Zero Point (11 page)

“Maybe that was this guy’s last meal,” Eli said with a laugh, pointing back at the human remains.

“Always the pure scientist,” she said to him with mock disapproval.

Eli noted that the amphora was slightly faded from its centuries of entombment, but its artwork was clearly visible through the film of dust on its exterior. The six-inch opening at the apex was covered by a material that folded down about five inches from the opening, and was wrapped by some type of cord that effectively sealed its contents.

After she finished taking photos, Maria put the camera in her vest pocket and carefully placed her hand on the amphora’s cover, gently feeling the material.

“This is most likely goat skin,” she noted, lightly brushing the centuries of dust from the cover.

“It probably belonged to that poor fellow over there,” Eli said, pointing to the animal remains lying about. “Let’s see if we can get this out to the brighter lights of the cave where we can study it better.” Moving around to the back of the amphora, he said, “You take the top end and I’ll support the base.”

“Okay, Dr. Turner,” Maria said as she gently pulled the top toward her. Eli grabbed the base with both hands and gently lifted it. With their prize in tow, the two slowly backed their way out of the crypt and into the main tunnel.

After setting the amphora down on one of the backpacks, Eli gazed at the ancient relic that once used to hold items such as wine, salt fish, and olive oil. In the brighter light of the cave, he could see the intricate dark red pattern painted around the amphora at its center, with smaller curved pattern lines painted toward the opening.

“Hand me my tool kit, Maria. I want to remove the cover skin and see what we have inside before we crate it up and send it to the university,” Eli said, kneeling down beside the ancient artifact.

Maria dug out the small tool kit from Eli’s backpack and handed it to him as the two soldiers, now intrigued by the find, silently moved closer to get a better view.

“Okay, here goes,” he announced as he grabbed the long nose pliers from his kit, then gently started to untwist the ancient twine from the amphora that kept its contents secure for centuries.

“Are you sure you want to do this here, Dr. Turner?” Maria asked, questioning Eli’s decision as he continued working on the vessel.

“It’s not holding up too well,” Eli said. He ignored her question as the two thousand year old twine, mummified by centuries of arid conditions, fell apart in small pieces. “Here we go,” he whispered as he gently grasped the petrified goatskin covering. Lifting upward, it slowly came off in one piece as Maria took some more photographs. “So far so good,” he said, setting the skin on the ground, then taking a deep breath. He took the light, leaned over the amphora, and directed its beam into the interior.

“What do you see, Dr. Turner?” Maria whispered in an anxious voice.

“It looks like a small papyrus, Maria.”

“There’s nothing else?” Maria asked expectantly.

“If you mean, is there a grail in there? No,” Eli said flatly. “Such is the way of our profession…one mystery reveals another. We still may have an important find here. It looks
well preserved and—” his observations were cut short by the startling sound of gunfire reverberating from outside the cave.

Eli watched as Captain Saune sprang instinctively into defense mode. He motioned Eli and Maria to get down as he drew his side arm. Using the wireless transmitter, he tried to contact his men outside.

“They're not responding. You two stay here, out of sight,” he said as he and the private sprinted off toward the entrance and faded away into the darkness.

“Do you think we’re being raided by looters?” Maria asked nervously as she knelt down beside the amphora.

“Either that, or our new friend Alton Burr,” Eli replied as he stared off into the darkness where Captain Saune and his man had been a moment before. “I have a bad feeling about that guy.”

“I’m sure the guards outside will take care of the situation,” Maria said hopefully.

“The papyrus!”
Eli exclaimed as he stood up and reached his hand into the amphora. Ever so gently, he grasped the ancient parchment by its end. When he slowly slid the papyrus out of its ancient sanctuary and into the light of the cave, a lightly rolled parchment was revealed.

“Dr. Turner, what are you doing?” Maria gasped, startled by his actions. “That should be done at the university.”

“No time for that now, Maria. If the worst should happen, I don’t want this to fall into the hands of looters or the likes of Burr,” Eli said as he deftly opened the flap on his backpack
and carefully slid the document into the pack between two peanut butter sandwiches. Setting the backpack down, Eli knelt, scooped up some dry sediment of the cave floor, and proceeded to pour handfuls into the amphora.

“If they are looters, all they’ll find is an amphora and what looks to be a document crumbled to dust after many centuries.”

Hearing the sound of footsteps echoing in the cave and heading their way, he looked up to see Captain Saune and his private slowly appearing in the low lantern light of the lava tube. They were walking toward them with their hands behind their heads. The shadowy images of three men dressed entirely in black appeared behind them pointing AK-47s at their two captives.

Eli could tell by the Captain’s eyes that he was mad as hell at being captured without a fight.

They must have been waiting at the cave entrance and easily surprised the two soldiers
, he thought. He also noted the terrified look on the private’s face.

The group slowly approached the two archaeologists as they stood up, startled by the scene playing out before them.

“Good evening, Dr. Turner,” said one of the black clad figures as he pulled the ski mask from his head. “I trust my men and I haven’t disturbed your work here?” he said with a grin and then shouted an order to his men in Japanese. The other men in black removed their masks and motioned by
gunpoint for Saune and the frightened private to join Eli and Maria.

“Who in the hell are you, and what right do you have coming in here holding us at gun point?” Eli yelled, glaring at the obvious leader of the three assailants. The man smiled at him in return.

“You are in no position to ask questions here, Turner.” The man sneered as he swiftly swung the butt of his weapon upward to strike Eli. A glancing blow to the side of his head sent him sprawling backward and hitting the ground.

Eli felt the blinding pain as he hit the ground, but somehow managed to remain conscious.

He heard Maria scream, “Stop it! Don’t hurt him.”

Maria knelt down beside the elder man and cradled his head, wiping the blood that started to flow from the open gash to his temple.

“Bind them,” the leader barked to his subordinates as he took off the satchel he had over his shoulder and laid it down. “I’m afraid you’re little expedition has made my employer nervous. We cannot have the prying eyes of the scientific community or the media at our back door right now, so we must end your little archeology project. Unfortunately, we didn’t expect resistance from the two soldiers stationed out front, but that evidence can be cleaned up quickly enough before the accident is discovered in the morning.”

“What accident?” Maria said glaring at their antagonist.

“No more questions,” the man barked as he set about his task.

The other two mercenaries bound Eli and Maria’s hands and feet with plastic tie wraps, and then unceremoniously threw them down at the tomb opening. Captain Saune saw the look of confusion on Maria’s face at the leader’s comments, but he knew exactly what was going to happen.

They have no plan to let us leave the cave alive,
he thought as he
desperately looked for a way to manage a counter-offensive against his captors. Saune eyed the men carefully, and saw to his horror that the leader was removing packs of C-4 from the satchel he had carried in. He now understood what was to happen. They planned to seal them inside the cave with explosives.

“How is Dr. Turner?” he asked Maria, trying to distract her from her shock as he closely watched the men in black setting the C-4 packs along the walls of the cave toward the entrance.

“Uh…I think he’s okay,” Maria answered tearfully.

“I have one hell of a headache,” Eli said, his eyes still closed, “but I’ll be fine.”

“I’m afraid none of us will be fine for long,” the captain said tersely. “They’re placing explosives on the cave walls, and I don’t think they have plans of letting us out before they seal this lava tube. If I’m right, it’s our friends from the Bishamon facility on the ridge above that have been watching us.”

As he spoke, he heard a crackling noise on his wireless transmitter’s earpiece, which was still in his ear, then the sound of a voice.

“Hello…anybody home?”

Outside the lava tube in the camp, Josh Turner and Samuel Caberra knelt silently on either side of the cave’s entrance as the light misty rain slowly tapered off. Both of their minds were focused and their bodies steeled for action.

After their arrival on Tenerife, Josh and Samuel, along with their driver Paulo, had made their way up the access road toward the archeology camp. They were less than a quarter mile distant when Paulo had suddenly pulled over to the side of the road and shut off the engine.

“What’s the matter, Paulo?” Turner asked, looking at the driver staring off into the misty darkness.

“I thought I saw a muzzle flash, Josh,” Paulo said as he continued staring ahead into the gloom. “It looks like it came from the site.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t lightning?” Turner asked, peering into the darkness ahead.

“I’m positive,” he replied.

“It might be looters raiding the camp,” Samuel said from the back seat. “Your dad was concerned that it might happen.”

“Dad and Maria are still there,” Turner said in a worried voice. He turned to look at his friend in the back, and saw the
concerned look on his face. “We have to get up there now, Samuel.”

“We should go from here on foot, just in case something is wrong, Josh. If there is trouble, they’ll hear us coming in the rover. It’s not that far from here.”

“Paulo, I want you to head back and get help,” Turner said as the two men opened their doors and got out of the vehicle. “Keep your lights off until you make the far bend in the road up ahead. From there, you’ll be okay.”

“Hold on, amigo,” Samuel said, reaching into the glove compartment and pulling out his eight-inch hunting knife. He slid the sheathed knife into his belt. “I never leave home without it.”

“One knife against guns?”
Turner asked.

“Hey, we have to give them some sort of fair chance now, eh amigo?” Samuel replied with his usual dark humor. The two then started jogging up the road in the direction of the camp.

Paulo had started back down the access road when Turner and Samuel finally reached the parking area below the camp.

“Over there, Josh, is the guards’ tent,” Samuel said, pointing to the slightly glowing embers of the campfire that was almost completely extinguished by the misty rain.

“That’s as good a place to start as any,” Josh replied as the two men swiftly and silently sprinted up the slope toward
the dying fire. They found two forms slumped over each other as they arrived at the tent.

“This one is dead,” Josh said as he checked the one man for vitals, “it looks like his throat was cut.”

“This one's dead, too,” Samuel replied, looking at the grizzly scene before him. “He must have been able to get a couple of rounds off beforehand. The poor guy is still holding his side arm. It’s a good thing he managed to shoot or we would have walked right into this.”

“Dad and Maria must be inside the cave. There’s no one else out here,” Josh said, with fear rising at the possibility of his father and Maria meeting the same fate.

“I don’t see any other bodies lying about. That could mean Captain Saune is in there with them,” Samuel said to his friend.

“I have an idea,” Turner announced, reaching over the bloody corpse of the soldier. He removed the wireless transmitter designed like a hands-free cell phone attachment along with the ear piece that had popped out of the dead man’s ear. “If our captain friend is still alive, hopefully he still has his receiver on.”

“I see where you’re going, amigo,” Samuel replied, quickly retrieving the other unit from the second fallen soldier. “Better grab their side arms as well, Josh.” The two then retrieved the army-issued 45-automatics from their former owners and stuffed them in the back of their pants.

“Let’s get to the entrance and out of this light,” Turner said as the two men set off up the remainder of the path to the lava tube’s entrance. Then, flanking each side of the cave, they pulled their weapons and knelt down in the misty, darkened silence.

Back inside the cave, a startled Captain Saune regained his composure after hearing the unfamiliar voice in his earpiece. Inconspicuously, he switched on the wireless transmitter located in the breast pocket of his fatigue coat then lowered his head and spoke softly.

“Who is this?” he whispered into the transmitter.