WASHINGTON, DC
5:45 AM
STEPHANIE WATCHED AS LARRY DALEY COLLAPSED INTO ONE of the club chairs in Brent Green’s study. True to his word, the deputy national security adviser had arrived within half an hour.
“Nice place,” Daley said to Green.
“It’s home.”
“You’re always a man of few syllables, aren’t you?”
“Words, like friends, should be chosen with care.”
Daley’s amicable smile disappeared. “I was hoping we wouldn’t be at each other’s throats so soon.”
Stephanie was anxious. “Make this visit worth our while, like you said on the phone.”
Daley’s hands gripped the overstuffed armrests. “I’m hoping you two will be reasonable.”
“That all depends,” she said.
Daley ran a hand through his short gray hair. His good looks projected a boyish sincerity, one that could easily disarm, so she cautioned herself to stay focused.
“I assume you’re still not going to tell us what the link is?” she asked.
“Don’t really want to be indicted for violating the National Security Act.”
“Since when did breaking laws bother you?”
“Since now.”
“So what are you doing here?”
“How much do you know?” Daley asked. “And don’t tell me that you don’t know anything, because I’d be really disappointed in you both.”
Green repeated the little bit he’d already related about George Haddad.
Daley nodded. “The Israelis went nuts over Haddad. Then the Saudis entered the picture. That one shocked us. They usually don’t care about anything biblical or historical.”
“So I sent Malone into that quagmire five years ago blind?” she asked.
“Which is, I believe, in your job description.”
She recalled how the situation had deteriorated. “What about the bombing?”
“That was when the shit hit the fan.”
A car bomb had obliterated a Jerusalem café with Haddad and Malone inside.
“That blast was meant for Haddad,” Daley said. “Of course, since this was a blind mission, Malone didn’t know that. But he did manage to get the man out in one piece.”
“Lucky us,” Green noted with sarcasm.
“Don’t give me that crap. We didn’t kill anybody. The last thing we wanted was for Haddad to die.”
Her anger was rising. “You placed Malone’s life at risk.”
“He’s a pro. Goes with the territory.”
“I don’t send my agents on suicide missions.”
“Get real, Stephanie. The problem with the Middle East is the left hand never knows what the right is doing. What happened is typical. Palestinian militants just chose the wrong café.”
“Or maybe not,” Green said. “Perhaps the Israelis or the Saudis chose the right one?”
Daley smiled. “You’re getting good at this. That’s exactly why we agreed to Haddad’s terms.”
“So tell us why it’s necessary for the American government to find the lost Library of Alexandria?”
Daley applauded softly. “Bravo. Well done, Brent. I figured if your sources knew about Haddad, they’d deliver that tidbit, too.”
“Answer his question,” Stephanie said.
“Important stuff is sometimes kept in the strangest places.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s all you’re going to get.”
“You’re in league with whatever is happening over there,” she declared.
“No, I’m not. But I won’t deny there are others within the administration who are interested in using this as the quickest route to solving a problem.”
“The problem being?” Green asked.
“Israel. Bunch of arrogant idealists who won’t listen to a word anybody says. Yet at the drop of a hat they’ll send tanks or gunships to annihilate anyone and anything, all in the name of security. What happened a few months ago? They started shelling the Gaza Strip, one of their shells goes astray, and an entire family having a picnic on the beach is killed. What do they say? Sorry. Too bad.” Daley shook his head. “Just show a shred of flexibility, an ounce of compromise, and things could be achieved. No. It’s their way or no way.”
Stephanie knew that, of late, the Arab world had been far more accommodating than Israel-surely a result of Iraq, where American resolve was demonstrated firsthand. Worldwide sympathy for the Palestinians had steadily grown, fed by a change of leadership, a moderation in militant policies, and the foolishness of Israeli hard-liners. She recalled from the news reports the lone survivor of that family on the beach, a young girl, wailing at the sight of her dead father. Powerful. But she wondered what realistically could be done. “How do they plan to do anything about Israel?” Then the answer came to her. “You need the link to do that?”
Daley said nothing.
“Malone is the only one who knows where it is,” she made clear.
“A problem. But not insurmountable.”
“You wanted Malone to act. You just didn’t know how to get him to do it.”
“I won’t deny that this is something of an opportunity.”
“You son of a bitch,” she spat out.
“Look, Stephanie. Haddad wanted to disappear. He trusted Malone. The Israelis, the Saudis, and even the Palestinians all thought Haddad died in the blast. So we did what the man wanted, then backed off the whole idea, moved on to other things. But now everyone’s interest is piqued again and we want Haddad.”
She wasn’t going to allow him any satisfaction. “And what about whoever else may be after him?”
“I’ll handle them as any politician would.”
Green’s countenance darkened with anger. “You’re going to make a deal?”
“It’s the way of the world.”
She had to learn more. “What could possibly be found in two-thousand-year-old documents? And that’s assuming the manuscripts survived, which is unlikely.”
Daley cast her a sideways glance. She realized that he’d come to keep her and Green from interfering-so maybe he’d throw them a bone.
“The Septuagint.”
She found it hard to conceal her puzzlement.
“I’m no expert,” Daley said, “but from what I’ve been told, a couple of hundred years before Christ, scholars at the Library of Alexandria translated the Hebrew Scriptures, our Old Testament, into Greek. A big deal for the day. That translation is all we know of the original Hebrew text, since it’s gone. Haddad claimed that the translation, and all the others that followed, were fundamentally flawed. He said the errors changed everything, and he could prove it.”
“So what?” she asked. “How would that change anything?”
“That, I can’t say.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“In this instance, they’re the same thing.”
“He has remembered His covenant forever,” Green whispered, “the word which He commanded to a thousand generations, the covenant which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac. Then He confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, ”To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion of your inheritance.“”
She saw that the words genuinely moved the man.
“An important promise,” Green said. “One of many in the Old Testament.”
“So you see our interest?”
Green nodded. “I see the point, but I question its ability to be proven.”
She didn’t grasp that, either, but wanted to know, “What are you doing, Larry? Chasing phantoms? This is crazy.”
“I assure you, it’s not.”
The implications quickly became real. Malone had been right to chastise her. She should have immediately told him about the breach. And now his son was in jeopardy, thanks to the U.S. government, which apparently was willing to sacrifice the boy.
“Stephanie,” Daley said, “I know that look. What are you planning?”
No way she was telling this demon anything. So she drank the dregs of humiliation, smiled, and said, “Precisely what you want, Larry. Absolutely nothing.”