The Silk Trap. A Novel in 43 Chapters
Chapter 38: Artur finds some old maps.
Michel saw Lara in his dream later that night.
She was riding her favorite horse while Michel rode his motorcycle by her side on an open desert road in Jordan. Lara looked really happy, like she always looked when she was riding. Michel was enjoying the hot sun, the dry wind and fine sand rush past his face. In the distance, he saw a black car approaching. Lara looked a bit worried, and she stopped her horse and looked at Michel and said, “Michel, I think they are coming to take me away. Don’t let them do that; otherwise, you might never see me again”.
Michel looked back at the approaching car, and it suddenly disappeared in the sand. Michel looked back at Lara and saw she was dissolving into the dune as she looked helplessly at Michel. Michel tried to jump off his bike to grab her arm, but before he could get to her, she had turned into sand.
He woke up with a start to the sound of the doorbell in his room buzzing.
He jumped out of bed and looked at the clock on the wall…11 am!
He had been sleeping for a long time since winning the auction to be with Lara at midnight tonite. He opened the door to see Artur outside. He had something in his hands, and he looked agitated and excited at the same time.
He burst into the room and said, “You need to see this.” And why are you sleeping so late!? It's almost lunchtime.” Michel mumbled something and then followed Artur as he sat down on the couch and unwrapped the plastic bag that was in his hands.
“Remember I told you about the medieval caves under the Jebel…I was looking at some of the old files that my father had given to me before he died, and I found this…” said Artur triumphantly as he held up a bunch of faded-looking architectural drawings, which he quickly unfolded on the glass table in front of him.
“What are these drawings? They look like a blueprint of a building,” Michel asked as he ran his hands through his hair and pulled on a t-shirt over his head.
“Exactly!” Exclaimed Artur raising the right stub of his hand in the air in a ghost-clenched fist action. “It's the original blueprint of the Jebel hotel. My father was one of the junior project managers that built this place back in the late ’40s after the war. This place was originally a wartime communication station which was later converted into this hotel complex. I have all the floor plans, but this particular sheet has a treasure that I did not know about. Until now. Come sit down and let me show you.”
Michel was impressed by the level of detail that the old sheet had. It showed the position of the rooms and the passageways that interlinked the whole complex. But Artur was pointing to a corner section of the sheet.
“Look,” Artur continued in a low focussed tone, “This is the door at the back of the hotel that leads to the pantry that I took you down to show you the abandoned cemetery. But look at this corner room that is next to the door. It has something unusual in it.” Michel looked at what Artur was pointing at.
To Michel’s eyes, he just saw a room next to a row of rooms that circled the Jebel complex. Nothing stood out. “I don’t see anything, Artur,” Michel said, scratching his stubble that was fast becoming a fully grown beard. Artur pointed to a small dotted line barely visible at one corner of the room and said in a whisper. “It’s a secret tunnel!”
Michel’s eyes jumped out of his head as he peered down to where Artur was pointing. Artur retraced the line and kept talking in a whisper, “It is a secret tunnel that goes from this room in the hotel and joins one of the old medieval tunnels that the Germans had repurposed as their escape route during the war. You see this line…It’s only in this room, and no other room has a line running vertically down from it. I was not sure it was a tunnel, so I got a magnifying glass with me to double-check and look for myself… It's not a single line. It's a double line meaning it's a shaft! Look for yourself…said Artur excited beyond words now as he passed Michel a vintage magnifying glass.
Michel looked at the lines through the glass, and he saw what Artur was so joyous about. They were two sets of dashes marked right next to each other. It indeed looked like a secret shaft.
Michel smiled and nodded his head in agreement. “Perfect! I think this is perfect Artur because I have some great news for you as well. I found Lara! In fact, I am seeing her tonite !!!”
Artur’s jaw dropped in amazement, “How! Where! When! Oh my god, tell me everything.”
Michel then excitedly replayed all the events from last night and ended with the bizarre auction and how Michel had betted on and won Lara against all the online bidders.
Artur sat back on the couch and tried to take all the news in. He looked very somber when he spoke again. “Michel, you have put yourself in a lot of danger now. They know who you are, and if they find out that you are Lara’s friend and that you plan to free Lara from their clutches, they will kill you.”
Michel looked back at Artur and, with a calm smile, replied, “But they will not find out Artur because I am going to escape with Lara from that tunnel tonite.”
“It's not that simple, Michel,” Artur nodded his head as he spoke in a worried tone. The room is the private residence of the Hotel Manager, and he is out of town, and the room is locked.
Michel’s mind was racing. “Do you have the master keys to the hotel?”
“Yes, But I have never tried to see if that key also opens the Managers room. But maybe the key works there as well,” replied Artur getting more hopeful as he spoke.
Artur’s enthusiasm waxed and waned like a tide as he spoke, “But even if I get to his room, I have no idea where the shaft exactly is …but the drawing can help us to look for it. But even if we find the shaft …I have no idea where the tunnel leads and if it is still working.”
Artur stood up suddenly and said, “I’m going first to check if I can open that room, and I’ll call you. And maybe we need to retake that walk in the cemetery to see if the other entrance to the tunnel system still works.” With these words, Artur disappeared down the corridor.