“Just a driver in the front cab. Same as always.”
“And the shipment?” A squeezing sensation came over Enoch’s chest, and the cords in his neck stretched tight.
The guards exchanged guilty glances.
“You didn’t check it?”
“Stones?” He shrugged. “What’s to check?”
Now Enoch snapped. “Get out of my way,” he roared, and pushed past them. “Let’s go, Amit.”
The metal detector squelched in turn as each of them passed through.
“Wait!” the tall guard protested, scrambling after them waving a handgun. “No guns in there!”
Enraged, Enoch spun, eyes like daggers. “Oh, now you’re inspecting things?”
The guard aimed the gun at him. “I’m serious.”
“Are you kidding me?” he scoffed. Shaking his head, he slapped the gun aside. “Don’t test my patience. You know Mossad are never permitted to give up weapons.”
“But—”
“Call your superior if you have any complaints. I’ve got a job to do.”
With that, Enoch marched his way across the plaza, Amit trailing close in his wake.
70
******
“Everything okay over here?” the female IDF guard said, rifle slung over her knobby right shoulder. The group had sent her over to investigate the loud cracking sounds that had echoed up through the high vaults.
“Fine,” the foreman reported. “Just fine.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the men goading the geneticist down the steps leading into the tunnel.
“What was that noise?” she asked.
“Noise?”
She might have been a novice, but she was no idiot. The guy was playing dumb. “Yes. Like wood splintering.”
“I don’t know what—”
“Hold on,” the woman said, raising a hand to hush him. She moved around the truck’s rear, and her curious eyes locked onto the splintered mess near the two pallets. “What’s going on over there?” she asked, moving closer.
The foreman quickly glanced at the other soldiers, who remained at the entrance, chatting away. Then he traipsed to the female soldier.
Eyes pinched in confusion, she studied the hollows in the center of each pallet. Buried underneath the stacked stones were sizable wooden crates, empty. The torn-apart front side of each crate littered the ground. Why would a crate be sealed away inside a stone pile? Unless . . .
She yelled out to the others. “I need help back here!”
The foreman’s eyes went wide. In a panic, he snatched up a shovel propped against the truck’s front bumper.
The soldier raced to bring the rifle off her shoulder and pivoted to face the workman. No sooner was her finger on the trigger then a loud clang instantly preceded a sharp pain that exploded through her skull and made her see pure white. Her body dropped limply to the ground, forcing her finger back on the trigger. The stray shot echoed through the vaults like a thunderclap.
Terrified, the foreman ditched the shovel and dashed for the tunnel.
71
******
Halfway across the plaza, Amit and Enoch simultaneously registered the resounding gunshot that echoed out from the brightly lit archway adjacent to the Wailing Wall. The soldiers outside the opening reacted quickly, pulling down their machine guns and scrambling for cover.
“Shit,” Enoch grumbled. “Let me check it out. You stay here for a sec.” Before Amit could protest, the kid was off and running. The frenzied guards at the security post began yelling. When Amit
looked back at them, they were bickering about what to do. Then the tall one was picking up a phone.
Lights began snapping on in the windows of the residential buildings overlooking the plaza.
Amit swung his gaze back to the soldiers, trying to figure out what Cohen was up to. Why would he bring the American and the Ark into the Western Wall Tunnel? The renovations that had been going on there since the quake first struck had forced the exit onto Via Dolorosa to be closed. The tunnel was a dead end. Made no sense. Unless . . .
His eyes crawled up the Wailing Wall. Backing up a few steps, he saw the peak of the Dome of the Rock’s lit-up cupola come into view. He remained transfixed by it for a few seconds, considering a very remote possibility.
Could it be?
As more IDF reinforcements stormed into the plaza, Amit needed to make a move before someone started asking him questions. The tunnel was now officially under siege. Not much use for him down there. And unlike the soldiers, Amit was a much bigger target—who wasn’t wearing Kevlar.
He calmly backtracked toward the metal detectors. But just before he reached them, he vaulted over a wooden construction fence and landed on a temporary walkway set atop steel columns, sheathed in plywood, and covered by a corrugated metal roof.
