They rest of them withdrew as much as the small space allowed to let Dilara grieve for a few moments. Bloodstains caked the floor, and Locke saw the source. A bullet hole perforated each of Arvadi’s legs, and another was in his mid-section. His death hadn’t been an easy one. Locke picked up the notebook that had fallen out Arvadi’s hand. It looked as though he had been writing in it when he died. The printing was jagged and forced, not the smooth cursive on the previous note.
The note had only three lines, which were scrawled haphazardly across the page, like they were written in the dark, and they probably were. The last line trailed off. Arvadi must have died in the middle of writing it.
Locke peered at the second line.
Her father had misled Garrett. But what did that mean? The real entrance? On a 6000-year-old wooden boat, it wouldn’t matter if you didn’t find the right entrance. You’d simply chop a hole in the side and go in that way. It didn’t make sense.
With the pain and blood loss, Arvadi might have been delusional. The last line was useless, but the first two seemed lucid enough. If Garrett had been tricked somehow, they might still have a chance to beat him to Noah’s Ark and find the second amulet before he did.
As much as Locke wanted to let her mourn a little longer, he knew he couldn’t. Even though finding her father was traumatic, Dilara still needed to help them decipher the map.
“I’m sorry, Dilara,” Locke repeated. “Are you going to be okay?”
She took off her jacket and covered her father’s face with it. Then she stood and nodded solemnly. “I knew he was dead a long time ago. But it’s different confirming it. Especially like this.”
“I know.”
“He was so close to achieving his goal. His life’s dream. And Garrett killed him in reach of it.” She wiped away the tears and looked at Locke. “We’re going to get him, aren’t we? We’re going to kill that son of a bitch.”
Locke wouldn’t be upset if Garrett ended up pushing daisies, but feeding Dilara’s revenge would be a distraction they didn’t need.
“We’ll do what we have to do. But first, we need you to finish your father’s work if we’re going to stop Garrett. Do you think you can focus?”
The heat in Dilara’s eyes smoldered for another moment and then faded. She nodded, but the grief was still there.
“Tyler, look at this,” Grant said. He shined his flashlight on a small offering table. In the dust, there was the shape of a round object that used to rest on the table. The amulet. The source of the prion disease.
“Can this be real?” Locke said. “Up until this moment I didn’t actually believe we’d find Noah’s Ark.”
“And now?”
“That map looks pretty convincing. I’m beginning to lose my skepticism.”
Dilara took several flash photos of the map, then focused her light on the text. Several times, her eyes flicked back to her father’s body and the tears would return. Each time, Locke would hold her gently then turn her attention back to the map.
The words were written in the same language used in the scroll. She took fifteen minutes working out the translation before she finally spoke.
“It’s like Garrett said.” Her voice wavered, and her words were punctuated by an occasional sniffle, but her astonishment was apparent. “He told me that the flood was a plague. I didn’t believe him. I thought, why would he tell me the truth? But this says the Amulet of Japheth rests here and contains a horror that almost destroyed man. It was hidden in this chamber in remembrance of God’s wrath, His justice, and His love for mankind, that it was a testament to God for giving humanity a second chance to change our ways.”
“But how could an amulet cause the deaths of everyone on earth?” Locke asked. “How could it be the source of a disease?”
“I don’t know. It says that the flood is captured for eternity inside the amulet. It says to find the true story, you must find the Ark, where the Amulet of Shem is kept.”
“Great,” Grant said. “We’re finally getting to the good part. Where is it? There are dots all over this map. The Ark could be any one of them.”
“The Ark’s resting place is in the eastern face of Mt. Ararat,” Dilara said. “The other marks are false Arks, decoys to throw off anyone who found the chamber but could not read the text. The majority of people in ancient times were illiterate.”
“Got it,” Grant said, pointing at the location on the east side of the mountain.
“Wait a minute,” Locke said, looking at the map, “if the Ark was where this dot says it is, people would have found it years ago. That elevation is lower than the year-round snow cover.”
“The text says, quote, ‘The great vessel in which Noah took refuge from the flood is found in the east flank of Ararat.’”
“You mean,
“No, I mean
“This makes no sense,” Locke said.
“The text describes two entrances into the Ark. One that is sealed, and one that is passable.”
“Your father’s last note mentions a real entrance, as if he could deceive Garrett into choosing the wrong one. But how could that possibly keep Garrett from retrieving something from a rotting wooden ship thousands of years old?”
Dilara read further. When she got to the bottom, she staggered backward, as if she had been shoved in the face.
“Oh my God!” she said. “They hid it deliberately. They lied about Noah’s Ark to keep it from being discovered.”
“What are you talking about? Lied about what?”
“Everything.”
“Hold on,” Locke said. “Are you saying Noah’s Ark isn’t on Ararat?”
“In a way, that’s exactly what I’m saying,” Dilara replied. “It isn’t
SIXTY-TWO
“It’s a cave?” Locke said. Now Arvadi’s entrance reference made sense. Dilara had even called Oasis a new ark. He could have kicked himself for not making the connection sooner, but he had been so focused on Noah’s Ark as a ship that he never entertained the idea it could be a cave. “But the Bible says it’s a ship, doesn’t it? That it was made of wood?”
“It does,” Dilara said. “‘Make thee an ark of timber planks: thou shalt make little rooms in the ark, and thou shalt pitch it within and without.’”
“That sounds like a ship to me.”
“We’re using the English translation of something that’s been passed down through thousands of years. It all comes down to translation and interpretation. Think of the telephone game. Little errors in the process can end up as huge errors down the line. I think that’s what happened here. What if Noah’s Ark was the structure inside a cave? A vessel can also mean a container.” She looked back to her father. “I’m so stupid. Why didn’t I listen to him?”
“You couldn’t have known,” Locke said. He considered the language. “The cave must have been the refuge. The words would fit. But we’re talking about a huge cavern. 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, 30 cubits high. That’s 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.”
