The Ark: A Novel (44 page)

"It's up to you how you want to reveal this chamber," Locke said, "but you're going to have to bring the local police down here to retrieve these remains."

Father Tatilian nodded. "This discovery will change everything about Khor Virap."

Dilara stared at her father's prone body, but her eyes held no more tears.

"They'll take care of him, Dilara," Locke said.

"I know. At least he died knowing he was right."

"He would want you to finish his work."

"And I will," she said with conviction. "Let's go find Noah's Ark."

The word would get out quickly that a map to Noah's Ark had been found, either through the priest or the interpreter. Translating the map and text would take longer for the Armenians because they'd need to get someone with Dilara's expertise, but Locke wasn't worried about them. He had to assume Sebastian Garrett was on his way to the Ark, and Locke had to move fast to get to the site first.

Locke returned to Yerevan with Grant and Dilara, where they reboarded the Gordian jet to fly the short distance to an airport in Van, Turkey. Using the plane's satellite phone, Locke updated Miles Benson on their progress.

Locke kept his father out of the loop, knowing the military would take over the search and try to secure the prion for itself. Not only that, but if the Turkish government got any hint that they had discovered Noah's Ark, their access to Mt. Ararat would be denied. They had to keep their expedition quiet if they wanted any chance of stopping Garrett without creating a major international incident and handing over the prions to another party.

By the time they arrived in Van, it was already dark, too late to attempt to find the Ark cave. They would have to wait until morning, which gave Locke time to gather some of the supplies he needed for the expedition. He had some mining contacts in western Turkey who could provide him with what he required. While he did that, Dilara, who spoke fluent Turkish, chartered a helicopter for the 100-mile flight to Mt. Ararat.

The final job was to acquire some muscle to add to their ranks. Garrett had at least Svetlana Petrova, Cutter, and the two guards who had been with him when he escaped. Locke didn't like the idea of being outnumbered five to three. Grant, using his military contacts, found three mercenaries who could make it to Van from Istanbul before dawn. Locke had outfitted the jet with enough weapons to arm himself, Grant, and Dilara for the trip. The mercenaries would supply their own weapons.

Then it was a matter of waiting for daylight. Locke told the pilots to find a hotel in town, but he, Grant, and Dilara stayed with the plane, sleeping in the cabin. Even with the comfortable furniture, they slept fitfully.

By early morning, the equipment that Locke requisitioned had arrived, followed soon after by the three mercenaries, who reported for duty straight off their plane. Locke briefed them about the mission, leaving out any mention of Noah's Ark. He simply told them that they would be joining Locke, Grant, and Dilara on a mission into hostile territory and that they should be ready to fight. The helicopter would drop them on the eastern flank of Mt. Ararat and fly off to a staging area to the south. When they were ready to be picked up, Locke would radio the chopper. He didn't want the helicopter around to tip off Garrett in case Locke arrived first.

The helicopter charter was a surprisingly new Bell 222, roomy enough for all six of them and their gear. During the flight out, the pilot told them that oil and mineral exploration had jumped dramatically in the last five years. For a fifteen-year stretch starting in the mid-80's, Mt. Ararat had been off-limits to non-military personnel because of attacks by the Workers Party of Kurdistan, or PKK. The Kurdish rebels had taken tourists hostage and set off bombs in the southeastern cities of Turkey. But when the PKK leader was arrested in 2000, the attacks had become rare. The mountain was re-opened to tourism, and business interests in the area had grown.

The new openness allowed the pilot to fly them to Mt. Ararat without prior military approval, but they would be monitored closely by the listening posts that dotted the mountain to provide advance warning of any Armenian encroachments. The listening posts were the reason Locke hadn't been able to fly to the mountain directly from Yerevan, which was much closer. There was a long and bloody history of conflict between the Turks and Armenians, and a helicopter flying over the border wouldn't just arouse suspicion. It might be shot down.

The flight to the mountain took only 30 minutes. The rugged slopes were lined with rock-strewn valleys and overhangs that could have hidden hundreds of caves. The helicopter was above the tree line, but some plants survived at this altitude because it was below the permanent snow line. The chopper flew over the approximate location shown on the map in Khor Virap, and they began searching for a distinctive rock outcropping described in the text.

It was depicted on the map as the prow of a boat jutting from a cliff face and topped by a sail mast. That's the way it would look from the southern view. The Ark door would be found 100 paces south of it, and the window would be another 100 paces beyond the door. The biggest problem would be if the outcropping no longer existed.

Mt. Ararat was a dormant volcano, and in the previous 6000 years minor eruptions and earthquakes could have easily destroyed it. Locke remembered New Hampshire's famed Old Man of the Mountain formation, which resembled a bearded man peering from the side of Cannon Mountain. It was so well-known and loved that it adorned the state's quarter. Ironically and tragically, the rock formation collapsed soon after the quarter was circulated, showing just how suddenly the topography of a mountain could change. The odds that the prow formation had survived were not good.

They made six passes from the south before he heard Dilara shout and point out the left window. Sure enough, the profile of the bow end of a sailing ship extended from a rocky cliff face. They were directly over Noah's Ark. Dilara grinned at Locke, her excitement obvious. His own enthusiasm was tempered by caution.

They circled to see if they could spot any signs of others. The mountainside appeared empty of any human presence, but the terrain was so harsh, a company of soldiers could be hiding down there without being noticed. Locke instructed the pilot to set down on the nearest flat spot, which ended up being almost a mile away.

Locke, Grant, Dilara, and the three mercenaries jumped out and quickly pulled out their weapons and equipment. The mercenaries were armed with heavy automatic rifles, while the rest of them carried pistols and submachine guns. Because of how Dilara had handled the MP-5 inside Oasis, Locke had offered one to her as well, and she accepted without hesitation.

The helicopter dusted off, and the six of them began the hike to the entrance of Noah's Ark.

"What's our altitude?" Grant asked.

"Only about 9,000 feet," Locke said looking at the peak that reached another mile and a half above them. Previous searchers had expected the Ark to be higher in the mountain, but the lower altitude made sense. To get building materials and animals into the Ark, it had to be accessible enough to walk to. The climbing wasn't easy, but the grade was wide and flat enough to allow pack animals to climb.

The summer hadn't fully abandoned the mountain. Even though it was October, the sky was clear, and the air was a brisk 50 degrees. As they walked, one of the mercenaries ran his hand over some leafy plants with fading purple blooms, just the idle move of a bored hiker.

"I wouldn't do that," Dilara said, nodding at the mercenary. The man gave her a look that said
give me a break
and kept doing it.

"Why not?" Locke said.

"Because that's monkshood. The leaves and flowers contain a deadly poison that can be absorbed through the skin. It's been used throughout history to poison the tips of arrows."

The mercenary ripped his hand away as if the bush were on fire and wiped it on his pant leg.

"If your hand goes numb for a little while," Dilara said, "don't worry. It'll go away. Just don't lick your fingers after lunch."

After 30 minutes, they reached the rock formation, and Locke began counting his footsteps. Given his long legs, if he got to 100 before they saw the cave, it meant he'd passed it. But he didn't have to worry. When he got to 93, he saw a dark hole in the mountain face. A cave.

The cave opening was a 20-foot-diameter semicircle, and from this angle, Locke couldn't see the back of it. If Garrett were already here, the cave would be a perfect place to stage an ambush. Using hand signals, he instructed the mercenaries to circle below the view of the cave entrance and approach from the opposite side. When they were in place, Locke popped a flare and threw it into the opening.

No shots rang out, but he didn't expect them to. Cutter and his men were too disciplined for such a simple ruse. From his pack, Locke removed one of the pieces of equipment shipped to him: a remote control vehicle with large knobby rubber tires. It was the size of a loaf of bread and had a camera mounted on top.

Locke set the vehicle on the ground and took out the controller, which had a pistol grip with a trigger for the accelerator. A small wheel allowed him to control the steering with his other hand. He gently pulled the trigger, and with a muted whine, the vehicle leapt forward and darted into the cave. A color LCD screen above the controller's wheel showed the view from the camera.

Lit by the flare, the cave had a uniform shape all the way back to a wall at the rear 50 feet beyond. He could make out a few objects, but nothing large enough to hide behind. No one was inside.

Locke gave the all-clear. He replaced the vehicle and controller in his pack. He picked up the flare and walked farther into the cave, followed by Grant and Dilara, who used their flashlights. The mercenaries stayed outside on guard duty.

Halfway in, Locke saw a pile of boxes, some broken, some still intact, lying against the cave wall. He bent down to look at them. They obviously didn't date from Noah's time, but they weren't new. They must have decomposed in the cave for 20 years. There was crude writing on the nearest box. It looked Turkish.

"What does that say?" Locke said to Dilara. He saw another box that was partly open and peered into it, pushing the flare in close to light it better.

"I can't read it," Dilara said. "It not Turkish. It's Kurdish."

The flare lit the box contents. When he saw what was inside, Locke jumped back before a spark from the flare could fall into it.

"What?" Grant said.

"Remember the PKK?" Locke said. "The Kurdish separatists the pilot told us about? This must have been one of their hideouts. If Dilara spoke Kurdish, she'd be seeing the word
dynamite
on the side."

Dilara froze when she heard the word "dynamite."

"Get up slowly and ease away from the explosives," Locke said. "Be careful not to touch the boxes."

"Sweating?" Grant said as Dilara moved backward.

"Like a fat man in a sauna."

If dynamite is left in an uncontrolled environment, the nitroglycerine inside will weep from the sticks, leaving behind crystals on the sticks and pooling in its liquid form. From Locke's short glimpse, he could see the sparkle of thousands of crystals on the dynamite, which were cheaply made, not the newer sticks that resisted sweating. The boxes must have been there for years, subject to the extreme weather that blew into the cave.

"Is it going to blow up?" Dilara asked quietly.

"Not if we leave it alone. But nitro is touchy stuff. The bottom of the crate is full of it. A good nudge could set it off. The explosion could bring the entire roof down."

"Let's walk on the other side," Grant said.

Skirting to the opposite side, they moved to the back of the cave, where it ended at a crack-covered wall that spanned the entire width. Locke examined it closely and noticed that one of the cracks was contiguous and framed a rough square eight feet on each side. He knelt and ran his hands over the floor. His fingers dug into a soft spot of sand that had been used to fill in a groove in the floor. He excavated the groove and found that it formed an arc away from the right side of the crack border.

"This is a door," he said. "It was constructed to tight tolerances for those days, but that border is manmade. This channel must be used to guide it. I'd love to know how they built it."

"I'd love to know how we open it," Dilara said.

"We can't. At least, not from here."

"Why not? Is there another secret button?"

"No. My guess is that it can only be opened from the inside. That's what your father meant when he said Garrett can't get in. He only gave Garrett this entrance, but he knew it was a one-way door, probably as a security feature for the Ark. Once the construction was completed and the animals were inside, they could push this closed from out here and use the window to get in. It would be smaller and more easily defended. To open something this big, you'd have to push it from the inside." Locke couldn't hide his admiration for the accomplishment. "Noah must have been a hell of an engineer."

"Then the Ark is behind this rock?" Dilara's voice was suffused with hushed awe.

Locke ran his hand over the door to Noah's Ark.

"Let's hope Garrett isn't waiting for us on the other side."

Sebastian Garrett looked through his binoculars at the three men huddled near the cave entrance 400 yards below him. The morning sun was directly in front of him, so he had to be careful not to shine a reflection in their direction. The men at the cave were scattered in what cover they could find around the entrance, and Garrett could see the heads of only two of them.

Locke had come, just as Garrett knew he would. When Garrett saw Locke and the others emerge from the church at Khor Virap, the priest gesticulating wildly, it was obvious they had found the chamber. Destroying the chamber would no longer be productive. It might even be detrimental, alerting Locke to Garrett's presence.

As soon as he saw them leave, Garrett had taken his group back across the border into Turkey, lavishly bribing the border guards to get across. Then, using the GPS coordinates Cutter had established from their previous visit to the Ark's location, Garrett led them up the mountain in the darkness. All of them were equipped with generation-three night vision goggles that amplified the faintest starlight to make the terrain look as detailed as it was in the day, making the hike relatively easy when they could drive no more because of the terrain. With the help of stimulants, they remained awake and arrived just in time to watch Locke's helicopter swoop in.