John Lyman - The Secret Chapel

Under the cover of the smaller tent, laptop computers and photographic equipment filled half the space. In the other half, several members of the team were busy sketching detailed drawings of the site on two portable drafting tables that had been mounted atop a wooden floor hastily assembled to keep the sand at bay.

Several staff members were assigned to pass out water to everyone on a regular basis in the oppressive heat as the team continued to dig, reaching the five-foot level along one section of the perimeter by midmorning.

John removed his cap and shook the sweat from his hair before stepping into the shade of the site headquarters tent. Looking up from his computer, Daniel noticed John’s crimson face. He reached into a nearby ice chest and handed him a bottle of ice-cold water. “John, do you have that brick with you?”

“It never leaves my side.” He hefted his new backpack up onto the table next to Daniel’s computer and removed it for him to examine. “What are you looking for?”

“I’ve been searching through the Bible looking for anything in the code that mentioned that brick. I’m pretty sure I’ve just found what we’ve been looking for.”

“Have you told Leo yet?”

“I just called him on the radio. He’s on his way over.”

John watched the pages scrolling on the computer screen while Daniel picked up the brick and held it in his hands, turning it over as he inspected it. He saw right away that there were no inscriptions that could be seen with the naked eye.

The anticipation John felt was nerve-wracking. “Can you show me what you’ve found?”

Daniel put the brick down and motioned for John to join him in front of the computer just as Leo’s jeep came roaring up to the tent and slid to a stop.

“Thanks for getting here so quickly, Leo,” Daniel said. “I was about to show John the section that mentions the stone brick you found in the chapel.”

Leo could barely contain his excitement. “We’ve been dying to know more about that brick ever since we laid eyes on it.”

Daniel pointed to a page on the screen containing a section from the Bible. Several words and phrases written in Hebrew were interconnected and circled in red. “This is the grid where I found the reference to the stone brick. The words terrorist attacks were the first ones that jumped out at me. Next to that are the words New York , followed by the date September 11, 2001 . Now, if you look down at the bottom of the page, you will see the words stone brick and wall of the chapel located between two phrases. The first phrase reads it is the key . The second one says, the attack is painted on the key .”

Leo felt his heart race. “So what this is saying is that the brick is a key of some sort?”

“Exactly, and it goes even further. Cross over to the edge of the page, and you will see the words the key will unlock that which belongs to Satan .”

Leo picked up the brick and studied the painting. “I believe this image was painted on the brick with the intention of getting our attention. Morelli told me that the code is like a time lock revealed only to the right people at the right time. This brick was not meant to be found or even understood until this exact time in history. Before 9/11, the painting would have been interesting, but meaningless.”

“At least now we know it’s a key of some sort,” John said.

Leo handed the brick to John. “John, you need to watch this brick like a snake in the room until we need it, whenever that may be. I think Lev will be overjoyed with this new information. Have you told him yet, Daniel?”

“No, he drove back into camp to get some more supplies. I thought you might like to surprise him with the news.”

The three men sat in the shade of the tent, drinking cold water and taking turns examining the ancient brick, while, at the excavation site, Ariella was in her element, digging in the dirt. A female staff member by the name of Maya was working next to her in the trench and paused to take a drink from her canteen. “You know, Ariella, Satan’s not going to let us dig something out of the ground that belongs to him, load it on a truck, and just drive out of the desert with it. What do you think we’re really looking for?”

“In archaeology, you just keep digging until something is slowly revealed. You can’t rush it. We’re going to have to take our time and be patient. That’s what makes the experience so exciting. It’s like unwrapping a present and you can’t wait to see what’s inside.”

Maya removed a pale blue baseball cap and poured water over her head, letting it drip off the ends of her short black hair. “There are all kinds of rumors going around camp. Some of the staff are really spooked. One of them even decided he’d had enough and quit. He rode back into town with the truck that brought the backhoe out here this morning.”

“You know as well as I do, Maya, that some people are just not cut out to … hello?” Ariella’s spade had just struck something hard in the sand. “What’s this?”

“It looks like metal,” Maya said. “Should I call Lev on the radio?”

“Good idea. Ask him to bring my camera.”

Ariella produced a brush from her pocket and began brushing away the sand from the object while Maya grabbed her radio and called Lev who was still back in camp. The excited chatter on everyone’s radios alerted Leo and the others to rush out to the site to see what Ariella had found.

Arriving at the freshly dug trench, they saw that Ariella and Maya had just finished removing most of the sand from around the top of a buried object. “It’s metal alright,” Ariella said. “It looks like the paint’s been burned off by something really hot.”

News of the discovery was spreading. Everyone stopped what they were doing and began to crowd around as Ariella and Maya continued to reveal more metal, making it obvious that they had uncovered only part of a much larger object buried below.

Lev had finally arrived with Ariella’s camera and began shouting orders. “Everyone grab a shovel. We need to enlarge this trench, but be very careful. We’ll take a reading with the metal detector to get an idea of its size and dig around it, then work our way in.”

The enthusiastic group began to dig without thought to the heat, and within an hour, the burned remains of a vintage World War II era military truck began to materialize.

Ariella jumped up on the edge of the widening excavation and began taking pictures. “This is probably one of the man-made objects we spotted with the infrared pictures we took earlier.”

Farther away from the truck, one of the workers pushed a shovel into the ground, and a definite crunch could be heard.

“Stop!” Ariella shouted. She ran over to the area where the worker was standing and jumped down into a newly excavated area where a second object had been discovered. Once again, she began to methodically brush away the dirt, gradually revealing something that caused those around her to gasp. She had just uncovered the unmistakable face of a blackened skull. As some of the workers unconsciously began to back away, Leo made the sign of the cross and uttered a silent prayer.

As the significance of their discovery began to sink in, Lev knelt down to assist his daughter, slowly revealing a complete skeleton next to the remains of the truck. Burned bits of clothing, along with leather boots and metal buttons with insignia, were all that remained of what obviously had once been a military uniform.

Ariella wiped some dirt off her forehead and looked up at Lev. “What do you think this is, Father?”

Lev peered down at the skeleton. “I’m not sure. I think the better question would be who is this? These remains could be from the fighting during the 1940’s. It looks like this vehicle took a direct hit from a bomb of some sort. Let’s take some pictures of the buttons and the insignia and e-mail them to the university in Jerusalem. We should have some sort of identification of the uniform within a few hours.”