“Jerusalem, looks like,” Carter said, eyeing the phone map.
Jayden continued. “And then the third line is actually from Israel to Axum, Ethiopia. All very Biblical places — Ararat, Jerusalem, and… well I don’t know about Axum, but Ethiopia, if I recall my Sunday School days correctly… Wasn’t that where King Solomon went? Also, that line — the one from Israel to Ethiopia — crosses through the Red Sea, which is what Moses parted.”
Carter stared at the map in deep thought. “We’re going to have to think on this some more. There’s something missing. I’m sure that Axum, Ethiopia is the place to be, though, but like you said, exactly where is another matter.”
Jayden handed Carter his phone back. “Axum might be the place to be, but we still have the little detail of getting down off of this volcano without being pumped full of lead or freezing to death.”
Carter powered down the phone. “You’re right. We should call it a night, get out here at first light. We’ve got a long hike tomorrow.”
Chapter 25
“We’ll take a break while I check in on the sat-phone.” As expected, Phillipo received no arguments from his two expedition team members. After they had lugged the heavy timbers an appreciable distance to a spot where he thought they would be well hidden enough, they turned their attention to tracking the Omega Team pair. So far, however, they had turned up no trace of them. He had thought he had an edge over them since he had a walkie-talkie with which he could communicate with local trekking guides, and he hoped one of them might report a sighting. He had asked about a pair of hikers who had become separated from their group, hoping that putting out the word might bring in a report of a sighting. But nothing came in.
Visually, they had strategically set up concealed nests in key places offering good visibility for long distances, monitoring huge tracts of land with binoculars that most hikers used to get up and down from the mountain, and still nothing. His brother would not be pleased, he knew. And yet, it was past time to phone in a report. He lit up his sat-phone and dialed Daedalus, who answered on the first ring.
“Tell me.” His tone gave away nothing as to his mood.
“We moved the timbers closer and hid them in a safe spot. Then—”
“Of course. But do you have the map back?”
“We haven’t found them yet.”
“What?” Phillippo could hear his brother’s anger through the phone. “How is that possible? There aren’t that many routes up and down the mountain! There are three of you!”
“I know. And we have looked, believe me, we have stationed ourselves strategically, separating when necessary to cover more ground. I have been in communication with local guides, requesting to be notified if they are sighted, and we have used binoculars, all to no avail.”
“You must not be trying hard enough!”
Phillipo gritted his teeth and told himself to stand up to his brother for once in his life. “I can assure you, it is not that.”
“Well then what is it?”
“They must have taken an alternate route back down. Either that, or they went even higher up. But they don’t have supplies to last long up there, and they’re not acclimated for that, so I doubt that is a real option for them.”
“There are no other routes down!” Daedalus screamed.
“Well if they continued down the eastern flank….”
“Eastern flank! Don’t be ridiculous. If they did that they would end up in… Iran!”
“Where are we, anyway?” Jayden asked. “I don’t remember any of this.”
Carter stopped moving, shrugged off his pack and took out the binoculars. He held them to his eyes and focused on the flat expanse of brown sand he could see far below and out as far as their naked eyes could see. “It’s just a lot of desert.”
“Yeah, I’m getting thirsty just looking at it. I’m glad we left the snow behind, though.”
“I’m glad we left the guys with guns behind who would kill us for the old piece of paper in my pack. Staring out at the view isn’t going to get us down there, so we might as well keep putting one foot in front of the other.”
“I guess we need to get down anyway, wherever it is. Straight up and over this thing is no longer an option.” He glanced up at the snow-capped peak far in the distance.
“Got that right,” Carter said, sipping some water from a canteen. He shared it with Jayden and then pulled his pack back on.
The two set off down the mountain, the climate growing more arid as they descended. Despite a paranoid sense that they were being tracked, they detected no trace whatsoever of Daedalus or his cronies. “Maybe they gave up on us in order to get those logs down off the mountain and into town where they can start analyzing them,” Carter theorized aloud. “That can’t be an easy task.”
“Yeah, maybe they figured that we’re not worth it, for once. The only thing that makes me question it is that we have the original map from the Titanic. Somehow I doubt Daedalus would let that pass him by so easily.”
Carter shrugged and they wore on in silence, the crunch of their boots on the rock and dirt mountainside the only sounds as the morning wore on. He marveled at how peaceful it was, yet for a natural setting, how little wildlife they saw. Only a few birds, and on the way up, some goats, sheep and head of cattle. He supposed that there was life here if one knew where to look, but that without dense forests, it was more difficult to come across. By the time Carter handed the backpack off to Jayden for his turn to shoulder the gear, they were nearly to the bottom of the mountain, and working up a good sweat as the air became progressively warmer.
“Last chance to do a little survey,” Carter said, reaching for the binoculars.
“Yep, flat ground for miles once we get down there.” Jayden’s voice had an edge of concern to it. “Say Carter, can I take a look at that map you have on your phone?”
“Sure.” Carter handed him the phone before going back to his binoculars. He scanned the flat terrain again, noting the featureless sand, while Jayden brought up the digital map and adjusted it to show the Mt. Ararat region.
“Looks like in the distance a little sandstorm is kicking up,” Carter noted.
Jayden continued squinting at the phone screen. “Hey Carter, do you have the compass?”
“Yeah.” He opened one of the zipper pockets and took out the simple magnetic compass.
“I’d say we’ve come about ten miles since yesterday. Which way are we facing?”
“Southeast.”
Jayden’s only reply was a very deep breath that made Carter look over at him. “What’s up?”
“I really hope I’m wrong, but….” He hesitated while looking up from the phone map and out across the dusty landscape that stretched seemingly to infinity ahead.
“Out with it, Jayden. You hope you’re wrong, but what?”
“I think that’s Iran.”
A weighty silence settled over the duo as they considered the land before them. The implications were both many and deep. Carter let the binoculars hang by the strap around his neck while he wiped the sweat from his forehead.
“Are you sure? Maybe it’s Armenia? That’d be better.”
But Jayden was staring at the phone map again, this time while shaking his head. “No, it’s the northwesternmost tip of Iran, I’m sure of it. Look, here’s the peak of Mount Ararat, there’s Turkey and the town of Dogu, where we left from, and here’s how we must have picked our way around….”
“No wonder we haven’t seen those guys,” Carter said, referencing Daedalus and his disciples.
“Yeah, even they aren’t crazy or stupid enough to just waltz into Iran.”
Carter eyed his friend. “We’ve got to go back. We’ve got no visa to be here. You know what would happen.”