by Alex Lukeman
The contents of Nawabi's phone scrolled onto the wall monitor.
"Got it," Stephanie said.
"See anything offhand?"
"There are three calls to the same number, no text messages. I have to run it through the computers. I'll let you know if I find something."
"Good enough. Maybe we'll get lucky and can drop a missile on the son of a bitch."
"One can always hope," Steph said.
"Are you sending us to Malta, Director?" Nick asked.
"Not yet. There's not much point without knowing where to start. Stephanie is searching records from around the time of the siege of Malta."
"When was that?"
"1565 CE," Steph said. "The battle was the turning point in the struggle between the Christians and the Muslims for control of the Mediterranean. I've started looking but don't expect too much."
"You think it's a dead end?"
"It could be. To make it more complicated, the Knights didn't go to Malta right after they left Rhodes. There's a period of about eight years before they got there."
"Where were they in between?"
"They wandered around Europe. France and Italy, mostly. The Pope gave the Hospitallers holdings he'd seized from the Knights Templar."
"Great," Nick said. "Then the Grail could be anywhere in Europe. It might never have gone to Malta at all. The only thing we know for sure is that the Hospitallers had it on Rhodes before Sulemein defeated them."
"We can assume it's not on Rhodes anymore," Elizabeth said. "The Knights wouldn't have taken a chance on it being captured."
"Maybe it's time to call off the search," Nick said.
"Not yet. Let's see what Stephanie comes up with. In the meantime, stay on the base. I don't want to give the Turks any excuse for arresting you. They can't bother you there."
"Copy that."
"That's all for now, Nick."
Elizabeth ended the call.
Stephanie said, "He has a point, Elizabeth. About finding out which of those ISIS thugs is looking for the Grail."
"While you're looking for some indication of where the Knights might have taken the Grail, I'll look at current leadership of the caliphate. There are only a few key players at the top. We've managed to eliminate some of them but they're like cockroaches. You kill one and another takes its place."
"Do you think we'll ever be able to defeat them?"
"We can defeat the organization. I don't think we can defeat the ideology, at least in our lifetime."
"That sounds hopeless, Elizabeth."
"I don't mean it that way. But it's going to be a long time before the fanatics fade back into the woodwork. Until moderate Muslims take back their religion, we're at war."
"That's not a popular view."
"Realism never is," Elizabeth said.
"Most people don’t like realism, not when it comes to something they can’t control. They want to believe everything is okay."
"That’s the heart of the problem," Elizabeth said. "Everything isn't okay."
CHAPTER 43
Clarence Hood saw it was Elizabeth calling on his private line and felt his heart jump a beat. There was something about her that made him feel awkward, an unusual experience for one of the most powerful men in Washington. It had been a long time since he'd been attracted to someone the way he was to Elizabeth. That the attraction seemed mutual was surprising to him. Clarence Hood was not a man most people wanted to get close to.
"Elizabeth. I'm glad you called."
"Good morning, Clarence. This isn't a social call. Is there a chance we can meet today? It's about one of our mutual concerns."
Hood thought about his day and who he could put off or shuffle to a different slot.
"I'll make time. It's a little before ten now. Would eleven here be convenient?"
"Perfect," Elizabeth said. "I'll see you then."
I wonder what's on her mind?
Hood pushed the button that summoned his secretary. He preferred the old term to 'personal assistant.' Personal assistant conjured up images of someone who might help you up the stairs or lead you to the bathroom, if you required such services. Since his secretary was male, no one could accuse him of sexism, although he wasn't sure that was still true. It was hard to keep up with all the social changes taking place.
The secretary entered the room. "Yes, Director."
"Adrian, cancel my appointment with General Hutchins. Give him my apologies and reschedule him. Director Harker will be here instead."
"Yes, sir."
After his secretary left the room, Hood got up and went to an antique sideboard that had once belonged to Abraham Lincoln. He drew a mug of coffee from a shining silver urn and added cream. He'd given up on sugar some time ago.
He still had five minutes before his next appointment. Back at his desk, he sipped coffee and thought about Elizabeth. If she wanted a meeting, there must be some urgency to whatever it was she wanted to talk about. Otherwise it could've waited until this evening. They were having dinner together again at a Georgetown restaurant they both liked.
There were a lot of things they both liked. She was the only person he felt he could confide in. His position as DCI required a public façade of certainty and confidence, but with Elizabeth he didn't have to maintain that fiction. She understood the burden of his work, as he understood hers. She was perfectly suited to her job. He knew he'd have a difficult time doing what she did. It was one of the reasons he admired her.
At the stroke of eleven, Elizabeth came into his office. Hood rose to greet her.
"Thanks for making time," Elizabeth said. "I thought it would be better to talk in person rather than over the phone."
"At the risk of sounding like a cliché, I can always make time for you. Would you like a cup of coffee?"
"I'd love one."
He poured the coffee and handed it to her. They sat down at a table near a row of windows facing out into Virginia.
"I want to talk about ISIS and what my team has been doing."
"I know about the incident in Turkey," Hood said.
"I assumed you would. They were following leads on the Grail that took them to the monastery. An ISIS team showed up and things went badly after that."
"The Turks seem to think that your people murdered a monk and several unidentified men."
"Yes, they would say that, wouldn't they? The country is slipping into the hands of the fundamentalists. By now, they know perfectly well who those men were. Of course they're not going to admit it."
"You sound angry, Elizabeth."
"I am angry. I'm tired of my team taking the blame for the incompetence of self-serving politicians. In this case, the so-called president of Turkey."
"He's a problem," Hood said. "We have nukes over there."
"We're going to have to pull them out," Elizabeth said. "The whole region is destabilizing." She took another sip of coffee. "We could talk about this for hours but that's not why I'm here. I need your help finding out who it is in ISIS that's after my team and the Grail."
"That might be difficult."
"It has to be a top-tier leader. There aren't that many of them. Al-Baghdadi is very careful about who he trusts. Whoever it is has followed my team ever since Sweden. He must have operatives at Incirlik or he couldn't have known where they went."
"A spymaster."
"Yes."
"ISIS has been getting better at gathering intelligence," Hood said. "It feels as though someone new has taken the reins. Before it was more random, it had more of a hit and miss kind of feeling to it. Now it's beginning to take on an aura of professionalism. Someone is responsible for that."
"That was my thought also," Elizabeth said. "If we could identify him, perhaps he could be eliminated."
"My, Elizabeth, you better hadn't let some of those senators who don't like you hear you say that."
"I'll never understand why we have to dance around the issue when a key terrorist figure has been identified. Nothing stop
s them from murdering as many people as they can. Why are we supposed to think twice about taking them out?"
"I can't answer that one," Hood said. "It doesn't make any sense to me."
"I was hoping you could try and find out who this person is. I'm doing the same but you have more resources than I do. Once we know who he is, something can be done to disrupt his operation. It will hurt ISIS, at least for a while. Plus it will get some of the heat off my team. Nick recovered a phone in Turkey with three calls on it."
She took out a piece of paper with the numbers written on it and gave it to him.
"I'll put Lucas on it."
"Sometimes I think the relationship between Langley and the Project is quite incestuous. As though we were literally in bed together."
As soon as she said it, Elizabeth blushed.
Hood laughed. "That was fun the other night, don't you think?"
"Yes it was," Elizabeth said. She smiled at him. "We should change the subject. Have you learned anything more about that bomb ISIS is supposed to have acquired?"
Hood's expression grew serious.
"Yes, enough to make me worried. We're certain they found the enriched uranium Saddam was stockpiling. They may have plutonium as well."
"That's terrible news. But surely they don't have the technology to make a bomb that combines the two."
"Not in the sense that they could use the plutonium to make a bigger bang. But they could make a very dirty bomb. Think Chernobyl."
"Why haven't I seen this in the CRITIC briefs?"
"Because the DNI doesn't think it's credible."
"Are you serious?"
"Our Director of National Intelligence thinks I'm overreacting. He can't quite believe that a bunch of ignorant barbarians like ISIS could be sophisticated enough to build a nuclear bomb, much less deploy it. He doesn't want to distract the president with rumors."
"You have to go over his head."
"I will. Just as soon as I have definite proof."
"Let me see what Stephanie can pick up. She's been working on developing a new program for analyzing voice patterns and phrases and combined it with a translation program. ISIS is savvy when it comes to phone conversations, but someone might make a mistake."
"I like the idea," Hood said. "It fits right in with looking for our spymaster in the caliphate. But even if we find him, we might run into a problem."
"You mean we might not get the go-ahead to take him out?"
"I've never understood why the White House hasn't taken on ISIS in any meaningful way. During the last few months Rice has become more and more unfocused. I think something is physically wrong with him. Perhaps some aftermath of the assassination attempts."
"You think he's losing it?"
"I wouldn't go that far, but I see a power vacuum forming. Part of it's because of the election. He's distracted and the people around him aren't willing to make unpopular decisions. Nobody wants to rock the boat. They're all worried about their political future."
Elizabeth looked at her empty coffee cup. "After this election, you and I may be out of a job."
"The thought had occurred to me," Hood said. "It depends on who wins."
"If ISIS succeeds in building a nuclear bomb it won't matter who wins," Elizabeth said.
CHAPTER 44
Two days had passed since Nick and the others had returned to the base at Incirlik. Elizabeth and Hood had narrowed the list of ISIS leaders who could be searching for the Grail to three possibilities. At the same time, Stephanie had been searching through thousands of records from the sixteenth century, looking for anything to indicate where the Grail had been taken by the Knights Hospitallers.
She'd found nothing. She came into Elizabeth's office to tell her.
"I give up," she said.
"You give up what?"
"On finding anything about where the Grail went after Rhodes, assuming it was ever on Rhodes in the first place. There isn't much hard information about the Hospitallers during that time period. They moved all over Europe for years before the king of Sicily gave them Malta. As far as Malta goes, I looked through everything I could find. There's nothing at all about the Grail or anything like it."
"You're certain."
"I admit, it's frustrating. But I can't find something that isn't there."
"I was afraid it would come to this, sooner or later. It's amazing we managed to trace it as far as Rhodes."
"Even that isn't certain," Stephanie said. "What if that monk was lying?"
"We'll never know, will we?"
"Are you going to bring the team home?"
"Yes. There's no point in sending them to Malta now."
"They'll be glad to...oh!"
Stephanie doubled over, clutching her bulging abdomen with both arms. Elizabeth got up and went to her. She put her hand on Stephanie's shoulder.
"Steph, what's the matter? Are you all right?"
"I don't know."
A sudden rush of liquid ran down Stephanie's legs.
"Your water broke. The baby's coming. "
"But it's not time yet!"
"I'm afraid it is. I'll drive you to the hospital. It's quicker than calling an ambulance."
They went out to the parking lot and got into Elizabeth's Audi. Elizabeth called ahead to the gate for her escort. She was met by two black GMC suburbans at the entrance to the compound, each manned by four men from her security detail. One of the vehicles went ahead, one behind. They sped toward Alexandria and the hospital.
They were moving fast, doing more than seventy, weaving in and out of heavy traffic with strobe lights flashing. Stephanie was talking to Lucas on her cell phone when the lead vehicle blew a front tire. The suburban veered right, then hard left. It tipped onto its side and rolled, bouncing into the air. The truck struck a gray compact and sent it spinning across three lanes of traffic.
A massive chain collision began, cars smashing into each other in every direction. Elizabeth swerved to avoid the suburban and struck a delivery van in the outer lane. Her fender crumpled into the tire and shredded it. The Audi went down on the rim, sending a stream of sparks by her window.
She fought the wheel for control.
The car back ended a motorcycle caught in the middle of the chaos. The rider was hurled onto the pavement. Elizabeth wrenched the wheel over to avoid running over him and slammed sideways into the back of a pickup truck. The car crumpled in a shrieking chorus of tearing metal and breaking glass.
As she lost consciousness, Elizabeth heard Stephanie scream.
CHAPTER 45
Nick and Selena were quartered in housing reserved for visiting officers. It was functional and well used, decorated with the same government furnishings and boring colors Nick had seen a thousand times in his career. Interior decor was not a military specialty.
His phone rang. The display showed an unfamiliar number. Only Elizabeth Harker and Stephanie had his number, and it wasn't either one of them.
The phone rang again.
"Yes."
"Nick, this is DCI Hood. There's been an accident. Director Harker is badly hurt."
Selena was nearby and saw the look on his face.
"What's the matter?"
"It's Hood. What happened, Director?"
"She was on her way to the hospital with Stephanie. The lead car in her convoy blew a tire and flipped over. They were in the middle of heavy traffic. It caused an eighteen car collision and Elizabeth's car was caught in the middle of it. She was in surgery for more than six hours. Now she's in intensive care."
"Shit."
"Yes."
"What about Steph? Is she alright?"
"Shaken up and badly bruised from the airbag, but yes, she's all right."
Selena had been listening to Nick's end of the conversation.
"What about the baby? Ask him about the baby."
"I heard that," Hood said. "The baby is fine. He had quite an entrance, just as they were bringing the two of them into the emergency ward."
"The baby is okay," Nick said to Selena. "But Harker is in intensive care."
"You need to come back, Nick."
"Right."
"I've sent my Gulfstream to pick you up. It should arrive about 1900 your time today."
"Thank you, Director."
"Elizabeth is in serious condition and the prognosis is guarded. She's going to be out of commission for some time. I don't think Stephanie is the best choice to take over at the moment. She has a new baby and she's had a bad shock. She needs time off. Can you run things for a while, until Elizabeth recovers?"
"Of course, Director."
"All the resources of Langley are at your disposal. Analysis, surveillance, whatever you need."
"Thank you."
"You may not thank me when you find out what you're dealing with. But we'll talk about that when you get here."
"Copy that."
"I'll see you when you get back."
Hood broke the connection.
"Well?" Selena asked. "What did he say?"
"Harker is in intensive care and the doctors are hedging their bets. He's asked me to take over for her."
"What about Steph? She's Elizabeth's Deputy."
"Hood thinks she needs time off. He's right, but I'm not looking forward to doing Elizabeth's job. The last time she was out of action, I had Steph to help me hold down the fort. She handled all the political stuff and the day-to-day and I pretty much kept doing what I'd been doing before. It was a real stretch until Elizabeth came back."
"They're both fine? Stephanie and the baby?"
"That's what he said."
"We have to go back."
"We are. Hood is sending his plane to pick us up. We're leaving tonight."
"I wonder if Steph found out anything about the Grail?" Selena said.
"If she did, Hood didn't mention it. We'll ask her when we get there." Nick looked at his watch. "I'd better go tell Ronnie and Lamont what's happened."
"It makes you wonder," Selena said.
"What does?"
"Whether or not we're meant to find it."
"The Grail?" Nick said. "We either find it or we don't."
"You don't think there might be more going on here?"
