Ark Found, page 16
part #2 of Omega Files Adventures Series
He stared yet again at the X—literally a small black X-marks-the-spot—that had been the focus of his recent obsession. He was confident about the general location, eastern Turkey, and even as far as Mt. Ararat, which was clearly indicated on the map. Not Lesser Ararat, he was sure, but the main, Greater Ararat on which they now found themselves. But more specifically than that is where things became increasingly subject to interpretation. After staring at the map for hours at night by lantern light in his tent, he was still unable to determine if the cartographic rendering had been accurately drawn to scale, or if it was simply meant to be a symbolic representation of roughly where the ark lay. Also, the X was disturbingly close to an already discovered ark site—discovered in modern times well after the map was made. It ate Daedalus up inside to think that what he had thought of as a priceless treasure map, dredged up from the bottom of the sea—and the ages—could in reality lead to something that had already been discovered without its aid.
As he stared down at the lake while his team readied the SCUBA gear, Daedalus considered the route they had taken up the mountain, based both on a known ark site, and on the graphical depiction on the map. At first he had thought the X to be distressingly close to the known site—a grouping of timbers of appropriate age and in the shape of the storied ark with the proper dimensions, but which has already been discovered and dismissed by professional archaeologists as definitively being Noah’s Ark. But when his team member had pointed out the semi-frozen lake below the known ark site, Daedalus had pored over the map again. There were no elevation contours or other cartographic methods employed that would be considered sophisticated by modern standards. So although on paper the X-marks-the-spot appeared to be very close to the known “ark” site, a scant millimeter’s positioning of the X’s cross point could well make a difference in real life that translated to a completely separate location, miles away. It was, Daedalus reflected, like a crude form of geocaching—hunting down planted treasures with the aid of modern GPS gadgets. And even in that scenario, arriving at a specific set of GPS coordinates where treasure is located, further hunting was still required much of the time. There could be a tree at that location, for example, and rather than being buried in the ground, the treasure is up in the tree.
Or a lake, with the treasure down in the lake. The fact that the lake was partially frozen and oftentimes covered with snow meant that it would obscure whatever was down below. And, as the illicit treasure hunter brought binoculars to his eyes once again, there did appear to be something down there. He could pick out the dark, linear forms of what appeared to be timbers of some sort. It excited him to think that if they were from the ark, or a replica of the ark old enough to be considered “real” to most believers, that the cold water might have preserved them to the point that they are not even petrified wood, but still wood. How amazing that would be!
He stared back down at the map again while the sound of a chainsaw cutting through ice rent the frigid air. Daedalus had not relied solely upon this old piece of paper. He had also used modern technological aids, such as Google Earth to examine satellite photography of the region. In this imagery he had noticed the lake that was superficially “next to,” but also physically far below the X-marks-the-spot on the map, which appeared close to the already-discovered ark artifacts site. This prior knowledge of the area was why he had insisted on lugging hundreds of extra pounds of SCUBA gear up the mountain, along with the chainsaw and gas cans to run it. But when they had first gotten up here and looked around, the lake was nowhere to be found, and he worried that the image was outdated, or that an earthquake or avalanche had since covered it over. They had located the known “wreckage” and then worked from there to where the lake should be. He had been about to give up when they came across it.
Now it was a matter of the technical SCUBA dive to get down to the timber-like objects they could see at the bottom of the lake. Ice diving combine with high altitude in an extremely remote area did not for an easy or safe dive make. Add to that the fact that he was deliberately operating with a skeleton crew of four people including himself, both to expedite things so that they could get up here as quickly as possible as soon as he had the map, and also because loose lips sink ships, as he was fond of saying. The less people who knew where the ark was, should they find it, the better.
Daedalus spoke into a two-way radio to his team members working to get the scuba gear down to the lake. They had already rigged a system of ropes from the side of the slope down to the basin the lake occupied, and now they were attaching the gear to the ropes and pulling it down to the lake on a pulley system. At least that was how it was supposed to work. He was well aware that there were a lot of things to go wrong with the system such as losing gear on the way down, the rope and pulley system itself failing, his personnel slipping down the mountain and falling into the icy lake, things like that. Preoccupied with thinking of every little detail that could go wrong with the execution of his dive plan, Daedalus failed to notice the small movements to his left, barely within his peripheral vision.
Two men crawled up out of the ravine behind him and paused, looking around. They saw Daedalus standing there, binoculars to his eyes, and then looked ahead and to their left at the rope and pulley system that ran out of sight down the slope to the lake, which they could not see from their current position. Further distracting Daedalus was his radio crackling with Phillipo’s voice, speaking in Greek.
“Copy, Daedalus. Three sets of gear down at the lake shore, one set on its way. You can make your way down to us whenever you’re ready. All your gear will be waiting for you, including the underwater video system.”
“Copy, see you soon.” Daedalus clipped his radio back onto his belt and walked to the edge of the slope. He looked down at the lake, gazing into its icy blue depths and wondering what he would find there. Time to find out, he thought, but first…
He unzipped his trousers and urinated into the snow.
Chapter 20
Jayden had to lay his face flat into the snow to stifle a laugh despite the seriousness of the situation. Carter remained stock still but kept his head up to watch Daedalus. As best he could tell, the rest of his team was down the slope off to his left, leaving him up here alone. Even better, although he couldn’t understand the radio conversation in Greek, he could see that Daedalus was preparing to join his team down the slope. Whatever was down there, they were very interested in it, because they had set up some kind of rope system that led out of sight down the slope.
Carter tensed as Daedalus zipped up his fly. If he turned this direction, he would probably see them. If that happened, Carter thought, they’d have no choice but to fight. At least it would be two-on-one until his team heard the struggle and scrambled up from down the slope, however long that took. It sounded like they were far down below, so that was something. But then, to his relief, that entire line of thought became a moot point as Daedalus walked straight over to the rope system, and without looking over at them, gripped the rope and walked out of sight down the slope.
Jayden picked his head up out of the snow and looked at Carter, who now found it was his turn to try not to laugh while looking at his friend’s snow-caked face. He pointed down the slope. Jayden’s response was to crane his neck and look around behind them, meaning, Is anyone else up here? Carter shook his head in the negative. Off to their right, maybe a hundred feet away, he thought he saw evidence of a campsite—some packs on the ground, maybe a tent set up. Down the hill they could hear some walkie-talkie chatter and the occasional yelled command to facilitate some kind of operation. Carter’s curiosity as to what they were doing down there was overwhelming, but he wasn’t about to stick his neck out over the slope and risk being seen. First things first, he thought.
The map. Whether original or copy, some version of it had to be up here somewhere, unless Daedalus had the only copy on his person. But Carter doubted that, and he knew there was only one way to find out. He and Jayden crawled a little farther away from the slope to ensure they couldn’t be seen when they stood up. When they regained their feet, they tip-toed over to the camp gear they’d seen.
An additional problem now presented itself. Carter held out a hand to signal Jayden to stop as they neared what looked like a mess tent, as well as a small cook fire still smoldering. They didn’t see any other people, but what if someone was inside the tent, sleeping, or working on kitchen detail, something like that? No doubt he and Jayden would be able to take him or her out, even silently, but they were using radios, and it would only take two seconds of frantic warning to send the reinforcements up to camp.
They stayed put for a full minute and observed the tent carefully, watching for shadows inside, and listening for any sign of human activity. But there was none, and so they crept over to the tent, whose flaps hung loosely open. Carter peered inside and saw that it was clear. Quickly he pulled Jayden inside and they did a more through sweep to make sure someone wasn’t actively hiding beneath folding table or the tarp on the ground. They found the space to be unoccupied.
“Jayden, you go back to the slope and act as lookout. I’ll look for the map.”
Jayden wasted no time slipping out of the tent and creeping across the campsite back toward the slope. Carter turned his mind to the map search. He didn’t know how long Daedalus and team planned to be down there, but all it would take is for one of them to come back up and they’d likely be gunned down like animals. Out here in the wilderness, no one would ever know. The trekking group would report them missing a few days after he didn’t check back in at the appointed time, but nothing would likely come of that in the way of an investigation—they’d be presumed lost in the mountains, and it would be too late for them, anyway.
Carter quickly rummaged through a couple of stuff sacks on the ground, and moved a couple of tarps around, but quickly came to the realization that this was only a mess tent and he wasn’t likely to find the map in here. His time was best spend searching elsewhere in the camp, so he left the tent and began moving around.
Glancing to his left he saw Jayden in a prone position to the right of the rope and pulley system, with a fallen branch strategically positioned in front of his head for concealment as he observed the activities down by the lake. This left Carter free to roam about the campsite. He went looking for backpacks, those personal items that would represent a likely place for something valuable one wanted to keep close at hand.
#
Daedalus stood on the edge of the lake and zipped up his dry suit, a diving suit that, unlike a wetsuit, did not allow any water at all to come into contact with the skin.
“Ready when you are, Daedalus.” Phillipo fastened the strap on his scuba rig’s BC, or buoyancy compensator. Of their other two team members, one would be also diving with them, while the fourth would be remaining on shores as both surface support—ready to aid the divers in and out of the water, enter the water to help if necessary--and to act as general site lookout. Daedalus’ main concern was that he had not filed any permit paperwork for archaeological operations here, so should they be seen by any type of Turkish authority, or even a local guiding operation who might report the activity to authorities, it could mean trouble.
“It’s cold,” Phillippo said with a grin as he stepped into the water, fins in hand. The underwater topography of the lake was such that there was a very shallow lip around the edge of the shore before it dropped off sharply down to depths that exceeded 100 feet. The trio of divers entered the water and hugged the shoreline while they adjusted their gear and tested it to make sure it was working properly, including the underwater video and photography equipment. With the drysuits on, the could still feel the chill of the iced water, but it was tolerable rather than life-threatening, like wearing a jacket in cold weather. The full suits restricted movement somewhat, especially with the SCUBA gear on over that, but there was no other way to explore places like this.
“Let’s make it quick,” Daedalus said to his dive team, and with that, he stepped off the shallow edge of the lake and into deep water. He placed his regulator mouthpiece between his teeth and pressed the button on his BC inflator hose to let the air out of his vest. He maintained a vertical posture as he began sinking beneath the surface of the lake. His brother and their other team member followed suit, and a minute later all three of them were descending into the lake.
#
The campsite was not as organized as Carter had hoped for. There was no central location other than the mess tent where he could find all the gear piled together. He found one backpack leaned against a tree by itself, and searched through it exhaustively, but found no paper maps, and zero electronic devices such as a laptop, phone, camera or flash drive. Looking around some more, he located a second pack. The only difference between this one and the first was that it contained a smartphone. Carter frowned as he started at the modern device. A photo of the map could be on a phone, he thought, and yet this presented a new problem, since most phones were locked by default for security purposes. He powered it on, and sure enough, was met with a passcode screen.
He clenched his teeth and powered down the phone while considering available options. He could steal the phone and try to electronically unlock it later—hack into it, basically—or else he could see if it had a removable memory card and take that out of it. But for now he put the phone back in the pack where it was and decided to keep looking for something more definitive. He was pretty sure that only Daedalus himself would have a copy of the map, after all, so the chances that this one phone would have anything were one out of four. At least he thought their team consisted of four.
Carter moved around the site some more until he found another backpack, this one simply lying on the ground on a light snow drift. They must have been in a hurry to unload and get the operations set up, he thought. He rummaged through this pack, which he noted was a top name brand, moderately used. He felt something flat and slim right away and removed it to reveal an iPad. Again, it could have useful info on it, but it was likely passworded. He kept looking through the pack. He recognized a slim compartment on the back of the pack as being for firearm concealed carry, and paused. It felt like something was in there…he unzipped it and pulled out a 1911 pistol. Checking the magazine, he saw that it was full.
Carter got up from his kneeling position and checked his surroundings as he popped the magazine back in. This was an interesting turn of events, he thought. But now he had a major decision to face. He saw three options: One, keep it. Could come in handy if they were discovered by Treasure, Inc. He could discard it once they got near the bottom of the mountain so as not to risk being seen with it in town and detained. Two, hide it, toss it down the mountain into a snow bank so that Daedalus—he was pretty sure that’s whose pack this was—would never find it. Or three, just put it back like nothing ever happened.
He heard footsteps treading lightly and reflexively raised the loaded gun, pointing it in that general direction, but then lowered it when he saw that it was Jayden. Carter lowered the gun and saw Jayden’s gaze travel right to it.
“Bonus!” he said in an exaggerated whisper. “The map?”
Carter shook his head. “Not yet.”
“You gonna keep it? I think you should keep it, and find one for me if you can. Toss theirs.” Carter nodded. “I’m inclined to agree. What are they up to down there?”
“That’s what I came to tell you while I have a little time. Three out of four of them just went for a dive in the lake!”
“Dive?” Carter was confused. “You mean, like they took a swim?”
“No, SCUBA dive! They dragged a bunch of tanks down there with those ropes, used a chainsaw to cut an opening in the ice, and now three of them are underwater.”
Carter pondered this for a moment. “Wow. And what’s the fourth guy doing?”
Jayden glanced back to the edge of the slope as if that man might appear at any moment. “He’s the posted lookout, I guess. When I left my post he was just standing on the shore where the divers entered, and looking around a bit, but not too much. He never looked up in my direction.”
“All right. Sounds like I have some time to work with. You re-take your post.” He turned back to the pack and began unzipping one of the small “admin pouches” on the front, which usually contained smaller non-weapon or survival items such as flashlights, documentation, keys, perhaps a multitool, pens, notepads, extra batteries and the like. This compartment contained a pair of fleece gloves and a ski mask, as well as a small penlight and a candy bar. He continued to rummage through the backpack, tossing items obviously not of interest out of the pack, then putting them back in after the space they had occupied had been “cleared.” He was about to declare the entire pack as having been searched when he shoved some items of clothing back down into the bottom of the main compartment—and felt it shift. He thought maybe it had a zipper or tie on the bottom that had come undone to allow the pack to be accessed from both ends, but a quick glance at the outer bottom of the pack told him this was not the case. Which left only one explanation.
The backpack had a false bottom!
Carter snaked his fingers down inside the pack and felt for the edges of it. He was able to slip a finger against the side and then pry it up, removing the black canvas-covered piece of fiberboard from the pack. His heart rate sped up as he felt a layer of thin plastic at the very bottom—the true bottom—of the bag. He pulled the item out and immediately held his breath as he recognized the map he and Jayden had so painstakingly brought up from the Titanic. It had been placed inside clear plastic cover to protect it somewhat against the rigors of travel.
