The Solomon Scroll

CHAPTER 35

One of the pickups began crawling up the hill. The others started to follow. Selena watched through her binoculars.

"They'll never make it," she said.

"What makes you so sure?"

"I've done a lot of backcountry four wheeling. There's a limit to what any of these machines will do. Those pickups will never make it up here, it's too steep and the rock is loose. The Land Rovers, maybe, if they find another route. Even so I wouldn't bet on it."

Even as she said it, the first truck churned up over some rocks and began to slip sideways in a quarter circle. Without warning it flipped over on the steep hillside. They heard the man on the gun scream as he disappeared under the truck. The wreckage began rolling down the hill, gathering speed until it smashed against an outcrop of stone at the foot of the slope. The other vehicles halted where they were. Steam rose from the wreck. No one got out.

"Amateurs," Selena said. "They should've known better."

"Gives us better odds," Diego said. "We can take these guys."

Nick took Selena's binoculars and focused on two men getting out of a Land Rover.

"Well, well. If I'm not mistaken that's Al-Bayati. And the tall guy standing next to him is the same guy that passed us when we were leaving the Museum."

"Rhoades," Selena said.

"Yeah, him. He's no amateur."

"Like we figured," Ronnie said. "They're following up on the scroll, like we are."

"I wonder if they know we're here?" Selena said.

Diego gestured down the hill. Men were getting out of the trucks.

"They're not being very careful about exposing themselves," Diego said. "I don't think they do."

"I make it a dozen, no, thirteen men, plus Rhoades and Al-Bayati. AKs."

"Figures."

"Looks like they're talking it over," Ronnie said. "How you want to handle it?"

"It'll be night soon," Nick said. "Losing that truck has got to shake them up. I don't think they'll try and come up here in the dark. We've got two choices. The first one is we slip out of here before they know we're around and call for extraction once we're out of the area."

"And the second choice?"

"We engage. Ambush them."

"Al-Bayati is the one who sent those men after Stephanie," Selena said. "We should engage."

"Do I need to point out that we're outnumbered four to one?"

"Since when has that made a difference?"

"Engage," Ronnie said.

"Let's get the bastard," Diego said.

Nick thought about it. The smart move was to leave before anyone knew they were there. Then he thought about Stephanie.

"All right," he said. "We'll take them down."

They watched as the trucks backed down the slope to the valley floor. Once they were down, Al-Bayati's men started setting up a campsite. One went over to the wrecked truck, leaned down and peered inside the cab. He straightened, looked over at Rhoades and shook his head. Two men began scavenging wood for a fire.

"They're making camp," Selena said.

"We'll let them get comfortable and watch them in shifts," Nick said. "Get some food and some sleep. We'll hit them early in the morning."

They backed away from the edge to the clear area near the column. From below, no one could see them.

"Let's see what the chef whipped up for dinner." Diego took a food ration from his pack. "Mmmm, MREs for a change. Mexican chicken stew, just like mama used to make. Makes me feel right at home."

"I've got chicken fajita," Ronnie said. "Want to trade?"

"Nah. It all tastes lousy whatever you call it."

"I had a sergeant who loved this stuff," Ronnie said. "He was always scrounging the rations people didn't want. You didn't want to get anywhere near him when his digestion kicked in."

Nick activated the comm link. In Virginia, it was morning. Elizabeth picked up.

"I was beginning to wonder. What's your status, Nick?"

"We found the tomb. There's nothing in it except a stone with an inscription and the seal of Solomon. There's a diagram on it that could be a map."

"Mm."

"We have a problem. Al-Bayati and his men showed up about an hour ago. They don't know we're here. Right now they're making camp for the night."

"One thing at a time. Tell me about the tomb and the stone."

"The tomb is in a natural cave inside one of those three columns. We were lucky we found it. The entrance was invisible. The stone is a chunk of granite inscribed with the seal of Solomon and a riddle. At least I think it's a riddle."

"What does it say?"

"The soul of wisdom shelters with its consort in the queen's land."

"What about the diagram?"

"Like I said, it could be a map. That's all I can tell you about it. There's nothing else. The seal on the rock tells us we've have found the place Ephram talked about in the scroll. There's no sign of Solomon or anything that might have been in the Temple. Just the stone."

"It must be a clue to the location of the real tomb," Elizabeth said.

"Selena thinks the word wisdom is a reference to Solomon. I think she's right. We haven't figured out the rest of it. The one thing I'm certain of is that there's nothing else here."

"You have pictures?"

"Yes."

"All right. Send them to me. Then I want you to destroy that stone."

"Destroy it?"

"It's the only way to make sure nobody else sees it."

"The only way to do that is blow it up. It could bring down that column. It looks solid but it's hollow inside and the stone is old and weathered, a little crumbly."

"Then you'd better make sure it doesn't fall on you," Elizabeth said. "What are you going to do about Al-Bayati?"

"Hit him when they're all asleep. He sent those people who shot Stephanie."

"There's no other option?"

"Not that we want to take. Especially if we destroy the tomb. I don't want him coming after us when we leave."

Nick waited while Elizabeth paused on the other end of the line. He could hear her pen tapping in the background.

"All right. Watch yourself," she said. "I'll have extraction standing by. Call when it's done."

"Copy that."

"Out."

Nick turned to the others. "You all heard that?"

Ronnie rummaged around in his pack and took out a packet of C4. The putty-like explosive could be molded against anything and was safe until detonated with an electrical charge.

"Yep. This ought to do it."

"You have timers?"

"Always."

"Getting down to that camp in the dark without making noise is going to be tricky," Diego said.

"How long do you think it will take us to get in position?"

"At least two hours. Maybe three. Steep slope, loose rocks, all that. Slower is better."

"That sounds about right. We'll give it plenty of time. Ronnie, set the charges to go off at three. When it blows, we go in."

"Do we take prisoners?" Selena.

"Not unless someone surrenders. If anyone does, be careful he doesn't change his mind."

Diego yawned. "Who's got first watch?"

"I do," Nick said. "Ronnie, go do your thing. Diego, you get some sleep. Selena, you too. I'll wake you for the next watch."

Selena moved away from the others and relieved herself in the dark, hoping there weren't more snakes in the rocks. She rearranged her uniform and went over to where Diego was already lying down with his eyes closed, his head resting on his pack. She checked the ground for anything that might bite and lay down nearby. She'd camped in the wild parts of the world many times before joining the Project. Feeling the hard ground of Saudi Arabia under her body reminded her that she wasn't twenty years old anymore and this wasn't a vacation.

She looked up at a black night sky lit with an ocean of stars. A three-quarter moon floated over the horizon in the West, casting soft, silvery light on the bleak landscape, turning it into an Escher etching of dark angles and shadows that blended into each other. It was eerily beautiful.

"A lot of stars up there," Diego said.

His voice startled her.

"Yes."

"They look different in this part of the world. I used to look up at the sky when I was a kid and think about what it would be like to fly there in a spaceship. Out where I lived was away from the city lights. I had a good view."

"Colorado, right?"

"High plains. It was flat all the way to Wyoming, which wasn't that far. When I was a teenager I'd go to Cheyenne for the big rodeo."

"Did you want to be a cowboy?" Selena asked.

"Nope. I used to watch old black-and-white Westerns with my grandpa. I wanted to be the town marshal, like Wyatt Earp. Carry a pair of six shooters and corral the bad guys. In a way, I guess I got my wish."

"What do you mean?"

"An MP5 isn't a six gun but it'll do. Seems like there are plenty of bad guys to go after. I never thought I'd find myself doing something like this."

"I know just what you mean." Selena said. "Is your family still there?"

"Yeah. It's not the same as it used to be. With the water gone, the only crop is winter wheat and that's pretty iffy. My dad gets by doing a bunch of different jobs. He's good with horses and fixing things."

"I know you're not married. Is there anyone special back there? A girlfriend?"

"There was someone a few years back," Diego said. "She decided she didn't want to be married to a soldier."

"I'm sorry."

"Nah, it wouldn't have worked out. Last I heard she got married and turned into a real nag. Joining up was the best thing I ever did."

Selena closed her eyes. The next thing she knew, Nick's touch on her shoulder brought her awake.

A little before three in the morning the team lay outside Al-Bayati's campsite. Snores broke the chill silence of the night. Sleeping bodies were spread in a rough circle around the dying fire, the coals a deep, red glow in the darkness. There was one tent, a lightweight model meant more for privacy than comfort. Nick guessed that Al-Bayati was inside it.

The Land Rovers and the remaining Toyota were parked nearby with men sleeping inside them. One man stood watch, sitting on a flat rock. He had an AK lying across his lap and he was nodding, half asleep. He was also on the other side of the fire. One of them would have to work around the camp and come up behind him.

Nick checked his watch. It had taken longer than he'd planned to crawl through the moonlit rocks and juniper bushes to reach the campsite. There were six minutes left before the charge went off.

He tapped Ronnie on the arm, pointed at the sentry and made a slashing motion across his throat. Ronnie nodded and crawled off, another dark shape among the dark shadows of the bushes. Nick laid his sights on the sentry, just in case. He watched the man yawn and stretch.

Ronnie rose up behind him, wrapped his hand over the sentry's mouth and pulled back his head. At the same time he drew his knife across the throat. Blood fountained out, black in the light of the fire and the moon. The man made a wet, gurgling sound. His AK clattered against the rocks.

"Hey." One of the sleeping men sat up and grabbed for his rifle. Diego shot him.

Al-Bayati's men woke and scrambled for their weapons.

Inside the tomb, the C4 went off with a sound as though someone had struck an enormous drum. A tongue of yellow flame shot from the fissure and lit the night before it died away. The narrow passage wasn't big enough to relieve the pressure of the explosion. The force of the blast had nowhere to go inside the confined space. It slammed against the hollowed out core of the pillar.

The base of the column split open, sending a burst of jagged stone hurtling into the night. Pieces rained down on the vehicles in a metallic tattoo of rock on metal. A large rock struck Diego's forearm, knocking the rifle from his hand.

The gigantic column tottered and fell in on itself like a child's tower of building blocks. Hundreds of tons of rock cascaded down the hillside. Nick wrapped his arms around his head and made himself small and prayed none of the boulders would hit him or the others. The noise was like nothing he'd ever heard, a crashing and thumping and splintering as though the end of the world had come.

Somewhere in all the noise men were screaming.

Then it was quiet.