Blackbird

Chapter 3 : The World's Oldest Temple

12 hours later, in Turkey

Patrick was now dressed in a clean shirt, jeans and dark aviator shades driving towards an unknown location towards the desert along with Beeman and two security guards in a limousine. He was all sobered up and had eggs and bacon for breakfast on the plane. After passing through airport security, he was accompanied by two security guards who didn’t say much as to where they were taking him. Patrick shrugged his shoulders and went along knowing that there was nothing much he could do but follow their instructions.

They passed through busy marketplaces in the city until they were driving through village roads and rocky mountains. There was absolute silence in the car except the sound of Beeman typing furiously on his laptop. Patrick was getting bored and asked the driver to play some music but the driver gave him an ugly look and Patrick thought it would be best to shut his mouth.

Back at the site, Hans was awaiting impatiently for Patrick to arrive and was strolling up and down the excavation site. The site was ancient- belonging to the 10th century BCE- of the Neolithic Age. It was located in the southeast Anatolia region of Turkey, between the Euphrates and Tigris river, on a fertile valley. To the northeast and northwest were the Taurus and Zagros mountains and to the south the Arabian desert, with Syria and Iran on the west and east respectively. 

It looked like a mound- an artificial mound constructed by early humans with oval shaped structures surrounded by 10 metres long T-shaped pillars. These pillars had various etchings and carvings on them- mostly depicting strange drawings of long human arms and feet and also some animals like dogs, alligators and birds. Excavations began on this site more than 25 years ago when various international archaeological teams began digging up this mound. They found sharp flint tools, and small stone sculptures and interest on this site has been increasing every year as archaeologists come back with more advanced tools and instruments to excavate. What has been confusing them is the date and time of its creation - pottery hasn’t been invented yet and man survived by hunting wild animals, his tools were very basic- made of rocks and stones and it made every academic scholar wonder how early man moved this giant boulders of rocks and stacked them on top of each other. Moreover the reason to create such a fantastic artificial mound has been a topic of debate for many scholars. Some say it served as a food storage, others say it was a burial mound and still others said that it might have been a praying site. No clear evidence as to why and how these mounds were created was found to his date. Many others described it as 'the world's first and oldest temple'.

Hans however had a different motive of coming here. He had evidence of a hidden portal buried deep somewhere in the mounds. He and his team of mercenaries and local diggers were excavating there under the guise of an international archaeological team. The reason he was so sure of this was because he was in possession of a fragment of a dead sea scroll – which clearly depicted drawings of gate through time- the only problem was that he didn’t know how to read it and there were very few people in the who could actually read these scrolls. He acquired it from an old gypsy in the deserts and from the moment he held it in his hands , he knew he had the key to ancient Mesopotamia’s greatest supernatural secret. He knew that if anyone could interpret this scroll for him, it was Patrick Hoffman. If only that cheating loser would use half his talents Hans will have accomplished his goals in a matter of days. If not then the top authorities will shut this project and he would be back with his old work- assassinations and toppling governments- not that he didn’t like his old life but he was tired of working and obeying commands and wanted something more- something that would give him ultimate power and control over the world. 

Thirty years had passed since he had started working for the CIA and he always believed he was destined to be more than just a secret operative- his interest in the supernatural and mythical took him around the world looking for old and mysterious artefacts. Once he thought he thought that he had found the ‘Ark of the Covenant’ in an old church in Ethiopia- but it turned out that the monks in the church lied to him and as a revenge he had them tortured for days…

Hans’s sat phone began buzzing again- it was Beeman- who informed him that they were only 30 minutes away from the site. Hans went back to his tent and ordered his men to continue working.

It was around 11 a.m. when the limousine arrived the excavation site. Hans came out of his tent to welcome Patrick.

“I see you’ve arrived here on time …” , said Hans shaking Patrick’s hand.

“Yeah … nice way to bring me here…heh!”, replied Patrick walking towards the digging site. The site was filled with labourers all working in the scorching heat digging through dust and rubble and every now and then some guy in a hat would yell and run to inspect the dust. It was a huge site stretching for hundreds of metres and more and more mounds were being discovered everyday.

“Come my boy, let’s get some refreshment in my tent.”, said Hans.