56

MONDAY, JANUARY 19 – 8:36 p.m. – TIBERIAS, ISRAEL

The three of them pored over every map they could find.

Mount Ebal was south of them, about halfway between Tiberias and Jerusalem, not far from the Palestinian town of Nablus, known in ancient times as Shechem. Yet according to Natasha, very few serious archeological excavations had ever been done there. Most scholars focused on the Roman and Samaritan ruins on Gerizim. Thus the kind of access roads found on Gerizim simply didn’t exist on Ebal.

What’s more, they had neither the time nor the manpower to scour the entire mountain. One wrong move could mean being arrested by Israeli forces or shot by one of Farouk’s men.

Bennett turned to his wife. “What do you think?”

“With what we’ve got?” she asked. “I don’t think we’ll make it. We don’t even know where to start.”

“Any suggestions?”

“We need satellite photos,” said Erin. “Plain and simple. These maps simply aren’t good enough. We need to study every nook and cranny of the mountain, look for cave openings, do thermal imaging, hunt for underground tunnels—that kind of thing.”

“What about Rajiv?” Bennett suggested. “She helped us before. Maybe you could call her again.”

“Who’s Rajiv?” asked Natasha.

“A friend of mine at CIA,” said Erin. “She’s the one who helped us get into Mordechai’s house the other night.”

“So what do you think?” asked Bennett.

Erin looked uneasy. “To do it, she’d have to retask the satellite again.”

“She did it once for you.”

“I know, but I can’t ask her again. It wouldn’t be fair to her.”

“You really think she’d turn us in?”

“No, but it’s not just her. Claire at the National Recon Office, Bobby at NGA, maybe a few more, would have to be involved. We’d be putting Rajiv in a terrible position. She could lose her job. She could go to prison.”

Bennett sighed. “It’s not like our cup of options runneth over,” he noted. “Call her. The worst that can happen is she’ll say no.”

Mariano called with another update.

Al-Hassani said good-bye to the Indian foreign minister and took the secure call.

“We’ve had a complication,” Mariano began.

“Don’t tell me you lost them,” said Al-Hassani.

“No, no, it’s Doron,” said Mariano. “He’s appointed a government commission to finalize a design for the Third Temple.”

“Tell me you’re joking.”

“I wish I were,” said Mariano. “But the news just broke here, and Farouk is going nuts. I’m telling you, he’s lost it, Your Excellency. He just called to say he wants me to kill the Bennetts, take the Barak girl hostage, and force her to lead us to the Ark. And if I don’t do it, he’ll find someone who will.”

“The fool!” snapped Al-Hassani. “He’ll ruin everything. I don’t want them touched until we see how far they can take us or unless they turn themselves in.”

“But Farouk is threatening to pull his money,” said Mariano.

“I don’t need his money,” Al-Hassani fumed. “I don’t need him at all.”

“This was his idea,” Mariano recalled. “And he has gotten us this far.”

“And he’s becoming a liability. Where is he now?”

“In a house outside of Amman, sir.”

“You know what to do, Viggo,” Al-Hassani said calmly. “Just make it look like a suicide.”

“Rajiv isn’t answering.”

“Did you try her cell phone?” Bennett asked.

“Twice,” said Erin. “All I got was voice mail.”

Bennett glanced out the window. It was already dark. If they were going to move, it would have to be soon. “Any suggestions?” he asked, not expecting any.

“Actually, one,” said Erin.

“What is it?”

“Come here,” she said as she logged on to the Internet and went to earth.google.com.

“What is that?” asked Natasha.

“Open-source satellite imagery. I’ll need to download the software and install it, but it’s free, and it just might help,” Erin said.

Moments later the download was complete. Erin quickly executed the installation procedures and launched the application.

“What is this going to do for us, exactly?” Natasha asked.

Erin clicked on More Information, which Natasha read aloud.

“Point and zoom to anyplace on the planet that you want to explore. Satellite images and local facts zoom into view. Tap into Google search to show local points of interest and facts. Zoom to a specific address to check out an apartment or hotel. View driving directions and even fly along your route.”

On the screen, a star field appeared with a small image of planet Earth in the center, as seen from 39,189.76 miles up. Next, Erin typed in Tiberias, Israel. Instantly, the computer began to take them on a guided flight from outer space to a remarkably clear view of the seaside city from 13,044 feet up. The image was all blurry until she hit Control F6 followed by a cheat code she’d learned from her days at Langley. This enabled her to bypass the scrambling software that Israel had demanded Google include so enemies of the Jewish state couldn’t use the site to target missile or bomber strikes.

Suddenly the topography was crystal clear.

“That’s incredible,” Natasha marveled.

“What street are we on again?” asked Erin.

“Ehad Ha’am Street,” said Natasha.

Erin clicked a small icon called Roads, and suddenly bright red lines marked every road in and around Tiberias, small and large, showing street names in bright white letters. She found the right street, manipulated the controls a bit further, and they were zooming in to five thousand feet, then a thousand feet, then just a few hundred feet until they were looking through the kitchen windows of the very house they were sitting in.

“Pretty cool, huh?”

Natasha gasped. “It’s amazing! If I walk out on the balcony, will you be able to see me?”

Erin laughed. “Sorry, it’s not real time. But the resolution is actually quite extraordinary for a nonmilitary satellite.”

“I’ll say,” said Natasha, examining the picture more closely.

“And check this out,” said Erin. “You can rotate it to see the other side of the house as well.”

“Look, you can even read the number on the front door,” said Natasha.

“Can you pull up Mount Ebal?” said Bennett, checking his watch again.

“Absolutely,” said Erin. “That’s where I’m headed.”

She zoomed out for a moment, panned southward to Nablus, and found the distinctive slopes of Mount Ebal. For the next twenty minutes, the three of them scoured every square inch of the “mountain of curses.” Sure enough, there were no roads of any kind. But they did find nine cave openings—six on the south and east fronts, one on the north side, and two on the west.

“So what should we do?” asked Erin. “We don’t have time to explore all nine. We barely have enough time to explore one.”

“And we need to get moving if we’ve got any prayer of getting something done tonight,” said Natasha.

Erin turned to her husband. “Want to just pick one at random?”

But Bennett was chewing on something. “What was that verse again? The one that begins, ‘as you know’?”

“Deuteronomy 11:30,” said Natasha.

“Can you look it up again?”

“What are you thinking?”

“I’m not sure, but . . . ” His voice trailed off.

Natasha found the verse and began reading it aloud.

“As you know,

these mountains are

across the Jordan,

west of the road,

toward the setting sun,

near the giant trees of—”

“There, that’s it,” said Bennett, apologizing for cutting her off. “West of the road. That’s what we’re looking for. Caves on the west side. I know it’s thin. But it’s the only geographic reference in the whole scroll. I say we go with it and pray for mercy.”