by By Jon Land
An uneven, irregular pile of rock and stone, rubble from the blown-in walls and collapsed ceiling, filled the room. Ben stumbled across the lowermost stacks, searching for some hint of Danielle, praying she hadn’t been crushed by the largest section of rubble which stretched almost to the ceiling. He nearly tripped on what he thought first was a rock. Gazing back, though, he saw it was a woman’s boot and he dropped to his knees, feverishly grasping rocks and chucking them away.
Gradually, a human form became visible beneath him. He wasn’t sure it was Danielle until he uncovered her hair. He shifted the remaining stones from her body and gently turned her onto her back, listened for breath.
Nothing.
Felt for a heartbeat.
Nothing.
Terror bottlenecked inside him. Above, the percussion of another attack run’s bombs shook the walls and Ben leaned over to shield Danielle’s body from more blast-ridden stone.
* * * *
Chapter 73
T
he Mag-Lite rested on the floor to Ben’s right, bathing the darkened chamber in an eerie white glow that barely reached above floor level. Enough, though, for Ben to prop Danielle’s head back and breathe into her mouth while holding her nose.
“Come on! Come on!” he urged, pausing to gulp some air before the next two breaths.
Again and again he pushed air into her lungs, felt her chest rise to accept it, yet that seemed to be the only response. He felt down her breastbone, prepared to pump life into her heart. Suddenly she moved convulsively, coughing a stream of chalky dirt from her mouth. She continued to retch, face turning scarlet from the exertion, as Ben eased her gently to a sitting position.
“You’re all right, you’re going to be okay,” he comforted. “Just take it easy.”
Her retching slowed, picked up again, finally stopped. Danielle collapsed in his arms, tried to speak, failed.
“Catch your breath,” Ben told her. “Just concentrate on breathing. Don’t try to talk.”
He saw her face tighten determinedly. She seemed to be swallowing. Her breathing slowed, became more regular. She swallowed again, as if trying to remind herself how to use air to form words.
“Are you all right? Does anything feel broken?”
She shook her head, muttered, “No.”
He looped an arm over her shoulder to help her walk and led her out into the tunnel beyond. The route back up the stairs to the fort’s ground level was totally blocked, leaving the tunnel as their only option for escape. It banked downward, leading deeper into the earth’s depths. This was good for the added cushioning it would provide from any further explosions; bad for what it meant if the tunnel didn’t provide another way out.
“Got to hurry,” Danielle rasped. “Hurry. The United States . . .”
“Don’t try to talk. Save your strength.”
“The plan, the plot...”
Ben shined his Mag-Lite forward, carving a luminescent path through the dark, sooty air. They passed several doorways that looked still whole, the bunkers located beyond them undoubtedly reinforced. Clearly the sleeping areas, what passed for a barracks, in the fortress were located somewhere else. This section bad housed Nazi ordnance during the years of the Reich’s occupation of France.
Ben felt a faint breeze against his face. The air seemed less dense, less chalky, indicating an opening of some kind not too far ahead.
“Thank God,” he said softly, taking a deep breath.
Danielle stopped and sank back against a wall. He held her as she slid down it, feeling her strength ebb and drain. Her breathing was raspy and hot, her face still frightened. He grasped her hand and she squeezed his in response.
“I know now, I know what’s going to happen,” she said between breaths. “We’ve got to stop it.”
“Stop what?”
“ ‘And each of the fifty stars shall slide from their heavenly perch’ . . .”
“I don’t understand.”
“The prophecy,” she jabbered on. “The last line. Why Bureij happened. Why the old men from the 121st had to die in the United States.”
“Take it easy. We can talk about—”
“Fifty stars, one for each state!” Danielle persisted. “On the flag. The American flag. That’s the plan. Fifty states attacked, all at once.”
* * * *
Chapter 74
B
en and Danielle emerged into the cool night well away from the now smoldering fortress. Stubborn flames continued to lick at the air. Gray-black smoke climbed for the sky from chasms blasted out of the rubble-laced ground. Ben could see no one stirring. The pinpoint strike had clearly decimated the forces of Black Sands.
“How do you feel?” Ben asked softly.
Danielle sat cross-legged on the ground, trembling slightly. “Alive.”
“That’ll do for a start.” Ben sat down alongside her and wrapped both his arms around her shoulders.
“Who were those men?”
“The last vestiges of the Iraqi Special Republican Guard. How many of them did you see?”
“What does that mat—”
“Just tell me.”
“A dozen, maybe a few more.”
Ben felt a chill slide up his spine. “They’re already in place then.”
“Who? Where?”
“The Iraqi agents who managed to sneak out of the country before the war started. They’re the ones who are going to attack the United States, as part of an operation called Black Sands run by Sharif ali-Aziz Moussan.”
“But I captured Moussan in Somalia. He’s in custody now.”
Ben recalled the words of Ibrahim al-Kursami. “Someone else has picked up where he left off.”
“Who?”
He looked away.
“Who, Ben? Tell me.”
He turned back toward her. “I was right about the bombing at the U.N. compound in Baghdad, Danielle. There are Soviet moles in high-level positions in governments all over the world. They’re rogues now. Cut off, isolated, in communication only with each other, but still motivated by hatred for the West and a desire for vengeance against those responsible for the destruction of their way of life.”
“And these moles have taken over Black Sands?”
“This plot you uncovered belongs to them now,” Ben told her.
“But how could they have learned of the existence of Black Sands?”
“Because the head of the Iraqi secret police betrayed the existence of this covert army, part of a plot called Al Awdah, to an interrogator he’s certain was one of the moles.” Ben waited for his point to sink in before finishing. “Alexis Arguayo.”
“We need to get back to Marseilles,” Danielle said.
“I’ve got a rubber raft tied down to the eastern side of the island. A fishing trawler brought me into the shallows, but the captain might have taken off once the bombs began falling.”
“Let’s find out.”
As Ben suspected, the trawler was nowhere to be found, and he resigned himself to rowing back to the harbor.
“I’ll take a turn,” Danielle offered.
“No, you won’t. I want to hear about this plot now, this, what did you call it, a prophecy?”
Danielle nodded. “Written by Nostradamus. The 121st Evacuation Hospital dug a whole manuscript of his lost prophecies out of a trench at Buchenwald in 1945. That’s why they were all murdered. Because one of the prophecies mirrored this plot to strike the United States and the perpetrators couldn’t risk being exposed.”
“You’re telling me you believe Nostradamus really could see the future?”
Danielle shrugged. “I don’t know what I believe in. Maybe that’s why I’ve started to think it could be true. Maybe even something like this to believe in is better than believing in nothing.”
“That’s not true, not about you.”
“Isn’t it? Unwelcome in my own country. An outcast disgrace to the legacy of my family.”
“The circumstances were beyo
nd your control.”
“I created those circumstances. Maybe I got what I deserved.”
“Tell me about this plot aimed at America.”
“They’re going to shut the country down, Ben, bring it to an absolute standstill.”
“Not if we can stop them.”
“How?”
“Let’s ask Alexis Arguayo.”
* * * *
* * * *
Chapter 75
LOGON COMPLETE
ALL STATIONS CONFIRMED ACTIVE ON-LINE
ENCRYPTION PROCEDURES IN EFFECT
MESSAGE RUNNING
From: FRANCE
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WE HAVE CONFIRMATION FROM OFFICIALS IN MARSEILLES. THE FORT WAS STRUCK BY A MASSIVE AIR STRIKE. BETWEEN TWO AND FOUR AIRCRAFT WERE INVOLVED. MINIMAL NUMBER OF SURVIVORS, ALL BADLY WOUNDED.
From: GERMANY
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THE AMERICANS AGAIN.
From: UNITED STATES
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THE FIREPOWER, YES. BUT NOT THE INTELLIGENCE.
From: RUSSIA
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CLARIFY YOUR RESPONSE.
From: UNITED STATES
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OUR INTELLIGENCE SOURCES INDICATE THAT CENTRAL COMMAND WAS ACTING ON HARD CONFIDENCE TIP FROM THE ISRAELIS.
From: GERMANY
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ISRAELIS?
From: JAPAN
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ONE ISRAELI, YOU MEAN.
From: FRANCE
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WE HAD BARNEA IN CUSTODY. SHE WAS APPREHENDED WITH LITTLE DISTRESS AND WAS BEING HELD AT THE FORTRESS FOR INTERROGATION.
From: GERMANY
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HAUPTMAN’S REPORT CONFIRMS THAT MUCH.
From: RUSSIA
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THEN WE ARE LEFT TO WONDER WHAT HAPPENED.
From: UNITED STATES
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PERHAPS NOT. BARNEA WAS IDENTIFIED LEAVING PARIS ON A FLIGHT BOUND FOR AMSTERDAM. SHE WAS TRAVELING IN THE COMPANY OF A MAN WHO HAS SUBSEQUENTLY BEEN IDENTIFIED AS BAYAN KAMAL, FORMERLY OF THE PALESTINIAN POLICE.
From: CHINA
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HER LOVER.
From: UNITED STATES
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AND FELLOW UNITED NATIONS INVESTIGATOR ALSO ASSIGNED TO THE RECENT MASSACRE.
From: RUSSIA
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WE WERE GIVEN ASSURANCES THAT INVESTIGATION HAD BEEN CONTAINED.
From: UNITED STATES
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THE INVESTIGATION, YES. NOT KAMAL. LIKE BARNEA, HE MANAGED TO SURVIVE OUR ATTEMPTS AT EXECUTION WITH HELP FROM AN UNEXPECTED SOURCE. THE ISRAELIS.
From: GERMANY
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SOMETHING WE NEVER COULD HAVE ANTICIPATED.
From: UNITED STATES
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NOR COULD WE ANTICIPATE A VISIT HE MADE TO THE FORMER HEAD OF THE IRAQI SECRET POLICE.
From: FRANCE
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YOU’RE SAYING KAMAL WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE STRIKE ON THE FORT.
From: UNITED STATES
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HE IS CLEARLY MORE RESOURCEFUL THAN WE HAVE GIVEN HIM CREDIT FOR.
From: CHINA
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THIS CONTINUED SERIES OF MISJUDGMENTS AND MISESTIMATIONS IS OF GROWING CONCERN TO US. IF KAMAL AND BARNEA HAVE GOTTEN THIS FAR, PROMETHEUS CAN NO LONGER BE CONSIDERED SECURE. AND NEITHER CAN OUR OWN IDENTITIES.
From: UNITED STATES
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AS PREVIOUSLY STATED, POSTPONEMENT IS NOT AN AVAILABLE OPTION.
From: RUSSIA
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WE ARE NOT ADVOCATING POSTPONEMENT. WE ARE ADVOCATING CANCELATION.
From: UNITED STATES
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THAT IS NOT POSSIBLE.
From: GERMANY
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I AGREE WITH RUSSLA IT IS MORE THAN POSSIBLE, IT IS PRUDENT. ACCORDING TO OUR INTERROGATION OF JACQUES MATHIEU, DANIELLE BARNEA HAS MANAGED TO DECIPHER THE REMAINDER OF THE PROPHECY. THAT MEANS SHE KNOWS THE EXACT SUBSTANCE OF THE PLOT, NOT JUST ITS EXISTENCE. THIS PLACES ALL OF US IN JEOPARDY. THE RISK IS NOT WORTH IT.
