‘We’re in the middle of a desert! How can you possibly know that?’
‘Because when a twenty-million-dollar helicopter gunship crashes and explodes, the people who own it usually want to find out what happened pretty sharpish. And I doubt shooting at a pregnant archaeologist, a Mossad agent and an ex-president was an officially sanctioned mission.’ He looked at Jared. ‘How far away’s its base?’
‘Ovda? About thirty kilometres,’ the Israeli replied.
‘So I bet you there’ll be another chopper here in the next ten minutes.’
‘Hopefully not another gunship,’ said Nina. She drew in a sharp breath as Eddie finished working on her wound, then carefully sat up and regarded Dalton. ‘So while we’re waiting, Mr President, I think we should talk about Cross. Now that he’s tried to kill you, it’s safe to assume you aren’t best buddies any more?’
‘You’ve got that right,’ Dalton growled. ‘That son of a bitch! He used me!’
‘Matthew chapter seven, verse fifteen: “Beware of false prophets”,’ said Nina, to his annoyance. ‘He doesn’t care about your political rehabilitation, and he never did. He just saw you as a means to an end, a way to bring about the apocalypse. So maybe now you should stop thinking about how to protect him and start thinking about how to save your own ass.’
‘Not much point getting back into power if the world ends five minutes later,’ Eddie pointed out.
‘If you tell us where Cross plans to release the angels, I’ll do everything I can with the UN, Interpol and the US and Antiguan governments to explain that you helped us try to stop him,’ Nina said. ‘If you don’t, and Cross succeeds…’ Her expression hardened. ‘I’ll let you twist in the wind by your balls as you’re brought up on charges of terrorism and mass murder. Good luck with your immunity deal, Mr President.’
Worry was clear in Dalton’s eyes, but he still jutted his jaw in defiance. ‘I’m not going to be intimidated into making deals. I was the President of the United States, not some two-bit police informant!’
Eddie advanced upon him. ‘If I chucked him off the cliff, do you think anyone’d really care?’
Dalton took a worried step backwards, but before he could respond, Jared looked around sharply. ‘Quiet,’ said the Israeli. ‘I can hear something.’
Nina picked it up a moment later. ‘Sounds like a helicopter.’ In the distance, she heard the thrum of rotor blades.
Eddie gave Dalton a last threatening glare, then started towards the entrance. ‘Be careful,’ Nina called. ‘They might shoot first and ask questions later.’
‘I’ll be ready to run, just in case!’ He looked down the valley.
The burning Apache had left an unmissable marker of its position: a column of dirty black smoke. He leaned out of the ravaged chasm to scan the sky, quickly spotting the dark dot of an approaching helicopter. To his relief, it had the rounded profile of a transport aircraft rather than the narrow, angular shape of a gunship.
It took the chopper a few minutes to reach the crash site, circling overhead before descending into the valley. It was military, an Israeli Black Hawk in pale desert camouflage. It appeared unarmed, but all branches of Israel’s military were ready for combat at a moment’s notice, so Eddie decided to play things with care. He moved to the centre of the opening, waving both arms above his head.
The Black Hawk slowed to a hover, one of its side doors sliding open. A man inside stared at him through binoculars. Eddie changed his signal, spreading both arms and holding them up in a Y-shape to indicate that he needed help — and also to make it plain that he was not holding a weapon. The helicopter’s passenger looked back down at the wreckage, but it was obvious there was nobody alive in the flaming tangle of metal. Brief discussion with the pilot over his headset, then the man made an exaggerated thumbs-up gesture and the aircraft came about to head for the clifftop above.
The Englishman returned to the others. ‘They’re landing,’ he announced. ‘Jared, you do the talking. It’ll be better to have a Mossad agent tell ’em what’s happened rather than the bloke who just shot down one of their Apaches with a handgun…’
Members of the Black Hawk’s crew descended into the ravine on ropes to be given Jared’s account of events; unsure how to take it, and especially confused by the presence of a former world leader, they settled for lifting the injured out on stretchers before taking them back to their base at Ovda. Even without knowing any Hebrew, Nina and Eddie could tell that the crew were deeply suspicious of their passengers and their involvement in the loss of their commander’s aircraft, but it was also clear that the relatively junior military officers and men aboard did not want to tangle with the Mossad. One of Jared’s first requests — or demands — was for a field telephone, which he used to contact his superior in Tel Aviv.
That same superior arrived at the base by helicopter as the sun set two hours later, meeting its new acting commander before both men strode into the hospital ward where the rescuees were being kept under guard. ‘Sir!’ said Jared as they entered, jumping to his feet even with his injury and snapping to attention.
Eli Shalit was a small, thin man with prominent cheekbones and a bristling moustache. He waved a hand for the agent to sit back down, then cast his intense gaze over the room’s other occupants. ‘Dr Nina Wilde and Edward Chase,’ he said. ‘Welcome to Israel. And you too, Mr President,’ he added, with a distinctly dismissive nod at Dalton.
‘You know who we are?’ Nina asked.
‘Jared told me on the telephone, but I had also read his report on the events of four months ago, when he was seconded to the Criminal Sanctions Unit. Israel is very grateful to you both for helping to eliminate that nest of Nazis.’
‘Our pleasure,’ said Eddie, a little sarcastically.
Shalit gave him a cynical smile. ‘I know that you are not a great fan of the Mossad. But that does not lessen our gratitude. Now.’ He put his hands behind his back. ‘We have a situation, I believe.’
‘You could say that,’ Nina told him. ‘There’s a religious maniac about to unleash chemical weapons because he thinks that bringing about the apocalypse will let him learn all of God’s secrets. That’s definitely situation-y.’
‘Indeed it is.’ The Mossad official’s gaze went to Dalton. ‘Mr President, your presence here is causing some… trouble, shall we say, in our government. You had important friends here — I mean, have friends, of course,’ he corrected, in a way that suggested the slip was by no means accidental — ‘who saw to it that you were able to enter our country incognito, who provided you with help, resources… only now, I am told by one of my best men,’ a nod at Jared, ‘it seems that you are connected to an act of terrorism in the Caribbean, and to the madman who intends to carry out more of these acts. What do you have to say, Mr President?’
The colour had visibly leached from Dalton’s face; nevertheless, he drew himself up to stand tall and arrogant before the Israeli. ‘First, I would point out that I am in no way responsible for any of the acts carried out by an individual with whom I had the misfortune of being acquainted before I realised his true intentions—’
He paused at Nina’s disbelieving cry of ‘What?’, then continued: ‘Second, I would also point out that as soon as I realised these intentions, I disassociated myself with this individual and have done everything in my power to help track him down and prevent further loss of life.’
Nina almost laughed at his sheer gall. ‘You are so full of shit! If it wasn’t for you, none of this would ever have happened.’
‘We made an agreement, if you recall,’ Dalton pointed out. ‘I give you information about Cross’s plans, and in return you make it unequivocally clear to all the relevant authorities that I helped you try to stop him. You were the one who offered that deal, Dr Wilde. I agreed to it, so I expect you to honour it. And your husband too,’ he added, with a warning look at Eddie.