The Solomon Scroll (17 page)

The trucks began to labor up the hill in low gear.

"Too late," Diego said. "Here they come."

CHAPTER 34

Major Dov Yosef knocked on the open door of Colonel Cohen's office and went in.

"You wanted to see me?"

"The Americans are up to something. Sit down, Dov."

Dov sat. "What are they doing?"

"I just got a heads up from Mossad. Last night they sent a stealth helicopter into Saudi Arabia from one of their carriers stationed in the Gulf of Aden. It touched down briefly in the Habala Valley near the border with Yemen, then returned to the ship."

"An insertion," Dov said.

Cohen nodded in agreement. "Can't be anything else. The question is why insert a team into that part of the country? There's nothing of any importance there."

"They must be looking for something."

"I think they're looking for Solomon's tomb and the Temple artifacts."

"How were they detected?"

"Luck. We have a Saar 4 surveillance ship observing the American carrier group. They picked it up. Otherwise we'd never have seen it."

"If there's something there, we can't let them have it. It belongs to Israel. It's our sacred heritage."

"Yes."

Cohen paused. Dov waited while his CO thought it through. "Can we put a team on site?"

"There are no units in that area. We'd have to use an airdrop and it's certain to be detected by the Saudi air defenses. Even with their technology, the Americans were lucky."

"It would be difficult on such short notice. But we can't let them escape with whatever it is they find."

"Assuming they find anything."

"There's another option," Colonel Cohen said.

"Which is?"

"Wait until the extraction, intercept their chopper and force them down where we can make sure they're not carrying something they shouldn't."

"Force down an American helicopter? What if they decide to treat us as hostile? It would go badly."

"That would be a mistake," Cohen said.

"It wouldn't do us any good to shoot them down. Besides, relations are bad enough with Washington as it is."

"Politicians never change. It's been that way since the days of the pharaohs."

"We're still in the days of the pharaohs. They just don't wear fancy headdresses or build pyramids anymore."

"No, now they build libraries named after them," Cohen said.

Dov laughed. "What are we going to do about the Americans?"

"Keep an eye on them. I've already requested that one of our satellites be tasked to observe the area."

"How soon?"

Cohen looked at his watch. "It should be coming up now."

He tapped a key. The satellite picture appeared on his computer screen.

"There it is. The light's going. We won't be able to see much in another half an hour."

The light was still good enough for the two Israeli officers to see the Americans. One of them was on top of the hill, next to one of the rock columns. Three more crouched at the edge of the slope, looking down at a half-dozen vehicles below.

"You said the Americans came in on a helicopter. What are those trucks doing there?"

"Hang on a minute."

Cohen entered a few more keystrokes. The picture appeared on a large wall monitor.

"Mechanicals. Two heavy machine guns," Dov said. "That's not a Saudi patrol. Rebels?"

"Let me zoom in."

The camera lens on the satellite bore down on the six trucks and men standing outside the vehicles. The resolution was good. One of the men looked up at the sky as if he could sense the satellite looking back at him.

Dov swore. "
Ben zona!
I know him. That's Al-Bayati. He's a puppet for Tehran, one of our problems in Lebanon."

"He must be after the same thing as the Americans."

"He's getting back in the truck," Dov said. "They're going to drive up the slope. Go back to the top of the hill."

The camera zoomed out. They watched the four Americans. Now they were all at the edge of the slope.

"They're armed," Cohen said. "Looks like MP5s or something similar."

"They're going to need more than that against those machine guns. What do you want to do?"

"Do? Nothing, except watch what happens. Maybe they'll do us a favor and take care of our Lebanese friend for us."

"You don't think we should intervene?"

"Unless you can get a unit on site in the next five minutes, I don't think we can. Even if we could, it's in Saudi Arabia. That presents a problem."

"What if they find the tomb?" Dov said.

"Then they will have saved us a lot of work. If they manage to survive whatever happens, we'll find out who they are. Once we know that, we'll apply pressure until Washington tells us what we need to know."

"President Rice won't necessarily cooperate."

"He's been friendly in the past. If he won't, somebody else will."

CHAPTER 35

One of the pickups began crawling up the hill. The others started to follow. Selena watched through her binoculars.

"They'll never make it," she said.

"What makes you so sure?"

"I've done a lot of backcountry four wheeling. There's a limit to what any of these machines will do. Those pickups will never make it up here, it's too steep and the rock is loose. The Land Rovers, maybe, if they find another route. Even so I wouldn't bet on it."

Even as she said it, the first truck churned up over some rocks and began to slip sideways in a quarter circle. Without warning it flipped over on the steep hillside. They heard the man on the gun scream as he disappeared under the truck. The wreckage began rolling down the hill, gathering speed until it smashed against an outcrop of stone at the foot of the slope. The other vehicles halted where they were. Steam rose from the wreck. No one got out.

"Amateurs," Selena said. "They should've known better."

"Gives us better odds," Diego said. "We can take these guys."

Nick took Selena's binoculars and focused on two men getting out of a Land Rover.

"Well, well. If I'm not mistaken that's Al-Bayati. And the tall guy standing next to him is the same guy that passed us when we were leaving the Museum."

"Rhoades," Selena said.

"Yeah, him. He's no amateur."

"Like we figured," Ronnie said. "They're following up on the scroll, like we are."

"I wonder if they know we're here?" Selena said.

Diego gestured down the hill. Men were getting out of the trucks.

"They're not being very careful about exposing themselves," Diego said. "I don't think they do."

"I make it a dozen, no, thirteen men, plus Rhoades and Al-Bayati. AKs."

"Figures."

"Looks like they're talking it over," Ronnie said. "How you want to handle it?"

"It'll be night soon," Nick said. "Losing that truck has got to shake them up. I don't think they'll try and come up here in the dark. We've got two choices. The first one is we slip out of here before they know we're around and call for extraction once we're out of the area."

"And the second choice?"

"We engage. Ambush them."

"Al-Bayati is the one who sent those men after Stephanie," Selena said. "We should engage."

"Do I need to point out that we're outnumbered four to one?"

"Since when has that made a difference?"

"Engage," Ronnie said.

"Let's get the bastard," Diego said.

Nick thought about it. The smart move was to leave before anyone knew they were there. Then he thought about Stephanie.

"All right," he said. "We'll take them down."

They watched as the trucks backed down the slope to the valley floor. Once they were down, Al-Bayati's men started setting up a campsite. One went over to the wrecked truck, leaned down and peered inside the cab. He straightened, looked over at Rhoades and shook his head. Two men began scavenging wood for a fire.

"They're making camp," Selena said.

"We'll let them get comfortable and watch them in shifts," Nick said. "Get some food and some sleep. We'll hit them early in the morning."

They backed away from the edge to the clear area near the column. From below, no one could see them.

"Let's see what the chef whipped up for dinner." Diego took a food ration from his pack. "Mmmm, MREs for a change. Mexican chicken stew, just like mama used to make. Makes me feel right at home."

"I've got chicken fajita," Ronnie said. "Want to trade?"

"Nah. It all tastes lousy whatever you call it."

"I had a sergeant who loved this stuff," Ronnie said. "He was always scrounging the rations people didn't want. You didn't want to get anywhere near him when his digestion kicked in."

Nick activated the comm link. In Virginia, it was morning. Elizabeth picked up.

"I was beginning to wonder. What's your status, Nick?"

"We found the tomb. There's nothing in it except a stone with an inscription and the seal of Solomon. There's a diagram on it that could be a map."

"Mm."

"We have a problem. Al-Bayati and his men showed up about an hour ago. They don't know we're here. Right now they're making camp for the night."

"One thing at a time. Tell me about the tomb and the stone."

"The tomb is in a natural cave inside one of those three columns. We were lucky we found it. The entrance was invisible. The stone is a chunk of granite inscribed with the seal of Solomon and a riddle. At least I think it's a riddle."

"What does it say?"

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

"What about the diagram?"

"Like I said, it could be a map. That's all I can tell you about it. There's nothing else. The seal on the rock tells us we've have found the place Ephram talked about in the scroll. There's no sign of Solomon or anything that might have been in the Temple. Just the stone."

"It must be a clue to the location of the real tomb," Elizabeth said.

"Selena thinks the word wisdom is a reference to Solomon. I think she's right. We haven't figured out the rest of it. The one thing I'm certain of is that there's nothing else here."

"You have pictures?"

"Yes."

"All right. Send them to me. Then I want you to destroy that stone."

"Destroy it?"

"It's the only way to make sure nobody else sees it."

"The only way to do that is blow it up. It could bring down that column. It looks solid but it's hollow inside and the stone is old and weathered, a little crumbly."

"Then you'd better make sure it doesn't fall on you," Elizabeth said. "What are you going to do about Al-Bayati?"

"Hit him when they're all asleep. He sent those people who shot Stephanie."

"There's no other option?"

"Not that we want to take. Especially if we destroy the tomb. I don't want him coming after us when we leave."

Nick waited while Elizabeth paused on the other end of the line. He could hear her pen tapping in the background.

"All right. Watch yourself," she said. "I'll have extraction standing by. Call when it's done."

"Copy that."

"Out."

Nick turned to the others. "You all heard that?"

Ronnie rummaged around in his pack and took out a packet of C4. The putty-like explosive could be molded against anything and was safe until detonated with an electrical charge.

"Yep. This ought to do it."

"You have timers?"

"Always."

"Getting down to that camp in the dark without making noise is going to be tricky," Diego said.

"How long do you think it will take us to get in position?"

"At least two hours. Maybe three. Steep slope, loose rocks, all that. Slower is better."

"That sounds about right. We'll give it plenty of time. Ronnie, set the charges to go off at three. When it blows, we go in."

"Do we take prisoners?" Selena.

"Not unless someone surrenders. If anyone does, be careful he doesn't change his mind."

Diego yawned. "Who's got first watch?"

"I do," Nick said. "Ronnie, go do your thing. Diego, you get some sleep. Selena, you too. I'll wake you for the next watch."

Selena moved away from the others and relieved herself in the dark, hoping there weren't more snakes in the rocks. She rearranged her uniform and went over to where Diego was already lying down with his eyes closed, his head resting on his pack. She checked the ground for anything that might bite and lay down nearby. She'd camped in the wild parts of the world many times before joining the Project. Feeling the hard ground of Saudi Arabia under her body reminded her that she wasn't twenty years old anymore and this wasn't a vacation.

She looked up at a black night sky lit with an ocean of stars. A three-quarter moon floated over the horizon in the West, casting soft, silvery light on the bleak landscape, turning it into an Escher etching of dark angles and shadows that blended into each other. It was eerily beautiful.

"A lot of stars up there," Diego said.

His voice startled her.

"Yes."

"They look different in this part of the world. I used to look up at the sky when I was a kid and think about what it would be like to fly there in a spaceship. Out where I lived was away from the city lights. I had a good view."

"Colorado, right?"

"High plains. It was flat all the way to Wyoming, which wasn't that far. When I was a teenager I'd go to Cheyenne for the big rodeo."

"Did you want to be a cowboy?" Selena asked.

"Nope. I used to watch old black-and-white Westerns with my grandpa. I wanted to be the town marshal, like Wyatt Earp. Carry a pair of six shooters and corral the bad guys. In a way, I guess I got my wish."

"What do you mean?"

"An MP5 isn't a six gun but it'll do. Seems like there are plenty of bad guys to go after. I never thought I'd find myself doing something like this."

"I know just what you mean." Selena said. "Is your family still there?"

"Yeah. It's not the same as it used to be. With the water gone, the only crop is winter wheat and that's pretty iffy. My dad gets by doing a bunch of different jobs. He's good with horses and fixing things."