History itself would be history.
In under twenty-four hours, Midas marveled, the Jews once again would be betrayed by thirty pieces of silver. A final Crusade would be unleashed on the Middle East that would ensure lasting world peace and the rise of a new Roman Empire in the twenty-first century. All it would take was a little piece of Atlantean technology tweaked by the Nazis.
If that wasn't the final solution, Midas thought, what was?
Everything, mostly, was following the plan. Midas almost allowed himself to smile. Then he saw Vadim pull up in the limousine. Well, almost everything.
"You look like shit, Vadim," Midas said as they drove out of the town and into the hills toward the airstrip. "I'm amazed security let you through. Did you get the bullet out?"
"No," Vadim grunted, clearly in pain. "But the bleeding stopped."
"We'll take care of it after Jerusalem," Midas said. "At least you had enough presence of mind to get out of the street after you failed to kill Serghetti."
"The Inn of Provence is about the only one on the street with a side door," Vadim explained. "No problem, what with the smoke and confusion caused by Abdil's explosion."
Midas said nothing and turned on the television to watch the BBC.
"Despite the terrorist attack on Rhodes today, the twenty-seven European foreign ministers unanimously agreed to intensify their dialogue with Israel on diplomatic issues," the big-haired anchor said. "Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni said that this is a meaningful achievement for Israeli diplomacy, opening a new chapter in Israel's diplomatic relations with EU states. Israel intends to use the intensified dialogue to convince Europe to increase pressure on the Palestinians over the fate of Jerusalem and ensure that Israel's strategic interests are protected in the Middle East peace process."
Midas turned off the TV and checked his messages on his BlackBerry. He was still bothered by Vadim's failure. He'd have to get rid of Vadim as soon as he had fulfilled his purposes, two of which were still out there somewhere.
Then he saw the text from the Alignment spy code-named Dantanian.
It read: i've got them.
Midas smiled. It was turning out to be an even better night than he could have imagined.
45
Serena set the Otter on autopilot so she could collect herself after the devastating loss of Benito and before whatever end-of-the-world madness she and Conrad would have to deal with now. They would need to land on the water near the coast of Israel and find some way in, if they didn't get shot down first. But that was for Conrad to figure out, because she could barely think at all.
She looked over at Conrad in the copilot's seat. The entire flight, she felt him keeping one eye on her and one on Lorenzo, who was fast asleep in the rear of the cabin.
"It doesn't stop, does it, Conrad?" she asked him. "The death, the violence, the evil in this world?" She couldn't hold back anymore, and she burst into tears. "He was like a brother to me. My only real family." She started weeping uncontrollably in a way she hadn't for years. She knew Conrad had never seen her like this because she had never seen herself like this. Not even in her private moments. But it was as if something had broken inside.
"I can't do it, Conrad," she said. "I'm all used up. I have nothing left."
Conrad held her in his arms as best he could with their seating arrangement and brushed the wet hair away from her eyes. "What matters is what's required of us," he told her softly. "I need to know what Gellar told you."
"I told you what he told me," Serena said sharply, realizing that she wouldn't get much more in sympathy and that Conrad was right. "He wants to build a Third Temple and seems to think he's going to start very soon. The only place to build it, according to Orthodox Jews, is on the Dome of the Rock."
"Which is considered Islam's third-holiest shrine and where Al-Aqsa Mosque sits," said Conrad. "You destroy the mosque, and all hell breaks loose. I get it. Gellar gets what he wants, and the Alignment ultimately gets what it wants. But tell me about this whole Uriel thing."
"That's what doesn't make sense," she said. "In the Bible, there's an angel who guards the gate back to Eden with a flaming sword. Some traditions specifically reveal the angel's name to be Uriel."
Conrad nodded. "So you figured that Midas was bringing the Flammenschwert to Uriel."
"But it doesn't make sense with Gellar," she said. "He wants to destroy the Dome of the Rock and build a Third Temple for the Jews. The Flammenschwert turns water to fire. But there's no water in Jerusalem. No lakes, no rivers, nothing. The ancient Jews depended on precipitation from the skies, collecting rainwater in tanks and cisterns."
He looked at her and said, "You're forgetting the Gihon Spring and the network of tunnels beneath the Temple Mount."
She knew where he was going and liked to see him enthusiastic, but this wasn't realistic. "The Gihon Spring isn't really a river. That's why they call it a spring."
"It could be enough," he told her. "Back at the EU summit, Midas was pitching his mining technology as a means to extract water from the desert. Some kind of tracing technology that could reveal underground rivers and aquifers with thermal imaging."
Suddenly she saw it all. "There's going to be plenty of thermal energy after he sets off the Flammenschwert."
"The Temple Mount is honeycombed with well shafts, including one I've seen directly under the Dome of the Rock," Conrad told her. "All you have to do is position the Flammenschwert somewhere in that underground spring system, and boom-you destroy the mosque on the surface and maintain the integrity of the Temple Mount foundations. It's like a neutron bomb."
Serena said, "I suppose it would almost look like divine judgment. It's brilliant, really."
Conrad nodded. "Gellar gets his Third Temple. The Alignment gets its Crusade when it rises to defend Israel against the Arabs. And Midas gets the water and technology rights." Then he looked her in the eye. "How much do you want to bet that the warhead from the Flammenschwert is inside one of the globes Gellar took back to Israel? He's probably placing those globes inside some secret chamber under the Temple Mount right now."
Serena switched off the autopilot and took the steering column. "We have to warn the Israelis."
"Which Israelis?" Conrad asked her. "We could be warning the very people who are perpetrating the plan, like Gellar. We need to know for certain who's not Alignment, and right now, except for me and you-actually, just me-we don't even know that. We need to get to Jerusalem on our own."
"I have friends in Gaza," she said. "Catholics who helped me run food relief supplies through the blockades the Israeli coast guard set up. They could get us official work permits and fake IDs and smuggle us into Israel. I'll have to splash down within a few miles of shore, though."
"Now you're talking," he told her as she leveled off and prepared for their descent.
Then a voice from behind said, "No water landing, Sister Serghetti. You will take us to Tel Aviv."
She looked over her shoulder at Lorenzo, who had a gun pointed at her head and was glaring at Conrad.
"Now the weasel shows his true colors," Conrad said, unusually calm. "You gave me up to the police on Rhodes, didn't you? Told Midas I came so he could go and kill Serena and you could take her precious medallion?"
Serena stiffened as she felt the barrel of the gun at the back of her neck. "Lorenzo, tell me this is a moment of fear overwhelming your faith-that what Conrad said isn't true."
"Tel Aviv," Lorenzo said, waving the gun between her and Conrad. "Then you will hand me the Dei medallion before General Gellar's men take care of both of you."
"I think you should stick with your vow of silence," Conrad said.
Lorenzo pointed the gun at Conrad, pulled the trigger, and heard the click of an empty cartridge. Lorenzo frantically searched his pockets.
"I've got your bullets in here," Conrad said as he pulled out his Glock from under his shirt and shot Lorenzo in the head.
Serena didn'
t scream as she gripped the steering column tightly with both hands to keep herself and the Otter steady. But she shivered as she felt Lorenzo's body slide to the floor of the cockpit next to her. And the smell from Conrad's discharged Glock made her ill.
"Looks like the Dei wants you dead, Serena. You should think twice before going back to Rome."
She couldn't look at him. At either of them. She focused on bringing the Otter down for a safe landing off the waters of Gaza.
Conrad, however, was already on his phone. "Andros, it's me."
She could hear the voice on the other end shout, "Mother of God! Where are you?"
Conrad glanced at her while he talked. "I'm a few miles off the coast of Gaza. I need to get in."
"Why?" asked Andros.
Conrad said, "You see that explosion at the EU summit?"
"I told you not to come back to Greece, my friend," Andros said.
"Well, at least I got out," Conrad answered. "Now I need a ride into Gaza. You must have ships making runs here."
She couldn't make out what Andros was saying.
"Jaffa's no good," Conrad said. "Gaza. You must know someone in these waters. Someone who can meet us and take us ashore. Someone you can trust." After a minute, Conrad said, "Fine."
"Well?" she asked him when he hung up.
"Andros says he has just the man for the job. He'll meet us one kilometer due west of the breakwater at the beach north of the port."
Two hours after they splashed down, the twelve-year-old Palestinian shipowner Andros had promised finally arrived in his yellow wooden sardine boat and brought them ashore. His white T-shirt said: TODAY GAZA…TOMORROW THE WEST BANK AND JERUSALEM.
PART FOUR
46
Jerusalem
OHEL YITZHAK SYNAGOGUE . MUSLIM QUARTER. GOOD FRIDAY
The catering truck pulled up behind Ohel Yitzhak, or the Tent of Isaac, synagogue in the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem's Old City. General Gellar stepped out in a caterer's uniform, glanced both ways, and then gave the signal. The caterers brought out three food cases, each containing one of Solomon's three globes, and wheeled the cases on carts into the kitchen.
The elegant synagogue had been blown up by the Jordanian army in 1948. After Israel captured the Old City in the 1967 Middle East War and annexed East Jerusalem, it was finally rebuilt and rededicated in 2008. One particular modification was a secret underground passage that connected the synagogue to the Temple Mount.
The passageway was supposed to be part of a large underground complex attesting to Jewish heritage in the contested city. It was funded by the semi-governmental organization known as the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, which had signed an agreement with Jewish-American donors to maintain the Ohel Yitzhak synagogue and the areas beneath it. Those donors had been active for decades in settling ultra-nationalist Jews in Arab areas of Jerusalem.
But General Gellar, who was on the board of the foundation, had never shared his purpose for the new passageway with his donors or submitted the final plans to the Israel Antiquities Authority for approval.
The passageway linked the synagogue with the Western Wall tunnels in the Jewish quarter. And those tunnels beneath the Western Wall in turn linked to a more ancient network unknown to either Muslims or Jews. As such, it violated Israel's promise to stop digging within the Al-Aqsa compound. After all, the last time an Israeli prime minister had opened an archaeological tunnel near the holy sites, more than eighty people had been killed in three days of Palestinian riots.
Gellar could only imagine the reaction in a few short hours when the scourge of the Temple Mount would be wiped clean by a pillar of fire that would reveal the power of the one true God.
47
DAMASCUS GATE . CHRISTIAN QUARTER
Israeli troops armed with assault rifles guarded the Via Dolorosa, or the Way of Sorrows, as thousands of Christian pilgrims from around the world crowded the narrow cobblestone streets of Jerusalem's walled Old City for the traditional Good Friday procession. Some Christians even carried large wooden crosses on their shoulders along the route that Jesus was believed to have taken to His crucifixion.
Ridiculous, thought Midas, watching from the curb. He turned to Vadim, standing beside him, and said, "With the beating you've taken, you look like you could be one of the actors here."
Vadim said nothing.
"At least you're still alive." Midas looked at his BlackBerry. "It appears the Israeli coast guard found an Otter seaplane four kilometers off the coast of Gaza this morning with a dead priest inside. Bullet to the head. The Israelis say it was drug smuggling gone bad. The local rabble-rousing Catholic bishop in Gaza City says it was the trigger-happy Israeli coast guard. I say it was Yeats."
The Good Friday procession ended at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where tradition said Jesus was crucified and His body laid in a tomb. It was there, on Easter Sunday, that Christians would celebrate His resurrection.
Or so they believed.
The thought that the world would change in minutes, and that there was little Conrad Yeats could do about it, prompted a smile to replace Roman Midas's impatient expression as he and Vadim made their way out the Damascus Gate.
They followed the north wall of the Old City toward Herod's Gate and found an iron gate at the base of the wall. It was the cave entrance to Solomon's Quarries, a huge subterranean cavern that extended beneath the city in the direction of the Temple Mount. Inside the quarries was a secret entrance to the Temple Mount, where General Gellar would meet them.
Midas looked at his watch. It was two-thirty p.m. The first in a series of gates was about to open before him.
The cave was an official tourist site, open to the public, and a couple of Israeli policemen were outside the entrance. But today, by design, it was sealed off for a private event. It was a semiannual ceremony hosted by the Grand Lodge of the State of Israel for the benefit of Masons visiting Jerusalem during Holy Week. Non-Masons were not allowed, which kept the Good Friday crowds away.
Midas and Vadim showed the policemen their identification cards issued by the Supreme Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Israel and were allowed to step into the cave.
Midas followed a well-lit path for a hundred yards as the floor sloped down about thirty feet and opened into a cavern the size of an American football field. It was known as Freemasons' Hall, and the Masonic ceremony that Midas had hoped to avoid was under way in Hebrew and English. Twenty older gentlemen of various nationalities stood in their Masonic aprons as the Mark Master degree ceremony recounted the tale of an irregular rejected stone hewn from these very quarries that had turned out to be the capstone of the entrance to the temple.
But Midas already knew that. Ancient tradition said that the stones for King Solomon's First Temple were quarried here. The cavern was especially rich in white Melekeh, or royal, limestone, used in all the royal buildings. Some caves had been created by water erosion, but most had been cut by Solomon's masons.
Midas glanced up at the imposing ceiling of rock that was held up by limestone pillars just like the kind he used to make in the mines. It felt damp, and he could see beads of water trickling down the rough walls.
"Zedekiah's tears," he was told by an old Scot standing next to him. "He was the last king of Judah and tried to escape here before he was captured and carted off to Babylon. But the water comes from springs hidden all around us."
Midas and Vadim nodded, then broke away from the gathering to follow an illuminated walkway out of the cavern into one of the inner chambers separated by broad columns of limestone. There, Midas found the royal arch carved into the wall they were looking for and waited. A moment later, there was a faint tap. Midas tapped back twice. The outlines of an arched doorway appeared more prominently, and the stone slid open to reveal Gellar.
The only way to enter the secret tunnel, Gellar had told him, was from the inside. The irony was that Gellar was so ultra-Orthodox and regarded the Temple Mount as so holy that he refused to enter its lo
wer chambers himself. That left the dirty job of setting off the Flammenschwert to Midas and Vadim.
48
From his small office near the Western Wall Plaza, Commander Sam Deker could look up and see the Dome of the Rock without the banks of monitors that helped him police the goings-on around the Temple Mount. For Jews, it was the rock on which Abraham had nearly sacrificed his son Isaac before God intervened, and later, the Holy of Holies within Solomon's Temple where the Ark of the Covenant rested. For Muslims, it was where the Prophet Muhammad had put his foot down before he ascended to heaven. For Deker, it was like the pin of a grenade placed in his hand with orders not to blow up the world.
Especially today, Good Friday.
Three weeks ago, a Palestinian construction worker had plowed a bulldozer into a crowd of young Israelis. Two weeks ago, Israeli archaeologists had accused Muslims of destroying First Temple artifacts in an attempt to erase any traces of Jewish settlements on the Temple Mount. One week ago, Christian monks had broken into a brawl at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in advance of today's celebration.
It was always something.
A secular Jew who had grown up in Los Angeles and served with the U.S. armed forces as a demolitions specialist in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Deker had been recruited by the former head of Israel's internal security service, Yuval Diskin, to work for the Shin Bet. A man who specialized in the destruction of major structures, Diskin told him, was uniquely qualified to protect one such as the Temple Mount. However, Deker quickly gathered that his chief qualification was that he was Jewish but not a real Jew, if that was possible.
For some time the Shin Bet had been concerned that Jewish extremists could attack the Temple Mount in an attempt to foil peace moves with Palestinians. It had happened before, with the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and the Shin Bet didn't want to see it again.
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