Carpathian (85 page)

“The lettering inscribed in the granite,” Virginia answered for both Alice and Sarah. McIntire nodded and then sat, brushing Jack’s hand lightly with her own to get some sort of reaction out of him. He didn’t respond but stared straight down at the table.

“Lettering?” This time the president did ask the question. “What sort of lettering and why is this important to the Jeddah?”

“The lettering is in ancient Hebrew,” Alice said as she turned as another shot of the pieces of granite came on the screen. This showed the lettering up close on a section of stone that was somewhat curved in its carving. “As you can see, there is quite a bit of the text on this first line on the largest section of broken stone. We can actually read what it says.” Alice waited for all eyes to focus on the screen as she wanted the impact of what she was about to say to hit home and hit hard. She waited until a close-up of the lettering appeared on the giant screen.

“It has been translated and verified by our Ancient Languages Department and Religious Studies confirmed it also. It is in ancient Hebrew and is clearly understood. It says ‘
Thou shalt not have no other gods before me.
’”

The room became still as Alice allowed her discovery to finally sink in.

“It is what we know as the First Commandment as given to Moses by God.”

“Are you saying … what
are
you saying?” the president asked in confusion.

“That we are in possession of what remains of the original Ten Commandments as first given to Moses by the Lord of Hosts, and that legend said was destroyed on the slopes of Mount Sinai, of which the real mountain is in a secured location inside the borders of Saudi Arabia and not the Sinai Peninsula as history always said. There were not one, but two mountains of God. This has been a bone of contention with biblical scholars for almost a century, but the tale has been confirmed by our newest member of the Event Group, Professor Avi Feuerstein of Los Angeles. The Jeddah must have come into possession of the shards after their destruction and kept them. This is what they considered the real treasure of the Exodus, not dead men or riches, but the law of man as given to him by God.”

The room was silent as most became uncomfortable with the news. Even after all the Event Group had learned over many years, they were still a little shocked at the report.

“One last thing before the shards go back to the lab and Virginia’s team. The report from the Geology Department places the carving of the outer edges of the granite at four thousand years plus or minus five centuries, and that places these shards clearly in the time frame we were looking at—right at the time of the Great Exodus.”

“And the writing?” Virginia prompted.

“The lettering was placed there by a heat source that could not have originated almost four thousand years ago. The edges of the stones were carved as we indicated, but that’s where the ordinary become the extraordinary. The lettering was burned into the stone by something that would have to bring to bear the power of one of our modern argon laser systems, Virginia and her team can verify that.”

“So you’re saying—” the president began.

“That this lettering wasn’t made by any known form of cutting used at that time in the ancient world. It was literally burned into solid granite, and unless Moses had an inside source at Raytheon Corporation, he didn’t carve this.”

“If that’s what the lettering is.” The president said what everyone else was thinking. “I mean, this is all pretty much speculative as far as the provenance of the shards is concerned. I mean, all you have is the word of an old Gypsy woman.”

The room was again silent as Alice gathered up her paperwork and then sat.

“Alice will have the complete report on the Jeddah soon” Niles said. “Right now we do know that the interior minister of Romania has been charged in connection with his cooperation with the Edge of the World Hotel and Resort Casino. The land has been reverted back to the hands of the Romanian government for leasing to the original inhabitants of the pass—the Jeddah. Since the collapse of the pass itself and the temple under it, NATO soon discovered that the pass was no longer a weak point on the Romanian frontier and thus the plans for its defense were scrapped and a new threatening area was soon located for NATO to concern itself with.”

“What of the species of wolf that you have verified as actually existing?” the president asked.

“The official Department 5656 report on Operation Grimm,” Alice explained, “states that the quest to find a supposed new species of
Canis lupus
was unfruitful and the plans for any more incursions to search for this species have been shelved. The offshoot of wolf known to legend as the Golia do not exist, nor have they ever existed in the fossil record of any country.” Alice cleared her throat as the cover-up for the benefit of the new alpha male, Mikla—so he could keep his clan of amazing creatures hidden from the rest of the modern world—became apparent. “As for the Jeddah, well, as Anya said, they are no longer that, but ordinary citizens of the world. The power of the link between species will continue to be studied by our Neurology Department and the potion sample returned is under strict quarantine on Level 72.”

“We haven’t learned enough to keep these highly volatile compounds out of this facility?” Sarah asked in reference to the disaster of eight weeks earlier in the Event Group complex during the Lawrence Ambrose investigation when a chemical compound was accidentally released into the complex bringing on death and damage.

“Director Compton authorized it,” Alice said, “in order to keep this compound as secret as we can without the Centers for Disease Control knowing we have it. The properties of these ordinary plants work in combination with the human mind’s natural endorphins and the end result once the two differing species have committed to the spell is a chemical balance that allows one mind to electrically attach itself to the other, in more than just the mechanical sense. As we saw with Madam Korvesky and Mikla, the mental link was so strong that when Mikla broke his ankle, Madam Korvesky’s ankle snapped through the sheer power of her own mind and through the distress that the Golia felt at the time of his injury. In essence Madam Korvesky saved Mikla by accepting a large portion of his injury and thus dooming herself. As I said, we have years upon years of research as this can be a beneficial approach to advancing noninvasive surgery and for certain mental disorders.”

When Alice was finished with her report she relaxed for the first time in weeks since the push to get this Event up and running. This was the last mission she would personally be a part of and wanted to end with what she considered one of the top Events in the department’s history. She had proven not only the existence of one of the Lost Tribes of Israel, but also that of the most wonderful species of animals the world has ever seen. She thought of Garrison Lee and also of Madam Korvesky and the night they all had shared together in Hong Kong—the night that started it all for Alice Hamilton. She shook her head, silently saying
We did it
to Garrison Lee.

Two minutes later after the president had signed off with a “well-done,” Jack, Sarah, and the others sat around the conference table not saying anything as Niles knew Collins was about to say what he had to say to the group. He cleared his throat and stood.

“Two questions are swirling through your minds about our last Event call. Why I let Mr. Everett go and why I allowed him to stay with Anya for as long as he possibly could. Niles agreed that it was for the best.”

“I don’t understand how losing the best man in this command is for the best,” Ryan said, still angry and hurt over the captain’s recent departure.

“Believe me, Mr. Ryan, that was the last thing I, Niles, Garrison Lee, or the president of the United States wanted. Captain Everett is integral to the plans of this nation in the next two years’ planning for future Events. He had been picked by Garrison Lee and Dr. Compton last year for a mission that could help us in the near future, a mission being put together by the U.S. Navy, one that has serious ramifications for the defense of this planet in regards to the Event in the desert over seven years ago. However, last month things changed rather dramatically.”

“What are you saying?” Sarah asked, as Virginia Pollock, who knew what Jack was about to say, reached out and patted Sarah’s hand as the small geologist was starting to be frightened at the tense way Collins was delivering this news.

Colonel Jack Collins looked over and sadly nodded toward Niles Compton, who returned to his desk and removed a small metal box that was fingerprint-coded for security.

As Niles returned to the conference table with the small aluminum and steel box that was only a foot long and half that deep, Collins continued with his eyes averted and not reaching out to anyone. Now they would learn why the colonel had been so silent about Captain Everett since their return from Romania.

“You have all wondered why I excluded everyone in this room from assisting me in the search for my sister’s killer, especially Mr. Everett. He was hurt that I would not include my best friend.”

All in the room saw Jack’s hesitation as he stated for the first time that his best friend in the world outside of Sarah McIntire was Captain Carl Everett. “There is a reason for this. Carl and I have to be separate for the foreseeable future.” He finally looked up and saw the confusion on their faces. Will Mendenhall and Jason Ryan were the first to see the distress written on their colonel’s face. A nervous Pete Golding and Charlie Ellenshaw exchanged looks but waited for Jack to continue.

Niles Compton now placed the small box on the tabletop and then used his right thumb for security verification as the pad read his thumbprint and the locking mechanism snapped and the lid opened with an audible hiss of air from the hermetically sealed box. A fine mist of frozen air exited the container as Niles sat hard into his chair, not wanting to see the contents. He pursed his lips and nodded at Jack after wiping his hands on his black pants.

“Last month in a dig in Antarctica, the United States Geological Survey team stationed 622 miles from McMurdo Station found this item just under one thousand feet of solid ice that the geologists say froze solid over three hundred thousand years before, covering a prehistoric rain forest. They excavated the site by creating large tunnels that were carved into the continent and the team brought up extinct plant life from Antarctica and this was enough to cause a stir at McMurdo Station to say the least. A bore hole was sunk next to the original site after magnetometers picked up on metal buried in the ice. Once down in the borehole the engineers discovered wreckage of what can only be described as a ship of some kind. Not only metal but they also started bringing out larger and larger specimens. They even unearthed a sabertooth cat—well, portions of one anyway.” Jack fell silent and then closed his eyes as he pulled the box over to him and then with a look of distaste he removed the item. “Before the president of the United States put a clamp on the findings and sealed the area off with United States Marines, this was brought up.” He handed the item over to Sarah, who placed it front of her as everyone who knew Captain Everett recognized what they were looking at.

“Oh, my God,” Sarah said as she eased back down into her chair as she no longer trusted her legs. Charlie and Pete exchanged that look of utter impossibility once more and Ryan and Mendenhall just sat in silence.

On the table before them were the remains of a wristwatch. The band was missing with the exception of several broken, golden, links. On the back side of the stainless steel and gold watch was the inscription they all knew by heart since most in this very same room helped compose it for the gift watch not long after the Event in Brazil.

T
O
C
APTAIN
C
ARL
C. E
VERETT—NEXT STOP
F
LAG
T
ERRITORY—YOUR FAMILY AT
5656.

Each person in the room had seen the watch the day they had surprised Carl with it after his promotion to captain. It was well-wishes toward his next rank adjustment to admiral. Everett had beamed at the gift and thanked everyone as he slid the watch over his large wrist.

“What is the meaning of this, what does this artifact mean?” Charlie Ellenshaw asked.

“This watch stopped working when the man wearing it was killed, or died, or dropped it.” Niles looked up into the astonished faces of his friends and now his most confused staff. “The watch stopped functioning over three hundred thousand years ago.”

The silence in the room said it all. Now they understood why Carl couldn’t be there. Jack was protecting him by keeping the captain tucked away in Romania with the illusion of happiness until this thing could be studied further.

“But why keep you and the captain separated?” Pete asked, fearing the worst, as was expected at the Event Group at all times and this he suspected was no exception to that rule.