by Alex Lukeman
"Sounds about right."
"So, when can you get here? The pay's good."
Nick waited while Lamont thought it over.
"I've got a kid working for me who can keep an eye on the shop," Lamont said. "I can be there sometime tomorrow."
"We'll pick you up at the airport."
"I'll call with the flight number."
"Be good to see you."
"Yeah. You too."
Selena was standing next to Nick, listening to his end of the conversation.
"When's he coming?"
"Tomorrow."
"I'm glad. I've missed him."
"We all have. "
"You really believe what you said about nobody knowing where we're going to be?"
"How are they going to find out?"
"I don't know. All I know is that sometimes things don't work out the way we thought they would."
"It should be nice and simple," Nick said. "We go in. We find something or we don't. We leave. Nothing to it."
"Mm," Selena said.
CHAPTER 40
On the way in from the airport Nick filled Lamont in on what had happened since he'd left.
"How's Steph doing?"
"Better. Lucas says she spends a lot of time reading."
"This guy Al-Bayati sounds like a real piece of work."
"That he is."
"How's my replacement working out?"
"Diego is all right," Nick said. "He just needs a little seasoning."
Lamont smiled. "I'll bet you're just the one to do it."
Inside Project headquarters, Diego and the others were in Elizabeth's office.
"So you're the new guy," Lamont said.
"And you must be the old guy." Diego held out his hand. "Diego Ramirez."
They shook hands. "Lamont Cameron. Nick said you were with the Rangers?"
"The 75th."
"Getting a little multicultural round here, Nick. All you need now is someone from the Air Force."
"Or the Coast Guard," Nick said.
"Are you through?" Elizabeth asked. "Because if you are, I'd like to start talking about the mission."
"Sorry director," Lamont said. He sat down on the couch, next to Nick and Selena.
Elizabeth sighed. "Sure you are. Sometimes I think nothing ever changes. I'm glad to see you back, Lamont."
"Thanks. I admit, I missed it."
"All right, let's get down to business. Joe has done a little snooping around with the satellite over Ethiopia. He thinks he can put you in the area where that star is marked on Ephram's map."
"Before I start, let me qualify this," Eggleston said. "I'm going on the assumption that the map is accurate and that the star is where it says it is. The only identifying mark in the area is the dot I think is Adigrat. Here's what I came up with using that and the columns as points of reference."
He touched a key on his laptop. A satellite photo of mountainous country appeared on the wall monitor.
"You're looking at the Tigray Region. It covers a big part of northern Ethiopia, including the city of Adigrat. It's sparsely populated. Rugged country, a lot like our Southwest with flat top mesas, high buttes and deep canyons."
The picture zoomed in until they could see the canyons weaving through the mountains. Eggleston zeroed in on one of them.
"This is west of Adigrat. There's nothing in that part of the region except a few abandoned monasteries."
"Monks lived there?" Selena asked.
"Some still do. There's a famous monastery in the area called Debre Damo. It's part way up a cliff. If you want to get in they haul you up on a leather rope."
"I'd love to see what an Ethiopian monastery is like."
"They wouldn't let you in. Men only."
"That figures."
"Anyway, this is what I've come up with."
"It still doesn't give us a specific location," Nick said. "That's a big area."
Eggleston shrugged. "It's the best I can do without more information."
"Did you try Onyx?" Elizabeth asked.
"Onyx?"
"It's a NRO system that uses ground penetrating radar."
NRO stood for National Reconnaissance Office, the Pentagon's satellite surveillance program.
"No, I didn't think of that," Joe said.
"You remember that card I showed you with the satellite and communication codes?"
"Of course. You know I have an eidetic memory."
"Onyx is number sixteen on the card. Use it to scan the target area and see if anything shows up."
"What am I looking for?"
"Some kind of underground structure. A cave or something man-made. If anything is there, Onyx will find it. The latest version is much more powerful than its predecessors."
"What if we can't pin something down with the satellite?" Nick asked.
"Then you'll have to do a ground surveillance and hope for the best. Lamont, how's your Ethiopian these days?"
"Rusty as hell, Director. My grandma made me learn. She was the only one who spoke it. I can get by but that's about it."
"Good enough. Let's see what Joe turns up with the satellites. Nick, go ahead and plan the mission based on what we know. Assume you'll be on the ground for several days. Judging from that countryside, you might have to do some climbing."
"Transport?"
"The Gulfstream will attract too much attention in that part of the world. Take a commercial flight to Addis Ababa and ship your weapons by diplomatic pouch to the embassy. Keep it light, you're not going into a war zone. I'll set it up. You can pick everything up when you get there. From Addis Ababa you'll have to go overland."
"Al-Bayati is still out there. He's been in the middle of everything and he could show up. How do you want us to handle it if he does?"
"You mean rules of engagement?"
Nick nodded.
"What do you think?"
"I think we give him an express ticket to hell."
"Just don't let the Ethiopians catch you," Elizabeth said.
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 te
chnician 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.
CHAPTER 42
The flight to Ethiopia was uneventful. They landed at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa early in the morning and rented a blue, four-wheel-drive Toyota Highlander, big enough for the five of them. After a stop at the embassy to pick up a trunk holding weapons and back packs they headed north out of Ethiopia's capital on Highway 1.
Nick had decided against full combat gear and everything that went with it. He hedged his bets a little with lightweight body armor. No one except Elizabeth knew they were going to Ethiopia. There was no reason to expect serious trouble. Like Harker had said, they weren't going into a war zone.
They'd take pistols and casual civilian clothes that fit with hiking in the backcountry. Pistols were less of a problem than automatic rifles if they were stopped and easier to conceal. Not to mention that it was hard to blend in when you were wearing full combat armor.
The road was a two-lane blacktop in good condition. They settled in for the ride. Lamont drove the first shift, careful to keep to the speed limit. They stopped to eat and gas up about halfway to their destination. A roadside stand offered food and something to drink.
Diego took a deep breath. "Smells good.".
"Probably give us a good case of the trots," Nick said.
Lamont laughed. "Hey, you only live once. Ethiopian cooking is really good. My grandma used to make meals that would blow your mind."
Ragged children swarmed the vehicle as they got out. Lamont spoke to them and gave them money to watch the car while they ate.
They let Lamont order for them. The man behind the counter stared at them wide-eyed. He grinned when Lamont began talking to him. Lamont bought bottles of soda for everyone. They sat down at a rickety picnic table in the shade of a large tree while they waited for the food to be ready.
The food came. Wicker baskets with plates that had a flat piece of bread on them and a large bowl of steaming stew.
Lamont said, "The bread's a kind of sourdough called injera. The stew is gonna be spicy. Could be any kind of meat in it. It's called wat."
He ladled out stew.
"I need a fork," Selena said.
"Nobody uses forks here. You scoop it up with the bread. Use your right hand. If you eat with the left people will be shocked."
"Why?"
"The left hand is for wiping your ass."
"What happens if you only have one hand?" Diego asked.
"Then you have a problem."
"This is pretty good," Nick said. He scooped up another bite of stew.
They reached Adigrat twelve hours after they'd left the embassy, just as the sun disappeared behind a high escarpment dotted with stunted trees. The ridge marked the beginning of the mountainous area where they were headed.
Selena watched her GPS. "I checked out hotels before we left. There's one in the center of town that should be all right. Take a right up there."
They turned off the main highway and found the hotel, a rectangular, two story building of yellow and red brick. Lamont parked and went inside while the others waited with the truck. He came out a few minutes later.
"All set. We've got four rooms. The place looks clean and they've got a café. It's a family operation, run by a father and son. The son seems like a nice guy. He told me we should hire somebody to watch the truck at night."
"I'll bet he happens to know someone," Diego said.
"That's par for the course. It's a good idea if we want wheels on the truck in the morning. He's happy to see us. We bring dollars instead of the local currency."
"What is the local currency?"
"It's called the birr. One birr is worth about four cents American."
"Let's get the trunk out," Nick said.
They went inside, showed their passports and signed the register.
"You are recommended to spray your room," the clerk said. "Very small charge." He took out four cans labeled Mobile Insecticide Spray. "Mosquitoes very bad, make you sick."
"Sick?" Selena said.
Lamont said something to the clerk in Ethiopian. The man answered him and swirled his hands in the air.
"Malaria and dengue fever," Lamont said.
Lamont paid him. They each took a can.
Selena and Nick's room had a big double bed and a balcony looking out over the city. There wasn't much to see, just blocks of low buildings stretching away across the plain. Compared to a European or American city, there were few lights. The air smelled of dry earth and something that might have been like sage. Hints of spices and cooking oil came from the café downstairs.
"Not exactly the Hilton," Selena said, "but it's clean."
"We've stayed in worse."
There was a private bathroom with a shower stall and a small television on the dresser. Nick turned the set on. It was a news program. Children with tear streaked faces stood in the rubble of a building somewhere in the Middle East. He clicked the remote. There were only two channels. The second channel was playing an episode of Gunsmoke, dubbed in Ethiopian.
"Makes me feel right at home. Bad news on one channel and reruns on the other."
Selena said, "We'd better get something at the café before they close."
"Shall I use this stuff?" He held up the can of bug spray.
"I'd rather take my chances with the mosquitoes."
"I'm tired," Nick said. "I hope that bed is more comfortable than it looks."
"Poor baby. How tired are you?"
He arched an eyebrow at her and pretended to twirl a long mustache. "Not as tired as I plan to be later," he said.
The next morning they left the hotel just as the sun climbed above the horizon. The rental Toyota had come with two five gallon gas cans strapped in the back. Nick bought two more and gassed up. A case of bottled water went next to the gas and
the trunk with their packs. Then they headed west toward the wild country.
Selena tracked their progress on her GPS.
"Turn there."
She pointed at a dirt track leading off the highway. They followed it into the wilderness until it petered out at a wide, dry riverbed exiting a deep canyon.
"This is the canyon we're looking for."
"Beautiful country," Diego said.
"Looks a lot like Arizona," Ronnie said. "Reminds me of Canyon de Shelly back home."
"Like the Grand Canyon, only not as big," Lamont said. "Or Waimea in Hawaii."
Ronnie had a closet full of Hawaiian shirts. "I've got a shirt with that on it," he said. "Nice colors."
"Is there anything that you don't have on those shirts?"
"I don't think I've got one with elephants."
"There aren't any elephants in Hawaii."
"Sure there are. In the zoo."
Lamont sighed.
Nick turned the truck up the riverbed. It wound through tall cliffs of multicolored reddish rock on either side. The going was slow, the riverbed strewn with rocks and debris that had washed down in the years when there was rain. They bumped along and Nick watched the gas gauge dropping. He thought about how much gas they had and what it would take to get back. He'd about decided it was time to stop when the decision was made for him.
They came around a turn in the canyon floor and found the way blocked by boulders. Ahead, a high mesa that marked the head of the canyon and their destination rose against a brilliant blue sky.
Nick stopped and turned off the engine.
"End of the line," he said.
"We're not moving those rocks," Lamont said.
"Nope. We'll set up base camp here." He looked at the sky. "It's already mid afternoon. We'll hike up the mesa tomorrow."
"It'll be cold later. I'll scrounge some firewood." Diego slapped at an insect. "Why does nature always come with bugs?" He looked at Ronnie. "How come they're not biting you?"
"Because I'm an Indian," Ronnie said.
"What's that got to do with it?"
"Indians and nature are friends. You don't bite your friend."
