Ark by K.B. Kofoed Page A

and silver were used in the biblical construction of the ark?”
    Jim was glad the folder where he kept his data about the ark was on his desk, neatly stacked next to his Graphis Annuals and his software disks. “I happen to have it right here, with my notes. Let’s see ... the total gold, by biblical measure, was 29 talents and 730 shekels. That equals 37,952 ounces of gold.”
    “What’s a talent?” asked John, “and a shekel?”
    “Internet sources said a talent was equal to seventy-five and a half pounds. A shekel, maybe four ounces. Gold is generally valued by the Troy ounce, so I figured everything in ounces.”
    “Christ,” said John. “that’s a lot of gold.”
    “Yeah. Add to that about 128,000 ounces of silver.”
    “Silver,” said John. “Gene mentioned that. And bronze.”
    “That’s right, John,” replied Jim, gaining confidence. “70 talents and 2400 shekels worth. We can’t ignore the bronze because that may have electrical properties, too.”
    “Cost?” John asked dispassionately.
    “Haven’t you priced this out before?” Jim thought John would be the first man to have that number.
    “No,” said John Wilcox calmly. “I knew it was a lot.”
    “Well,” said Jim, “don’t say this number in front of your accountant, but the cost of the gold and silver alone is in the $15 million ballpark. The actual number I got was $14,871,500, not counting the bronze, the acacia wood, and all the rest of the materials, plus labor. Maybe you could squeak by at 16.”
    John Wilcox was quiet for a moment. Finally he cleared his throat. “Well, Jim, you’ve done your homework. I’ll have to check it against the going rate when …” He stopped himself at that point.
    “To do the drawings I had to do plenty of homework,” Jim offered, just to break the ensuing silence. “I think, if you’re going to do this right, you’ll need better expertise than mine. I got the numbers out of the standard library references and the web. If you’re starting a project you check the numbers first, right?”
    “Am I getting a lecture here?” asked John, dryly.
    “No charge for that, John.” Jim forced a fairly convincing chuckle.
    John laughed. “I guess so,” he said. There was a pause. To Jim’s complete surprise, John said, “Tell you what, Jim. Is there a way you could make it out here this coming weekend?”
    “To Sandia?” Jim stared at the floor, composing his thoughts. Suddenly he was not only back on the team, but might be an active player. As he considered plane fare, the time away from his clients’ projects, and leaving his family, his spirits dampened. “I want to come, John,” Jim said doubtfully, “but the money’s tight lately and I can only spare Saturday and Sunday. I’ll lose my accounts if I don’t get the work done.”
    “Okay,” said John. “Back by Monday. I’ll have you flown out. Somebody will get back to you with info. Okay?”
    Jim hung up and smiled, wondering if he had ever been out of the loop. Looking at his notes, he tried to picture all that precious metal in one place, under a tarp on a Humvee, rolling down some dusty road to nowhere; truckloads of acacia wood, linen, goat hair cloth and ‘fine scarlet stuff,’ whatever that was. As he stared at his notes he also realized that, with all the materials and labor, they were looking at a construction cost of more than he’d quoted. Maybe twenty million dollars?
    “My God,” he muttered, “the government may be the only group with the resources to build this thing, after all.” Jim was glad at the prospect of seeing his questions answered. He was also a realist, though, and he knew that once the military was involved and the power of the ark was revealed to them, everything would change.
    Long ago, before all this business with the ark had started, Jim had regarded the Old Testament as an ancient curio, an outdated and irrelevant relic. Now he knew that the book of Exodus read almost like a diary, as if