Destiny

NINETY-THREE

Marcus drove east out of Jerusalem, surveying the earthquake damage, maneuvering the Honda down crowded streets. Alicia looked out the car window, her heart in her throat. “This is horrific. I think we—” Her phone buzzed. She looked at the ID and recognized the code. She glanced over to Marcus. “It’s Bill Gray.”

“Answer it.”

She inhaled deeply. “Hello, Bill.”

“Alicia, are you okay?”

“Yes.”

“Is Paul with you?”

“Yes.”

“Look, all hell is breaking lose over the channels. Something has happened to motivate the Iranians to deal — something, we believe coming out of Natanz. Brandi is on a plane. The Secretary of State’s office is out of the loop, other diplomatic channels are scratching their heads. What’s going on, Alicia. I need to know now!”

“Bill, no one in the State Department, NSA or the CIA could do shit. It’s that simple.”

“You’re not a damn field agent! Come in.”

“Until Brandi’s safe, that’s not going to happen.”

“Put Paul on the line.”

She handed the phone to Marcus. Gray said, “Paul, I need to know what you know about a Russian physicist named Abromov defecting to Israel.”

“What makes you think I know anything?”

“Your encryption is the best, but there’s always an Achilles heel, always a link. You know that.”

“Listen to me, Bill. Whoever gave you that information belongs to a very complex web of deceit. Who told you?”

Bill Gray was silent for a few seconds. “What can you tell me?”

Weighing his odds before answering, Marcus gave Gray a quick summary and added, “We don’t know how far the web stretches, and who the players are. I can tell you that there’s a bomb on Brandi’s plane. Courtesy, Tehran.”

“What!”

“Don’t rush the plane. Just watch it in London. I don’t know whom you can trust. I know whoever gave you that intel is someone you cannot trust.”

Gray said nothing for a moment. “Thank you, Paul.”

Marcus was quiet, driving through the traffic, a cloud passing over the midday sun causing a dark shadow to descend over Jerusalem. “Bill, has anyone made an effort to locate this assassin, the Lion? I could use some help here.”

“I wish I had better news. Too much is classified, and no one really knows who or where the Lion is because no one alive has seen him.”

“I’m alive. I’ve seen him. And I’ll see him again.” Marcus disconnected and punched numbers into his cell phone to call the personal line of Nathan Levy. Levy answered with an indistinct response. “Where are you, Paul?”

“I suspect you know where I am.”

“My men were ordered to find you so we can simply talk.”

“We can use a telephone for that. Where’s the Lion?”

“You made a foolish mistake meeting earlier with the Iranians. We know that because of the changes you made to their operating systems. You extricated or compromised the Myrtus device. The Iranians are resuming the operations of their centrifuges. Why did you succumb to them?”

“Listen to me, Levy. I did nothing to compromise the security of Israel, or the rest of the Middle East, for that matter.”

“How are we to believe you?”

“Because what I’m telling you is the damn truth. You may not recognize it in your line of work, but that’s what it’s supposed to look like.”

“Paul, I am holding a piece of paper in my hand, a note that you wrote to a woman with the alias of Layla Koury. Her real name was Taheera Khalili. She was an operative for Iran, one of the best. In this little message, you told her how much you enjoyed your dinner and evening with her, and that you wanted to meet to discuss her proposition. In other words, Paul, you were looking to cut a deal. How much did they offer you?”

“You forgot the part where she tried to put a bullet in my head.”

“That’s what you tell us. How do we know the deal simply went bad and you killed her?”

“I guess this is another time where you’re going to have to learn to recognize the truth when you hear it. What I did was what I had to do to gain the freedom of Brandi Hirsh, who’s sick and needs immediate medical care, and Adam Spencer, both of whom were being used by Iran as political pawns.”

“You’ll never get out of Israel. We’ll find you.”

“Call off the dogs, Levy. I’m not your enemy. Your enemy is the one who engineered Rabin’s killing. They’re the same people who just shot Prime Minister Meltzer. Who is the Lion?”

“I don’t believe you.”

“You brought me here under the pretense of the Newton project, and you used Jacob Kogen and his passion for Bible prophecies to do it. But what you didn’t factor in was Isaac Newton, his deep research of the Bible and mathematical genius for identifying patterns and creating code, and what that information might reveal. It’s already revealed the meaning of ancient scripture, faith and evil, the latter including warring schemes from Babylonia to the Middle Ages to Isaac Newton’s time, and through World War II…all the way up until today — this very moment in time, Levy. Would you like to know what else it’s revealed?”

“Paul, you’re delusional. You’re sick and you need help.”

“On the contrary, Levy. I have no illusions. I have facts. The prophetic handwriting on the wall is anything but covert, as was your contact, Andy Jenkins, who is a consultant today with the Kinsley Group. I know that Jenkins helped put into place the events that led to Rabin’s assassination, which created the vacancy for interim Prime Minister Cohen to slip into office. Back in 1997, John Kennedy Junior opened a crack into the dark when he ran the story in his magazine George that suggested Yigal Amir, the assassin, didn’t act alone. Two years later, Kennedy was considering a run for the U.S. Senate, and his plane was taken out of the sky. Those same people, who don’t have the best interest of Israel in mind — those who murdered Rabin, Kennedy and Meltzer for their own interests — are the driving force behind what has happened and what is going to happen.”

“You’re wrong. I would trust Andy Jenkins with my life.”

“I hope that’s not a mistake you’re willing to make.”

“Am I to believe you received all of this from some obscure Bible prophecy?”

“That’s up to you. I need to share something else with you about the prophecy.”

“Don’t waste any more of my time. We’re coming for you.”

“Listen to me, Levy. The information I have indicates a perfect storm is building across the Middle East, and Israel can either do its part to diffuse it, or it will become swept up in it. Everything you’ve thought for the last few decades, since the 1948 war is no longer relevant.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Look what’s happening all around Israel right now. Egypt, as you knew it, no longer exists. There’s unrest in Jordan. These are the only two Arab nations clinging to a peace treaty with Israel. You can see what’s unfolding in Libya, Lebanon and especially Syria. Saudi Arabia may not be that far away.”

“There are no surprises here. Israel is used to defending itself.”

“Levy, it’s not unlike the dove that Noah released, it returned with a sign of hope — a twig of faith that our journey means something to the world—”

“Enough with your psycho-babble! You don’t know what you’re talking about regarding the Middle East. But the real point here is that you’ve met with our sworn enemy — and worse, you have raised the threat of nuclear war.”

“I’ve lowered it! You’ll see. I’ve found information that paints a gloomy picture for the entire planet if we don’t stop the insanity. There are powerful, secret global syndicates drawing lines in the sand that have enormous stakes in terms of power and money.”

“Your thinking is mired in conspiracy, hypothesis, and rhetoric, all with no sound reasoning.”

“Israel is surrounded by an enormous population of Muslims who have been living on the perimeter of the past, insulated by oil and dictatorships. But the curtain is falling on that era due to the rise of social media. If Israel convinces itself that the political unrest and changes in Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon prove they cannot co-exist with the Arab States, then the threat to Israel is even greater.”

Levy said nothing for a few seconds. “Your rhetoric is just politics, nothing more, Paul. You attribute these revelations to biblical prophecy. It’s nonsense — an interpretation gone awry.”

“There is no interpretation here. Who is the Lion? Who does he work for?”

“Pull the car over in the car park past the next intersection. I will meet you, and we’ll tell you.”

Marcus looked at his cell for a moment. He disconnected and turned to Alicia. “Give me your phone!”

“What?”

“Your mobile! They’re tracking us. It might be yours, mine or both.” She handed her phone to him. Marcus pulled over to the side of the road, removed the SIM cards to the phones and slipped them into his pocket. He got out of the car and opened the back door to a parked taxi.

“Where to?” asked the driver.

“The airport.” Marcus hid the phones under the back seat. “Wait a second! I forgot something. Look, here’s fifty dollars. Just drive around the block a few times. If I’m not back here in ten minutes, keep the money, okay.”

“My pleasure.”

Marcus got out of the taxi and the driver pulled away from the curb, submerging into the flow of traffic.