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trucks are in Jordan right now? Our guy lost them in the crowd.
"
"Which means he's on the loose, just across the border," said Erin. "And he
may be heading straight for us."
The phone rang and he answered it immediately.
"Ken Costello."
"Mr. Costello, this is the White House operator. Please hold for the national
security advisor."
A moment later, Marsha Kirkpatrick was on the line. "Any luck finding Jon and
Erin?"
Costello explained the situation.
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"They're making a terrible mistake," said Kirkpatrick. "But it sounds like
there's nothing more you can do. The president wants you back in Washington
right away. He wants a briefing on your meetings with Doron and Lucente, and
he wants to see that letter
Lucente gave Jon."
The sun had not yet set, but they couldn't wait.
Bennett knew they had to get into those tunnels before Farouk and his team
did. He just prayed they weren't already too late.
"There, take a left," Erin said suddenly.
Bennett pulled off onto a dirt road. He came to a stop and cut the lights.
Just over the ridge, Israeli and U.N. peacekeeping forces were busy burying
the dead and trying to keep deadly diseases from triggering a global pandemic.
Here for now, at least all was quiet. But they dared not attract attention.
Natasha's night-vision equipment was designed to be used inside caves, not
off-
roading through old mine fields, but it would do.
They proceeded up the side of the mountain for another twenty minutes.
It was agreed that Bennett and Erin would be the "scroll hunters. Natasha
would take
"
the SUV back down the mountain to avoid suspicion, monitor police and military
frequencies, stay in constant communication with the Bennetts via encrypted
wireless radios, and come back for them when the time was right.
"How much farther?" Bennett asked.
Erin used a penlight to double-check the coordinates from Ray Donovan's
message, then took another GPS reading. "Another half mile on the left," she
said.
A few moments later, she tapped Jon on the shoulder.
"Pull over," she said. "We'll have to walk from here."
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43
THURSDAY, JANUARY 15 - 5:47 P.M. - THE GOLAN HEIGHTS
The sun was gone and the moon had not taken its place.
Thick clouds covered the night sky, and a strong breeze swept through the
mountains.
Bennett and Erin hiked for another fifteen minutes, and then began hunting
through the thick brush for the cave opening Donovan had described in such
detail in his notes. They never would have found it without the GPS
coordinates, Bennett realized. The small opening was completely concealed.
When they finally found it, the opening was just large enough to squeeze
through.
Bennett lowered his equipment first, then strapped on the MPS ma-chine gun
Natasha had given him and lowered himself into the cave. There was no telling
who or what was already in there. But he was not about to let Erin go first
into the unknown.
The air inside was cold and moist. The walls were damp and mossy. The granite
floor was thick with mud.
"You okay?" he asked when Erin joined him, also outfitted with an MPS.
"Yeah, I guess," she said. "How about you?"
"I'd rather be back in that honeymoon suite in Ronda; that's for sure."
"Me too," she said wistfully. "Me too."
They helped each other put on the hefty backpacks full of gadgets and
supplies, then flicked on the flashlights atop their weapons and began moving
forward, weaving through stalagmites and stalactites. The tunnel was narrower
than Bennett had expected, without much headroom, giving him a feeling of
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claustrophobia he had never experienced before.
The farther they walked, the colder it became. Bennett's mind began wandering
as they probed deeper into the tunnel. He wondered what had happened to
Donovan and
Harkin. How far had they gone? How close had they come? How had they died?
The cobwebs were thick in his face, suggesting that no one had been down here
in quite some time. With any luck they had beat Farouk and his minions to the
punch. On the other hand, they had no guarantee they were on the right track.
All they really had to go on were the scribblings of a dead Syrian rabbi and
the testimony of two rogue CIA
agents willing to sell out their country for buried treasure that might not
even be real.
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