Chapter Text
Then the Lord said to him, "What is that in your hand?"
"A staff," he replied.
The Lord said, "Throw it on the ground."
Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to him, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail." So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. "This," said the Lord, "is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you."
February 2040
Petra, Jordan
Had it not been for Omaria, they never would've gotten access to the Petra site in Jordan, where they could do some digging in the mountains. While the digging crew Derek Lowell was with left the temples alone, Derek couldn't help but chew the scenery and take in everything before him.
It wasn't the sights that had Derek working with his archaeology institution but the new rumor that someone found evidence of Sodom and Gomorrah in Jordan.
Given the biblical significance of such a find, it wasn't a surprise when he spotted his old buddies, Catholic priest Yagmur Sadik and his niece, Belinay Sadik, at the site with them.
"It's an honor to meet you again," the Priest bowed. "But I do wish the circumstances were a bit better."
Derek tilted his head. "I have no idea whatcha mean."
The Priest nodded to his shoes. "If the new evidence suggests that we are standing upon Sodom and Gomorrah, then take your shoes off, for we may be on Holy Ground, despite God's destroyed cities."
Derek chuckled before he took off his sneakers. "I guess you have a point; it wouldn't be respectful to God if we wore shoes while walking on Holy Ground."
"Thank you," the Priest smiled.
Derek looked at Bethany. "Wow, Bethany, you are getting tall."
"I just turned fifteen," Bethany shrugged, her voice more profound than the last time he saw her. "Three more years until I'm an adult."
"Life has been treating you well?"
"Of course," she said smugly, "I've been doing good in school and spreading the love of God to everyone around me."
The Priest looked around at the other archeologists digging at the site. He noticed that none of them were wearing shoes, mostly because he told them to take their shoes off.
Derek was just grateful that it wasn't too hot today and the sand felt soft and warm against his white socks. He looked around and took in the site; the dig site was in the canyons where, an earthquake, caused some of the canyons to come apart and reveal parts of what looked to be building structures.
The rumor that it had once been part of Sodom and Gomorrah came from the Hebrew writing found scratched into the wall with several references to the destroyed lost city. Derek looked over to where everyone was digging and saw his wife, Cassie Drake, sitting on a rock with an artifact in her hand, carefully dusting the sand off with their Egyptian friend, Omaria Al-Bashir, digging into the sand with a shovel beside her. Feeling eager all of a sudden, Derek walks over to his wife and puts his hands in his pockets as he watches the two girls work.
"What's up, ladies, been doing fine and dandy with finding any interesting skull and bones?"
Cassie paused to look up at her husband. "No, not yet, but we'll keep looking."
Omaria gave up on digging and dropped the shovel. "In this day and age, finding skulls and bones buried in the sand is much more exciting than finding lost cities or mythical artifacts. No thanks to you guys and your handiwork."
Cassie laughed. "I try my best to make sure that everything unearthed has value, even skull, and bones."
Omaria put on a fake sad face. "Cassie, if I ever lose my worth over the years, I want you to make a promise: to bury me in the sand so when I'm unearthed a thousand years later, I'm priceless."
Cassie put down the artifact and stood up. "Of course and you know that there's already a process for this: they're called graves." She held her hands out. "But if you're looking to spread your value after your death, I can always cremate you and then put your ashes in a very nice jar."
"Aww, would you do that for me? In spite of how unholy that sounds?"
"Of course. I'm an organ donor so when I go, the life and joy I have filled in my heart will spread to everyone else."
"Along with your small stomach and Olympic swimming lungs."
"A smoker who has to get his lungs removed should be honored to have my lungs; I can hold my breath for six minutes underwater."
"And odd how we have no physical proof of it nor any photographic evidence."
"Hey, if God is all about faith and believing rather than seeing, then so are the things I've done."
"That's right." Omaria grabbed Cassie's shoulders. "I believe you, Cassie, I believe you."
Cassie held her finger up. "Oh, you said 'I believe you' twice."
"That shows how much I believe you.' She smiled smugly. "I believe you." He patted Cassie's shoulder before picking up her shovel.
Derek laughed. "You two are hilarious."
"Of course we are, we have to be when it is this hot outside," Cassie laughed again. "My serious side is reserved for the fall. And spring, both still a way to go."
"Yeah, and your snarky side is reserved for winter and summer, both good occasions for having a cold-blooded sense of humor." He checked his watch. "By the way, it's almost lunchtime; you want to eat with me?"
Cassie looked back at the artifact. Just as she was above to say something, she coughs. She coughs for a few seconds, loud and hard to the point she actually has to take out an inhaler and use it.
Derek flinched. "For reals, what is going on with you, Cassie?"
"Allergies," Cassie insisted as she pocketed her inhaler. "All this sand."
Derek looked at her with a look that said 'are-you-serious'. "First soy, then snow, now sand? If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're allergic to anything with the letter S in it. If that's the case, you shouldn't be working near a lost city called Sodom and Gomorrah."
"Honey, after everything we've done, I think lost cities should be scared of us."
He nods. "Valid point."
"But anyways, to answer your question, I'm going to be doing a little more digging because I'm sure that I'm close to finding something."
"Okay then, I'll keep your lunch warm."
"Yep, just leave it outside and the dessert will do most of the work for us."
Derek turned away, ready to be done with this dig site before he was about to have a sunstroke. Granted, it was somewhat chilly but it was still also hot. This was the first time in a while Derek had been feeling both hot and cold at the same time.
Rome, Italy
Casino
Muscle memory, Giovanni thought as he flung the cards across the table. With three purple grapes lined up before him, he flicked the Ace of Spares into the grape on the left, then the King of Hearts to the middle, and the Jack of Clubs on the grape on the right. All three cards had landed on the target and slit the grapes.
The door at the end of the casino opens up. A man dressed in casual clothing approaches Giovanni with an envelope. He drops the envelope on the poker table and Giovanni quickly picks it up. He opens the envelope and reads its contents. He smiles widely, laughing in a high-pitched voice that sounded like squeaking.
"Ahh, you can always trust my boys down in the Vatican," he told the messenger. "They always got tricks up their sleeves. Now you see them, now you don't." He laughed once again. "Aww man, the beauty of this historical find. It could be historical, unnatural, in a way, supernatural. Do you believe in ghosts and spooks, my messenger?"
"No," the messenger answered.
"Well boo-hoo to you, man. You better start believing in ghosts before they take revenge on you for not believing in them."
"I'll take my chances."
Giovanni pulled out a deck of cards. He flipped through the cards and shuffled them a few times before he made one of them fly out of the deck and into his hand. "Pretty slim chances, if I do say so myself." He held the Joker card in his hand. "Now then, is there anything else I must know before I return to this lonely LONELY game of poker?"
The messenger flinched slightly at Giovanni's sudden eruption. He shook his head. "No."
Giovanni's smile remained. "Good. Now leave me alone to play a game of Poker against myself." He shuffled the deck once more before drawing himself five cards. "Who knows what cards I could have that could beat me or win against me."
The messenger turned but before he could get one step in, Giovanni spoke once more.
"I saw my madre get shot by my padre, I never laughed until the day before yesterday." The messenger rolled his eyes, stopping only when Giovanni had more to say. "I got assaulted by fascist yesterday." The messenger held back, in case Giovanni had more to say, which he did. "My youngest brother joined that Neo-Fascist group. And I know now, that I'm the black sheep of the family."
He laid down his hand. "That's why I got a Royal Flush of the Clubs variety."
The messenger grunted. "Is there anything else you need me for?"
"No no no, I know how important it is for you to be as far away from as possible so I'll let you be in your merry-go-way. Before you go, I just want you to know you shattered my expectations today: messengers don't talk." He shrugged. "Oh well, life has always been a series of whimsical, unpredictable, chaotic, unforeseeable random events." He laughed once more. "Now fly away little birdie."
The messenger rolls his eyes once more before leaving.
Vatican City
Niko Lowell was here on a mission, he was a man with a mission. He was here to do some historical research on some ancient artifacts. He was still shocked and amazed at how he managed to make it into the St. Peter's Basilica. First of all, he couldn't believe the architecture of this place and second of all, he wished he invited his friend, the Priest, and Bethany into this church; he was pretty sure they'd appreciate being in the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church.
If what the conspiracy theories said is true then there should be an archive room somewhere in this place with hidden secrets. Niko wasn't much of a believer in conspiracy theories, at least not of the sci-fi and alien type. He wasn't saying that something fishy isn't happening at these locations prone to breeding conspiracy theories, like the Vatican or Area 51, it's just that he believes that what's going on in this place is more mundane than these conspiracy theories make them out to be. He may have been a skeptic, in denial, or maybe a non-believer, but he truly did not want to meddle in anything. He was a man of language, who believed that history is told through the evolution of language. The Bible speaks of God changing the way people talk involving a structure known as the Tower of Babel. In fact, Niko would go as far as to say he had more in common with their religious archeologist friend, the Priest than he did with his own cousin because the very idea of a singular language worldwide being split apart interested him immensely.
It's why he got into studying languages, modern and ancient and he may be feeling smug but he's proud that his ability to read, understand, and write more ancient languages surpasses his cousin and his wife.
When a contact of his said that the Vatican had scriptures written in Sumerian, he knew he had to get his hands on the archives. Still trying to decipher the tablet from Lemuria in the last few months, he needed to look at more authenticate Sumerian writing from back in the days, not the stuff he read in books or looked up on the internet. Just as his contact came out of a room holding a thick book, a black bag was placed over his head and he lost consciousness shortly after.