Elizabeth was at her desk, reviewing the latest intelligence reports from the Middle East. Burps pawed at her leg.
"I can't tell you what I'm doing. You're not cleared for it. No, I don't have any food for you," Elizabeth said. "Go see Stephanie. Better yet, go outside."
She got up and opened the door to the garden. "Shoo." She pointed.
Burps looked at her. "Mrrow," he said. He looked offended and stalked into the garden. Elizabeth shut the door.
You were talking to a cat, she thought, telling him he wasn't cleared. This job is getting to you.
Stephanie came into the room.
"Iran just told Israel not to go into Lebanon," Elizabeth said. "They're ramping up the rhetoric."
"That's predictable."
"Yes. And Lerner is turning into a real hard liner. No more Mister Nice Guy. He really wants to stay on as Prime Minister."
"What did he do now?"
"He warned Tehran that they've reached the limit of Israeli patience. Any overt moves on the part of the Iranians to aid Hezbollah will be considered an act of war."
Stephanie considered that. "What's Rice doing?"
"Pressuring the Iraqi government to deny permission for Iranian over flights. Tehran is beginning to supply Hezbollah from the air."
"Good luck with that," Stephanie said. "That so-called government in Baghdad is another disaster waiting to happen."
"Why Stephanie," Harker said. "How can you be so critical of one of our few democratic friends in the area?"
"With them for friends, we don't need any more enemies."
"Since Iranian flights have already started, I have to agree with you."
"What's Lerner doing about Hezbollah?"
"Getting ready to unleash the IDF on them. Russia and China have called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. The song and dance is starting."
"You're just full of good news today, Elizabeth."
"Actually there is some good news. Selena thinks she's located the Ark. Or at least a possibility of where it might be."
"Which is?"
"In England, in a church. They're going after it tonight."
"I'll believe it when I see it," Stephanie said.
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
St. John's was the kind of picturesque English church that found its way onto postcards. It was set in the countryside about a mile from the nearest village. Ronnie parked away from the building, by a graveyard filled with old, tilted monuments and markers. A bright moon cast shadows from the ancient stones.
The church was large, the stone walls gray and solid in the moonlight. The main part of the church was a long rectangle with a peaked roof. A tall, square bell tower rose at the end. An arched vestibule jutted out halfway down the side, flanked by pairs of narrow stone windows with diamond panes. A row of similar windows marched the length of the church along the roof.
The rectory was a separate building set off to the side. A path led to it from the church. The windows of the rectory were dark, the door shut tight against the night.
A pair of arched wooden doors led into the vestibule. The lock looked old, the kind of lock that opened with a heavy iron key. The doors were reinforced with iron straps and black iron hinges. Iron rings were mounted on each door. Ronnie grasped one and gently pulled. The door moved.
"It's not locked," he said.
Nick's ear was itching. "Something doesn't feel right."
"Nobody knows we're here," Selena said. Her voice was quiet. Her heart was pounding. She took a deep breath, another.
"Yeah. Lock and load," Nick said.
The guns came out. Nick nodded and Ronnie pulled the door open.
The vestibule was twelve feet deep and twice again as wide. A closed oak door led from the vestibule to the church. Nick eased it open and signaled the others to wait. He stepped into the church.
The interior was dim, quiet, lit by moonlight coming through the windows and a pair of fat candles burning on two high brass candleholders at the front. The roof was braced with a tented cross work of thick wooden rafters and beams, all of it supported by massive round columns of stone. From where he stood, the front of the church and the altar was to his left. A tall wooden pulpit reached by a narrow, spiral stair rose on the right of the altar, where the sermon would be read over the heads of the congregation. Behind it was the empty choir.
Marble plaques with the names of men fallen on one of England's many battlefields lined the walls. Rows of plain wooden pews took up both sides of a central aisle. A cross was set on the wall behind the altar.
There was something wrong. It took Nick a moment to realize that the altar was askew. It should have been placed at the end of the nave in the center, parallel to the congregation. But it was crooked, as if it had been moved. It was a solid rectangle of dark wood. There should have been things on it, a cross, candles, but it was bare. A white cloth lay crumpled on the floor beside it.
Nick's ear began to burn. There was a muffled cough from somewhere inside the church.
"Hit the deck!" he yelled.
Nick dove for the floor. Gunfire erupted from behind the altar and the pulpit. The rounds blew sharp splinters out of the door behind him. Automatic weapons opened up from the other end of the building, shattering the pews in front of him. Nick wriggled backward into the vestibule. Shots came from outside the church, thudding into the heavy wooden doors and ricocheting from the stone.
They were pinned down.
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
Elizabeth and Stephanie watched a live satellite feed of the war taking shape in the Middle East. The Israeli Defense Force was poised at the border with Lebanon, set for a full blown assault. Naval units were positioned to bombard Sidon on the coast. Troop movements could be seen clearly on the satellite feed. Hezbollah was moving rocket batteries into position. Elizabeth knew they had Iranian missiles hidden somewhere in the hills.
On the West Bank, Israeli troops were already pouring through the checkpoints and pushing hard for the camps. The Arab world was in an uproar. The UN Security Council was in emergency session. There were mass demonstrations in Iran, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt.
"I think Lerner will go all the way to Beirut," Elizabeth said. "He'll secure the south below Sidon first. That will eliminate the rocket bases. Then he'll try to force a settlement that drives Hezbollah out of the country. On the West Bank, he's going for the '67 cease fire line."
"The border with Jordan. What's Syria doing?"
"Making a lot of noise, mostly. They're still enmeshed in their civil war. There isn't much they can do."
She picked up her pen, set it down. "Rice has put the subs on DEFCON2 and held everyone else for the moment at DEFCON3. He doesn't want to send the wrong signals, but he's worried. Russia and China have raised their alert levels as well. If someone makes a mistake it could go out of control fast."
"What about that Iranian nuke?"
"That's the wild card. We don't know where it is, or what they're planning. We don't have a lot of assets in Iran. They've gotten first-class at counter-intelligence and they don't like spies."
The cat was outside, pawing at the garden door.
"Burps wants in," Stephanie said.
"Leave him out there. He's an outdoor cat, Nick said."
"Speaking of Nick, have you heard from them yet?"
"No. I don't expect to until after they've checked out that church. It should be anytime, now."
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
Selena fired at movement in the churchyard and heard a cry. "Three out here," she yelled. She saw a man run toward a large mausoleum. She fired again, two rounds. The dark shape fell to the ground. "Make it two."