The Solomon Scroll

CHAPTER 2

It was another scorching summer on the East Coast. Waves of heat shimmered off the surface of the highway. Nick Carter thought about the cabin he'd once had in California. It had been cool there in the Sierra foothills, dry, a far cry from the steaming humidity of Virginia.

The cabin was gone, burned to the ground. Nick hadn't decided if he wanted to rebuild it but if he did, it wouldn't be any time soon. There were other things on his mind. Like the wedding to Selena Connor they never seemed to schedule. Like the loft they'd just bought overlooking the Potomac. Like whatever the reason was that Director Harker had called him in. There'd been a time when he'd looked forward to a new assignment. Now he was beginning to dread what another mission might bring.

Maybe it's time to get out, he thought. Then, Who are you kidding? What else are you going to do?

He pulled into the parking lot in front of Project headquarters, shut down the engine, got out and walked across the hot pavement to the entrance. Nick entered his personal code and placed his right eye in front of the scanner. He waited for the electronic gods that controlled the steel door to recognize him and grant entrance. The door clicked open. Cool air greeted him inside. He breathed a sigh of relief.

The Project was the brainchild of President Rice, small, independent of the rest of America's intelligence network. It was funded by a black budget and controlled by the White House. An angry senator had once described it as the president's personal hit team. Sometimes Nick thought that wasn't far from the truth.

The headquarters building was located in Virginia, within commuting distance of the Capitol. It had the look of an upscale country ranch home surrounded by lawns, trees and flowerbeds.

Looks were deceiving.

The house was built over a Cold War missile site. The missiles with their promise of the end of the world were long gone. The old magazines below the green lawns now housed an armory and shooting range, an operations center, comfortable emergency quarters and a room filled with Cray computers and advanced communications equipment. There was even a swimming pool, courtesy of the previous owners, millionaire survivalists who'd feared a coming apocalypse. The lawns triggered alarms if anything threatening walked over them. Cameras watched everything.

There was a wide, paved parking lot in front of the house. A low building that looked like a warehouse squatted across the way. A hardened concrete helicopter pad anchored the end of the parking lot. From the lot, the drive disappeared over a rise until it reached a chain-link fence surrounding the property and a manned guardhouse at the entrance.

Nick made his way to Harker's office. The rest of the team was already there.

Elizabeth Harker tapped her fingers on the hard surface of her desk as he came in. She gave him one of her warning looks.

Harker was a small woman but she gave off enough energy for someone a lot bigger. Her hair was jet black, streaked with white. She had startling green eyes that stood out against milk white skin. One of her looks of displeasure felt like it could cut to the bone. She wore a tailored black pants suit with a white blouse. A diamond pin in the shape of a swan graced her jacket.

"We're not interrupting your day, are we? Because if we are we could just do this tomorrow."

"Sorry, Director. Traffic."

Selena sat on a couch in front of Harker's desk, next to Ronnie Peete. She'd left the loft before him. Nick sat down next to her.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey."

"Yah t'a hey, Nick," Ronnie said.

Ronnie was Navajo, raised on the big reservation. He looked as though he could have stepped out of a Frederick Remington painting, although Remington probably wouldn't have painted his subject in a bright Hawaiian shirt. He and Nick went back a long way, to Iraq and Afghanistan and the jungles of Colombia. Both had been Marine Recon before they'd come to the Project.

Selena had never been in the military. She'd had found herself recruited into the Project almost by accident. What she lacked in military experience she made up for with plenty of skills that filled out the team. An expert in ancient languages, she was athletic, smart and independent. She was also rich, a legacy from her uncle. His death had brought her to Nick, Elizabeth and the others.

She was two inches shorter than Nick's muscular six feet and sixty pounds shy of his two hundred. Her eyes were an unusual color, mostly violet, sometimes blue. There was a dark mole above her lip. Her hair was feathered back on the sides, longer in back, a natural reddish blonde. One of her cheekbones was a little higher than the other, giving her face an attractive, asymmetric appeal. Selena moved with unconscious ease that hinted at her athletic ability. Like Nick, there was a hint of something feral about her, something held in check. She looked as if she could explode into motion in an instant.

Elizabeth said, "I have a candidate to replace Lamont," Elizabeth said.

"Big shoes," Ronnie said. "Feels weird not to have him sitting here."

"No one fills Lamont's shoes. If this man works out he'll bring his own."

Lamont Cameron had been badly wounded on the last mission, enough to convince him it was time to quit. It was the first time a core member of the team had decided to hang it up, a reminder that they were all getting older. It was becoming harder to stay in shape for what they had to do. Harder to survive people trying to kill them, which happened with unpleasant frequency.

"What's his name, this candidate?" Nick asked.

"Diego Ramirez." Elizabeth pushed a folder across her desk. "Here's his jacket."

"What's the short version?"

"Rangers, Special Ops. Two tours in Afghanistan, one in Iraq. Purple Heart, Bronze Star with V."

"What outfit?"

"75th Ranger Regiment."

"Those guys are good," Ronnie said.

"When does he get here?" Nick asked.

"This afternoon at 1300. I want you to begin with him right away. Get him oriented. Test him out. I want a full evaluation in three days. If you want him, we'll make it official. He's not happy about coming here. I know he has the skills but I don't know if he's got the attitude we need to be a good fit."

"Sounds like a challenge," Ronnie said. "How old is this guy?"

"Twenty-seven."

"A kid," Ronnie said.

"Rank?"

"Staff Sergeant."

"That says a lot at his age," Nick said. "Is there anything else, Director? If not, we'll go get things ready for him."

"No, that's it for now."

Outside the house, the three of them looked at each other.

"A new guy," Selena said.

"Army," Ronnie said.

"This is going to be interesting," Nick said.