Free The Lost Ark by J.R. Rain Page B

story, along with the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh.”
    “Should I make copious notes for the quiz later?”
    “Are you ever serious, Sam?”
    “Look,” I said. “You scientists have all the proof you need to denounce it, the believers have all the faith they need to believe, so who the hell cares what I think?”
    “But you make a living endorsing that myth.”
    “Correction, I make a living safely guiding people onto a very dangerous mountain. What they do on the mountain is their business.”
    “Have you ever seen any evidence of the ark?”
    “No.”
    She sat back, satisfied. “As I said, it’s a myth. Bedtime stories. A classic hero tale, one man conquering nature and all that.”
    “Now that you’ve got it all figured out,” I said. “Perhaps we should get going.”
    And that’s when Faye screamed, and not because of a field mouse.
    * * *
    The creature was long and beautiful and as deadly as they come. Relative to the North American cottonmouth, the puff adder, with its patch-work pattern, was perfectly camouflaged for its surroundings. It moved languidly through the dry grass a foot away from Faye’s out-stretched leg.
    “Sam!”
    Puff adders were deaf; or, more accurately, lacked hearing. Good thing.
    “Christ, Sam, do something!”
    “Just be still.”
    Its forked tongue, covered in sense organs, flicked in and out, testing its surroundings. The adder was long, perhaps the longest I’ve seen on the mountain. And it was shedding. Seen in a different light, the snake could look ghastly, which was probably the light in which Faye was seeing it.
    “I’m going to faint, Sam.”
    “Not a good idea,” I said.
    “I-I can’t breathe.”
    I moved forward, crouched low to the ground. The adder paid little attention to me, or even to Faye, for that matter. It seemed intent on the bubbling stream, and suddenly made a turn for the worse…slithering over Faye’s ankle.
    “Sam!”
    “Sit still.”
    “I can’t breathe.”
    The snake’s tongue flicked out rapidly, wiggling like a worm on a hook. Faye’s eyes suddenly rolled up into her head and her elbows slipped from under her. She fell silently back into the soft grass. It was just as well, and a whole lot quieter.
    I grabbed the snake’s tail and pulled it away from Faye. True to its name, the creature puffed out extraordinarily and swung its jaws, bubbling with venom, at me, but they fell just short. Thirty feet away, I set the creature free in the wet grass.

    Chapter Seventeen

    We followed a series of sheep trails along a rocky slope as the wind hit us first from one direction, then another. Sparring like a boxer. The effect was complete instability.
    I checked on Faye. She appeared to be doing fine. Her face was set in grim determination. Grim determination was an asset on this mountain. We stopped under a rock overhang and drank from our water bottles. I watched a dust devil move up the slope, then lose its steam and dissipate into nothing. Faye said, “I’ve never fainted before.”
    “It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” I said.
    “But nothing to be proud of either.”
    “Then I promise not to tell,” I said, “no matter how much the tabloids offer.”
    The wind tousled her hair. Her hair looked good tousled. She removed her sunglasses and looked at me. “You can be very sweet behind the jokes and tough-guy attitude.”
    “Sweet, tough and funny,” I said. “A hell of a combination.”
    “Notice I didn’t say modest?”
    “I noticed.”
    Her eyes followed the slope all the way to the snow-capped peak thousands of feet above. “Do you think we’re wasting our time?” she asked.
    I shrugged. “Maybe not. Maybe Emir Omar Ali has some answers to your father’s disappearance.”
    “Why do you say that?”
    I said, “The shepherd established that your father and his student were above the Ahora Gorge, which may be near Omar’s camp. If your father did come across Omar, he would have stumbled upon a whole hornet’s nest of