“Jayden?”
“Yeah.” Jayden slowly made his way from the ladder to the ark.
“If this is a replica, it’s not like the others. It’s very well made. I think this is gold….” Carter walked around the ark while passing a hand along it. The cherubs on the lid were also golden. The only part of it that was not gilded with gold were the two carry poles, one on each side, each of which passed through two golden rings affixed to the ark.
The ark was set on top of a recessed area of floor such that they were eye level with the top of it when standing in front of it. Jayden reached out a hand and touched the lid. “This is gold. Sure is some fancy replica.”
“Why would they have the climate control for a replica?” Carter asked.
“The obvious answer to that is that it’s not a replica. We could be looking at the real thing, here, Carter. But, if it is the real thing, why is security so low? A fence and one employee to guard the Ark of the Covenant? Does that seem right to you?”
Carter walked slowly around the ark while he answered. “Maybe people spend so much time openly disbelieving and in some cases mocking the idea that the ark is real, that they don’t have to guard it all that well. The easiest way to prevent people from stealing something is to make them think they don’t have it, or that it doesn’t exist in the first place.”
“Well I can think of one way to find out.” Jayden put both hands on the lid. “I don’t see a hinge, so instead of flipping up, I think it has to be lifted off, so if you go around to the other side, we can—”
“Don’t open it! Freeze, put your hands up or I will shoot!”
A furious-sounding male voice echoed in the underground chamber. Carter looked up from his position next to the ark to see Daedalus standing high on the ladder, gripping it with one hand while the other aimed a pistol fitted with a sound suppressor at his head.
“Fancy meeting you here, Daedalus,” Carter said.
“Stalker,” Jayden added.
Daedalus quickly dropped the rest of the way down the ladder without lowering the weapon. “Thieves,” he countered. “I believe you have something you stole from me.”
“Your sense of humor?” Jayden jabbed.
Daedalus shot him a withering stare.
“You’d think a man with a gun pointed at his head would take things more seriously.” Daedalus shifted the barrel of the weapon from Carter to Jayden.
“Here,” Carter said, touching one of the straps of his backpack, which he wore over both shoulders. “It’s in here. The map, right?”
Daedalus grinned. “The map from the Titanic which led us to first Noah’s Ark and then the Ark of the Covenant? Yes, you are correct in thinking I want that back.”
“And you!” he yelled sharply to Jayden, “get your filthy hands off of this holy object before I shoot them off!”
Jayden lifted his hands from the ark and took a step back while narrowing his eyes at the Treasure, Inc. founder.
“I’m going to take my backpack off and toss it over to you so you can take the map, okay?” Carter asked.
“Do it very slowly,” Daedalus commanded, now walking away from the ladder a few steps toward the ark. “Any questionable moves and your life is over. It will be difficult enough for me to conjure a scenario where I can allow you to live after this, anyway, so don’t give me a reason not to have to figure it out.”
Carter employed sloth-like motions to remove the backpack so that he was holding it by the strap with one hand out in front of him. “I’ll toss it over to you, a few feet in front of you.”
“Got to warn you, though, D-man, we ran outta toilet paper up there on the mountain, and so I might have used the map to wipe my—”
“Silence, you buffoon!” Daedalus waved the gun at Jayden. “You are the farthest thing from worthy of this place.”
“We’ll see.” Jayden remained defiant under gunpoint, arm’s length away from the ark.
Daedalus crept up until he stood over the backpack and slowly knelt in front of it. “You can just take the whole bag if it will speed things up. I think that’s in both of our best interests, seeing as none of us were actually invited here,” Carter said. “Consider it a souvenir.”
“Not so fast,” Daedalus countered. “Fool me once… as they say. I need to see the map.”
“Fine. Inside main compartment, zipper pouch on back, remove the false bottom in that, it’s in a Ziploc bag.”
“Once you have the map, then what?” Jayden queried. “You plan to steal this giant box by yourself and take on the entire country of Ethiopia to get it out of here?”
“I will have to come back for it, but whatever happens to it from here on is no longer your concern.”
“I don’t think it’s even possible to get it out of here,” Carter said. “It looks like this entire chamber was built around the ark after it was in place. Like they never intended for it to be removed again. The trapdoor entrance is far too small for it to fit through, and there are no other exits down here, just four featureless walls and the floor.”
“The fake ark up there was only an empty structure that led to a trapdoor,” Jayden said. “What if this one is the same? A fancy fake, but still a fake, and maybe, if we open the lid, it’s just a hollow structure that leads somewhere below the floor.”
“I think this is the genuine article,” Carter said, “but there’s one surefire way to find out, because we all know what should be inside of it, if it is the real deal.”
“True enough,” Jayden said. “Think about it, Daedalus. We could all be fighting over nothing. Let’s open it!”
Daedalus looked up from unzipping Carter’s bag. “The lid does look too heavy for one person to manage. Go ahead, as they say in your country. Make my day!” Daedalus erupted into obnoxious cackling as if what he had said was the funniest thing ever uttered. But when he saw Carter and Jayden standing there watching him, he was quick to anger. “Now!” he yelled, centering the barrel of his pistol on Carter’s chest. Carter moved to the opposite side of the ark from Jayden.
“On three, ready?” Jayden said, making eye contact with him. Daedalus moved a step closer, beyond eager to see what the reliquary held.
“One,” Jayden began, positioning his two hands on the edge of the ark’s lid.
“Two.” Carter did the same on his side. Daedalus took one more step closer to the nearest end of the golden spectacle.
Jayden shifted his feet ever so slightly. “Three!”
Jayden and Carter strained with both arms, pushing with their legs, and the lid began to lift away from the gilded container. Daedalus moved yet another step closer to the ark. Carter was exerting nearly his maximum physical strength to do it, but the cherub embellished slab rose from the box.
“Okay, slide it my way, I’ll ease it down,” Carter breathed. Jayden started to do that, but then he suddenly removed his left hand from the lid. As the heavy lid began to fall back down on the ark, Carter caught the briefest glimpse inside. It was not enough to absorb any serious detail, but sufficient to see that it did in fact have a bottom corresponding to the depth of the box, enough to confirm that it was not a fake façade like the one above.
He saw something inside of it, too. Gray and large, not part of the box itself. And that’s all he had time for, because after that, the lid was slamming back down on the top of the ark and Jayden was in motion.
The Asian-American former SEAL’s left hand dropped in a flash from the lid to the wooden carry pole beneath. At the same time as the lid slammed down, Jayden slid the pole through its double rings with a whip-like motion of his left arm. The result was to send the carry pole flying through the air toward Daedalus like a spear. The ends of the carry rods were even tapered, lending them a small bit of favorable aerodynamics.