18

IT HAD BEEN THIRTY-TWO HOURS since Jack made the call to the Israelis, and his phone had remained silent since then. He and Espy had left the room only to get food. Jack was starting to wonder if the Israelis had decided to decline his offer, if the help he’d hoped for wasn’t coming. He said as much to Espy.

“They’ll be here,” she said. “You were right when you called their interest in Israeli artifacts a mandate to reclaim their cultural identity. Beyond the Ark of the Covenant and the Grail, I’d be hard-pressed to think of something more desirable than the bones of one of their most important prophets.” She frowned. “Well, I’m not sure they’d be interested in the Grail, but you get my point.”

“What about Noah’s Ark?”

“Alright, I’ll give you that one,” she said.

“Moses’s staff?”

“We already found that.”

“Not that one. The other one—the one he used in Egypt to bring down the ten plagues.”

“Maybe . . .”

“A salt shaker holding Lot’s wife?”

That last was met with a thrown pillow, and Jack found himself smiling for the first time in hours. He picked the pillow up from the floor and prepared to return fire when there was a knock at the door. Jack froze and shared a look with Espy. He tossed the pillow on the bed and went to the door. He didn’t see anything through the peephole, as if whoever was on the other side had pressed a finger up against the hole. He sighed and reached for the handle. Just before he opened it, he wondered about the possibility of it not being the Israelis, but then opened the door anyway.

The open door revealed two men, similarly dressed in dark pants and dark shirts. They were about the same height and build, and had the same hair color.

Without saying anything, one of them stepped forward, took Jack’s arm, and ushered him back into the room. Before the door shut behind him, the man was looking around the room. His eyes stopped at Espy, giving her the same clinical once-over, and then he turned his attention to Jack.

“I trust you’re ready to leave, Dr. Hawthorne?” He asked the question in a pleasant tone, but Jack knew that his answer meant nothing to the man.

“Suitcases packed,” he said.

Espy rose from the bed and joined them. There was a moment, the briefest instant, in which Jack saw something genuine on the Israeli’s face as the man watched her approach. Even after everything she’d been through, and the fact that she’d worn the same clothes for three days, there was a certain kind of beauty that was not easily hidden.

She gave the Mossad agent a warm smile.

“The understanding is that you will provide the information you promised,” the Israeli said. “In exchange, we will take you to Paris and provide sufficient funds for you to survive there for a week.”

As he spoke, Jack looked past him, taking in the second member of the team. He hadn’t moved since the moment he shut the door and turned around. What bothered Jack was how the Israeli was staring at him. Jack didn’t think he’d blinked even once the whole time.

“You get us to Paris and I’ll tell you whatever you want to know,” he said.

The Israeli shook his head. “You will provide the information first, and then we will fulfill our part of the deal.”

“But if I tell you now, what’s to keep you from walking out of here without us? My way, we get what we want and so do you.” The Israeli opened his mouth, but Jack beat him to it. “If we get to Paris and I don’t tell you what you want to know, you’re going to kill us. I think that’s pretty good motivation for me to talk, don’t you?”

As if to punctuate the question, Espy gave the Israeli a sweet smile.

The man stood there motionless for a while, his face revealing nothing. And just when Jack thought he might call the whole thing off and leave, he turned to his companion and extended a hand. The other man pulled something from his back pocket and handed it to his partner. “Please gather your things,” he said.

It took less than thirty seconds for Jack and Espy to do that, and Jack cast a sidelong glance at the Israelis when his hand hovered over the gun on the bedside table. Yet neither of them made a move to stop him, so he scooped up the weapons and slid them behind his back. When they’d gathered everything, the Israeli manipulated the thing in his hand, separating it into two things. He handed one to each of them. It looked like a stocking cap, one with no eyeholes.

“You will put these on before we leave this room,” the Israeli said. “You will not be allowed to remove them until we reach our destination.”

Jack caught Espy’s eye. He could tell she didn’t like this, but he didn’t see another option.

“I apologize for the inconvenience, Dr. Habilla-Hawthorne,” the Israeli said to Espy. “I’m sure you understand our need for secrecy.”

Espy seemed to appreciate the man’s attempt at kindness. She gave Jack a smile, then slipped the stocking cap over her head. Jack did the same and, in doing so, yielded control to two men he didn’t know, men who would kill him in a second if doing so met their needs. He decided not to consider that too deeply.

One of the Israelis wrapped a hand around Jack’s arm. He heard the door open and then he was led outside. They hustled him along quickly, Jack doing his best to manage the pain in his knee. He stumbled once, the knee shifting, but his escort caught him, propelling Jack forward. The Israeli pushed Jack into the back of a car, guiding his head. Espy came in after him; Jack could smell her shampoo. Soon they were being driven down the road. He reached over and felt for Espy’s hand. When he found it, he didn’t let it go for the next hour, not until the car came to a stop and he was once again being led through the open air.

After perhaps twenty paces, the same strong hand on his arm stopped him. The Israeli took Jack’s hand and placed it on a railing.

“There are six steps,” he said. “At the top, keep your head low and walk forward.”

Jack did as instructed, and when he’d reached the top and walked a few feet, another pair of hands grabbed him and turned him clockwise, then led him on a short walk. They guided him into a seat. As before, Espy took the seat next to him.

“I hope we’re in first class,” Jack said to no one in particular. Espy shushed him.

Jack wasn’t certain how long they were in the air. He thought perhaps three hours. During the flight, he didn’t hear a single word from anyone. There was no way to tell how many people were aboard. At some point he dozed off, and when he awakened, they were landing.

The next part was a blur. Jack and Espy were rushed from the plane, dumped unceremoniously in a car, and driven for at least an hour. Jack gave up trying to count distances and turns and simply sat back and let it all happen. When the car finally stopped, he and Espy were led up more stairs and through a door. Before it shut behind them, he heard city noises.

When the stocking cap was pulled from Jack’s head, the light made his eyes water. He blinked several times before he could make out the same two Israelis, as well as Espy, whose rapid blinking had to look a lot like his own.

The room was dimly lit and devoid of furniture save three chairs. There were no pictures on the walls, no potted plants. The lead agent—the only one who’d spoken—gestured to the chairs.

“Now it’s your turn,” the Israeli said.

The other man moved to the door, taking a position next to it, his eyes on Jack.

Jack moved to one of the chairs. Espy did the same.

“Even if you’re not the religious type, I’m willing to bet that you did your research before you got to Saint Petersburg. So my guess is you know about the story in Second Kings where someone tosses a dead body onto the bones of Elisha and the man comes back to life.”

The Israeli nodded. Jack suspected the man’s friend at the door hadn’t blinked since leaving Russia.

“As it turns out, Israelite priests took possession of the bones immediately after that. Then, in order to protect the bones—from what, I don’t know—they took them to Egypt.” He stopped and offered the man a crooked smile. “And that’s where things get interesting.”

Over the next hour, Jack told the Mossad agent all he’d promised and more. He told him about the Priests of Osiris and their guardianship of the bones through the ages. He told him about the power of the bones—power that he’d personally witnessed. And he told him about the underground cavern below Trubetskoy Bastion. At some point during the monologue, Jack wondered if anyone within the Israeli government was connected with the other organization. He decided it didn’t matter. His immediate aim involved more than giving the Mossad something in exchange for their assistance. His goal was to tick them off, to give them enough to make them want in. Simply put, he wanted them muddying the waters while Jack did what he needed to do next.

He knew the plan wasn’t without its risks. By revealing the secrets he’d uncovered to the Israelis, Jack was taking one more step toward ensuring continued enmity between the Priests of Osiris and his family. But what other choice did he have? The guardians of the bones had already demonstrated a desire to have him killed. In Jack’s opinion, there were no levels of antipathy higher than that.

Once he finished, the Israeli didn’t say anything for a long while. In fact, now that Jack thought about it, he was certain the man’s expression hadn’t changed the entire time.

“That’s an incredible tale,” the Israeli finally said.

“Incredible, yes. But also verifiable,” Jack said. “You can check names and dates. You can get someone into the Manheim estate in Australia to confirm the existence of the old display room. I’m certain they would have sealed it off by now, but the room will still be there. You can check the associations of Manheim and Chambers and see what connections you can find. But, most important, you can stick your finger in a hole in cell number seven of the Trubetskoy Bastion and win the chance to see a truly amazing piece of Paleo-religious history.” He paused. “And about a thousand dead people.”

Jack thought he saw his interrogator’s mouth turn upward just a hair. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking. Without a word, the man rose and pulled a phone from his pocket. When the other party answered, the agent said something short and ended the call. Jack glanced at Espy, but she shook her head.

Less than a minute later, the door opened and a new man walked in. He looked just like the other two except that he was heavier. He was carrying a duffel bag, which he handed to the lead agent. The agent set the bag on a chair and opened it. He began to pull out clothes, handing Jack a pair of dark trousers and a sweater. Digging in the bag again, the Israeli produced a pair of shoes. Jack took them with a nod of thanks.

Next, the agent pulled out clothes for Espy. “We guessed a size four,” he said as he handed them over.

Espy thanked him and accepted a similar pants-and-sweater combination.

Once again, the agent reached in the bag. “Here is ten thousand euros,” he said. He flipped through the bills and then set the stack on the chair. “I trust this will see you through your first week in Paris?”

“It’ll do,” Jack said.

Minutes later, he and Espy, wearing their new clothes, descended the steps and headed out into the Paris evening. Jack looked back only once to see a run-down brick building, trash strewn on the ground. A car pulled around even as Jack and Espy walked away. He suspected if he went back in ten minutes, no sign would remain of anyone having been there.

“You know they have a tail on us, right?” Espy said.

“If they want to follow us into the mouth of hell, they’re welcome to come along,” Jack said. “The more, the merrier.”

Espy’s eyed widened. “You want them involved?”

He turned and smiled at her. “Force the enemy to expend resources engaging another threat, and there are fewer resources to spare on us.”

Espy gave a nod, yet a hint of concern followed on its heels. “Aren’t you worried things will get too crazy, with too many players to keep track of?”

“Actually I’m not sure we have enough ingredients in the soup yet,” Jack said.

He didn’t elaborate, but instead raised a hand to hail a passing cab.