The rain from the previous evening was still draining down the floor of the ravine and the rocky sides were slick. The muted light reflected like diamonds off of the facets of the rock, where the water glistened as it drained to the tiny stream below. Jim had refused to let his daughter join him on this escapade, after her previous traumatic experience in this gully. Professor Owen Gwilliam had agreed to accompany Jim and Major Davidson, even though he had not been with them when they had discovered the Ark. Jim had thought that Owen might come in useful through his knowledge of physics and the possible traps they may encounter. The two LIMO's, the second with a unit of Israeli troops, which would deal with the security, slowly descended to the area where the battle with the terrorists had previously taken place. The site seemed larger in daylight and rather different, Major Davidson turned towards Jim, and stroking his chin asked, "Do you remember where the entrance is."
"No, not really, it was dusk when we got out of the cavern, and we were a little distracted."
"We all were, my friend, all I remember is that it was on the north side," said Davidson, "Pilot, can you do a slow hover down the north side, look for a small cave about half way up the wall."
The LIMO swung around and nosed-down moved crab- wise along the rocky wall, on the second pass they spotted the entrance, the pilot came along side and allowed the Major, Jim and Owen to step out onto the ledge. The small group stood to one side so that the unit in the second LIMO could be off-loaded. The solders set up their abseiling equipment and the Major, with his Captain, were the first to enter the cavern, the remainder were quick to drop down, leaving the sergeant on the ledge to help the civilians. A security cordon was established in the cavern and the lights and generator cell were installed. At a shout from the Major, Jim and Owen were fitted in their harnesses and lowered to the cavern floor. Every thing in the cavern was just as they had left it, except for the empty plinth where the Ark had rested. Owen, who had just seen the cavern for the first time, immediately went off to explore.
It had been decided that Jim, Owen and Davidson, with two of the solders, would form the expedition team and the army personnel busied themselves getting the equipment sorted into packs. After about twenty minutes Owen rejoined the group carrying an earthenware jar containing some odd looking sticks or batons. These sticks were about thirty centimetres in length and between two centimetres and ten centimetres in diameter, with a curious glass-like attachment at the thicker end. Jim immediately grabbed one of the sticks, "What have you found, Owen," Jim asked, and dropped the stick when it started to buzz.
Owen laughed, "That's what I just did, I don't know what they are but they must have some significance."
---===oooOOOooo===--–
Outside of the cavern, some ten-thousand meters above them, a single micro-drone hovered, its cameras trained on the exact place where the Israeli solders accompanying Jim and Owen, had disappeared into the cliff-side. The drone's invisible IR beam quickly calculating the GPS position and transmitting it back to the West Bank. The drone, now regarded as 'old technology' was purchased in the late two-thousand and tens by an intermediary for the Palestinians and had never yet been used. Developed by the United States military and abandoned as public opinion turned away from the use of drones, it has both microwave and stealth technology.
---===oooOOOooo===--–
Five hundred meters into the tunnel the five searchers were making progress toward their goal. Fifteen meters later they approached the first decision point, the tunnel split into three. Jim immediately started to examine the walls of the three passageways and pointed to a faint mark on the wall of the left branch, “This is the way, Jo marked it in case we needed to retrace our steps, see, here's the 'JM' mark.” The five continued for over a kilometre before they encountered a real trap. Before them was what seemed like a chasm. Jim could not remember having anything like a chasm to cross on their first navigation of these tunnels, so he found it strange that one should now appear.
“Are you sure this was the correct tunnel Jim,” asked Major Davidson.
“Yes Major, there is no doubt of that, I showed you Jo's initials on the wall.”
“Nevertheless Jim, we have a void in front of us that we have no equipment with which cross,” stated Owen.
Jim, curious to find out how deep the chasm was approached the edge of the precipice with one of the high-powered lamps. As he switched the lamp on something happened to the chasm, the perspective changed. Tentatively he placed a foot over the edge and lowered it into what he saw as the void, his foot hit solid ground where there should have been a void. “It's just an optical illusion, there is no chasm here at all,” Jim called to the others.
“A darn clever one then,” said Owen, as he also tried the solidity of the ground with a pebble he had acquired from the ground. The stone skidded across the tunnel floor and into the semi-darkness beyond.
“OK,” said the Major, “best foot forward then, let's push on.”
“I guess we didn't see it last time as we were coming the other way and we only had small torches,” explained Jim, “and I think other things may be a little different coming in this direction.”
Two kilometres later things were in deed different, one of the solders, Mark, felt something move beneath his foot and was immediately alert. Nothing seemed to change, until he rounded one of the few bends in the tunnel, there they discovered a sparkling wall of energy baring their way. Jim thought that it was similar to the curtain of energy that protected the dais in which the fake Arc had rested. Owen tried to probe the barrier with his hiking stick, but the stick was unable to penetrate the curtain of energy.
The Major gave orders to his troops, “Start searching every inch of the walls for some kind of switch; a recess or loose rock, anything that might turn this barrier off.” Over thirty minutes of finger-tip searching revealed nothing and Davidson was becoming more, and more stressed by the event. “There has to be some way of deactivating this thing,” looking at Jim and Owen.
“All we did in the Mount's cavern was to disrupt it with wooden poles, they reacted like curtains,” mused Jim, “your hiking stick isn't wood Owen, it's a composite, and we need some wood.”
“Which means going all the way back to the LIMO's and fetching poles,” Davidson said angrily, “which would mean coming back tomorrow.”
“Just one moment,” interjected Owen, “what about those batons that I found hidden back there, I wonder if they would work.”
“Well let’s try,” said Jim, “there is little to loose other than a few more minutes. As you said Owen, they must have a use.”
Each of the five opened their individual backpacks and withdrew the strange batons; Owen took one of his in his right hand and gently pushed the stick into the barrier. This time the experiment worked and a triangular breach appeared. Owen took a second baton from Jim and joined the two together and slowly moved them horizontally apart, this formed a rectangular window.
“Well done Professor,” shouted Davidson, “Mark, Ruben, can you take over from the Professor and maintain a doorway to let us through please, “ he ordered.
The two solders each took one of the batons and opened a larger breach then both stepped through, then held the window open for the other three to pass through. Once through they continued along the passage, they had not progressed more than twenty meters when they heard a 'whoomph' sound; they turned to see the barrier had completely disappeared.
---===oooOOOooo===--–
Above ground Eric Henkle's mercenaries were approaching the area of the entrance to the tunnels. Their transport, which had followed the drone at a distance, had dropped them about a half mile away from the target area coordinates and they were now closing in unseen by the Israeli military. However Abu Sitta was watching intently via the stealth drone's camera and guiding his men through the best route.
The six man squad each found themselves fox-holes from which to observe the entrance to the cave and 'Papa' ordered them to wait and stay covert until such time as the expedition returned. All members of the team were equipped with heat dissipating suits, which would hide them from any infer-red and body-heat detection that the Israelis had installed. Two of the mercenaries, both ordnance experts, were charged with placing and setting implosion devices that they hoped would destroy everything other than the ‘Tabut’, the Ark.
---===oooOOOooo===--–
After another four tunnel tri-junctions the expectation finally reached the chamber, under the Temple Mount, that had been christened 'The Control-room' with some relief, and had settled in the seats so as to eagerly consume their rations. They hoped it would soon be merely a case of lowering the lift that formed the dais on which the actual Ark had been placed, and that made them feel more relaxed. The food consumed and a well earned fifteen minute rest over, they took up stations behind the seat that Owen was occupying. Owen scratched his head, looking at the controls that were laid out in front of him, “I just need a few moments to remember what each control does,” he explained.
First he managed to power up the video screen to obtain a view of the cavern above them. There was the Ark on its dais and around it the energy curtain, but around it were red-orange glowing walls of molten lava that the Ark was keeping at bay, protecting itself from total destruction. It was then that almost everyone realized how warm the room was; certainly Jim and Owen felt this having experienced the Control-room previously.
Owen identified the control for the dais lift and with a silent prayer he pressed the domed crystal that activated the lift. They all held their breath for several seconds and in unison let their breath exhale as the lift slowly started to move downward. As the lift, with the Ark, sank into the floor of the cavern the lava also sank ominously down, then the video from the cavern above suddenly went to white noise. Owen turned his head to look at Jim, and received two raised eyebrows in return. “Is that lava going to flood this room and the tunnels,” asked Major Davidson with a very worried look on his face.
“I am sure it will, eventually, at least,” answered Owen, “we will just have to hope that it will hold it back until we get out.”
They heard the hum of the lift stop suddenly and rather tentatively opened the steel doors that had been fitted to protect the Control-room. The passage was clear. The group made their way to the lift and found it on the dais, brightly illuminated by the orange glow from overhead. Davidson ordered Mark and Ruben to get on the gold encased wooden poles and to carry the Ark off the lift and into the Control-room. Once in the room the steel doors were closed and locked. “I am not sure how long that door will last against the heat of the lava,” said Owen.
“It may just give us the lead we need, Professor,” Davidson said over his shoulder as the Ark disappeared out of the door into the tunnel, “and we still have the protection of the Ark’s field; now let's get out of here.”
The journey back to the entrance took a little over three hours with no hold-ups other than three, five minute rests for Mark and Ruben. There had been no sign of the barrier and the chasm caused as little problem as the remainder of the tunnel. The lava had illuminated their way through the tunnel and the high-power torches were almost redundant. The Major in particular had been worried about the lava catching up with them, the two sets of doors had held for some quarter of an hour before the orange light had appeared behind them. However the lava had stayed some hundred or so meters behind them, but they all knew that the big problem was yet to come when they moved the Ark into the entrance cave and then out into the open. Owen was trying to remember if the entrance was higher than the top of the Mount, which may allow the lava to find its own level, however he was unsure of how much pressure lay beneath, in the magma chamber. The security detail was waiting in the cave and had already rigged a pulley system and widened the entrance to ensure the safe passage of their precious Ark. Outside dusk was beginning to fall and flood-lights had been set up, which disrupted the low-light capabilities of the surrounding mercenaries.
The expedition now reached the end of the tunnel and laid the Ark down just inside of the tunnel entrance, the Major called the troops together and explained the problem. “We have a small issue with the lava,” he understated the issue, “the Ark has held the lava back from us all the way through the tunnel, but we do not know what will happen when we bring it out into the cave or out into the big world. I would suggest that we all stay close to the Ark until we are safely in the air.”
“I think we will be OK until we exit this cave,” suggested Jim, “the dampening field covered the whole cave the last time we were here.”
“Nevertheless,” said Davidson, “I would not want to take any chances. I want everyone out of the cave before we haul the Ark up, is that clear?” Everyone indicated their assent. “Jim I want you and the Professor outside first.”
Owen went up the steel ladder first, and then Jim quickly followed, the security detail then brought the Ark to a position below the entrance. The lava moved to the tunnel’s opening and remained there, now that it was no longer moving it seemed to be cooling and the orange glow slowly turned to grey. However this gave the Major little respite from his fears as the glowing orange could still be seen through cracks in the grey cinder.
---===oooOOOooo===--–
Outside the entrance all eyes were now alert having seen two men, not in uniform, appear from the small cleft. Their view was not as clear as they would have hoped; the flood-lights had disrupted the low-light goggles. Henkle signaled his senior explosives man to stand by and detonate on his signal, and thumbs hovered over the firing buttons. As Henkle watched
more figures appeared on the small plateau, one knocked against one of flood-lights so that it shone directly toward their position, Henkle was to all intent now blinded. “We need to move,” Henkle whispered into his microphone, “I can't see a thing here, pull back quickly.”
The area where the mercenaries had gone to ground was now flooded with light and as Henkle crept out of the recess than had hidden them he stepped onto nothing and fell two meters onto another ridge. Resting in the ridge he froze, knowing that any movement would be spotted by one of the Israeli troops, “Curse those lights.”
---===oooOOOooo===--–
The Major had been the last to appear on the ledge outside of the entrance and now in the open air, he had just started to relax. Davidson gave the order to haul the Ark up the ten or so meters to the entrance when there was a noise. Ruben turned and thought he saw movement opposite.
“Sir, I think we have company, there was some definite movement over on the opposite side of the gully.”
“I heard it Sergeant,” replied the Major, “are the pilots awake?”
“Yes Sir, I was chatting about twenty minutes ago,” answered one of the security detail.
“Tell one of them to take a turn around the ravine and report back, ordered the Major,” Now let's get the Ark out of the cave.”
All of the military personnel put their strength to hauling the precious artefact up to the opening and then manhandled it out onto the ledge. The second LIMO, the larger transport, rose up from the bed of the ravine and took position alongside the ledge, and the Ark was quickly slid inside. The LIMO that had taken off to reconnoitre the area reported in just as the Ark was being secured.
“Sir, I can detect no individuals in the area, but they may be wearing heat absorbing suits, because I have several pieces of metallic clutter that seem to move on their own, and a small power source, compatible with a radio detonator,” reported the pilot.
“Thank you Captain, can you.” Davidson's words were cut off by a flash of light that illuminated the ravine in stark detail. Everyone dove to the floor as the rock around them disappeared and they all seemed to go into free-fall for some feet, like the Earth had suddenly been pulled away from under their feet.
Fortunately the other LIMO was outside of the implosion zone, but three of the mercenaries were not, among the casualties was their leader Eric Henkle. The three mercenaries that remained immediately activated their escape procedure and quickly tried to return to their vehicle some half kilometre away. The three men abandoned their special suits, to enable then to move faster, so the LIMO now had little trouble tracking them. The pilot spotted the waiting vehicle and used an EMP blast to disable it, then opened a com-link to his base in Jerusalem for a squad to come and make the arrests.
Back at the cave site no one was any worse for wear, the Ark's energy damper had protected them all, including the LIMO containing the Ark, although they now sat at the bottom of a crater with magma starting to flow into it from the opposite side.
“Everyone into the transport, PDQ,” shouted the Major as soon as he had checked that there were no injuries. The whole group crowded into the machine and the LIMO, because of the extra weight, struggled into the air. As they rose, the lava poured into the newly created crater, but thankfully found its own level and did not over flow into what was left of the ravine. The two LIMO's met up at a safe distance from the crater and the extra personnel were then transferred, making the return to base without further incident.
Minister Hooshy Ar Karimi, depressed the switch to talk to his personal assistant in the outer office, “Get me Abu Sitta immediately,” he said abruptly. The Minister was not in a good mood, one of his contacts had just reported that the Tabut Sakina remained in Israeli hands and had been saved from the volcano at the expense of Sitta's mercenaries, some of whom were now in custody. The worse thing was that they were most probably being interrogated by the Mossad, who he
knew could break almost anyone. This Palestinian had failed him badly and after all the financial support Iran had given him. If Sitta had been one of his people he would have had him executed for this failure. A female aid entered the office with his third cup of coffee of the morning, she was just placing the cup on Karimi’s side table when his Com-unit chirped. “Get out,” he screamed at the aid, who ran toward the door and disappeared.
“Mister Sitta, I have been awaiting a call from you,” said Minister Karimi, sarcastically.
“Of course, Minister, I have been trying the find out what happened, Sir,” he said hesitantly.
“Mister Sitta, I could have told you what happened if you had called me, what happened was that you failed me, that is what happened, and now I suppose, I have to listen to your excuses.”
“I have no excuses Minister, because I do not know what happened as I cannot find my people,” Sitta told Karimi.
There was a silence that seemed to last minutes, finally Karimi broke the silence, just as Sitta was about to check if he'd lost the connection. “Are you telling me that you do not know that three of your, ‘experts’ are in the hands of the Mossad and the other three are very dead?”
Now it was Abu Sitta's turn to stay silent, “I'm not sure what to say Minister.”
“I would advise you to say nothing,” said the Minister, “I am relieving you of your commitment, I shall assume the responsibility from here on in, good bye Mister Sitta.”