Hammer of God

CHAPTER 12

They were speeding away in the car before the helicopter was even out of sight. Alex, Sam, and Eli all wore well worn Iranian Republican Guard uniforms and had perfect IDs, all courtesy of the Mossad Infiltration Division. Adira and Casey had on the dark robes of the abaya and had identification as government functionaries — roles appropriate to be in the company of IRG — on some sort of government sponsored mission.

They would need to drive across the porous border — hundreds of miles of featureless, arid landscape. They followed a broad highway, and in the hours of travel only passed a single truck loaded with wood. It was only when they came to the town of Serhetabat that they knew they were already in Turkmenistan.

Traffic increased, and so did the number of checkpoints, but flashing their identification, while wearing both the uniforms and a disinterested expression, usually resulted in a deferential or panicked look on the faces of the officials. It seemed the IRG was a big player up here, and potentially an impatient one.

More hours stretched as they sped up the broad empty highway. It was another three hundred miles to the ancient city of Mary, and then they were turning west toward the Iranian border. Outside of Tejen they left the highway, following Adira’s instructions, and took to small roads, and then dirt tracks that appeared on no map. The car bounced, lighter now that the fuel was near exhausted, and Alex ached to be able to stand and stretch.

They had lost the sunlight hours back, and when they passed the city of Khvosh Hava, they knew they had only ten more miles to go. Tous was a much smaller satellite town in the northern Mashhad District.

Though they were dressed as IRG with perfect cover stories, any newcomer would attract attention, so they had decided to stay outside of Tous, and instead continued on to Shahrak-e Gharb, where they had booked several rooms at the Abtin Apartments. It was full dark when they rolled in, and their identification was barely looked at, each member of the team was treated with deference.

In the elevator, Sam spoke softly. “It’s like the KGB in old Russia — no one wants you here, but once you are, you’re everyone’s best buddy.”

“Old Russia?” Casey raised a brow. “You must have missed the guy currently in charge? It’s the good old days are back in there now.”

Out of the elevator, they split in different directions. Casey’s face had dropped when she found out she would be sharing a room with Adira. The last Alex heard from Casey was her warning to Adira that she snored… and loudly.

In their rooms, they immediately felt the pull of fatigue settling over them, and after securing the door and doing a quick bug sweep, they fell like trees onto their beds.

The next morning, a knock on Alex’s door brought Casey into the room. “She snores worse than I do.” She cast Alex a look. “But I’m thinking you know that.”

Alex grunted, as a second knock brought in Adira. She grinned at Casey. “I needed that. A good night’s sleep; feeling good.”

Casey groaned, but then she grinned. “Yeah, and you talk in your sleep. You must have hot dreams, huh?” She winked at Alex.

“What?” Adira rounded on her but Casey waved her away.

They found seats or stood waiting as both Sam and Eli opened large cases. Adira and Casey had their abaya scarves around their necks.

“Are we okay to be in here together?” Alex asked. “With unmarried women?”

Adira shrugged. “If you were just an Iranian citizen, I would say definitely not, and you could expect a visit from the morality police. But they’ll turn a blind eye as you are IRG.” She sat at a table and flipped open a small computer tablet and switched to satellite feed. She then selected the Mashhad District, and drilled down on Tous, but the angle and height of the satellite didn’t allow enough clarity on the images.

“Ach, not close enough.” Adira threw her hands up.

“We’ll need to go in — hard and fast,” Alex said.

“Belly of the beast,” Sam said.

“Just the way we like it.” Casey had a twisted grin on her face. “Fight or die.”

Adira nodded. “Fight or die? Yes, and if they take you, you will want to die. And it will be death, eventually, after a long and painful few weeks of psychological and surgical torture.”

Alex got to his feet. “Every second we are here increases our chances of being detected. We need to get this over with before the odds shift.”

“Agreed.” Adira stood. “We need better eyes in there first.” She turned to Eli. “Send in Tweety.”

“Onto it.” Eli flipped open his case and was pulling out a small device in pieces which he began snapping together. When he finished, he had what looked like a small bird in his hands, complete with fake feathers.

He laid it on the bed and then went back to the case. He adjusted the lid, which became a view-screen, with a joystick pad and a few other small controls. Adira went to the window and opened it, and stuck her head out momentarily. Then she pulled back and stood aside. “All clear. Let him fly.”

Eli fiddled at the controls, and then three spikes, one on each wing and a third on the tail, started to spin. Blades flicked out, and then like a small helicopter, the bird lifted soundlessly. Eli guided it to the window. On his screen, their room was displayed in high resolution.

Sam clapped his hands. “Now that is cool.”

Alex grinned. “Spy cam, and all wrapped up in a local bird of prey package. We now have our eyes. Nice work.”

“It’s more than just eyes.” Adira nodded. “Shaped like a desert kestrel, and just like them, can hover on thermals for hours. Perfect camouflage for a spy drone.”

Tweety zoomed past Adira, and the group crowded around Eli’s screen as it darted out the window. The drone rose to several hundred feet and zoomed across the several miles of desert to the town of Tous.

It was small, not more than a single square mile, with only a few thousand residents. The structures were a mix of 1950s modern and extremely ancient, dating back thousands of years. Many of the central structures were enormous sandstone monuments; some towering many stories and built from blocks larger than trucks, and all fitted together with barely a seam showing.

“What are we looking for?” Casey asked, putting her hands on Eli’s shoulders and pretending to massage the Mossad agent.

Eli grimaced but kept his eyes on the screen. “Something that doesn’t fit — Northern Arabic script, or something guarded with no clear reason, and of course, traces of high energy particle radiation.” He looked at a small readout on the side of his screen. “So far we have nothing above background normal, but as we have seen from Mosul, even moving the radioactive matter through the area leaves an atomic trace. Tweety can pick these up.”

“Clever bird,” Sam said.

“Israeli tech.” Adira smiled. “Tell Jack Hammerson I’m happy to trade him some.”

There were few people on the street, and Adira started to point out different buildings to the group. “The Mausoleum of Ferdowsi, and that’s the grave of Akhavan-Sales. All just relics now.” She nodded toward a long wall so old it was now crumbling back into the desert from which it had come. “The Darvaze Razan Gate.” She snorted. “It was an ancient barrier and a place of kings and magic. Many wanted to be buried here, simply because it was rumored to be one of the portals to the afterlife,” she went on. “That large structure there is the Harounieh Dome…”

“See that?” Alex pointed. “Wait, back Tweety up.”

“The dome?” Adira asked.

“Yeah, someone’s inside, pulled back into the shadows, but they’re there.” Alex frowned as he stared at the dome. It was a huge foreboding structure, but something seemed to call to him, draw him to it. He blinked and shook his head to clear it.

“Got something.” Adira pointed at the data rolling up the screen. “Tweety sniffed a trace.”