Destiny

NINETY-FIVE

Marcus drove south on Highway 6, keeping to the speed limits. He took Highway 35 into the town of Kiryat Gat. “Let’s see if Brandi’s plane landed safely,” he said, pulling into the parking lot of the train station.

Alicia found an Internet connection on her laptop. “Give me a sec.” She punched the keyboard. “Yes! Brandi’s plane is fine. She’s at Heathrow. There’s coverage on the BBC.” Alicia’s eyes watered. She wiped a single tear from her cheek. “Look — there’s video of my sister Dianne and her husband, Sam, meeting Brandi.”

Marcus glanced at the screen and smiled.

Alicia said, “Thank you, Paul. You risked so much for this moment.”

“So did you. The risks haven’t gone away. When the Iranians insert the two flash drives, it will be a matter of minutes before the combination shuts down and destroys their entire nuclear facility at Natnaz.”

“What did you do?”

“I created a personality into the Myrtus worm. The programming gave the Iranians the illusion that the worm was disabled, but in reality I programmed it to destroy the centrifuges at a specific time. And this will happen even if Rahim doesn’t insert the flash drives into their system. It’s been preprogrammed.”

“Paul, you should get some kind of medal. But, yet the Mossad, CIA, and madman Jonathon Carlson are all hunting you.”

“Unfortunately, they’re hunting both of us. And that’s because you’re with me. Alicia, get off here. Catch a train. Get out of Israel. Contact Bill Gray. He’ll get you back to the states. It’s me they want. They’ll come for me.”

“No! I can’t leave you!”

“Brandi’s safe. It’s too dangerous! You have to leave.”

“I won’t abandon you.”

“They want the information on the other drive I have, and they want the spear. For madmen like Carlson, it’s the illusion of absolute power if they can own something like the Spear of Destiny, the spear being the ultimate power trophy. Go on, you can leave now. Just disappear until this ends.”

“Will it end, Paul? The information on the drive might help it end. It might help start a fresh tomorrow. But, we don’t know that. I do know that I can’t catch some train bound for nowhere after what we’ve gone through together. I’m not leaving you alone. Not now. Not ever.” She leaned over and kissed him tenderly on the lips.

Marcus searched her eyes. He glanced at a train pulling into the station, and then reached under the front seat for the spearhead and flash drive, which he deposited back into his pockets. “Okay, let’s go. First, we need to find a disposable phone and make a call.”

Ten minutes later, Marcus paid cash to buy a disposable mobile phone from a store in the heart of Kiryat Gat. He returned to the car, got in the front seat with Alicia and said, “Key in the GPS locator data for the mobile phone I tossed to Rahim.”

Alicia nodded and tapped the keys. A few seconds later, the screen filled with a satellite map grid of Israel. She pointed to the moving dot on the screen. “Looks like they’re going toward Tel Aviv.”

“Maybe they’re heading to the airport.” Marcus used the mobile phone to dial Nathan Levy’s number. “I have some information that you can use.”

“The taxi driver wasn’t happy when my men surrounded his car. You know we’ll find you, Paul.”

“Two high-level operatives, most likely from Iran’s MOIS, are going to be leaving Israel soon. Would you like to see what interesting stories they might share with you?”

“What are you talking about?”

“One says his name is Rahim. The other goes by Narsi. Probably aliases. But I do know one truth — they are carrying two flash drives they believe will completely disengage the Myrtus worm and make their Natnaz plant all well again.”

“What do you mean, believe?”

“I can text the satellite tracking numbers to you for Rahim and Narsi. Then you can do whatever it is that you do.”

“What do you want?

“Three things. You let us board a plane from Ben Gurion. Secondly, I want you to get in touch with your old pal, Andy Jenkins. You find a reason to call him. What I want is access to his cell number. I want the ID of the Lion.”

“I don’t know his ID. Come in, Paul. We’ll discuss the other things.”

“I, quite frankly, don’t have time to stop in your office for a chat.” Marcus looked at his watch. “Got to go now. Call me back quickly or your two MOIS operatives are going to be out of the country.” Marcus disconnected. He felt his muscles tighten across his back.

Alicia looked at him. “What’d he say?”

“He’ll call back. And he’ll text Andrew Jenkins cell number to me. We need to hack it to see if we can get to Carlson and his posse.”

“Are we going to the airport?”

“Yes, but not Ben Gurion. They’d never let us board a plane. I’m just trying to buy us time to cross the border.”

“What border?”

“Egypt. We’ll fly out of Cairo.”