Unearthly Power (13 page)

“No. He didn’t command this ship nor did he know of its contents, other than possibly the whores. What the Bishop had in mind nobody knows. Please let me finish,” he said before having to once again draw in a deep breath.

Sean could see that he was in a lot of pain and figured the likelihood of his survival out here was minimal in their present circumstances. He waited patiently in anticipation of anything he could learn that could possibly explain what had happened to them and where his sister now was.

“Approximately two days before this small fleet landed on the islands of what we now call the Bahamas, they reported an unexplained explosion on the Ay Papi. The ship went down and there were no reports of survivors. The contents and the
occupants of the ship were lost at sea.”

Sean looked as if he were running calculati
ons in his head before replying, “That would put us roughly at the same distance we are from Nassau now; considering they probably went anywhere from six to eight knots under sail.”

“Yes.”

“You’re saying we came out to retrieve the Ark of the Covenant?” he asked incredulously.

“Yes”

“But there was no ark down there; at least none that we saw.”

“They found it. After they drugged you they returned for it. Once they had it there was no longer any use for you.”

Sean stared at him as his mind processed what he was being told. “You must have been in on it. You didn’t drink any of the wine if I remember correctly.”

Professor James gave a deep sigh and remarked, “Yes, but only to a point. The man who contacted me about this expedition is Silas Chandler. I have worked for him in the past, but mostly I just provided research on topics he was interested in at the time. He is a very
rich and powerful man. I never gave much thought to his real desires at the beginning. He was the one who read about your claim of finding a wreck in this area. He has been searching for the ark for a very long time.”

“You didn’t include your ‘only to a point’ explanation.”

“I agreed to come along for two reasons. One: to spend time with my daughter who I see so very little of these days. And two: to have the chance at discovering some simple treasure. I never dreamed of finding the actual lost ark.”

“But you just told me the story. How is it that you seem to know things about this that are unlikely to be recorded anywhere people in the general public could find? We’re not talking about a few decades here; you are relating events spanning . . .” Sean paused while he subtracted the numbers in his head, “about fourteen-hundred and twenty-two years.”

Professor James was getting weaker as he continued to lose blood. As the night grew darker, neither man could see the color of the small quantity of water in the rubber boat. They could still see each other’s faces as the reflected light of the full moon cast back its glow off of the surface of the water. He decided there was no reason to hold anything back. He doubted he would live to see the morning.

“I am a member of the Order of Christ. The stories told to me were passed down through my family. That is one reason we have always studied in the fields of history and archaeology; in the hopes of one day recovering that which we are responsible for
losing.”

Sean wasn’t quite sure if he believed everything he was being told, but he did conclude that the
professor believed it; and more importantly, that the man responsible for all of this did too.

“So now what? This Chandler guy has the ark, has my sister, has your daughter, and tried to or maybe has succeeded in killing us. Time will only tell on that last one.”

“No. You have the key to all of it.”

Sean looked at him waiting for the rest of the statement. At the moment he had three things: a paddle, a phone, and a wooden rod.

“The staff: it is the Rod of Aaron. It can give a man the ability to control the power of God according to his will.”

“You mean like the B
ible Aaron?” he asked awkwardly.

“Yes. Without it he cannot open the ark.”

“So why didn’t his goons take it with them?” He wondered out loud.

“They didn’t know about it. The only thing they were told to retrieve was the ark itself. I realized that after they needed me to make sure that it was in fact the ark. I never said anything to them about the rod because I knew something was wrong. The satellite communicator I had you bring was how I kept in touch with Mr. Chandler. It can send and retrieve text communications from anywhere in the world. It was safer to use that than any form of voice communication. I found out later that Marcel and his men had a phone in which they too were relaying messages to Mr. Chandler.”

“Okay, I have the rod, but how will he know that?” He said before thinking about it. But before the professor responded, he reached down and flipped the cover off of the device that looked like any ordinary cell phone. It was powered on, “with this!”

“Yes.” Professor James said in a shallow voice. His head was starting to lean to the side as he lost more of his strength.

Sean was trying to put together everything that had happened, everything that had been said and everything that hadn’t been said, in his mind before he asked, “Why didn’t you leave with them? Why are you here with us?”

With no small amount of effort, Professor James straightened his head and said, “When they drugged you with the wine I knew something was not right. I saw it happening but was powerless to do anything after the fact. I am not a drinker myself, but they probably thought nothing of it as I posed no real threat to them. It was painful to think of what might happen to my daughter and to remember that I
am responsible for bringing her into this. When they spoke of getting rid of you by using explosives on your boat I could not stand by without doing anything. Evidently, they were already instructed on how to deal with me in that event as I was as dispensable as you were.”  

“What will they do with the girls?”

“Silas Chandler will do whatever he wants to do whenever he wants to do it.”

“That isn’t much of an answer,” Sean challenged.

“It is more of an answer than you think. Mr. Chandler does not live in the same world as you and I. He can do whatever he wants. National borders, laws, governances and regulations mean nothing to him.”

“How is it I have never heard of him if he is so eminent?”

“Have you ever heard of Chandler Holdings Global?”

After thinking for a second he answered, “Yes.”

“Well, that is him. But, it is only a front: a way to identify with the rest of the world. There are other people like him who hold so much power and money that they function on a different plane of society. They are untouchable by any common means.”

“How do you know so much about him if you’ve only provided him a few minor services?”

“The Order knows about him.”

“You’ve reported your involvement with him because of this expedition?”

“No. I reported about him ever since he first made contact with me. I continued to add whatever was necessary as time went on.”

“Professor,” Sean said as he sat back trying to relax in what little room he had, “I don’t mean to offend you, but much of what you have told me seems a bit far-fetched.”

“It doesn’t matter what you think. You will either have to believe it or not. I would say ‘have faith’ but I don’t think it would mean much to you right now. The bottom line is that Silas Chandler must never come into possession of Aaron’s Rod. I don’t care what has to be done, what price has to be paid, he must not get his hands on the rod. You must promise me that,” he said as he leaned forward with great effort even though it was a struggle to see each other’s eyes in the darkness that was upon them.

“Professor
, I can only promise you one thing: I’ll use this rod in any way I see fit to make sure that my sister is okay. In the process of doing that, I will also see to your daughter’s well-being.”

“They do not matter,” he said as he sat back heavily. “You must not give him the rod. No man should be able to wield the power of God, especially a man like him.”

They said nothing more as Sean was lost in thought, still trying to make sense of what he had heard. It had been almost two hours since the explosion and Alex was finally showing signs of coming back to life. It took him a while before he was able to shake off the effects of the drug they had been given, but when he did, his first questions were: “What are we doing in this boat? And how did the professor die?”

             
A
s the dark of night finally yielded to the new day, Alex stirred from his unsatisfying attempt at sleep. The three men had little room to move in the small boat, and the fact that one of them was nothing more than a corpse added to their discomfort. The after-effects of the drug they had been given still wore on Alex. Sean had felt as good as new as soon as he touched the wooden staff. He examined it as well as he could while they drifted in the night. When it was in hand, it still felt as though it had some unknown internal energy. Even after everything that had happened the previous day, he wasn’t completely sold on the idea that this was the same staff mentioned in the Bible. He laid it by his side and his thoughts returned to his sister and Tori. He replayed the conversation he had with the professor in his mind, and committed everything he was told to memory by going over it again and again.

They stripped the body of its outer garments and used them to protect against the chill of the evening. They would be necessary through the day as well to counter the exposure to the sun. Time was not on their side.

Alex adjusted himself so as to take a better look around, making an effort to lift his head above the side of the boat in doing so. The small rolling waves facilitated a comfortable ride, but they did nothing to assuage the fears about what lay ahead of them. Even with their communication device, their prospects of being helped remained meager at best. He settled back in and stared at his best friend. Sean had told him everything that happened as well as the professor’s explanation of why. Alex attempted to debate some of the more exotic points, but Sean reminded him that he was only relaying what he had been told; he wasn’t its originator.

“What now?” Alex asked for lack of anything better to say.

“Now, we send a message, one I hope will keep the girls safe until we find a way out of here.”

“You really think we will make it out of here?” Alex asked with some skepticism.

Sean looked at him and said with a wide grin, “Sure, why not?”

Alex could think of a hundred reasons
for ‘why not’ but he kept them to himself. Unlike Sean, he was only partially concerned about Dee and even less so about Tori. His primary concern was about their present circumstances. He was glad Sean was here with him, but even his presence and over-abundant confidence did little to lighten his apprehension. He saw him reach for something that looked like an over-sized cell phone.

“What’s that?” Alex asked.

“A communication device the professor had. You can send text messages with it from anywhere.” He turned on the communicator and waited for it to finish its start-up.

“We can send for help then,” Alex said excitedly as he moved to sit up a little higher in the boat.

“No, I think we’re on our own in that department. I’ll need it to make sure the girls are okay and to send a message to someone,” Sean said in a serious tone.

“But if we get help, then we can do whatever we have to for the girls.” Alex argued.

“After I send the message I’m turning this off. I’m not going to take the chance that this thing can be tracked. If he sends people after us, we’re done for. All we can do now is buy some time.”

Alex started to argue once more but by then he knew it was too late. It was times like this that tested the limits of their friendship. Not that they faced life or death situations with regularity, but whenever Sean felt as if there was only one way to do something, he assumed his way was the right one for all concerned. Alex was upset that his concerns were virtually ignored, but he was also curious as to what kind of message he was sending.

Sean scrolled to find the address the professor had been sending his messages to. When he found it, he typed in one of his own.
Chandler, I have the rod and you have the girls. If nothing happens to them we have something to talk about. I’ll be in touch. SR

He turned off the small machine and put it on his lap. He looked at his friend who was still staring at him as they sat at opposite sides of the boat with their legs
stretched out alongside one another.

“I’m gonna try and get some sleep.” Sean said.

Still holding a scowl on his face Alex asked, “What did you say?”

Sean told him.

“Great! I hope he isn’t made too uncomfortable while he waits to hear from us.” He said with as much sarcasm as he felt.

“Don’t worry so much;
it doesn’t change anything.”

Just before he was about to share the litany of thoughts that were going through his mind, he instead broached another subject. “What about
him?” he said nodding his head toward the professor. “Should we dump him overboard, or were you planning on taking him with us?”