Solomon's Gold

CHAPTER 43

Nick and the rest of the team sat on the couch in Elizabeth's office. Stephanie was off to the side with her laptop. The only person not present was Freddie, but then he wasn't exactly a person. Nick was pretty sure Freddie was listening, just the same.

"How's the arm, Lamont?" Elizabeth asked.

Lamont's left arm rested in a blue sling. "It's okay, Director. I have to wear the sling for a little while, but it comes in handy."

He reached inside the sling with his right hand and took out a small pistol.

"Perfect for my.380."

"No permanent damage?"

"Nope."

"I'm glad to hear it," Elizabeth said.

She tapped her pen on her desk.

"Nick, you stirred up a hornet's nest over there. The part of Egypt where you found Solomon's gold used to be in ancient Israel. When you told the Israelis where the treasure was, they sent in a Sayeret Matkal team to defend it."

"Special forces," Nick said. "Those guys are the cream of the crop."

"I'll bet the Egyptians didn't like that," Ronnie said.

"That's putting it mildly. At the moment there's what the diplomats like to call a 'tense situation' going on at those ruins. The Israelis are refusing to withdraw. The Egyptians have troops facing them. Nobody's quite sure what's going to happen. Both sides are in negotiations. Of course, both of them want the loot."

Nick reached in his pocket, took out the coin he'd taken from the temple floor, and placed it on Harker's desk. She picked it up and looked at it. It was made of gold and irregularly shaped. The coin was bright with the reddish color of pure gold. It looked as though it had been minted yesterday.

"That room was stacked with chests filled with coins like this," Nick said. "There were statues of gold, bars of gold, silver. Jewels, rubies as big as goose eggs. Probably diamonds and sapphires and everything else as well. The Israelis aren't going to give it up without a fight. Aside from it's value, it's their heritage. Not to mention a stone box that probably contains the bones of King David."

"This is the sort of thing that makes lawyers rich," Stephanie said. "There will be legal battles over who owns it for years."

"At least it's not our problem anymore," Nick said. "I've seen enough of Israel to last me a long time."

"The Israelis identified the men who tried to kill you as agents for VAJA, Iran's intelligence service."

"Sooner or later, someone's going to have to teach Tehran a lesson," Nick said.

"That's not our job," Elizabeth said. "Our job now is to see if we can confirm the threat to the Jewish conference. We only have two days until it begins."

"Director," Nick said, "we know there's a threat. Why else would an Iranian spy pretend to be Jewish and get a job at the Jewish Museum? She had to be gathering information. We all know what Iran thinks about Israel. With the prime minister scheduled to speak, it's a perfect target."

"It's worse than that," Elizabeth said. "President Corrigan is also going to address the conference."

"That's nuts," Ronnie said. "He can't take risks like that."

"Corrigan needs Jewish support if he wants to implement his programs. He's already announced his intention to speak. Outside of a few people, no one knows about the threat. If he doesn't show up, it will be seen as a slight to Jews everywhere. It will look like he's been pressured by elements in his party to stay away. His enemies would have a field day, claiming he was anti-Semitic."

"Is he?" Nick asked.

"I don't know," Elizabeth said. "I don't think so."

"I don't understand why anybody wants to be a politician," Ronnie said. "No matter what you do, somebody's going to attack you for it."

"I like what we do better," Lamont said. "At least we get to shoot back."

"We need more information," Nick said. "What do we know, aside from the fact that Miriam, or whatever her name was, was an Iranian plant?"

"Not much," Stephanie said. "When I searched Miriam's apartment, I found a pad I thought was blank. Freddie discovered a phone number on it. It belongs to a throw away. Langley is monitoring it and so are we, but no one's used it. It's our only lead at this point."

"You think it belongs to another Iranian? A terrorist?"

"Based on what we know about her, that's a safe assumption," Stephanie said.

"What's security like at the event?"

"As tight as it gets," Elizabeth said. "It's being put in place as we speak. The conference is the day after tomorrow. The NYPD will handle traffic and external security, the kind of thing they normally do when there's an important event. There will be FBI snipers covering the building, Secret Service everywhere, FBI agents outside and in. Metal detectors, pat downs, all the usual precautions in spades. No one's going to be able to get in there with a weapon. They're already going through the hotel looking for bombs or anything else suspicious."

"I've heard that before," Nick said. "I don't care how tight it is, there's always a way to get past security."

"What about the guests?" Selena said. "What about their rooms? Someone could have checked in before security was put in place."

"All that's been considered," Elizabeth said. "Everyone staying in the hotel has been checked out. Most of the rooms are reserved for people attending the conference. The prime minister won't be in the hotel except when he's speaking. President Corrigan will arrive a few minutes before Reubenstein, so he can greet him outside for the photo op."

"I want plans of the hotel," Nick said.

I have a complete set of plans in my database. Would you like me to print them for you?

Freddie's voice boomed through the office.

"Damn it, Freddie, how many times do we have to tell you to turn down the volume?" Stephanie said.

I apologize, Stephanie.

"Print the plans. Use the printer downstairs in the operations room."

Yes, Stephanie.

"Sometimes I think he does that on purpose," Stephanie muttered.

"Do they have cameras at the hotel?" Nick asked. "If somebody accessed the hotel that shouldn't be there, they could be on tape."

"The Bureau is already going through every tape from the last week," Elizabeth said.

"We have to be on site during the conference. I want total access. Freedom to go anywhere without anybody having anything to say about it," Nick said.

Elizabeth nodded. "That's not a problem."

"We need a comm set up that lets us talk to each other privately and can patch us into central command."

Elizabeth made a note. "Stephanie will take care of that. Anything else?"

"Make sure the Secret Service and the Bureau know we're armed. Everybody gets jumpy when there are weapons around the President. Israeli security also."

"All right," Elizabeth said.

"Whatever it is they're planning, I don't think it's going to be one of those lone gunman scenarios. My bet would be on a truck bomb, or something similar."

"No one will be able to get anything like that near the hotel," Elizabeth said. "Vehicle access will be blocked off except for the President and the prime minister."

Nick said, "Try telling that to the people killed in the last year by madmen driving trucks through security barriers."

"Suicide bomber, maybe?" Ronnie said.

"He'd never get through security," Elizabeth said.

"I don't believe in never," Nick said.