And on the dark figure that rose up in their path, aiming a rifle in their direction.
Schrader had scarcely processed what he saw when Maddock raised a pistol and, without breaking a stride, fired off two shots. The first bullet took the figure in the chest, the second in the throat. By God, the man could shoot! Schrader had some skill with handguns but he wasn’t on Maddock’s level. Who was this strange fellow who’d saved them?
The shots seemed to have drawn the attention of the men in the camp, because sharp cries punctuated by gunshots rang out. A bullet buzzed past Schrader’s ear, and another pinged the ground at Alice’s feet.
“Veer left and keep running!” Maddock turned, hit the ground, and squeezed off a shot in the kidnapper’s direction.
Schrader did as he was told, half-dragging his wife and daughter toward the crest of the hill. They were so close. He heard Maddock fire off another round. The man wasn’t wasting his ammunition. That sort of efficiency spoke of a high level of professionalism.
The top of the hill loomed just a few yards ahead. “Just a few more steps, girls,” he huffed.
And then hot fire pierced his side. For a moment, he thought an insect had stung him, but then the fire grew into an inferno. He cried out, pressed his hand to his side, and pitched forward, hitting the ground face-first.
“Daddy!” Melanie dropped down by his side. With Alice’s help, she rolled him onto his back. He stared up at the two people he loved most in the world, and he had only two words for them. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.” Tears ran down Alice’s cheeks, but she managed a ghost of a smile. “You’ll be all right.”
Schrader shook his head. “Shouldn’t have brought you here.”
“Don’t talk, Daddy.” Melanie caressed his cheek. “Save your strength.”
Schrader knew time was short and suddenly there were so many things he wanted to say, so many things he hadn’t done. And then a single thought hit him hard. Something he hadn’t done.
Maddock appeared out of the darkness. “Let me take a look.” He knelt over Schrader and began inspecting his wound, but Schrader barely felt it. There was only one thing on his mind.
“Listen to me.”
“Just relax,” Maddock said.
“Listen to me!” Schrader poured all his remaining strength into the words. “What I told you about looking for the ark…I have a secret and I don’t want it to die with me.”
Chapter 40
Maddock's heart raced as the sign reading Lake Natron flashed past. "Almost there." They’d managed to get Schrader and his family to safety, and with the help of a local pride of lions, decimated the kidnappers. Those that survived had scattered. Maddock hoped the lions, none of whom had suffered so much as a scratch in the encounter, would not become man-eaters. Considering they’d acted under the influence of a Noah Stone, he hoped they would return to their natural states afterward.
Now, armed with information from Schrader, they had driven the two hours to the Ngorongo Conservation Area. Considered one of the natural wonders of the world, this vast protected area stretched from Lake Natron in the northeast to Lake Enyasi in the south and Lake Manyara to the east. The area incorporated the Olduvai Gorge and the Ngorongoro Crater, the largest unbroken caldera in the world. The eight million-year-old crater had once been an active volcano. After going dormant, its collapsed cone formed a crater more than six hundred meters deep and covering an area of more than three hundred square kilometers. It was huge, and it was the place Schrader believed the ark lay.
"So tell me again what Schrader said." Dima held a legal pad in her lap and was mulling over various notes she had taken.
“He said quite a bit.” Schrader had been convinced he was going to die, and had confessed to Maddock that he had in his possession an ancient stone tablet he had stolen from a dig years before. Furthermore, if his translation was correct, it confirmed the location of the ark in the Arusha region. Fortunately for him, the bullet had passed through the ample layer of fat at his midsection. It was a painful wound, to be sure, but hardly fatal.
"First, he said that Mount Meru and Mount Meri were not the same place. Then he said, ‘Look to the Mountain of God. The truth lies there.'"
"All right." Dima made a mark on her notepad. "Ol Doinyo Lengai is the only mountain anywhere in the Arusha Region that is called by that name. So far, so good."
Called "Mountain of God" in the Maasai language, Ol Doinyo Lengai was an active volcano in the Gregory Rift, located south of Lake Natron within the Arusha Region of Tanzania. Part of the volcanic system of the East African Rift, it uniquely produced natrocarbonatite lava, a darker, cooler form of lava than what was commonly found in most volcanos. Cooler was, of course, a relative term, as the lava still reached temperatures of more than five hundred degrees.
"He also said, ‘Find the city of stone. The place of sacrifice.'"
"Which could refer to Engakura." Dima bit the tip of her pen and gazed at her paper. "It's a stone city with a complex irrigation system, but there's no tradition of stone construction in this part of Africa, which makes it unusual. So, it would be the logical place to look."
“It narrows things down a bit,” Maddock agreed. “If we have to search the entire area, we might never find it.”
“I don’t see anyone around,” Bones said, craning his neck to look out over the crater as they drew close to the rim.
“The northern area is the most remote,” Dima said. “Tourists usually stick to the places that are most easily accessed.”
Bones nodded. “Works for me. Fewer people to get in the way.”
Maddock had to agree. The last thing they needed was bystanders interfering, or perhaps being harmed, should things go sideways. “Let’s hope the rangers stick to the other parts of the crater.” Strictly speaking, one was not permitted to descend into the crater without a ranger guide, but they had ignored that rule for obvious reasons.
“If one shows up, we’ll deal with it,” Bones said. “We’ve come too far to let park rules stand in our way.”
Maddock slowed their four-wheel-drive as they began the steep descent. Down below, a vast expanse dotted with wildlife swept out to the horizon. It was a spectacular sight, one he’d have paid more attention to were he not focused on trying to avoid plummeting to his death.
“Do you think Schrader knew what he was talking about?” Bones asked. “He was frightened and losing blood.”
Maddock shrugged a shoulder in a gesture of noncommittal. “I suppose we’ll find out soon enough.”
“According to this website,” Dima said, looking at her phone, “the crater is home to almost every species of African plains mammal. Even the endangered black rhino resides here. Giraffes might have lived here at one time too, but probably migrated away due to the lack of trees which provide their food. There are no impalas or topi, but that’s likely due to competition with wildebeests. There’s even a huge bird population and the continent’s densest group of predators. It definitely sounds like a place where someone might have restocked the continent’s animal population sometime long ago.”
“You’re missing a major upside to what you just read.” Bones held up his Noah Stone. “We don’t have anything to fear from a population of predators. I am the boss of them. But if the Trident catches up to us, those guys will be fair game.”
Maddock nodded. Perhaps, just this once, the Trident wouldn’t catch up with them.