“So you didn’t see him enter or leave her room?”
“Not on our cameras, but the hotel maintains a set of security cameras on the outside of the building to monitor the parking lot, entry way, and the like. We have him leaving the building with Amber walking by his side.”
“She just walked out with him? She wouldn’t do that.”
Landau pulled out a chair and sat. “Yes she would. So would you.” Again he stopped Chambers from interrupting with a raised hand. “I use a passkey to get into your room, I’m armed, and I tell you that one of my friends has Amber and is ready to put a bullet in her head the moment you speak, cry out, or resist. You have no way of knowing if that’s true, but the gun is pretty convincing. You following me?”
“Yeah. But the tape on her mouth.”
“Drama for you. If she thought you’d die if she resisted, then she’d cooperate. I’ve seen people do mind-boggling things to save someone they love.” He paused. “Of course, Nuri might have claimed to have the professor at gunpoint. We don’t know the line he used, and it doesn’t matter. He got her cooperation. It doesn’t take a genius to know she loves you.”
Chambers stammered, then gave up trying to speak.
“We have video of a van pulling up to the rear exit of the pool patio. That gave us the make and model of the car. It also gave us a time stamp. My team was able to use traffic video cameras to track their movement. Jerusalem, like London and other cities, has cameras on most major streets. We lost them when they pulled onto the street where the facility is. We did an aerial surveillance and found the van inside the walls. The school has high walls for privacy—and apparently for other reasons.”
“Men are on their way there now, right? Tell me you have a team on the move.”
Landau shook his head. “There’s a problem. Not only is the facility a college for clerics, it has a mosque. To make matters worse, several of the students are related to high-ranking Islamic religious leaders. Can you imagine the problems that would arise if a bunch of Israeli Defense Forces storm the place? The world is already on edge about the whole third-temple thing.”
“I don’t care.”
“You had better learn to care. There’s no way the prime minister would allow what the world would see as an invasion of holy ground.”
“Oh come on. Israel has a history of making raids—”
Landau slapped the table with his palm. “It’s not going to happen, at least not soon. Intelligence thinks the school isn’t involved.”
“Tell me where it is. I’ll go.”
“And do what? You going to kick down the gate, climb the walls, put up your fists, and duke it out with whatever the terrorists have set up there. Trust me on this. You’d end up dead in minutes, and Amber would still be in danger. What part of that makes sense?”
Landau was right and the knowledge made Chambers’s bones feel like warm wax. “We can’t leave her. Who knows what they’ve done to her.”
“Stay with me, Dr. Chambers. I need you functional. You’re no good to Amber if you’re a puddle of emotions. Got it?” When Chambers didn’t respond, Landau seized his jaw and turned his face toward his own. “Got it?”
“Yes.”
“I told you what I know, at least all I’m going to tell you for now. Your turn. Tell me where’ve you been and don’t leave out any details.”
“Okay.” Chambers took a deep breath and let it out. It took five minutes for him to relate the story, then he stopped and waited for a reaction.
“You know they’ll never turn over the artifacts. I’m sorry, David, but I can’t see Yakov, Ben-Judah, and Trent agreeing to such a thing.”
“They would sacrifice her?”
“Yes, they would. Just as they’re willing to sacrifice themselves.” Landau leaned back, and for the first time, Chambers saw despair on the man’s face. “I can’t believe Nuri would drag you all the way back to Herod’s tunnel to deliver that message.”
“It’s a way of rubbing his victory in my face.”
“And he just walked down the tunnel toward Jericho? That’s a long walk.”
“Maybe he had a bicycle. I don’t know.” Chambers straightened. “Where did you say they had Amber?”
“Northeast part of the city. Just outside the Old City, on the Kidron side—”
“Show me.”
“Why?”
“Come on.”
“Where are we going?”
“My room. I want to know exactly where this school-mosque is.”
Chambers bounced on the balls of his feet as he and Landau waited for the elevator. For a moment, he considered sprinting up twelve floors. The doors had barely parted before Chambers leapt into the cab. Seconds crawled by as they rode to David’s floor. He shot out of the cab and jogged to his door, card key in hand. He opened the door so hard it shook the adjoining wall.
He glanced around the room. “Where did I put it?”
Landau entered and closed the door quietly behind him. “Where is what?”
“My tablet PC. I know I had it here.”
“The desk.” Landau pointed.
“Of course.” Chambers seized it and turned it on. A few moments later, he had a satellite image of Jerusalem on the screen. He examined it, then handed it to Landau. “Show me.”
“Doc, if you’re thinking of going there—”
“For once, Landau, just for once, can’t you go along with me?”
Landau frowned, his face a mixture of concern and irritation. He indicated a populated area along the far side of the Kidron Valley. Chambers snatched the tablet PC from Landau and tapped the screen.
“Come on, be there … be there.”
“What are you looking for?”
“Wait.” Chambers paced and mumbled to himself. Then he stopped, looked up, and smiled.
“You’re scaring me, Doc.”
“What would you do if I told you I may be able to get you into the facility?”
“I’ve told you. They won’t let us in, and we can’t storm the gates without bringing the whole Arab world down around our ears—and a few non-Arab states too.”
“What if no one could see you?”
“How is that possible?”
Chambers set the flat computer on the desk and pointed. “Remember all those surveys we did looking for tunnels? NASA did orbital surveys; we did aerial ground-penetrating radar and Trent’s T-ray surveys. When we found something, we did ground surveys. Well, when we found something that looked like a tunnel. Some things we ignored, at least in the beginning. We gave them low priority.”
“Okay. I’m following you.”
Chambers touched the screen. “This is the facility you identified. You see this line?”
Landau said he did. “It doesn’t look very straight. What kind of tunnel is it?”
“It’s not a tunnel, and you’re right—it’s a very crooked space.”
“If it’s not a tunnel, then what is it?”
“That, Mr. Landau, is a karstic fissure.”
“A what?”
Chambers tapped the screen and the computer zoomed in on the image. “A karstic fissure. A karst is a region of limestone that has been altered by water, like underground streams. Sometimes they form sinkholes. The ancients used some of these naturally occurring cisterns as catch basins for rain. Underground streams can carve fissures—natural tunnels. We’re the first to find this one, and we only found it because Trent is paying for the best high-end equipment.”
“So what are you saying?”
“I’m saying you might not be able to get your men over the walls, but I might be able to get you under them.”
“You look like a man with a plan.”
Chambers shook his head. “I’m a man with an idea. You need to come up with the plan.”
One hour later they were walking into Prime Minister Yakov’s office.
THIRTY-FIVE
David Chambers was well into his second night without sleep. The best he
had been able to manage was the occasional ten-minute fade-out. He had reached the point where coffee no longer helped. He and Landau had come up with a plan that Yakov called the most “outlandish thing I’ve heard” and then approved.
He spent the evening in the lobby staring out the window, occasionally drinking coffee. Most of the time he spent in prayer. Within minutes of submitting to restoration with God, he had learned that Amber had been abducted. He waited for his anger against God to return. It never did. Every time he thought of Jesus, he reminded himself that hardship and unfair treatment happens to everyone. Jesus of all people understood that. He was abducted by a mob, tried repeatedly by people who had either made up their minds about His guilt or couldn’t be bothered. He endured beating and scourging, then was nailed to a cross, an innocent man in the hands of evil people. All but one of the disciples died a martyr’s death, and John had suffered plenty in his day. It was a modern church contrivance that only good things happened to Christians. Chambers had never bought that feel-good philosophy. Still, he wished it were true.
When he dozed, he dreamed of Amber; when he prayed, he prayed for Amber; when he thought, he thought of Amber. He regretted the grief he had caused her. He hated his quick temper and fast mouth. He regretted so much. If God would return her to him, he would be a different man. He’d be a different man, regardless.
Things were underway, and they needed to be flawless.
Chambers’s eyes were closed when he recognized the familiar voice of Landau. “It’s time. You ready?”
“Is it a bad thing if I’m scared?”
Landau smiled. “It would be a bad thing if you weren’t.”
Chambers rose, looked down at his work boots and work clothes. He felt empty, a hollow man moving by a force he didn’t understand. It was show time.
They walked from the seating area to the back of the hotel and through the kitchen, which was empty—something Landau insisted upon. A utility van waited for them. Once inside the back of the midsize panel truck, the men began to change clothes. A driver pulled away. They rode in silence.
“Sunup is in two hours,” Landau said. “You were right. There was an opening on the west-facing slope of the valley. We’ve had a couple of trackhoes from the utility company working the spot you indicated. You were pretty close. Just three feet off the mark.”
“That’s not close, Landau, that’s spot on.”
“If you say so.”
In a few moments, both men had changed into uniforms and donned yellow safety helmets. Before Landau slipped his coveralls on, he changed into a black special-forces-type uniform common to military and police spec ops worldwide.
“I saw the news report,” Chambers said. “The media seem to be buying the gas-leak story.”
“That’s good, especially since there are no gas lines in the area. We’ll be done before anyone figures that out.”
The short drive seemed hours long. Chambers’s palms were slick with moisture. Out the windscreen, he could see splashes of yellow from the van’s warning lights. They started down a road that branched from the Shmuel Ben Adaya. From there, the driver turned onto a dirt path that jarred the men and equipment in the back.
Landau grinned. “Sometimes the most dangerous part of a mission is the drive there.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“Mostly. You up for this?”
“I’m up for it. Just get us in; I’ll get you there.”
Landau narrowed his eyes. “And as a reminder, you stay behind at that point.”
“Of course.”
“I’m serious. I don’t want you to be the first one I shoot.”
Chambers stared at the man. “You know threats aren’t all that endearing.”
“That explains the failure of my social life.”
The van slowed, then stopped. Landau opened the door, and the sound of diesel engines and the glare of bright work lights mounted to towers assaulted his senses. Two trackhoes took turns dipping their buckets into the earth, scooping dirt, and piling it to the side. The roar of a generator competed with the noise of heavy equipment.
“Kind of obvious, isn’t it?” Chambers asked.
“It’s the principle of hiding in plain sight. If we were out here working in the dark, we would look suspicious. We have men stationed around the perimeter to keep sightseers away.”
A short distance away, a panel truck waited, identical to the one they had arrived in. Chambers was pretty sure a half-dozen armed men were waiting inside.
“When do we go?” Chamber studied the void where the equipment had been digging. At the bottom, he saw a dark shape, a hole.
“Anytime. The operators were just pushing dirt around until we got here. We had the opening half an hour ago.” Landau made a hand gesture to the heavy equipment operators, and they shut down, exited the tractors and walked to the side.
“What do they do while we’re in there?”
“They’re our men, from the army. Let’s go.”
Chambers followed Landau to the hole. It was three or four meters deep and five meters across. The sides of the hole were tapered to prevent a cave-in. A worker stepped forward and handed Chambers a backpack. He took it without question, slipped it over his shoulder, and started down the slope.
The dirt was loose but held their footing. Chambers had climbed enough slopes to know to walk sideways to give his boot greater surface area to grip the ground.
Bits of dirt flowed down the slope, looking like tiny rivers of sand. The artificial lights cast the men’s shadows long and thin. The biblical phrase valley of death came to Chambers mind. His heart beat as if in the last mile of a marathon.
They paused at the bottom, standing in front of a meter-wide, two-meter-tall ragged opening. Darkness waited for them. Chambers turned his helmet light on and saw what he feared. Chunks of limestone varying in size from pebbles to the width of a basketball littered the uneven floor. Moving through the tunnel was going to be slow and possibly painful.
“Turn your light off, Doc.”
“What? Why?”
“Just do it and don’t move.”
Chambers didn’t like the sound of that, but he complied. He switched off the helmet light, then looked at Landau, who raised a radio to his mouth and spoke one word in Hebrew.
Landau disappeared.
Everything disappeared.
It took one second for Chambers to realize the generator that powered the tower work lights had gone silent. Then he heard the sound of pounding. Something brushed passed him, then several somethings. Fighting the urge to turn and run, Chambers obeyed Landau’s command to stay put.
Ten seconds passed, then the lights came back on. Chambers stared at Landau, who shrugged and said, “Oops, power outage.”
Chambers turned, then jumped. A half-dozen armed men dressed in black from helmets to boots stood just inside the opening. “How … Never mind. I don’t want to know.”
Landau stepped into the jaws of the natural fissure, and the armed men parted before him. Chambers followed, thinking the soldiers looked more mechanical than human. Each wore night-vision goggles and carried a small automatic rifle and a side arm. He had no doubt they carried other things harmful to the human body.
“Give Dr. Chambers your attention, men. He’s going to tell us what to expect while underground.” Landau began to strip off the oversized utility jumpsuit he wore over his military assault uniform.
All eyes shifted to him, and Chambers could swear that each pair was boring a hole in him. He cleared his throat. “Um, okay … you are in a natural limestone formation created centuries ago by flowing water—”
“Faster and funnier, Doc,” Landau said.
“Okay. The ground is uneven. As you can see, there are loose stones and larger rocks. These are ankle breakers. Watch your step. I suggest giving yourself some space so you can see what’s in front of you. This is not a tunnel. That means the width of the fissure varies. It is unexplored, so we don’t kn
ow how narrow it gets, but you may have to strip off your gear to get through the tight spots. Anyone claustrophobic?” They shook their heads but didn’t speak. Figures. “Okay, if you get a little panicky, just take deep breaths and keep your eyes forward.” He paused. “I’ll lead the way since I’ve spent a fair amount of time underground. I’ve calculated how far we need to travel. The fissure runs beneath the school, but there’s no opening. Mr. Landau tells me one of you is an explosives expert.”
Three of the men raised a hand.
“Redundancy is an asset,” Landau said.
Chambers didn’t know how to respond. Landau spoke up. “We go in silent. Once we blow out the floor, everyone in the compound will know it. We move fast, find the woman, and exit with haste. You’ve seen the photo of Dr. Amber Rodgers. We don’t leave till we find her. Clear?”
“Clear.” They spoke in unison.
Chambers noticed that none of the men wore an insignia of rank or army, nothing to identify them as individuals or the army they served.
“It’s time, Doc. Take point.”
He worked his way slowly along the cluttered path. The fissure was two meters wide, but he had no doubt it would narrow. His heart tumbled like a stone down a slope. He tried to distract himself by thinking about the rest of the plan. To buy time, Landau had made sure Chambers entered the prime minister’s offices in full daylight, easily observed by any interested watcher. He had made several trips to Hebrew University and watched as crates were loaded into the Institute of Archaeology. Similar crates and packing material were sent to the other locations where treasures and artifacts had been stored. Nuri knew those places well, and he, or whoever was calling the shots, would be watching.
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