The two skulls were facing each other, their eyes locked for eternity.
Sam fixed the light on the empty skull. The void where the eyes once stared out, somehow betrayed the man’s profound loss. Next to him was an empty bottle. Nothing remained to suggest what was inside, but Sam figured if it was him, he’d want some pretty hard liquor. In a moment, Sam realized the significance of the find. It meant that this man was the only one alive when the ship had become buried beneath the sand.
By the looks of things, the poor wretch had the time to wander the ship in isolation before starvation or dehydration eventually took his life. Sam almost forgot what he was searching for as he wondered who the skeleton once belonged to. His eyes swept the room. There was something else he hadn’t noticed immediately.
A leather bound book graced the table next to the golden skull. He hoped he would find the answers he needed inside that journal, but now was not the time to read it. Instead he studied the golden skull. He’d heard Peter Smyth refer to it as the Death Mask or the Key to the Third Temple.
Sam picked up the heavy skull.
It was hollow inside, but even so, he felt the weight in his arms and was thankful he hadn’t needed to carry it across a desert. He turned the skull to face him. Its ivory teeth grinned hideously, as though it was begging to tell one hell of a story about its past.
What do you know?
As Sam turned the skull he felt something move inside. It wasn’t quite as fluid as liquid, but more likely fine like a powder. He stared into the hollowed eyes. Or was something inside? Sam shined his light into the dark space. The entire area behind the eyes and nose appeared hollow. It was only on the second look, that he spotted it. Not that he knew it was anything at all. He inserted his finger deep inside the left eye socket and felt it move.
But what was it?
He pressed upward with his index finger and felt it move all the way upward. He grinned as he withdrew his finger and shined the flashlight back inside. It had been a clever latch and it had caused an intricately carved piece of obsidian to swivel outward, allowing access to whatever was stored inside.
His eyes narrowed as he tried to interpret what had been stored inside. There was a sweet scent to it like a mixture of hard liquor and chloroform. Sam instinctively took a step back and held his breath as he examined the black powder. It was so fine and delicate he worried that one whiff and the entire contents would be inhaled. The powder shifted in an almost liquid-like state as he tilted the skull.
Sam made a mental note to have the powder tested in a lab. He then used his index finger to reach inside and pull the latch downward. The piece of obsidian returned to its resting space, and the black powder was once again secured.
He turned the skull over and stared at it from below, where solid gold had been flattened to make space for a unique image, delicately etched inside. It depicted two mountain peaks, leading together with a small lake or possibly snow in the middle. He’d recognized the snow-capped mountain of Mount Ararat and in an instant realized the skull was a map.
But not the map he wanted.
He already knew where the key to the Third Temple was supposed to be taken. What he needed was to locate the pyramid in the Kalahari Desert and find Billie Swan. Sam considered his next move, wondering whether the man’s journal might shed some light on things, when he saw it.
His heart raced and he felt the goosebumps prickle over his skin as his eyes fixed directly in front of the skeleton, where the mahogany table had been scarred by the deep etchings of a knife. Sam stared at them for a moment, carefully reading the words that struck him like lightning — Don’t let the man with purple eyes have the Death Mask.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Sam spent the next three days reading and then rereading the journal of Harper Smith on board the Maria Helena, while the preparations were made. The Death Mask was secured inside the ship’s armory, where a state of the art security system would scare off the most seasoned bank robber. He sent a sample of the black powder off to a biochemist to study and left Elise in charge of making sense of whatever the scientist discovered.
On the fourth day, the final resources arrived and Sam and Tom set off east into the Namib Desert on camel back. Sam had located Smith’s Kamal and having read the old explorer’s journal, now knew that the early navigation device allowed him to accurately follow a specific latitude defined by the marking of an additional knot into its line. Per his journal the men had traveled for three days by camel to the east, starting out at the Emerald Star, before they located the ancient pyramid.
The camels were loaded with a similar weight as those used by the crew of the Emerald Star. The plan was they would travel east using the Kamal, and keeping pace with the original expedition as recorded in Smith’s journal. This would get them within a basic vicinity of the pyramid. It wouldn’t get them to the exact place, because the sand dunes would have changed during that time, but it was a start.
Once they reached that area, then they would contact the Maria Helena and Genevieve would bring in the Sea King and the ground penetrating radar. It would then be a time consuming process of expanding the search in ever evolving larger circles. Sam realized it might take months to locate, or he might get lucky. Either way, the camel trip was only the start.
At the end of the second day, Sam received a call on his satellite phone.
It was Elise, and as per usual, she got straight to the point. “Sam I got a hit on Peter Smyth.”
Sam asked, “Where?”
“The Daily Sabah, an Istanbul based newspaper, ran a report on a body that washed up on the shore of the Bosphorus Strait.”
“They killed him, didn’t they?”
“I’m sorry, Sam. It would appear so.”
Sam thought about the consequences. There was nothing he could do to save the man now, but there were still consequences to consider. What had his murderers found out? How much could Peter have told them? Were they on their way to the Skeleton Coast already?
He paused as he considered this possibility. If Peter talked before he was murdered, it would mean that THEY would come to the Skeleton Coast. The entrance to the Emerald Star had been intentionally buried again, but there was a possibility if they got to Peter they were smart. If so, they would start asking the right questions to locals in the area, who would be quick to talk about two strangers who spent a fortune hiring a dredging ship to remove sand covering an old ship nearly ten miles inland. It was an amazing story, and one they’d quickly find.
So what if they dug up the Emerald Star?
The Death Mask was no longer there, and Smith’s journal was in his hand, so there was no evidence of where the pyramid might be. Sam thought about that for a moment. Were they safe? He knew the answer was no. It wouldn’t take long for their pursuers to make the connection that the pyramid would have to be east of the Emerald Star. It then wouldn’t take much for aerial surveillance to locate two men on camels.
Sam instinctively touched the pouch on the right hand side of his camel, thankful that he and Tom brought Heckler and Koch MP5 Assault Rifles. If they had visitors, they were prepared to meet them this time.