The Solomon Scroll

CHAPTER 41

Onyx was one of the jewels in the Pentagon's bag of tricks. The server where it lived was surrounded by elaborate firewalls and alarms designed to protect the program and alert security if someone tried to break into the system. In the brave new world of computers, satellites and universal surveillance, cyber security had become one of the first lines of defense against America's enemies.

All systems of computer security depended on elaborate compilations of sophisticated code. Like all systems, they were vulnerable to human intervention or error. The systems protecting Onyx were only as perfect as the programmers who had created them.

The humans responsible for monitoring Onyx were guilty of complacency. In a way, you couldn't blame them. They were convinced that the firewall they'd constructed was completely impenetrable. They believed in their safeguards. In this case, it was a matter of belief creating reality, a reality that existed only in their minds.

In Tel Aviv, Colonel David Cohen looked at the latest intercept of Onyx transmissions. Hacking into Onyx had been a Mossad intelligence coup. The Americans routinely shared information from the older Lacrosse GPR system. They just as routinely withheld data from the more developed Onyx platform. They were afraid hidden Iranian installations revealed by Onyx's powerful scans would become targets for Israeli retaliation.

They were right to be concerned, but it wasn't Iran that held Cohen's attention this morning. The report didn't make sense. The satellite system was targeted on an area of northern Ethiopia with no real military or strategic importance. As far as that went, most of Ethiopia fell into that category.

Why are the Americans interested in Ethiopia?

Cohen studied the scan. Onyx transmissions were routinely forwarded to his desk because of his role at the tip of the Israeli spear. They didn't look like photographs and it took specialized training to read them properly. Cohen didn't have that training. Each scan came with a report from someone who did. The technician who had analyzed this particular transmission pointed out that the uneven lines making up the recording indicated a large underground chamber with multiple levels. It was located on a remote mesa at the head of a winding canyon in the Tigray Region. The GPS coordinates were marked down. The analyst speculated that the underground structure was possibly an abandoned religious monastery. The region was dotted with forgotten retreats from the height of the Coptic monastic movement.

Very few had access to Onyx. The report identified the agency using the system. Cohen knew who they were, a secretive black ops unit that answered to the U.S. president.

The President's Official Joint Exercise for Counter Terrorism. Why is the Project involved?

Cohen had reached his command position with a combination of courage, intelligence and a gift for sensing what the enemy was thinking. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes and let his mind drift. Something danced on the edge of his awareness. He opened his eyes and his glance fell on the report about the American stealth helicopter that had entered Saudi Arabia.

Satellite surveillance had revealed the remains of a firefight at the foot of the hill with the three columns where Al-Bayati had been spotted. The same shot showed that one of the columns had been destroyed by a violent explosion. Cohen thought about the wreckage of two Toyotas with machine guns, and how difficult it would be to take on Al-Bayati when he had that kind of firepower. It would take a team of people highly skilled and well armed, someone like the Project or an elite special forces unit like the Seals or his own people.

The Americans had been looking for Solomon's tomb, of that he was certain. Cohen thought about the report, the destroyed vehicles and the shattered column. He thought about the Americans using Onyx to look at Ethiopia.

They think the tomb is in Ethiopia.

The thought rippled through him as if he'd touched an electric current.

They blew up the column. There's no reason to do that unless they found something and wanted to make sure no one else would see it. Now they're looking at Ethiopia. They may have found the location of the tomb. If I were them and I thought I knew where it was, I'd go see if it was there.

Cohen picked up his phone.