The Last Chamber (12 page)

Will watched Lindsey put the stone back in his pocket as the multitude
of thoughts began to wind down to the warm internal glow the scotch provided.

“I could use another one of those,” he held up the empty glass towards
Kaba, who was sitting with her legs crossed in the seat across the aisle.

She smiled politely, but her tone was snippy. “The bar is in the
back,” she replied.

Will let out a snort of laughter. “Fair enough.”

He’d had plenty of fun with the young woman since she’d signed on with
Lindsey. It had only taken one night of drinking together for them to find
themselves waking up next to each other the following morning. Will wondered if
their employer knew anything was going on, but he seemed oblivious. At least he
acted like he was oblivious. Maybe he wouldn’t care.

The jet engines strained outside the cabin as the plane taxied onto
the runway, pausing briefly. There was a moment’s pause followed by the sudden
thrust of acceleration. They whined louder as the vehicle tilted upward and
pierced into the sky. Lindsey laid his head back against the headrest, eyes
closed. DeGard was gazing out the window, moving his head around to better see
the world dropping away below. A look of childlike curiosity covered his face.

Had The
Prophet told the Frenchman about their grand scheme?
It wasn’t exactly something Will could just ask the
man. He would probably have to wait and ask Lindsey later on when they were
alone. For some reason, Will felt like DeGard most likely did not know what
their real reasons were behind finding the ark of Noah and the ancient source
of immortality. He would find out soon enough, provided they had correctly
interpreted the clues. Things were still unclear in Will’s mind as he found himself
drifting away in random thoughts. His eyes became heavier as sleep dragged him
away from the world of the conscious.

Turkey

Sean stared questioningly at Jabez. “What do you mean he might not
have the only clue?” When they had left the third chamber, the room was vacant.

Jabez leaned back in his seat and stretched out his arms. He could
tell what Sean was thinking. “Lindsey retrieved the only clue from the third
chamber. However, we believe there may be another clue to that points the way
to the ark’s resting place.”

Sean and Adriana were huddled close, listening intently. Professor
Firth had seemed to be over his queasiness and had scooted back towards the
group to hear what the Arab had to say.

“There is an ancient monastery on the border of Armenia and Turkey
called Khor Virap. It was built in the seventh century, but
 
the site’s usage goes back all the way
to the years following the time of Christ. Some have said that the apostles may
have even visited the location.” He looked at each person of his audience
directly in the eyes before continuing.

“In the late third century, Saint Gregory the Illuminator was held
prisoner there by the pagan king, Tiridates III, for thirteen years. In the
end, Saint Gregory became a mentor for the king, and was eventually given
acceptable quarters in the palace. The two of them ended up proselytizing
communities all over the country.”

Jabez could see Sean was attempting to tie everything together in his
head. The Arab beat him to the punch. “History books give a few reasons for
Gregory’s imprisonment. But the legend gives another. It suggests the reason
for Saint Gregory’s imprisonment was that he knew an ancient secret, the
location of something that could grant eternal life to anyone who found it.”

“He knew where the ark was.” Sean injected.

“So it would seem,” Jabez agreed. “The king had imprisoned Gregory in
some of the deepest parts of the ancient fortress. It surely must have been a
hell on earth. Thirteen years passed, during which the pagan king persecuted
many Christians as well as anyone who refused to do his bidding. During the
years of his imprisonment, Gregory suffered many forms of torture. The monarch
became fond of Gregory and eventually gave up on the idea that the priest was
hiding something. He resigned to the fact that Gregory would either never give
up the information or had nothing to hide.”

The airplane’s engines strained a little outside the cabin as it
tipped a little to one side, altering its course before flattening out again.
The maneuver caused Firth’s nausea to return, but he held it back, not wanting
to miss anything Jabez was saying.

“During Tiridates’s reign, he was said to have gone mad at some point,
behaving like a wild boar and living with pigs. His sister had a vision in
which she saw Gregory healing the king. She told the king’s most trusted
counselors about the vision immediately. The council thought the priest must
have surely died in the pit of the prison. But when they went to find him, the
man was still alive. They pulled him out to discover him in terrible physical
condition. After nursing the priest back to health, Gregory was able to heal
the king and return him to a normal state of being.
 

Adriana looked confused. Something didn’t add up. “How did Gregory survive
that long without any sort of food or water? If he had been forgotten in the
dungeon, he would have died within days, a week at most.”

Jabez raised a finger to emphasize his point. “Precisely. He would
have surely been dead if they had forgotten him in the dungeon, as the story
suggests. Saint Gregory must have been sustained supernaturally to still be
alive after all those years.”

Sean was leery of jumping to conclusions. That was how people got
their hopes up or found themselves searching for buried treasure in uncharted
jungles. He’d seen and heard a lot of crazy stories over the last few years.
But this one was different.
A priest that lived for thirteen years without sunlight, proper food,
and water? It didn’t make sense.
Unless he had eaten from the tree.
Sean shook
off the thought for a moment. Something inside his head told him that was
impossible. Even though everything he had seen up to that point pointed to the
reality that the tree of life was a real thing, he couldn’t bring himself to
believe it.

A silent moment had taken over the conversation as everyone considered
the implications. Sean broke it with a question. “So, the question is, what
does this have to do with finding the fourth chamber? I mean, clearly you are
suggesting there is a connection between the priest and the last chamber.
Aren’t you?” He wanted to be sure he was following the Arab’s line of thought.

“That is exactly what I’m saying,” Jabez nodded. “There can be no
other conclusion. Clearly, Gregory found the chamber and the sacred tree. If he
ate of it, the power within could have sustained him through those years in the
darkness of the pit.”

Lightning flashed outside the windows, illuminating the wing directly
behind where Jabez was sitting. He sped up the pace of his tale. “It is no
coincidence that Saint Gregory was a missionary to the area around the Armenian
and Turkish border. He was an avid researcher and spent countless hours in the
scriptures as well as ancient documents. Gregory was convinced that the reason
that the tree of life could not be found after the Biblical flood was that it
had been moved, not destroyed or covered up. His theory was that Noah removed
the tree and placed it in the ark to keep it safe.”

“So, the tree is in the ark?” Sean tried to clarify.

“That is what we believe. And if Gregory found it, he may have left a
clue as to its whereabouts.”

Firth had heard enough. “You mean to tell us that you’re dragging us
half-way across the Middle East on a hunch? It sounds as if you aren’t even
sure there is a clue.”

Jabez was briefly taken aback by the criticism, but he remained calm.
“Saint Gregory left behind strange markings on the walls of the pit where he
dwelled for those thirteen years. To date, no one has been able to explain
them. I believe in those markings, Gregory gave us the location of the ark in
case he did not live through the ordeal in the dungeon of Khor Virap.”

It was a huge leap of faith their new friend was taking. Making the
assumption that Sean and his colleagues could figure out what the inscriptions
meant was a gamble, if there were any markings to begin with. Still, it was
worth a try. They’d come too far to let Lindsey just walk away with whatever
was to be found at the end of the trail.

Firth was much more resistant. “Are you telling me that through all
the centuries, no one has been able to make heads nor tails of the inscriptions
you’re taking us to, yet we are supposed to magically come up with some answers
as to what they could possibly mean?”

Jabez looked at the gray haired professor for a few seconds then at
Sean and Adriana. Both his eyebrows rose as he smiled. “Yes. That is exactly
what I’m telling you. It seems to have worked for Mr. Wyatt so far. Wouldn’t
you agree?”

Sean couldn’t help himself and burst out into open laughter. “You know
he’s right, Professor. We really do seem to be on a pretty good streak right
now.” He shoved the professor’s shoulder playfully. Adriana smiled to one side
of her face.

“When we get there,” Jabez began again after a few more moments of
laughter, “we will meet a friend who has access to the fortress prison. He will
allow us to look at the pit without the distractions of other tourists.”

It sounded like a plan or at least some semblance of one. Sean wished
Tommy was there, knowing that his friend’s expertise would make things a lot
easier. Sean hadn’t received any word on Tommy’s condition from the Greek
hospital since before they left Cairo. He would have to check again once the
airplane arrived in Istanbul.

Second
time in Istanbul
. The first time
he’d been there, things were different, and similar. Several years prior, Axis
assignment had taken him to the city that had long been the crossroads of so
many cultures. Sean’s eyes narrowed as he recalled the mission.

Axis had
received information on a possible deal involving former Soviet nuclear weapons
and a terrorist organization known as Red Circle. The intel had come through as
a result of heightened interest in terrorist activity following the September
11 attacks. Word was that Red Circle planned on acquiring an old Russian nuke,
and somehow getting into London. Most of the attention was focused on the
United States in the months following the attacks on New York and Washington.
The terrorists must have figured no one would be monitoring the safety of the
UK.

They’d
been wrong. Axis was called in to assist British special ops and take down Red
Circle before they ever had a chance to get their hands on the device. In
Sean’s opinion, there’d been too many moving parts. There were so many people
involved; it was a disaster waiting to happen. And it did. Several agents were
killed from both agencies. The disaster, however, was averted. And the nuclear
device was secured. In Sean’s mind, the lives lost could have been avoided. It
was the last mission he’d served for Emily Starks before turning in his
resignation.

Sean realized he was staring at the floor and quickly regained his
composure. “When we get to Istanbul, is your friend going to set us up with a
place to stay? It sounds like he’s taken care of transportation.”

Jabez nodded. “Yes, everything is taken care of. We will be staying at
a hotel that is friendly to our cause. Our brother, Omar,” he pointed to one of
the men on the other side of the plane towards the tail of the cabin, “his
family owns a place. Arrangements have been made. We will stay the night in
Istanbul and leave for the Armenian border early in the morning.”

“Sounds good,” Sean said and leaned his head back against the wall
near a window.

Firth snorted a quick protest but returned to focusing on not getting
sick. Adriana seemed satisfied and was once again reading her book. The
conversation was, apparently, over because Jabez got up and went back to the
cockpit, closing the door behind.

Sean closed his eyes and went back to where he’d been in his mind only
a few moments before.

The deal
for the nuke was taking place in an abandoned fabric warehouse on the outskirts
of town. It was a logical location for the people making the deal. And it also made
intervening a huge tactical problem. Line of sight was covered by men on the
roof and in the windows of the old building. That meant a direct approach was
nearly impossible. They would see a frontal assault coming from a mile away.
Literally.

Sean had
gone over the layout of the facility and found a way in through an underground
drainage system that ran under the walls. The plan had been to go in from the
inside then bring in support from the outside, effectively surrounding the
culprits.

It all
sounded like a great idea. But as Sean had predicted, it all went haywire.

The entire
operation depended on timing, which Sean hated. He preferred to have the
ability to audible out of a situation, or at least have enough flexibility to
make a judgment call. British special ops wouldn’t hear of it. They’d insisted
on everything being done on their timetable.

When the
demolitions expert on their team, a heavily muscled guy named Vince, had
trouble setting off the explosives imbedded in the floor, the whole operation
was thrown off kilter. Sean had tried to radio the units outside the building
and tell them to wait, but there was too much interference. With no warning,
the units on the outside moved in too soon and were immediately pinned down by
the snipers stationed around the building.

By the
time Vince finally blew the floor out from under the terrorists, they were
already in full panic mode, trying to load up and make their escape. Sean slung
his grapple up quickly and hauled himself up the rope into chaos. The first
thing he saw was the back of a white delivery truck’s doors being closed with a
large wooden crate concealed in the back.

The
explosion had drawn the attention of the terrorists who weren’t trying to get
away quickly, and a hail of gunfire ensued from four men on the other side of
the warehouse. Sean fired off three quick shots, taking down two of the gunmen
before ducking behind a nearby steel support beam.

He pointed
to several wooden boxes on the other side of the hole Vince had blown in the
floor and yelled at the other three members of his team to take cover in that
position when they got topside. Bullets panged off his protective barrier; a
few hit the tin wall behind him. He spun around and fired his AR-15 four more
times, dropping the remaining two gunmen.

Another
threat appeared on the upper catwalk that encircled the warehouse. Several more
men with assault rifles were firing down on his position and on the rest of his
team who were coming up through the cavity in the floor. Two more appeared on
the ground from behind the truck that was now starting up and trying to turn
around so it could go through the large hangar doors at the end. Sean also
noticed a man in a slick gray business suit with peppered gray and black hair
jumping into the back of a black SUV. For a split second, Sean thought he
recognized the man, but the barrage of bullets kept him focused on the
immediate threats.