Hasan took in a deep breath and exhaled. He'd hoped that this game would last longer, that he would follow them through the maze and watch their battle. But now it seemed it might already be over. A disappointment.
He spotted the Bolsheviks again. They were moving closer to the Green Road, a passageway that would lead them to the top.
"Go see what happened to them, and let me know. Then head off the Bolsheviks before they get onto the Green Road. Nobody escapes."
The inside of the shaft was made of the same solidified volcanic ash that covered the entire valley, and it was an easy task to carve handholds and footholds. They were making progress, scooping out holes every couple of feet, with each one taking no more than thirty seconds to carve. But Indy didn't know how much time they had left before Hasan would investigate. He was almost certain that the Janissary chieftain knew where they were, if not what they were doing, and before too long his warriors would show up.
Indy had wrapped the hilt of his blade with a piece of cloth and had worked his way more than fifty feet up the wall, taking turns with Shannon, while Omar and Ahmet were working on the other side of the shaft, using their own knives.
"Indy, I'm going up," Ahmet called out. "I'll get the taxi."
He turned to see Ahmet climbing hand over hand, stabbing two knives in the friable tufa. He was surprised, but he knew Ahmet was doing the right thing. They would need to get away as soon as they were all out. He watched Ahmet's progress. The first few overhead pulls had been quick and smooth, but he was slowly losing strength and each stab was becoming an effort. Then, with only a few more feet to go, he stopped to rest.
Indy knew it was a mistake. The only way Ahmet could make it was to continue climbing. The knife wouldn't hold his weight for more than a few seconds. He saw the knife slowly pulling out and Ahmet slipping. That was it; he was about to fall. He'd knock Indy off the wall; they'd both die. But at the last moment Ahmet slammed the other blade into the tufa, catching himself in time. His narrow escape seemed to give him renewed vigor and strength, and he quickly scaled the remaining stretch. He flopped over the top and his legs disappeared from sight.
"Here comes the knives," Ahmet yelled.
Swell, Indy thought. Just swell.
He saw a silvery glint of steel in the moonlight as the blades dropped along the opposite wall. One fell straight down, but the other struck a prominence and veered off course, heading directly for Indy. He turned his head and ducked. The hilt of the knife struck his fingertips, missing his head by inches. His fingers throbbed with pain, but he refused to let go.
"Okay down here, Indy," Shannon yelled. "You ready for me?"
"Yeah, I'm coming down." He passed Omar ascending the opposite wall and wished him well. When he reached the bottom, he gave Shannon a pat on the back. Then he saw that Zobolotsky and Katrina hadn't been idle. Since he was last down here, they'd been taking the fallen pieces of tufa and enclosing the hole.
"Good idea. Let me help."
"It's better than standing here waiting for the next piece to fall on our heads," Katrina said.
"Sorry." He brushed his hand over her hair.
"It's nothing," she said.
Zobolotsky scowled when he saw Indy touching Katrina. "How did you allow these brutes to capture Katrina in the middle of a city in broad daylight?"
"Papa, he couldn't help it."
"It's no time to argue," Indy said just as a chunk of tufa struck him on the neck. He rubbed his neck, then picked up the piece and added it to the wall. The hole was not much more than a wide slit now. That was when he heard the Janissaries.
"They're coming," he whispered.
There was no time to do anything but hold their breath and hope the Janissaries didn't see what remained of the hole. The sound of voices grew louder; Indy knew there were at least a half dozen of them, maybe more. Then the Janissaries were right outside the wall.
Clots of tufa rained down on them. Indy squeezed his eyes shut, expecting swords to plunge through their false wall at any moment. But the Janissaries kept moving, and climbed the steps toward the dead end. As the sound of their steps receded, Indy and Katrina and her father dropped to the ground and grabbed the tufa.
"Thank the Lord," Zobolotsky breathed.
"We're not out of this yet," Indy warned. The Lord might have double duty to perform before this night was over, he thought as they finished the wall.
It wasn't a beautiful-looking wall, and it definitely wasn't a sturdy one. But the Janissaries might miss it altogether and assume they'd gotten to another passageway. Indy squinted as he gazed up the shaft. Shannon was within twenty feet of the top and Omar was even closer.
"Go ahead," Indy said. "By the time you two get up there, they should almost be done."
"What about you?" Katrina asked.
"I'm going to wait until I hear the Janissaries leave, then I'll be right behind you."
As they started to climb, Zobolotsky followed his daughter on the same route. "Don't do that," Indy said. "If she falls, she'll knock you down. Take the other one."
Zobolotsky turned and glared at Indy. "Stop trying to run this expedition, Jones. If Katrina starts to fall, I might just be able to save her. And if she falls, I might as well go with her."
Something about Zobolotsky bothered him. It was more than his moodiness and arrogance. But there was no time to think about it. The Janissaries were returning down the steps, and this time he heard them talking right below the false wall.
Get going, keep moving, Indy ordered in his mind.
"Hey, what are doing?" Shannon yelled down. "I'm not done yet."
"Jack, shut up," Indy whispered through his clenched teeth.
The Janissaries were quiet a moment, then they were jabbering excitedly. Indy cursed under his breath and backed away from the hole just as a sword pierced the false wall and a hand and arm followed it.
"Oh shit." He snatched his whip off his belt. The quarters were tight, but there was space above him, and he came down with an overhand release that caught the intruder's sword and snapped it out of his hand. Indy pulled it over to him and picked it up just as the entire false wall caved in. The Janissary, who'd lost his sword, looked up warily.
"Looking for this?" Indy held the sword like a spear and jabbed it toward him. The Janissary threw himself over backward onto his companions below, and Indy still clutched the sword. "Just kidding."
He looked up to see the progress above him. Omar had reached the top, but Shannon was still a few feet away and Zobolotsky and Katrina were right below him. He considered darting up Omar's side, but thought better of it. He had to hold the Janissaries off as long as he could.
Another one had mounted the hole. Indy could see his head and shoulders, but no sword. Then his right hand appeared and in it was a gun. Fortunately for Indy, the man didn't see him right away. By the time he did, the sword had slashed down and severed the man's hand. Indy looked at the curved blade. "Like cutting butter. And that was left-handed."
The Janissary disappeared from sight, but another warrior quickly replaced him. He swung the sword, but the Janissary blocked it with his own blade, then thrust the sword with lightning speed at Indy. For an instant, Indy thought he must be dead, but then he saw that the sword had plunged under his armpit and was buried at least a foot in the tufa.
"Indy, hurry!"
He looked up to see the others peering down at him from the top and didn't hesitate another second. He draped his whip over his shoulder, gripped the sword with his teeth, and climbed as fast as he could. He'd barely taken a dozen steps when he glanced over his shoulder and saw several Janissaries already mounting the carved steps.
"Swell. Lots of company."
He could make it to the top ahead of them, but he wasn't sure how long he could hold them off once he'd climbed out of the shaft. Suddenly, he realized he wasn't scaling the shaft nearly as quickly as he'd hoped. He'd made the mistake of climbing the steps that Omar and Ahmet had carved. They'd made
longer and shallower steps and that was why Omar had finished ahead of Shannon. But now Indy climbed with an uncertainty that slowed his progress.
He was nearly halfway up when his right foot slipped, then his other one slid out of its hole. He dangled, kicking his feet, and then he saw one of the Janissaries reaching for his ankle. Indy found one of the footholds, and the Janissary found the other one as he missed Indy's foot.
"That's mine," Indy snarled, and jammed his boot hard against the man's hand and wrist. The Janissary grunted, pulled his hand away, and swayed out from the wall. That was all Indy needed. He kicked out his leg, catching him across the chest, and the man toppled off his perch. He struck the man below him, knocking him off, and then two more Janissaries. They plunged like screaming dominoes to the bottom of the shaft.
"That wasn't so hard," he said, congratulating himself.
A sword suddenly slashed the wall, nicking his forehead. Blood streamed down his cheek as he turned and saw the opposite wall covered with a string of sword-bearing Janissaries. "Oh, shit."
He scrambled up the wall as fast as he could, not worrying about the depth of the footholds or their spacing. Now the longer steps worked to his advantage. As he neared the top he saw Shannon and Omar silhouetted in the moonlight as they reached down to him. They grabbed his wrists and jerked him out of the shaft.
He rolled over, pulled the sword from his mouth, and stabbed it at the first Janissary coming up the wall. But the man had stopped short, and he was waiting with a revolver aimed at the top. Indy was already jabbing at him when he saw the gun, and before he had a chance to react, the gun fired. The bullet careened off the sword's blade just above the hilt, and he felt the pressure between his eyes.
"C'mon," Shannon barked.
Indy flung the sword down the shaft, and retreated. Maybe he'd knocked the gun away or even knocked the man off the wall, but he wasn't sticking his head over the side to find out.
"Indy, hurry!" Katrina yelled.
He turned to see the others already fifty yards away, dashing toward a pair of headlights. He raced after them as the taxi made a U-turn, and they scrambled inside. The car was already moving and Shannon was holding the backdoor open as Indy leaped onto the running board. He looked back and saw half a dozen Janissaries with raised swords closing the gap.
"No more room, guys." Indy slipped inside and slammed the door shut.
"Step on it, Ahmet," Shannon shouted, and they pulled away.
"This is much more fun than driving in Istanbul," Ahmet said. "Where are we going next?"
"Mount Ararat, of course," Zobolotsky said. "That's why we're here."
"Then I'll take you."
"You'll need help driving these roads," Omar said. "I'm going along, too."
"The expedition is ready to find the Ark," Zobolotsky said in a commanding voice.
Indy looked over at Shannon. "Now for the real excitement."
"You don't exactly look like you're ready to climb a mountain," Shannon replied.
Indy's shirt was nearly in shreds. His face was streaked with dried blood and bits of tufa. "I could be worse off. I've still got my whip."
"And your jacket and fedora are in the trunk," Shannon said.
"When I was coming to pick you up," Ahmet said, "I saw two men in my headlights. It was only for a very short time, but I'm sure they were those Russian twins."
"Guess they found their way out, too," Katrina said.
"And I bet they find their way to Ararat," Indy said.
19
On the Mountain
The midafternoon sun was brilliant on Mount Ararat, the sky a deep blue, and the day had been a pleasant one. They'd left their encampment before dawn and had been climbing for more than eight hours. The six of them were strung out in three pairs. Indy and Shannon were in front of Ahmet and Omar by a couple of hundred yards, and Zobolotsky and Katrina brought up the rear.
Indy filled his lungs with mountain air. After all they'd gone through, they were finally here and scaling the famed peak. Even after a full day, his enthusiasm hadn't waned. The openness and brightness were a stark contrast to the dim, hazy world of the underground city they'd fled nearly a week ago.
After their escape, they arrived at the Cappadocian city of Kayseri by dawn and rested for a few hours. But they feared the Janissaries would hunt for them, so they left by midafternoon. For the next several days, they traveled from village to village across eastern Anatolia, the ancient name still used in this part of Turkey. Indy had jotted down the names of the villages and cities along the route, thinking that someday he'd write about this sojourn.
They drove through Sivas, Malatya, Adiyaman, and Kahta, where they stayed at a temple on a mountain called Nemrut Dagi. Before they left the next morning, Indy had inspected a collection of statues left behind by some pre-Roman king and his relatives. Each day he was more and more impressed by the antiquities he saw in the villages and countryside, and he wondered about the ones that still remained hidden.
They'd moved on to Sanliurfa, Mardin, and Diyarbakir, where Indy briefly examined ancient walls and the exteriors of mosques built more than a thousand years ago. The following morning, they'd headed east through Bitlis, then along the southern shore of Lake Van and to the city of Van, where they spent another night. Then it was on to Agri and east to Dogubeyazit, where they'd bought supplies for the climb. Yesterday afternoon, they'd arrived at a hamlet called Eli, the last outpost before the ascent. It was located at 6,400 feet on Agri Dagi, the Turkish name for Mount Ararat.
The escape from the underground city had gone as smoothly as Indy could have hoped, considering that they faced opposition on two fronts. There'd been no sign of either Janissaries or the Russian twins, but Indy hadn't let his guard down. The chances were good that they were being followed. The worst part of the journey had been listening to Zobolotsky's pompous espousal of how they were being guided by the Lord and how he would spread word of the Ark across the globe after they returned to civilization. It was almost as if Zobolotsky thought he was the resurrected Christ, and Katrina some sort of virgin mother of prophecy.
Although Zobolotsky probably suspected that something had happened between Indy and Katrina during their forced stay together, he said nothing to Indy about it. Instead, he'd kept Katrina close to him and appeared by her side every time Indy was alone with her for more than a minute or two. Shannon, on the other hand, had repeatedly prodded Indy for details and it was clear that he was jealous.
Indy didn't know what was going to happen between himself and Katrina, if anything. He was attracted to her as much as ever, but so was Shannon. It hardly mattered, though, because neither had any time alone with her. And she prudently kept whatever her thoughts were on the matter to herself.
Indy turned his thoughts from the tangle of relationships and gazed up at the mountain's two peaks, still visible in spite of the clouds that were settling on them. The one on the left was Buyuk Agri or Great Ararat, the other was Kucuk Agri or Little Ararat. The Ark was supposedly located in a saddle between the peaks at about fourteen thousand feet.
He tried to imagine a flood that would place a boat at such an altitude. It would take one helluva storm to generate that much water, a deluge beyond imagining. There were a thousand arguments against the existence of the Ark. Yet, if Zobolotsky had actually seen it, Indy was hard pressed to dispute it, unless Zobolotsky was lying.
"Hey, hold on," Shannon called from a few yards behind him. He was gasping for air as he caught up to him.
"What's wrong? We're almost there."
"I know, but don't you think it would be a good idea to let Vladimir lead the way from here?"
Indy dropped his pack and leaned against a block of stone. "I suppose you're right. We don't want the good doctor worrying that he's got a mutiny on his hands."
When they'd stopped for lunch, Zobolotsky had pointed out a sheltered area high above them, and they'd agreed that it would be the best spot to make camp. It was just below wh
ere the snow began and would protect them from the wind. Now they were less than five hundred feet from the spot.
"I think he's worried that you're going to steal his thunder," Shannon said. "And I'm worried you're going to steal his daughter."
"C'mon, Jack, will you cut it out about Katrina and me? Your imagination's getting the better of you."
"Sorry, it's just that she seems to be brooding about something all the time, and I wonder if it's you. She won't even look at me."
"It's probably not about either of us." Indy gazed out over the range of mountains and valleys below them. He could see several lakes that looked like pale blue ponds. The roofs of the houses in the village where they'd camped were mere specks. "I was hoping we'd go a little farther. I'd really like to get to that saddle by early tomorrow afternoon."
Shannon had set down his pack next to Indy and was rummaging through it. "It looks like we're almost there to me. I bet we could be asleep inside the Ark tonight if we really pushed it. At least, if everyone went at your pace."
"I doubt that. It's not going to be so easy tomorrow. You can count on lots of snow and wind and freezing temperatures up there. To say nothing of hidden fissures."
Shannon took out his Bible. "We're in God's country, Indy. I hope you don't mind if I read a few lines aloud before the others get here."
Indy shrugged. "I'm all ears." Thankfully, Shannon had kept his pontificating to a minimum during the last few days. Indy didn't know if he could have put up with two Bible thumpers in the crowded taxi.
Shannon opened the Bible and an envelope fell out. "Oh God, here's that cable of yours I picked up in Istanbul. I forgot all about it."
Indy glanced at the envelope; it was from Marcus Brody. "That's quite a while for you not to crack open the Good Book, Jack," he said as he opened the envelope. "You're not losing your commitment, are you?"
"Not at all. But being around Vladimir so much has made me see that you can get sort of carried away."
"Amen." Indy unfolded the sheet of paper and read the cable:
Indiana Jones and the Genesis Deluge Page 19
