The Solomon Scroll

CHAPTER 24

Outside Elizabeth's office the sun was shining. A large orange cat snored in a patch of sun coming through the French doors leading onto the patio.

"That cat makes a lot of noise," Diego said.

"You hear him burp yet?" Ronnie asked.

"Burp?"

"Why do you think we call him Burps?"

"I never thought about it. He's a cat. I don't think about stuff like that."

"Then you have something to look forward to. Ask Nick to tell you about it sometime."

Elizabeth tapped her pen on her desk to get their attention.

"I talked to Steph a little while ago," she said. "She's out of danger."

"That's good news," Selena said.

"Lucas is already talking about getting back to work," Nick said. "A little thing like an AK round isn't going to keep him down for long."

Elizabeth said, "Interpol had a file on Patrick O'Malley."

"They can write closed on it now." Nick looked at her. "Tell me it's got something we can use."

"We do have something."

Elizabeth entered a command on her keyboard. A picture of a castle in Spain came up on the monitor.

"Damn," she muttered. "That's my screensaver. That's not what I was looking for. I wish Stephanie was here."

She tapped the keys and a prison mug shot of Patrick O'Malley appeared. Elizabeth scrolled down to his record.

"A mercenary," Nick said. "It figures."

"A hired gun from Ireland. He's on almost everyone's watch list as an undesirable. He did time in Dartmoor for aggravated assault."

"Sounds like a real winner," Selena said.

"The money in his wallet came through a bank in New York. A direct deposit was wired from abroad into his account. Guess where it came from?"

"Not Lebanon?"

"Straight from Beirut."

"Then this must be about that scroll."

Elizabeth nodded. "Nothing else makes sense."

"Not a smart move," Nick said. "They should have left well enough alone. We were at a dead end. I'm not so sure it was about the scroll. We could have been after Abidi for something that had nothing to do with the scroll. An arms deal, for example."

"How could they know who we were?" Selena asked.

"There were cameras in the nightclub," Diego said. "Someone could have gotten an ID on us from those."

"Selena, maybe," Elizabeth said. "Not you. You're too new."

"I'm not even officially part of the group."

"Do you want to be?" Elizabeth asked. "Now's as good a time as any to get that out of the way."

"When they seconded me to you, I thought you guys were just a bunch of civilians. Would I still be in the Army?"

"No," Harker said. "You'll be honorably discharged with all benefits and receive the same compensation as the others. You'll find it's quite a step up from a sergeant's pay. Nick will be your commanding officer in the field."

"The Army is my career," Diego said.

"You can go back to your unit and your involvement with us ends now. If you say yes and everyone agrees, this will be your new career."

Diego looked at her.

"Diego, things are getting complicated. We have to make plans and I need to know if you want in or out. Yes or no?"

Nick watched him. What would he decide?

"What the hell. Yes."

She looked at the others "Raise your hands if he's in."

All the hands went up.

"Welcome to the team, Boot," Nick said.

"All right. Let's move on," Elizabeth said. "Diego has a point. The only way someone in Beirut would know who we were is from what happened in the club. Who has the ability to identify Selena and make the connection to us? That would take familiarity with the intelligence world we live in. Who has that kind of knowledge?"

"More people than we can identify," Nick said.

"I saw something when you ran that Interpol file," Selena said. She pointed at the monitor where the file was displayed. "Scroll back up a little. It might not mean anything."

They watched the screen as Elizabeth scrolled up.

"There. That paragraph, the one about trying to get O'Malley to turn informer."

The paragraph was only a few sentences long. MI6 had interrogated O'Malley while he was in prison about his association with a known terrorist. The interrogation produced nothing of value.

"You think MI6 is the connection?" Elizabeth asked.

"Not the organization," Selena said. "I was thinking of whoever it was that interviewed him. It's a link between an intelligence connection and the ambush, the only one we've got. Someone from MI6 would know how to find out who we were."

"We need to know who talked to O'Malley," Nick said.

"Lucas could help." Elizabeth drummed her fingers on her desktop. "He's got the resources at Langley. I can't coax information out of our computers like Stephanie can."

"You give Lucas a lead, he'll run with it," Ronnie said.

"It's exactly what he needs," Nick said. "He can help us get these people. He's beating himself up because he didn't spot the ambush."

"No one could've spotted it. There wasn't any reason to expect it. It was just another truck on the side of the road."

"Yeah, but he thinks it's his fault Steph got hurt. This will help him get through it."

"You're turning into a shrink, Nick," Selena said.

"Being around you, I've had a lot of practice."

"I'm not sure how I'm supposed to take that."

Ronnie laughed.