” he said, looking at Tori, “was because of his knowledge of ancient history, specifically Roman and Jewish history. I enlisted his services once before, on a minor matter, and found his attention to detail and expertise more than satisfactory.” He stopped as if to allow for a response, but continued on when there was none.

  Instead of standing in front of them, he began pacing across the width of the room as he talked, looking at neither woman as he spoke. “The wreck Miss Rylan’s brother reported some months back peaked my interest for several reasons, all of which were connected to an ancient artifact that is both highly sought after, and almost as highly discounted as ever having been in existence. Considering the events surrounding the discovery, I have reason to believe that it is not only genuine, but by all accounts it is in fact a treasure beyond value.”

  “What events are you talking about?” Dee asked, confused by his speech.

  He stopped in mid-stride and looked at them once more. His face was unreadable but it was clear that he was in the middle of processing the statement.

  “But of course. You were not involved with the final dive, and you were not aware of what it is you were there to find,” he said in understanding.

  “What were we there to find? Father just told me we were going diving for treasure. I don’t remember seeing anything other than some old storage containers and other commonplace items, certainly nothing that looked like it was worth the kind of importance you seem to be implying. And what final dive are you talking about?” Tori asked.

  Instead of answering her questions, he continued on as if he had rehearsed his speech and was going to deliver it intact. “When General Titus sacked Jerusalem in 70 C.E. he destroyed the second Jewish Temple. Before doing so, he removed all the treasures from Jerusalem and the Temple itself. With his approval, they sent every valuable item they found back to Rome. One of those items was the Ark of the Covenant. Those treasures were more or less forgotten as they were stored away in secured vaults.”

  His pacing began again as he picked up his next line of thought. “The ark sat undisturbed, and unknown, for over fourteen-hundred years. During this time, different Orders and societies developed within the membership of the Church. While they were known openly by name, some of the activities within its membership became a concern and eventually a threat to the hierarchy within the Church itself. They set about to disband some of the Orders, while the others they placed under the authority of people whom they could trust. While they did their best to control any wayward activities, the secret societies remained.

  “A highly placed member of one such society properly identified the ark in storage while cataloging other relics. He kept this discovery to himself, failing to list it with the rest of his data, and alerted other members he could trust with his discovery. It was decided that they would liberate the ark and move it to where their Order was concentrated in Lisbon, Portugal. Somehow they managed this. In the process of doing so, they too had those who could not be trusted in their ranks. One such influential individual used his authority to relocate the ark yet again. This time it was coming to the New World. Why he did this, no one knows. And those who know this story have been unsuccessful in coming to any general consensus for a reasonable answer. It may have been spite, or it may have been hatred of the Church, of the Jews, of his superiors; we just do not know.” He stopped speaking but continued his pacing as if readjusting his line of thought.

  “A ship was hired to transport this cargo, and a message was sent to delay the voyage of the flotilla led by Columbus. This fourth ship eventually joined them as they sailed west toward what we now know as the Bahamas. Mysteriously, this ship exploded two days short of their first landfall. They were not under attack, and there were no reported survivors found by the other ships after the explosion. In fact, their logs specifically mentioned that no debris from the ship was found, and that it sank within minutes. They continued on and the rest of their journey is well-known history.”

  He stopped pacing and stood looking out a window.

  “So you think the wreck my brother located was this mysterious ship carrying the Ark of the Covenant?”

  He turned to look at her and smiled. It was a look of satisfaction, nothing more.

  “It sounds like a nice story, but I went down to that wreck. I didn’t see any fancy ark, and I think this sounds like an attempt to chase ghosts more than anything,” Tori said.

  “I can see why your father didn’t mention to you what it was he was searching for,” Silas Chandler replied.

  “If he would have, I wouldn’t have been on that pleasure ride. I can tell you that much,” she replied hotly. She was upset with her father now because he had included her in some silly scheme. It wasn’t like him, and she was disappointed in him. She was also upset by the silly old man standing before her with this ridiculous story.

  As he read the differing expressions on his guest’s faces, he walked over to the canvas covered object in the corner. He removed the cover and let it drop to the floor. He stepped to the side so that they would have a clear view. The women’s eyes were locked involuntarily as they saw an intricately designed gold covered chest. On its top was what appeared to be two men with wings bent over covering the length of the chest. Two golden poles, of equal length, ran along its sides. Not able to help themselves, they got out of their seats and walked over to the fascinating display. They ran their hands over it as if ensuring that it was real.

  “You said this was from the wreck we searched? I never saw anything like this down there,” Tori challenged as she turned to face him.

  “Of course not. Finley found it, as I had made him fully aware of its description, and he and Marcel returned for it after your last dive.”

  “I heard once that the ark was held in a museum in Ethiopia,” Tori said returning her gaze to the exquisite piece.

  “I’ve heard the same thing. What makes you think this is the genuine article?” Dee asked.

  “I was informed about the weather and water conditions in the immediate area of the wreck from the time you got there. Do you recall them?”

  “Yes,” they both said remembering the strong currents and the dark gry skies in the middle of the serene scape outside of where they were working.

  “Please have a seat,” he suggested before he went any further.

  They did so at his request, in anticipation of hearing the full story. What they did not see, or hear, was the return of their guard who was now standing inside the doorway.

  “It seems that the cover of the ark was not completely closed. Once Marcel and Finley had it secured back in place, they reported that those conditions immediately improved. When they returned to the boat the cloud cover was breaking up.”

  “I still don’t understand. When did they report this to you?” Deidre asked.

  “As soon as they were finished raising the ark.”

  “Wait a minute. You said Marcel and Finley went down again after our second dive? When was that? I don’t remember any other dives and I’m sure Sean wouldn’t have approved one without his supervision,” Tori said in confusion.

  “Of course you would not remember. Marcel and his men are working for me, as was y
our father. They were making daily reports to me from a satellite phone. Your father too was making reports, but from a device in which he could only send texts. In this way, I had two separate sources to provide me with information but each source was unaware of the other. Your father knew what it was I was in search of. He could provide positive identification and any other necessary technical assistance. Finley, as you may recall, went off on his own while you were at the wreck. He discovered the ark, informed Marcel once he was back on board, and they made arrangements to serve you dinner,” he concluded with a smile. In this instance it was one of personal indulgence.

  “We were drugged?” Dee said as soon as the idea came to her.

  He gave an imperceptible nod in reply.

  “Why?” Tori asked.

  He didn’t answer. He stood there looking at the two women expecting them to furnish their own answer.

  Dee looked at Tori and then back at their host. “We weren’t supposed to come out with the treasure!” she said in a tone of accusation.

  “You were going to kill us?” Tori asked in shock.

  “No. Not you. You and your father were to be returned and left at a hotel where you would have awakened to find pay for your services, and tickets to take you home.”

  “What about the rest of us?” Dee asked.

  He did not respond.

  “Where is my father? Where are Sean and Alex now? Did you kill them?” Tori asked anxiously as it was the first time the thought had entered her mind. Dee, however, had been silent as the idea had come to her sooner.

  By now there were two men standing by the sides of the chairs the girls were sitting in. Dee saw this, while Tori was staring with worry at their host.