Ark (16 page)

Dan, Jim, Kas and Stephanie ate at the circular table on their back patio. The evening was warm and the sky above them was a deep blue. Woolsey had chosen a spot next to Dan, hoping that a scrap of meat might accidentally fall. His long wet tongue hung from his mouth as he directed his steady panting at Dan. He knew there was no hope of a handout from his family because Kas believed that Woolsey should be discouraged from begging at the table. Perhaps Woolsey figured that Dan was ignorant of the rule. Twice Kas shooed him away but each time he slowly crept back. Stephie watched the whole thing in quiet amusement.

Jim enjoyed having Dan around. After a few days his mood became visibly brighter. Dan had always had that effect on Jim, ever since they were roommates in art school.

Now Jim looked forward to getting home. Even his relationship with Kas and Stephanie improved.

One night over dinner, Kas said she noticed the difference. “If you’ve brought this change on Jim, Dan,” she said, “I’m eternally grateful. I thought we were going to lose you for a while there, Jim.”

Jim had guessed as much, but he couldn’t comment. He may have given her cause for worry but for the moment it seemed to be behind him. Still, in the back of his mind he was watching the calendar with an eye on June 1. He expected John or Gene to call at any moment, asking him to come up to Mt. Kisco for a meeting, but while he waited to see if he was really still part of the team he enjoyed the fact that he had both Dan and Lou to keep the anxiety at bay.

One evening he and Dan went through the Bible to find every reference to the ark. Jim had already done so but it was interesting to see Dan, with his technical background, assessing the text. One thing he noticed immediately was that Jim had been mistaken about position of the poles that were affixed to the ark.

“Interesting that the poles are supposed to stay in the ark,” he said.

“What does that mean?” asked Jim. “Is there some electrical or microwave significance there?”

Dan shook his head and knitted his brow as he stared at Jim’s newest drawing of the ark. “No, no, no,” he said. “Nothing like that. I was just thinking that if you and I were to, say, make up the story, we would have probably had them remove the poles. Do you agree?”

“I never thought about it,” said Jim.

“Really?” said Dan. “I thought you left the poles in just because it was part of the instructions.”

“No,” said Jim. “The poles stayed in.”

Dan pondered the drawing. “You know,” he finally said, “there’s a lot of gold in the top of the ark. Moving the poles to the top means even more gold on top.”

“You’re thinking about how it might hold an electrical charge,” Jim guessed.

“There’s a lot of gold surface to a pole,” said Dan. “I’d considered how much of a charge the ark could carry. With the poles below, so near the ground, it didn’t seem likely. Moving ’em to the top changes things quite a bit, I think.”

“Interesting,” said Jim. “I was thinking only of what the Bible describes and the fact that if the poles were near the base it would be top heavy when it was carried.”

“That’s another good reason to have them at the top,” said Dan. “You’re right, though. Even with flat gold cherubim versus sculptural ones, the ark is top heavy.”

“I donno. ” Jim said after thinking for a moment. “My drawings show them at the bottom. Work is underway. Best to leave things as they are.”

Jim was relieved to have someone else go through the text and, for the most part, come to the same conclusions. He became so enthusiastic that he decided not to wait for Gene or John to call. He dialed Gene’s number.

Gene’s answering machine greeted him. Jim generally never left automated messages unless he absolutely had to. Too often he had to call back anyway. Still he felt enough urgency to leave a brief message. “Gene. Jim here. Call me. It’s about the ark.”

An hour later, just as Jim and Dan decided to call it a night, Gene returned Jim’s call.

Jim explained about the location of the ark’s poles and suggested that the simulations might be rerun using a different configuration.

“Are you crazy?” Gene shouted. “Do you realize how long it would take to reconfigure?”

“Well ...,” said Jim.

Gene interrupted, “it took several days to wireframe the whole thing from your specs. Now you want me to do it all over?”

“Can’t we just move the poles up?” asked Jim, surprised at Gene’s outburst.

Gene sighed deeply. “No, Jim,” he said. “It’s not that easy.”

“Well, this isn’t just my idea,” said Jim. “I’ve gone over it with Dan and we agreed that I might have misplaced the poles in my original sketches.”

“What difference does that make?”

“I don’t know,” said Jim. “No one does. That’s the problem.”

Jim explained that Dan had felt that the new location of the poles might increase the ark’s capacity to hold a charge.

“Okay, Jim,” he said, “when we have the thing built we’ll tell them to put the poles on top or anywhere you want them.”

Jim decided he shouldn’t push it. Besides, he’d already FedEx’ed the new drawings to John. “Sorry to upset the apple cart, Gene. By the way, I was surprised to hear that John ordered the gold already,” said Jim, fishing for details.

“We just started the wheels turning,” said Gene. “Really, it’s his Dad, the General, who is doing the deal.”

“Well, that leads me to my second concern. I still feel like I’m out of the loop,” said Jim. “Seems like every time I talk to either one of you there have been new developments.”

“So?” said Gene. “What’s wrong with that? We’re the ones who’re building the thing.”

“I thought it was supposed to include me,” said Jim.

“Will you stop with that, Jim?” said Gene. “We keep telling you. You ARE part of the project. You did the drawings, for Chrissake!”

“Okay,” said Jim. “I know that, but I find out everything after the fact.”

“What?” replied Gene. “We should inform you of everything we do?”

“Why not?” said Jim. “What harm would it do?”

“Jim, we’re not trying to go behind your back, but I doubt if John is of a mind to make informing you of everything a top priority.”

“I understand that, but I keep getting the feeling that my part of this is over and you’re going to move on without me.”

“I don’t think that’ll happen. But what if it does? Is that a crime?”

Though his voice didn’t show it, Jim was getting angry. Gene wasn’t sounding like an old friend any more. “Please understand, Gene,” he said. “I‘ve been with this for twenty years and the whole ark question has gotten under my skin. It’s not a question of wanting to know any more. I HAVE to know. Please don’t cut me out.”

“I understand how you feel, Jim,” he said. “I’ll keep it in mind. That’s all I can do. You know I can’t really ride herd on John or his dad. They’re in control of this whole thing now.”

“See?” said Jim. “That’s what I mean. Why does it have to be that way? Why not all four of us as partners?”

“It’s really a question of financial responsibility, isn’t it?” said Gene. “The buck has to stop somewhere. With twenty million dollars in precious metals at stake I’d think you’d be glad to field the responsibility.”

“Well,” said Jim, “putting it that way, I guess ...”

Gene’s phone beeped a call-waiting signal. “I gotta go, Jim. Stay in touch.”

Jim looked at Dan, who had been sitting across from him listening to the conversation. “I guess you heard most of that.”

“’Fraid so,” said Dan. “Did they cut you out?”

Jim shrugged . “It’s the money,” he said, “the gold. Someone, one person, has to be responsible.”

“That’s right,” said Dan. “The bottom line. Get’s you every time, don’t it?”

Jim smiled and looked at Dan appreciatively. “I’m really glad you’re here right now, Dan.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way, bro.”

#

Dan and Jim had really talked it through that night, and they came to the conclusion that Jim should spend some time continuing the journal that he’d tried to write. Dan loved a good mystery. Technical or paranormal, it didn’t matter. He’d managed to balance a scientific career with an outrageous imagination. No concept was too alien or weird for Dan to tackle. It was only Dan who heard the full story of the ‘voice’, and it was only Dan who could advise Jim how he might deal with it.

“You gotta write it down,” Dan had said. “Getting it on paper will help get it outa your head.”

“That’s a lot of work if it turns out the opposite,” said Jim. “What if it makes me crazier?”

Dan laughed. “You’re obsessing on the subject anyway. I think it can only help. Besides you and I both know that a bit of creativity is good for the soul. Every artist knows that.”

The next day at work, Jim felt much better. He thought over his conversation with Dan and realized that Dan was still a soulmate, even after all these years. His counsel was of tremendous help at a time when Jim felt madness knocking at his door.

Dan’s suggestion to write a journal was what Jim needed to hear. Now he had a way to vent that wouldn’t alienate his family or his friends, although it meant giving up some free time, but that wasn’t the only good advice he’d gotten from Dan. After hearing the whole story, Dan pointed to two major flaws in Jim’s thinking. The first was that Jim believed that things would go the way he expected or wanted them to. The other was thinking that things wouldn’t change once money came into the picture.

“You’ve turned this over to Gene and John,” Dan had said. “That means it’s out of your hands. If you keep growling at them about how you feel then you’re sure to alienate both of them. Eventually they’ll cut you out of the picture altogether.”

At lunch time, Jim called Dan to thank him for his advice. “Strange that you’re thanking me,” said Dan, “I’m the guy who’s freeloadin’ at your house.”

So it was that Dan and Jim became close friends again after almost twenty-five years. Jim realized that if it wasn’t for Dan Slater there would be no ark project, yet Dan never tried to horn in on it. Clearly Dan found no reason to obsess about it. As he listened to Jim’s excited revelations about the ark, he seemed almost nonchalant.

Back in college, Jim and Dan had been called the twins by some of their friends because they were so much alike in their attitudes and interests. Now, seeing his twin react altogether differently about the ark project, Jim realized how much he was being consumed by it. Of course Dan hadn’t heard the voice. Though he fully believed that Jim had heard it and it may even have been from a ‘real’ external source, Dan still hadn’t heard it for himself. Without that kind of consensus Dan could never fully empathize.

It didn’t matter. Dan had done enough. Now it was up to Jim, and for the moment all that meant was coming to grips with the ark through his writing. Jim opened the document stored on his computer’s hard drive and began to type.

#

Unfortunately Dan’s advice came too late.

John and Gene met the next Saturday, and neither of them wanted Jim on hand. His disappearance after John had gone to the trouble of arranging things with Suzie and Arlene was hard for John to overlook. He’d taken Jim to be an free spirited liberal like Gene, and he had been sure that an afternoon romp and a girly sandwich would help make Jim a member of his family.

Gene knew when he arrived at John’s house that the girls weren’t there. If they had been, Arlene’s red MG would have been in its usual parking place, but the guest lot was empty. He even wondered if John was there.

Fostia had been killed three years before he met John, and it had been at least that long since he’d been with a woman. His busy routine as an editor of three trade magazines wasn’t conducive to meeting women, and he’d almost forgotten how anyway. Then he met John and everything changed.

John worked for the law firm that represented Gene’s publisher. After a lengthy lawsuit that John had won and saved Gene’s job, they had become friends. After that Gene’s life and his sex life changed radically.

John’s power and charm were a magnet for women and he thought nothing of sharing them. From Gene’s viewpoint John was the greatest guy on the planet. Understandable since John had given Gene the run of his property, a steady source of women, close friendship, and a chance to realize a lifelong dream.

At first John never asked for anything in return, but it wasn’t long before that changed.

Originally, rebuilding the Ark of the Covenant was Gene’s idea. Over the years it had been his muse. Instead of going out to eat or attending occasional parties Gene would spend his spare time researching the ark. He even flew once to Ethiopia for a vacation with the express purpose of visiting the city of Axum. There, legend has it, the lost Ark of the Covenant is kept in a temple.

Gene carried Jim’s drawings with him, and when a stroke of fortune found him close to the fabled site of the Lost Ark, he spent a few days trying to find access to the priest called the Guardian. Finally, on the last day of his vacation, he caught sight of a procession of priests headed to the temple. Realizing this was his only chance to get the priest to verify what the ark looked like, he followed the procession through the streets of Axum. It was a slow dusty trek before he found a moment to confront the high priest.

A group of sheep stopped the procession at an intersection and the high priest stood alone, patiently watching the herder shoo his flock out of his way.

Gene caught his attention and tried to ask the man about the ark. The priest stared at him, his squinting dark eyes examining Gene’s features like an X-ray machine. The priest said something and shook his head slowly and sadly, but Gene didn’t understand the language. In desperation he pulled Jim’s drawings from a satchel and waved them under the priest’s nose. The man looked at the drawing for a moment. Then, with shouts from his followers urging him onward, the priest moved on, giving Gene no indication of whether the drawings were accurate or not. He’d tried to follow, but hundreds of hands pushed him away and he was left standing in a dusty nameless street surrounded by begging children.

After that, the ark became a far deeper obsession. Gene called it his hobby, but he rarely discussed it with anyone. At every opportunity Gene continued his research, but over the years Gene never got any closer to the truth about the ark.