The Moses Riddle (Thomas McAllister 'Treasure Hunter' Adventure Book 1) (14 page)

Ann reclined the passenger seat and tried to sleep, but her gyrating thoughts wouldn’t let her. So she laid back and rested her road-weary eyes, thinking about the decisions she would have to make.

Thomas kept his eye on the rearview mirror, searching for a blue Taurus or anything that looked like a government vehicle. Arturo had remained in Mercado to guard the site and the treasure. He had trusted Arturo, a man he hardly knew, with the most important treasure he’d ever found. He had no other choice. Early on he’d convinced himself that Arturo was trustworthy. He reminded himself to trust his instinct.

Thomas envisioned driving into Mercado and learning that Arturo had checked out of the hotel. He imagined driving up to the pyramid, seeing the huge rock behind which the treasure had been hidden dragged from its place, hiding place exposed: treasure gone. Nonsense, of course. Everything would be fine. He’d learned long ago, even at archeological sites that you know contain treasure, you have to trust people. You simply cannot be there all the time. He had to trust Arturo. Thomas had given him permission to call in his brother if he needed any help. Hopefully that need hadn’t arisen.

Thomas stole a glance at Ann. Never having had anything stolen from her, she was more worried about the extraction. They had affixed a huge commercial winch to the front of her Rover, but the stone they were intending to pull was three to four times as heavy as her truck. She didn’t think they’d be able to move the stone. She had also been particularly worried about how they would smuggle the treasure out of Mexico.

Mexican law stated that if a Mexican historical artifact were unearthed, the government had to be notified. The treasure automatically became the property of the government, even if it hadn’t originated in Mexico.

Unfortunately, new Mexican legislation had been passed, creating huge amounts of bureaucracy which made it difficult to get a permit to excavate and impossible to lay claim to anything found. Thomas’s view was that the early Mayans clearly played a role in the preservation of the treasure, but they did not, and should not, own it. The Ten Commandments were not Mayan. For that reason, he would not notify the government but, rather, smuggle the tablets out of the country.

With the help of a friend who was an amateur race car driver, he had removed the gas tank on Ann’s Discovery and run the line to an auxiliary tank mounted on the bottom of the truck, where the spare tire was usually kept. They had mounted the spare on the rear door. The Ark would be placed in a box disguised as the gas tank. Ann voiced her concern about cases of Mexican border patrol guards disassembling entire cars in their search for drugs. It would take a lot less than full disassembly for them to find the fake gas tank, since a false tank was often one of the first things border officials checked for. But she was willing to take the chance. Luckily, she and Thomas were exactly what they said they were, archeologists with permission and credentials provided by the Mexican government—Arturo actually—to conduct preliminary excavations at sites in both Oaxaca and Veracruz. They were hoping these credentials would earn them a quick pass across the border.

So Thomas drove south and became more relaxed with every mile. He was in love and completely unaware that at that exact same time tomorrow DJ Warrant, special agent for the FBI, would be three miles behind him in a military helicopter, following his every move.

DJ, in his twenty years with the Bureau, had rarely been as angry as when he had burst into Cabana Nine and found it had been vacated. Once again, he’d been outsmarted by a couple of amateurs and he was furious.

The one good thing that had come from the incident was that DJ had learned something about the professor and his accomplice. He learned they were not to be underestimated. As Elmo’s computer profile had stated, they were not only highly intelligent, they were highly motivated. DJ knew it would be a heightened state of motivation, because he knew they were onto something big. He’d talked to people at the university and found out that if the project involved archeology and Thomas McAlister, it was important.

After DJ had recovered from the initial shock and embarrassment of losing his two civilians for a second time, he went to work. He told Elmo what he wanted and, within thirty minutes, he had a border crossing report stating that a green Land Rover Discovery had crossed yesterday, at Lukeville.

An hour after that, DJ was in a government helicopter, in Mexican airspace, three miles behind Ann’s Discovery, watching them through high-powered binoculars as they drove south. He had ordered, received, and was in the process of deploying a full surveillance team in Mexico, to ensure that he did not lose them again.

Even if Thomas had been facing in the other direction he would have needed binoculars to see the helicopter. As DJ watched the blob of green on the horizon, he swore that Thomas McAlister was not going to elude him again.

“What are we going to do down here in Mexico, DJ? What’s the plan?” Elmo stunned DJ with his questions. He rarely asked any.
“The plan, Elmo?” DJ slapped him hard on the knee. “The plan is to take custody of the artifact.” And then, more to himself than to Elmo, he added,. “Yep, we’re going to let genius boy down there find it for us . . . and then we’re going to
snatch it,
before he knows what hit him. And as for his girlfriend, I’ve got plans for her, too.”

“Jose, will you and Maria join us for a margarita on the rooftop before dinner? Ann and I would like to enjoy a sunset tonight. It was a long drive.”

“We’d be honored, senor,” Jose replied.
“Excellent, seven o’clock then?”
“Seven o’clock it is, senor. I’ll tell Maria.”
“By the way, have you seen Arturo?”
“Yes, yes, every day. He is over at El Manati now.”
Thomas relaxed, “Good. Well, it’s been a long trip. I think we might

Jose smiled. It was clear that Thomas and Ann had fallen deeply in love. He could sense that they were having a hard time staying away from each other.

Once they were in the room, Ann rushed into Thomas’s arms. He pulled her close, feeling the breath go out of her. He buried his face in her clean citrus-smelling hair and then they kissed, and continued kissing, finally collapsing on the bed, removing each other’s clothes, without pausing for a breath.

A few hours later they were greeting Arturo and sharing the news of their budding relationship. They drank margaritas with Jose, Maria, and Arturo, and Maria served cabrito, rice, black beans, and warm corn tortillas. As they talked, Arturo mentioned things were good at the site, which was his way of informing Thomas, in front of Jose and Maria, that everything was fine.

Maria had strung white Christmas lights on poles over the dining section of the hotel roof and Jose had installed an outdoor speaker, through which he played slow Mexican guitar music. There was a lively discussion ranging from Mexican winters to what foolish bastards the Spaniards had been as they conquered Mexico, burning codexes, instilling Christianity; essentially destroying a culture.

After dinner, Jose and Maria excused themselves. Arturo stayed long enough to tell Thomas that while he was in the States, he’d only seen one young couple at the site. They wanted to see an unexplored Mexican site. Arturo told them this one was off limits to the public, due to some indigenous Indian burial concerns, which sent them scurrying off with a story to tell back home.

“I must leave you now. I’m embroiled in a ‘hoop’ tournament at the local tavern.”
“Basketball?” Ann asked.
“No, no. Hoop, not hoops. To play hoop, you screw a hook into the wall at about eye level. Then, you tie a string to a metal ring, a hoop. You put the hoop on the hook and fasten the other end of the string to the ceiling. Then you take the ring off the hook and let it dangle from the ceiling. To play, you take the hoop, move away from the wall, get behind a line, and then let the hoop swing toward the hook. The object of the game is to get the hoop to land on the hook.”
“Sounds difficult.”
“It is. And a lot of fun. I am a finalist in the tournament. I am playing against a local man. The whole town is rooting against me. It has really united them. Tonight is the final round. So I must go and warm up. What time do we start tomorrow? I assume you got everything we need?” He

looked directly at Thomas.
“Yes, everything. We’ll meet for breakfast at six and get to the site
by seven.”
“See you then. Wish me luck!”
Thomas refilled Ann’s margarita glass from the pitcher Maria had left
behind for them. They walked to the edge of the roof near the foot-wide
wall. Thomas stood behind her, with his arms around her, hands resting
on her abdomen, as they watched the sun setting in the west; a huge,
solid orange globe, the sky a beautiful rose-colored backdrop. Finally, she turned to face him. He cupped her face with his hands
and softly kissed her lips, tasting margarita.
They kissed for a long time and, suddenly, Thomas heard her breathing change. When he felt a tear drop on his wrist, he squeezed her more
tightly.
“What are the tears for, Annie?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. What will happen to us after
this is all over?”
He hadn’t thought much about the future. “We’ll go on. Maybe
become professional treasure hunters. Focusing on the biggest, most
important treasures.”
He felt her tremble. “I don’t know, Thomas. I-I don’t feel . . . good
about this.” She was crying harder now. “I-I never expected to . . . to fall
in love. I feel like somehow this can’t last. Like everything is going to end.
I don’t want anything to ever happen to us.”
“Annie, why would anything happen to us? Everything is fine.” “That’s the p-problem. Everything is too fine. I have this feeling of
dread, when I think about what’s going to happen.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know how to explain it,” she paused, “Did you ever see the
movie
Raising Arizona
?”
“A long time ago.”
“Remember the family, you know, Holly Hunter and Nicholas Cage?
All they’d ever wanted was a baby, but they couldn’t have one naturally. So they steal one, and they’re having a great life, you know. But every once in a while the movie cuts to this really determined, mean-looking man driving down the highway on a motorcycle. He’s pure evil. And you just know he’s driving towards their house. Into their lives. You know he’s
going to take away their happiness.”
“I remember it, vaguely. He comes and steals the baby.” “Right.”
“So what does that have to do with us?”
“All I’ve ever wanted is someone like you. And I have this overwhelming feeling that something bad is coming toward us, moving quickly.
I’m scared.” Ann put her arms around him and squeezed as hard as she
could, trying to get under his skin.
Her tears were like a hot branding iron on his shoulder. Ann was a
strong independent woman, and he’d never seen her act like this before.
He wondered what had triggered it.
“Nothing’s going to happen, Annie, I promise. I won’t let it. I love
you. You love me. I’ll always protect you.” At this, she held him even
tighter. He continued, “I’ve got everything worked out. Planned. We’re
going to find Moses’ treasure and then go away together. We’ll make
love all day, every day, and dream up our next archeological project.” He brought her face up to his and he kissed her while she cried. The
warm night breeze caressed their skin. He brought a chair over to the wall
and pulled her onto his lap. With only the Christmas lights and a canopy
of twinkling stars for light, she unbuttoned the top of her dress, allowing his hands easier access to her full breasts. Soon he lifted her sun dress
and she straddled him. As they made love, she cried silent tears, and they
whispered promises to each other.
The only other sounds that could be heard came from the small
tavern, two blocks away, where from the volume of the cheers, it sounded
like Arturo was losing.

Ann drove Lucille as close to the pyramid as possible, so that they could unload equipment. Thomas had come to breakfast with the site drawn on graph paper.

“At this stage, the planning is more essential than the actual work. If something goes wrong due to lack of planning, it could take us months to recover.”

He had taken Ann and Arturo through the extraction plan and now, in the morning heat, he went over it again. Ann saw why he was so good at what he did. He had everything planned, contingencies for every situation. He had ranked every conceivable method they could use for each task by the time it would take, and by risk to the Ark. They were to begin with a low risk, moderately paced plan. If the first way didn’t work, they would try the second, then the third.

As Thomas spoke, Ann realized that while they had driven to Arizona and back, Thomas had been hard at work the whole time. Planning, readying, scheming. She should’ve known it all along. He was one of the best, and this treasure would be the biggest find of his life—and he’d had some pretty big finds. But she’d never known that he’d done all of this preparation. Just like his plan to escape the surveillance, this was creative, yet logical and simple.

Now, she felt embarrassed. Driving back and forth to Arizona, she had slept when it was his turn to drive. But he always remained awake during her turn driving, to write, or gaze out the passenger window. When she asked him what he was writing, he would say, “Oh, just notes.” But here they were, in the middle of Mexico, about to make the most significant archeological find of all time, surely the most religiously and politically sensitive, and Thomas had the whole damn thing planned out to the last detail.

Plan A was simple. They would use an auger with a masonry bit to drill horizontally into the large, square stone that concealed the treasure. They would insert a large camelot, a tool used by rock climbers to gain secure attachments quickly, into the resulting hole, to get a firm grasp on the stone. After insertion, camelots expand, so pulling would only grind one deeper into the rock.

Thomas explained that he would fasten the camelot to the cable, which would be attached to the Ramsey RE series winch that he had mounted to her Discovery. It would pull up to 10,000 pounds dead weight. The back of the truck would be anchored to an outcropping of rock that was bigger than the stone they were extracting from the pyramid. If all went well, the stone would slowly slide out of place, just as it had slid into place, over three thousand years ago. As the stone moved, Thomas and Arturo would slip steel trusses in the cavity, to brace the rocks above it.

“I had the girders cut to the exact length of the stones we’re removing.”
“When did you do that?” Ann asked. “I didn’t even know you had measured.”
Arturo laughed. “Nothing escapes this man, Ann. He is very thorough. He thinks of everything. Everything.”
After they had unloaded the equipment and reviewed the plan a third time, Thomas turned to Ann. “Move the truck directly in front of the stone, about midway between the pyramid and the outcropping we’re going to tie on to. While you do that Arturo and I will use the auger to drill the hole for the camelot.”
“All right. Are you sure you guys don’t need my help in the pit?”
“We can handle it, and there isn’t room down there anyway. Don’t worry, Arturo says these old pyramid stones cut like butter. You stay up there and get the truck perfectly aligned. If it’s not, we may bend the frame. When you’re done, run the cable from the hitch around that large boulder, and then back onto itself so it will tighten as it’s pulled. When you’re finished, we should be ready for you.”
Several minutes later, Ann appeared at the mouth of the cavity. To her complete surprise, almost disbelief, the hole was already drilled. “You’re done! That’s amazing. How in the heck could you drill through two feet of solid rock so fast?”
Thomas laughed. “You’re working with two professionals, my dear.”
Ann was still surprised, but noticed the little pyramid of rock powder that had collected on the ground, below the hole.
“You guys are good,” she said.
“Did you get Lucille fastened to that boulder?”
“Sure did. We’re ready if you’re ready.”
Thomas selected the largest camelot and slid it into the drilled hole. He flicked the switch that activated it and they heard it click as it opened inside the hole. He jerked the cable several times. It held firmly.
Ann hauled the twenty-ton capacity cable from her winch to the edge of the pit and eased it over to Thomas, who used a heavy duty carabiner to connect the Rover to the cable.
“Shall I get the braces?” Arturo asked.
“I think it’s time,” Thomas said.
The moment of truth. Arturo smiled at his cohort and slapped him on the back. He positioned the braces on either side of the stone, leaving only enough room for it to slide out cleanly.
“Okay, Annie, get in the truck and very slowly activate the winch. Give it five seconds on the first try. Watch my hand for the signal to cut it early. Do you understand?”
Ann got into the truck. “Got it!”
“Arturo, you stay over here with me. We’ll watch the stone for movement. I’ll also be keeping my eye on the cable, to make sure the connections stay secure.”
“With you, amigo!”
Thomas felt ready. This was it.
He gave Ann the signal to start the winch. He heard it whine as the cable tightened, and then screech. For a moment, everything remained at a standstill, cable taut, winch screeching, and he felt the huge rock move, ever so slightly. But it was not enough. At this rate he’d burn out the winch. He gave Ann the signal to cut power.
Ann left the truck and jogged over. “Is everything okay? What happened?”
Arturo said, “It moved. Did you feel it, Thomas?”
“Yes, but not enough. There was too much strain on the winch. We’ll blow the motor at this pace. Annie, come here.”
When she was by his side, he pulled a leather pouch from his pocket. “This is it. We’re going to go for it on this next try. These are low grade industrial diamonds cut into little round balls. Like marbles, but smaller. As long as the stone is in motion, it will roll on these diamonds and not crush them. As soon as all motion stops, it will crush them. You’re looking at my entire supply. This is all I could afford. So, this time, we will not stop until the stone is out.”
He poured about fifty diamonds from the bag and strategically scattered them in the stone’s pathway. “That should do it.”
“Where did you get the diamonds, Thomas?”
“Later, Annie. It’s an old trick. Greasing the skids. Now listen you two. Our stone has already moved. Once it hits these, it should really start to roll. Be ready. Watch me for directions.”
Arturo nodded his approval. This was a surprise, even to him.
“Annie, aim for twenty seconds this time, or until I tell you to stop. If it’s slow going, I may give you the thumbs up, meaning keep going even after the twenty seconds are up.”
In the rush of excitement, she said, “Roger that.” It occurred to Thomas that Ann had used a pilot’s acknowledgment. He made a mental note to ask her if she’d ever done any flying.
“When we get the stone out, our treasure will either be in a cavity within the rock we’re moving, or behind it. I don’t know which. The riddle is not clear on that point. If it’s in a cavity, we’ll have to pull it out. What do we do, once the rock is out of the way, Arturo?”
“We quickly determine where the treasure is located and, depending on its weight, use one of three methods to move it to the back of the truck. Then we drive to the garage behind our motel.”
“Right! And why do we do that, Ann?”
“Because we want to secure the treasure by getting it to a pre-determined safe place. Then we come back here to see if there is anything else of importance. Then, using the overhead pulley, we push the stone back into place.”
“Good. Now let’s get this damn treasure!”
Ann ran back to the truck and Arturo moved his brace as close as he could get it to the stone without blocking its path. The diamond balls had convinced him that the stone would slide out this time.
Thomas gave the sign to Ann, and she started the winch. The cable tightened and all slack disappeared. It began to whine, then screech, but the huge stone didn’t budge. Then the winch began to emit an incredibly loud shriek. Thomas was about to signal Ann to cut power, when slowly, almost imperceptibly, the stone started to move. Suddenly, its edge found a few of the diamond balls and it began to roll smoothly, much faster than Thomas had anticipated.
Thomas heard and felt the whoosh of air, as it was drawn into the cavern created by the extracted stone. Then, a cool exhale, in which he thought he smelled both wood . . . and metal. He suppressed his excitement.
When there was four feet between the stone and the pyramid he gave Ann the signal to halt. The winch stopped. He and Arturo quickly slid the braces into place. “Thank God!” he said, sighing with relief. “I don’t think the stones above shifted at all.”
He ran his hand along the entire back of the stone. “No cutaway, Arturo.”
He reached into his back pocket and grabbed the small Maglight flashlight. He twisted it on, and directed the narrow beam into the dark hole, and waited for the dust to clear.
“Jesus.”
In the middle of the cavity, Thomas saw a wooden crate, looking as though it had been placed there only a week before.
“Can you see this, Arturo? Am I seeing things?”
“No, amigo, what you see is real.”
Thomas moved closer, but didn’t touch it. He saw inlaid clay stamps, with hieroglyphic writing and other symbols he recognized as Egyptian. Speechless, he sat on his heels and stared into Arturo’s olive-black eyes. He shook his head. “Moses’ treasure, my friend. Moses’ treasure.”
Leaping to his feet, he grabbed Arturo and lifted him off his feet. “
Annie
!” he shouted. “Come see this!” He and Arturo reached up for her and pulled her into the pit, jumping up and down with her, in a celebratory dance. She pulled herself away from them and knelt by the crate.
“Hieroglyphics!” she said, more to herself than to them. “It’s real, then. Moses really did come to Mexico to bury his treasure. I’m . . . speechless! Thomas . . . Thomas, do you honestly believe this is the Ark of the Covenant and the Ten Commandments?”
“I’m sure of it. I’d stake my reputation on it. Either way, we’ll find out tonight.”
And then, as Ann raised her arms and screamed the word, “Yes!” into the air, a helicopter swooped nimbly in over the pyramid, blowing sand in every direction, and the celebration abruptly ended.