She nodded and slipped her pistol from her belt pack.
The street opened onto a large square surrounded by low hills. A white mosque with a tall minaret dominated one of the slopes. Shops, houses and stalls lined the sides of the square. Yellow signs and green banners with Arabic writing hung from the buildings.
They moved into the square. The driver slammed on the brakes and had his door open and was out and running before Nick could react. A white Volkswagen burst into the square from the street on Selena's side of the car. A blue Toyota pickup came at them from the street ahead. A van entered the square behind them.
People began running away.
It wasn't a good sign.
"Out!" Nick yelled.
He rolled out of the car. The Volkswagen sped toward them. Someone leaned out and opened fire with a machine pistol. Selena ducked down. The bullets shattered the windows of the taxi and sprayed fragments of glass over the pavement. She wormed her way across the back seat and dropped onto the ground next to Nick. Someone with an AK reached out of the passenger window of the Toyota coming at them. Nick fired three quick rounds. The windshield starred and the man snapped back in his seat. His gun went flying. The Toyota kept coming.
Nick entered the zone.
Everything slowed to a crawl. He could hear Selena firing at the Volkswagen, the sound rhythmic, steady, muffled as if underwater. Nick aimed at the windshield of the Toyota coming at him and began squeezing off rounds. He watched the barrel of his pistol rise with each shot, the slide come back, the ejected case float through the air. He heard the flat sound as each bullet hit the windshield. The pistol locked open.
The Toyota veered left and plowed through a fruit stall and rammed into a house. The front end crumpled. A tongue of flame shot out from underneath. Then the gas tank exploded in a sudden orange cloud of flame. Bits of melon and wood and glass and metal rained down on the square.
Time sped up again. Selena slapped in a new magazine. Bursts of automatic fire came from the white Volkswagen, stopped fifty feet away. The taxi rocked from the impact, echoed with sharp, metallic sounds. Two tires blew out. The car dropped hard to the right. The van from behind bore down on them. Nick reached for a fresh magazine. They were out of time, with no place to hide.
Someone leaned out of the van and sent a long burst into the Volkswagen. The windows exploded. A red mist covered the inside of the windshield. The van braked next to them and a side door flew open. A man called Nick by name.
"Carter. Get in. Now." Another man inside the van fired past him at the Volkswagen.
"What…?"
"We're friends. Get in!"
Another truck with shouting gunmen entered the square. Nick jumped into the van, Selena right behind him. The driver pulled into a tight U turn and headed out of the square the way they'd come in.
The man who'd spoken said something in a foreign language to the driver. Then he turned to Nick. "They're coming after us. Stay down, we'll handle it."
The second man lifted an assault rifle with a grenade launcher under the barrel. Nick pulled Selena down on the floor. The rear doors banged open against the side of the van. The grenade shot out the back and straight at the front of the oncoming truck. Nick saw the driver's face go wide with fear as he saw it come straight at him. Then it exploded and the truck was in flames. The sound echoed along the narrow street.
They drove away, a column of black smoke rising behind them. One of the men leaned out and pulled the doors shut. Nick sat up against the side of the van.
"Jesus," he said.
"Maybe not," Selena said. "They're Israeli. That was Hebrew he spoke."
"You are correct, Doctor Connor." It was the man who had shouted at Nick. He wore a yellow shirt.
"You were at Mount Nebo," Nick said.
"Yes. Someone would like to talk with you."
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The van pulled into an abandoned factory on the southern edge of the city. Holes in the floor marked where machinery had been bolted down. Rusted barrels were stacked high in one corner. Light shone on scattered debris through gaping holes in the roof.
The man with the yellow shirt said, "This way."
"Who are you?" Nick said.
"Please, this way."
They followed him up a flight of metal steps into what had been the manager's office. Their footsteps echoed across the empty space. Broken windows looked out over the deserted factory floor. Inside the office was a battered metal desk with a man sitting behind it.
"Ari!" Nick said. "What the hell are you doing here?"
Ari Herzog was a senior operative in Shin Bet. Shin Bet was Israel's invisible shield, like the FBI and NSA combined, responsible for internal security and counter-terrorism. Nick knew him from Jerusalem, two years before.
Herzog stood. "Waiting for you, Nick. As usual, things are interesting around you." He reached out and clasped Nick's shoulder and shook his hand. "You look the same. It is good to see you, my friend."
"And you." He turned to Selena. "Selena, this is Ari Herzog. A friend from Israel."
"Nick told me about you."
"A pleasure, Doctor Connor. Please, sit," Herzog said.
Herzog wore a white shirt that looked comfortably worn. He wasn't wearing a tie. A dark blue jacket with wide lapels hung loose enough to reveal a shoulder holster and the butt of a Jericho 9mm pistol. He wore black pants and plain black shoes. Herzog's eyes were dark, intense and tired looking, his face lined by stress and years of responsibility.
"It's good to see you too, Ari. Thanks for bailing us out back there. But why have you been following us? I spotted your man." He gestured at Yellow Shirt.
Herzog ignored the question. "That's Lev," he said. Lev had the grace to look embarrassed. "This is Aaron and Gabriel." He gestured at the other two. Gabriel had fired the grenade. They nodded. Both men had the look.
"You haven't answered my question, Ari. Why were you following us?"
"Because you are searching for the Ark." The words hung in the air between them. "We know about the death of the French bookseller and the manuscript."
Something clicked in Nick's mind. "You thought we might lead you to it."
Herzog nodded. "I was picked to contact you because we worked together before. I did not expect trouble so soon, but trouble seems to follow you." He smiled to show he was only half serious.
"Who came after us in the square?"
"Thugs hired to eliminate you. We suspected something might happen. Others are also looking for the Ark."
Nick's head felt as though someone had begun to tighten a band around it.
"I don't suppose you'd like to tell me who sent them?"
"We don't know for sure. The desk clerk tipped the gunmen off that you were leaving."
Nick felt his blood pressure rising. A headache started. He's not telling me something. What the hell is going on?
"You were letting us do the work for you and take the risks. Did you plan to let us in on this, Ari?"
Herzog looked down at his fingernails. When he looked up again, Nick saw he was now talking to Shin Bet and the Government of Israel. Ari might be a friend but his country came before friendship.
"What have you learned, Nick?"
"I think we'll call Director Harker," Selena said, "before we tell you anything."
Nick had been so focused on Herzog that he'd almost forgotten she was there. He looked at her.
"You didn't see fit to warn us that someone might come after us," she said to Herzog, "warn your friend." Herzog winced at the way she said it.
She turned to Nick. "We shouldn't tell him anything without talking to Elizabeth. Call her. Assuming we're not prisoners here."