shipped here from a Gordian job in Greece.”
“You mean, this helmet will show me what the cave looks like?”
“Wherever you turn your head, it’ll show you a graphical representation of what your looking at. When you shine your flashlight at anything, you’ll see the visible image superimposed over the computer-generated image. It communicates with this emitter, which serves as the reference point.” Locke placed the small transceiver out of the way at the base of the wall.
“How long will it take before we can use it?” Dilara asked.
“Just a few minutes to get the data. The RCV’s top speed is 40 miles per hour. All I have to do is drive it straight to the end, and the laser and computer will do the rest. When it’s at the other end, I’ll drive it up to the second level and we’ll do the same thing. Of course, it won’t be able to see behind anything, but it’ll give us a quick look at everything in here.”
Locke plopped the RC on the floor, tapped on the computer’s mouse pad, and when he confirmed that the data collection had begun, he pressed the trigger. The RC zoomed away, its own flashlight guiding the way. Within seconds, all they could see was the pale spot of light in front of it. Locke concentrated on the controller’s LCD screen. In ten minutes, Locke had run the RCV down all three levels of the Ark and back to their current position.
“Nice driving, Andretti,” Grant said.
“All those video games finally paid off,” Locke said as he downloaded the data to the helmets. He put one on, turned down the eyepieces, and looked around.
He could see Dilara and Grant clearly through the lens, but the background was no longer black and formless. As Locke moved his head, the computer calculated its position and the distance to each hard surface. Then using wire-frames and texture-shading, it built a crude representation of everything in his field of view. Gradated textures were assigned to different depths so that items against a wall would stand out.
He took a few steps to the side, and the view shifted instantaneously. Anything that wasn’t a wall, floor, or ceiling would now quickly grab their attention.
“Try it,” he said to Dilara, handing her a helmet.
She put it on and rotated her head side to side, up and down.
“This is incredible! I can see everything so clearly!” She wobbled and lost her footing. Locke caught her.
“It may take a few minutes to get your balance wearing these,” he said. “If you feel unsteady, just close your eyes for a few seconds.”
“Right.”
“We’ll leave the equipment here. No sense toting it everywhere. Let’s divide up the place by level. I’ll take the bottom. Grant, you take the second level. Dilara, take the top.”
“This goes against everything I’ve ever learned or preached in archaeological discovery. We should be doing a methodical, inch-by-inch study of a find of this magnitude, not rifling through it like treasure hunters.”
“No need to get fancy. Nobody touch anything unless you absolutely have to. We’ll leave the scientific analysis for later. Our goal is to find the amulet.”
“Which looks like what?” Grant asked. “A brooch?”
“It’s probably some kind of jewel,” Dilara said. “It will be displayed on the same kind of dais we saw in the map room of Khor Virap. If you find the amulet, don’t touch it until I can see it in situ.” She waved her digital camera at him. “I want to get a photo to document it before we remove it.”
“And watch your step,” Locke said. “The Ark seems sturdy enough, but even without water in here, there might be parts of the floor that have rotted through. Test before each step.”
Even with the mercenaries on guard outside, Grant and Locke kept their submachine guns with them out of caution, but Dilara decided to shed the excess weight and dumped hers with the packs. Locke certainly wouldn’t need the bag of tricks from his pack, so he left that behind as well. Speed at this point was more important than anything else. If Garrett did eventually come, Locke wanted to be long gone.
They split up as Locke had suggested. Grant and Dilara carefully crept up the nearest ramp, and they were soon just two bobbing lights.
Ceramic pots, thousands of them ranging from the size of a coffee pot to five feet in height, were stacked along the wall of the cavern opposite the Ark. A few were broken, but most were in pristine condition. Locke peered into a few of them, but they were all empty or contained the dried remains of food. The amulet wouldn’t be found in any of them.
Locke entered the first room and quickly surveyed the contents. More ceramic pots. Nothing stood out. He had a feeling the amulet would be stored in a more exalted place, but he did a thorough scan anyway.
He repeated the same for the next two rooms. Empty. Locke guessed these were storage rooms. Food, water, supplies. Everything needed to sustain a family and a herd of animals for months at a time. More than enough space. Locke did the math. Almost 70,000 square feet of floor area. The equivalent of 35 average American homes. The size of the Ark was staggering. Noah must have had hundreds of animals to justify building something so huge.
In the fourth room Locke entered, a wooden fence stretched the width of the room, with a six-foot wide gate in the center. An animal pen. A few desiccated piles of hay were piled in the corners, but the animals had been removed. There were no bones.
The next four rooms were all animal pens. Locke was now almost halfway down the Ark and had found nothing of significance. He radioed the others, but they had similar luck. Grant and Dilara had found more artifacts — pottery, clothing, tools — but no amulet.
Locke inspected one more animal pen, then came to a room three times as wide as the rooms he had seen up until now. The room was 90 feet wide, the ceiling supported at regular intervals by stone pillars. The three- dimensional rendering showed a variety of texture gradients, meaning the room was filled to the brim with something. Locke cast his flashlight around, and reflections sparkled back at him from all directions.
It was as if Locke had stepped into a pirate cave. In every direction, gold ornaments and vessels, ivory statuettes, and jewel-encrusted objects covered the floor. Chests brimmed with bronze, silver, and gold pieces. Jade carvings adorned gleaming masks of gold. Marble busts lined the walls. Sapphires, rubies, diamonds, and amethysts were scattered like pebbles. The cache was so vast, Locke wouldn’t have been surprised to see a dragon resting on top of it.
For a minute, he forgot all about the reason he was there. The effect of the glittering treasure was mesmerizing. Then he snapped out of it and remembered what he was looking for. If there was an amulet in Noah’s Ark, it would be in this room.
He radioed Dilara and Grant to get down there as fast as they could without telling them why. They had to see this for themselves.
SIXTY-SIX
While he waited for the others, Locke walked amongst the hoard. The statuettes and urns were a mishmash of different styles and shapes, adorned with a wide variety of languages, all piled carelessly. It was as if they were just dumped in the first place that was available. Some of the treasure was stored in stone boxes or pottery, but most spilled out onto the floor.
Grant was the first to arrive and stopped dead in his tracks, his mouth agape. He said nothing. It was the first time Locke could remember him rendered speechless.
Dilara walked in behind him, but she was focused on her camera’s LCD screen.
“I found an amazing storehouse of weaponry…” She looked up and froze in place. “My God!”
“Apparently,” Locke said, “King Midas used to live here.”
“I’m retiring early,” Grant said.
“Unfortunately, the Turkish government might have something to say about that.”
“Or the Armenians,” Dilara said as she scanned the room in awe. “I can’t believe this! It’s incredible! Once word of this gets out, there’s going to be a massive international fight over who owns it. This room alone has to be worth billions.”
