The Nabatean Secret

by J C Ryan

  And while he’d never conspired against the Council, as Algosaibi had, whichever way he looked at it, it appeared he was on death row and just waiting to hear the date of his execution. Oh, he wouldn’t hear it, of course. They say you never hear the bullet that kills you. The only difference between him and a death-row inmate was he had no right of appeal. Appealing to Graziella would only accelerate his execution date.

  Appealing to the President would mean confessing and would get him arrested, which would also accelerate his execution date. He’d have to consider carefully whether he had any other options.

  His gut told him he’d better come up with some in a hurry, because his hourglass was running out quickly.

  Chapter 53 - A middle-finger salute

  May 1

  After the rocky start with the quantum project, Bill was feeling a bit gun-shy when it came to approaching Michelle Davis concerning her intention of holding public hearings and the grave danger that would pose to national security. He’d kicked the negotiations upstairs—all the way to the top—only to have it kicked back. But then he and the President had agreed that perhaps a person of neutral interest to the powerful Senator Davis would be the best person to negotiate with her.

  Michelle Davis’s reputation preceded her. Before her long tenure as the senior senator from California, she’d cut her teeth in the business world, eventually rising to be among a rare few women to head up a Fortune 50 company. As was the case with her fellow female CEOs, she was forced to exhibit a more ruthless persona than her male counterparts and had developed a tough, no-holds-barred attitude because of it.

  Once she was elected to the Senate, her quick intelligence and sharp tongue demolished many lesser men. Eight years prior to the A-Echelon scandal, she’d run against President Grant, and he’d only narrowly defeated her, thanks to her California constituency and their deep pockets.

  During the pre-primary debates, Grant had found her weak spot. She could think quickly, it was true, but her ability to articulate her thinking while under pressure was not equal to his. At one of the debates, he’d unwisely mopped the floor with her. The resulting mud-slinging threatened to tear the party apart. Party leaders had stepped in, persuaded her to support Grant in the primary, and in return guaranteed her the chairmanship of any Senate subcommittee she desired, assuming she won re-election.

  After handily doing so, Davis exacted her revenge by selecting one of the most powerful, the Senate Intelligence Committee. It was also her closely-guarded secret that she had a personal interest in, and hatred for, the CIA, having been dumped by a former Deputy Director for another woman.

  Davis had never considered the possibility that her reputation for ball-busting was well-deserved. And that another woman might have been a more caring and supporting companion for the Deputy Director. Like the proverbial woman scorned, she blamed not only him but his entire agency. Bill Griffin had done nothing more to offend her than to be named the Director of the CIA. In her eyes, that made him her arch-enemy, and worthy to be her target.

  As the proverb went, hell hath no fury…

  No less distasteful to her was President Grant, who, though of the same political party, had humiliated her during that long-ago debate. She didn’t forget, and she didn’t forgive—not easily, not at all. It made no difference to her that her animosity might be responsible for the opposition party coming into power.

  She was out to get Grant, anyone having to do with the CIA, and anyone else who stood in her way.

  Therefore, when she met with Sebastian Birch, she did so with a predatory gleam in her eye. The Director of National Intelligence was a lofty title, but in reality, the position held little power. Prior to the establishment of the office with the passing of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, the head of the US intelligence community was the Director of Central Intelligence, who concurrently headed the Central Intelligence Agency as well.

  When the 9/11 Commission exposed major intelligence failures, the bill was introduced to create the DNI position, but compromises were inevitably made to get the bill passed. Among them, several of the intelligence agencies were left in the hands of the Department of Defense, leaving the DNI too weak to adequately lead the performance of the US intelligence community in its entirety.

  Senator Davis put Birch in an inferior position immediately, by having a chair brought in that would leave her seated much higher than his. She didn’t offer coffee or extend any of the courtesies normally expected in such a meeting. Nevertheless, Birch forged ahead as he’d been instructed.

  “Senator Davis, thank you for seeing me. I assume you are aware of my objections to your holding the A-Echelon hearings in public. May I elaborate on the need to do so?” he began.

  “You’re welcome to waste your time in any way you please,” answered Davis tersely. “However, you are not welcome to waste mine. I’ve made my decision. The extensive coverage in the press has given the general public an extreme interest in seeing culpable parties pay for their indiscretions. Therefore, the hearings will be open.”

  “If I may, Senator. I’m not certain you’ve been made aware of the sensitive nature of the mission of A-Echelon. I’m certain if you heard what’s at stake, you’d change your mind,” Birch said.

  Unfortunately, he was not firm in his convictions, and his shaky delivery gave it away.

  “I’ll give you credit for making an attempt, Mr. Birch. However, you try my patience. As the chairman of this committee, I am by law fully briefed on all covert activities. The fact that I knew nothing of A-Echelon prior to the media bringing it to the attention of the public is an insult, if not a criminal act. You surely cannot expect me to extend any favors under the circumstances.”

  “Not favors, Senator Davis. Consideration of the national security matters at stake. I’m authorized to tell you this is much bigger than has been reported, and public airing can and will cause immense and irreparable damage,” Birch said. In fact, not even he knew the full extent of the issue, and he was feeling a bit insulted himself. Nevertheless, he was loyal to his President and willing to give it the best effort he could. However, his wording had an unfortunate effect.

  “You are authorized! Authorized? Did you not hear what I just said? I am already authorized! You and the President go too far. You’re a spineless jellyfish, and Grant is a lying bastard. I’ll have him thrown out of office if it’s the last thing I do. And you! You can expect to be unemployed within the month. As soon as I’ve dug up every last criminal conspiracy you and Grant and that worm Bill Griffin have perpetrated on the American people.” Davis was beside herself, standing and leaning forward over the desk, face red and spittle flying.

  As soon as she’d jumped from her chair, Birch did the same, as much in self-defense as anger. However, the woman had made threats she’d have trouble backing up. He had one parting shot.

  “You know, they told me you were a stone bitch, but they never said you were treasonous. If you don’t agree to at least close the hearings when they approach matters of national security, you’ll regret it.”

  “I know when to close a hearing and when not to. And I’ll be the judge of what might constitute jeopardy to national security. If and when that comes up, though I seriously doubt it will, then I will close the hearings to all but the appropriate members of the committee. Now, get out of my office!”

  She stalked toward him as he backpedaled to the door, keeping a wary eye on her. When he’d gone through it, she slammed the door with all her might.

  Treason indeed. Grant made a serious mistake by sending that idiot. What he said was as good as an admission of guilt. She was convinced now they were trying to save their own skins by pulling her into their pathetic conspiracy.

  She had another thought before she got two steps from the door. She opened it and yelled at the retreating back of the DNI. “I have this feeling your people know exactly where the Devereuxs are and are hiding them. I’d better not find out that’s tru
e!”

  For his part, Birch was seething as well. With good reason, he was furious at Davis, though he waited until he was outside the building to flip her a middle-finger salute. But he’d also have a few choice words to Grant for putting him in this position.

  Chapter 54 - Let’s get going

  May 1

  Across town, Carter and Mackenzie were preparing to fly to Petra. It had been arranged with as much speed as possible, beginning the day after the summit meeting at Sean’s cabin.

  Bill had conveyed to the President Carter’s request to investigate his theory on the existence of the Nabatean library. Grant had been difficult to convince the timing was right. With the country in an uproar over covert activities, sending the Devereuxs into a sovereign nation, even if it were an ally, was risky.

  However, Grant also understood that Carter Devereux had an uncanny ability to unearth the most esoteric information, as well as a keen sense for when and how it could prove useful. At Bill’s urging, he agreed to get behind the mission and help pull strings, those he still had control of, to smuggle them out of the country, on one condition. They’d be back to answer to the Senate Intelligence Committee when the hearing began.

  Bill thought it prudent not to mention the condition to anyone until the time was right.

  Work began on the Devereuxs’ Dassault Falcon immediately. A team of properly vetted specialists who worked on Air Force One began equipping the Falcon with some of the secret features of Air Force One, including radar evasion equipment and high-tech communications equipment. There wasn’t much to be done regarding extending the range of the plane or the speed. Even though the engineers were curious as to whose plane they were modifying, they knew not to ask questions.

  The CIA, under Bill’s direction, assembled everything they’d need. False passports, visas for Jordan, legends to match the passports, and a few simple accessories to disguise them without undue effort. Sean’s friend Greta was helpful in that, saying the best disguise would be a little makeup, not much. She showed Carter and Mackenzie how to make themselves look ten years older with the application of a little contouring makeup and some eyeliner wrinkles at the corners of their eyes. Heavy plastic eyeglasses frames did the rest. Since the whole world was expecting the Devereuxs to be caught somewhere near Washington, DC, it would be enough.

  A couple days before the date they’d selected for the “great escape”, the Falcon was taken for a shakedown cruise to make sure the radar evasion and other equipment was working. Convinced all worked well, the pilot who’d done the test in Carter’s absence hangered the plane at a small private airstrip near Boston, and Bill put guards on it to make sure no one snooped.

  Late in the evening on May first, Carter and Mackenzie, along with their security contingent, were taken to the plane. With the Devereuxs were Dylan and three Executive Advantage operatives — one who was formerly Delta Force and two who’d been Secret Service in their former careers. All were highly trained, skilled, and experienced in VIP protection.

  Dylan had a message from Bill. They’d need to be back in DC by May 12, to be briefed for the Intelligence Committee hearing.

  “What the hell, Dylan!” Carter exclaimed. “No one said anything about this before!”

  “Cool your jets, Carter. I’m just the messenger. I guess this was a condition of your going—from the President. It isn’t written in stone, but Grant, Bill, James, and Irene are thinking of letting you turn up at the hearing unannounced. Maybe that will throw a wrench in Davis’s plans.”

  “I don’t like it, Dylan. Never mind the risk that Mackenzie and I will be thrown in jail on sight when we turn up at the hearing. To go and find something that’s been hidden for two thousand years, and to be expected to do it in ten days—well, that’s ambitious, to say the least.”

  “I get that,” Dylan said. “That’s one of the reasons we’re bringing along someone else. This is Kyle Fields. He’s a CIA pilot. If it’s got wings, he can fly it.”

  “I pilot my plane,” Carter snapped, still disgruntled at the last-minute news. He looked over the slim, average-height pilot and found him wanting.

  “Carter, with this tight timeframe, there won’t be much time for sleep,” Dylan countered. “He’s here to help. Don’t bite his head off, and please stop biting mine off.”

  Carter grumbled a bit more. “If there weren’t so much riding on the possible discovery, I’d call off the expedition. Finding ancient artifacts takes patience, meticulous planning, and above all, time. Ten days, excluding flight time, isn’t enough time to even start.”

  “Come on, Carter, chill. You might as well use the ten days instead of just giving up. What have you been doing with your time since you saw the kids, anyway? Don’t try to tell me you’d prefer to twiddle your thumbs for the next couple of weeks. You’ve been squealing about finding that library for some time, now that you have the chance, you whine about it.”

  Carter felt bad about arguing with Dylan. He was right; the time might as well be put to good use. He’d been shooting the messenger.

  “Sorry, Dylan.”

  “No problem, buddy. I know you’ve been under a ton of stress. Let’s get going.”

  ***

  Carter was well rested even for the late hour and insisted on taking the first leg of the flight, and Kyle didn’t object. That raised him a notch in Carter’s esteem. They took off from the airstrip near Boston at about eleven p.m. without filing a flight path. However, Bill, James, Irene, and Sean were aware of their route.

  They flew directly to Queen Alia International Airport, Jordan’s main and largest airport, located about eighteen miles south of the capital city of Amman. When they arrived on May 2, about six p.m. local time, Dr. Zachariah Sachs, a Jewish archaeologist who had obtained permission from the King of Jordan to work on the Petra site, was there to meet them.

  The first part of the journey had been smoothed with the help of an old friend of James Rhodes. Ben Friedman, a Mossad operative James had dealt with before, had been very helpful to James during those dark days when Mackenzie and Liam had been kidnapped, and Carter lay unaware of their fate in a Jerusalem hospital.

  Dr. Sachs was unaware of the exact nature of their visit and of their real names. He only knew it was part of a top-secret mission that would eventually help his country, and he shouldn’t ask many questions. He was to drive them to his camp, be as helpful as possible, and not get in their way.

  He also had weapons for them. It made him nervous, but he followed Ben Friedman’s directions and handed out 9-millimeter SIG Sauer P938s to each of them, along with three six-round magazines for each. The EA operatives made quick work of concealing the compact but lethal weapons then helped Carter and Mackenzie do the same.

  From the airport to Petra, south via Desert Highway, Route 15 was a little under three hours, approximately one hundred forty-seven miles. On the way, Carter dozed occasionally while Mackenzie kept Sachs talking by asking about his work at Petra and what he’d learned.

  Sachs, who couldn’t be blamed for enjoying the attention of the beautiful redhead, chattered away and asked no questions. Exactly what they wanted.

  They arrived in his camp at around ten p.m. By this time, the Devereux party was famished and exhausted, despite some being able to sleep a bit on the plane and Carter in the car. Such sleep is never as restful as that in a horizontal position, even if the latter is in a bedroll on the ground or a camp cot. After partaking of a light meal, they all turned in to get what sleep they could, for tomorrow would be a busy day.

  Chapter 55 - The dolphin pentagon of Petra

  May 3

  The following morning, Carter discussed his objective with Sachs, while everyone enjoyed a breakfast in the pleasant spring morning. The last of the wildflowers perfumed the air of the camp. Mackenzie was transported by the green of the valley, the pink oleander blossoms, and her discovery of blooming cactus like the prickly pear of the southwestern US. Her mental picture of “desert” underwent
a radical change that morning.

  Sachs told her the city dates back to about 300 BC and is sometimes also called the “Rose City”, because of the pink sandstone cliffs into which the tombs and temples were sculpted.

  Carter had opened his laptop and was showing Sachs the dolphin pentagon, asking if it remained in the ancient city.

  “Oh, yes, I know where it is. Would you like to see it?”

  “Certainly, but don’t take us directly there. In case we’re observed, it should be part of a general tour of the city.”

  “No problem.”

  An hour later, the entire group stood in front of the magnificent edifices carved from the living stone. They were open-mouthed at the first sight of the most famous feature in Petra—the majestic temple with the elaborate Greek-style façade, the Al Khazneh, also known as the Treasury. They felt dwarfed by the structure, and Dylan remarked of the amphitheater that it was as big as or bigger than a football stadium back home.

  To disguise their special interest in the dolphin pentagon when they got to it, they took hundreds of pictures of everything, from the mosaics of the fifth-century Byzantine church to the most modest dwelling that had been excavated.

  When they got to the dolphin pentagon, which was carved into the side of the Siq where it opened opposite the Treasury, they not only took pictures, but covertly established exact GPS coordinates as well.

  Mackenzie took the opportunity to gaze into the Siq as far as she could see. The narrow slot canyon held a mystique that sent a cold chill down her back. How many people had been swept away in flash floods roaring through it in rainy season? At some places, so narrow that only one person was able to pass through it, she couldn’t fathom how they induced camels to travel its length. With a shiver, she turned back toward the sun to find the group had moved on to the next feature. She hurried to catch up.