“So we have a group leaving tomorrow morning for a trek to the summit, would you like to join us?” Ayaz asked with enthusiasm that seemed genuine.
“While we would like to visit the summit someday,” Carter answered, “right now we’re trying to catch up with some friends of ours who we think may already be on the mountain. Can you tell me, do you know of any well-outfitted expeditions that have left recently — in the last couple of days?”
“Well-outfitted…” Ayaz pondered this while eyeing Carter and Jayden in turn before settling his gaze back on Carter. “As a matter of fact, one of our groups that left yesterday — we stay in contact via radio in order to provide a safe experience for all of our participants — did report passing a small group that was not known to be affiliated with any of our local trekking groups.”
Carter held up a finger. “Did this group, by chance, happen to be on a route that would take them to one of the known Noah’s Ark sites?”
At this Ayaz paused to watch Jayden slurp down the rest of his tea and refill his mug. “They were on a route that could lead to one of those sites, but they were still far from it. We also offer tours of the Noah’s Ark sites, as opposed to the summit treks. Is that something you would be interested in?” Naturally, the tour operator wanted to keep the focus on discovering whether these two Americans represented any potential business for his company. Carter recognized that once he found out they were not potential clients, the flow of information would be quickly shut off.
“We wouldn’t mind going up there with you, but we also want the flexibility to do our own thing. Is there a one-way option where we can go part way with your group, but then split off on our own?”
At this, Ayaz turned around and beckoned one of his co-workers, an older woman wearing a full-length dress and a head scarf. He spoke to her in rapid-fire Turkish while she gave the pair of Americans an appraising stare.
Jayden leaned in closer to Carter and said in a low voice, “Aren’t we raising a little suspicion here, Carter? Not exactly blending in by saying we want to go it on our own.”
Carter answered quickly in a low voice. “If we’re seen leaving with a group, that should help us blend in. But when we get to the first ark site, we’ll need to stay a while without prying eyes. I haven’t heard from Maddy yet, and so these people could lead us to those sites. Also, one of their groups saw another outfit that could be Treasure, Inc., so I’d like to stay with them if possible.”
Before Jayden could reply, the woman nodded and then Ayaz addressed the Americans. “I believe we have a group tour option that will meet your needs for flexibility. Are you able to leave tomorrow at first light?”
Chapter 16
Daedalus paced back and forth around the small campsite he and his two associates had cleared in the snow. Three white pup tents, a color chosen deliberately in order to blend in with the high-altitude surroundings, formed a rough triangle around the camp’s perimeter. The ground was only a slight slope here, but to ascend any higher up the mountain meant to begin a steeper trek. The Treasure, Inc. leader watched his breath dissipate into the freezing atmosphere while a scowl formed across his features.
“I am not convinced,” he said to the man nearest him, also a Greek, his brother, Phillipo. “The map is vague enough that it could even be referring to Lesser Ararat.” He gazed distastefully in the direction of the sister peak, a little over seven miles away, connected to Greater Ararat by a lower elevation “saddle” of land. At the crux of his frustration was the fact that no timbers had been found here. “This map is a hoax!” He crumpled up his paper facsimile of the map, whose parchment his paid experts had authenticated as being “about 600 years old, ” placing it in the fifteenth century, the age of Da Vinci.
Phillipo put a hand out to stop bis brother as he went pacing by. “Daedalus, we must consider that this mountain range has experienced numerous volcanic eruptions and seismic activity in the millennia following the supposed landing of Noah’s Ark. The land itself may now be geographically different than it was even since the map was made.”
“Supposed landing?” Daedalus spat. “That’s where it landed. The Bible says so.”
Phillipo shrugged. “It’s the Bible, brother. Do not forget that many people today consider it to be nothing more than the greatest piece of fiction ever written. A creative work by a collaboration of great minds, cobbled together from numerous translations, transcriptions and re-tellings across the centuries. Even finding wooden timbers or a boat matching the physical dimensions of the ark does not mean that the story itself is real. Anyone, after all, could have built a replica at any point in time after the Bible was created.”
Daedalus suddenly whirled around and eyed his brother angrily. “What is real, Phillipo? Are stocks and bonds real? Is money itself real? No, they are simply constructs of the human mind, meant to symbolize value and ideas. If enough people believe in them, they become real. That is all that matters. Show me a boat made from acacia timbers about 4,800 years old, and of the same dimensions as those described in the bib — excuse me, in the bestselling work of fiction the world has ever known — and the world will want to believe that it is Noah’s Ark. They will clamor for it, they will lust after it, and dare I say, they will even kill for it.”
Phillipo stared at him doubtfully. “Are you sure it is not yourself which you describe, dear brother?”
One of the other two expedition members — an Italian man in his mid-thirties, started to approach the two brothers, but upon seeing the angry and uneasy looks on their faces, turned away without speaking. Daedalus turned to his brother.
“The only thing I am sure of is that when you lash out it me it’s because you’re questioning the direction of our company.”
Phillipo extended an arm and gestured at their snow-covered surroundings, somehow bleak and majestic at the same time. “And why would I ever do that? Because you have led us to this mountain, at great time and expense, on a wild goose chase based on a map purporting to lead to something out of a fairy tale? If the map is anything genuine, we could simply sell that without leaving home in Athens, and then look for treasures that actually exist. Why would I ever question our direction?” His words dripped with sarcasm that echoed off the volcanic rock beneath their feet.
Daedalus pointed his finger at his brother’s chest in a stabbing motion. “Great accomplishments come with great pain. It seems you have never learned this lesson, instead wanting everything handed to you. If you want a safe office job in my company, it is waiting for you in Athens. You can be a manager, work for a reasonable set salary keeping normal business hours and spend every weekend with your lovely wife.”
“You leave my wife out of this, Daedalus.”
“Well I did, dear brother. I left her, as you recall, even though she desired me. I left her so that you could have her. I basically gave you your wife, gave you your job, and now you complain that the job is too demanding.”
“Daedalus, Phillipo — over here! We found something!”
Both brothers turned to look up the mountain to where their expedition mate beckoned by waving frantically. When he had their attention, he pointed off to his right, down the mountain slope.
Chapter 17
The ground surrounding Carter and Jayden was strewn with boulders that were interspersed with short green grass. After riding in a Suburban most of the entire morning, they had been dropped off here for the trek on foot up the volcano. Had they not been part of the tour, Carter reasoned, they would have had to rent a vehicle, leaving a paper trail, and then leave it out in the open. He wondered how Daedalus had managed it, if in fact he was up on the mountain somewhere. It bothered Carter that “Ararat” could also mean Little Ararat, or even another part of Turkey, possibly even Armenia or Iran, since the modern day political lines were different from five thousand years ago.