getting to that device dictates that this be a military recovery operation.'
'What in the hell are we, rent-a-cops?' Everett asked angrily.
'Captain, you are not aware of the pressures we have building here. I was not about to add to the president's burden by arguing the point any more than I have.' They saw Niles force himself to calm down. 'Look, he knows what kind of a job you two did at Pearl; if it wasn't for that, he would never have fully realized the importance of this device the Coalition seeks. The Security Council would feel better having a Special Operations team sent in with Professor Leekie.'
Jack knew there was no use in trying to argue the point. He took a deep breath to calm himself because he thought that Niles had more than likely fought hard and lost the argument with the president.
'Jack, have you heard of a Major Marshall Dutton?'
'Jesus,' was all Jack said as he lowered his head.
'Who is he, Jack?' Carl asked.
'A career officer who's by the book and very, very, predictable. Niles, didn't they learn anything by having the FBI blown to hell and watching a SEAL team get decimated by these people? We're dealing with an element that knows how to do one thing particularly well, and that's killing.'
'I know, but I can't sit here and argue with the Security Council about the classified details of our Group's security element and their prowess.'
'The woman in Hawaii--she's not going to let us just waltz into Ethiopia and take the item they desperately need,' Jack said as he looked around him and then back at Niles, on the monitor. 'She's going to be there, Niles. Ethiopia isn't large enough to hide a bunch of Americans out digging in the sand.'
'Colonel, this Major Dutton is being briefed on enemy capabilities. The situation outside of the actual dig is out of our hands.' Niles looked around him as if he were a conspirator in a grand scheme. Then he faced the camera and raised his left eyebrow.
Alice smiled from her place at the table. 'Pay attention here. I know that look,' she whispered.
'Colonel Collins, during the formal request for the dig, the president spoke to Vice President Salinka of Ethiopia, who granted our request on the spot. He cited the deed you and your vacationing revelers pulled off by saving those students on the Blue Nile. He requested during the meeting that you come back to Ethiopia and receive his personal thanks for saving the life of his only daughter, Hallie. So, I am ordering a forty-eight-hour stand-down period for rest and recuperation for Captain Everett, Mr. Ryan, Mendenhall, and you. I figure you could go fishing again. Perhaps the same spot where you caught your last big one.'
Collins and Everett turned away from the monitor and left the conference room without another word.
Virginia crossed her arms and looked at the screen. 'I'm beginning to think you're picking up bad habits from those two.'
'I haven't a clue as to what you're referring to. Now, I have to go, the North Koreans have just sent five more divisions south from Pyongyang.'
With those words the monitor went dark, and with it the good feeling Virginia had about Niles and his subterfuge. Time was in short supply and the Coalition and North Koreans controlled the clock.
Dr. Leekie and her team of four Event Group specialists guessed the age of the ruined mosque at close to twenty-three hundred years. The once-great minaret and tower were but a ghost of the former structure, having fallen into the sands many hundreds of years before the founding of America. The foundations and walls that remained upright allowed the wind to howl through them with soft moaning sounds.
There were aspects of the mosque that confused the professor. The surviving walls had been constructed around the time of Christ, plus or minus a few hundred years, she estimated. However, the foundations were much older. Leekie could not say how old they were because they were built in a style she had never seen before. They were not Roman or Greek and certainly not Egyptian.
'Not much to look at, is it?' Ryan asked, lying prone between Jack and Carl as they watched through binoculars from a rise of sand.
'Not much,' Everett mumbled in answer, gazing at the professor down below, about a quarter of a mile away.
Professor Leekie was taking measurements inside the ancient mosque with the help of two of her archaeology team and Will Mendenhall, whom Jack had snuck onto the team as an archaeological assistant. The Ethiopian laborers hired by the professor for the dig stood watching from under a date tree
'I have to tell you, Jack, I sure hope you're wrong on this one. The way that Major Dutton has his men deployed, they're very exposed. Mendenhall keeps looking around and he doesn't look too happy.'
Collins lowered his binoculars and glanced at Everett, but hesitated as he noticed Ryan in his new desert wear, complete with zinc oxide on his nose and a blue baseball cap with a white kerchief attached to the back to protect his neck from the sun. Jack shook his head and then raised the binoculars again.
'Mr. Ryan, since you're dressed for it, go a thousand yards to our rear and watch the desert to our back. If Dutton won't deploy his men properly, we will.'
Ryan turned and looked at the vastness of the wasteland behind him with a frown. 'What desert?' he joked.
Leekie was just rolling up a tape measure when Major Dutton and his platoon leader approached.
'The laborers are going to have one hell of a time digging through this sand. I would have expected better soil for a burial spot,' Leekie said as she shaded her eyes and looked at the stern countenance of Major Dutton. 'Are you sure you have the coordinates my people gave you correct?'
'In my line of work, miss, reading a map is fundamental,' answered Dutton as he looked away.
'It's Professor, or, if you prefer, just Leekie.'
'Ma'am, I would appreciate it if you would get on with your survey. This was not supposed to take as long as it has.'
'I won't go into a long and boring speech about the dangers of ancient burial sites, Major. One wrong move and we could have the entire area collapse under our feet.'
'Well, have you
'Not yet,' she answered, and then she waved the diggers over and used the interpreter to order several pilot holes dug in the sand for her equipment to take readings.
'Major, we will be placing portable ultrasound units at the base of what's left of the foundations and inside the remains of the prayer tower. If there's something buried here, that should tell us.'
Jack had moved away from Everett and stood watching the eastern part of the desert. The midday sun was a killer as he stood still and listened. He had that old prickly feeling in his stomach that told him they were not alone in the desert. For the life of him, he could not tell where a potential enemy could hide. There was very little cover, just scrub and sand. The Blue Nile was more than a kilometer away, and any force coming from there would have given ample warning to the op team at the mosque site.
He shook his head as he started to turn, and as he did so he saw a mark in the sand. It was only a track, but it was one with which he was familiar. He did not want to lean down and examine it in case eyes were on him, so he removed his sunglasses and stretched, and as he did so he eyed the track more closely. It was a track in the literal sense: padded and linked; the sort of track used on a bulldozer or a backhoe. It had been brushed over but not completely wiped from the desert floor.
He replaced his glasses and turned back to the mosque. He had just confirmed that the dig team was not alone in the desert. Jack also knew that they had arrived too late.
As he casually walked back to where Everett was watching the camp and mosque, he reached into his pocket and felt the reassuring touch of his panic button.
Professor Leekie was getting frustrated with her equipment. She slapped at the laptop computer she had perched on the broken wall and cursed.
'This damn sand is so thick, it's almost impenetrable.'
Dutton was just returning from the perimeter of the encampment, where he had checked on the positions of his twenty-five-man team. He shook his head after hearing Leekie curse her equipment. He saw her assistants return from laying their last remote ultrasound probe in the ruined tower of the mosque.
