The Moses Legacy

Chapter 94

Finding the Snake Monument and the path leading to it was easy enough using the map that they had provided at the visitor centre. But finding the specific cave was another matter. They had suggested she take a guide, especially as she didn’t have a travelling companion. But Sarit knew that the danger of taking trails without guides was somewhat exaggerated and she couldn’t afford to have anyone else around right now. She had a problem to deal with.

Fortunately there was no one else around, no local Bedul families with screaming kids, and no one making any noise that might prevent her fine-tuned ear from finding what she was looking for.

‘Sheikh Ibrahim?’ she called out tentatively. ‘Sheikh Ibrahim!’

She heard her own voice echoing back to her; but no response, even as she strained her ear to detect the slightest sound. She trudged on a bit more.

‘Sheikh Ibrahim!’ she shouted a little louder than before. She didn’t want to alert others, but she had to find him.

A faint trace of a voice rippled towards her from the distance, but it was hard to gauge its location.

‘Where are you?’ she called out, plugging one ear with her finger and straining to hear.

‘Over here.’ The voice was still weak, but at least she could determine its direction. It appeared to be coming from a ridge above her and to the left. She made her way to it and as she got nearer, she could make out the entrance to a cave.

‘Sheikh Ibrahim,’ she repeated.

‘In here.’

The weak voice confirmed that she was in the right location. Rather than venturing directly into the lion’s den, she peered in to assess the situation. It was hard to see, because her pupils were contracted against the bright light outside the cave. Eventually they adjusted sufficiently to make out some semblance of what was inside.

And what she saw was a bloody mess.

On the far side of the cave a man lay covered in blood. That, she realized, was Sheikh Ibrahim. She approached him cautiously.

‘What happened?’

‘He shot me.’ The voice was still weak. This was no act. The man was clinging on to life by a precarious thread.

‘ Who shot you?’

‘The big man.’

‘What happened to the others?’ she asked. ‘The other man and the woman? Did he take them with him?’

‘No.’

She was nervous when she asked the next question.

‘Did he kill them?’

‘No. He took the shroud and left.’

‘The shroud?’

‘The shroud that the tablets were wrapped in.’

She realized what this meant.

‘And where are the man and the woman? Did they go to get help?’

‘No… they thought I was dead.’

Looking down at him, she realized how close to death he was.

‘Listen, I’ll go and get help.’

‘No. You must stop him.’

He grabbed her arm, as if to emphasize the seriousness of the situation. ‘He has taken the shroud!’

‘I’ll go for help,’ she said.

But as she looked down at him now, she saw that he was beyond help. She knew that she had to find Goliath and stop him. But how? And where were Daniel and Gabrielle?

It was then that she saw the gun.

Was that the gun that he used to kill Sheikh Ibrahim?

She noticed that it was jammed. But firearms had been part of her Mossad training and she had learnt several methods of clearing a jammed cartridge from the chamber of a semi-automatic. The quickest method was known as tap-rack-bang.

Running on adrenalin as she followed her training to the letter, she tapped the base of the magazine with the palm of her left hand, to make sure it was firmly in place, then racked the slider back in a fast snapping motion to discharge the empty cartridge. There was no need for the bang as she had no reason to fire. But she felt safer having a weapon.

‘Goliath! Are you there?’

Sarit froze. It was a man’s voice, but there was a strange paradox in the sound. It sounded like the man was shouting, and yet the volume was muted. It was tinny and muffled. And it was coming from inside the cave.

‘Goliath!’

No! It was coming from inside Ibrahim’s body.

She looked at him in the dim light of the cave, trying to understand. Then she noticed the strange glow coming from beneath his body.

That was when she realized.

She reached under his torso, forcing her hand in deeper against the weight of his body. She had to use her other hand to lift him slightly before she was able to extricate the mobile phone that he had fallen on.

She raised the phone to her ear.

‘Goliath!’ the voice said again.

‘Hallo,’ she replied.

‘Who is this?’

‘My name is Siobhan. Who are you?’

The line went silent. She looked at the phone and saw that the battery was down to 3% – too little to make a call. Any minute it would die completely. But before it did, she checked the number: +1 202…

She didn’t know all the US regional phone codes, but there were a few that stuck in her memory. 212 – New York City, or at least Manhattan. 213 – Los Angeles. And 202 – Washington DC.

Senator Morris. It had to be.

She would have liked to follow it up, but right now she didn’t have time to find out. She had urgent business to attend to.