The Dove (27 page)

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Mark Andrew kept feeling of the white braid and silver ornaments in his hair as they drove down the rode southwards toward Jezreel.  The little caravan was going to Egypt.  If anyone had received the Colonel’s message in Scotland, help would be coming from the northwest.  None of them had any doubt that the Templars would send help.  Family was, after all, family and like it or not, Mark Andrew and his family were important to them.  Very important.  The message to the Templars had been carefully devised and the landmark chosen was the most likely spot still remaining in the world, unchanged:  the pyramids at the complex in Giza.  It was the only logical thing to do. 

The Ark was safely in the truck now and their transportation had improved greatly.  The desert patrol troop had headed back toward the Sinai on their camels with the idea of intercepting Jozsef’s army.  They would try to divert his attention, tell him that they had just come from Jerusalem and had seen no sign of fugitives. They would have to be careful not to lie.  Jozsef had some sort of built-in lie detector.  He could not detect deliberate hedges.  As far as the troop was concerned, the Emperor of Persia Major could not be a fugitive in his own country.  It was the only plan they could come up with and at least they were more comfortable now.  Clean clothes, fresh water and food supplies. 

Sophia shared the backseat of the ATV with Mark Andrew.  Colonel McGuffy was at the wheel and one of the sergeants rode with them.  Nicole and Bari rode in another ATV behind them with Lt. Galipoli.  The truck containing the Ark was in front of them with Simon at the wheel.  Selwig rode with the Simon, while Nicholas and Gregory rode with more of the soldiers from the Temple complex in the back of another troop carrier, bringing up the rear guard.  They had driven all night after the men had recovered from the sight of the destruction on the moon’s face.  It had seemed the crippled orb had followed them, reminding them all of just how close destruction loomed on their horizon.  McGuffey’s amateur astronomers concluded that the explosion had been a large piece of the comet’s tail, striking the surface of the moon.  They also agreed that it would have caused tremendous devastation if it had hit the earth.  But now the moon was gone and the sun was up along with its ominous companion.  The brilliantly streaming comet.

“Pretty?”  Mark Andrew turned to her and frowned.  He did not understand the things in his hair. Did not understand what had happened the night before.  Did not understand the two suns in the sky.

“Yes. Very.”  She smiled.  He kept asking her this question.  “Like mine.”  She touched the silver barrette in her own dark hair.

“Ahh.”  He nodded and then frowned.  “You put it here?”

“While you were asleep.  I fixed it for you.”  She lied.  How could she explain what she did not understand?  She didn’t have the slightest idea of where the thing had come from.  It had not been there the day before.  She was sure of it. 

“No more monsters.”  He smiled at her.  He had ceased dreaming about monsters and Sophia attributed it to the fact that his fever was gone.

“Right.”  She nodded.

He leaned toward the window and squinted up at the comet which was visible on his side of the car.

“Pretty.”  He commented and then laid his head in her lap.  “Like you.  Shining like the stars.”

She stroked his hair absently.

“Tonight is special.”  He told her and she looked down at him. 

Did he remember the conversation they had had when he’d been delirious?

“Why?”

“The stars say so.  Tonight is the time for special babies.”

“I don’t understand.”  She shook her head.  “Are you a special baby?”

Mark seemed to think her question silly and made a face at her wrinkling his nose before continuing.  “The star will shine in the hall of crystal and the soul of the dead King will rise.”  He told her.  She knew quite well that she had taught him none of this.  “At the time of the midsummer’s day, the special baby is born.”

It sounded like part of a legend or a myth. 

“Who told you this?  Nicole?  And what will this special baby be?”  She asked him as she twined the white braid around her finger absently.

“A King.”  He told her and smiled.  “A great King.  And his name is Michael.”

“Michael?”  Sophia sat up straighter.  “Michael Ramsay?”

“No, no.  Just Michael.”  He told her.  “Born by the Holy Spirit through the virgin.”

“Mark Andrew!”  Sophia frowned down at him.  “You are talking about Jesus.”

“Jesus?  No.  Michael.  The Son of God.”  He told her.  “The Messiah.”

Sophia raised her head and looked out the windshield at the rugged terrain in front of the ATV.

“And then what will happen?”  She asked quietly as she stared through the window, not really seeing the landscape in front of them.

“We will all go to Heaven.”  He closed his eyes.  “Where we came from.  We will go home.  Together.  You and me.  Together… forever.  No more monsters.”

“There is a mound up there!”  The Colonel glanced around at Sophia and the sound of his voice made her jump out of her skin.  “There was an excavation going on there some years back.”

Sophia looked through the windshield again at the indicated formation.  It looked like a hill to her.

“We’ll stop there for the night.  It will be the safest thing to do.”  The Colonel continued.  “There are several more towns between here and Jezreel, but we don’t want to stay in the towns.  Who knows what might be lurking.  If we get lucky, there may be some shelter up there.”

“Right.”  Sophia parroted, her mind on other matters as she squinted at the hill.  A dirt lane wound its way up the side of the mound.

Chapter Ten
of Sixteen

And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit

“That would have been a most bizarre sight from a different perspective.”  Il Dolce Mio was still talking about the mysterious blot on the full moon.  “Such a cloud seen from the surface of the moon would be very strange indeed.”

“Hard to imagine.”  Lucio commented dryly.  “But I’m glad that we were here and not there.”

“Tonight there will be many shooting stars.”  Lemarik added from where he rode beside them at the head of the column of elven troops.  They were traveling across the barren land in relative safety, making their way toward the Sinai.  The great beast that Lucio’s mystery had awakened was somewhere behind them, seeking out and destroying the monsters that Hubur had set upon them.  The gigantic winged lion would follow them, but at a distance, as Lucio had commanded it to do.  It had made short work of the herd of creatures surrounding them at Giza and they had been able to make their escape amidst the destruction.  They were heading toward Israel and Jordan.  If anyone was headed their way, they would have to cross the Sinai between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.  Their best bet would be to go through or around Port Said and on toward Israel, using what was left of the roads near the coast.  The plan was simple.  They would try to intercept anyone coming from the east and take them back into Arabia.  Lemarik would lead them into the mountains where he hoped to find a passage into the underworld.  He thought it best to simply abandon this place and seek a new, more pleasant place to live.

“Meteors, brother.”  Il Dolce Mio corrected him.  “They are not stars, but merely chunks of rock and space debris.  I read it in my father’s library.”

“But ‘shooting star’ sounds more poetic.”  Lemarik smiled at his small companion.  “I find that science takes much out of the beauty of language and all of the imagination out of beauty.”

“There is nothing beautiful about a rock storm from the sky, my friend.”  Lucio grumbled.  “The last thing we need is a meteorite storm to make our day complete.  I have seen them in fields and museums.  They are big, heavy and ugly and when they reach the ground they are glowing hot.”

“Hopefully none of the debris will be large enough to reach the surface intact.”  Vanni spoke up.  “It should all burn up in the upper atmosphere.  The most we should experience other than sight, might be sounds much like sonic booms.”

“Sonic booms.”  Luke Andrew muttered and shook his head.  “Great.  That should wake up every other foul creature living in these parts!”  They had been passing through devastated and abandoned villages and towns along the road.  They had encountered nothing more than a few packs of dogs, stray cats and some of the more furtive creatures that had managed to survive the starving refugees and panicked Egyptians, as the entire population of the countries behind them had fled after the war.  The remains of withered corpses and scattered, sun-bleached bones were everywhere. The sight of hollow-eyed skulls, picked clean by the crows and vultures, scattered by the dogs, cats and other wild creatures reminded them they were in a very bad position here. 

“I do not think much is living here.”  Lemarik jerked his reins slightly and rode around a large, haphazard pile of decidedly human bones.

The elves rode along or walked behind them in silence.  None of them had the heart to sing the songs of travel that usually accompanied their treks.  Even the drummers had failed to keep up a beat for them in this strange and horrible place.  The only sounds accompanying them were the sound of their voices as they talked to one another and the clopping of the horses’ hooves on the pavement.  There were no vehicles, no planes in the sky, no boats on the waterways they crossed and very few birds left in the sparse vegetation.  Even the buzzing hoards of flies, ever present in this part of the world, had vanished along with their food supply.  Soon the desert would cover this place from the east, and the west, as nothing was left to deter its course.  And Vanni had pointed out that it was only a matter of time before the great dam at Aswan let loose its waters and many things would perish in its path.  His comments on the dam had brought a new worry to Lucio.

He had no idea what they would find when they reached the Suez Canal.

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The camel troops met with Jozsef Daniel’s army within half a day’s ride north and east of Jerusalem.  They halted at a small burned-out village and the commander of the mounted expeditionary force met with Jozsef and his general inside one of the less damaged mud brick buildings.

“We have only just come from Jerusalem, your Grace.”  The commander, an Arab by the name of Abdullah Hammed accepted the small cup of strong coffee from the ‘Prophet’s’ valet.  “The lieutenant in charge there reports all is well with the exception of the disturbing disappearances of his men.  They are dwindled to less than fifty in force with the Major and Captain also missing.”

“Why have I not heard of this?”  Jozsef spun on Abaddon.  The general shrugged.  “How can so few be left to guard the Temple?  What of the Ark?  Is it still there?”

“Yes, Your Grace.”  Hammed told him calmly. 

“How do you know?”  Jozsef took a tentative step toward the commander.

“I saw it myself.”  The man lied.

“You did?”  Jozsef narrowed his eyes suspiciously.  “And was it still sitting on the crystal stone below the arch of the palm trees?”

“Yes, Your Grace.  It has not been disturbed.”  Hammed’s face suddenly drained of color.  He had no idea what the Ark sat on.  No idea about crystals or palm trees.

Jozsef sprang forward and knocked the cup from the man’s hand, pulling his dagger from his belt and pressing it against his throat.

“You lie!”  Jozsef growled in the startled man’s pale face.  “What are you hiding from me?”

“Nothing!”  The man shouted and struggled against Jozsef’s overpowering grip.

Abaddon approached him from the side and took the dagger from Jozsef’s hand.

“Do not be so hasty, Master.”  The dark angel leaned close to the terrified Arab.  “We should learn more before we… kill him.”

Jozsef stepped back and Abaddon took his place.

“You would lie to the Prophet?”  Abaddon smiled at the man.

“I am not lying!”  The man’s tremulous voice carried very little conviction.

“Ahhh, but you are lying even now.”  Abaddon raised the blade in front of his eyes.  “How shall we do this?  The easy way or the old fashioned way?”  He pushed the tip of the dagger into the man’s left eye and the man screamed in his face.

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The weather cleared and as the sun sank, Mark Andrew was able to get the precise western cardinal point measured on the circle.  He was tripping over himself as he set up his telescope and searched for the dim point of light on the western horizon.  Sophia tried fruitlessly to help him and then sat cross-legged next to him on a cold rock, ready to write in his notebook whatever he might tell her.  He made several adjustments, checked his compass and his watch. Waited, made several more adjustments with the telescope and then called off some numbers to her. When he was done, he hurried back to the tent and sat down in the middle of the cushions on the floor, working furiously over a tattered notebook, drawing diagrams, scribbling over them, drawing more diagrams and making more calculations as she watched.  At last, he closed the notebook slowly and looked up at her.  The expression in his eyes told her more than she wanted to know.