“Nabil!”
His brother looked up and stumbled, but caught himself before he fell.
“What is it?” he said between his teeth.
“Up on the cliff...” Achmed turned to look and saw that the upper edge of the cliff was now empty. The sentinel figure had vanished.
“What?” Nabil said, the irritation mounting in his tone. “Finish what you begin!”
“Nothing.”
“Then why are you standing there like a blind camel? Move! We’ll take these back to the donkey then search the cave for more.”
They had just reached the donkey and were laying their treasures in the sand when Achmed heard something. He lifted his head and listened. A low hum. No...a pulsating thrum.
“Tayya’ra!”
Nabil leapt into motion. “Quickly! The scrolls! Bundle them up!”
They pulled the blankets they had brought, wrapped the urns in them, then slung them over the donkey’s back.
“Let’s go!”
“What about the metal?” Achmed cried.
“Forget the metal! We have a far greater treasure! But if the Israelis find us, they’ll steal it! Hurry!”
With Nabil pulling from the front and Achmed again switching from behind, they drove the donkey down the bank and across the wadi. As they slipped around the leading edge of the outcrop, the sound of the helicopter grew louder.
‡
“It could be anywhere down there,” the copilot said.
Kesev stared below, watching the bright beam of the searchlight lance the darkness and dance along the peaks, plateaus, and crevasses that dominated this area of the Wilderness. They had been running a crisscrossing search pattern for thirty minutes now.
“I think we can be pretty sure no one was hurt by this thing,” the pilot said after a few more minutes of searching. “Maybe we’d better put this off, come back when it’s light and—”
“Keep going.” Kesev was getting the lay of the land now. “Follow this canyon south.”
Out of the corner of his eye he saw the pilot and copilot exchange glances and discreet shrugs, but neither challenged his authority.
The canyon widened below them, and then the search beam picked up white wisps trailing through the air.
“Smoke!” the copilot cried.
Kesev pointed. “It exploded on the canyon floor.”
He released a soft sigh of relief. A glance to his left at the top of the east wall of the canyon reassured him that the Resting Place was untouched.
Close, he thought. Too close.
And then he remembered that the canyon floor had its own secrets.
“Swing the light around,” he said. “See if we can find the point of impact.”
It took less than a minute.
“There!” the copilot said. “At two o’clock. Looks like it took out part of the cliff wall too.”
Kesev went rigid in the seat. The SCUD crater was right where the cave had been—still was. Had the explosion—?
“Take us down.”
“Sir, we’ve accomplished our objective,” the pilot said. “We’ve found the impact sight and determined that there’s been no personal injury or property damage, so—”
“Land this thing now,” Kesev said softly, just loud enough to be heard over the engine noise, “or you’ll spend the rest of your career working a broom handle instead of that joystick.”
The pilot turned. For a heartbeat or two he stared at Kesev from within the confines of his flight helmet, then took the copter down.
As soon as the wheels touched earth, Kesev was out of his harness. He pulled off his flack jacket—he didn’t need it, had only worn it because of regulations—and reached for the hatch handle.
“Stay here and train the search beam on the crater. This will take but a minute.”
He opened the hatch and ran in a crouch through the hurricane from the whirling blades, following the path of the search beam. He cursed as he neared the crater he saw that the cave had been exposed by the blast. What abysmal luck!
On the other hand, how fortunate that he’d obeyed his instincts and come along to check this out. As a result, he was first on the scene. He could prevent this minor mishap from escalating into a catastrophe. He skirted the edge of the crater and stepped over the rocks tumbled before the cave mouth. Whoever was working the search beam back in the copter was doing a good job keeping it trained on him. The cave lit up before him.
That was when he noticed the footprints.
Panic clamped his heart in an icy fist as his gaze ranged wildly about the cave.
Empty. But in the dust on the floor...sandalprints...two sets...one larger than the other...the old chair—reduced to dust...the urns...
The urns! Gone! No, not completely. Fragments from one lay scattered in the dust.
How could this be? How could a pair of thieves have come and gone so soon? So swiftly? It wasn’t possible!
And yet the fresh footprints reminded him that it was indeed possible.
The urns...what had they held? It had been so long, he could barely remember. Anything of value? Old shekels? He didn’t care about losing little bits of gold or silver. What he did mind was word of the find getting out and causing archeological interest to center on the area. That could prove extremely dangerous.
But what had he put in those urns? He prayed it was nothing that might reveal the secret of this place. He racked his brain for the memory. It was there, just out of reach. It—
The scroll!
Dear Lord, he’d left the scroll in one of those urns!
Kesev staggered in a circle, his breath rasping, his heart beating wildly against the inner surface of his sternum as his vision blurred and lights danced in his vision.
He had to get it back! If it fell into the hands of someone who could translate it—
He leapt from the cave and ran back to the helicopter.
“Give me a flashlight! A canteen too.” When the copilot handed them out, Kesev jerked a thumb skyward. “Return to base. I’m staying here.”
“That’s not necessary, sir,” the pilot said. “The inspection team will be here at first light and—”
“Someone’s already beat us here. Probably picking up scrap metal. I’ll stay on and make sure they don’t come back and disturb anything else.”
Kesev was back outside, stepping clear and waving them off. He couldn’t see them inside the cabin, but he was sure the two airmen were shrugging and saying, If the crazy little man from Shin Bet wants to stay in the middle of nowhere until morning, let him.
Kesev watched the copter rise, bank, and roar away into the night. As the swirling dust settled on and about him, Kesev stood statue still among the stunted olive trees and listened... for anything. For any hint of movement that might lead him toward the thieves. But all he heard was the ringing aftermath of the helicopter’s roar. His hearing would be of little value for the next quarter hour or so.
He walked back to the cave. He had to look again, had to be sure he’d seen those footprints, be absolutely certain the urns were gone.
He searched the cave inch by inch, poking the flashbeam into every nook, corner, crack, and crevice. And as he searched he pounded the remaining furniture to rotted splinters; the same with the remnants of bedding against the rear wall; he systematically shattered anything that might hint that the cave had ever been inhabited by a human being. He took the crumbled remnants of the furniture and pulverized them under his heels, then he kicked and scattered the resultant powder, mixing it with the fine dust that layered the floor.
Satisfied that he’d made the cave as uninteresting as possible, he pocketed the broken fragments of urn, then went outside and cried silently to the sinking eye of the moon.