Athens, Georgia
Once Al and Vance’s small government jet touched down and parked, a CIA officer greeted them at the bottom of the metal stairs. The agent had an urgent look in his eyes. As they were shaking hands he said, “I’m Agent Howell and let me tell you, it’s been difficult, but we were just able to hold off local investigators from entering the university.”
“Okay, thanks,” Al replied.
“This way,” Howell said, leading them off the tarmac. “But I can tell you right now that it will not last long.”
“I don’t blame them,” Vance commented.
“Have you two been debriefed?” the agent asked.
Al scratched his scruffy cheek, “Hell, no.”
“All we got was that knights attacked a school here,” Vance added.
Howell continued talking as he walked, “Okay, there are two locations—one on campus and one off. There are rumors of one more but I haven’t confirmed it.” He stopped and opened the sliding door of a beige minivan.
Al and Vance climbed into the center seat and Howell slid the door shut and climbed in the front. Once the SUV took off, he twisted his torso and continued, “Get this, the campus building was attacked and four or five students were killed, along with three local cops, but these guys dressed like knights also slaughtered about twenty Muslim students directly off-campus. Friends and family are showing up by the dozens— all Muslims and social radicals demanding to enter the crime scene.”
“Any reason why they would attack the university?” Al asked.
“Don’t know,” Howell answered. “If it’s a terrorist attack, then it could have been a diversion tactic to occupy the local police while they attacked the Muslim kids.”
Al leaned forward, “Do you know where they attacked on campus?”
“Other than the shootout, I’m hearing that it was the archaeology building or something like that.”
Al turned to Vance, “Archaeology; that has to be the Brotherhood.”
“Making a point,” Vance added.
“Pardon?” Howell asked.
“Nothing,” Vance said, and turning to Al, “I have a hunch attacking the Muslims was the diversion.”
“I think you’re right,” Al said. He then leaned forward again. “Agent Howell, go ahead and release the area where the Muslims were killed. Don’t give the crowds an excuse to start rioting. Just keep the actual shooting area clear for local investigators. We just need to see it. I don’t think we are going to find anything there.”
Howell gave a brief puzzled look but turning back around said, “Right away.” He grabbed his cell phone and immediately began giving instructions. He closed his cell. “That should take some of the pressure off.”
As soon as the SUV exited the gate of the airport, a group of waiting police cruisers turned on their sirens and began leading the way through traffic.
A short time later, they pulled into a section of campus that Al figured was the entry point of the knights, considering the obvious presence of a dozen police cars and mobile television crews. Once the SUV slowed, Al noticed several news reporters doing live reports—interviewing the crowd, mainly students. Several media vans were close by with extended transmission dishes.
They slowly drove farther in and hundreds of people were outside a cordoned-off area. Several officers noticed their arrival and quickly went into action, making a path for the SUV to enter. They were waved through the roped-off area. Only a few people were there, but as they passed through Al noticed people taking pictures of parked cars. As they got closer, he saw why: The hoods and roofs looked bashed in as if something heavy had dropped on them.
Al tapped Vance’s arm and he responded with, “Yeah, yeah, I see that. It looks like King Kong came stomping through here.”
They reached a second roped-off area and were again waved through. The area was completely blocked off by several men toting military-style weapons. At this point, there were no media crews, only police officers.
The SUV pulled into an open stall and the three of them climbed out. The agent pointed to a grassy section where a police officer was standing near a small tree. “She is the one you need to talk to.”
“Thank you,” Al said.
He handed Al his card. “Call if you need anything.”
As they approached, she said in her southern accent, “Are you two the federal investigators?”
“Yes,” Al replied, handing his identification to her. “We’re here to take a look at the location the knights attacked.”
“I’m Shandra and appointed by the sheriff to escort you two. I was informed that you boys were on your way,” she said, looking at his ID. She then handed it back and looked at Vance’s. As she read it over, she explained with sincerity in her voice, “We’re just a small town and nothing even remotely close to this has ever happened before. I just simply don’t understand why anybody would do such a horrible thing.” She handed the card back to Vance, turned her head and said, “This way, please.”
“What exactly happened?” Vance asked, stepping to her side to keep pace with her.
“Well, it all depends on who is telling the story. They range wildly from ten-foot unicorns to horses with wings.” She was silent for a few paces and continued, “The knights were first spotted outside of town leaving the woods on massive horses. At first, from the stories I heard, people thought they were some type of parade or something. You know, or a college prank. Then, they shot and killed an officer and rode the horses through town and onto campus.” She pointed to a police car with shattered glass and bullet holes all over it as she walked. “There was a shootout over there with two officers.”
Al and Vance remained silent waiting for her to finish what she was going to say. “They were both friends of mine.” She shook her head sadly.
They continued walking silently for a few seconds and she added, “An armed professor here also shot it out with them.”
“How is he?” Al asked, several paces behind her.
“Uh, he is okay. He was injured, but got debriefed and is around here somewhere. I think he is also waiting for you boys.”
“You said he shot it out with them?” Al asked.
“Tough guy,” Vance commented.
The officer laughed solemnly, “Yeah, the rumor is he’s former military or something. He kept the knights busy so they shot less people... supposedly.”
“Even better,” Al said. “Is there any way we could have a few words with him?”
“I don’t see why not. He should be close by all bandaged up,” she answered, unclipping a radio from her shoulder. She spoke a few words and replaced it. “I asked for someone to find him.”
“Thank you,” Al said.
“I don’t mean to be nosy,” the officer asked, “but may I ask where you two came from?”
“D.C,” Vance answered.
“You came all the way out here to investigate an office?”
“We were already there following up on a few leads,” Al answered.
“Since you are from here,” Vance said, and then asked, “or should I say a local resident, why do you think the campus was attacked?”
“No one knows, but I heard a few rumors, but nothing really.”
“Like what?” Vance prodded.
“Well, what everyone is talking about is that... those knights were the Templars, you know Knights Templar...that they were here to take back what was stolen.” She changed the subject. “Wait until you see the pictures. The knights appeared to be giants, and the horses were just monsters. I have been with horses all my life and when I saw the pictures I seriously couldn’t believe it.” She trailed off her statement with a sense of sadness.
Al took a second look at a few cars they were passing and saw that the hoods, roofs, and trunks, were bashed in as if they were hit with a giant sledgehammer. Al slowed his pace and glanced at the row of parked cars along the sidewalk.
“I am sorry for what has happened,” Vance said.
Al grabbed Vance’s shoulder to slow him down and pointed to the cars and said, “That was done by the horses.”
Vance stopped and they both walked over to get a better view of the scene.
The officer stepped up next to them and said, “Crazy, huh?”
“Shit,” Vance said looking at the cars. “How big did you say the horses were?”
“Well, from the pictures and cell phone videos, they were the largest horses I have ever seen.”
Al stepped between two of the cars to get a view from the other side. “I can tell one of the horses ran on top of the cars and one of the horses ran through the grass.” Al pointed to deep hoof prints in the grass that ran parallel to the cars.
Al knelt down and put his hand over the print and spread out his scratched-up fingers. “This print is twice the size of my hand.”
Vance gave him a funny look motioning to the young female officer. “I wouldn’t brag about that, buddy.”
Al shook his head and stood up, “Okay, let’s go look at the attack scene.”
As they approached the building steps, Al noticed several uniformed officers standing around the entrance. As they walked up, some of them looked surprised.
Noticing the officers’ reaction, the female officer commented, “Don’t mind them, I think they were expecting official Washington, D.C. types in black trench coats.”
“Not an old goat like Al here, eh?” Vance commented.
She laughed slightly, then replied, “Well, we were all ordered to wait outside of the building until the Feds did their investigation first. The local boys are not really into being dictated to by the federal government.”
Al saw one of the officers snap a picture with his cell phone and turned his head to avoid direct shots. He answered, “I don’t blame them.”
“And,” she said smiling, “rumors are spreading very fast about what is in there that is so important.”
“Like what?” Vance asked smartly.
She continued leading them into the building and answered, “Everything and everything.”
“Oh,” Al responded, unsure of what she was trying to say.
She led them up one flight of an old wood staircase and down a hallway typical of universities. She stopped next to strips of yellow tape crossing over a completely destroyed section of wall where a door once stood.
“This is the only room on campus that we know they entered,” the officer said as she pulled the tape over.
“They blew the door in?” Vance asked.
“That’s what it looks like,” she answered.
Al stood in front of the hole, and then stepped back a few feet. “If they did, where are the burn marks?” He continued looking at the edge of the hole where wood and old plaster wall dangled. The hole was twice as wide on both sides of where the door was. Al pointed to the door lying inside the room in two pieces, “I don’t think so.”
“Don’t think what?” the officer asked.
“The wall was kicked in,” Vance answered for him, pointing to the broken door.
“This wall and door were kicked in?”
“Yep,” Vance acknowledged.
She stepped over the debris and pointed around the room to several cabinets with the doors ripped off their hinges. “They were obviously looking for something.”
Al looked around the laboratory-type room. He could definitely tell that it was used for research and by the pictures on the wall, the Middle Eastern type. Along all four walls were dozens of shelves, cabinets and other storage units with wood and glass doors and every one of them ripped off their hinges.
She then walked over to a large center table and said, “The knights entered the room, searched every cabinet, nook and cranny, and then destroyed this section of table.” She paused and added as she crossed her arms, “Not necessarily in that order.”
Al looked over the table and asked, “Do you know what this table was used for?” Just as he asked that, another young woman stepped into the room ducking through the dangling debris and answered, “It’s an antiquities table.”
“Oh, hi Doc,” the officer said, as though they were friends. She then added, “This is Dr. Zohar, and since this is her lab, I asked her to assist with questions, if that is okay?”
Al and Vance both noticed her enter. An attractive blonde, she wore a white lab coat and had a distinguished look. Al also noticed the grace she used to navigate the debris as she stepped in. Something about her screamed out that she was some type of athlete.
“Be my guest,” Vance said. He seemed taken aback by her beauty. Typical of him. Someday it’s going to bite him in the ass, thought Al, noticing Vance’s stare.
She stepped over and shook both their hands with a strong and firm grip. She then walked over to the smashed section of the table and peered underneath. “There is an antiquities drawer here, or was here.”
Al stepped to the side of the table and asked, “Was this your classroom?”
She stood up and answered, “No, but I use it often.”
“Whose classroom is it then?” asked Vance.
“The professor who ran the lab is Dr. Golb.”
“May I ask what the doctor was working on?” Al asked.
She ran her hand along the undamaged part of the table, observing it closely. She stopped at the part that had a crushed section. “He used this table to examine ancient scrolls. Actually,” she paused, “he designed and rebuilt parts of the table just for that purpose.”
Ancient scrolls, Al thought, exchanging glances with Vance. He should have known. Why else would knights on horses attack a university, destroy property, and kill innocent people. No matter how twisted this scenario was, he knew now they were on the right track. He had to play it cool because at this point, everyone was suspect.
“The question is,” Vance interrupted, “what was here that was important enough for the knights to crash into this room and crush this table?”
Al could tell that Vance was playing dumb.
Dr. Zohar turned and pointed to a long, framed picture on the wall. “Do you recognize that?”
Al glanced at the picture that was a rectangular image of a piece of tarnished metal and answered, “No, should I?”
“It’s one of the Dead Sea scrolls.”
Al looked back at Vance who had the ‘what the hell are idiots like us doing here?’ look. He glanced back at her and lied, “Yes, I am familiar with the Dead Sea scrolls.” What he meant to say was that he had only heard of them.
Vance rolled his eyes in a ‘you’re full of it’ response, and asked, “So, you’re saying he was working on a Dead Sea scroll?”
“Yes and no. The one he was working on was from the same time period.”
Al walked over, examined the picture on the wall and as he did asked, “Was there anything unusual about the scroll that would make someone want to kill for it?”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Was the scroll he was working on rare or valuable?”
“All scrolls from that time period are extremely rare and valuable, if that is what you’re asking.”
Al finished examining the picture and walked down the row of demolished cabinets, running his hand along the top. He really had no idea how to question someone properly without using force. He paused and turned around, “Would you...”
“Do you know where he got the damn scrolls?” Vance asked, cutting him off.
For the briefest moment, she seemed taken aback by the question, lowering her guard. “I just... just know that he was using a special technique unrolling it.”
“And,” Al stared at her.
“Rumor has it,” she said, “well, I heard today that he announced that he successfully opened it.”
“How long had he been working on it? I mean the scroll,” Vance asked.
She walked over and gazed at the picture. Al noticed that she was clearly thinking. She turned around. “Not too long I think, but what I do know is that it was a previously unknown scroll.”
“That is an important fact,” Vance said.
She turned and looked at the picture again. “He didn’t really give me the details other than that he had successfully unrolled it.”
“Would you know the whereabouts of this Dr. Golb?” Al asked.
Officer Shandra chimed in, “He is missing.” She pointed to the rear of the room, “It’s possible that if he was here when the knights attacked, he escaped through there.”
Al stepped over to the area where a door once was. He saw the actual door at the bottom of some steps and asked without turning around, “When was the last time you had contact with the doctor?”
Both women hesitated. Dr, Zohar spoke up first, “Whom are you asking?”
“You.”
She hesitated briefly before answering, “Maybe an hour before the attack. I ran into him after a meeting he had with the backers of the project.”
Al glanced at his watch, turned around, and walked back to the table. Something about her answer did not seem right. “Do you know who the backers are?”
“No, not really,” Dr. Zohar answered flatly. “I attended a few of the meetings when Dr. Golb gave progress reports to them, but I was never actually told who they were. I always assumed they were part of a museum or something.”
“Were the meetings in the same room?” Al asked.
She paused, eyeing him suspiciously and slowly answered, “Yes.”
“Excuse me,” Vance said, politely nodding to the doctor and the officer. He then motioned for Al to step outside the room with him. They ducked under the dangling wall remains into the hallway.
“What the hell are you doing?” Vance whispered.
“Investigating. Why?”
“You’re a sorry excuse for an investigator.”
“Aw, come on, darling, don’t you ever have faith in me?”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“Do you have any other ideas then?”
Vance straightened up, “No, should I?”
“Well I do, but the question is how deep do you want to go with this?”
“You tell me,” Vance shot back. “I’m more interested in tracking down those medieval horses and knights, posing with them, and making some postcards.”
“Yeah, that’s nice,” Al said. “But Ed made it very clear that our Brotherhood is using universities and museums as cover, so I’m thinking of maybe looking for the doctor or the mysterious characters that were supporting the doctor’s research.” He looked back into the room at the doctor and the two women were talking to each other. “By the way, I think Zohar is hiding something.”
“If the doctor is missing,” Vance said, “then either he got away or the knights got him. Another thing that is clear is that these fuckers have some damn accurate snipers.” He leaned in and whispered, “I know how you like snipers, and if they are still around, they may be watching.”
“Got it,” Al answered, realizing that Vance was right. He stepped back inside through the debris and asked, “Could one of you ladies show us to the room where the doctor met with his backers.”
Dr. Zohar looked at the officer for approval and she nodded. “Yes, I can do that.”
They followed the women on foot to a group of buildings a short distance across campus. The doctor led them directly inside a two-story administration building and up a flight of stairs to the second floor. She walked directly to a door and said, “This is where they meet.” She reached down and turned the knob. “It’s locked.”
The officer got on her radio and asked campus security to bring over a master key. A few minutes later a young man came running up the steps and opened the door. She thanked him by name and the young man departed. She opened the door, held it open, and let them in. “I’ll wait outside,” she said.
Al stepped in first and looked around the office, which appeared normal. A desk, a few chairs, old wood flooring, and a comfortable recliner. Two full bookshelves covering the entire wall stood behind the desk and a large window was on the right.
“So you say,” Vance began, “this is where the supporters of Dr. Golb’s project worked?”
“I believe so,” Dr. Zohar answered. “Like I said, I sat in on a few meetings and they were all right here.”
Al didn’t know if a warrant was needed to dig around but didn’t care. If he asked the officer, she would probably say no, so he didn’t bother. He checked the desk drawers and thumbed through the items inside; nothing stood out.
“What were the meetings about?” Vance continued.
Well,” she said, “they were primarily about the scroll and the timing of translating it.”
“Which happened today,” Vance said.
She appeared puzzled how to answer the question. “The writing that was exposed when Dr. Golb first began unrolling it was not like the classical Hebrew from the other Dead Sea scrolls. And,” she continued, “I do know that he didn’t attempt to
decipher or translate it until the entire scroll was properly opened.” Al wasn’t sure how to continue questioning her without pissing her off. “I apologize for interrogating you like this, but could you explain what you mean by an unknown language?”
“That’s it,” she replied with a sense of irritability. “It was an unknown language and these meetings were discussions about what was found.”
Al glanced at Vance who returned an ‘okay, you were right’ look. “So,” he asked, chiming in with his own question, “what was the verdict?”
“I don’t know if there was a verdict. Dr. Golb supposedly finished unrolling the scroll today.”
Al could tell that she was becoming irritated with the questioning and crossed her arms indicating a sense of defiance. He paused with the interrogation, walked over and briefly observed the dozens of perfectly placed books on the shelves. The bookcase was large and covered the entire back wall from floor to ceiling. In fact, the books looked too perfect and exactly lined up together as if they were never touched. He stepped back and in the gentlest voice he could muster, asked, “Did... Dr. Golb know how to translate the unknown language?”
“I do not know,” she said. “His specialty was unraveling ancient manuscripts that most scientists end up practically destroying. Then they spend their entire career putting them back together.” She returned a question with a suspicious tone, “Being from the federal government, you two seem somewhat overly concerned about the doctor’s research, or am I plainly reading that wrong?”
“Interesting observation,” Al said, then, glossing over her comment, “It’s very important that I know how far along the doctor was on translating the language?”
“That I don’t know.”
Now Al sensed that she was definitely holding back something.
Vance must have sensed the same thing and asked her, “Did he ever show you this strange language?”
“No,” she answered. She walked towards the door indicating that she was finished answering questions.
“Vance,” Al said, changing the subject. “Doesn’t this room look a bit too regular or...”
Vance finished his statement, “You mean not ever used?”
“Exactly,” Al answered. “You would think if a meeting was here right before the knights attacked, then it would have that lived-in look.” He turned to the doctor and asked, “Is this how the office typically looked?”
“Not really.” She sighed, obviously not wanting to continue with this conversation.
Al walked over to the desk and then turned around again facing the bookshelf. He looked around a few more moments and then stepped to the window to look outward from the second story. There was another similar structure about forty yards away, separated by grass and a cement sidewalk. He had that nagging feeling that he was missing something. He turned around and said, “Okay, there is nothing here, let’s go.”
Vance turned and was virtually out the door when Al saw something he had missed on the floor in front of the bookshelf. He knelt down, brushed the spot with his hand, and felt a very light groove carved into the wood floor. It angled towards the bookshelf. He followed the mark to the bottom of the section of the shelf that connected to the floor. “Wait,” he said out loud.
Vance came back over, put his hand on Al’s shoulder and asked, “What?”
“A scratch on the floor,” Al said, looking up at him.
“Not quite the smoking cigar,” Vance said, “So let’s boogie.”
Al stood up and noticed the doctor watching them examine the floor. She didn’t seem upset anymore and seemed interested in what they were doing. He glanced back at the scratch. “This might indicate...”
At that moment, a voice yelled out from the doorway, “Big bad ass fuckers.”
Al turned around and watched a man with a wrapped-up shoulder walk into the room.
Vance walked over to him and shook his good hand. He looked back at Al, “He’s one of us.”
Al stood up and shook the man’s hand. He was well over six-foot-five, but looking rather beat up. “What does ‘one of us’ mean?”
“Agency therapist at your service,” the man said. “I moonlight teaching a few classes here.”
“This is Agent Chris Nelson,” Vance said, patting his back as if he already knew him.
Al noticed the doctor and officer now standing by the steps together. “You’re the crazy guy who shot it out with the knights?” Al asked.
“It’s a long story, but I’m glad to see you here. So, who the hell were those knights?”
“You tell me,” Al answered.
Chris raised his arm with the sling, “Damn knights were bulletproof. I hit them with 9mm and 5.56’s and nothing; didn’t even slow them down.”
“Too bad you had to learn that the hard way,” Vance said.
“I hit the knight in under thirty yards with the AR-15 I borrowed from the dead cops, and the damn thing just kept coming.” He paused and his demeanor changed to sadness. “They killed a bunch of Muslim kids up the street.”
“We heard,” Vance said.
Chris was visibly agitated as he hesitated a few seconds before asking, “This is the same bunch of masquerading guys that did those church massacres in Europe and the Middle East, isn’t it?”
Al knew that lying to a CIA therapist wouldn’t work and answered, “Yes, we believe they are connected, but you have to keep this quiet. The media hasn’t caught on yet.”
“The media will make the connection eventually,” Vance added. “But will probably pin this as a retaliatory attack.”
“This is bad,” Chris said. “This is going to lead to a full-scale religious war.”
At that moment, Al noticed that Dr. Zohar and the officer were gone. “Shit, where did she go?”
“You mean the doc that just left?” Chris asked.
“You know her?” Al asked, motioning for them to follow him outside the facility.
Once outside the main door, Chris responded, “Yeah, besides just casually bumping into her once in a while, she was in a class I taught about six months ago.” He paused a moment and continued, “I would guess that by now she should be finishing up her Ph.D.”
“In what exactly?” Al asked.
Chris thought about it for a moment and answered, “Not sure, but what is her involvement in this?”
“Don’t know yet,” Al replied.
“I remember now,” Chris suddenly said. “She was majoring in ancient languages or something like that. The old language department here is small, and that’s why I thought it was odd.”
“What’s odd about that?” Vance asked.
“Normally students at that level have taken my class or classes like it long ago.”
“Do your students know that you’re CIA?” Al asked.
“Absolutely not,” Chris answered, and then asked, “Why? You don’t think...?”
“Like you said,” Vance interrupted, “it was odd for a student at her level to take your class.”
Chris shook his head and said, “Okay, I get it. Give me about an hour and I will help tie up a couple loose ends. I’ll do a little snooping to find out why or who had her take my class.”
“It could be just a coincidence,” Al said, “but while you’re at it, see if you can quietly find out as much information about the organization that used that room you met us in. There is a missing doctor that the knights may have been looking for and from what Dr. Zohar said, had several meetings in there.”
“Yeah, I can do that. If nothing else, now I also want to know.”
Al nodded, “Good.” He wrote down his contact info and put Chris’s info into his PDA. “If you discover anything call me as soon as possible. If you can’t get ahold of me, contact Director Churchill immediately.”
Chris nodded. “Thanks, and if there is anything else, let me know how I can help.”
“Will do,” Vance said.