Miles knew how to strike while the iron was sizzling.
“If you can get the contract, go for it,” Locke said. He held up a finger. “Just make sure I’m not the principal on the project. I don’t think we’re ready for that yet.”
“Excellent,” Miles said, practically rubbing his hands together at the thought of the money rolling in. “Oh, before I go, Aiden contacted me on the flight out. He wanted you to call him. Said he’s got some interesting news for you.” He handed Locke his cell phone. “While you do that, I’m going to talk to General Locke about all the capabilities Gordian can bring to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.” He motored away toward the command post and left him standing with Dilara.
“Just one call,” he said to Dilara, “and then we head back to Seattle.”
“Good,” she said. “I can use a shower.”
He dialed Aiden, who answered on the first ring.
“Tyler! I heard you had a wee bit of excitement out there. I’m jealous.”
“No, you’re not, I promise you. Listen, I’m beat, Aiden. Miles said you had something for me.”
“Absolutely. Remember that slip of paper from Dilara’s locket that you had us analyze? The one that said B C T?”
The Book of the Cave of Treasures. “To be honest,” Locke said, “I had forgotten about it. You found something?”
“Two sets of numbers and letters. We were able to read the pen indentations with the TEC’s scanning microscope. I think it’s a latitude and longitude. 122.bggyuW, 48.hutzsN.” Locke wrote them down and studied the odd coordinates.
“Why do these look familiar?” he said.
“Because you’re standing right at 122 west and 48 north,” Aiden said.
Locke realized he had seen the coordinates when they had been planning the raid on Oasis.
“Without the decimal digits, this could be anywhere on the island. What’s with the letters?”
“You tell me. That’s what the paper in the locket said.”
Locke turned to Dilara. “Did your father use a code for his notes?”
“Why?” Dilara said.
“He left you a message.” He showed her the coordinates. “And I think it leads to something else. Do you know how to read this?”
“I think so. For notes he didn’t want anyone else to read, he had a cipher. He taught it to me when I was young, and I use it in my notes sometimes. He and I are the only ones who know it.”
She looked at the coordinates and took Locke’s pen. She quickly crossed out each letter and substituted a number.
“Thanks, Aiden,” Locke said. “We’ll take it from here.”
“Let me know what you find.” Aiden hung up.
“What do you think it is?” Dilara asked.
“Only one way to find out.” He flagged down a passing soldier. “Sergeant, I need your GPS locator.”
“Yes, sir,” the surprised sergeant said and handed him the unit.
The coordinates were so precise, Dilara’s father must have used a GPS unit to record them. Locke entered them into the unit. He wasn’t surprised by the answer.
“It’s in this compound,” he said. Dilara looked completely reenergized.
The location was about 300 yards north of their position, back in the direction of the woods that Locke had driven through from the fence.
Using his flashlight, he and Dilara walked until they reached the coordinates. In the exact center was a pine tree that had to have been 500 years old. A black hollow in the tree showed where it had survived past forest fires.
“He must have buried it,” Dilara said. “He’s an archaeologist, after all. We’ll have to come back with a couple of shovels.”
Locke looked at the ground, which was covered with pine needles. If her father had buried something here three years ago, all traces had been washed away. Maybe the ground-penetrating radar could help them.
He was about to go back with Dilara, and then he stopped.
“Why would your father hide something out here?” Locke asked.
“I don’t know. It must have been something he didn’t want Garrett to find.”
“If he was a visitor, don’t you think it would have been odd for him to walk out here with a shovel? Someone would have noticed.”
“Maybe he used his hands.”
“With just his hands, he wouldn’t have been able to dig too deep. If he had, he would have come back all dirty and bloody. Garrett would have known something was up.”
“Then how else could he…”
She paused. They were both looking at the tree. The one with the hollowed trunk.
Locke shined the flashlight down inside the hollow. Nothing but wood chips and water. Then he bent over and looked up. A circular reflection. It was the end of a tube two inches in diameter, pushed up into a part of the trunk further hollowed by insects. He tried to reach it, but his hand was too big.
Dilara snaked her hand in and grasped the tube. It took her three tugs because the tube was wedged in so tightly, but on the last one, she yanked it free.
The tube was white, opaque, two feet long. The top was sealed shut and seemed watertight. Dilara wiped the gunk off the tube with her shirt. She took a deep breath, then opened it.
In the dim light, Locke could see a roll of yellowed parchment, ancient looking. In the center of the rolled parchment was a slip of white notepaper, obviously modern. Dilara carefully tugged the note free.
As she ran her eyes over the paper, her eyes welled with tears. When she got to the end, she looked up at Locke.
“Your father?” he said.
Dilara nodded. “He wanted me to find this. This is the Book of the Cave of Treasures. It’s the way to find Noah’s Ark.”
FIFTY-SEVEN
When he stepped out of the Blackhawk at Boeing Field, it seemed to Locke like months had passed since he and Dilara had arrived at the same spot from Las Vegas just five days ago. All Grant would talk about on the flight was Tiffany and his long-delayed return to Seattle, and Locke couldn’t be happier for him. Grant lived in an apartment downtown, so he hitched a ride in Miles Benson’s van back to Gordian headquarters. Locke took Dilara with him in the Porsche. Since she had already stayed at his house once before, he offered again. The big difference this time was that they didn’t have trained killers looking for them.
Her father had been smart about coding the message in her locket, although his flaw had been to make the slip of paper too hard for her to find in the first place by placing it under her mother’s photo. When Dilara had received it, she had no idea that she should look for a message inside it. But the coding itself was ingenious. The leading numbers showed they were latitude and longitude, but the coded lettering made the coordinates too imprecise to be of use in finding the hidden documents. No one who found the note, other than Dilara, would be able to decipher it.
As Locke drove, she read the note from the sealed container to him. As she spoke, she became so choked with emotion several times that she had to stop and compose herself.
My dearest Dilara,
I am sorry that you have come to find this note because it means that my suspicions have proven correct, and in all likelihood I am dead. I am sorry I was not able to share my greatest professional achievement with you, the greatest achievement of my life. To satisfy my curiosity and ambition, I am afraid I have taken league with someone who does not seek the knowledge I do for the same reasons. I have begun to suspect that Sebastian
