Contract with God aka The Moses Expedition

39

AL MUDAWWARA DESERT, JORDAN

Friday, July 14, 2006. 3:42 p.m.

Father, tell me one more time why I’m doing this.

Because you want to know the truth. The truth about what’s going on here. About why they bothered to contact you in Spain when Kayn could have found a thousand reporters more experienced and famous than you are right there in New York.

The conversation continued to ring in Andrea’s ears. The question was the same one the weak little voice in her head had been asking for quite some time now. It had been drowned out by the Philharmonic of Pride, accompanied by Mr Visa Debt, baritone, and Ms Fame at Any Cost, soprano. But Fowler’s words had given the weak little voice centre stage.

Andrea shook her head, trying to concentrate on what she was doing. The plan was to take advantage of the period when the off-duty soldiers would be trying to rest, taking a nap or playing cards.

‘That’s where you come in,’ Fowler had said. ‘On my signal you slip under the tent.’

‘Between the wooden floor and the sand? Are you crazy?’

‘There’s enough space. You’ll have to crawl about a foot and a half until you reach the electrical panel. The cable that connects the generator and the tent is the orange one. Pull it out quickly; connect it to the end of my cable and the other end of my cable back into the electrical panel. Then press this button every fifteen seconds for three minutes. After that, get out of there fast.’

‘What will that do?’

‘Nothing too complicated technologically. It’ll produce a slight drop in the electrical current without totally cutting it off. The frequency scanner will only shut off twice: once when you connect the cable, the second time when you disconnect it.’

‘And the rest of the time?’

‘It’ll be in start-up mode, like a computer when it’s loading its operating system. As long as they don’t look under the tent there won’t be any problems.’

Except that there was: the heat.

Crawling under the tent when Fowler gave the signal had been easy. Andrea had squatted, pretending to tie her bootlace, looked around and then rolled under the wooden platform. It was like diving into a vat of hot butter. The air was thick with the heat of the day and the generator next to the tent produced broiling drafts of heat that wafted into the space where Andrea had crawled.

She was now under the electrical panel, and her face and arms were burning up. She took out Fowler’s breaker and held it at the ready in her right hand while with her left she pulled sharply on the orange wire. She connected it to Fowler’s device then connected the other end to the panel, and waited.

This useless lying watch. It says only twelve seconds have gone by but it seems more like two minutes. God, I can’t bear this heat!

Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.

She pressed the breaker button.

Above her, the tone of the soldiers’ voices changed.

Looks like they’ve noticed something. I hope they don’t give it much thought.

She listened more closely to the conversation. It started as a way to distract herself from the heat and keep her from fainting. She hadn’t drunk enough water that morning and was now paying for it. Her throat and lips were parched, and her head felt slightly dizzy. But thirty seconds later, what she was hearing made Andrea begin to panic. So much so that, once the three minutes had elapsed, she was still there pressing the button every fifteen seconds, fighting the feeling that she was about to pass out.