The Lance

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

Nick tossed and turned in his sleep.

They come in out of the sun, low over the village, the beat of the rotors echoing in his helmet and hammering inside his head. It's Afghanistan again, back where he will kill a child, back where he'll feel the grenade try to tear him apart.

The dream is different this time. This time, he knows he's dreaming. He tries to wake up but he can't and his Marines jump out into the dusty market street, as they always do in the dream.

Megan is standing in the middle of the street.

"Nick."

He begins weeping. The dream changes, and now he and Megan are standing in front of a building on a street in a strange city, a place he doesn't recognize. Blocks of gray apartment buildings recede into the distance. People hurry past, their faces averted. Something is burning. A man walks by in a round, fur hat, dressed in black, with a beard and long ringlets of hair. He gives Nick a frightened stare as he passes.

Israel. He's in Israel.

"You have to stop it." Megan looks sad.

"Stop what? I don't understand."

Megan points at the building. There's a sign, but the letters keep changing and it's hard to read. He can see words. 'Jaff' then 'Arms', 'toilet', then a phone number in blue. It looks familiar, but he can't place it.

"Call him. Look, Nick, here's a phone."

She hands him a large, old fashioned black phone. It's ringing. He picks up the receiver. "Hello?" he says. "Hello?"

His phone was ringing on the bedside table. He picked it up.

"Yes." The clock on the dresser read 3:04 A.M.

It was Stephanie. "Nick, someone tried to kill the Director."

He came wide awake. "Is she all right?"

"She's in Bethesda. The assassin is dead, she put three rounds in him but she was shot in the head. The bullet was a .22. They're operating as we speak."

He watched the numerals tick over on the clock.

"There's more. Elizabeth is ill. She's got some kind of rare disease. It's fatal. Nobody knew about it, but when they got her to the hospital they figured it out from the meds in her purse. They called her doctor and he confirmed it."

He'd think about that later. "Have you called the others? Selena's not here, she's at her hotel."

"You're the first. How shall we handle this?"

"You're in charge, Steph. What do you want to do?"

"I think we need to notify Rice and meet right away. Something bad is happening and we need to stop it."

You have to stop it.

"I'll be there as soon as I can."

While he dressed he thought about the dream. There was something about that phone number. He'd seen it somewhere. The dream had seemed to be set in Israel. An Israeli number? Then Nick remembered where he'd seen it.

On Ari Herzog's card.

It was already past ten in the morning in Israel. Herzog was probably in his office. Nick looked in his wallet, extracted the card. What was he going to say? That he'd had a dream where his dead lover said he should call?

He decided to begin by bringing Herzog up to speed on Harker and what they'd found out about Himmler's plans. He punched in the number.

"Herzog."

"Ari, this is Nick Carter. Are you on a secure line?"

"I'll call you back."

Nick disconnected. Thirty seconds later his phone signaled the call.

"We can talk now. What's up, Nick?"

"I'm not sure, Ari, but a lot has happened here. Someone tried to kill my boss tonight. You need to know what we've discovered."

He ran it down. The raid in the Antarctic, the Nazi sub. Arslanian, Himmler's Nazi Council of Knights and the Vienna Lance. He told Ari about PARSIFAL. He told him about the raid on the safe house and Dysart's death. He told him it went high and that key figures in the government and military were involved. He didn't tell him who they were or that one of them was the VP of the United States. That was Rice's call.

Herzog only interrupted twice as he spoke, to clarify a detail. Nick told him about the attack outside his building and the attempt on Harker's life.

Then he told him about the dream.

There was a long silence at the other end. Nick looked at the phone to make sure they were still connected.

"You are saying that there is a Nazi conspiracy of powerful men in your country and that they wish to destroy Israel."

"Yes."

"Then you tell me about this dream. Do you realize what this sounds like?"

"Like I'm some kind of raving lunatic, yeah, I know. But PARSIFAL is no dream. Something's going down in Israel soon and has to be stopped before it happens. The dream is trying to warn me about it. Warn you. Why else would I see your phone number? Maybe it's only my subconscious putting things together, but whatever it is I think we've got to pay attention to it."

"Tell me again about this dream."

Nick described the street, the man, the building, as best as he could remember.

"I am looking at my computer as we speak," Ari said. "There is an apartment complex in Tel Aviv called the 'Jaffa Road Royal Arms'. It's in one of the older sections of the city. Have you visited Tel Aviv?"

"Never. Only the airport."

"So you would have no way of knowing about this building. Mmm."

"Ari, I know it sounds off the wall. I don't know why I get these dreams. My Grandmother had them, too. I only know they're important. Maybe you could check that building out."

He needed to make Ari understand.

"Are you aware of what has been happening here, Nick?"

"Only that things are heating up."

"We are hours away from all out war. I am dealing with a continuous flood of intelligence. It is necessary to prioritize."

"Ari. We don't know each other well. Please trust me. I have a really bad feeling about what will happen if you don't follow up on this."

Another silence.

"All right, Nick. Keep me informed. I will do the same."

"Thanks, Ari. Good luck, over there." He remembered words he'd seen carved over a Roman tomb. "Don't let the bastards wear you down."

Nick thought he could hear Herzog smile on the other end.