“What does this name say?”
“Isaiah,” she answered.
“Most likely the great prophet of Israel,” Muhammad added.
“And this one?” Sean pointed at the next name in line.
“Samuel,” Tommy answered quickly. He clearly didn’t want to be outdone.
“Aaron. David. Solomon. Shadrach. Josiah.” Adriana called out the next five.
Before she could say the next name, Sean stopped her. “Wait. The one before Josiah. Did you say Shadrach?”
“Yes,” she answered, confused by the question. “Why?”
He pressed his finger to the center of the square in question. “Keep going.”
She called out several more names. When she said, “Meshach,” he stopped her again.
“Tommy, put your finger on that one.”
His friend smiled and obeyed, realizing the method to Sean’s madness. “It’s the names of Daniel’s friends.”
“Looks that way. Adriana, see if the name of Abednego is over there on the other side.” She grinned and stepped over to the other corner.
She traced a line across the first row and into the second row before she found the one she was looking for. “Got it,” she said, putting her finger on the square.
“I’m sorry,” Muhammad asked, “but I don’t understand what is going on.”
“These names,” Sean tapped the square with renewed excitement, “don’t fit with all the others. Priests, kings, prophets — Daniel’s friends weren’t any of those. They were just students who were taken to Babylon to study the ways of the empire.”
“Okay,” Tommy spoke up. “Thanks for the refresher. But what exactly are we doing here?”
Sean picked up the crowbar he’d set aside and stepped over to where Adriana was keeping her finger pressed firmly against the stone square. He flipped the tool around to use the shorter end. “You can move your finger,” he said to her with a smile. She raised an eyebrow and stepped back.
He worked the tool’s point into the tiny seam between the squares. When he was satisfied with the depth, he took a deep breath and leveraged the bar forward. The square came out easier than he expected, extending out of the wall by three inches. Everyone in the room stared at the object in disbelief. It was a cubical rod. Sean grabbed onto the end, careful not to break it off, and tugged on it gently, sliding the rod out of the wall until it came free. The long, cubed shaft was about two feet long.
“Amazing,” Muhammad said, breaking the near silence.
“Wait,” Sean held up his hand, stopping their guide from saying anything else. Everyone in the room listened but heard nothing.
“What are we listening for?” Tommy asked.
Sean shrugged off the question and set the rod to the side. “Quick. Do the same with the other two.”
Tommy did as instructed and reached down to grab his own crowbar. He replicated the process while Sean found the remaining cube and went to work. Tommy’s came free fairly easily, only taking a minute or two of careful effort. The third rod was somewhat more temperamental, but Sean was able to shimmy it free. With the three rods for each of Daniel’s friends lying against the wall, the four explorers listened again. Once more, the only sound they could discern was the faint trickle of water coming from the drainage tunnels.
They stared at the wall with heightened anticipation, but nothing happened. Sean scratched his head. His mouth was agape, and he couldn’t help but feel a little frustrated.
“Shouldn’t something be moving now?” Tommy asked sincerely.
Sean nodded. “Yeah.”
“This place is very old,” Muhammad offered. “Maybe the contraption doesn’t work anymore.”
Adriana shook her head. “That would be true if they used ropes or any type of component that decays quickly. Whoever designed this knew that it could be a long time before anyone found it. Like they said,” she motioned at Sean, “the temple’s anti-theft system could have endured thousands of years.”
Muhammad seemed satisfied with the explanation, but that still didn’t answer the question as to why the contraption wasn’t moving. Sean inched closer to the stone wall.
“We’re missing something,” Tommy said, taking a step back. He scanned the squares until he found an anomaly. “These columns all have the names of Daniel’s friends on the surface.”
Sean nodded his agreement.
“So maybe there’s a friend we missed.” Tommy moved forward again, this time slowly running his index finger across the squares, examining each name with the greatest of care.
He completed one side of the wall and sidestepped over to the other corner. He repeated the process, checking each square before moving on to the next. Suddenly, he stopped on one unusually long name.
“What?” Sean asked, almost begging it out of him.
Tommy tapped on the stone. “This name doesn’t fit. He wasn’t a king of Judah, a priest, or even Hebrew.”
Sean raised an eyebrow as the answer came to him. “Of course. The king of Babylon befriended Daniel and after that, the king of the Medes, Darius became his friend as well. According to the biblical account, Darius reluctantly threw Daniel into a pit of lions, which the prophet miraculously survived. After that occurrence, Daniel became one of the most trusted advisers to the new Persian rulers. But it was Nebuchadnezzar who set Daniel up in the government before everything went down.”
Tommy smiled. “Bingo.”
Adriana moved closer and hefted the crowbar. She moved Tommy aside without saying a word and wedged the sharp edge of the metal between the slits next to one of the most famous names in ancient history.
Nebuchadnezzar.
35
Adriana pried the cube loose, and soon she was able to slide the entire column out from its place. The second the rod was completely free of the wall, a new sound entered the antechamber. It was difficult to make out exactly what it was, but after ten seconds a deep rumble replaced the noise. The floor and walls vibrated like a small magnitude earthquake. Light danced around, gyrating across the surfaces, and dust particles flew freely in the air.
Suddenly, the engraved wall began to move downward, slowly, inch by inch. The gap at the top was just a slit at first, but the mechanism gained momentum, and soon it was a foot, then two. A blast of stale air shot out from the darkness on the other side, mingling with air from the outside world for the first time in thousands of years.
The visitors exchanged ecstatic glances while Muhammad simply stared forward into the opening darkness, eyes wide with disbelief and wonder.
When the stone completed its journey, the top was flush with the ground, almost seamlessly. The group waited a moment, gazing into the beyond, wondering what might await. Sean didn’t pause long. He turned around, grabbed a flashlight from his gear bag, and started forward. Muhammad grabbed his shoulder, stopping him.
“You must be careful. There could be measures left by the people who built this place.”
“I’ve seen my share of booby traps, Muhammad.” Sean grinned and winked. “I’ll be careful.”
He spun around and pointed his light into the abyss. The LED beam pierced the darkness and stopped on a point forty feet away. It was a wall not dissimilar to those surrounding them. Sean redirected the light to the floor just beyond the portal’s threshold and took a wary step forward. The others tucked in close behind him, wielding their own lights to keep the path illuminated.
The dusty air tickled their noses, and a few rebellious particles found their way into Tommy’s lungs, causing him to cough violently for a moment. He raised the collar of his T-shirt over his nose as a filter and pressed on.