Solomon's Gold

CHAPTER 20

They'd gotten about three quarters of the way down the side of the mountain when Nick suddenly stopped. He reached up and began scratching his ear.

"Shit," Lamont said. "You're messing with your ear."

Ronnie and Selena looked at each other.

"What are you talking about?" Friedman asked.

"It's hard to explain," Selena said. "Sometimes when we're about to run into serious trouble, his ear starts to itch."

"That's ridiculous," Friedman said.

"I'm afraid it isn't," Selena said.

"Might be nothing," Nick said, tugging on his scarred ear, "but it feels like trouble."

"Gideon and Miriam are down there," Rivka said. "Don't you think we would've heard something, if there was trouble?"

"What could possibly be wrong?" Friedman asked. "We're in the middle of the desert. There's nobody around for miles."

"Except for those vehicles we saw," Lamont said.

"They're probably tourists."

"We don't know that," Nick said. "Doctor Friedman, I want you to stay here while we go the rest of the way, until we know it's safe."

"Poppycock," Friedman said.

"What? Nobody says that anymore."

"I will not stay here while you indulge some fantasy about your ear. I'm tired and I want to sit down and get out of the sun. I'm going down with or without you."

Nick looked at Friedman's stubborn expression and decided it wasn't worth the trouble to argue. He took out his pistol and checked to see if there was a round in the chamber. The others did the same. Friedman looked at the guns and shook his head.

"You're serious about this, aren't you?"

"Better safe than sorry, Doc," Lamont said.

"Since you insist on coming with us, stay well to the rear," Nick said.

"I protest."

"Protest all you like, but you stay in the rear. You understand?" Nick's voice was hard.

"Do as he asks, Alan," Selena said.

"You too?"

"He's trying to protect you. Do as he says."

Friedman took one look at Nick and nodded.

"Good," Nick said.

"How you want to play it?" Ronnie asked.

"If I wanted to make trouble, I'd watch our vehicles and wait for us to show up. They're out in the open. Once we leave the rocks, we're exposed. The way this trail is going, I figure we'll come out about fifty yards to the right of the cars. We started up to the left of them. If somebody's there, they'll be watching for us to come back the same way."

"Maybe," Selena said.

"If I'm wrong about this, I'll buy everybody dinner and apologize. In the meantime, we go slow until we can see who's down there."

"I'm going to enjoy that dinner," Friedman said.

They climbed down toward the desert floor, following the bed of the ancient stream. Tall rocks on either side prevented them from seeing the cars, but it worked both ways. Anyone at the cars wouldn't see them coming.

They reached a point near the bottom of the slope where the old streambed petered out and the cover of the boulders began to give way. Nick slipped behind the last of the covering rocks and looked through his binoculars. The Israeli jeeps were about forty yards away. Two new vehicles were parked nearby, the cars they'd seen approaching from higher up. He couldn't see anyone in them.

Gideon was in the front seat of one of the vehicles. It looked like he was asleep, with his hat pulled down over his eyes. Miriam stood outside, resting her hand on the fender and looking away from them, toward the spot where they'd started up the mountain hours before.

"What do you see?" Selena asked.

"Two new vehicles, empty by the look of them. Looks like Gideon is sleeping in one of ours. Miriam is standing outside. She seems to be waiting for us to come back."

"I told you so," Friedman said. "I've had enough of this."

He stepped out from behind the rocks and started toward Miriam.

"Wait…" Nick said.

"Miriam," Friedman called. "Over here."

She turned to look.

Rivka started to follow Friedman.

Nick grabbed her arm. "Wait. Something doesn't feel right. Why isn't Gideon getting out of the car?"

He looked again with the binoculars. Something red stained the side of the vehicle under the closed door by Gideon's seat.

"Friedman," Nick yelled. "Get back here!"

Friedman waved a hand dismissively and continued walking toward Miriam. She ducked down behind the car. Friedman stopped, confused.

Bursts of automatic rifle fire came from behind the two new vehicles. Nick watched Friedman jerk spasmodically as the bullets hit him, spinning him around, then dropping him to the hard desert floor.

Bullets ricocheted off the rock by Nick's head. Bits of stone stung his cheek. He scrambled on all fours back to the others and touched his cheek where a fragment of stone had cut him. His finger came away bloody.

The firing stopped.

"How many?" Ronnie asked.

"Not sure," Nick said. "Three or four. Plus Miriam."

"Miriam?" Selena said.

"She ducked before the others started firing. She knew they were there."

"What about Gideon?" Rivka asked.

"Dead. There's blood leaking out of his car."

She said something that sounded like someone coughing up a glob of spit.

"What?"

"Shit. I said shit."

"Man, I've got to learn to swear like that," Lamont said.

Another burst of fire sent chips of stone flying over their heads.

Nick reached around the rock he was using for cover and sent three rounds toward the cars.

"You can learn Hebrew another time," Nick said.

"I wish we had a couple of those Uzis," Rivka said.

"Yeah, me too." He looked at Selena.

"I know, I know, be careful," she said.

They began moving sideways through the rock strewn ground, toward the parked vehicles, crawling on all fours. The rocks bit through Nick's clothes. The ground was rugged, the boulders low, with gaps in between. They weren't going to get close to the cars without exposing themselves.

They were within twenty yards of the vehicles when they ran out of cover.

Nick crawled sideways to a large, flat boulder shaped like a table. From where he lay, he could see under the edge of the rock to where the cars were parked.

Ronnie crawled up next to him.

"I can see legs under the cars," Nick said. "At least three men. Plus Miriam's there somewhere."

"You think she's in on it, huh?"

"Has to be. If she wasn't, she'd be dead like Gideon or trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey."

"Too bad. I think Lamont had his eye on her."

"He always did have lousy taste in women," Nick said.

"I'm thinking about those cans of gas on the side of Gideon's Jeep," Ronnie said.

"What about them?"

"We could put a few rounds in them, set them off."

"That stuff only works in the movies."

Ronnie reached into his pocket and took out a magazine with green-tipped rounds in it and showed it to Nick.

"Not with these babies. It's a little something I made up back in Virginia."

He took the magazine in his pistol out, put it in his pocket, and loaded the other.

Nick said, "You made up incendiaries for your Sig?"

Ronnie racked the slide and chambered a round. "Yup. A trick I learned from Gunny Stevens, way back when."

"Stevens? I knew a Gunny Stevens in Iraq. Short guy? Built like a fireplug?"

"That's him," Ronnie said. "Last I heard, he'd retired and was living in Tennessee."

"He's got to be about a hundred years old," Nick said. "We get out of this, we ought to go see him and say hello."

"I was thinking we lay down covering fire, I put a few rounds into that gas can. When it blows, we charge them."

Lamont crawled over to them.

"What are you guys talking about?"

"Ronnie's got an idea."

Lamont listened and nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

"Lamont, go back and tell Rivka and Selena what we're thinking. When you hear me start shooting, open up on those cars."

"Give me five minutes." He crawled away.

Nick and Ronnie crouched behind the boulder. Five minutes passed.

"Ready, amigo?"

"I kind of liked Gideon," Ronnie said. "Yeah, I'm ready."

Nick began firing, trying to send bullets under the cars, hoping to hit someone in a leg. Behind him, the others opened up. Bullets struck the cars, shattering windows and punching holes in the sheet-metal.

Ronnie fired four quick shots at the gas cans mounted on the side of the Israeli Jeep. The two cans exploded in a brilliant flash of crimson and orange. The main gas tank went a second later. The Israeli Jeep blew apart in a violent explosion of metal and flame. A black cloud of smoke ballooned into the air from the shattered vehicle.

Nick was up and running toward the cars, firing as he went. The slide on his pistol locked open. He dropped the empty magazine and slammed in a fresh one on the run, racking the slide and firing again. From somewhere he heard himself yelling at the top of his lungs as he charged the cars. Bullets kicked up sand around his feet. He was vaguely aware of the others firing behind him.

Then he was at the first of the cars. He ran around the back of the car and saw a man rolling about on the ground, moaning and clutching his leg. A second man crouched beside the engine compartment. He turned as Nick shot him.

Nick dove to the ground as bullets shattered the windshield next to him. Two more men were firing from behind the second vehicle, parked ahead. One went down as someone's bullets found him. Nick shot the other. The wounded man on the ground lifted his gun. Nick killed him.

The shooting stopped. The only sound was the crackle of flames from the burning Jeep.

Nick stood and holstered his pistol. His hand began shaking.