Three (22 page)

“Well,” said Oliver, “no
amount of small arms training will be sufficient to protect me from the kind of
weapon we face here this Sunday, so I will have to be a field agent armed with
only my knowledge of these mad men and their final plans.” 

Robert Swift raised his eyebrows
in reaction to this reply, but did not comment.  “I’ll take you to the hotel
where you already have rooms, and I’ll bring the international team together later
this afternoon so we can begin to lay out a plan to find and capture these
three conspirators.  I must inform you, however, that Director Clark does not
want either of you to be directly involved in this final arrest of the three conspirators. 
He considers you to be walking wounded and says you should contribute only in
an advisory role.”

Maxine replied with sudden
anger.  ”We’ve come this far, and we damned well will see this fight through to
the end!”

“I’m sorry, but those are the
boss’s orders.”

Oliver then said, “Max, we
can only do what we’re capable of.  I think the director’s right; we are
walking wounded.”  He had made eye contact with Maxine and winked as he said
this.  He sensed she got his message, and she said no more, but displayed a
convincing pout.

After settling into their
rooms, Oliver and Maxine met in the lobby.  Oliver approached Max with a wry
smile.  “You didn’t think for a moment I’d back down at this final stage of our
search.  We may be bloodied, but we’re certainly not beaten.  We’ll find a
way.  But for now, let’s go shopping.”

They made their way into the
shopping area of this tourist section of Jerusalem.  They window shopped near
the Prima Royale until Maxine found the women’s shop that suited her needs. 
She told Oliver to check out the men’s store they had just passed while she
looked for light-weight clothes here.  After some time carefully searching the
racks, Maxine purchased light-weight slacks and an over-blouse that would be
inconspicuous and allow her to properly conceal her pistol.  As she was paying
for her purchases, Oliver entered the store already dressed in his new clothes
purchased at the men’s shop next door. 

“Good grief, Oliver!” she
exclaimed.  “With your scruffy beard you look like Bogie in ‘African Queen!’”
Oliver had purchased loose-fitting white linen pants and a loose-fitting white
shirt, oversized so as to cover his arm bandage.  He truly looked like a
tourist from the twenties.  “All you need’s a floppy white bill cap,” she said,
shaking her head. 

He replied, with a smug
smile, “They were out of my size.” 

“Here, hand me your cell
phone.”

“Are you calling all my
friends back in Chicago in order to humiliate me?”

“No, I don’t think a call
should be necessary,” she said as she hugged Oliver close to her, snapping a
quick selfie of the two of them with the city of Jerusalem as a backdrop, then
tossing his phone back to him.

“Max, do I really look that
silly,” he asked, rubbing his left arm now sore from Maxine’s hug?

“No comment.”

After lunch, during which Maxine
was still clearly amused by Oliver’s appearance, the two were contacted by
Robert Swift and asked to come to a conference room on the top floor of their
hotel.  In an hour they were to meet with the other agents and outline plans
for the apprehension of the conspirators.

Oliver and Maxine had time to
return to their rooms and freshen up.  At last Oliver had a chance to shave off
his four-day beard.  Meeting in the lobby they rode the elevator to the top
floor.  Maxine was again amused at Oliver’s appearance, this time for his
freshly shaved face.  They entered a rather large room with a conference table
suitable for the twelve of them, Oliver, Maxine, Agent Swift, and nine agents,
three each from intelligence agencies of the United States, Israel, and Jordan. 
Their places were set with small sweet cakes and cups of coffee.  Oliver thought
to himself,
if we’re the twelve, out to save the world, I just hope this
isn’t our last supper here in this upper room.
 

Robert Swift made the
introductions around the table and then asked Oliver to bring everyone up to
date.  Oliver stood, and presented the facts leading up to this moment and the
reasons he thought the Dome of the Rock was the target of this final act of
terrorism.

After hearing Oliver’s
report, including his careful outlining of the manner in which Benton Spencer
had used symbolism from the End of Days accounts found in the scriptures of the
three great religions centered in Jerusalem, a member of the Jordanian team
asked, “I understand why this Reverend Spencer may have allowed his rejection
as a minister, his loss of his church to the U. S. Government, and his hatred
of Peter Newbury to drive him to his hateful plans, but how could he have
attracted the other two men of entirely different faiths?” 

“I believe each of these
other two may have had his own disappointing losses,” said Oliver.  “Ibrahim
Gilani had been one of the top scientists of the Iranian nuclear program. When
the centrifuges were sabotaged, he was eventually sacked for not being vigilant
enough.  He must have been humiliated in front of his colleagues.  To add
insult to injury, his attempts to join the international scientific community,
where he had previously worked at CERN, were rebuffed because of his
association with the illegal refining of weapons-grade reactor products. ” 

A member of the Israeli team
then spoke. “You are right in your assessment of motive, because it also fits
the third conspirator.  We have identified the third member of this plot as a
commander of a Special Haredi combat team.  His name is Joshua Cohen.  He led
one of the most effective special-forces units in the Israeli army, until it
was suddenly disbanded. 

“Secret documents from a
military court martial have revealed that some of his soldiers were involved in
illegal tunneling at the Temple Mount and were arrested.  His involvement was suspected
but never proven, but he was stripped of his rank and command and banished by
his own community.  Again he must have felt he was unjustly accused as was
Gilani.  He must have been angry at the loss of his status as a defender of
Israel.  He has lived in self-imposed seclusion since the trial.”

Oliver asked, “Could Joshua
Cohen’s soldiers have opened a tunnel to the Well of Souls?”

“Definitely not.  All the
local residents fear the consequences of such action.  They would report the
first evidence of excavated rubble as they had when Colonel Cohen was brought
to trial.”

Oliver glanced at Maxine and
raised his eyebrows as he read her thoughts,
this third conspirator, Joshua Cohen,
may well have supervised the opening of a tunnel to the Well of Souls, and
hidden the evidence.
 “Are you certain Colonel Cohen or his followers have
not opened a secret tunnel to the Well of Souls?”

“The tunnel that was
discovered was poorly executed and only led a few meters.  There was no chance
these young soldiers could have succeeded.”

As the discussion of the
three conspirators came to a conclusion, plans were made for the deployment of the
nine agents, along with Swift, in and around the Dome of the Rock immediately after
evening prayers and the closing of the Mosque.  They would bar entry into the
Mosque during the night and hopefully capture one or more of the conspirators
as they tried to enter.  Max and Oliver would check out the Western Wall and
other areas less likely to provide entry to the Dome of the Rock and maintain regular
contact with Robert Swift. This time Maxine would use her cell phone and text silent
messages to Swift and the Mosque patrol. 

At sundown Joshua Cohen worked
his way through the darkness near the Wall to the locked entrance near the
Struthion Pool access.  He used a pair of bolt cutters to remove the padlock
and entered the inner passageway to wait for the others.  In a few minutes he
heard the approaching footsteps, followed by the three knocks signifying either
Ibrahim Gilani or Benton Spencer had arrived.  Opening the door Cohen met
Spencer who was carrying his heavy package and a small duffle filled with
overalls for digging through the narrow passageway to the Well of Souls. 
Within a few minutes they were joined by Ibrahim. 

Once within the Struthion
Pool, they pulled on the light green coveralls provided by Spencer.  They began
opening the hidden tunnel at the back wall of the pool.  Breaking through the
plaster of the carefully disguised entrance to the old, rubble-filled viaduct
was easily accomplished using the bolt cutters as a hammer.  To their frustration
they realized the tunnel was not an open arched passageway, like the one they
had just entered from the Wall, but was only a small opening.

Centuries ago this passageway
had been completely filled with rubble.  The opening of this tunnel was a
clandestine operation in which the removal of rubble had to be done in such a
way that was completely undetectable.  This meant that rubble was stored in any
small spaces which could be found at the very tops of the viaducts running off
to one side or the other of the passageway being opened. Those who had recently
cleared this passageway had to remove only enough stones to provide a small
space through which one person at a time could crawl.  Therefore the three
would have to move forward into this tunnel on their stomachs, carrying the
tools they would need to breach the final stone wall that closed the access to
the Well of Souls. 

Joshua led the way, having
seen a hand-drawn map of this illegal excavation project that had been going on
for over five years.  Each man had to crawl on his stomach, using his elbows
and thighs to propel himself forward.  Slowly the three made their way over the
rubble, pushing their tools ahead of them.  The trip was painful and
exhausting. The narrow tunnel, with a rough stone bottom, led east into the
Temple Mount for some distance before it met a north-south junction.

 The branching tunnels were
all filled with rubble removed from the new excavation except for the one
leading north.  This tunnel ran about the same distance as the first until it
again came to a junction.  Here all the tunnels were filled with fresh rubble
except the one that again ran east.  It continued until it terminated in a
small room that had been cleared in order to allow the three of them to stand. 
There was a wall on the east side of this space that had been made to appear
like natural stone but was in fact carefully crafted masonry.

It took a while for them to
catch their breath and overcome their exhaustion from the difficult crawl.  By
working carefully and quietly, the three removed the stones one at a time until
an opening was formed.  This opening, located next to the Abraham altar in the
Well of Souls, was enlarged enough to allow easy entry.

They listened quietly for any
sound coming from the darkened mosque above.  Hearing nothing, Spencer
whispered, “We now stand in the most holy place in the universe: the place of
final judgment against a world of sin.”

The three then made the
difficult trip back down this narrow tunnel, leaving their tools, and retrieving
the parts of the nuclear weapon.  For a third time the long and painful crawl
through the narrow tunnel was negotiated by the three men, this time struggling
with the three heavy cases.  By eleven o’clock, two-and-a-half hours after they
had begun, the three were again in the Well of Souls, silently assembling the
components of the terrible device by the faint light of a portable reading
lamp.

As this underground activity
had been going on, above ground the security teams moved into hidden positions
around the outside of the mosque in order to secure all the entrances.  Oliver
and Maxine made their way to the Western Wall where they began at the north end
of the Wall Tunnel, since that was where the main entrance lay.  Finding all
entrances closed and locked and nothing suspicious, Maxine texted a message to
Agent Swift stating they were now moving southward along the wall.  Swift
answered indicating the remaining ten team members had concealed themselves
around the Mosque and had it secured.  Maxine and Oliver discovered a few
possible entry points at out-buildings, but all were secured and locked and
showed no signs of tampering.

When they reached the last
entrance, Maxine immediately noticed, in the light of her pocket flashlight,
that the padlock on this maintenance door had been removed.   “Oliver, over
here; someone has cut a lock to gain access into the wall tunnel.”

There were tool marks on the
hasp where a pair of bolt cutters had been used.  Maxine and Oliver immediately
entered the tunnel leading to the Struthion Pool and found the bolt cutters and
digging tools lying next to the newly opened passage. 

Oliver whispered, “The tunnel
that’s been opened is an aqueduct filled almost to the top with rubble.  If
this is how the three have entered the mosque, we’re going to have to crawl on
our stomachs in order to reach them at the Well of Souls.”

As Oliver contemplated the
painful crawl through this narrow, rubble-strewn tunnel, Maxine texted Agent
Swift of their find and indicated they were going to move into the tunnel.  However,
their location, a short way under the Temple Mount, prevented her message from
reaching the agents in the mosque. 

Seeing no reply to her text, she
decided to move into the tunnel.  It was getting close to midnight, and if
Oliver was right, the beginning of Trinity Sunday may well be the planned
detonation time.  They had no time to wait for instructions.