Juan Gómez-Jurado - Contract with God aka The Moses Expedition

Whatever it was, it was manmade.

‘My God, David.’

‘What I don’t understand is how they managed to make such a solid wall without using any mortar and without being able to work on the other side.’

‘Maybe there’s an exit on the other side of the chamber. You said that there had to be one.’

‘You could be right, but I don’t think so. I’ve taken new readings with the magnetometer. Behind this block of stones is the unstable area we identified with our initial readings. In fact, the Copper Scroll was found in a hole just like this one.’

‘Coincidence?’

‘I doubt it.’

David knelt and touched the wall gently with his fingertips. When he found the slightest crack between the stones he tried pulling with all his might.

‘There’s no way,’ he went on. ‘This hole in the cave has been sealed on purpose; and for some reason, the stones have become even more tightly compacted than when they were first put there. It could be that in two thousand years there’s been downward pressure on the wall. Almost as if…’

‘As if what?’

‘As if God himself had sealed the entrance. Don’t laugh.’

I’m not laughing , Andrea thought . None of this is funny.

‘Can’t we pull away the stones one at a time?’

‘Not without knowing how thick the wall is and what’s behind it.’

‘And how are you going to do that?’

‘By looking inside.’

Four hours later, with Brian Hanley and Tommy Eichberg helping him, David Pappas had managed to drill a small hole through the wall. They’d had to take apart the motor of the large rock drill – which they hadn’t used as yet, since they’d only had to dig through earth and sand – and lower it part by part into the tunnel. Hanley put together a strange-looking contraption from the pieces of the wrecked mini-excavator at the entrance to the cave.

‘Now that’s recycling!’ Hanley said, pleased with his creation.

The result, besides being ugly, was not very practical. It took all four of them to hold it in place, pushing with all their strength. To make matters worse, only the smallest drill bits could be used, to avoid subjecting the wall to excessive vibration. ‘Seven feet,’ Hanley yelled, above the clanking sound of the motor.

David pushed a fibre-optic camera connected to a small view-finder through the hole, but the cable attached to the camera was too stiff and short and the ground on the other side was full of obstacles.

‘Shit! I won’t be able to see anything like this.’

Feeling something graze her, Andrea brought her hand up to the back of her neck. Someone was throwing small stones at her. She turned around.

Forrester was trying to get her attention, unable to make himself heard above the din of the motor. Pappas went over and leaned his ear towards the old man.

‘That’s it,’ David yelled, both agitated and overjoyed. ‘That’s what we’ll do, Professor. Brian, do you think you can make the hole a little bigger? Say about three-quarters of an inch by an inch and a quarter?’

‘Don’t even joke about it,’ Hanley said, scratching his head. ‘We don’t have any small drill bits left.’

Wearing thick gloves he was removing the last of the smoking drill bits, which had bent out of shape. Andrea remembered when she’d tried to hang a beautiful framed photo of the Manhattan skyline in her apartment on a weight-bearing wall. Her drill bit had been about as useful as a pretzel stick.

‘Frick would probably have known what to do,’ said Brian sadly, looking at the corner where his friend had died. ‘He had a lot more experience of this kind of thing than I do.’

Pappas didn’t say anything for a couple of minutes. The others could almost hear him thinking.

‘What if I let you use the medium-sized drill bits?’ he finally said.

‘Then there wouldn’t be a problem. I could have it done in two hours. But the vibration is going to be that much greater. The area is clearly unstable… it’s a big risk. You’re aware of that?’

David laughed, without a drop of humour.

‘You’re asking me if I’m aware that four thousand tons of rocks might come crashing down, pulverising the greatest object in the history of the world? That it would destroy many years of work and an investment of millions of dollars? That it would render pointless the sacrifice of five people?’

Fuck! He’s completely different today. He’s as… contaminated by the whole thing as the professor , Andrea thought.

‘Yes, I’m aware, Brian,’ David added. ‘And I’m going to take that risk.’

AL MUDAWWARA DESERT, JORDAN

Wednesday, 19 July 2006. 7:01 p.m.

Andrea took another photo of Pappas kneeling in front of the stone wall. His face was in shadow, but the device he was using to look through the hole was clearly visible.

Much better, David… not that you’re exactly a great beauty , Andrea observed wryly to herself. In a few hours she would regret having that thought, but at that moment there was nothing closer to the truth. That machine was amazing.

‘Stowe used to call it an ATER. Annoying Terrain Explorer Robot, but we call it Freddie.’

‘Any special reason?’

‘Just to fuck with Stowe. He was an arrogant prick,’ David replied. Andrea was surprised at the anger displayed by the usually timid archaeologist.

Freddie was a mobile camera system with a remote control that could be used in places where human access would be dangerous. It had been developed by Stowe Erling, who would sadly not be there to witness his robot’s debut. In order to navigate obstacles such as rocks, Freddie had been equipped with treads similar to those used on tanks. The robot was also submersible for periods of up to ten minutes. Erling had copied the idea from a group of archaeologists working in Boston and had recreated it with the help of some engineers from MIT-who were suing him for going off on this mission with the first prototype, although this was something that would no longer trouble Erling.

‘We’ll put it through the opening to obtain views of the grotto’s interior,’ said David. ‘That way we’ll be able to figure out if it’s safe to knock down the wall without damaging what’s on the other side.’

‘How can the robot see in there?’

‘Freddie is equipped with night-vision lenses. The central mechanism throws out an infrared beam that only the lens can pick up. The images aren’t very good quality, but they’re good enough. The only thing we have to watch for is that it doesn’t get stuck or tip over. If that happens, we’re finished.’

The first few feet were fairly straightforward. The initial stage, although narrow, gave Freddie sufficient room to get into the cave. Crossing the uneven area between the wall and the ground was a little more difficult as it was rough and full of loose rocks. Luckily the robot’s treads could be operated independently, enabling it to turn and circumnavigate lesser obstacles.

‘Sixty degrees to the left,’ said David, focusing on the screen, where he could see little more than a field of rocks in black and white. Tommy Eichberg was manipulating the controls at David’s request, since he had a steady hand despite his chubby fingers. Each tread was operated by means of a small wheel on the controls, connected to Freddie via two thick cables that provided power and could also be used to haul in the machine manually should something go wrong.

‘We’re almost there. Oh no!’

The screen jumped around as the robot nearly tipped over.

‘Shit! Be careful, Tommy,’ David yelled.

‘Take it easy, kid. These wheels are more sensitive than a nun’s clit. Excuse the language, miss,’ Tommy said, turning to Andrea. ‘My mouth is straight out of the Bronx.’