“Dilara and Hasad Arvadi are going to be famous names.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to share the credit?”
“Not my style,” Locke said. “Besides, Miles Benson is already milking our exploits for future contracts. No, you and your father deserve it.”
“You saved the world, you know.”
“Makes me think the Bible needs to be reinterpreted again. God’s covenant with Noah said He’d never wipe out humanity again.”
“But He didn’t.”
“Only because we stopped Garrett from using the Arkon weapon.”
“How do you know you’re not God’s envoy? God works in mysterious ways. You yourself said that the Ark was a miracle.”
“I’ll give you that. It was pretty amazing to find it intact after all these centuries. But that was a factor of its location and isolation. All of it could be explained scientifically. Nothing supernatural about it.”
“That’s the beauty and complexity of God’s work. There are lots of ways to interpret it.”
“I have to admit,” Locke said, “I was too quick to shoot down your theories about the Ark.”
“What about your reputation as an inveterate skeptic?”
“There’s no harm keeping an open mind.” He took Dilara’s hand. “So a few more days here and then back to Mt. Ararat for you?”
“I’ve already contacted the Turkish government about excavating the site. Since it’s my discovery, and I have the only photos of the interior, they’ve been willing to involve me. But the process could take months, then digging through those tunnels will take a while, not to mention surveying the interior. Properly, this time.”
“Sounds like you’ll be there a long time. I have to go back to Seattle soon.”
She nodded. “Who knows? Maybe someday we’ll both be ready to settle down.”
“Maybe someday,” he said and squeezed her hand.
They reached the avenue of Kennedy Caddesi and crossed it to the sea wall along the Sea of Marmara. The Asian side of Istanbul was on the opposite shore, and ships crowded the link between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.
Locke let Dilara go, and she walked to the water. He saw her lips moving, then she knelt and poured the ashes of her father into the water.
She stood, fingering the locket at her neck. Locke went over and wrapped his arms around her.
They stayed that way for a while. Finally, Dilara turned.
“Shall we go get Grant?”
“You go on ahead. I’ll meet you there, and we’ll take him out for a big lunch. I’m sure he’s starving after eating hospital food for three days.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’ve got an errand to run. Gordian business.”
He kissed her, then enjoyed the view as she strode off toward the hospital. Now there went a woman who had purpose. Locke found it incredibly sexy.
She looked back once and waved. He waved back and lost sight of her as she rounded the corner.
Locke hailed a cab.
“Araco Steel works,” he said to the driver.
Fifteen minutes later, the taxi drove through an industrial sector of the city. Smokestacks cleaved the sky. The cab pulled to a stop in front of the gate of a massive iron foundry. Through the building’s large open door, Locke could see sparks flying where molten steel was being poured.
“Wait here,” Locke said. “I’ll only be a few minutes.” The driver nodded and slipped the cab into idle.
At the gate, he showed his passport. “Miles Benson arranged for me to go in.”
The bored guard looked at his log sheet, gave him a hard hat, and waved him through.
Gordian had consulted on one of Araco’s mills in Bulgaria, so Miles knew the owner. It seemed like Miles’ reserve of contacts was bottomless, but Locke didn’t question or complain. It was Miles’ schmoozing skills that had built Gordian into an engineering powerhouse.
It also made Locke’s current plan much easier.
He wasn’t sure why he didn’t tell Dilara what he was doing. He told himself it was because she didn’t need to know, but deep down he supposed it could be because he didn’t want to put her in any more danger. He’d already lost one person he loved. He didn’t know if he loved Dilara, but he cared about her, and the events of the past two weeks made him realize he wasn’t ready to risk losing someone else he cared about.
The foundry building was stifling. The heat from the blast furnace washed over him like a summer afternoon in Phoenix. He scaled a ladder to the second level catwalk. When he was over one of the hoppers containing molten iron, he reached into his pocket and extracted the Amulet of Shem.
The amber gleamed in the fire light, revealing the outline of the amphibian that could have caused countless deaths. When Locke tossed the solid amber orb to Garrett, he didn’t think Garrett would take the time to inspect it closely, not with so much going on. And Locke didn’t want to take the chance of the amulet being recovered when Noah’s Ark was eventually excavated. Somebody would have used it to redevelop the prion weapon. Locke was sure of it. Then all of his efforts would have been for nothing.
No one knew Locke had the real amulet. Not Dilara. Not Grant. If the US military found out he had it, soldiers would have swooped in before Locke got off the plane in Istanbul.
Locke looked at it one last time, marveling at how something so simple and beautiful could be so deadly. Then with a flick of his wrist, he tossed it into the molten iron. The orb caught fire and settled into the 3000-degree liquid. The prions were destroyed at last.
He climbed back down and gave back the hard hat at the front gate. His cell phone rang. It was Miles Benson.
“Thanks for setting us up in the Four Seasons, Miles.”
“Not at all, Tyler. You rate it. We’re settling all of the lawsuits on the truck case, thanks to you. Won’t use a cent of Gordian’s money. All of it comes courtesy of Garrett’s estate. Did you get into the foundry?”
“I’m just leaving.”
“I don’t suppose you want to tell me why you needed to get in there.”
“I’ll tell you when I see you in a week.”
“I may have to cut short your vacation. Your recent escapades have gotten us a lot of attention in military and law enforcement circles. I have a few new projects brewing, and you’re just the man for the job. Is Grant out of the hospital yet?”
“I’m about to pick him up.”
“Well, tell him to get his butt out of bed. I need you both.”
Locke suppressed a laugh. Miles knew how to milk a business opportunity. “Sorry, Miles you’re breaking up. Bad reception. I’ll give you a call in a few days.”
“Tyler, do you know how much money…” Locke ended the connection and turned off the phone’s ringer. Gordian and the rest of the world would survive without him for a week. He needed a little time to relax.
As he opened the back door of the cab, he felt a mist on his face, the last of the rain before the clouds disappeared. He looked up and wondered what Dilara would make of the phenomenon arcing across the sky. It had a perfectly rational scientific reason for existing, but she might think it had greater significance given their latest experience.
Whatever the explanation, he stayed there for a moment and appreciated the sight, a reminder that life was short and that you might as well stop to revel in nature’s beauty once in a while. And Locke had to admit, no matter who or what was responsible for creating it, he’d never seen a more beautiful rainbow.
