“What about a finder’s fee?” Grant said hopefully.
“We’ll see,” Locke said. “First things first. The amulet has got to be in here somewhere. And Grant, no souvenirs.”
“Spoilsport.”
“We can come back later when we’ve got better equipment and supplies. Then you can help Dilara pick through this piece by piece. Right now, I want to find that amulet and get it somewhere safe.”
“The amulet was of tremendous significance,” Dilara said. “It wouldn’t be tossed on the floor. Let’s try the back wall of the room.”
They snaked their way through the maze of wealth around them and came to a row of seven stone boxes six feet in length lying end-on to the back wall. Each was perched on a pedestal. Extensive writing covered the wall behind them, the same writing found in the Khor Virap map chamber.
“These look like coffins,” Grant said.
“Sarcophagi,” Dilara said. She snapped pictures of each of them and ran her hands over the surface of one, casting centuries of dust into the air. “The text will tell us who is entombed in them.”
“Hold on,” Locke said. “Look.” He shined his light on a pillar that stood in the center, with four sarcophagi on one side, three on the other. The pillar was four feet high, and on its flat top sat a translucent orb the size of a softball and the color of maple syrup. It was surrounded by other orbs, slightly smaller.
Dilara read the text on the pillar. “Here resides the Amulet of Shem. Here it remains as a symbol of mankind’s wickedness and a reminder of God’s love and a warning to those who would tempt His wrath.”
Locke knelt beside the pillar and shined the light through the orbs. He recognized what they were immediately. Enormous pieces of amber, sap from a tree that had fossilized millions of years ago. Often insects would be trapped in the amber, preserved virtually intact, protected from the effects of air and water.
The orbs around the edge of the pillar were completely transparent, flawless, but the Amulet of Shem contained the skeleton of a frog two inches long. It seemed to be floating in a pocket of viscous fluid the shape of a living frog.
After Dilara took a picture, he picked up the orb. The fluid circulated, causing the bones to slowly float around.
“This is the source of the disease,” Locke said. “Garrett’s raw material. The frog was caught in the amber and then dissolved from the disease, leaving the frog-shaped cavity behind. The prion must still be viable, protected in the amber. When he found the Amulet of Japheth, he realized the fluid inside held some kind of lethal plague.”
“He got the Arkon from a frog?” Grant said. “Like in Jurassic Park, only gooier?”
Locke nodded. “The text at Khor Virap said the amulet held the horror. Garrett rightly assumed that inside the amulet was a plague that wiped out every person and animal in Noah’s time. He knew he had the resources to analyze it and potentially develop a deadly weapon from it. Back in the lab, when he found out what he had on his hands, he devised the plan for Oasis.”
Grant took the amulet from Locke and gazed at the suspended bones. “Just like what happened on Hayden’s plane.”
“If that dissolved frog is a carrier of the Arkon,” Locke said, “then the disease must date from the time the frog was alive. At this point, we have no idea when that was. For all we know, that thing might have been hopping away from a T-rex when it got trapped in the amber.”
“You think this stuff could have killed off the dinosaurs?” Grant said.
“We’ll never know. But Arkon would certainly be virulent enough to do the job.”
Dilara had been reading the text on the wall.
“Hey, guys,” she said, snapping a photo. “This is the story of what happened.” She laboriously read the text. “It says that Noah found these pieces of amber in an exposed riverbed. The discovery was his first sign from God that he should build the Ark.” She turned to Locke and Grant. “Amber has always been prized as gem for its color and luster. Finding these must have seemed like a fortune.”
“How did the prion get released?” Locke asked.
Dilara ran her finger along the writing. “I hope I’m getting this right. It says that Noah saw a vision that these pieces of amber were special, given by God to him alone. Three of the biggest ones contained the frog bones. A traveling trader saw them and claimed the fluid inside could be sold for medicinal purposes. Noah suspected that such use would be an affront to God and tried to hide them, but the trader stole one of the orbs and disappeared.”
She told the story haltingly, pausing when she had trouble translating.
“Noah had another vision that the thief was an example of mankind’s wickedness, that even God’s servant was not free of tyranny by his fellow man. Then Noah heard of a strange sickness spreading from the foreign land the trader was from. He took this as a sign that God was exacting his wrath, and he had another vision with instructions for how to construct the Ark. He and his sons built it, trying to persuade others that death was coming and they should join him, but they wouldn’t listen.”
“Then the rains came,” Locke said.
Dilara nodded. “And brought the Flood, as the pestilence had become known throughout the land. Noah closed the entrance to the Ark, for fear that the infected would seek refuge with him.”
“This place is as dry as a bone,” Grant said. “Where did they get water?”
“It doesn’t say, but probably from a stream of uncontaminated glacier melt just outside the crevice entrance. Then they waited it out.”
“And the treasure?”
Dilara read on. “When the Flood passed, no living thing existed anywhere. No animals, no birds, no people.”
“It killed everyone on earth?” Grant said.
“Probably not,” Locke said. “But I’m sure Noah didn’t travel beyond the Mt. Ararat watershed. To him, it would have seemed like the whole world had been cleansed.”
“Outside the cave, all they found were bones and the remnants of humanity’s material greediness,” Dilara said. “They collected everything they could find, from kings’ palace hoards to merchants’ possessions and brought them here, as an offering for God’s deliverance.” She stopped.
“What?”
“Now I understand,” she said. “The Book of the Cave of Treasures. Noah’s Ark
“And let me guess who is buried with the treasures,” Locke said. “Noah and his sons.”
She took a deep breath and laid her hand on the sarcophagus to the right of the pillar the amulet sat on. “We are standing beside Noah. Physical proof that an event in the first book of the Bible actually took place. Buried with him are two of his sons, as well as the four wives.”
“Why’d they leave out one son?” Grant asked.
“Ham was the one who wrote this,” Dilara said. “He sealed the bodies of his family in the Ark as each of them died. He was the only one who could be trusted not to loot the treasure and bring down God’s wrath again.”
“Then he shouldn’t have taken one of the amulets with him,” Locke said. “And yet, that’s exactly what I’m going to do now.” He carefully took the Amulet of Shem back from Grant. He also removed one of the clear amber orbs from the pedestal. He put them both in his pocket.
“Hey!” Grant said. “I thought we couldn’t take anything besides the amulet!”
“The amulet itself is too dangerous to test. But if the other orb was found at the same time, it might be able to tell us when the insect dates from. Wouldn’t it be amazing if it came from 65 million years ago?”
“Fascinating,” Grant said dryly.
Locke looked at his watch. Time for the radio check-in.
“This is Locke,” he said into his walkie-talkie. “Come in.”
No answer. All he got was static. He tried again with the same results.
“Maybe we’re too far from the entrance,” Grant said.
“Since we have what we came for, I suggest we all leave.”
“Just let me stay for a few more minutes,” Dilara said. “I want to get a few more photos.”
