The Great Thirst Boxed Set

by Mary C. Findley

  “This is going to be a three-dimensional map,” their guide exclaimed.

  “This is not a map,” Sophie scoffed. “Not like any I have ever seen before.”

  “I see nothing that indicates rivers, mountains, roads, or buildings,” Naddy said. “These are meaningless doodles.”

  “We’re missing something,” Keith said. He went back to the drawer that had held the bag in which the scroll had been found and hefted the lock. “This thing is just a lock?”

  “It was fastened to the chain that held the bag shut,” their guide said. “It is necessary to turn these layers like dials, and when I had tried a number of ‘combinations’, it opened, and I was able to pull the chain and open the bag.”

  “I was hoping…” Keith continued to finger the mechanism. He slid the layers around and the device closed up, pulling the chain taut against the neck of the bag. “I guess it’s just lock and unlock. Why does it seem to be so much more complicated than that? It even has twelve layers, like the number of cylinders. Was there anything else in the bag? What about all the other stuff that you guys told me your assistants picked up in the sea caves?” He looked up at Naddy and Sophie.

  “We never had a chance to examine the litter Cindee and Jiggly picked up,” Naddy shrugged. He glanced at the three men who had brought them into this secret workroom.

  “We kept everything,” one of the men groaned. “Every broken piece of pottery, every scrap of metal, bone fragments – carted in here a few pieces at a time to avoid suspicion. But we’ve been so busy with the scroll we haven’t examined anything else. We’re going to need to fire up the generator so we can spread everything out to look at what’s here.”

  “We’ll have to wait until the choir performs,” the guide cautioned. “They will cover the noise of the motor.”

  “The choir?” Keith asked.

  “This is a church, after all,” grinned one of the men. “A mass will be celebrated in about an hour, and then we will be able to make more light with the generator. But we will only have fifteen minutes at most. The generator makes too much noise to run without the singing to drown it out.”

  Keith chafed and fidgeted. “Can we at least use the flashlight and see some of what you’ve got?”

  The men led them around the room, revealing other workbenches and recesses that had been invisible in the poor lighting. They pulled the lid off a container at random and Keith poked through a litter of clay fragments.

  “This stuff is fine,” he said wonderingly. He held a piece up in front of the flashlight. “It’s like … what is that stuff … Porcelain? Alabaster?” Talia started helping him hold pieces, and Sophie lent a hand as well.

  “We have fast-bonding glue,” one of the men suggested. They spent some time piecing and gluing, noting different colors and degrees of translucency.

  “Look at the shapes.” Keith picked out more pieces. “I don’t see any flat pieces, like bottoms of pots. They’re more like globes.”

  “Maybe they’re like amphorae, designed to sit in a holder,” Talia shrugged. “They have necks, like most jars.”

  “Maybe,” Keith pushed the pieces around some more. “Those are kinda pointy, though, right, to slide into the holder? These look pretty round. You said there are metal parts, too? Can I see them?”

  One of the men led him to another container. “Yeah, some of these are round, and they even have … you know … almost like threading…” He whistled and slid one of the corroded pieces of metal over the neck of one of the globes.

  “It looks like a light bulb,” Talia said.

  “This metal … The corroded material is just a layer,” Naddy said, picking up another of the rings. “This is some sort of coating of baser metal. See how it chips off, and you see the orichalcum beneath?”

  “Yeah! Yeah!” Keith rooted around in the metal scraps. “These pieces make a holder, almost like a chandelier, for lights, and those pottery things are bulbs, maybe.”

  He ran back to the scroll bag. “This think has little holes in it,” he said, examining the lock again. “What if the stands are made to fit into them? That would explain these layers and moving parts. The image might be created by rotating the parts into just the right position.”

  “Excellent!” Their guide said. “Each of these indentations has a slightly different threading, and so do the stand parts. We will be able to set it up and make it move, just as our young friend described.

  “But what is the power source to cause this rotation? And what made the bulbs light, back when they were made?” one of the men asked.

  “Wait. Some of these metal rings aren’t for screwing in bulbs,” Talia said. “They have something stopped up in them, and there are wires. Isn’t this higher in copper than the other orichalcum?”

  “Baghdad batteries,” one if the men laughed. “They had storage containers for some kind of acid, maybe even plain salt water, and the coppery wires were conductors. This is all to make some kind of battery-powered lights. You’d set it all up, and slip the cylinders things over them, and that way you could see the map the way it was intended to display. What appear to be only symbols now could be parts of a design that won’t be clear until the other layers of the hologram project with it.”

  “But if it’s a map, what’s it for?” Keith asked.

  “Perhaps it will tell us the location of the Testaments,” the other man said.

  Chapter Twenty-eight – Pieces of the Puzzle

  “What? You don’t know where they are?” Keith spluttered. “You’re kidding me, right?”

  “The persecution has been so harsh, so intense, and cost so many lives, we are missing pieces of the puzzle,” their guide admitted. “We are certain it was the intention of the creators of the tablets to make them easy to find for the right people. But it required a great many people, each with his own piece to bring to the puzzle-table. So many lives have been lost, we scramble to locate pieces and discern how they are to be used. What we need is exactly what you have helped us do here tonight, but we have no helpers most of the time.”

  “And when we find them, we must also find a way to somehow make their contents available to people great distances away very quickly, perhaps in an instant,” another man sighed.

  “Ancient technology’s always existed that the secular world denies,” Keith agreed. “It doesn’t fit their primitive to complex evolutionary scheme to admit that men here on earth could shape huge, elaborate structures, create iron that never rusts. But you’re talking about an instantaneous worldwide communication system. How would they do that?”

  “Have you not heard of atomic activity in ancient India, tiny models of flying machines, the earthbound tracings in Peru that can only be properly seen from high in the air? We cannot be sure of the true nature of these things, but we know lost technology of the ancients exists. This knowledge may be included among that undiscovered knowledge.”

  “Yeah.” Keith nodded. “At least, I love studying that kind of stuff, and I hate it when the ancient astronaut nutcases get going. We had metallurgy, animal husbandry, city-building, textile manufacture, and musical instrument-crafting before the flood.

  “Why couldn’t we have incredible technology, even flight, afterwards? So these Testaments might need to tap into some technology that man used to have, that your guardians used to use, but now so many have died for the cause that nobody remembers what to do with them even if we get hold of them?”

  “That is a somewhat simplistic, but sadly accurate statement of the case. God truly must have changed your heart, Doctor Ramin, that you have been given this insight, to choose this young man,” their guide observed.

  “It was Talia’s insight that seems to have saved us,” Sophie said. “She insisted that we were lacking in scientific areas. I was never clear about the connection, but recently we began to see that we were dealing with things that were either supernatural or simply some lost science.”

  “Indeed, you will likely find that there is
a bit of both. I strongly urge you not to miss your scientific conference in the spring, young man. We have only a few friends in the scientific community, but they have told us there may be knowledge that will help our cause. Please join the student trip as soon as you reasonably can. They will need your assistance, and possibly the things you learn.”

  “Can I say that this is creeping me out? Do you have people watching us? How do you even know about me and my dinky little town? Is Doc Ewing really part of your organization? How in the world did she get into something like that?”

  “Doctor Ewing became acquainted with our work when she began to study medicine,” the man said. “Many of our members pursue professional careers around the world, while searching for anything that might help us put puzzle pieces together. They find small places rather than cities to yield the most helpful information.

  “The Scriptures say in many places and in many ways that God uses the weak, the foolish, the small, to overpower what the world perceives to be great. We have observed Doctor Ramin and his team, to ensure that they did no harm. That was our original purpose, at least.” He turned back to Naddy and Sophie.

  “Now we are intrigued and even delighted to see where your insights will take you, and what this young man will aid you in accomplishing. We have been so concerned with survival and protection that it is a relief to see the quest expand and the possibilities grow.”

  A second man spoke up. “We despaired of doing anything but keeping the Testaments from being found by the wrong people, and agonized over whether we were not merely keeping them from ever doing anyone any good.”

  Their guide led them back out of the workshop toward the surface. He wrung their hands as they parted. “Now we rejoice in hope and no longer live in shame, obsessed with thinking that we might have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, as your American sportscasters are so fond of saying. Continue your survey. We will keep you informed as we work to make the map display properly, and let you know what we learn. Know that our prayers go with you.”

  “So what are we going to do tomorrow?” Keith asked Talia as they parted outside their hotel rooms. “I am so pooped, but so jazzed at the same time.”

  “There’s an underwater city called Olous off the coast of Crete. We are going to go snorkel around it, and maybe scuba dive there tomorrow,” Talia replied.

  “Cool!”

  “I can’t wait to see what you think up to help us tomorrow, Keith. God was so good to help us find you.”

  “Man, I don’t feel all that special, but I’m glad we’re learning things that might help. You look beat, Talia. I’ll let you get to bed.”

  Talia smiled and touched his arm. “You don’t look so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed yourself. Sleep well.”

  Impulsively, Keith kissed her on top of the head. “Thanks for all of this. It’s incredible.”

  Talia blushed, kissed her finger, and pressed it against his cheek. A second later, Keith stood alone in the hall. He turned to go to his own room but suddenly Naddy stood in his path.

  “Let us talk,” Naddy said.

  “Okay.” Keith invited him into his room and they sat out on the balcony overlooking the sea. “Hey, thanks so much for inviting me on this trip. I know I gave you guys some grief but it’s incredible. This is something I never even imagined doing.”

  Naddy stared out toward the water and didn’t speak for a full minute. “I have been father to Talia for fifteen years,” he finally said. “In all that time, she has been so focused, so driven to find the Testaments, I never worried about where her heart was. Now, I worry.” He turned his gaze on Keith.

  “Well, I guess it was kind of a shock to all of us find out that even these Guardians don’t know where the Testaments are,” Keith replied. “But she doesn’t seem discouraged to me. You’re worried she’s lost heart? I don’t think so. She was worn out, is all. Maybe she isn’t used to the pace you guys move at anymore after her soft life at Bradley Central.” Keith laughed nervously.

  Naddy had the most unsettling ability to stare into people. He made a huffing sound and continued to stare at Keith. “I am worried, not about her tiredness, but that her attention – her focus – may have become divided. I spoke briefly with your brother in a quiet moment of our Christmas celebrations. He was very warm in his praise of Talia’s beauty. I have always, with a doting uncle’s heart, known that our Talia was beautiful. I was still disturbed to consider that young men might desire her beauty.”

  “Wait – If you’re worried about Dan and anything he said about Talia, we had that out after you guys left,” Keith exclaimed. “Dan has a shiner to prove it. He’s not going to make any moves on Talia.”

  “A shiner?”

  “A black eye. I told him we always fought about everything growing up, but it was the first time we fought over a girl. Not that I think of Talia as a girl. My grandma got on my case for calling her that. She’s a woman.” Keith didn’t like the way Naddy’s eyebrows rose.

  “You felt the need to defend Talia’s honor?”

  “Of course I did. What Dan said about her was out of line, and I made him admit it. Talia is so amazing. I’ve never met anybody like her. First day of class, one of the kids disrespected her, and I made sure that never happened again.”

  Naddy blew out a huge breath that made his whole lower face vibrate. He stood up and headed for the door. “Talia spoke of our friend from Naxos being an honorable man. It is good to know that, whatever happens, we keep company with another such man.”

  Keith stood up and watched the door close behind Naddy. He kept staring at the door for a long time.

  “I think he meant me when he said that,” he finally said, aloud, keeping his tone low. “I hope he meant me. But I wonder what in the world he was talking about.”

  Chapter Twenty-nine – Just a Red Herring?

  Naddy had, of course, lectured nonstop about Crete. Keith was already familiar with the legend of Minos and his labyrinth, built to conceal his monstrous son, the Minotaur. He also knew about Daedalus, the builder of the labyrinth, and the amazing inventions he had supposedly created, including wax wings to allow him to escape Minos with his son Icarus. But those were all myths. He couldn’t help asking on the boat ride out to the dive site why they had come to this place where ancient Minoans, and later Greeks, worshiped false gods. These places echoed with stories of things that didn’t happen.

  “I understood the church in Cyprus. Paul was there, people say, and Christians worshiped there, probably. But I don’t understand why we’re chasing around in these places where everything’s a myth or a legend,” Keith said. “No disrespect, Naddy.”

  “This survey itinerary is all based on advice from the contacts we have had with the Guardians of the Testaments.” Naddy explained. “While I recovered from the knife attack, they reached out to Sophie first, by a protected email account, knowing that she is so much more a listener and less inclined to explode into action. As you already know, we have received counsel over and over to be more cautious, to do a better job of hiding our quest in plain sight. This itinerary is also still within the original parameters our research guided us to.

  “Those who counsel us now urged us to temper our drive to focus solely on finding the Testaments, since it was dangerous both to us and to the cause of the Guardians. Instead, we have tried to make it appear that we are ‘taking it easy’, as the American saying goes, or, should I say, easing back into full-time archaeological work. The enemy was to see our trip to visit Talia and our lingering there in the States so long as a vacation.

  “We have hopes that they still do not connect the school trip to the search for the Testaments. I am not even certain they know that Talia is still involved in our work. She was away at school and involved in life in America. We made our arrangements discreetly, carefully, and with a few … what is the American mystery element that throws the detective off the trail?”

  “So Crete is a red herring?” Keith asked. “Man, I was loo
king forward to finding some more ancient technology here; or something related to the Testaments, like that holographic map from Naxos.”

  Naddy looked around as Cindee cut the boat’s engine and dropped the anchors. Keith wondered if he expected to be overheard all the way out here. When Naddy spoke again, his voice was hushed. “Remember, my young friend, that truth is sometimes hidden in lies. From at least the times after the Flood, and perhaps before, men invented the worship of false gods to exalt themselves and to divert attention away from true worship.

  “Perhaps they were not clever enough to think up a wholly original tale and stole deliberately from the greatest of all records – those carried from the Ark by mouth and likely also in writing by Noah. Perhaps eternity truly was in their hearts and they could not make themselves wholly abandon the truth. One of the ways they seek to destroy the authority of the Word is to dilute it; to mix it with so many lies we can scarcely see it.

  “This is what was done to the Flood account, as you know. All over the world are flood legends, but they conceal the truth in absurdities and crowd in demigods and beast-men, to mention but one sort of lie. Another, as you know, is the lie that ancient technology did not exist, though we see the evidence everywhere. What if the tales of Daedalus have some basis in fact? What if those facts were hidden from us, as the sea now hides the city of Olous? What if we can find the truth about an ancient builder of wonders and what he might have done to help prepare for the Great Thirst?”

  Keith paddled lazily in a circle over the ruins of Olous, trying to take it all in with a video camera. Talia just floated beside him, snapping still pictures and occasionally bumping into Keith. They both wore wetsuits but it was still a nice feeling. Naddy and Sophie occupied the clear-bottomed boat anchored nearby. Keith couldn’t understand why all the rest of Crete’s cities had been built on a limestone foundation, but this city had stood on sandy ground, causing it to sink into the sea. Why would they build it like that?