Rebecca covered his hands with hers. “Chen died to get me this information.”
Brandt allowed his annoyance to shine through. “We don’t even have any idea how important the information is or even what it is about.”
His wife squeezed his hands. “That is just your risk-averse side talking.”
Oh, no she didn’t just say that. “Risk-averse? We are sitting in a lake in Iraq.”
“Yes, Iraq. So what’s the big deal about Iran?”
Brandt felt like the vein over his temple was going to explode, but this was Rebecca, so there would be consequences to losing it on your wife. Eternal consequences. He gulped before he spoke.
“There are a lot of big deals about Iran versus Iraq.”
“I know, I know,” Rebecca said. “I was minimizing just as you were doing. First, we know the information was important because Chen and every member of his mining team are dead. For another, we know it has religious implications because he sent the clues to me. He could have sent them to a million other people, but he chose me, knowing I specialize in religious mysteries. And now this global storm? Come on, you know we are onto something.”
Brandt could feel the anger leach from him. This was how they fell in love. Brandt wanting to keep Rebecca safe, but Rebecca always having to push the limit. If he’d fallen in love with her for this quality, it was a little inconsistent to argue with her for having it.
“But you have to admit…it is Iran,” Brandt stated, knowing he’d lost, but having to try anyway. For the record.
Rebecca leaned back like she already knew she'd won. But the passion didn’t leave her voice. “The lake I am talking about is at the northernmost tip of Iran. It's only about five to ten miles from the Caspian Sea.”
“Yeah,” Lopez interrupted. “We could practically run to the sea before anyone could catch us.”
Rebecca raised an eyebrow nodding towards the corporal. “See? Even Lopez agrees.”
“You do realize that works against you,” Brandt chuckled.
Rebecca laughed as well. “In all seriousness? When has Lopez been wrong?”
Brandt just gave her that look.
“Okay, maybe I should've said when has Lopez not gotten us out of a dangerous situation before?”
“That's your story? And you're sticking to it?” Brandt asked. “That you're suggesting a mission that is super dangerous, but Lopez could get us out of it on unicycles? Driven into the sea?”
The smile fell from Rebecca’s face, but she didn't seem upset. “No, I'm saying it's dangerous, but we can handle it.”
Her words resonated, yet Brandt was reluctant to give the “go” command. Was he being too risk-averse? Was this a case of him still being too rusty to trust his own judgment?
“Do you trust me?” his wife asked.
“Rebecca…”
“Let me rephrase. Do you trust my research abilities?”
“You know I do.”
“Then know that I have believed the Gardens are in Iran for over a decade. Even as a cocky graduate student, I sent a letter to the Iranian government, giving them latitude and longitude of where I believed they were. I begged them that, even if they didn't let me do the excavation, they send a team out themselves.”
“And did they?” Brandt asked.
Rebecca shook her head. “Not that I know of…”
His wife must've known that he was considering all of the pros and cons of going into Iran and didn't push it any further. She hadn’t even mentioned the attack on the royal courts in Jordan, yet.
Shit. He hated cults.
And there was one definitely on the move. Another bunch of whackos that probably thought Judgment Day was on their “to-do” list.
Yes, there was risk to go into Iran. Der. But his wife was equally right. There was a greater risk to not go into Iran.
On one hand, they might all get caught and tortured, used as propaganda pieces against their own government, and die by videotaped beheading. Not a great option.
However, if any of these crazy-ass cults got what they wanted, the world could be plunged into chaos. What were their five lives against five billion?
Brandt didn't even have to say anything, for his wife to know that he had agreed. She could read him like a book.
“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,” Rebecca murmured, as she kissed him on the cheek. Then she turned Lopez. “Iran it is.”
“Chica, the course is already laid in for the Caspian Sea.”
* * *
Bunny was pretty busy trying to catch up with Rebecca. Every time Bunny thought that she was a world-class archaeologist, Rebecca would come in and burst her bubble.
Bunny had vaguely heard that the Babylonian gardens weren’t actually in Babylonia. She had dismissed it as some kind of whack-job, garbage theory. There were a lot of archaeologists out there that just liked to take the opposition side to any issue. They usually didn’t have any proof, they were just professional nay-sayers.
Obviously, Rebecca felt differently. And was more than likely going to be proved right, again.
Glancing over at Stark, Bunny noticed he was wearing a frown. That was never good. Usually he just wore a mask of concentration. Upset about something.
“What's wrong?”
Stark bit his lower lip before speaking, “I can't find anything out there. It's just desert. Period.”
“Do you have enough satellite coverage?”
After making a raspberry sound, Stark explained, “Have I got satellite coverage? It is literally coming out of my ears. Maybe not so much that far north, but enough to see its just desert.”
“Ground penetrating radar?”
Stark shrugged. “We’re getting some interference. There seem to be a lot of minerals in the soil, so GPR is pretty unreliable.”
“Couldn't that substantiate Rebecca's theory that the Gardens are lead-lined?”
“That's a stretch isn’t?”
Bunny smiled. Stark was always so protective of her. Even now after she had gotten together with Davidson.
“If I were a gambling woman, I’d bet that Rebecca is onto something.”
Stark muttered something under his breath and went back to typing.
“But there's nobody out there, right?”
“That I can tell you for sure. The team will be out there on their own. There isn’t a soul around for fifty miles.”
* * *
Davidson looked out the window as the Caspian Sea passed them by. The waters were a little rough in the storm, but beautiful. With no moon it was hard to tell how much further they had to go. They still had plenty of time before the sun rose to get the hell out of Iran before they were spotted.
Brandt was taking a rest. Hell, they all were. Who knew what was going to happen next. They were basically invading Iran. But it wasn't like they hadn't been in questionable situations before. Where Rebecca led, they followed.
Who else had a career like this?
They were going into Iran. Iran. Davidson loved the fact that their team didn’t let a little border or fascist state get in the way. No matter, they had all signed airtight nondisclosure agreements. Besides who in their right minds would believe the tales that Davidson had to tell?
It was so freaking cool.
Lopez began descending, preparing for landing. The shores of the Caspian Sea became apparent. They flew over the desert for just a few moments, then straight for the Salt Lake.
The landing was abnormally smooth, supposedly the salt in the water gave the plane more buoyancy. They’d seen it back at the Dead Sea in Israel. Lopez skimmed them right up to the salty shore.
Since there was no one around, the plane’s lights illuminated a large area of the desert. It looked flat and boring.
“Where to?” Brandt asked Rebecca.
“Bunny?” Rebecca asked. Davidson knew Rebecca was relying on Bunny to do the heavy lifting of research for Rebecca. At first, he worried that Bunny would see it as a demotion. She had been
the queen bee out in the field for a few years, but she had seemed proud to be able to help the team, even though she was laid up in the hospital back in DC.
“I’ve been scouring the ancient Iranian history books, and it looks like you were onto something. And the coordinates you gave me do seem to be the most likely place the Gardens would have been built.”
Rebecca nodded. “Thanks, Bunny. How’s the leg?”
“Better thanks. They are thinking of releasing me in a couple of days, as long as my fever stays down.”
Davidson smiled. He was glad she was being discharged soon. Bunny hated it in the hospital. He was also glad that Stark and his mother were there. Bunny didn’t do well without company.
He probably should have been jealous, but it was Stark, with his mother. He knew how Stark felt about Bunny, but honestly Davidson was surprised everyone didn’t feel that way about her. Stark knew the line. He wouldn’t cross it and even if he did, he trusted Bunny to remind the hacker where it was.
They all got out of the plane, sloshing in the shallow waters of the Caspian Sea. Within a few meters they were onto the crusty sand.
Rebecca didn’t hesitate, striding out into the desert. Prenner had to hustle to get ahead of her. Had she forgotten she went nowhere without a point man?
She wasn’t too far away from the shore when she slowed then stopped.
“Here, Bunny?”
* * *
Stark was running about five different algorithms to try and get a better underground image, but was shooting blanks. Something in the ground was interfering with all of his instrumentation. And this was an Israel satellite he was piggybacking on. They didn’t get much better than this.
Bunny looked over to him. “Well?”
“Those are the coordinates, but I can’t tell you whether there is a lead-lined structure or not,” Stark responded.
“Did you get that?” Bunny asked into the mic.
“We’ll probe around a little and see what comes of it,” Rebecca answered.
Bunny covered her mic. So Stark did the same. “I don’t like not having answers for her.”
“Me either,” Stark retorted perhaps a bit tartly.
They both looked to his mother.
“Why are you looking at me?”
“Um, because right about now you usually pull out some amazing idea that saves our butts.”
His mother frowned. “This is not one of those times.”
Stark snorted and put his hands on his hips, as if that could get his mother’s creativity going. Bunny went back to her research. If the hacker couldn’t help, she couldn’t help.
“Really? You bought that?” Stark’s mother said.
Bunny looked up to find that the older woman had smiled. “Seriously, Bunny, you’ve got to have a little bit more faith in me than that.”
Was Stark’s mother joking with Bunny? They must have passed some kind of watershed moment.
“Sorry. I won’t underestimate you next time,” Bunny promised.
“Okay, so we were getting zip on the current images, so I went back over the Israeli archives of the satellite images of the area.
“Since the area is so remote and away from all military bases, this satellite only passes over every ten days on its way to Tehran,” Stark’s mother stated.
“Okay…”
Stark’s mom turned her screen around to show a flipbook of the images. Notice anything?
Some of the images looked like a large amount of soil had been removed to reveal the outline of a bunch of rectangles. Then on the next image, the soil appeared to have been replaced. This went on for years.
“They must have known when the satellite was going over.”
Stark’s mom nodded gravely. “The Iranians have been hard at work out there. To what ends, I’m not sure.”
“Rebecca, did you get that?” Bunny asked.
* * *
“Loud and clear,” Rebecca stated.
Maybe the Iranian government had taken her advice. But why would they hide the Hanging Gardens? A discovery of one of the Seven Wonders of the World could be a major PR coup for them. It was weird, with all the secrecy.
“How close am I to an area that has been disturbed?” Rebecca asked.
“Take two steps right, then one left.”
Rebecca did as instructed. She tapped her foot. It felt like solid ground. There was absolutely no evidence of soil disturbance.
“They must have used rollers,” Brandt stated, “To re-pack the earth.”
They must have. She kicked the dirt with her toe, frustrated at the lack of progress.
“Ow!” Rebecca said, pulling her foot back.
“Did you hear that?” Davidson asked. “It sounded metallic.”
Rebecca put her toe down, but this time much more cautiously. She retraced the mark on the ground. And there it was. The edge of something.
“Help me get the dirt off of it,” Rebecca said dropping to her knees. The rest of the men did the same.
Quickly they uncovered a thin metallic sheet. Rebecca took several pictures of it and sent them to Stark and Bunny.
“Um… that shouldn’t exist,” Stark stated.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that is molyb-dentyne chain mail,” Stark stated. “Super high tech. It acts like lead to repel all types of surveillance, but is much lighter.
“So, the Iranians are hiding something under here?” Brandt asked.
“Oh, most definitely.”
Why all the cloak and dagger for the Gardens? It didn’t make any sense.
Brandt grabbed the edge of the thin sheet. “Well, let’s find out what they’re hiding.”
Rebecca stepped away. Whatever it was, was going to be simply amazing. She could just feel it in her bones. She was writing the journal article in her head.
The men pulled the sheet back, but found only more metal. A round metallic hatch to be specific.
Brandt backed away. “Holy fuck.”
* * *
“Sorry,” Brandt reflexively stated. He pulled out his wallet and handed Rebecca a five dollar bill. Ever since meeting her, he’d tried to tone down the foul language and ever since the kids? It cost him a sweet Benjamin Franklin each time he let one slip in their presence.
But, come on, he should get some kind of pass for something like this.
That didn’t stop Rebecca from pocketing the five. “What? What is it?”
Lopez pointed down to the hatch. “That, my darling, is a missile silo.”
Rebecca took several steps back. “As in nuclear missiles?”
“Yep,” Brandt replied. Rebecca handed him the five back.
He could see his wife’s mind whirl. She stayed silent for a few minutes, then got that tight grin she got when she’d figured something out.
“I’m afraid that I directed them to the perfect nuclear shelter. The gardens are lined and reinforced with lead. It would block any radiation signature.”
Brandt rubbed his forehead. “So let me get this straight. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are the cover for Iran’s secret nuclear program?”
His wife nodded. “I’m afraid so. The gardens were rumored to stand as high as eighty feet above ground level which means they are also eighty feet below us.”
Holy, holy, holy shit.
“We just found Iran’s secret nuclear missile site,” Lopez whispered harshly, then whooped loud in the air, fist pumping. “We just freaking found Iran’s secret nuclear missile site, guys! Smile will you?”
* * *
Rebecca could tell that Brandt tried to grin, but it ended up a grimace. No wonder. They were standing on top of how many missiles? All armed with nukes. The warm night had just turned awfully chilly.
Brandt turned to Lopez. “Get the plane ready. We are wheels up in ten.”
“What do you mean?” Rebecca asked. “I’ve got to have time to study the sight.”
“No, can do,” Brandt said. “We are going to blow the
crap out of this place.”
Rebecca could feel her eyes dilate. “No, you can’t. I have to figure out the significance of this place before you do that.”
Brandt put his arms on his wife’s shoulders. “If this is an active silo, there are men down there, with guns, very big guns who are going to come out here any minute. Stark?”
“We’ve got a power bloom, that’s for sure.”
“Like I said,” Brandt said to her then turned to Prenner. “Let’s light this place up.”
“Okay, but give me Davidson,” Rebecca asked. “We need to at least walk the perimeter.”
“Fine by me,” Davidson said. Brandt gave a nod.
She pointed out into the desert. “Let’s follow the chainmail and find the corners.” Rebecca then pointed her directions to Stark and Bunny. “You are going to need to record this as I do it.”
“On it,” Stark answered in her ear.
With her toe, Rebecca poked the sand, finding the edge of the sheet. She walked it off. It went pretty far.
“We’ve got helicopters firing up at Mazandaran. They could be there as soon as twenty-five minutes. And we’ve got planes revving up out at Gilan. Which would put them on your position at about the same time.
Brandt looked over at Rebecca. “I know, I know. We’ll hurry.”
CHAPTER 6
Stark’s eyes flicked from screen to screen. Those helicopters were moving pretty fast, and the jets were just getting in the air. It wouldn't be long though, before they were on the scene.
Brandt and his men placed the explosives as quickly as they could. A few men came out of the hatch but were quickly dispatched. Luckily the Iranians must have kept the staff at a minimum to keep the site secret.
“Eighty feet,” Rebecca said in his ear. “Does that make it eighty x eighty x eighty?”
Bunny nodded, “Yes.”
“That's got a mean something, right?” Rebecca asked.
Bunny looked to Stark. “Well?”
He threw a thumb over towards his mother. “Mom’s the numerologist of the family.”
His mother looked up briefly then bent down over her computer typing furiously. “Give me a minute.”
The line went quiet as the men continue their task and his mother tried to figure out what the heck eighty x eighty x eighty meant.
The 3rd Cycle of the Betrayed Series Collection: Extremely Controversial Historical Thrillers (Betrayed Series Boxed set) Page 7