her and gently gripped her chin. Then he turned her head so he could look directly at her. “The Lord needs you to be strong, Tamara. Can you do that? Can you be strong for Him?”
“Yes, Brother!” she shouted. Her voice was as loud as a drill sergeant’s and her gray eyes flashed. “I serve the Lord! I long to see His blessed face!”
“Very good. Now let’s get back to camp.” He resumed walking down the rocky slope. “I assume everything else is going smoothly? You’ve made all the preparations for tonight’s transit?”
“Yes, we’re scheduled to depart at twenty-two-hundred hours.” Her voice was confident, but there was still a hint of anxiety in her expression. She bit her lower lip as she marched beside him. “We just received a message, though. From Keller.”
Cyrus frowned. Although Keller was one of his allies, the man wasn’t a True Believer. He was a bureaucratic underling, a money-hungry assistant in the U.S. Department of Justice. Out of necessity, Cyrus had assembled a network of paid informants in Washington. These men knew nothing of the Lord’s plans and their motives were despicable, but by selling their information to Cyrus, they unwittingly aided God’s holy cause. “What did Keller say?”
“He intercepted another e-mail about the FBI investigation of the explosion at Steele’s laboratory. Agent Parker is continuing to pursue information about Steele’s research. She put in a request to travel to Israel, and the Bureau director approved it.”
Cyrus nodded. Special Agent Lucille Parker, who’d headed the FBI task force that had done such a poor job of protecting Michael Gupta, was now apparently determined to make amends for her failure. “Well, I was expecting this, but not so soon,” he said. “I didn’t think the investigation would progress so quickly. Is Parker traveling alone to Israel?”
“No, she’s going with Michael’s guardians. She made a special request to bring along David Swift and Monique Reynolds. They’re scheduled to arrive in Israel this afternoon.”
Very interesting, Cyrus thought. Parker was obviously relying on their scientific expertise. And Swift and Reynolds could make things difficult. But it was presumptuous to think that the path of Redemption would be easy. The Scriptures had foretold a great battle. The servants of the Lord would have to fight Satan’s army before they could enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
“I have new orders for you, Tamara,” he said. “As soon as we get to camp, send an encrypted message to Nicodemus. Tell him about the visitors to the Holy Land and ask him to prepare a proper greeting.”
9
THE FBI LEARJET GOT PERMISSION TO LAND AT TEL NOF, A MILITARY AIRFIELD in central Israel. David and Monique sat in the last row of the cabin, behind Lucille. As the plane descended toward the air base, David looked out the cabin window and saw a dozen F-16s lined up on the tarmac. Every thirty seconds, one of the fighter jets took off with a roar and joined the fleet of planes patrolling the country’s airspace. The Israeli Air Force was on high alert in response to the Iranian nuclear test. On the other side of the base, several armored vehicles were clustered around a concrete bunker. Tel Nof, David knew, was one of the sites where Israel stored its nuclear weapons. The country had its own nukes and would use them if necessary.
He shook his head. He couldn’t worry about nuclear apocalypse right now. He needed to concentrate on the task at hand. He and Monique were in Israel because they’d convinced Lucille that they could help her track down Olam ben Z’man, Jacob Steele’s secret collaborator. They had some tangible skills to offer—Monique knew the physics better than anyone, while David knew plenty of Israeli scientists through his work with Physicists for Peace. But their greatest asset was their desperation. If Lucille hadn’t agreed to bring them along, they would’ve come to Israel anyway and begun
“Yes, Brother!” she shouted. Her voice was as loud as a drill sergeant’s and her gray eyes flashed. “I serve the Lord! I long to see His blessed face!”
“Very good. Now let’s get back to camp.” He resumed walking down the rocky slope. “I assume everything else is going smoothly? You’ve made all the preparations for tonight’s transit?”
“Yes, we’re scheduled to depart at twenty-two-hundred hours.” Her voice was confident, but there was still a hint of anxiety in her expression. She bit her lower lip as she marched beside him. “We just received a message, though. From Keller.”
Cyrus frowned. Although Keller was one of his allies, the man wasn’t a True Believer. He was a bureaucratic underling, a money-hungry assistant in the U.S. Department of Justice. Out of necessity, Cyrus had assembled a network of paid informants in Washington. These men knew nothing of the Lord’s plans and their motives were despicable, but by selling their information to Cyrus, they unwittingly aided God’s holy cause. “What did Keller say?”
“He intercepted another e-mail about the FBI investigation of the explosion at Steele’s laboratory. Agent Parker is continuing to pursue information about Steele’s research. She put in a request to travel to Israel, and the Bureau director approved it.”
Cyrus nodded. Special Agent Lucille Parker, who’d headed the FBI task force that had done such a poor job of protecting Michael Gupta, was now apparently determined to make amends for her failure. “Well, I was expecting this, but not so soon,” he said. “I didn’t think the investigation would progress so quickly. Is Parker traveling alone to Israel?”
“No, she’s going with Michael’s guardians. She made a special request to bring along David Swift and Monique Reynolds. They’re scheduled to arrive in Israel this afternoon.”
Very interesting, Cyrus thought. Parker was obviously relying on their scientific expertise. And Swift and Reynolds could make things difficult. But it was presumptuous to think that the path of Redemption would be easy. The Scriptures had foretold a great battle. The servants of the Lord would have to fight Satan’s army before they could enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
“I have new orders for you, Tamara,” he said. “As soon as we get to camp, send an encrypted message to Nicodemus. Tell him about the visitors to the Holy Land and ask him to prepare a proper greeting.”
9
THE FBI LEARJET GOT PERMISSION TO LAND AT TEL NOF, A MILITARY AIRFIELD in central Israel. David and Monique sat in the last row of the cabin, behind Lucille. As the plane descended toward the air base, David looked out the cabin window and saw a dozen F-16s lined up on the tarmac. Every thirty seconds, one of the fighter jets took off with a roar and joined the fleet of planes patrolling the country’s airspace. The Israeli Air Force was on high alert in response to the Iranian nuclear test. On the other side of the base, several armored vehicles were clustered around a concrete bunker. Tel Nof, David knew, was one of the sites where Israel stored its nuclear weapons. The country had its own nukes and would use them if necessary.
He shook his head. He couldn’t worry about nuclear apocalypse right now. He needed to concentrate on the task at hand. He and Monique were in Israel because they’d convinced Lucille that they could help her track down Olam ben Z’man, Jacob Steele’s secret collaborator. They had some tangible skills to offer—Monique knew the physics better than anyone, while David knew plenty of Israeli scientists through his work with Physicists for Peace. But their greatest asset was their desperation. If Lucille hadn’t agreed to bring them along, they would’ve come to Israel anyway and begun
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