The Solomon Scroll (16 page)

"How long till he gets here?"

"Sometime in the afternoon your time. It depends on what he's using for transportation and whether or not he gets hung up at the border."

"He'll have a way to cross or he wouldn't be coming."

"Any luck?"

"Not yet. We're just beginning to look."

"Keep me posted. Out."

"Company coming," Nick said.

"We'll make sure he gets a nice welcome," Ronnie said.

CHAPTER 32

Addison Rhoades leaned back in the comfortable lounge seat of Al-Bayati's private jet and closed his eyes. It had been a while since he'd taken one of the foil wrapped balls. His body hummed and vibrated, out of harmony with the steady pulse of the engines. He felt like a guitar string tuned too tight, ready to snap if plucked. He'd taken a tablet of morphine half an hour before. Now he waited for the drug to kick in and take the edge off the unpleasant sensations.

It was no use, he had to sit up and do something, distract himself. He reached down into his travel bag and took out a cleaning kit. He pulled a Glock GP27 from his shoulder holster and laid it on the coffee table in front of his seat. Along with the Walther PPK the Glock was his favorite pistol, compact and powerful. It was meant for up close and personal, where almost all gunfights with pistols took place. Unloaded it weighed less than 20 ounces. He field stripped the weapon and started to clean it.

The morphine kicked in and his body relaxed. Rhoades took a deep breath and felt his mood improve. The smell of gun oil and cleaner was familiar, the ritual soothing. He'd always liked guns. They were reliable if you took care of them, unlike people. With a good gun you knew what to expect.

They'd land in Yemen near the Saudi border within the hour. Al-Bayati's connections meant no problems with the authorities. Men loyal to Rhoades would be waiting with vehicles at the landing strip. From there it was a few hours overland to their objective in the Habala Valley.

The tomb of Solomon and Al-Bayati's lunatic dream of a magic ring.

Rhoades didn't care about a ring. He cared about gold. If the tomb was there, Al-Bayati would never leave it. Rhoades had made up his mind that it was time to move on. As soon as they found the gold he would kill Al-Bayati. Until they found it he needed him alive.

He finished cleaning the pistol, reassembled it and placed it back in the holster. He packed the cleaning kit away as the plane began its descent to the barren desert landscape below and an abandoned military airbase close to the Saudi border. Al-Bayati had no intention of flying into Saana and dealing with the Houthi rebels in control of the city. Ten minutes later they were on the ground. A cluster of vehicles waited on the side of the runway.

The sun beat down on Bayati as he stood on the cracked concrete at the foot of the airplane stairs. He wiped his brow with a silk handkerchief.

"Hot," he said. "I'd forgotten how hot this godforsaken place can be."

"With luck we won't be here long," Rhoades said. "Here comes our escort."

Three Land Rovers painted desert tan pulled up by the plane, followed by two Toyota pickup trucks with Russian Kord heavy machine guns mounted in the beds. A third truck was empty, backup for transporting whatever they might find.

The Kord 12.7 mm was a recent addition to Russian infantry armament, replacing the older NSV that had been the staple weapon for years. It featured a higher rate of fire than the NSV. An alloy barrel that increased accuracy and effectiveness up to about 2000 meters. It wasn't a good idea to be on the wrong end of one of them when it was in use.

Al-Bayati appreciated fine weapons. He looked at Rhoades.

"Kords. I'm impressed. You think we'll need them?"

"There's been a lot of rebel activity around here," Rhoades said. "I thought a little extra firepower wouldn't hurt. The men are all experienced and well armed. No one will bother us if they know what's good for them."

Al-Bayati grunted and heaved his bulk into one of the Land Rovers. Rhoades got into the back seat. He took out his GPS, already programmed with the location of the three pillars.

"We'll use the old crossing," he said to the driver. "The one abandoned by the British. You know the one I mean?"

"I know it. Rough road," the driver said.

His name was Jan Vorster. He was a fourth generation Afrikaner, a grizzled former policeman who'd gotten out of the Republic of South Africa when apartheid crumbled. His talents for violence had turned out to be useful in his new role as mercenary. It paid better, too. Rhoades had met him during an MI6 operation in Darfur. As far as he could tell Vorster was the ideal soldier for hire, a man without bothersome moral considerations or qualms of conscience about what might have to be done.

"Watch out for patrols," Rhoades said.

The six vehicles set out for Saudi Arabia.

CHAPTER 33

On top of the hill it felt like being inside an oven. Rippling waves of heat rose from the rocks and sand. They'd searched for a sign of the tomb and found nothing. Now they were going around the columns once more. Nick had decided that the whole exercise was a waste of time and was ready to concede defeat. Their desert camouflage uniforms were soaked black with sweat. Selena moved with the others around the base of one of the pillars. Suddenly she froze.

"Snake."

Nick looked where she was pointing. The snake was curled up on a flat rock next to the column, within striking distance from where she stood. It was a yellow, sandy color, with a round snout and round cat eyes. Two horns stuck up from its head, giving it a demonic look. It raised its head and looked at her.

"Don't move," Nick said. "That's a horned viper."

He reached for his pistol. Ronnie laid a hand on his arm.

"I'll get it," he said. "Better not to make the noise."

He eased a throwing knife from a sheath strapped under his arm and launched it at the snake. The blade arced through the sunlight and buried itself behind the viper's head. The snake contorted, showing its fangs. Selena backed away.

"Wouldn't be good to get bitten by one of those," Nick said. "It creates serious pain and a lot of damage. We're a long way from medical help for a viper bite."

"Gee, thanks for reminding me."

The snake stopped moving. Ronnie retrieved his knife.

"That was slick," Diego said. "Too bad you had to kill it."

"Selena was too close. It would have struck if she'd moved. Otherwise we could have left it."

Selena stared at the column where the snake had been dozing.

"There's something here."

She pointed at a faint groove in the rock on the edge of a wide, vertical fissure climbing the side of the column. The fissure was hard to see, filled with a thick growth of juniper. There was no way to tell if it went deeper into the column or was simply a wide crack on the surface.

"That mark could be man-made," she said.

"Maybe," Nick said. "What would cause something like that?"

"A rope? I don't know. It just doesn't look natural to me."

"Me neither," Diego said.

They'd passed the spot before and decided it was solid. "We haven't seen anything else," Nick said. "Let's clear away the greenery."

They hacked away at the growth until they could get next to the fissure, then began prying out accumulated dirt and debris. A small opening appeared. A dry, dusty odor drifted out of the blackness.

"I'll be damned," Nick said. "I think we've found it."

The discovery energized them. Another half-hour and they'd cleared away a narrow passage into the column.

Nick turned on his flashlight and aimed it into the dark interior.

"What do you see?" Selena said.

"Someone widened this passage. I can see tool marks on the rock."

"Nothing else?"

"No. We'll have to go inside."

"There could be spiders. More snakes."

"I don't see any webs. Anyway, we don't have a choice. Just watch where you step."

Single file, they followed Nick into the interior. The passage was barely wide enough to let them pass. After a short distance it curved to the right and opened into a large, natural chamber in the center of the rock column. In the middle of the space was an upright stone. Except for the stone, the chamber was empty.

"I don't see any gold," Diego said.

"Or Solomon either," Ronnie said. "Just that stone."

Selena moved her light over the stone. A six pointed star was carved into the hard rock. In the center of the star was something that looked like a flower with eight petals. Within each point of the star was a dot.

"I think that's the seal of Solomon," Selena said

"Then we must be in the right place," Nick said.

"There's something written beneath it." Selena  knelt down in front of the stone and aimed her light at it.

"Biblical Aramaic, like the scroll."

"What does it say?"

Selena pursed her lips and stared at the writing. After a few minutes she sighed.

"It's a riddle. Or a clue, take your pick."

"What do you mean?"

"I'll read it to you."

The soul of wisdom shelters with its consort in the queen's land.

"The queen's land? What the hell does that mean?"

"I don't think he's talking about Australia," Ronnie said.

"What's all that about the soul sheltering?" Diego asked.

"Soul isn't exactly the right translation," Selena said. "The ancient Hebrews believed some kind of life went on after you died, in a sort of vague limbo. The life essence of a person. There had to be something left of the body or that was the end of you. Bodies were buried and the bones preserved. Nobody cremated their dead in ancient Israel. That would've been a terrible crime."

"Doesn't sound like much of an afterlife," Diego said. "I like the idea of harps and angels better."

Ronnie said, "How do you know it's not going to be pitchforks and demons?"

Diego shrugged. "Couldn't be much worse than Afghanistan."

Nick said, "Let's think about this. Why would Ephram set this up? Leaving clues about this place in the scroll, only to tell us there's nothing here when we find it?"

"There's something else here," Selena said.

She brushed a layer of dirt and dust from the stone.

"I think it's a map."

"I can't see that it does us any good."

"That's because we don't understand it yet. That's Solomon's seal above the writing. It's a riddle you have to figure out if you want to get closer to wisdom. When Ephram writes wisdom, I think he means Solomon. So what the message says is that Solomon is with his consort in the queen's land."

"Because people associate wisdom and Solomon together?"

"Yes."

"Who was Solomon's consort?"

"He's supposed to have had over a thousand wives."

"I wonder what he was taking?" Diego said. "We knew that, we'd all get rich."

Selena ignored him. "The story of Solomon is in the Bible, in Kings. According to that version, the wives were foreigners. God told Solomon not to marry them because they would corrupt him with false gods. Solomon didn't listen. He seems to have been very attached to them. He began worshiping other gods and setting up temples for his wives to their gods. As punishment, God told him his kingdom would be scattered after his death and separated into different tribes."

"So who was his consort? If he had a thousand wives, how do we know which one the stone is talking about?"

"We have to think about it. It could be..."

Nick interrupted her. He held up his hand. "Everybody get quiet. I heard something."

They listened. "Vehicles," Ronnie said. "More than one."

"Coming up the valley," Diego said. "Now they're stopping."

"They'll be down at the foot of the slope" Nick rubbed his chin. "A four wheel drive might make it up here."

"Who'd know we're here?" Selena asked.

"Could be an Arab military patrol. Or maybe it's Al-Bayati. Get some pictures while we take a look."

Selena took out her phone and began taking pictures of the stone.

"Come on," Nick said.

They emerged from the darkness of the chamber into late afternoon light. The sun had reached the horizon and the sky was spread wide with red and vermillion streaked with black, as though the world was burning.

Nick moved with the others through the bushes to the edge of the plateau. They looked down at the valley floor. Six vehicles idled at the base of the slope. Two were pickups with heavy machine guns mounted in the back.

"That's not an Arab patrol," Ronnie said.

"They're getting ready to drive up the hill."

They went back to where Selena waited for them by the column.

"We have company," Nick said.

"Arabs?"

"There are no army markings. The Saudis don't use trucks like that. It has to be Al-Bayati."

"What do you want to do?"

"Wait until after it's dark and leave. There's nothing more for us here."