by M. B. Lewis
“Nothing, darling, I was just calling to check on you. I’m sure it’s difficult being the only woman on your team. Sometimes it’s nice to have a little girl talk.”
“I appreciate you checking on me.” Patricia made sure Kadie always had accommodations for Brian. She had pushed for her to get the job, after all. “Is there any word on when we’ll leave Israel?”
“My people are working on flights to get you here. Currently, there are no seats for the next few days. We’re trying to change that. I want to keep you all together, and I don’t want to have you all go through another country unless it is unavoidable. Too many issues with Customs and Immigration, you know. Israel alone caused us a lot of problems.”
Kadie scrunched her forehead. What problems? She didn’t remember any issues other than Curt freaking out over Samuel’s laptop. “Has anyone called Samuel’s family? Is his body being returned to Israel?”
“We’ve taken the appropriate steps. We reached out to the embassy, and they’re sending a team to retrieve the body from the Egyptian government. Corporate contacted the family and made arrangements for them to receive the body when it gets back to Israel.”
“When he gets back to Israel.”
“Come again?”
“I said when he gets back to Israel. Samuel is a person, even though he’s no longer with us. You can’t refer to his body as it.”
“Oh, my dear, I apologize. Please don’t misunderstand—I’ve been swamped. I seem to be taking shortcuts everywhere, including my conversation.”
Kadie felt a sense of guilt. They’d all been busy. “Don’t worry about it. He was a good friend, that’s all.”
“Kadie, darling, you are the most precious sweetheart. So caring. I can’t wait to see you again.”
Her eyes shifted side to side, and she glanced at the phone. Awkward. “I suppose we’ll be here a few more days, then?”
“That’s what Curt tells me. We spoke earlier today.” She paused. “He tells me you went adventuring today?”
Kadie thought about the question. It was more of a statement posed as a question. Why did it matter? “We just drove around. Shopping and an early supper.” It wasn’t a lie technically. She just didn’t tell all the details.
“Curt was worried. Please, dear, listen to him. He is our head of security and your safety is his main priority. If something happens to you, I’m going to hold him personally responsible.”
“I know.” That’s a little too much, she thought, but Patricia always came on strong. “Patricia, I’m sorry. Brian needs me in the other room. I’ve got to go.”
“Of course, dear. We’ll talk later. Bye, love.”
Kadie hung up. Was this phone call too coincidental? A woman she hadn’t spoken to in days calls minutes after she makes a call from Samuel’s phone. It might have been nothing, but her instincts told her otherwise.
Duke walked down to Mac’s room moments after entering his own. Curt stood by the elevators, arguing with the two security men. After filling Mac in on what had happened that day, and his experience sneaking into Kadie’s room, he contacted the same service he used earlier that day to get into Jerusalem.
When Duke hung up the phone, Mac had a troubled look on his face. “Something wrong?”
Mac’s head bounced side to side. “I kept our Delta Force Commando in my crosscheck today.”
Duke squinted, anticipating what Mac was about to say.
“He cornered me this morning, asking if I’d seen her. I said no, of course, but I kept my eye on him throughout the day. Sometime after lunch, he snuck into Miss Kadie’s room. Snooping around, no doubt. He was only there about two minutes before coming out.”
“I don’t trust this guy,” Duke said.
“Me neither. I’ll call some guys downrange tomorrow and ask if anyone knows a Curt Baxter from Delta.”
“Good idea. I think the guy’s a phony, too.” Duke picked up a date off the plate on Mac’s coffee table and took a bite. “Wish you could have gone to the Garden Tomb. It was amazing.” He chewed the tasty fruit and swallowed.
Mac waved a hand at him. “I’ve been several times. I thought it was more important that you go on your date.”
Duke felt his face flush, which surprised him. If anyone could do that to him, it was Mac. “It wasn’t a date.”
Mac’s face sported a subtle grin, hidden in his wrinkled, weathered face. “If it wasn’t a date, it should have been. You’re too young to give up on having a relationship, my friend.”
Duke’s head lowered, along with his voice. “You know why.”
“Yes, but that’s no reason to give up.”
He shook his head. “I’m six years older than her. Besides, even she said it wasn’t a date. She’s just not interested in me. She has the hots for our fake Delta commando.”
Mac laughed.
“But we are going back to Jerusalem tomorrow. Just to check on a lead on her murdered friend.”
Mac grinned. “Sounds like another date.”
“It’s not a date. Regardless, I need you to run interference. This Curt guy doesn’t want Kadie to leave the hotel.”
“Not a problem. I’d be happy to.” He patted Duke on the back. “God has given us all second chances, my friend. Maybe he’s giving you one, too.”
19
The morning sunshine spilled between the sheer curtains, the white walls giving the morning sun more brilliance in the small room than needed. Kadie rose from the king-sized bed and went into the bathroom. The black and white checkerboard tile floor was cold, and she grabbed a towel to throw on the floor to stand on. The oversized, clawfoot tub invited her to take a hot bath. But she was short on time, so she took a shower instead. She finished dressing, then checked on Brian. Not surprisingly, he was ready to go. When she turned the TV off last night, he went right back to talking about the Dead Sea Scrolls, and his enthusiasm had not waned all morning. He had thanked her over and over. She hoped he would enjoy today, despite their motive of a fact-finding operation.
Kadie breezed through the living room, brushing her hair when she noticed Brian’s pill container on the counter, empty.
“Brian, did you take your medicine?”
“I am good,” he said, not shifting his focus from his drone. “Kadie, can I take Rupert today?” Rupert was what he named his drone. It was nothing special—he heard the name and thought it was funny.
“I guess so, but you’ll have to carry it through the museum.”
“O—kay.”
She considered contacting Doctor Upton to get more medicine when there was a knock at the door. As she marched to the front of their suite, Brian sat patiently on the couch. It had been one of her major stipulations that he would not answer the door during this trip. She was concerned about his safety, aware he might not always understand others in these foreign lands. A quick check in the peephole confirmed it was Duke.
“Good morning,” Duke said when she opened the door.
She felt a warm glow as she eyed him up and down. His clothes were pressed, his face clean-shaven, and his hair freshly combed. She glanced up and down the hallway before retreating back into the doorway, no sign of Curt.
“You cleaned up kind of nice.” She moved back into the living area. “We’re ready to go.”
Duke entered and closed the door behind himself. “Thanks. I figured you never get a second chance to make a first impression.”
She turned and smiled at him. “Well, you did with me.”
“I was referring to Isaac.”
Her face flushed, then she laughed out loud. Duke started to chuckle as well. Brian took his attention away from the television as the two of them laughed. He began to laugh also, although the expression on his face indicated he wasn’t sure why.
Kadie grabbed her purse and walked back to Duke. “Are we ready?”
Duke pulled out his cell phone and casually shook it in his hand. “No. Now, we wait.”
Mac woke up early and wandered the em
pty lobby of the hotel. The restaurant had a few people, but most of the hotel guests had yet to circulate. He returned upstairs to his room to wait for Curt to leave his room. Using a chair to prop his door open, he sat just inside the doorway, reading a copy of the Jerusalem Post, poking his head out whenever he heard someone leave. At about 8:00 a.m., Curt walked down the hall toward the elevator.
A few minutes later, Mac headed to the elevator himself and rode down to the lobby. He found Curt sitting in a chair, sipping a cup of coffee. When he finished his coffee, Curt went to the restaurant. Mac shadowed the so-called Delta Force Commando for the next hour and fifteen minutes until Duke called.
“You guys ready to go?” Mac said.
“Yeah, we’ll be in the stairwell.”
“Okay, stand by for my call.”
Mac walked by the stairwell door and ensured it couldn’t be opened from this side. He found Duke’s driver outside and let him know his passengers would be here in a few minutes and would need to leave quickly. Then he turned and headed straight for the restaurant, where Curt sat.
Mac strolled by, pretending not to notice him.
“Where’s your buddy?” Curt said.
Mac stopped. “Huh?”
“Your buddy. The other pilot. Where is he?”
“I thought I saw him heading toward the pool on the roof.”
Curt smirked and turned his attention back toward his newspaper. His arrogance obvious, but he didn’t bite.
“Can’t say I blame him, though. With the bikini that girl was wearing, I probably should have followed them. That’s something you don’t see every day.”
Curt’s face turned white, and he slowly folded the newspaper. He stood and threw some shekels on the table and rushed to the elevator.
There was no pool on the rooftop. The hotel only had three floors. They’d only have a few minutes. As soon as Curt reached the elevator, Mac pulled out his phone. Curt stepped in, and the doors closed behind him.
Mac hit Duke’s number on speed dial. “The coast is clear. Your driver is waiting.”
“Thanks, Mac.”
“My pleasure.”
The trio exited the stairwell and raced for the front door. Duke turned, found Mac, and waved.
Mac waved back as he slid the phone into his pocket and headed to the elevator himself. It was time to make another call.
The three of them sat in the same seats they did yesterday, this time without Brian calling shotgun. On the outskirts of Tel Aviv, Brian peeked into the back seat and smiled. It warmed her heart to see him excited and happy. She wondered how much time he had left before the tumor overtook his daily routine.
“Duke—do you know about—the D-Dead Sea Scrolls?” Brian said.
“I sure do.”
Brian went on to explain what he knew of the Dead Sea Scrolls: copies of sections of the Old Testament found in jars in a series of caves in southeast Israel.
“The caves awe near the Dead Sea,” Brian said.
“I hear the Dead Sea is neat,” Duke said. “You float on the surface of the water. You can’t sink.”
Kadie chimed in. “I would love to soak in that for a few hours. The mud is a great exfoliant.”
“The scrolls are kept in The Shrine—of the Book,” Brian said, showing them a picture from his cell phone of the uniquely shaped white building continuously cooled with water flowing on top of the roof. “It is like a huge water—fountain.”
Duke smiled at the picture on Brian’s phone. “That’s a neat building.”
Brian grinned and turned to face the front. Kadie smiled as the two interacted. Duke was genuinely kind to Brian, and her brother seemed to like Duke. No, he really did like him. And her brother had excellent instincts on people’s character. She did notice that he never took to Curt this way. Perhaps he saw something she didn’t.
“Kadie, did your parents ever come to Israel?”
Her lips tightened. Her parents were a subject she didn’t like to talk about. She glanced at Duke and realized he was waiting for an answer.
“Yes.”
The gruff pilot was smart enough to realize she didn’t want to talk about her parents. The truth was, she still blamed them for leaving her and Brian alone.
Traffic in Jerusalem was a little lighter today, perhaps because they left later than yesterday. Their car drove down a long street, past the U.S. Embassy, until they found themselves at the top of a hill, looking down into a densely populated valley with The Shrine of the Book clearly in sight less than a mile away. In less than three minutes, the driver dropped them at the front of the Israeli Museum.
Duke paid the admission for the three of them, and they walked through the small lobby outside again. Kadie checked the time—they still had an hour to go before their meeting.
“Where are we supposed to meet this guy?” he said.
Kadie shook her head. “I don’t know. Back in the lobby, I guess.”
Brian ran to the rail they saw outside, Rupert still tucked away in the small Pelican case in his left hand. “Cool,” he said. “Kadie come look—at this.”
Kadie and Duke joined Brian at the rail. Before them lay a model of Old Jerusalem reconstructed in great detail. The entire model covered an area about one hundred feet long and eighty feet wide, but the display wasn’t linear. Instead, the sidewalk and rails ran around the outline of the city. Several tourist groups stood around the three-dimensional map of the ancient city. The three of them tagged along with one of the groups when an older man who appeared to be an employee approached them.
“Shalom. Is this your first time to the museum?” the man asked. Kadie started to ask him if he was Isaac, then saw his name-tag: Aaron. Duke looked at her, obviously realizing the same thing.
“Shalom. Uh, hi, I’m Duke. This is Kadie and her brother Brian. Yes, it’s our first time here. We drove in from Tel Aviv this morning.”
“Welcome,” the guide said. “I can give you a brief walk-through. This model was commissioned in 1966 by the owner of the Holy Land Hotel in Bayit VeGan. It measured two-thousand square meters and was moved to the Israeli Museum in 2006 at a cost of three-and-a-half million dollars. Based on the writings of Flavius Josephus, it is believed to be an exact replica . . .” Kadie’s mind wandered as the man spoke to Brian, who listened with rapt attention.
Duke leaned into her. “We’ve got an hour. Might as well tag along.” Kadie nodded. Brian was fascinated by the model, so as long as he was happy, she was happy. They walked around the model for about thirty minutes, the guide explaining the biblical history of the city.
Brian tugged at the shirt of the elderly guide. “C-can I fly my drone out here and take v-video?”
The guide bent over and stared him in the eye, processing what the boy had asked. He placed a hand on his shoulder. “I don’t see why not, as long as you’re careful and don’t fly it directly over the model. There’s not much balagan.”
“What is balagan?” Kadie said.
The old man smiled. “Chaos.”
Brian unpacked the drone and the controller, which would hold his iPhone. Tilting and turning the drone in different directions, Brian calibrated the drone and had it flying within minutes. He guided the drone around the model of the city using his iPhone. Kadie detected something was wrong based on the various grunts and moans coming from her brother. The drone landed twenty feet from them on the walkway, and Brian hurried to pick it up.
“Something wrong?” Duke asked.
Brian wouldn’t look at him. “I could not make—the video work.”
“Oh yeah? Maybe we should have Mac take a look at it. He’s a big drone guy.”
Brian looked up at him and smiled, then packed up Rupert.
The guide resumed his presentation as they continued around the platform. When they’d made their way back to the starting point, their guide turned to them. “Would you like to see the Scrolls?”
“Oh yes,” Brian said.
“Well, let’s go.”
When they reached the round room where the scrolls were kept, Brian ran toward them.
“That is not re—al,” he said as he turned back to them. Kadie studied the scrolls with a skeptical eye, although it didn’t require one.
“He’s right,” she said.
“Yes, indeed,” the guide said. “The original scrolls used to be displayed here. Years ago, someone attempted to destroy the scrolls by throwing acid on the display. Needless to say, they have been moved to a safer location.”
The old man glanced at the clock on the wall. “I hope you enjoyed the tour. It’s my lunch break now.”
Kadie checked her watch. It was almost noon. “Thank you, we’re supposed to meet someone right now, anyway.
“We appreciate your time, Mister . . .?”
The old man reached out his hand. “Abelman. Isaac Abelman.”
20
Jerusalem, Israel
Shrine of the Book, The Israeli Museum
* * *
The old man stood in the dark room next to the representation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a broad smile on his face. Kadie glanced at Duke, who didn’t look surprised that their guide had been the man they came to meet.
Kadie wasn’t sure if she was furious or fascinated. “Why did you wait so long to tell us who you are?”
The man cradled one elbow in his hand and stroked his goatee with the other. “I was on the clock. I have a job, and everything is balagan during work hours. If I were to start talking to you about something other than my job, well, that wouldn’t be right.” He gave Brian a wink before turning back to Kadie. “But more importantly, nefarious forces are at work. One must determine who is who, before revealing information that has proven dangerous.” He turned back to Brian and patted him on the back. “Besides, it’s my lunch break, so now we can talk. Follow me.”