Ancient Deceptions

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Transcarpathia, Ukraine

Dr. Yakiv Koval, a professor of archeology at the University of Kyiv, was kneeling on the rocky soil, trowel in hand, sure that this time, finally, he was going to find something important, something that would bring him the fame he deserved.

Koval was a burly man due to his enjoyment of food and vodka, but was also muscular from working on digs. His dark brown hair was long, thick and refused to remain in place, but tended to fall wildly about his head. Between his build, his hair, and the loose, oversized clothes he wore, he resembled a big brown bear. Still, he preferred to believe his lack of female companionship was due to his being selective rather than unappealing to the fairer s*x.

His knees hurt from his heavy weight pressing against sharp stones, his head ached, and he felt cold. The air in these mountains already held an icy sting. Winter was fast approaching.

“Look, sir! You must see this!”

Koval looked up to see Feder Melnyk standing at the edge of the deep pit where Koval worked. The twenty-two-year-old graduate student in archeology excitedly waved a paper over his head. “We just got back the ERT analysis. It gives an eighty percent chance that the cavities beneath the surface are man-made. They may be tunnels.”

Koval grunted as he climbed out of the pit, feeling every bit of his fifty years. He took hold of the electrical resistivity tomography report and read it for himself. He had learned to never trust the conclusions of his students or anyone else.

Koval was in charge of the dig on the southern slope of the Carpathian Mountains in an area known as Transcarpathia, a region currently owned by Ukraine. With him were two younger professors, five archeology students, and an ever-changing number of volunteers.

The possibility that there were tunnels under the site was the reason Koval was there. The Knights Templar were known for putting secret tunnels under their chapels and fortresses. Finding tunnels gave added credence to the local belief that the Templars, in the thirteenth century, had been the first to build on this land. Documents showed that a Byzantine monastery once existed there, but by the 1500s it, too, had been abandoned. Koval’s team dug in hopes of discovering the Templar chapel. So far, they’d found a few pieces of pottery and tools, but they were no more than three hundred years old and not of archeological interest.

To find a Templar chapel or fortress in that location would be a major discovery because this would be the first proof that the Templars had traveled this far east. A supposed Templar ruin existed in Serednie, Transcarpathia, but Koval didn’t believe for a moment it was legitimate.

As soon as he finished reading through the ERT analysis, he hurried down the mountainside to the campsite, which consisted of a single large tent set up to provide shelter for their equipment and a place for folding tables and chairs on which to work.

Inside that tent, professors Veronika Masur and Dmytro Tischenko were cataloging the bowls and water jugs found the day before. “Veronika, Dmytro, the report came in!”

The professors rushed to his side as Koval placed the analysis on a table. “It says the tunnels are so straight they do not appear to be natural, and are so deep, they were likely formed several centuries before the Orthodox monastery was built.”

The professors made high-fives all around. The students, three men and two women, huddled at the entrance to the tent along with volunteers from the Ukrainian cities of Lviv and Kyiv. Koval wasn’t surprised to see them. He expected Feder had told his fellow students about the report before bringing it to him. Since there was no cell service at the campsite, the student “in charge” had to travel from the dig into the town of Potchiv and back at least once during the day to transmit and receive messages. That week was Feder’s turn.

The town was twenty-minutes away by foot from the dig site. From the town, the land gradually rose toward the mountains. The camp had been set up on the last bit of flat ground. To reach the dig site, the team had to travel up a steep mountainside to an unnaturally flat, shelf-like area. There, they were digging into what they called “the pit” to hopefully find the Templar ruins.

Beyond the dig, the mountain again rose steeply, providing a secure wall so that any fortress or chapel built there could not be attacked from behind.

The archeologists understood why knights would have chosen such a spot. On it, they had a secure rear plus a view that stretched for miles of the valley before them.

Despite ancient lava flows that had enriched the soil, the valley was lightly populated, and the surrounding mountains were even emptier. That the tiny village of Potchiv had internet service, poor though it was, was nothing short of miraculous.

Koval waved his arm at the students and volunteers. “Come in, come in! Join our celebration! With this news, the Templars being here is all but certain, and our discovery will become known to the world!” But then a calculating grin crossed his face. “The real question is, of course, why has their presence been hidden for nearly eight hundred years? Were they hiding something special here?”

As the students and volunteers drew closer, Dr. Veronika Masur rolled her eyes at Koval’s words. “Oh, yes,” she said, “what better place for the Templars to hide pieces of the True Cross, or maybe even the Holy Grail, than out in these god-forsaken mountains? Yakiv, do you ever stop trying to think of ways to get attention for yourself? You sound like a press release and we don’t even know, for sure, that we’re standing over tunnels, let alone who built them.”

Koval loved the way Veronika was always willing to spar with him, and the idea flashed that perhaps it was her way of hiding the attraction she felt for him. She was his height and quite strong, as was necessary on a dig team. She kept her blond hair short—very practical—and wore no make-up. Her face, though, was a bit soft, her cheeks flabby and the end of her nose bulbous. Her body was more hefty than shapely. At least her hips were wide if they were to ever want children. But he was getting ahead of himself. Besides, she was the only woman around. Or the only available woman. He had seen too many of his fellow professors stupidly get themselves into trouble paying attention to female students. And Yakiv Koval wasn’t a stupid man.

He forced his mind back to the dig. “If we can get newspapers, especially international ones, to pay some attention to us, we’ll get all kinds of funding for this dig,” he explained. “And we might even be able to travel all over Europe giving talks about our discovery. Think of it, Veronika. Paris! London! Why not promote what we’re doing here? If we don’t promote what we may find, and show nothing but these pottery pieces, not only will the University cut off our funding, but might even call us home in disgrace. Surely, you don’t want that.”

She shook her head and then smiled. He felt a little wakening deep in his groin at how she looked when she smiled at him. “You’re a glib bastard, Yakiv.”

At that, the students snickered, and she looked down, apparently having forgotten they were there. Yakiv hadn’t. He looked at them and shrugged. “You wouldn’t mind being part of the team that found a Templar chapel in the Ukraine, would you?”

They shook their heads.

“Good. Now, get your tools. Waste no more time on anything you might find before we reach the chapel. From this report, we have to go down another twenty or more feet to get to its roof. If we’re very lucky, the chapel roof hasn’t caved in and we can enter it. From there, we’ll dig into the floor, to the tunnels. But we need to move quickly. Winter will soon be upon us, and even though the mountains protect this area from the truly cold northern blasts, it will be difficult to reach the chapel before snow storms stop everything. But I can feel in my bones that what we find here will be incredible!”