Chapter 14: The power of God

'Hello!'

Indiana Jones stood on a ridge with a rocket launcher over his shoulder. Marion Ravenwood made a run to try to get to him but was stopped by two Nazis. Belloq stepped forward.

'Dr. Jones, your persistence surprises even me!' he called. 'You're going to give mercenaries a bad name!'

'I'm gonna blow up the Ark, Rene!' Jones announced, his tone deadly serious.

'Dr. Jones!' Dietrich stepped up. 'Surely you don't think you can escape?'

'That all depends on how reasonable we're all willing to be!' Jones called back. 'All I want is the girl!'

Dietrich looked at Belloq. Belloq shook his head. As far as he was concerned, he was keeping that girl. Dietrich returned his gaze to Jones, 'And if we refuse?'

'Then your Führer has no prize,' Jones answered.

Belloq grabbed a gun. He knew how Jones's mind worked. He was clearly more attached to the girl than he'd initially thought. But Indiana Jones was still an archaeologist. He still cared enough about history for this to be a bluff.

And a bluff, it was.

XXX

Marion shivered, but not from the chill of the night. She knew what was coming and it terrified her. The humming from the Ark was echoing in her head. The sound of the Hebrew words just made the whole thing worse.

When she felt Indy's hand find hers, she gripped it.

'It'll be okay, sweetheart,' he murmured.

'My head hurts,' she whimpered.

'Close your eyes,' he told her.

She did but she felt a stab in her brain. Reflexively, she opened her eyes.

'That just hurts even more,' she told him.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Indy turn his head.

XXX

Closing her eyes hurt her head even more. That meant it was the sound of the Ark that was hurting her. When your eyes were closed, your hearing seemed to improve. Indy looked at the Ark. Was it especially tuned to psychics or were psychics especially tuned to it?

He didn't know much about psychic powers. He'd never thought he'd need to. Nick had once told him that real psychics were harder to find because they didn't boast about it. He'd said: 'if they do, it's because they're short on cash.'

Indy watched in amusement when Belloq had the lid lifted, only to find it was full of sand. Dietrich was not impressed and Toht started sniggering to himself. However, they both turned back as the sand started to glow. Indy jumped, as much as was possible, when everything electrical exploded. The humming increased in pitch. Behind him, Marion whimpered as the pain probably increased. The Nazis looked around. Something was beginning to come out of the Ark.

Indy's skin crawled. His blood ran cold and a chill ran down his spine. All of these were signals he was all too familiar with. They meant only one thing. Trouble. Big trouble. 'The more beautiful something is, I find,' Nick had once told him, 'the more likely it is to kill you.'

That was when Indy understood. Marion was shaking against his back like a nervous wreak by now. That was all part of it. The Ark was designed to kill. It was the power of God within and anybody with a religious upbringing knew it was forbidden to lay eyes on the power of God. That was it. Her head hurt because her precognition could tell the power would kill them and it was trying to let her know without showing her because then she would see it. Seeing it meant certain death. Closing her eyes hurt because the Ark made you want to look at it.

'Marion!' he whispered to her urgently. 'Marion, I know it hurts, but you have to close your eyes!'

'Why?' she groaned.

'Because if we see what's inside the Ark, it'll kill us,' he answered, shutting his own eyes. 'Marion?'

'They're shut.'

XXX

The lid was open. It slowly released its power.

There were numerous humans—victims—here. The silly mortals had opened the chest and now they would pay the price. There were two, restrained, on a ledge. The female had the precognitive channel opened in her brain.

It focused on her but she wisely jammed her eyes shut. She knew precisely what would happen if she saw this. It saw that the souls of the two restrained above were complexly intertwined.

If one faltered, they would both have to go.

XXX

Belloq watched as the white gaseous shapes floated out of the Ark. They seemed to blanket the entire area. It was almost as if they were scoping out the entire area, as if they were sentient and not just messengers. As if they were not just the go-betweens of God and himself. God probably wouldn't have many nice things to say to Belloq, but at least Belloq would have spoken to him.

Slowly, the beings began to take shape, like angels. Belloq gawked as they continued floating around. And then they came closer and one of them turned a sweet, angelic, feminine face to them. Belloq was struck by it. It was definitely an angel. There was no way it couldn't be.

'It's beautiful!' he cried.

And then it morphed into a grotesque skull. The last thing Belloq ever knew was the screaming. And he didn't even know whose it was.

XXX

Indy opened his eyes when it was finally quiet. He pulled his hands forward and the charred remains of the ropes came with them. Indy could see the indentations in his skin where Marion had clutched him, digging her nails in to the flesh in her terror. He turned around. She was still standing there, shivering. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders,

'Marion.'

She turned to face him, realising that it was all over. He stared at her and she stared at them. She was okay and that was all that mattered to him. Marion let out a little cry and launched herself into his arms.