The Nostradamus File (14 page)

"And Lamont?" Ronnie asked.

"We won't leave until we know he's stable. It shouldn't be more than a day or two. Once he's out of danger, they'll fly him to Bethesda. He's tough. He'll be all right."

"I talked with Stephanie," Selena said. "Elizabeth is really angry about this. She thinks she knows who is behind it."

"Whoever he is, he'd better watch out," Ronnie said. "You don't want Harker mad at you."

Nick smiled. "No, you don't."

Later, back in her temporary quarters, Selena was getting ready for bed. Nick's room was in another part of the building.

She wrapped herself in a white robe
and stood in front of the bathroom mirror, drying her hair. There were deep shadows under her eyes, lines of fatigue on her face. She ran her fingers through her hair. The Jordanian sun had brought out red highlights, rose red like the rocks in Petra, mixed with the blond.

Her 35th birthday was coming up. Not exactly over the hill, but the stress of
the job was beginning to show. There was tension in her face that hadn't been there a year ago.
Still looking good, though
, she thought.
At least that's not a problem. Not yet
.

She let the robe fall open. She ran her fingers over the puckered scar low down on her abdomen where a bullet had nearly killed her. She let the robe slip to the floor and turned
, looking over her shoulder. The scar where the bullet had exited was a rough, red ripple on her skin, next to a white line that reached to her buttocks and marked where the surgeons had gone in to repair her spine.

The weight she'd put on after being shot was
almost gone, now that she could work out again. Physically she felt a lot like her old self. The mental part was a different story.

Something had changed. The jacketed round that almost paralyzed her had done more than put her in a hospital. It
had left her with a sense of vulnerability that hadn't been there before. Before Mexico she'd felt she could handle anything, even after the close calls that had filled her life since she'd joined the Project. She was strong. She was skilled. She could kick ass. And now she knew that she could die just as quickly as the weakest person on the planet. Worse, she could be crippled for life. All it took was a well-placed bullet.

She wasn't like Nick and the others. Maybe it was their military background
, some male thing. Whatever it was, the idea they might get killed didn't seem to bother them. They never talked about it. They didn't seem to worry about it.

Since Mexico, she worried about it. She covered her feelings up with flip remarks or black humor. Come to think of it, that was what they did, Nick and Ronnie and Lamont. She remembered Nick had told her black humor helped, back when she'd first joined the team. So maybe they felt the same way she did, they just didn't talk about it. Like her.

The thought was comforting, somehow.

She turned out the light.

She wished Nick was lying next to her.

Sleep wouldn't come.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

"A cat?"

Elizabeth looked at the huge orange cat in Selena's arms. His ear was tattered and torn. He had only one front tooth. He drooled. He sounded like a truck in need of a tune up.

"That's not a cat. It's a fugitive from a zoo. You want it to live here?"

"He's not just any cat," Selena said. "Burps is a hero. He saved our lives in California."

"That cat," Elizabeth said. "The one that makes noises."

"Only when he eats too much. He won't be any trouble. Burps is an outdoor cat. He'll keep the moles out of the flowers. Steph and I will take care of him."

"I couldn't leave him in California," Nick said. "Think of him as added security. A watch cat."

"We need a mascot," Stephanie said. "A good luck mascot."

"I think he should live here," Ronnie said. "It lightens things up a little. I can make a cat door for the tool shed. He could go in there when the weather's bad."

Elizabeth knew when she was outnumbered. "All right."

Burps had been watching her. He purred louder. The sound rumbled across the room.

"See?" Selena said. "He knows. He's a very smart cat."

She carried the cat over to the garden doors and set him down. She opened the door. Burps looked, walked outside and sat down. He began cleaning his paw. Selena closed the door.

"I talked with Lamont's doctors," Elizabeth said. "They're keeping him in Germany for another day, then they're sending him back here to Bethesda. But he's out of commission for a while."

"What happens now?" Nick said.

"
If Adam is right, Cask and Swords is behind this. The man at the center of that is a banker named Harrison. I've got full electronic surveillance on him. Most of the time we know what he's doing."

"
Most of the time?"

"He uses an encrypted sat phone
sometimes. I don't think he's talking about banking. Speaking of which, Stephanie managed to look at the offshore accounts where he keeps most of the money. Tell them what you found out, Steph."

"Harrison's main accounts are in the British Virgin Islands and the Caymans.
That gives him a nice, legal tax dodge. The accounts are set up in shell companies with several layers of separation from Harrison. He's heavily invested in defense industries, gas and oil and real estate. His bank did quite well with the financial meltdown and the government money that went out. He's also funding a few foreign politicians."

"Can he do that?"

"As a private individual, yes. The main recipient is an Israeli politician named Weisner. He's the leader of an extremist right wing party that wants to reclaim the West Bank and Gaza and kick all the Arabs out of Israel. He also advocates using nukes against Iran."

"
There's an election coming up in Israel," Elizabeth said. "Weisner is a serious contender to become the next Prime Minister."

"Why would Harrison back someone like that?" Nick asked.

"Weisner's policies could start another war. War means big bucks for Harrison and his friends. Harrison has made several public statements attacking Islam. A war over there with a lot of Muslim casualties would appeal to him."

"Where does the Ark come in?" Ronnie said.

"If the Ark turns up, Weisner would use it to beat the drums for war. For what it's worth, his first name is Joshua."

"So
the Arab world is the new Jericho?"

"It might as well be, as far as he's concerned."

"Son of a bitch," Nick said. They all looked at him.

"Now I know what Herzog wasn't telling me, back in Jordan."

"What do you mean?" Elizabeth said.

"When we were talking, I got the feeling he wasn't telling us something. He must know Harrison is backing this guy. Why didn't he want us to know?"

"He probably didn't want to air Israel's dirty laundry," Elizabeth said. "Strictly speaking, it wasn't necessary for you to know. It's not directly related to finding the Ark."

Nick felt his blood pressure rising. "It would have saved us some time if he'd pointed us
at Harrison."

"
Whatever we may think, we don't have proof yet about Harrison's involvement with Bertrand's murder and the attacks on you," Elizabeth said. "Until we have it, there isn't a lot we can do."

"There's something I can do."

"What?"

"Talk to Herzog."

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Ari Herzog's office was on the top floor of Shin Bet HQ in New Jerusalem. His rank rated a large room and a window looking out to the Old City and the Temple Mount
, a sight he never grew tired of seeing. Ari was finishing up a report on an operation that had stopped four Hezbollah suicide bombers from carrying out an attack on the Mount. In some nations a success like that would have earned the man in charge a medal. In Israel, it was part of a normal day's work. Medals weren't important to Ari. The security of Israel was. He was good at it. That was reward enough.

His phone rang, the private number few had.

"Ari, it's Nick."

I wondered how long it would take.
"Nick, how are you?"

"I've been better."

"I heard about what happened in Jordan. I was sorry to hear about your man. Will he recover?"

"He's doing okay. It'll be a while before he's back in action." There was a pause. "You know why I'm calling," he said. It wasn't a question.

Ari sighed. "You are on a secure line?"

"Yes."

"You are calling about the Ark?"

"Damn it. Ari, why didn't you tell us Americans were involved?"

"I wasn't sure."

"So it wasn't because of Weisner?"

"You've been busy, Nick." No point in denying it. "Yes, it was partly about Weisner. Also, as I said, I wasn't sure."

"We're supposed to be allies. You want Harker to keep you up to speed on the Ark, what we find, but you're not willing to tell me who might be behind it on our end? Come on, Ari, that's not going to fly."

"Your country and mine don't always agree. You know I will put mine first. As you must do with yours. I had specific orders regarding Weisner from the Prime Minister. I couldn't tell you. Now I can."

"So tell me."

"If Weisner is discredited, his party will lose the majority of their seats in the Knesset. It will fragment. That is a desirable outcome, from the PM's point of view. We need proof of Weisner's corruption, his collusion with your American banker. Then we  will reveal it to the public. It would swing the election."

"This is all about politics?"

"Not entirely, Nick. The Ark is more important. I was confident you would discover the American connection, sooner or later. It seemed like a better way. Would you have believed me if I had told you I suspected one of the most important men in America was trying to kill you? That he didn't want you to succeed?"

"Probably not. But we would have followed up on it. You didn't trust us to keep the part about Weisner to ourselves."

"I apologize, for what it's worth."

There was a brief pause. "All right. Accepted. We'll move on."

"What have you discovered about the Ark?"

"We still don't know where it is. There's a Templar connection. It could even be part of a bigger hoard, if it exists."

"The Templar treasure?"

"Yes."

"You realize what it would mean to find that?" Ari said.

"Aside from the fact that I wouldn't get to keep it? Yeah, I understand. It'll kick up a shit storm. Especially if the Ark is part of it."

"That may be the understatement of the year," Ari said.

After a few more minutes of conversation, Nick signed off. Ari sat for a few moments, thinking about the Ark. Thinking about the Americans. Then he paged Lev.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Selena pulled open one of the big glass street doors and walked into her building. She wore a light silk jacket that concealed her pistol, a lavender silk blouse and black pants that matched her low-heeled shoes. The lobby was all marble and glass. It was an elegant building that spoke of wealth. A security desk with a bank of monitors faced the main doors. The desk was manned 24 hours a day, every day, for the peace of mind of the tenants. The guard called to her as she headed for the elevators.

"Doctor Connor, got something for you." He held up a flat package. "International delivery."

She took the package and recognized the writing of Jean-Paul. It sent a jolt of adrenaline through her. Her heart skipped a beat.

"Thank you."

She got in the elevator and punched in the top floor. The doors closed. She resisted the urge to tear the package open. In her condo she went to the kitchen counter. She took her holster and gun and laid them down on the cool granite. She pulled up a stool and opened the package. Inside was another file folder like the one Bertrand had sent in Paris. She untied the string and pulled it open and recognized the cramped writing of Nostradamus.

It was a different document, the missing quatrains, the ones that should have been with the others.

Jean-Paul split the manuscript into two parts.
The thought gave her chills. It was as if her dead friend had reached out to her from the grave.

There was
no note with the package.

She looked at the first quatrain. In her mind, she shifted into the peculiar language of Nostradamus.

Under a broken sword a great treasure lies