The Nabatean Secret

by J C Ryan

  Mackenzie was the first to see what was behind it and gasped in shock.

  The others turned from their task to see a colossal room, the ceiling more than twice as high as the cave in which they stood. Inside were rows of shelving, in their flashlights it seemed like hundreds of them, stretching from floor to ceiling. And on every shelf were stacked dozens of what looked like copper cylinders. Carter couldn’t even venture a guess at how many there were.

  For several minutes, they were speechless with awe, each remembering a different event that had made them feel the same.

  Mackenzie remembered sitting with Carter in that cave in Cusco many years ago. She and Carter hadn’t even been engaged then, but it may have been when she began to love him. Looking at that thirty thousand-year-old city inside a mountain in Peru, the Golden Garden of the Incas, with Carter and his grandfather, Will, had been like peering into Heaven. This came close, though there was no gold.

  Dylan remembered his first sight of the city of the Giants underwater in the Alboran Sea.

  Carter was remembering his grandpa Will, the man who had instilled in him the love of archaeology from an early age. He looked up, imagining the stars that would have been visible if they hadn’t been dozens or hundreds of feet below ground. He’d lost track of the direction half a dozen turns ago. For all he knew, they were directly under the center of Matera. “I hope you can see this, Grandpa,” he said softly.

  Mackenzie heard him. She moved to his side, put her arms around his waist, and looked up at him. “He does, Carter. He’s looking at it with you, right now.”

  They moved farther inside the room and came to an open spot that could have been the center. There they found a table carved from the cave rock, and on it were a few of the cylinders, one open. Gingerly, Carter slipped a coil of thin copper out of the cylinder and spread it out. He saw writing etched in the surface. At least it wasn’t nano dots…

  He recognized the writing as cuneiform, an ancient form of Semitic and very similar to the Giants’ language. He could even read most of it, with his knowledge of Arabic, Semitic, and the Giants’ language. His hope was to confirm this was the long-lost Nabatean library, but he was looking for something to confirm it.

  After a few minutes, he found what he was looking for.

  Silently, he read the passage, piecing together from what he could read the parts he wasn’t sure of. I, Rabbel Il Soter, King of the Nabatean people, commission the construction of a library to hold our ancient secrets. This knowledge must be preserved, and it must be hidden from the Romans who will force us to become part of their Empire very soon.

  “And they did,” Carter said aloud.

  “What?” Mackenzie and Dylan asked in unison.

  Carter realized then that Mackenzie and Dylan were staring at him. He read the passage to them and went on to explain.

  “In 106 AD, shortly after Rabbel Il Soter died, the Roman emperor, Trajan, annexed the Nabatean kingdom without a battle. History has always wondered why the Nabateans didn’t resist. This record shows that the last king of Nabatea predicted that to happen and commissioned this library to hold their knowledge in secret. His prediction came true. The Romans did force the Nabateans to become part of their empire, but the Nabateans expected it and ceded without losing their people to war. Pretty smart. They remained free, unlike some of the Romans’ conquests, and eventually most were assimilated into Roman culture.”

  Dylan and Mackenzie exchanged glances. Carter seemed almost too calm if…

  Mackenzie put her hand on Carter’s shoulder. “Then, is this…?” She hardly dared finish her question.

  Carter looked up at her, unshed tears glimmering in the unsteady light. “Yes, Mackie. This is the library of the Nabateans!” Speaking it aloud broke his shock, and he leaped to his feet, hugging Mackenzie and dancing her around with joy. “We’ve done it! We’ve found the secrets of the Nabateans! We can beat them once and for all now!”

  Mackenzie was no less excited, and she did shed tears of joy as Carter whirled around with her. Dylan felt like dancing a jig, too. But soon Carter sobered. “Let’s see if this is all of it.”

  Dylan moved to the door and began circling the outer walls for another exit, while Carter and Mackenzie, hand in hand, moved in the opposite direction. Dylan found it first—a passageway that led into another large, domed cave with more shelves and tightly-stacked cylinders. “Here!” he yelled. “I’ve found another one!”

  They’d been gone from the outer cave for over an hour now, so rather than examining any more of the artifacts, they concentrated on making sure they’d come to the end of the cave system. There’d be time enough to explore farther after this discovery was secured.

  When they reached a room with only one way in or out, they counted. Five rooms, packed to the very edges with cylinders. Five dolphins, five halls. Now it made sense.

  The only exception to the layout of the rooms was the second one. There, instead of the “library table”, they found the remains of about twenty people, laid out neatly on their backs, skeletal arms folded over their chests. Without touching the remains to be sure, it was impossible to determine how they’d met their deaths. No obvious signs of violence were visible. Poison, perhaps?

  “Killed to guard the secret?” Mackenzie asked, shivering.

  “That would be my guess,” Carter replied.

  The shape and layout of the rooms was strange. Accustomed to square rooms, the explorers didn’t at first understand. It was plain that the rooms had been purposely carved from the limestone; therefore, they would have expected more or less square rooms. However, Mackenzie was the first to visualize the shapes as they were intended—as parts of a whole.

  “It’s a dolphin!” she exclaimed, delighted.

  “What?” Carter asked, looking around for another etched dolphin.

  “The layout! It’s in the shape of a dolphin. We came in through the blow-hole. How clever!”

  “Mackenzie, that was a clever observation! Just like a real archaeologist,” Dylan wisecracked.

  “Dylan, never fear when Mackenzie is near,” she snickered.

  Carter was working on something else, and he smiled absentmindedly. “That ‘blow-hole’ is probably not how they got in here,” he whispered. “The ancients often had a way of hiding or blocking the main entrance of places they wanted to hide, and then they’d leave a hidden escape way like we have seen here.

  “Someone killed those twenty-odd souls to keep this secret. They placed their bodies like that and then got out the way we came in. And then, after that, it’s anyone’s guess what happened.

  “But one thing is sure—the location of this place was lost.”

  They took pictures as they double-checked they hadn’t missed anything. But because of the five rooms and five dolphins’ juxtaposition, they were almost certain they couldn’t have missed another room.

  On the way back, they stopped at the stone table again, retrieved the scrolls from their cylinders on the table, and took pictures of them after blowing away the dust on them. They checked the pictures to make sure they were clear enough to read the text in the photos.

  Carter was arguing silently with himself as he was tempted to take at least the first scroll he’d read earlier with him. From the dust and stale air in the caves, it was evident even the Nabateans hadn’t visited it in many centuries, if ever, since it was commissioned. It could assist in convincing skeptics or maybe the Nabateans about their find.

  In the end, experience took precedence over emotion. Even if there was no record of its existence, and no one but they would know about it, and despite the fact that it might serve a higher purpose, the backlash, justified or not, of doing that at the City of Lights for that very reason, was a painful deterrent.

  They’d have to go through diplomatic channels to get their hands on the contents of the library, which would take time. And time was precisely what they didn’t have, but there was no way around that. Reluctantly, they turned their
backs on the first chamber, pushing the lever to reclose it as they started back toward the cave through which they’d entered.

  As Mackenzie emerged on hands and knees from the small entrance tunnel, a cheer went up among the anxious security detail waiting for them.

  “We didn’t know how long we should wait before organizing a search party,” Conrad said. “We were just about to draw straws to see who should go in after you.”

  Carter popped out next, followed closely by Dylan, who heard the last sentence. “Glad you didn’t. I wouldn’t have wanted to push your limp body out of that passage after you passed out from fright,” he joked.

  “I’m surprised Mackenzie didn’t have to drag you behind her,” Conrad retorted.

  “Okay, okay. Time for that later,” Carter said, laughing. “Let’s get this place back the way we found it and get back to the hotel.” He fussed with the lever again, finally getting it into the right position to move the entrance block back in place.

  Shining his flashlight at his handiwork, he could clearly see the unnaturally square outline. He grabbed a fistful of dirt from the floor of the cave and blew it into the cracks, concealing it once more.

  The drill-holes in the Roman concrete, however, required a bit more ingenuity. Kyle produced a tube of superglue from Carter’s bag of tricks and patched the holes with a paste of it mixed with dirt from the floor. He didn’t have a solution for the graffiti, though.

  They all stared at the gaps in the reddish paint, scratching their heads. Then Mackenzie stepped forward with a lipstick. She quickly filled in the gaps and then closed the tube and put it back in her pocket. She was grinning when she turned to ask, “How is that?” only to find everyone staring at her.

  Carter said, “You carry lipstick on a midnight mission?”

  “Hey, you never know when you’ll need to touch up your lipstick,” she said, winking at him.

  “Oh, okay. If you say so.” Carter smiled.

  “Certainly came in handy this time,” Piero added.

  They stepped back and looked at their handiwork. Only if someone knew exactly where and what to look for would anyone be able to detect they’d been there.

  “What’s next, boss?” Dylan asked.

  “We can talk about that on the way back to the hotel,” Carter answered.

  “I say we carry everything out and hide it somewhere else,” Piero suggested.

  Dylan nodded.

  “No, that gets us in as much trouble as taking it out of the country without permission. Besides, you’re talking about a massive amount of material.” Carter opened his phone and set his photos to play on slideshow before handing it to Piero to watch. “We’d never get it out in two days anyway, even if all eight of us could work on it around the clock.

  “But I agree, we need to secure it immediately. We have no idea if someone has noticed our interest in the dolphins and could work it out for themselves. I’m afraid it’s up to our President and your government.

  “We need to get a message to Bill right away. It has to be done in hours, not days.”

  With his words, everyone was tense again. Mackenzie was drooping with weariness.

  “Come on, let’s get back to the hotel. We have to figure out how to get a message out securely and post haste.”

  Carter and Dylan hashed it out in the car. They were reluctant to even trust the satphones, and their cells were out of the question. In the end, Dylan said he’d just have to talk to Sean in riddles until he got it, and then he could move the message up the line. Carter couldn’t see a better plan, so it was settled.

  At the hotel, Dylan worked out the time difference. It was evening in DC, but not so late a phone call from Italy would panic Sean. He took out the satphone and made the connection.

  “Man, it’s good to hear from you,” Sean said as he answered. “I saw the news. You guys okay?”

  “Same here,” Dylan said. “Yeah, we’re fine. Got the package.”

  Sean thought for only a second. Was Dylan saying they’d been successful in finding the library? Unbelievable. “Bringing it home with you?”

  “No can do. Need you to meet us here. Bring the secretary.”

  That one stumped Sean. The secretary? “Uh…”

  “Sorry, I mean the CEO’s secretary. Top guy.”

  Sean stumbled. Top guy. The President? They need the Secretary of State? He said, “Oh, Connie!” Constance Pierce was the Secretary of State, and although he had never met her, he was sure she’d no doubt have something very unpleasant to say if she’d heard him refer to her as Connie.

  “You got it. Oh, by the way, you wouldn’t want your wife to know, even though it’s a business trip.”

  He means come incognito. And the business must be diplomatic. “Gotcha. When do you need us there?”

  “Take your time, as long as you hurry up and make it before yesterday.”

  Sean just smiled at that old saying from their military days.

  Chapter 72 - Short briefings

  May 8 evening in DC

  Sean couldn’t believe it. They had the library! Carter had done it again!

  He looked at his watch. Just past nine p.m., which meant Dylan had called him at three a.m. Matera-time. That put even more urgency into the request they get there as soon as humanly possible.

  By nine fifteen p.m., Sean had contacted Bill, and by ten, they’d briefed the President—maybe the shortest brief in history. “They’ve got the Nabatean library! They need the secretary of state and me over there now. Actually, the exact word was ‘yesterday’.”

  The President knew urgency when he saw it. Protocol would have been to have Scott Eadie summon Pierce, but that would have taken more time. He had a Secret Service member text her. “White House. Now.”

  Fifteen minutes later, a hastily-dressed but wide-awake Constance Pierce hurried in. “You hollered?” She smiled.

  Constance was a slim blonde woman whose Texas speech patterns were more suited to her cattle ranch than her exalted position in the US government. Sixty-eight years old and a veteran of the CIA and the Senate herself, she exuded competence and good cheer in equal measure. Her weathered face had seen more than its share of the hot Texas sun, but her smile was infectious. “Bill, good to see you. Mr. President, where am I going?”

  “Italy. Sean will fill you in on the way.”

  If Constance was bewildered, she didn’t show it. She looked Sean up and down and liked what she saw. “Do I have time to pack?”

  “No, ma’am,” he replied.

  “Then let’s go,” she said, smiling. “My, you’re a handsome one.”

  She kept Sean off-balance with her combination of earthy humor and sharp intelligence. A CIA car whisked them to Dulles, where they boarded a CIA-owned Gulfstream G550. The plane was overkill for their purposes, with the ability to sleep eight on long-haul trips of up to 6,750 nautical miles. Matera was only 4,090 nautical miles away, but neither of them would get any sleep, because the briefing Sean was about to give the Secretary would not only take all of the almost eight hours of their trip, but it would no doubt leave her unable to sleep anyway.

  They were airborne by eleven thirty p.m.

  Sean couldn’t start the briefing until they’d made themselves comfortable in the Gulfstream, received their drink order from the steward, and were alone.

  He began, “What do you know about human history?” he asked.

  Pierce blinked owlishly. “That might take a while to tell you,” she said. “But I’ll bet you’re about to tell me I have it all wrong. Why don’t you go ahead?”

  As succinctly as possible, Sean recounted the events from the time A-Echelon had recruited Carter Devereux until the present.

  Pierce felt as if she’d been pulled backward through a time warp and catapulted hundreds of years into the future at the same time. Surely most people would have taken weeks or months to assimilate what Sean had told her. She had less than eight hours.

  Everything she’d been taught to
believe, believed her entire life, and relied upon had been yanked out from under her feet like the proverbial rug. But she knew her Bible. Giants on the earth? Okay, that was a start.

  Ultra-modern technology in the hands of people who lived before people were supposed to even be people yet? That was a bit harder to swallow.

  She’d seen Carter Devereux’s name in the news.

  “We talkin’ about that traitor?” she demanded.

  Sean realized he hadn’t given her much detail about the reprehensible Nabateans yet. So, he told her all about them and what they were capable of and had actually done since the CIA became aware of their existence, when Perrin Durand handed them Algosaibi’s laptop and flash drive.

  Pierce was staring at him in utter shock when he finished. “Goddamnit! Are you saying none of our world-renowned security agencies knew about this outfit since… what’s it two years or so ago? How is that even possible? …. Two thousand years in hiding…”

  “Yes, ma’am, that’s what I am saying. And therefore, I can tell you Carter Devereux isn’t a traitor. The Nabateans are spreading lies to discredit him and get him out of their hair. I’ll step you through all the evidence we have of how they did it.”

  Pierce just nodded for him to continue.

  Sean gave her the details and was often interrupted by single-word and lengthier expletives from the Secretary. “And now, Devereux and our team have found their ancient library. My guess is they want to take it out of Italy. That’s where you come in.”

  “Holy shit!” she exclaimed. “Pardon my French, but do you know how hard it is to get sovereign nations to give up their ancient artifacts? They’re like my former constituents back home. ‘You can pry it out of my cold, dead hands.’”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Sean said, uncomfortable again. He’d had no previous dealings with Constance Pierce, and he couldn’t get a read on what she might say next. “That’s only my educated guess, ma'am. The Devereuxs are due back in the US to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee within the next few days. We’ll know soon enough what they’d like you to negotiate.”