She looked up at a black night sky lit with an ocean of stars. A three-quarter moon floated over the horizon in the West, casting soft, silvery light on the bleak landscape, turning it into an Escher etching of dark angles and shadows that blended into each other. It was eerily beautiful.
"A lot of stars up there," Diego said.
His voice startled her.
"Yes."
"They look different in this part of the world. I used to look up at the sky when I was a kid and think about what it would be like to fly there in a spaceship. Out where I lived was away from the city lights. I had a good view."
"Colorado, right?"
"High plains. It was flat all the way to Wyoming, which wasn't that far. When I was a teenager I'd go to Cheyenne for the big rodeo."
"Did you want to be a cowboy?" Selena asked.
"Nope. I used to watch old black-and-white Westerns with my grandpa. I wanted to be the town marshal, like Wyatt Earp. Carry a pair of six shooters and corral the bad guys. In a way, I guess I got my wish."
"What do you mean?"
"An MP5 isn't a six gun but it'll do. Seems like there are plenty of bad guys to go after. I never thought I'd find myself doing something like this."
"I know just what you mean." Selena said. "Is your family still there?"
"Yeah. It's not the same as it used to be. With the water gone, the only crop is winter wheat and that's pretty iffy. My dad gets by doing a bunch of different jobs. He's good with horses and fixing things."
"I know you're not married. Is there anyone special back there? A girlfriend?"
"There was someone a few years back," Diego said. "She decided she didn't want to be married to a soldier."
"I'm sorry."
"Nah, it wouldn't have worked out. Last I heard she got married and turned into a real nag. Joining up was the best thing I ever did."
Selena closed her eyes. The next thing she knew, Nick's touch on her shoulder brought her awake.
A little before three in the morning the team lay outside Al-Bayati's campsite. Snores broke the chill silence of the night. Sleeping bodies were spread in a rough circle around the dying fire, the coals a deep, red glow in the darkness. There was one tent, a lightweight model meant more for privacy than comfort. Nick guessed that Al-Bayati was inside it.
The Land Rovers and the remaining Toyota were parked nearby with men sleeping inside them. One man stood watch, sitting on a flat rock. He had an AK lying across his lap and he was nodding, half asleep. He was also on the other side of the fire. One of them would have to work around the camp and come up behind him.
Nick checked his watch. It had taken longer than he'd planned to crawl through the moonlit rocks and juniper bushes to reach the campsite. There were six minutes left before the charge went off.
He tapped Ronnie on the arm, pointed at the sentry and made a slashing motion across his throat. Ronnie nodded and crawled off, another dark shape among the dark shadows of the bushes. Nick laid his sights on the sentry, just in case. He watched the man yawn and stretch.
Ronnie rose up behind him, wrapped his hand over the sentry's mouth and pulled back his head. At the same time he drew his knife across the throat. Blood fountained out, black in the light of the fire and the moon. The man made a wet, gurgling sound. His AK clattered against the rocks.
"Hey." One of the sleeping men sat up and grabbed for his rifle. Diego shot him.
Al-Bayati's men woke and scrambled for their weapons.
Inside the tomb, the C4 went off with a sound as though someone had struck an enormous drum. A tongue of yellow flame shot from the fissure and lit the night before it died away. The narrow passage wasn't big enough to relieve the pressure of the explosion. The force of the blast had nowhere to go inside the confined space. It slammed against the hollowed out core of the pillar.
The base of the column split open, sending a burst of jagged stone hurtling into the night. Pieces rained down on the vehicles in a metallic tattoo of rock on metal. A large rock struck Diego's forearm, knocking the rifle from his hand.
The gigantic column tottered and fell in on itself like a child's tower of building blocks. Hundreds of tons of rock cascaded down the hillside. Nick wrapped his arms around his head and made himself small and prayed none of the boulders would hit him or the others. The noise was like nothing he'd ever heard, a crashing and thumping and splintering as though the end of the world had come.
Somewhere in all the noise men were screaming.
Then it was quiet.
CHAPTER 36
Al-Bayati woke when a jagged chunk of rock ripped through the top of his tent and slammed into the ground next to him. The sound of an explosion echoed from the cliffs bordering the valley. An ominous, rumbling sound urged him out of the tent. He pulled back the flap and scrambled out as an avalanche of stone rolled over the campsite. A huge boulder bounced past inches away and crushed the tent he'd just left. The air was thick with dust and screams.
The sounds of falling stone died away. Someone moaned in pain. One of his men called out to Allah, his voice strange and wet. The cry ended abruptly in a strangled cough. An automatic rifle began firing into the camp. A second joined it, then a third.
An engine started up. One of the Land Rovers careened through the destroyed campsite and pulled to a hard stop beside him. Rhoades was behind the wheel.
"Get in."
Al-Bayati scrambled in as bullets struck the car. Rhoades jammed down on the accelerator. Ahead lay what was left of the second mechanical, crushed by the rockslide. Rhoades slid around it, straightened out and headed down the valley. More rounds smashed through the rear window. Then they were out of range.
Al-Bayati looked behind him through the opening left by the shattered glass. There were only two columns standing on the hill. The third was gone.
"What happened? Who attacked us?"
"I don't know who," Rhoades said. "They blew up one of the columns and it came down on the camp."
"But why?" As soon as he said it, Al-Bayati knew the answer. "The tomb. They must have found the tomb. Or at least something like it, the place described in the scroll."
Rhoades dodged a boulder in the middle of the dry riverbed. "Makes sense."
"Get us back to the plane. I can't do anything from here."
"What are you going to do?"
"Find out who they are and what they found. If they'd found Solomon's treasure inside that column they wouldn't have destroyed it. They would have to get the gold out of there and there hasn't been enough time for that."
"Then what was there? Why blow it up?"
"To hide something. They didn't want anyone else to know what was in it. It must've been something they couldn't move."
"Then the treasure is still out there somewhere," Rhoades said.
"That's right. That means we keep looking for it."
"There aren't any more scrolls to tell us where to look."
"No. Whatever was in that column was important enough that they had to destroy it so no one else could know what it was. It could be something about the true location. We'll find out who was there. Then we'll make them tell us."
Al-Bayati's face was ugly with anger. Rhoades had seen that look before.
I wouldn't want to be one of them when he finds them, he thought.
CHAPTER 37
A flying chunk of stone gashed Selena's scalp. Blood streamed down over her face and into her eyes. She couldn't see. Next to her, Nick fired into the camp. A few of Al-Bayati's men began returning sporadic fire. She wiped her sleeve across her eyes, raised her rifle and shot at blurred shapes running through the campsite.