LEGION IN A BOTTLE

By: Steven L. Shrewsbury

"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless,

and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful."

Dr. Samuel Johnson

"What a rush this is, right, Dr. Phillips?"

These words echoed in the dark tunnel, their giddy tone an anachronism to the somber Egyptian glyphs surrounding them. As the floor to the chamber overhead gave way, the words of billionaire oilman Ted King were the first to filter into the chamber above in thousands of years.

Dr. Phillips directed the light of his helmet into the compartment above, nodded and brushed sand out of his brown beard. "I am not sure I feel comfortable breathing air that hasn't been recycled in a few millenniums, Mr. King, but yes, you are correct. Breaking into the chamber under the Sphinx's forepaw is exciting stuff."

The billionaire danced, practically scatterbrained as the men in long robes behind him smiled. In the dim light, they enjoyed the humor of his dance. "I told you that I could find men to lead us here!" Ted explained with a smile. "They knew the way through the underground connecting route for the right price."

Pulling down more debris and seeing ancient hieroglyphics on the walls, Dr. Phillips agreed. "Money can buy most of anything."

"Hah," Ted laughed, momentarily taking off his floppy hat to wipe a sweaty scalp. "I correct you. It can buy anything. The loyalty and superstitions of these people of the Gaza plateau folded when I made them millionaires. A small price to pay to access the tunnel that connects the pyramids to the Sphinx! Think of the dark mysteries we are unlocking from time immortal."

Dr. Phillips climbed up into the chamber, supporting himself by the elbows. He looked around and said. "Room enough or us, I suppose."

The archeologist on King's expensive retainer lifted his boss into the room. He then helped a smaller man up. Dressed in tan shorts and sporting curly dark hair, this man marveled at the walls, adjusted his helmet light, and then faced the rich man.

King said with enthusiasm, "Joe, do your thing!"

Dr. Phillips saw the smaller man frown. This man looked at Ted King and said quietly, "That is Yoseph, not Joe, sir."

As the billionaire stayed near them in the rather tiny, boxy room, he shrugged and said, "Sorry. I guess a fellow like you so astute in all languages would be into proper names."

Yoseph gave Dr. Phillips a sour look that betrayed his true feelings. It was a risky _expression to mete out over a man who owned most of Texas. "It is not just for the cash, Mr. King. I relish the chance to read any untranslated scrolls first."

Looking around the chamber, they were all stunned into a long silence. Several long jars neatly stood against the walls. There was on large rectangular stone object in the center of the room, waiting.

Dr. Phillips broke the silence and said, "Not much dust. The room must really have been air tight. By the displacement when we opened, I wagered as much."

Yoseph looked at the glyphs on the walls as Ted went to his knees by the tubes along the wall. Ted commented, "Sound proof as well. I can't even hear the United Nations Unity celebration outside."

Yoseph and Dr. Phillips both cocked their heads and noted that Ted was correct. Phillips sighed and squinted at the canisters, then the large box. A few of the men from the tunnel climbed into the chamber carrying long poles. "These New Year celebrations are getting annoying. Every country sends these people in like the world will suddenly get along if they just congregate in Egypt and pray."

Ted laughed and waved at the canisters. "If these are what we think, dear sir, then we may have a reason for them to be here."

"Although Edgar Cayce predicted the discovery of an Atlantean hall of records here," Dr. Phillips stated. "I must caution you that this may not be so."

"Yoseph?" Ted asked eagerly as the men in robes sized up the stone rectangle.

Reading the walls, Yoseph related, "It says here we are in a chamber sealed by the high priests of…no, this is a hoax."

All of them faced Yoseph, but Dr. Phillips spoke first. "What is it?"

Unbelievingly, Yoseph said, "These glyphs say this chamber was made by priests of the god of the sea, Dagon. That was a Philistine god, not one of Egypt!"

Ted King's eyes blazed. "Maybe there is a connection! We may be sitting on a bigger powder keg than just Atlantis!"

Yoseph's face flushed as he read, "It seems these priests journeyed here from the East with the…the…"

"What?" Dr. Phillips asked, impatient.

"Ark of God." His dark eyes turned to the rectangular box. "Ark of the Covenant!"

Like lunatics, the helpers set about unsealing the stone box. Dr. Phillips admonished them to slow down. "If it is the Ark, do not touch it, for God's sake!"

Ted's hands flexed as he seemed to be in a state of ecstasy. "Indeed. For God's sake! We are teetering on true power here, my friends! The very secrets that have always separated the murky dark from ethereal light are at our fingertips."

Yoseph told them, "The walls say the son of Solomon, had with Queen of Sheba, took the Ark of God south once war ravaged Israel. This was after the death of his father. Solomon fell out of favor with almighty God, due to letting his many wives erect altars of pagan gods in the holy Temple to Jehovah."

Hunks of the stone box crumbled and one of the men digging at the box ran back to the hole in the floor to jump in the tunnel. Dr. Phillips showed his light in the box and ordered them, "Get the pieces away so I can open it."

Ted King stepped forward and beheld the gleaming lid of the Ark of the Covenant. The golden Cheribums drew their wings across the Mercy Seat of the box made under the direction of Moses, just as it always said. "The actual box made so long ago," Ted gasped. "Where the pieces of the Ten Commandments lie…where the bowl of manna, the bread of heaven is…along with the staff of Aaron!"

Yoseph peered at the Ark, but seemed intent on translating the glyphs. "It has to be a fake, I tell you. This is difficult to read."

King snapped, "That is why I paid you a million dollars. You are supposed to be a genius and an expert in ancient texts. Read!"

With a sigh, the translator said, "I cannot see how the priests of Dagon attained this ark, but they seemed intent on getting rid of it. I cannot see how Solomon's son is involved with them. Some sort of sickness spread from the Ark, swelling their groins. Some say it was not unlike the Black Plague."

Dr. Phillips nodded as they pulled the last of the stone covering away from the top of the Ark. "In the Bible it tells of the Ark residing in the temple of Dagon, but that was long before the birth of Solomon."

King added, "And the rumor is the Ark was always in Ashkum, Ethiopia, taken there by Solomon's son. Yes, yes, I read Graham Hancock's book."

Dr. Phillips caught his breath and took one of the poles. He reached down and touched the edge of the Ark, searching for an edge to the lid. "Then what do we have here?"

Yoseph grinned and then laughed.

King gave him a distasteful look. "What? They include jokes on the walls?"

"No, you just may be looking at a duplicate!" Yoseph chuckled. "There were many copies made of the Ark, it says, as we all know there are many in Ashkum now."

Dr, Phillips still probed the Ark as he nodded, "Every church altar is an Ark there. Go on."

"It says here that one of Solomon's wives made a duplicate copy, a fetish Ark, and performed the opposite of the old ceremonies on it. She got in touch with the original darkness, forces that lurked on the Earth before even the flood. That is what you are opening, Dr. Phillips. It appears to be an instrument for reviving bad mojo, for the lack of a better word. That is the one taken and hidden here, for the priests could not destroy it nor its dark power."

Ted cursed, and then said, "Oh, how can you really trust that? I want to see what is inside!"

Suddenly, Dr. Phillips felt the lid give. It was as if a compressed box unsealed and another small rush of air was released. When the lid raised and slid off the back of the box, they all peered inside.

Indeed, several pieces of crumbled stone lay in one corner. There was a long wooden rod and a small bowl. Ted reached down to touch the bowl of manna, but when his fingertip touched the contents of the bowl, the whiteness of the bread turned black. He withdrew his hand fast and looked at the others.

Dr. Phillips warned, "Keep your hands out of it."

"The words on the stone inside here, on the tablets," Ted said as his nose began to run. "Yoseph, what are they?"

"Ancient Hebrew," he confirmed and coughed. Shrugging in disbelief and not shook up at all, he confessed, "It cannot be the real ones, written in the hand of God to Moses. I tell you it is a fake, an evil fetish made to further the work of dark gods."

Dr. Phillips blinked as his eyes teared up. In the beams of light, they could see a fine mist emanating from the belly of the Ark.

Yoseph looked at the walls and said, "But this says that the Ark was placed here beside the records of the antediluvian age…"

Mucus running from his nose, Ted King went to his knees and embraced the tubes by the Ark. "Atlantis at last! These are real!"

Yoseph coughed badly, then said, "…to preserve the Order of Dagon, the fetish Ark, and release the curse of the dark lurkers on a new people. Whereas the Ark was a symbol of life…" He looked at Ted King, Billionaire, as the rich man vomited a stream of phlegm, grabbed his groin and fell over. "This Ark is the carrier of pestilence…a Black Death."

They all stumbled toward the opening in the floor, but none made it there alive. The men in the tunnel looked up, but they soon started to cough.

…And out on the Gaza Plateau, the representatives of United Nations celebrated the coming New Year and a New Age of for all of Mankind.

Copyright 2003.