CHAPTER 37
Chester, MT
Gideon glanced through the photos Priddle had brought from the dig site. He, Priddle, and Kensington were in the senator’s study at his Montana ranch. Kensington had flown in for a few days to see how the site was progressing, and he was growing impatient.
Gideon’s own patience was reaching an end as well. He couldn’t understand how no stones had been uncovered yet. Why was this taking so long?
He paced along the back wall of Kensington’s office. He quickly shuffled through the pictures, looking for any evidence of the stone. Where the hell was it?
Kensington leafed through an identical stack of pictures over at his desk. He pointed to a symbol in one of the photos.
“Is this a cross?”
Gideon knew what picture the Senator was referring to. He shifted to the photo and sighed. The photo was a close-up of a double crucifix with perfectly straight edges, etched deeply into the granite. The man was a true idiot. The site pre-dated Christianity by thousands of years.
Priddle grabbed the photo across the desk and then handed it back. “Not exactly. It’s more likely an ankh or crux ansata. It’s seen throughout ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and denotes eternal life. It’s believed that the cross that’s used in Christianity was, in essence, borrowed from an older source, perhaps even linking it to the ancient Egyptian quest for immortality.”
“But it resembles a cross,” Kensington argued stubbornly.
Walking away from the two, Gideon rolled his eyes, knowing why Kensington was trying to tie this structure to Christianity. His conservative base would love it. The man couldn’t see beyond his own petty political desires. Oh, how he longed for the day the man was no longer of use.
“Yes. Yes, it does.” Priddle agreed.
Kensington continued to review the photos. “How much of the site is uncovered at this point?”
“Approximately fifty-five percent.”
“That’s it?”
“Senator, this site is huge, and you have to understand that archaeology is a painstaking process. They’ve been working on the Gobekli Tepe site since the mid-‘90s and only uncovered about six percent. In comparison, we’re moving at a lightning-fast rate.”
Kensington grunted in response. “What about the Belial Stone? Have there been any etchings that refer to it in these latest excavations?”
“Uh, yes.” Priddle stood up and took the photographs from the Senator.
Kensington curled his lip at Priddle’s proximity and leaned away from the professor. Gideon couldn’t blame him. The man always seemed to smell of old takeout.
Priddle pointed to the bottom of one of the photos. “Here, on photo twenty-seven. Look at the bottom of the lith.”
The Senator waved Priddle back to his seat and used his magnifying glass to get a better look. Gideon flipped to photo twenty-seven in his own stack. The frame depicted a priestess standing next to a glowing sphere. In the next frame, she took the sphere and used it to help a man who had been hurt. In the final frame, the man stood next to the priestess completely healed. The stone appears above them.
“What is this?” Kensington demanded. “Does it tell you where one of the stones is?”
“Uh, no. Not yet.”
At Kensington’s glare, Priddle continued, a tremor in his voice. “It does, however, tell us that the people who built the site are familiar with the Belial Stone and have used it. It’s only a matter of time before we find one.”
Kensington nodded. “How much time?”
Priddle looked uneasily around the room. “I’m not sure. It’s not clear at this point where the stone will be found. But we are making good progress. You realize, of course, that the cold weather will be upon us soon and we'll have to shut down for the winter. The ground will be too hard to dig through.”
“Can’t we just bring in some earth movers? Wouldn’t that speed up the project?”
Priddle cringed. “That’s not a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“For two reasons. First, the structures are all incredibly close to the surface. Over time, the ground above them has been eroded by wind and rain. That’s the reason the first monolith was uncovered. Left alone, most of the structures would have probably been uncovered naturally in another hundred years or so. Second, the structures are simply too close together. If we use an earth mover, we risk damaging the monoliths.”
“So?” Kensington asked.
“We, also, might lose a Belial Stone in the process or worse, destroy it. We don’t know if one became dislodged over the years. By using the earth movers, we could miss it.”
Kensington grunted. “Fine. But I expect you to increase the pace before winter. I want more than pretty pictures of a Belial Stone, Professor. I want a stone.”
“Sir, the men are working around the clock as is. Perhaps if we had more men to dig…”
Kensington looked up and caught Priddle’s eyes. The academic quickly looked away.
“Very well,” Kensington replied. “I will get you more men. But you had better get me results.”
“Yes, sir. Of course. I’m sure we’re very close.”
Kensington grunted again and waved him out of the room. Priddle glanced at Gideon, who had moved to the couch along the back of the room.
Gideon merely raised his eyebrows and tilted his head towards the door. Priddle turned. Tripping on his untied shoelaces, he caught himself on the doorjamb before stumbling from the room.
With a look of disgust at the doorway, Kensington turned his attention to Gideon. “That man is a cockroach.”
Gideon sighed. “True, but he is a useful cockroach.”
Kensington’s gaze returned to the photos on his desk. “Can you get more men?”
“More men are never a problem. The problem, however, will be when winter moves in. The professor is right about the timetable. We have another month, maybe, before winter moves in. Then you’ll have about 200 or 300 men and nothing for them to do.”
Kensington sighed. “Well, we’ll just have to close up shop and start again in the spring.”
Gideon looked at him for a long moment. He knew what the Senator was really saying. But he got a perverse pleasure from making the man spell it out. “And the men?”
“They’ll have served their purpose and provided a valuable service to this country. Once we have the stone, they will have helped forge a stronger United States.” Kensington leaned back in his chair, his hands across his chest. “Their sacrifice will be remembered.”