The Temple Mount Code

26

Von Volker stared at Colonel Davari’s face on the computer monitor. The telephone connection linking them was heavily encrypted, but they still remained careful.

‘Thomas Lourds has arrived in Jerusalem.’ The colonel’s tone was accusatory, as if Von Volker himself were to blame for the professor’s appearance in the city.

‘I know. I have men watching him even as we speak.’

‘Then why haven’t they taken him into their custody?’

‘Because we have to be careful. The police are watching Lourds, and somewhere out there you can bet the Mossad are also watching. I shouldn’t have to remind you that if the Mossad finds out about me, they will also find out about you. Austria’s political sympathies lie with the Ayatollah, at least for the moment.’

‘What is he doing over there?’

That told Von Volker a lot, and he had to keep himself from smiling. Evidently Davari’s intelligence sources didn’t run that deeply into Jerusalem.

Or maybe he had pulled his people back to leave Von Volker hanging as a Judas goat. That thought didn’t settle quite so easily, and took away some of the superiority the Austrian felt.

‘For the moment, Lourds seems to be sniffing around, looking for whatever crumbs might be left of his old friend.’

‘I trust nothing was left that we need to worry about.’

‘I had Strauss’s computer and the artifacts by his desk smuggled out of the country. They’ve been arriving over the last couple of days. I’ve got people going through them this very moment. If there is anything to be found, any clue of the Book or the Scroll, they will find it.’

‘And you will call me.’

‘Of course.’

Without another word, Davari broke the connection.

Despite his casual conversation with the colonel, Von Volker was tense. If Davari was getting hard to get along with, Von Volker knew the Ayatollah would be even more so. If something didn’t happen soon, blood would spill, and some of it might be his.

He rose from the plush leather chair and walked out of the office. In the hallway, he turned toward the former two back bedrooms, now one very large bedroom. When Lev Strauss’s things had started arriving, Von Volker had hired a crew to remove the wall to allow more room for his specialists. After this project was completed, he would have the wall rebuilt.

He walked into the room.

Instantly, one of the older men got to his feet and approached.

‘Herr Von Volker, it’s a pleasure to see you.’ The older man knew better than to offer his hand, and bowed his head instead.

‘Have you any news to report, Professor Gustav?’

‘We are proceeding according to schedule.’ Gustav waved to the artifacts that lined the tables. ‘There were many things in this collection, and the cataloguing takes time. If I may suggest, Herr Von Volker, your wife is a trained archaeologist, and many of these things are surely within her field of study.’

Von Volker glared at the man. ‘Are you telling me that your skills are not up to this task, Professor Gustav?’

The old man paled. ‘No. Certainly not. I was just thinking that another pair of hands would—’

‘Then you presume to tell me my business.’

‘No, Herr Von Volker. Certainly not. I will do as you wish to the best of my ability.’

‘Good. Anything less will get you released.’ And your body dumped at the bottom of a lake. Von Volker refrained from saying the last, so that it would be a surprise. Gustav and his group of experts were headed for the bottom of a lake anyway when the time came.

‘It will not be a problem.’

‘There are more deliveries forthcoming. They should arrive tomorrow or by Monday.’

‘Of course. We will make room.’

Von Volker walked back out of the room and spotted Alice in the hallway in her lounging wear and a robe, a wine glass in her hand. He wondered if she had heard any of the conversation.

‘How is your secret project going?’

‘Fine.’ Von Volker put on a small smile.

‘You still haven’t told me what it’s about. Or why strangers stay so long at our house, or why the wall was torn out?’

‘The wall was torn out to make room for the strangers. That should be obvious.’

She frowned at him and sipped her drink.

‘As for the rest of it, that shall remain my secret for a time longer.’

‘Whatever.’ Alice lifted one slim shoulder and dropped it. She looked at him. ‘Would you like a drink?’

‘No. Thank you.’

‘Are you coming to bed?’

Von Volker was almost tempted. It wasn’t often his wife asked him to bed, but she did so every now and again when she wanted something. He supposed she might have grown tired of her car. ‘I’m afraid I can’t. Business, you see. There is the rally tomorrow night. I must make sure things are ready. People are depending on me.’

She nodded and even managed to look a little disappointed. She turned and walked away. ‘Well, if you should change your mind …’

Watching her hips twitch so provocatively, Von Volker almost changed his mind. But he knew he had things to do. If the Ayatollah got his precious Book, and it even came close to doing what the man thought it would do, Von Volker knew the Austrian and German people had to be ready.

If the Ayatollah unleashed a global jihad, a brand-new powder keg lit in the Middle East would go a long way to paving the road for a larger, more powerful Germany. And Austria would be the crown jewel of that new unification.

And Von Volker was going to make sure that when the time came, he would be the man wearing that crown.

Alice lay in bed for more than two hours. First she heard her husband leave, watching out the window as his car drove into the night. Then she heard the men in the renovated bedrooms pack up their gear and leave.

The clock beside the bed showed 12:34 a.m. And they would be back no later than seven in the morning. Even though they were staying in one of the guesthouses and had no long drive ahead of them, she felt bad for them. Her husband worked them unmercifully.

She lay atop the bed for a while longer, thinking about the conversation she’d overheard her husband having with someone on his computer. Klaus had mentioned Thomas Lourds’s name, something he’d never done in all their years of marriage.

For a moment, she thought back to the last time she’d had sex with her husband. She didn’t call it making love because it wasn’t that. And it really wasn’t having sex either, though sometimes his attentions were welcome because she was a young, healthy woman with her own needs.

That night, though, she was certain he’d drugged her. The way she’d felt, so hazy and out of control, and the spectacular headache she’d had the next morning had convinced her Klaus had given her something.

He’d done that before, though he never admitted to it. And each time, the next few days were always awful as her body recovered. When Klaus loosed his inner depravity, he was a beast.

No matter how much she struggled, though, she couldn’t remember that night. They’d talked, she was sure of that, but she had no idea what they’d talked about or even what Klaus would be interested in talking to her about.

She got up, pulled on her robe, and went out into the hallway. She’d worn some of her sexiest lingerie, hoping to seduce Klaus. She did that to him sometimes, and when he was passed out in postcoital bliss, she went through his pockets, his phone, and his PDA.

There was always precious little to find. Klaus was very careful. Sometimes she wondered if he knew what she did and wondered if he thought the layers of duplicity was some grand game. Things like that delighted him.

Out in the hallway, she grew more afraid. This could be some kind of game, too. Leaving the house unattended with the secret project here was enticing.

Of course, there was the possibility that he didn’t think she could figure it out. Or that it wouldn’t matter if she did.

He mentioned Thomas by name. There must be a reason. Alice screwed up her courage and walked to the doors at the other end of the hallway. A fresh security lock had been installed on the door. This one required a thumbprint.

She smiled at that. Klaus did love gadgets, but he wasn’t nearly as clever as he thought he was. A thumbprint-recognition system in a house where he lived was foolish.

It only took her a moment to get a print off his electric razor with a piece of clear tape. Then she pressed the borrowed thumbprint to the door, watched the green bar cycle from top to bottom while it read it, and heard the locking mechanism pop open.

Her breath caught in her throat. If this was a trick planned by Klaus, this would be the point at which he would step forward and catch her in the act.

She remained alone in the hallway.

Trembling, she pulled open the door and stepped inside.

As she gazed in wide-eyed wonder at the artifacts revealed on the tables in the moonlight streaming through the windows, she wondered what it could all mean. How was Thomas mixed up in anything her husband might be doing? The only history Klaus was interested in was the German Confederation and how he might be able to bring Austria and Germany together as a large, imposing nation the West would have to acknowledge.

The news had been full of her old lover lately. Although she’d had to keep her interest hidden from Klaus, Alice had followed all the breaking reports about the temple Thomas had located in the Himalayas. She’d also heard that he had left the dig site a few days ago.

That hadn’t sounded like the Thomas Lourds Alice knew. Wild horses and rampaging lions wouldn’t have gotten him away from something like that.

But something had.

Alice studied the artifacts, realizing they were an impressive collection of Christian, Judaic, and Islamic pieces. There were centuries-old crosses, Stars of David, a sword-wielding figure that could only be a representation of Iblis, the Islamic devil, who’d been either a jinn and a devoted servant of God or a disobedient angel. That was just one of the many ways Muslim faith diverged. Iblis had been made of fire while Adam had been made of clay, and Iblis had refused to accept that Adam was better. God had thrown Iblis into hell and renamed him Shaitan. Since those days, Shaitan had devoted himself to turning men and women against God.

What did any of this have to do with Thomas Lourds?

As she touched the figure of Iblis, she thought of where she’d last seen a figurine like this. Lev Strauss had had one at his flat in Jerusalem. Only it had been his grandmother’s flat at the time. The Iblis had been one of his first pieces.

Curious, Alice lifted the figurine and gazed at the bottom. There, on a piece of masking tape worn and faded with time, was the legend IBLIS, and it looked like Lev’s strong, sure hand. She replaced the figurine and went to one of the computers on a desk. She didn’t dare use her personal notebook computer because Klaus had loaded it with spy programs.

The computers in here had been left up and running. She went to the Internet and Googled Lev Strauss’s name. She saw his handsome face, a touch of gray in his hair and beard now, and read the headlines that declared he’d been killed in a tragic terrorist attack on July 28.

Tears filled her eyes as she remembered the beautiful young man he’d been. For a time, after she and Thomas had parted ways, Lev had kept her company. She’d known he cared for her, but she was unable to return his interest. Every time she’d thought of him, she’d thought of Thomas.

In the end, not only had Alice lost Thomas to his treasure hunt for the Library of Alexandria, but she had lost a good friend, too. Now she’d lost him forever. How had she missed this story?

She knew the answer at once. Klaus kept her away from the world for the most part. She wiped the tears from her face. For just a moment, a piece of that drugged night of wanton sex surfaced in her mind.

Is Lev in Jerusalem?

She was certain that Klaus had asked her that.

And now Lev was dead, with his things somehow in her husband’s control.

Desperate, she returned to the computer. If Klaus was going after Thomas next, he needed to be warned.