Still no sign of The Prophet.
Will was glad for that, but he tempered his relief. Up ahead, off to the side of the road was another wrecked vehicle, just over a rocky dune. A man clad in loose-fitting black clothes was standing nearby and saw the car approaching.
Must be one of the men who’d attacked Lindsey’s convoy. Probably a good idea to finish the job.
The man hobbled out in front of the car hoping Will would slow down and offer help. Will Hastings did the exact opposite. He stepped on the accelerator and steered the car right at the injured stranger. The man’s eyes grew wide as he saw what was happening, and tried to lunge out of the way. Upon seeing his target’s sudden movement, he made the corresponding steering wheel adjustment and guided the car right into where they man dived.
The left side of the vehicle rose and dropped two times in quick succession, like it would have going over a speed bump. Will slowed down slightly, only to look back in the mirror to make sure the man was dead. The body lay completely still on its side, so he kept on driving. A few miles passed with no other signs of battle. Will suspected that meant his employer had made it through the gauntlet safely.
He remembered the rendezvous point that he and Lindsey had discussed before departing for Luxor. At the time, Will had thought the idea of a meeting place in Cairo to be moot. If things had gone according to plan, they would have met up in Luxor. Now, he was glad they’d made precautions. His phone was gone, which was a problem. Fortunately, he remembered how to get where he was going. His foot pressed harder on the accelerator, and the car picked up speed, rolling down the empty highway. He hoped Lindsey would wait for him. One, because he needed to be paid. And two, it was time for Will to finish off Sean Wyatt, once and for all.
Chapter 17
Sean had been on his share of airplanes. From small, one-prop puddle jumpers, to jet fighters, he’d pretty much seen it all. He had never traveled in the back of an old cargo plane before, but it didn’t seem to bother him much. Professor Firth, on the other hand, was quite uncomfortable.
Jabez and his men had hurried them over to a local airstrip, if it could be called that. The airport was little more than a flattened out field of dirt and sand. Their new acquaintance had a pilot in their group, along with an old twin-prop plane, a DC-3 if Sean hadn’t missed his guess. Sean had seen lots of those kinds of planes in the movies, but he had never had the chance to get up close to one in real life. Now he was flying in one.
Despite the plane’s age, it flew fairly steadily, though the few times they hit pockets of turbulence, the metal body creaked and moaned as if it might bend, and eventually snap in two. Sean was unconcerned about that. The professor was an entirely different story. The older man leaned over with elbows on knees, trying not to get sick.
Adriana seemed unaffected, completely absorbed in worn, leather-bound book. It carried a similar appearance to the diary they’d used to help find the chamber of gold in Ecuador. But it wasn’t the same book. This one displayed Greek lettering on the outside, and had a strange marking in the center of the cover. The symbol looked like an ancient clock, or maybe a compass. It was hard to tell.
“We should arrive in Istanbul within a few hours,” Jabez interrupted Sean’s thoughts suddenly, approaching from the cockpit. “From there it is only a few hours drive to the Valley of the Eight.”
Sean thought about the city. Istanbul. It was an odd mix of cosmopolitan life and old world tradition, thrown into a blender and set on puree. Very few places in the world had people’s lives on display the way that town did. The poor, the wealthy, and the huge middle were all out for everyone to see.
He hadn’t been there for pleasure or people watching though. Sean had been there on a mission with Axis. Those were memories he’d rather not relive. But as the plane cruised through the sky, he knew it was a distinct possibility.
“Have you ever been to Istanbul,” Jabez sat down and looked over at him.
“Only once,” Sean nodded.
“It is fascinating place.”
“I didn’t really get a chance to look around. I was trying to not get killed.”
“Oh?” Jabez asked, puzzled.
“Yeah. I was there on a mission. Not as a tourist or a treasure hunter.” He added air quotes to the last few words, remembering what had been said about his current agency.
Sean’s middle-eastern companion smirked at the comment. Six of Jabez’s men had come with them on the plane. Each one of them stared straight ahead, like the guards outside Buckingham Palace.
“How did you, and all these other guys come to be in this order of guardians?” Sean waved a finger at the men on the other side of the plane.
“One does not choose to become a member. We were each chosen, picked by former members.” As he spoke, Jabez stared across at his men with reverence.
“How did the Brethren come about? I think it’s a little weird that you guys are the protectors of the ark, but you don’t know its true location.” Sean didn’t try to hide his skepticism.
“We are direct descendants of Japheth, one of the three sons of Noah. When Canaan, Noah’s grandson, left the Valley of the Eight, he swore that, someday his children would return and claim their rightful inheritance. Japheth made his sons take an oath to never let that happen. We are to keep the children of Canaan from finding the ark. The safest way to do that was to keep the true location Noah’s ship in total secrecy.”
Sean frowned, clearly lost. Adriana had closed her book and scooted closer to listen in on the conversation. Seeing Sean to be a little confused, she spoke up.
“You are referring to the curse, aren’t you?” The question seemed random, but Jabez’s eyes widened slightly, telling her she’d hit the mark.
“What do you know about it?” His eyes continued to pierce hers.
She merely shrugged. “I have heard things.”
“In your line of work, I am sure you hear many things. Don’t you?”
She cocked her head sideways but never gave in to his stare, holding it firmly in her own. “It is advantageous to keep aware of whisperings in the shadows. That is where I get most of my information.”
Sean listened intently to the conversation, wondering where it would lead.
Adriana went on. “The legend of the curse comes from the Bible, in the book of Genesis, to be precise.” Jabez nodded, so she kept talking. “As the story goes, Noah became drunk one night. When his son, Ham, came into his tent, the scriptures say Ham laughed at his father. The other two brothers, Shem and Japheth, heard a commotion and came to see what was going on. Upon entering the tent, they saw their naked father and Ham, apparently shaming him. The other two boys clothed their father and took care of him.”
The plane hit some turbulence, and dipped down quickly for a few seconds. The professor leaned over even further. His face was bright red, clearly on the brink of vomiting. He reached over and grabbed a small paper bag from a nearby rack then held it in front of his mouth, just in case.
Adriana ignored Firth, continuing her tale. “The texts said that God placed a cursed on Ham, and his descendants. In particular, his son Canaan would be the first to feel the curse, and all of his generations after.”
“Very good,” Jabez nodded. His eyes were slits, studying the Spanish woman. “I am impressed. You have learned your Bible stories. But what do you know of the stories not in the old books?”