"We could narrow it down some," Selena said.
"How so?" Nick asked.
"The scroll says to follow in the steps of Moses. What did Moses do on Mount Sinai?"
"He went up to the top. That's where God is supposed to have given him the Ten Commandments."
"Right. So let's do what Moses did and climb to the top."
Ronnie gestured at the base of the mountain a few hundred yards away, where the slope looked shallow enough to climb.
"We could start over there and make our way up."
"I think I'll wait down here," Miriam said. "That breakfast didn't sit too well. I feel a little sick."
"Would you like me to stay with you?" Friedman said. His voice was solicitous.
"I'll be fine Alan. You don't need to worry about me."
"You're sure?"
"Yes."
"Watch for snakes on the way up," Rivka said.
"What snakes?" Selena asked.
"We have poisonous snakes, Vipers. They're really nasty. Then there are scorpions. There are two bad ones in this region, the Deathstalker and the Southern Man Killer."
"Sounds lovely."
"Spiders, too. I don't think we'll see a Black Widow out here but you might run into a Mediterranean Recluse. That one can kill you, and there's no anti-venom for it. Be careful where you step and don't go reaching under any rocks without looking."
"Now I'm really glad I'm staying down here," Miriam said.
"I'll stay with the vehicles," Gideon said. "There's no one else around at the moment, but it's early. There will be tourists, sooner or later."
"Okay," Nick said. "Let's go. It can't be too difficult to climb. If Moses could do it, so can we. We should be back down in a few hours."
They set off toward the spot Ronnie had pointed at and began the climb. Gideon and Miriam watched them until the path they followed took them out of sight.
Miriam gestured at the rocks scattered about. "I think I'll wander around and look at some of these carvings."
"I'm going to hang out in one of the vehicles. Enjoy yourself."
Gideon walked to one of the trucks and climbed in. He leaned back in his seat and pulled his cap down to shade his eyes.
Miriam walked into the desert. When she thought she was far enough from the truck, she took a satellite phone from her belt pack and punched in a number.
"Yes."
"Hassan, it's me."
If Gideon had been nearby, he would've recognized the language she was speaking as Farsi.
"What is your status?"
"They are climbing the mountain," Miriam said. "One of the Jews stayed behind to guard the vehicles."
"How long will they be gone?"
"My guess is about three or four hours," Miriam said.
"Is anyone else present? Tourists?"
"No."
"The Americans have been identified. They are spies who have caused us much trouble in the past. It has been decided to eliminate them."
"Shouldn't we continue to let them lead the way and do the work for us?"
"Are you questioning your orders?"
"No, of course not."
"We have the same information they do. We will find it ourselves."
"What do you want me to do?"
"Eliminate the Jew. We'll be there in twenty minutes."
Hassan disconnected.
Miriam was neither Jewish nor American. Her real name was Ayala Farshid, and she'd been born in Tehran. Her father had been one of the first to join the Revolutionary Guard. Ayala thought of herself as a patriot, a sword of Allah.
She'd been inserted into the Museum in New York because Friedman was an important figure in the American Jewish community, well-connected. People told him things, wrote to him, solicited his advice. Her assignment had been to collect information about the upcoming Jewish World Conference. She assumed there would be an attack on the conference and that many would die. It bothered her not at all. As far as she was concerned, a dead Jew was a good Jew. It was Ayala who had passed on the information leading to the theft of the scroll and the death of the museum guard.
After today, she could stop pretending to be one of the people she hated. After today, she could return to being herself. Perhaps she could even go home. But first there were things that needed to be done.
She put the phone away and walked casually back toward the vehicles. It was beginning to get hot. Gideon was dozing in his seat, his hands clasped in front of him, his hat pulled low.
This is too easy, she thought.
When she was a few steps away, she reached into the pack on her belt. This time she took out a folding knife. The blade made a soft snicking sound as she opened it. The sound registered somewhere in Gideon's awareness. He opened his eyes wide and reached for his pistol, but he was too late. Ayala drove the gleaming blade deep into the side of his neck and twisted, cutting through the carotid artery. Blood fountained out from the gash. Gideon convulsed and gagged, still trying to reach his pistol. Then he slumped forward onto the dashboard and died.
Ayala stepped back and wiped the blade on Gideon's shirt. Blood ran down the side of the seat and under the door, dripping down onto the desert.
It always surprised her, that the body contained so much blood.
She reached in through the window, moved Gideon's body back against the seat, and pulled his hat down over his eyes. It looked as though he was sleeping. She rinsed a little blood off her hands with water from her canteen and waited for the others.
CHAPTER 19
The view from the top of the mountain was worth the climb. The Negev was desolate and barren, but it had an indescribable beauty that was unlike any desert Nick had ever seen. It wasn't rolling sand, like the empty wastes of the Sahara. It wasn't like American deserts, flat with the occasional tree or cactus, nor like the flat, yellow wastelands of Afghanistan. The Negev was rugged and worn, like the face of an old man, filled with colors that changed with every passing cloud, sculpted from the hard earth by millennia of weather.
They hadn't found the second marker. After two hours of fruitless examination of every rock in sight, Nick called it off.
"If the marker is on this mountain, it's not here at the summit," he said.
"I have to agree with you," Friedman said. "I think we would have found it by now."
"Must be almost lunch time," Lamont said. "Are we heading back down?"
Nick nodded. "I don't see any point in staying up here."
Selena stood looking down at the desert spread out below. She could see where the vehicles were parked. Some distance away from them was a flat, smooth area.
"We started climbing without thinking about it much," Selena said. "Take a look down there and tell me what you see."
Nick and the others came up and stood next to her.
"Nice view," Ronnie said.
"Look over there." She pointed. "You see that wide flat space, a hundred yards or so to the right of the cars?"
"What about it?" Nick said.
"Moses had a lot of people with him, right?"
"That's right."
"So where did they camp? Where we started from, the ground is uneven and rough. But that area over there seems almost as if it's been picked clean of rocks. It would be an ideal place for hundreds of people and their animals to put up their tents, or whatever they had."
"I see what you're thinking," Friedman said. "Moses would've climbed up the mountain from wherever it was they pitched camp. If they camped on that flat spot, we should look for a way down to it, a natural trail."
"That's right. If the marker isn't up here, maybe it's on the trail Moses used."
"Following his footsteps," Ronnie said.
"Yes," Selena said.
"It's still a crapshoot," Nick said. "There must be half a dozen ways down this mountain."
"Not really," Selena said. "It gets pretty steep and there's a lot of loose rock. It would be hard to climb up in most places. We need to look for a way down to that flat space that follows the natural contours without getting too steep."