“Which one? Where?” Jade asked.
“This icon here,” Saul said, pointing to the image that reminded Dane of the palace of an evil sorcerer. “It’s Ship Rock. It’s not shown from the angle that most people see in photographs, but it’s definitely Ship Rock.”
“Heck, I could have told you that,” Bones said, rocking back in his chair and grinning. “It looks like Dracula’s castle. It’s wicked cool.”
“Bones, I e-mailed you a picture of the breastplate several days ago,” Dane said. “Why didn’t you say something?”
“I didn’t know then!” he said, still smiling. “But I saw that thing in the distance as we were driving down here, and that’s the first thing I thought of just now when Jade showed us the picture.”
Jade buried her face in her hands. For the first time, Dane noticed that her knuckles were scarred — probably from field work.
“We drove down that long stretch of highway with Ship Rock in our sights and never once did I even think about it. All I had my mind on was Yucca House and wondering where Saul had gone, and I didn’t even notice it.”
“It doesn’t matter now,” Dane said. “What’s important is we know where to find another piece of the puzzle.”
“It’s not that simple,” Saul mumbled. “When I got caught trying to get onto Sleeping Ute Mountain they took me in for questioning, but let me go after I convinced them I was just a flaky New-Ager trying to have a spiritual moment. While I was there, a photograph on the wall caught my eye. It was Ship Rock from the perspective you see on the breastplate.
“I thought about trying to climb it, but then I considered the solstice connection. I remembered that white settlers used to call it “The Needle” and wondered where the shadow of the most prominent point would fall at the various solstices. I found a library with internet access and started poking around with satellite images until I found a promising location: a formation of three hills and a butte that made a clover shape. I didn’t have any way to perform the calculations necessary to test my theory, so I figured I’d check it out.”
Everyone was silent. Even Jade was now listening attentively, her previous anger abated.
“When I got there, I found a kiva right smack in the center, hidden by scrub and yucca. The roof was gone, of course, but when I cleared away the rubble, I found that the sipapu, you know, the ceremonial hole in the center, had been sealed. Or rather, it once had been sealed. The seal with Fray Marcos’s symbol was lying broken off to the side. Anyway, there was a box like the one Maddock found at Chaco. Empty.” He shrugged as his tale came to an end. “Somebody else found it. Probably the same guys we saw before.”
Jade swore and covered her face with her hands.
“Well, at least we have two of the pieces,” Dane said.
“May I see the ones you already have?” Amanda asked.
Jade brought Amanda the pieces, and Amanda laid them on the table, pushing them together to form a quarter of a sphere.”
“You know what this looks like to me? One of those Egyptian beetles.”
Dane stared at the piece which now was looking oddly familiar to him, but he could not name the shape.
“A scarab,” Jade breathed. “Most are ornate, but this one is plain. That’s why it was not readily obvious to us what it was.”
“I see it now,” Dane said, feeling both excited and confused. “The ridges around the bottom are the legs.” He thought for a moment. “There are six symbols on the breastplate, which means that the scarab was cut into six pieces. When we find them all, we’ll have the entire message. Or at least, we’ll have five out of six pieces. If Jimmy translates it all, I’ll bet we can still make something of it.” He paused, mulling over this odd discovery. “But why would someone take a scarab — an Egyptian artifact, write some lines in Hebrew on it, cut it up, and hide it in America?”
“The legend does say that they hid treasures of religious significance,” Jade said. “And there was frequent interaction between the Hebrew kingdom and that of the Egyptians. Perhaps this scarab was a part of that treasure.”
“Weird,” Bones said. “It’s not how I imagined the cities of gold.” His face tautened. “Wait a minute…”
“What?” Dane asked.
“Dude, does this mean we’re going after another Bible treasure?”
“Whatever it is,” Jade interjected, “we need to keep up the search. We’ve already lost one of the clues. I don’t want to slow down and risk missing any of the others.”
“Do you have any ideas on the other locations?” Amanda asked, mulling over the icons.
“Nothing definitive,” Jade said. “This one,” she indicated a tower-shaped structure, “is not distinctive-looking, but it could be one of a number of structures at Mesa Verde.”
Bones whistled. “Talk about a needle in a haystack. That place is huge. How many ruins are there?”
“Oh, about six-hundred cliff dwellings and four thousand or so archaeological sites,” Jade replied. “But I’ve scoured the maps, and it’s the only likely location. Plus, I’ve used the solstice connection to narrow the search, and I have a few ideas.” She smiled. “Shall we pack?”
Chapter 15
"And you want me to climb down there?" Dane gazed down into the sheer-sided canyon. Set beneath a deep overhang, Square Tower House looked remote and inaccessible. "Isn't there a service road? How do the rangers get down there?"
"I told you," Jade said, sighing. "There isn't one. They use ropes and ladders to get down there. Unless, of course, you want to try the Anasazi handholds."
Dane shook his head. "That's something Bones would go for. I'll take the rope." He paused and looked her up and down, admiring the snug-fitting faux ranger uniform she had cobbled together. The boots, khaki shorts, NPS t-shirt, and Mesa Verde cap looked good on her. Of course, she made everything look good.
"You know that getup would be more believable if you had not shaved your legs," he kidded. "You know- go natural like the ranger women."
"Shut up and get going," she said, giving him a shove toward the edge.
"You did put up the sign, didn't you?" Dane asked, knotting a rope in a bowline around his waist.
"Of course," she said. "This Trail Closed For Maintenance. It should fool tourists, maybe even a really lazy ranger. Now hurry." She took hold of the safety rope he had secured around his waist, wrapped it once around the base of a nearby tree, and secured it to a larger one. She would play the line out as he descended. He probably wouldn't need it on the way down. He would be sliding down the other rope they had hooked to the same tree. Where Jade would really come in handy would be on the way back up, when her added strength would help him with his free climb up the rope. It was the most unsafe, ridiculous-looking rock climbing setup he'd seen since he was a stupid teenager, but they didn't have the time or equipment for real rappelling.
Donning his climbing gloves, he got a good grip on the rope, hooked it around his ankle, and slowly backed over the rock face. Jade kept tension on the rope as he worked his way down. He was an experienced climber, and the first several feet made for an easy descent. The rock soon curved back beneath the hill, forming the overhang. His boots began to slip, telling him it was time to change tactics. The drop was just over one hundred feet, but it looked farther from this vantage point. Much farther.
"Okay! I'm going down!" he called.
"Go for it!" Jade shouted back.
He kicked free of the wall and immediately the hands of gravity yanked him downward. The rope burned his thighs and palms through his clothing and gloves as he shot downward. He squeezed tighter and his descent slowed a little. He felt the jolt from the balls of his feet to the base of his skull when he hit the ground. His foot tangled in the rope and he sat down hard, rolling a little on his hip to minimize the impact.