Текст книги "The Navigator"

Автор книги: Clive Cussler

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Текущая страница: 22 (всего у книги 27 страниц)

Saxon read the Phoenician writing on the paper. “This shows exactlywhere the mine is in relation to the river.”

“Before we get too ecstatic, I have to point out a problem with this,” Austin said. “The Susquehanna is a mile wide and a foot deep, as the locals say. It’s studded with rapids and islands. There’s no way a ship of Tarshish could have made its way upriver.”

“But cargo could have come down,” Saxon said. “The river would have been deep enough for a boat to come down during the spring snowmelt.”

“Tricky, but possible with the right kind of boat,” Austin admitted.

“The right kind of boat was called a Susquehanna Ark,” Saxon said with a smile. “They started running them in the 1800s from Steuben County, New York, downriver to Port Deposit, Maryland. They were basically big pontoon rafts, seventy-five feet long and sixteen feet wide of beam. They came down in the spring flood tide as the snow melted, carrying produce to market. The arks would be dismantled, their lumber sold, and the crews walked home. It took eight days to float down and six to walk back. They carried millions of dollars in cargo before the railroads put them out of business.”

“A simple but brilliant concept,” Zavala said. “The Phoenicians could have used the same technique to transport gold.”

Saxon let out a hearty laugh. “Rider Haggard will be spinning in his grave. He and the rest of the world have assumed King Solomon’s mines were in Africa.”

Zavala had been looking at the maps. “I have a problem of my own. There’s a body of water covering the site pinpointed on the old map.”

Saxon’s eyes followed Zavala’s pointing finger. “So it is. That complicates matters.”

“Only a little bit,” Austin said. “I suggest we pull the Special Assignments Team together for a water-search operation tomorrow,” Austin said. “It’s a short hop to St. Anthony’s Wilderness by helicopter. We can be there first thing in the morning.”

“Splendid!” Saxon said. I’ll go over the papyrus again, and dig into my research, in case I’ve missed something.”

Austin pinched his chin between his thumb and forefinger. “Solomon went through a lot of trouble to hide this relic from mankind’s eyes.”

Zavala sensed the seriousness in his colleague’s voice. “I think you’re saying we may be grabbing a tiger by the tail.”

“In a manner of speaking. Let’s say we find this object. What do we do with it?”

“I never thought of that,” Saxon said. “Religious artifacts have a way of stirring people up.”

“My point exactly,” Austin said in a flat tone that caused Saxon’s brow to crease. “Solomon might have been a lot wiser hiding this thing than we are looking for it.”

Chapter 43

CARINA WAS STRETCHED OUT on the bed, staring at the ceiling for lack of anything better to do, when she heard a soft knock. She investigated and found that someone had left a wicker basket with her clothes outside the door. She picked up the note from on top of the neatly folded pile.

Dear Miss Mechadi. Please join me for dinner at your convenience. VB

“How absolutely civilized,” she murmured as she shut the door.

Carina couldn’t get the white dress off fast enough. Wearing her own clothes gave her a sense of control. She knew that it was only an illusion, but it felt good anyhow. She reread the note. She would have preferred not to spend another second with Baltazar, but she knew that he held the key to her fate.

She threw her shoulders back and marched down the deserted hall to the courtyard. A guard was waiting to escort her to the other wing. She was ushered into a spacious dining room done in a Spanish motif. The walls were pale stucco, edged with colorful tile, and decorated with wall hangings. Tall terra-cotta urns were tucked into the corners.

The valet appeared and seated Carina at a leather-topped table with wrought-iron legs. The table was set for two, and illuminated with ornate iron candelabra.

Baltazar arrived a minute later, dressed in black tie, as if for a formal ball.

“Miss Mechadi, how nice of you to join me,” he said with the warmth of old acquaintance.

Carina smiled without humor. “Did I have a choice?”

“We allhave choices, Miss Mechadi.”

Baltazar snapped his fingers, and the valet filled their wineglasses with a hearty rioja. He raised his glass in a silent toast and didn’t seem bothered when she ignored the gesture. She picked at her salad and the fragrant paella that was the main course. She pushed away the flan dessert but sipped at her espresso.

They ate their meal in silence, like an old married couple with nothing left to say to each other. Baltazar asked how she had enjoyed the meal and the wine. Carina answered with a grunt.

“Good,” he said. He produced a thin cigar, which he lit, keeping his eyes on Carina the whole time. “I have a question,” Baltazar said, his head hidden behind a cloud of purple smoke. “Do you believe in divine destiny?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“I’m talking about the concept that the course of our lives is dictated not so much by our acts but by our fate.”

“Predestination is not a philosophy that is original with you.” She looked him straight in the eye. “I believe that we are allresponsible for the consequences of our behavior. If you jump out of a window of a tall building, the consequence will be your death.”

“You are quite correct. Our acts do affect our lives. But I must ask you to ponder the unfathomable forces that would make me wantto jump out of a window.”

“What are you getting at?” Carina said.

“It’s very difficult to put into words. I can show you better than tell you.”

“Do I have a choice?”

“In this case, no,” he said, rising from his seat. He snuffed the cigar out in an ashtray and came around to pull her chair back. Then he escorted her to the portrait gallery.

“These are some of my forebears,” Baltazar said. “Do you see the family resemblance?”

Carina gazed at the dozens of paintings that hung on the walls of the large room. Most of the men had been painted wearing decorative armor. While the faces in the portraits often differed physically, many, including the women, possessed Baltazar’s wolfish gleam in their eyes, as if predatory instincts had been passed on in their genes.

“Yes,” she said. “There are definite family characteristics.”

“This lovely lass was a countess,” he said, going over to the eighteenth-century oil of the young matron. “She’s quite special.”

He put his face inches from the portrait and pressed the carved panels to either side. Carina thought he was kissing the painting. Noting the bewildered expression on Carina’s face, he explained about the eye and hand scans. He guided her down the stairway to the steel door, with its combination lock.

The door swung open. Carina was surprised to see the glass-enclosed cabinets that lined the walls. “It looks like a library,” she said.

“This room holds the family archives of the Baltazars. These volumes contain our history going back for more than two thousand years. This is a treasure trove of intrigue in Europe and Asia during that time.”

He went to the far end of the library and opened another door. He removed a torch from a wall sconce and lit it with his cigarette lighter. The flare from the torch illuminated the curved stone walls of a circular room. Carina stepped into the room and saw the statue beckoning at her with outstretched arms.

“Dear God! What isthat thing?”

“It’s an ancient offering statue. It has been in my family for thousands of years.”

Her eyes took in the pointed nose and chin and the leering mouth, features made even more prominent by the leaping shadows from the fluttering torch.

“It’s hideous.”

“Some people might think so. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It’s not the statue I wanted to show you; it’s this volume.”

Baltazar stuck the torch into a tall metal stand and went up to the altar. He lifted the lid of the gem-studded chest and opened the wooden box inside it. Then he removed the bound sheets of parchment.

Carina didn’t want to satisfy Baltazar by showing interest, but she couldn’t contain her curiosity.

“They look very old,” she said.

“Nearly three thousand years old. The language is Aramaic. The pages were written in the time of King Solomon.”

“Who was the author?” Carina said.

“The founding matriarch of the Baltazar family. Her name is lost in time. She refers to herself, and is referred to by others, as ‘Priestess.’ Would you like to hear what she wrote?”

Carina shrugged. “I have nothing better to do.”

“I can recite the contents by heart. She introduces herself here on the first page. She was a pagan priestess who was a favored concubine to Solomon. They gave birth to a boy child who was named Melqart. As I said before, Solomon was a fickle man. He became smitten with Sheba.”

“ Myancestor,” Carina said.

“That’s right. They had a boy whom they named Menelik. Solomon gave the priestess to Sheba to be her handmaiden. She had little choice but to obey. The boys grew up together, but Menelik remained the favored son. When they were teenagers, Melqart, at the bidding of his mother, persuaded his half brother to steal a treasured object from the Temple. Menelik eventually returned it, and both boys were forgiven by their father, but he enlisted them into the Phoenician navy through his friend Hiram.”

“What was this treasured object?”

“The Ark of the Covenant. More important, the original Ten Commandments that were contained in the Ark.”

“The clay tablets Moses brought down from the Mount?”

“No. These were of gold. In the Bible they are referred to as the Golden Calf. Moses is said to have destroyed them, but that was not the case.”

“Why would he want them destroyed?”

“The tablets were written when the old religions were in flux. The tablets would have caught people’s attention before Moses could sway them in the direction of the religion he was preaching.”

“Apparently, the tablets were not destroyed.”

“They were hidden until the time of Solomon. He saw them as potential trouble but feared destroying such sacred objects. He worried that the tablets might be stolen again. He told Menelik to take the Ten Commandments to Ophir and hide them. The priestess sent Melqart to retrieve the golden tablets. The half brothers fought. Menelik killed his half brother, took over his ship, and made it home to tell his father of the battle. Solomon banished Melqart’s mother, whom he suspected of stirring up his subjects against him and reviving the old pagan religion.”

“Where does the Navigatorcome in?”

“The priestess learned through her informants that Solomon ordered two statues of Menelik cast and inscribed the bronze statues with maps that would show the way to Ophir and the tablets. A more-detailed map, written on vellum, was lost during the brotherly battle.”

“Why twostatues?”

“Solomon was cautious as well as wise. He had them placed at the gates to his temple. Hidden in plain sight.”

“And the priestess?”

“In exile, she seethed with anger at the death of her only son at the hands of Menelik, Sheba’s offspring. She felt that she should have been the wife of Solomon, and that the Ten Commandments, and the power they brought, were rightfully hers. She entrusted Melqart’s son with the task of recovering the treasure and exacting revenge on the descendants of Solomon and Sheba. He failed, but passed the instructions down to the next generation. As the years passed, the prime goal became recovery of the tablets before anyone knew of their existence. A system of Watchers was set up worldwide to prevent the secret from being discovered.”

“What is your role in all this?”

“My father passed the task on to me. As the last of the Baltazars, it falls on my shoulders to carry out the pledge made centuries ago.”

“So, that’sit. You will take your revenge for this priestess, who is now a bag of dust. You believe I am descended from Sheba and intend to kill me.”

“I would rather not. I have a proposal. I wish to carry on the Baltazar bloodline. What better way to do it than to merge our two bloodlines into one?”

A stunned expression came to Carina’s blue eyes. “You can’t be serious. You think that I—”

“I’m not talking about a love match,” Baltazar said. “Consider it a business proposition.”

“And will you make it your business to kill me once I have produced your so-called heir?”

“That depends entirely on you.”

“Then kill me now. The thought of your touch revolts me.” She attempted to get by him. He stepped in to bar the way. She turned instinctively, looking for a place to run; her glance fell on the statue’s face, which was illuminated in the flickering torchlight.

“The statue.I remember now. I saw one like it in Rome. It was taken from Carthage during the Punic Wars. The Carthaginians used it to sacrifice children to Ba’al when the Romans attacked the city. That’swhy your sainted priestess was exiled. She practiced human sacrifice.”

“Solomon was a hypocrite,” Baltazar snapped. “He worshipped the old gods, but when his priests rose up against him he gave in to them.”

“I don’t want anything to do with you or your vile gods. I want you to let me go.”

“That’s not possible.”

A wicked gleam came to Carina’s eye. She snatched up the torch from its stand and stuck it in Baltazar’s face. He laughed at the show of defiance.

“Put that thing down before I take it away from you.”

“If you won’t let me go, I will destroy your wonderful priestess.”

She whirled around and brought the torch close to the bound parchment pages on the altar.

Baltazar’s hand moved with the speed of a cobra. He snatched the torch from her hand before the dry pages caught fire, and his fist slammed her in the face. She crumpled to the floor, unconscious.

Baltazar looked up at the statue. The slanting almond eyes glittered in the light. The arms reached out as if they wanted to embrace him.

He glanced down at Carina’s limp body, then up at the silent statue again. He cocked his head as if he were listening.

“Yes,” he said after a moment. “Now I understand.”

Chapter 44

AUSTIN DROPPED THE DUFFEL BAG with his dive equipment just inside the entrance to the boathouse and walked into the study. The red light was blinking on the phone. Two messages. He pressed the button. The first message was from Carina.

“Hi, Kurt. Leaving the Met around one-thirty. Meeting was a greatsuccess! Can’t wait to tell you about it. Hope the computer enhancements of the Navigatorworked out. Catching a cab to Penn Station. I should be back in D.C. by late afternoon. Will call when I’m on my way. Ciao.”

He glanced at the wall clock. It was past ten o’clock. The beep signaling the start of the second message broke into his thoughts. Maybe it was Carina calling again. The phone message was short and chilling.

“Good evening, Mr. Austin,” a metallic voice said. “We are holding the Italian property for you to view. Call this number back.”

A voice changer made the caller sound like a robot. The phone number listed on the caller ID said the caller was OUT OF AREA. Austin remembered Buck’s words when Austin had confronted him at TopkapiPalace.

My employer has other plans for her.

Carina had never made it to Penn Station. Austin pursed his lips. He mentally retraced Carina’s steps that day, hoping that he’d recall a clue to her disappearance. Carina had told no one else of her plans to go to the Met. He remembered overhearing her making last-minute plans with the museum people that morning on his phone.

Austin picked up the phone to call Zavala, but his hand froze in midair. He put the phone down as if it had turned into a rattlesnake and went out onto the deck.

The air carried a rank but not unpleasant smell of mud and rotting vegetation. Lovelorn frogs croaked soft love songs against the insect chorus. The river was a pale ghost in the light of a half-moon. He remembered the prowler who’d watched the house the night of his first dinner with Carina. The tall oak tree where he had found the footprint was silhouetted against the dull sheen of the river.

The prowler had done more than prowl.

Austin went back through the house and out to the car. He drove to the end of the long driveway, turned onto the road, and drove five miles before stopping. He removed the cell phone from its dashboard holder and punched in a number from memory.

A deep voice answered: “Flagg here.”

“I could use your help,” Austin said. “Can you come by my house? Bring a fumigator.”

“Twenty minutes,” Flagg said and hung up.

Flagg was probably at Langley. Austin didn’t know where his old colleague lived. Maybe he didn’t have a home other than the CIA headquarters, where he spent most of his time between troubleshooting assignments that took him around the world.

Austin drove back to the boathouse. He was angry at himself for not insisting that Carina stay out of view, although it probably wouldn’t have done any good. Carina was fearless when it came to her own safety.

Two vehicles pulled into the drive exactly twenty-five minutes after Austin called. Flagg got out of a Yukon. A slim young man wearing coveralls emerged from a panel truck that had the name of a pest control company painted on the doors.

The fumigator introduced himself as the Bug Man. He set an aluminum case on the study floor and snapped the lid open. He removed a gadget that looked like a Buck Rogers ray gun and pointed its flared barrel at the walls as he swiveled on his heel.

Working quickly, the Bug Man surveyed each room on the ground level and then climbed up the spiral staircase to the turret bedroom. He came down a few minutes later and went to repack his electronic gear.

“No infestation here,” he said. “The whole house is clean.”

“What about outsidethe house?” Austin said. He jerked his thumb toward the deck.

The Bug Man tapped his right temple with a forefinger. “Duh. Of course.”

He went out on the deck and returned seconds later.

“I’m getting something from the direction of the river,” he said.

“I think I know where,” Austin said. He got a flashlight and led Flagg and the Bug Man down the deck stairs to the base of the tall oak tree. “There was a prowler out here a few nights ago,” he said. “I found a footprint under this tree.”

The Bug Man pointed his ray gun up toward the network of branches. Numbers appeared on the small LED display screen, and the gun let off a series of electronic pings.

He borrowed the flashlight and asked Flagg and Austin to give him a hand. They hoisted him up to the lowest branch, and he climbed halfway up the tree. He dug into a thick limb with a pocketknife, then climbed back down to earth, and he held his hand out in the beam of the flashlight. A black plastic box the size of a deck of cards rested in his palm.

“State-of-the-art. Maybe even beyond that. Voice-activated. Solar-powered. This little gadget picked up every phone call you made, whether on the regular line or cell phone, and transmitted the conversations to a listening post. Your phone conversations could have been relayed anywhere in the world. What do you want me to do with this thing?”

Flagg had watched the debugging process without talking, but now he offered a suggestion. “I’d put it back. It might come in handy if you want to spread some disinformation around.”

“I was thinking of using it to send a few choice words to the listening post,” Austin said, but he knew Flagg’s suggestion was a good one.

The Bug Man climbed back into the tree. Flagg glanced up into the branches and said, “Somebody went through a lot of trouble to butt into your business. I thought that all you had to worry about since going over to NUMA was counting fish.”

“You wouldn’t believe the size of some of the fish in the ocean,” Austin said. “When your friend is through, I’ll crack open a couple of beers and tell you all about it.”

The fumigator dropped out of the tree after reinstalling the electronic bug. He gathered up his tools and took off in his truck. Austin got two bottles of Sam Adams from the refrigerator, and he and Flagg settled into leather chairs in the study. For the next hour, Austin filled Flagg in on the events that had transpired since the hijacking of the containership.

Flagg allowed his wide mouth a slight smile in his otherwise impassive face. “King Solomon’s mines! Compared to you, Austin, my job is about as exciting as sorting mail.” He grew serious again. “You’re up against some real heavyweights. You think this Baltazar character has your lady friend?”

“Baltazar’s signature as been all over this thing since the very start.”

“What can I do?”

“Try to find out where Baltazar spends his time.”

“I’ll get right on it. Anything else?”

“Stand by.” Austin picked up the phone, put it on speaker, and punched in the number left by his anonymous caller.

“We’ve been waiting for you,” said the weird voice.

“I was out of town. What’s this Italian property you told me about?”

“You know her as Carina Mechadi. She’s in good shape. For now.I can’t vouch for her future health.”

“What’s your asking price?”

“Not what. Who.We would exchange her for you.”

“Guaranteed?”

“In a perfect world. Yours is very imperfect right now.”

“What are the terms?”

“Be out in front of the Lincoln Memorial in exactly ninety minutes. Have no one with you. Don’t try to bring any positioning devices. You will be scanned.”

Austin glanced at Flagg. “I’ll be there.”

The line went dead.

“She must be quite a woman,” Flagg said. He rose from his chair. “You’d better get moving. I’ll try to run Baltazar to ground.”

Austin told Flagg to use Zavala as his contact. After his friend had left, Austin picked up the phone and called Joe, holding back the temptation to hurl some choice epithets at the unknown listener.

“Hi, Joe. Kurt. I won’t be able to meet with you tomorrow. Pitt called and wants me to meet him tonight.”

“Must be pretty important.”

“It is.I’ll give you a call later.”

Austin made the second call to Zavala fifteen minutes later during the drive along the Beltway toward Washington.

“I was waiting for your call. Didn’t see how you’d meet with Pitt tonight. Last I heard, he was on the Sea of Japan.”

“Sorry for the runaround. Someone was listening to every word.”

Austin told him about Carina and his intention to comply with the kidnapper’s orders.

“I’ll go along with anything you say, Kurt, but do you think going into this will help Carina?”

“I don’t know. It may put me close enough to her to help. The fact that I have a lead on the location of the mine might give me some leverage.”

“Hate to rain on your parade, but what if they’re simply after your hide and don’t want to bargain?”

“I’ve given that possibility serious consideration. I’ll have to take that chance. Meanwhile, I want you to find the mine. It could be a trump card. Speed is of the essence.”

“I’ve already arranged for a chopper and talked to the Trouts. We’ll hook up with Saxon at first light. Good luck in the meantime.”

“Thanks,” Austin said. “I’ll need it.”

Austin told Zavala that Flagg would be in touch with him and hung up. He parked the Jeep in the NUMA underground garage and caught a cab to the Lincoln Memorial. He got there a minute before the ninety minutes had elapsed. Seconds after the taxi pulled away, a black Cadillac Escalade SUV pulled up to the curb and the rear door opened. A man got out and pointed to the backseat.

Austin took a deep breath and got into the car. The man slid in behind him, wedging Austin between another occupant. The SUV sped away from the memorial and joined the traffic stream.

The man to his left reached under his jacket. Austin saw the gleam of metal. He couldn’t tell whether it was a knife or a gun. He cursed his bad judgment. They weren’t taking him anywhere. They were going to kill him immediately.

He brought his arm up to protect himself.

Something cold pressed against his neck and he heard a soft hiss.

Then someone pulled a blackout curtain down over his eyes.

His body went limp, his eyes closed on their own, and his head lolled. Only the presence of the men on either side of him prevented him from falling over.

Before long, the SUV was on the outskirts of the capital, moving as fast as the speed limit allowed, in the direction of the airport.