The Nostradamus File

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Selena sat across from Nick in the Ops Center. She'd said nothing to him when he came in. Stephanie brought up a detailed map of Jordan on the monitor.

"In my opinion, the best place to look is Petra." She pointed at a spot on the map in the southern part of Jordan, 80 miles inland from the Israeli border.

"Why Petra?" Nick said.

"Look at the route we decided Moses had to take. It goes right to Petra."

The line was almost a straight shot from Egypt across to Jordan. At Petra it turned north to the Biblical Holy Land.

"There wasn't anything in Petra in the time of Moses," Lamont said. "Why go there?"

"There's a mountain there called Jabal al-Madhbaḥ. It's where Moses made water spring from a rock and where his brother Aaron is supposed to be buried. Sometimes winter storms in the area create vivid plasma displays. That could fit the description of fire on the mountain in the Bible."

"I don't know," Nick said, "that's slim."

"There's more. Petra is at the end of a narrow gorge. The wind comes through it and makes a trumpeting sound. The locals call it the Trumpet of God. That fits with the Bible story too."

"That's the place in the Indiana Jones movie," Lamont said. "The one about the Nazis and the Grail. Buildings carved out of red rock."

"I've been there," Selena said. "It's an amazing place."

"Tourists have been crawling over that place for years. There's no way the Ark is there." Nick shook his head.

"Remember the fourth quatrain?" Selena said.

"Go on."

She looked at him. Her voice was impersonal. "The people who lived there controlled the trade route. They built cisterns and canals to store water and sold it to travelers in the desert."

"Water bartered as gold."

"Yes. Petra is famous because of elaborate tombs carved out of red sandstone. When the sun hits it just right, the whole place turns red."

"Like Sedona," Ronnie said, "in Arizona."

Lamont started humming an Eagles tune.

"Any castles?" Nick asked.

"There's a crusader castle," Selena said, "in ruins."

"We could fly into Amman and play tourist," Lamont said.

Nick said, "Let me run it by Harker."

Upstairs he took Selena aside. "You're right. I'll make another appointment with the shrink."

"Why did you walk out of the last one?"

"I got angry. It felt like he was accusing me. But when I play it out in my mind, I can see that he wasn't."

"Are you going to tell him that?"

"I guess."

"Want to go get lunch somewhere?" she said.