The Solomon Scroll (7 page)

"Adara..."

Abidi held up his hand. He looked guilty.

"You son of a bitch. That's the last straw. I've had enough of your lies and women."

She stood and looked at Selena. "Good luck, honey. You're going to need it."

Arabic or English, it's all the same with men like this,
Selena thought.

Out in the Mercedes, Nick heard Diego's voice in his ear.

"The woman that was sitting next to Abidi just stomped off, pissed. He's patting the couch. Selena is sitting down. Game on."

"Copy."

"I didn't mean to upset her," Selena said.

She turned toward Abidi, enough to pull her blouse a little lower. He looked at her breasts and then at her face. She smiled.

"You like what you see? Why don't you buy me another drink?"

"Forgive me, what are you drinking?"

"Vodka martini."

Abidi signaled one of his guards.

"A vodka martini for my companion. Make sure they give her the good vodka, not that crap they usually serve."

"The good vodka?"

"You heard me."

The man nodded and moved off toward the bar.

"You are quite lovely," Abidi said. "I don't understand why I don't remember you."

"I think you may have had a bit to drink. I know I did. It was quite a party."

"It was. I'm Yusuf."

"Fatima."

"Ah, one of the four perfect women."

"Only in name," Selena said.

"You enjoy parties, Fatima? I am going to one later. Perhaps you would like to accompany me?"

The guard came back with Selena's drink. She took it and sipped. It was a vast improvement over the first one.

"I think I'd like that," she said.

She reached over and touched the gold chain around his neck. She played with the hairs on his chest.

"Do we have to wait until later to party?"

She sipped her martini. It really was very good and the drink helped with her nervousness. She took another sip.

This is going to be easy
, she thought
.

Yusuf gave her a calculating look. "What did you have in mind?"

She whispered in his ear. Yusuf smiled.

"I'm going to use the ladies room," she said.

"I will be waiting for you."

Yusuf half rose from the couch as Selena got up and walked away.

The guard who had brought Selena's drink said, "I do not trust her."

"No, Gibril, nor do I. She is either a whore or a spy. Either way, I am going to enjoy her. Go get the car and take it around back. Hassan will stay here with me. You put the drug in her drink?"

"Of course."

"Good. Go."

Diego had moved a few yards from the door to the alley and away from the restrooms. He watched Selena get up and walk unsteadily to the toilets. He triggered his comm link.

"Nick, I think Selena is drunk."

"That can't be," Nick answered. "You haven't been there long enough. Besides, she wouldn't compromise an operation."

"She just went into the bathroom and she's walking like she is. Abidi sent one of his guards away. Now he's getting up and coming toward the alley door with the other one."

"Maybe she's pretending, to get him off guard," Nick said.

"I don't think so. You can't fake the way she looks."

Nick's ear began itching. Ronnie saw him reach up to scratch it.

"I'll bet the son of a bitch drugged her," Nick said. "I'm going into the alley. Don't let that other guard follow her."

"Copy that," Diego said.

"You want me to go with you?" Ronnie asked.

"No. Stay with the car and keep it running. We may have to leave in a hurry."

Nick got out of the car, left the door ajar and entered the narrow alley. It was dark away from the street. The alley was paved with cobbled stones and went all the way through to the next street over. A rusted bell shaped fixture set over the alley door cast a week pool of yellow light into the darkness.

A white car stopped at the far end of the alley. Nick recognized Abidi's BMW.

Shit.

He spoke into the comm link.

"Ronnie, Diego, Selena's been made. It's a set up. Abidi's car is at the other end of the alley. The driver and the guard are getting out. They're coming into the alley."

Nick pressed against the rough stone wall in the shadows of the alley, hoping he hadn't been seen. He took out his SIG .40, pulled back the hammer and laid his finger alongside the receiver.

It was about ten yards to the alley door. The door opened and Selena staggered out, her arm gripped tightly by Abidi and followed by one of the guards. The two men at the other end of the alley began walking faster. Then Diego came through the open door. He piled into the guard. The door slammed shut behind them. Diego and the guard went down onto the stones and dirt.

Abidi shouted. Guns came out at the other end of the alley and Nick fired. He missed, fired again and one of the two went down. The shots echoed in the narrow confines of the buildings. The second man opened fire. Nick felt the rounds pass by. He crouched down and let off three quick shots that took Abidi's man in the chest and knocked him aside. The first man was getting to his feet. Nick shot him again, twice. He stopped trying to get up.

Abidi held Selena in front of him as a shield. He held an ugly curved knife an inch from her throat, gleaming under the light over the door. Her head lolled to the side. Her eyes were open, unfocused. Nick stood.

"Stop," Abidi said. "I will kill her."

Nick still held the gun in his right hand. Diego got to his feet and froze in place, standing over the unconscious body of the bodyguard. Out on the street someone was shouting. In minutes, police would be swarming the scene.

"Okay," Nick said.

Then he shot Abidi in the head.

The .40 caliber hollow point blew out the back of Yusuf's skull. His arms flew wide and he went backward. Diego caught Selena as she crumpled to the ground. Nick ran forward.

"Get her to the car," he said.

They each took an arm and half carried, half dragged her back to the idling Mercedes. One of her black shoes came off in the alley. Ronnie had the doors open for them. He climbed back into the driver's seat as they threw Selena into the back. Nick got in with her. Diego jumped into the front.

As soon as they were inside the car, Ronnie peeled away from the curb. Somewhere in the distance sirens sounded.

"How is she?" Ronnie said.

"Out of it. They used something strong. She's going to be sick when she wakes up."

"That was a hell of a shot, Nick," Diego said.

"He had the knife away from her throat. I wouldn't have taken it if the blade was right up against her."

"Just the same, a hell of a shot."

After twenty minutes they were back in front of their hotel.

"Time to check out," Nick said. "You two clear out the rooms. I'll give the pilot a heads up and stay in the car with her."

Later, on the way to the airport, Selena threw up.

Nick left the car in the parking lot outside the private terminal where their plane waited. They boarded the Gulf Stream without incident. Twenty minutes later they were in the air. Selena fell asleep.

Three hours later she was awake, drinking coffee. She held a cloth wrapped around ice on her head.

"What happened?" she said.

"You were drugged. What do you remember?"

"Abidi's man brought me a drink. I remember thinking it tasted a lot better than the one I'd ordered at the bar. I just sipped it. Then I remember whispering in Yusuf's ear, trying to get him into the alley. He was wearing this awful cologne."

"Then what?"

"I had to go to the bathroom. The next thing I knew I was throwing up in the car."

"Yeah, that was a mess. When the rental people find that Mercedes they're not going to be happy. We left it in the parking lot."

"What happened to Abidi?"

"He's dead."

Nick told her about the fight in the alley.

"I thought I had him fooled," Selena said. "I guess I'm not so smart after all."

"Don't blame yourself. It was always a long shot."

She looked out the window. There was nothing to see except the night sky. Out here over the Atlantic, away from civilization, the stars were bright. Banks of clouds passed below the plane.

"He could have raped me. I could have been killed."

"He didn't and you weren't. That's what counts. We were there to back you up."

"This time. What happens if you're not?"

"You can't think about it like that. I've seen what you can do. You can handle yourself if things get dicey."

"That's what I've always thought," Selena said. "After they gave me that drug I was helpless. What good is all my training if I can't even stand up?"

"I don't have a good answer for that."

"I wish you did."

Selena closed your eyes and lay back in her seat.

Nick watched her.

What if I hadn't been there?
he thought.

He imagined what could have happened to her and forced the images out of his mind.

CHAPTER 14

"Did you have to kill him, Nick? You were just supposed to question him."

"I didn't have a choice."

Elizabeth sighed. It was two days later. No one had made the connection between the foreigners visiting Beirut and Yusuf Abidi's death. It was just one more murder in a city that had seen thousands die over the past decades. Life was cheap in Beirut.

"All right. Moving on, Stephanie thinks she's found something," Elizabeth said.

"We know that the man who wrote the scroll was named Ephram," Stephanie said. "I plugged that into the computers and set search parameters for the first century CE. There was an Ephram back then who was part of the revolt against Rome. I think he's the one who made that scroll. He wrote in Aramaic, which fits. The Romans caught him the year after they took Jerusalem."

"Sounds like our guy," Nick said. "What happened to him?"

"He was crucified."

"Did you find anything that might lead us to the tomb?" Selena asked.

"There's another scroll in the British Museum written by Ephram that mentions the Queen of Sheba. There are stories that connect Sheba and Solomon, so there might be something in that. It's the only thing I found that might be related."

"I thought Sheba was a legend," Diego said.

"Most scholars think she was real," Selena said, "although they argue about it, like everything else in the Old Testament. She probably ruled in what's now Yemen. Some think it was Egypt or Ethiopia. In the Bible she visits Solomon, bringing treasure as gifts. She's called the black queen in some legends and the Queen of the South in the Gospels. That could be anywhere south of Galilee. A lot of different cultures claim her for their own."

"I couldn't find out much about the scroll in the British Museum," Stephanie said. "There's no translation posted, just a note that it mentions Sheba. It was written by Ephram around the same time as the other one. I know it's a reach. It's all I could find."

"It might be worth checking out," Elizabeth said.

"We should go look at it," Selena said. "With my academic credentials they'll let me see it. I'll tell them its research for a lecture."

Elizabeth nodded. "Go ahead and set it up."

"What's the next move, Director," Nick asked.

"You followed Abidi to the compound of a man named Al-Bayati," Elizabeth said. "The connection with Abidi makes him our only lead at the moment. I decided to take a closer look at him. Steph, run the shots."

The first picture on the monitor was of Al-Bayati.

"Meet one of the thorns in Langley's side," Elizabeth said.

The picture was in black and white, taken from a distance. It was clear enough to show the brutality in Al-Bayati's features. His head was large, with jutting brows and a sloped forehead. His hair was black and thick. His arms seemed unusually long and powerful, almost simian.

"Primitive looking dude," Diego said. "Reminds me of a guy I knew a long time ago, back in Colorado."

"You're from Colorado?" Ronnie asked.

"Born and raised. I come from outside of Fort Collins, north of Denver. My grandfather emigrated there from Mexico back in the 40s. He grew beets. Now the water's been ripped off and the land's dried up. It would break his heart if he could see it."

Elizabeth tapped her pen.

"Let's stay focused. Al-Bayati sells classified information to the wrong people. Hezbolla protects him and leaves him alone because Tehran tells them to. As you heard from Lucas, he sells black-market arms and stolen technology. There are disturbing rumors about him but no one has ever been able to substantiate them."

"What kind of rumors?" Ronnie asked.

"That children go into his villa in Lebanon and never come out again."

"Sounds like a charming fellow," Selena said

"He seldom leaves his villa. Show us the house, Steph."

The picture changed to show Bayati's sprawling mansion, set on a steep cliff overlooking the Mediterranean. The villa had the classic look of whitewashed walls and red tiled roof. It had been built in the shape of a U around a tiled courtyard. The open part of the U featured a broad fountain surrounded by shade trees and manicured shrubbery. On the Mediterranean side, a wide patio behind the main part of the house ended at a large pool. Beyond the pool a triple row of gleaming razor wire lined the edge of the cliff. Hundreds of feet below, the dark waves of the Mediterranean Sea crashed and foamed against jagged rocks rising up from the water.

The cliff and the water formed a security barrier for one side of the compound. The other three sides were protected by a high, whitewashed stone wall topped with loops of razor wire and shards of broken glass. There was one entrance in, through a massive iron gate. A guardhouse inside the compound sat next to the gate. Several cars were parked on the left side of the compound.

Nick said, "He has a Quad .50 sitting there in the shade. See it? By the wing where all the cars are?"

"I'll be damned," Ronnie said. "I thought those were all in museums."