Three (21 page)

On the way back up the
runway, David noticed the makeshift smudge pots and immediately realized what
they were. 
How to make lemonade out of lemons,
he thought to himself,
as he watched the child-like dancing in the flickering light amid this winter
darkness.  He was suddenly struck by an image of the miracle of the oil for the
altar lamp when the Second Temple in Jerusalem was cleansed and rededicated in
165 BC following the Maccabean Revolt.  As a child on winter solstice, he had
celebrated Hanukkah with singing and dancing and children’s games.  In all
those years, since his early childhood, he had never been filled with the true
Joy of God’s miracle of the oil as he was at this moment. 
This is a true
Festival of Light.

And after the earthquake a fire;

But the Lord was not in the fire:

And after the fire a still small voice.

-
I Kings 19:12

After he had waved to David
and watched the LC-130 lift off from the Christchurch field on its way to
McMurdo, Oliver scratched his scruffy, three-day beard and looked at his wristwatch. 
He suddenly realized it was not Wednesday, but Thursday, the 12
^th
of
June.  Their flight from the U. S. had taken them over the International Date
Line on the way to New Zealand. 

“We’ve even less time than I
thought,” he said out loud to no one in particular. 

Maxine walked up to the
tarmac with her luggage and placed it next to Oliver’s.  “How’s the arm?” she
asked. 

“The bleeding’s stopped, but
it hurts.  Fortunately the muscle was not too badly injured, and I may be able
to walk around without this sling in a day or two.  By the way, I’m going to
have to buy some loose-fitting, cool clothes when we get to Jerusalem.  It’s
going to be hot there, and I want to cover this bulky bandage on my arm.  None
of these heavy winter clothes will do.  We’ll both have to do some quick summer
shopping upon arrival in Israel.”

“I agree, we’re going to have
to look like tourists on this sensitive mission.  And Oliver, once you get your
arm out of that sling, you should shave.  We certainly don’t want to attract
attention to ourselves.”

Oliver noted Maxine’s somber
mood had lifted somewhat after yesterday’s tragic events.  They boarded the
aircraft when the fueling was completed and the pilot had done an extra-thorough
walk-around.  Oliver’s pain medication had made him drowsy, and Maxine had
noticed his sleepiness even before they entered the aircraft. 

“You sleep while I fly the
airplane,” she said, pulling a blanket up over him as he reclined in his seat.  

He replied, “Max, you just
saved my life back there, I trust you completely.” 

For the first time since the
deadly gun battle, she gave him a warm smile.  Oliver felt relieved, knowing
she was now beginning to relax following this attack.  He knew the two of them
would be working closely together in Jerusalem as they faced their most
dangerous challenge yet.  This next mission would require a calm and rational
approach he was sure Max was capable of, but which he was only now beginning to
see in her demeanor.

The G450 rose from the
Christchurch field and began the long flight across the Tasman Sea and North
Australia to Malaysia.  Maxine took the first turn at copilot so Oliver could
rest.  After six hours, when the pain medication had worn off, Oliver awoke
with a stiff left arm; but once he stood and moved around, the pain was no
worse than before.  Maxine had left the cockpit and was again thumbing through
the Bible Oliver had earlier pulled out of his bag.  “I can’t find any reference
to  ‘Foundation Stone’ in the Bible.  What and where is it?” 

“Jerusalem was already very
old city when the Temple of Solomon was built on a hill, around 960 B.C.  The
central part of the temple, the Holy of Holies, was built upon the ‘Foundation
Stone’, where it is believed Abraham stood with knife in hand preparing to
sacrifice his son.  Jews and Christians believe this son was Isaac, and Muslims
believe it was Ishmael.  All see this stone as the foundation of their faith,
the origin of their people. 

“After the Temple of Solomon
was built, this stone became the resting place for the Arc of the Covenant,
within the Holy of Holies.  Over the centuries the original temple was
destroyed and rebuilt.  After the Second Temple was destroyed in the first
century by the Romans, this place of worship was reconstructed by Muslims as
the Dome of the Rock.  For some period of time this mosque, built around the ‘foundation
Stone’ of Abraham, was Islam’s most holy place, even surpassing Mecca in
importance.

“Today, the Western Wall is all
that’s left of the old Jewish temple and is regularly visited by Jews as the
place now closest to the Holy of Holies, the center of the old temple, now denied
to them because it’s the center of the Dome of the Rock.  There’s an
underground cavern some call the Holy of Holies that is now an attraction near
one end of the Western Wall.  They call it that only because it is as close as
they are allowed to get to the true one.  You can visit it by walking through
an excavated tunnel, part of the old viaduct.” 

“I thought all excavation
under Temple Mount was stopped by the authorities to prevent more
Israel-Palestine tension.”

“It has been, but this access
was opened a century ago and does not lead far beneath Temple Mount.  I did
hear of some rumors indicating illegal excavations have been carried out by
unknown parties to open up those tunnels that run under the Dome of the Rock. 
Since the holiest of rocks, ‘The Foundation Rock’, sits upon the Well of Souls,
many have sought access to it over the years believing it is connected to an
ancient network of water viaducts that run underground throughout the old city. 

“During the crusades The Dome
of the Rock became the headquarters for the Knights Templar as they provided protection
for Christian pilgrims visiting Jerusalem.  There’s a set of twelve steps, created
a thousand years ago by the Knights Templar, leading into this underground room
about the size of my I&A office.  Few have access to this entrance since it
lies within the Mosque.” 

“Could a tunnel have been
secretly opened from the Western Wall to the Well of Souls?”

“It would have to be
carefully hidden, but it’s possible.  We’ll have to find out for ourselves.”

The conversation about this
location, and possible time of the final meeting place for the conspirators,
continued as the flight swept across Australia on autopilot.  Oliver pulled his
calendar from his note book and began marking down the days upon which each of
the attacks had occurred trying to find a pattern.  As he was staring at this
small calendar book his eyes fell across the page of notes upon which it was
resting.  There were his notes containing that peculiar Sanskrit line from the
Bhagavad Gita:  “I am become death, the destroyer of worlds”.  According to
David Benjamin, this line was quoted by Robert Oppenheimer at White Sands, New
Mexico, at the first atom bomb detonation.  He had code named this first atom
bomb test ‘Trinity.’ 

Suddenly he exclaimed,
“Sunday!” so loud Maxine dropped her copy of the Bible.  “This coming Sunday, June
15, is Trinity Sunday; now it all falls together.  We have to find the three
before this coming Sunday, and we may have to break some civil and religious
laws in the process.  We must contact I&A and suggest that they bring
together a group of agents who are Christian, Jewish, and Muslim who can
effectively assist in the apprehension of these three men in a manner that does
not desecrate this holy place or attract any public attention.  Not only must
these three be stopped, but it must be done in such a way the world is
unaware.  If any word ever got out about this intended act, assuming we can
stop it, it could result in violent acts between the zealous members of any of
these great religions, each holding the other responsible.”

During the refueling stop in
Malaysia, Oliver had contacted Director Clark in Washington and spelled out the
plan to stop this final act in a twisted morality play conceived and directed
by Benton Spencer. 

Clark replied, “Robert Swift
is already in Jerusalem meeting with three members of our embassy there and is
expecting to meet you when you arrive.  In the meantime, I will ask him to work
on finding the right agents from the internal affairs programs of Israel,
Palestine, or Jordan.  You will be able to meet with them after you arrive at
your hotel and brief them on what you’ve learned about this plan.  The Israeli
intelligence office has informed us that if each of the three conspirators
carried a third of the weapon’s plutonium in a shielded suitcase, he would not
trigger airport or border-crossing detectors.  You must assume that a weapon is
already in place and armed.” 

Since leaving Christchurch,
Colonel Joshua Cohen had not heard from his team in New Zealand and feared they
had been captured or killed.  He had made his way back to Jerusalem by way of
Beirut where he had met with Ibrahim and obtained his third of the device of
final judgment.  Not knowing if the attack on the Dark Sector Lab had been
foiled, as had been the one at CERN, he had contacted Spencer and Gilani.  He
warned them to assume they were being hunted by the forces of evil.   They
should take all possible precautions as they approached Jerusalem.

In order to avoid recognition
and possible arrest, Joshua had moved from his former apartment to a small
hotel on the other side of Jerusalem.  Now attired, not in the traditional
black of the Haredi, but a normal suit and tie for the Sabbath, he prepared to
make his way to the Wailing Wall and then to the Sephardic Synagogue nearby. 
He had shaved his beard and would speak only Ladino as he walked across the
city.  It was not lost to him that Emilio Segre, one of the physicists involved
in the Trinity detonation, was a Sephardic Jew, his new disguise.

Joshua planned to visit the
Struthion Pool and verify that the forbidden tunnel entrance, now carefully
sealed and hidden, was undisturbed.  He knew the other end of this tunnel would
open into the Well of Souls when the last foot of rubble was broken away from beside
the altar of Abraham.  He would then be able, for the first time, to stand
beneath the Foundation Stone, the true Holy of Holies of the Second Temple.

For centuries this resting
place for the Ark of the Covenant had been defiled by unholy visitors.  Only
the anointed Levites were granted access to this part of the temple, and now God’s
wrath would be felt in the final judgment.

Benton Spencer had already
assumed he was being hunted and had changed his appearance by dying his hair a
dark brown and changing his clothes to appear like a typical American tourist
seeing the Middle East for the first time.  Joining a tour bus of Christians,
he had made his way from Jordan into Israel, carrying his lethal luggage.  He
had checked into a hotel in Jerusalem near the Western Wall to wait until
sundown on the Jewish Sabbath. All access to the Western Wall tunnels would
have been closed, but Joshua would have cut the lock to a small service
entrance near the south end of the Wall.

From this location the three
would be able to access the tunnel to the Struthion Pool.  They would have to
carry out some excavation and removal of rubble before gaining access to the
Well of Souls.  Once there the assembly of the device would take the remainder
of the night.  They would be ready for the final judgment on Trinity Sunday
Morning.

Ibrahim Gilani had been able
to make his way into Jerusalem through Palestine with little trouble but had
also taken precautions to change his appearance.  By careful application of
make-up, he was now an elderly Palestinian who would soon be on his way into
the Jewish section of the city through one of many undiscovered tunnels.  The
three, each carrying his part of the device, would find one another at the
unlocked entrance at eight o’clock that evening.

Before leaving Iran Ibrahim
had copied the computer virus and had also obtained a miniaturized nuclear
weapon.  When he finally reached Damascus, he had carefully disassembled it at
his apartment into its components, splitting the plutonium shell into three
equal pieces.  The plan to smuggle each part of this weapon into Jerusalem in
pieces small enough that the radioactivity would be undetectable had now been
carried out.

 Ibrahim had not yet met Joshua
Cohen, the third member of this force against evil, but he knew he was a devout
member of the Haredi sect of Judaism, the only Jews Ibrahim thought of as
“People of the Book”, as devout in their worship as he was in his.  He knew it
was Joshua who had examined the radiation detection system at the airports and
other points of entry into Israel, and had assured Spencer that their final
mission could be carried out.  Joshua had been the commander of a Special
Forces platoon within the Netzah Yehuda Battalion, now disbanded.  He had a
pair of specially trained fighters who had already begun the first phase and
were probably now carrying out the next and final attack on the “Dark Sector
Lab.” 

The details of each of these
three attacks had been carefully worked out during the past year by the three
of them, but the overall pattern was carefully set by Reverend Spencer to
follow a specific apocalyptic pattern to insure that it would be consistent
with prophecy.  Ibrahim was unaware of the outcomes of the attacks on CERN and
the Dark Sector Lab, but was certain the three would prevail against evil and bring
about the “New Jerusalem.”

Benton Spencer had indicated
he would provide coveralls and gloves for the heavy work of clearing the
tunnel.  Excavation tools had earlier been placed inside the hidden tunnel. 
The overnight work would be dirty and difficult before they even got to the
Well of Souls.  They would then have to overcome their fatigue in order to assemble
carefully the nuclear device he had disassembled weeks before.

As Oliver and Maxine left the
G450 at the Jerusalem airport, carrying only that part of their luggage needed
here in this hot climate, they were met by Robert Swift.  “Agent Phillips, it’s
good to see you again.  Your good training has shown itself in the defense of
the LC-130 and in stopping those two terrorists.  As for you, Oliver, I warned
you that you are not a field agent.  You are lucky you had Miss Phillips by
your side and were just winged in that deadly shoot-out.”