CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Selena held Burps in her lap. His hind leg was wrapped in a bandage. He purred and drooled on her jeans past his one front tooth.
"He's still weak," Nick said. "The vet said he'd probably been lying there for a few days without food or water. Might have been a dog that got him. It took 20 stitches to put him back together. He's full of antibiotics, too."
"He's getting old," she said. "It was only a matter of time before something caught him. What are we going to do with him? He can't stay here, he's a Tom. Once he recovers he won't be happy inside like this."
She was right. In California, Burps had been king of the woods around Nick's cabin. He'd lived in the open all his life.
"I couldn't leave him in California, he would have died. I was thinking he could live at the Project. Lots of room outside, mice to chase, a fence to keep the dogs away. Trees to climb, if he wants. Kind of a perfect cat retirement home, if you ask me. We owe him. It's why I brought him back East."
As if he knew what they were thinking, the cat looked up at Selena with half-open eyes and gave a loud, contented belch.
"That would work." She looked at him. "What's the matter? You've got that serious look you get sometimes."
"I've been thinking about what you said. About seeing someone. I made an appointment with a counselor for tomorrow afternoon."
"You did?" She was surprised. She hadn't thought he'd do it.
"He's on a list of people with security clearance. He specializes in PTSD and he was in Afghanistan. That's one reason I picked him. I couldn't talk to someone who hasn't been through it. They wouldn't understand."
As Selena petted the cat, she felt uncertainty twist in her gut. Things are going to change. If he goes to the first appointment. If he keeps going. She wanted him to go. Things couldn't go on like they had been, she was certain of that. But no one could predict what it would stir up.
She'd have to wait and see.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
A spiral staircase behind a three inch steel door led down into the Project operations center. Except for the lack of windows and the absence of external noises, the room could have been anywhere in the normal world. The walls were painted a light peach color. Soothing landscapes hung on the walls, Selena's doing. The ceiling was high and light, painted off white. The room felt comfortable and spacious. In essence, it was a luxury cave.
Nick, Ronnie, Selena, Lamont and Stephanie sat at a table facing a wall monitor displaying a large map of Saudi Arabia. Stephanie had a keyboard and laptop in front of her, linked to the Crays in the other room.
North of Saudi Arabia lay Iraq and Kuwait. The northwest was bordered by Jordan and the tip of Israel. West was the Sinai Peninsula and Egypt. South was Yemen. After Yemen came Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. On the west lay the Red Sea and on the east, the Persian Gulf. Iran was not far away.
Nothing but trouble, Nick thought.
"Here's the problem," he said. "All we've got is speculation and guesses. People have been looking for the Ark for a long time. Some of them looked in Saudi Arabia and no one's ever found anything that matters. We can pick a volcano, but we might as well throw darts at the map. It's a waste of time without knowing more. Any ideas how we should proceed?"
"If we knew the route Moses took, we might be able to pin down the mountain where he got the Commandments," Ronnie said. "He didn't have the Ark before that."
"You're assuming the story in Exodus is true, or at least based on facts."
"We have to start somewhere."
Selena said, "No one knows the route, just that the Exodus started in Egypt. The Israelites head east and God parts the waters of the Red Sea."
"How come this mountain is supposed to be in the Sinai?" Lamont asked. "They wouldn't need to cross the Red Sea to go there."
"Depends on where they started from," Selena said. "If they started in the south of Egypt, they might have crossed it. It's possible they started from an area northeast of modern Cairo. If that's true, they wouldn't need to cross the water. The story about the Red Sea could be just that, a story to illustrate God's power and protection."
"You know," Nick said, "the more I look at this map, the less I buy the idea the Ark is in Saudi Arabia. Put yourself in Moses' shoes."
"Moses didn't wear shoes," Lamont said. "He wore sandals."
Selena rolled her eyes. "What are you thinking, Nick?"
"Moses had thousands of people following him. Women, kids, animals, whatever they could carry."
"Go on."
"If you're Moses, you want to get out of Egypt as quickly as possible. Look at the map. What's the best route?"
"East," Ronnie said. "Due east."
"Right. So the Israelites head east. If they start north of Cairo they don't need to cross the Red Sea. There were trade routes back then, people knew where things were and they knew how to get from one place to another without getting lost. There's no reason for Moses to enter what's now Saudi Arabia. That means Mount Sinai can't be an Arabian volcano. Selena, where's the traditional location?"
"In the south of the Sinai Peninsula, near the tip."
"Why would they go there?" Ronnie asked. "That's completely out of the way. It doesn't make sense."
"Forty years wandering in the desert, right? Isn't that what happened?" Lamont said.
"The forty years was after Moses went up the mountain," Selena said.
"We're getting off the track," Nick said.
Selena took a sip of water from a bottle. "It would make sense to follow one of the trade routes from Egypt. That way there would be known quantities, like water and shelter, firewood, things like that."
"I can show the routes," Stephanie said. "Give me a minute."
She entered a few keystrokes. Colored lines in purple, green and black appeared on the map.
"Those are the main routes at the time of Moses. The top line is called the Way of the Philistines," she said. "The Bible says they didn't go that way."
"Take it out," Nick said. "If we're going to use the Bible as a guide we have to be consistent."
She entered a command and the purple line disappeared. That left the green line and the black one. The black line wandered down the western edge of the Sinai peninsula to Mount Sinai and up again, until it crossed the third route in green.
"We've already decided the traditional Mount Sinai isn't going to give us much. Let's go with the idea Moses took the shortest way," Nick said. "If that's right, then we can take out the black line and the traditional mountain. Go ahead, Steph."
She moved her mouse, clicked. The black line disappeared.
"The green route heads into Jordan," Stephanie said.
"Are there any volcanoes on that route?"
"Doesn't look like it." Stephanie pressed keys. "Nope."
"Dead end," Lamont said.
"All right." Nick rubbed his forehead. He had another headache coming on. "We're not going to Jordan or anywhere else without better intel."
He looked at his watch. His first counseling appointment was that afternoon.
"Everyone go home, clear your head. I'll tell Harker where we're at. Steph, see if you can find anything on that green route that matches the biblical story. Meet back here at 0800 tomorrow."
Nick rode back with Selena to D.C. Her Mercedes still had that new car smell of leather and wax. Better than the smell of the car was a hint of the perfume Selena wore.
"What's that scent you're wearing?"
"You like it?" She smiled. He loved it when she smiled. "It's called Baccart Les Larmes Sacrees de Thebe."
"That's a mouthful."
"It's supposed to invoke the mystery of ancient Egypt. The perfume comes in a bottle of Baccarat crystal."