The Temple Mount Code (26 page)

Brakes shrieked, but the grisly
thump
told Lourds that neither man nor machine had been able to avoid the collision. Out of breath on the ground, hurting and certain he couldn’t run much farther, he looked back at the road.

A police car sat sideways in the road thirty or forty feet from the point of impact. Two young uniformed officers got out of the car brandishing weapons. The passenger held a shotgun.

Dazed and battered, the gunman drew himself up from the road. Bloody scrapes showed on his face, and his left arm hung crookedly at his side. But his right arm came up with the pistol.

‘Stop! Police!’

The gunman fired at the police officers. The man with the shotgun fired once, and Von Volker’s henchman lifted from his heels and fell backwards. He quivered and was still.

The second police officer sprinted forward with his pistol in both hands. He kicked the gunman’s weapon away and hauled out a pair of handcuffs that couldn’t possibly be needed.

Lourds stared up helplessly as the policeman with the shotgun walked toward him while aiming his weapon. The man looked grim and deadly.

‘Professor Lourds?’

In disbelief, Lourds nodded but didn’t move. His hands were in plain sight for the policeman, and he knew to keep them that way. ‘I’m Thomas Lourds.’

‘
Frau
Von Volker sent us.’ The policeman lowered his weapon. ‘Are you all right?’

‘I am now. Thank you.’ Lourds took the proffered hand and climbed shakily to his feet.

Hours later, after being grilled by two investigators and a lieutenant of homicide, Lourds was released on his own recognizance. The lieutenant told him they would be in touch if they needed anything more.

‘I would caution you on one other thing, Professor Lourds.’

Lourds looked at the broad, clean-shaven lieutenant with sad eyes. ‘Yes.’

‘Based on your statement, and that of
Frau
Von Volker, we have issued a warrant for
Herr
Von Volker. But I must tell you,
Herr
Von Volker is an important person in Vienna. He has many friends. Your continued presence in this city, perhaps even in Austria, will be perilous.’

‘I plan on leaving as soon as I get out of here.’ Lourds had already changed his plane ticket to the evening flight out of Vienna instead of the morning one.

‘Good.’ The lieutenant shook his hand, then showed him the door.

Alice sat in one of the chairs out in the hallway. She looked at Lourds for just a moment, then came to him and held him. Lourds wrapped his arms around her and felt her shaking against him.

‘I hear I have you to thank for my life.’

She tilted her head and looked up at him. ‘I was also the one that very nearly got you killed by bringing you here in the first place.’

Lourds smiled at her and kissed her. ‘I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.’

‘But you’re still going back to Jerusalem.’

‘I’ve got to locate whatever Lev left for me to find.’

‘You’d be safer going back to Harvard. If you had any sense, that’s where you’d go.’

‘I can’t. Lev counted on me to help him.’

‘I don’t think he would hold it against you under the circumstances.’

Lourds just held her, relishing the way she felt and smelled and made him glad to be alive.

‘You can’t go till you figure this thing out, can you?’ Alice looked disappointed.

‘No.’ The unknown was a siren call for him though he wished that call were safer sometimes. ‘But we should be safer in Jerusalem.’

Alice shook her head. ‘Not
we
. Not yet.’

That surprised Lourds. ‘Alice, you can’t possibly be thinking of staying here. Not with that madman still on the loose.’

‘Lieutenant Krieger is going to help me get my things from the house. And by
things
, I mean Lev’s collection. I can’t just pop back across the border with those. I don’t know how Klaus managed it, but I don’t have the political clout he does. So, for the time being, I’m going to stay with that collection and research it.’

‘Do you have somewhere safe to go?’

‘Yes. And the means. In order to take advantage of various tax shelters, Klaus put a number of bank accounts in my name. I intend to avail myself of those while I deal with the collection.’

‘You’re a brave woman, Alice.’

‘Perhaps it isn’t bravery at all. Perhaps it’s just curiosity.’

‘There’s a lot of that going around.’ Lourds frowned. ‘I think Von Volker is working with the Iranians on this.’

‘Why?’

‘Because the book pertains to Islam, and because Von Volker doesn’t believe it exists. I think he’s just making a token effort to get the book for the Ayatollah. I can’t think of anyone else he’d be working with in this matter, and that would explain the extremes he seems willing to go to in order to find it.’

Alice shook her head. ‘I don’t know. I do know that a man from the Ayatollah’s Revolutionary Guard has come to our house on occasion, and I’ve seen phone numbers for him on Klaus’s cell phone.’

‘What man?’

‘Colonel Davari.’

Lourds considered the name but couldn’t place it. ‘Maybe I’ll take a look into him too. Once I get back to Jerusalem. It would be good to know who all our enemies are.’ He checked the time on a clock in the hallway. ‘I’m sorry, Alice – ’

‘I know. The plane will leave without you. Go. I’ll take care of things as best I can at this end. You just make sure you stay alive long enough for me to see you again.’

‘I promise.’ Lourds kissed her, then went to get his backpack and suitcase. The lieutenant had promised him a police escort to the airport.

33

Covert Operations

Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations (Mossad)

Tel Aviv, Republic of Israel

August 8, 2011

‘We’re fortunate,
Katsas
Shavit.’

Glancing up from her desk, Sarah waved Isser Melman into her office. ‘Come in, please, and explain our good fortune.’

Melman entered the room and took a seat in front of her desk. He used his walking stick to lever one leg over the other.

‘We have picked up Professor Lourds’s trail once more.’

‘In Vienna?’ Shavit had spent most of yesterday and this morning trying to find agents with assets to track the American down.

‘Actually, he just left there. He’s on a plane bound for Tel Aviv. I’m betting he’ll return to Jerusalem.’

Sarah leaned back in her chair and felt her stomach rolling again. Lourds was a traveling storm, full of all kinds of portents, first here, then there. It was most disconcerting. ‘He found out something in Vienna that has sent him back to Jerusalem.’

‘I believe so.’ Melman rested his hands on top of his walking stick and grimaced. ‘While he was in Vienna, he incurred the wrath of Klaus Von Volker.’

Sarah was tempted to spit when she heard the name, but she didn’t. In her book, evil didn’t come much worse than Von Volker. ‘He’s involved in this?’

‘So it would appear. Von Volker is definitely in the Ayatollah’s camp.’

That was inarguable.

‘As it turns out, Professor Lourds has an interesting history with Von Volker.’

‘I wasn’t aware that Lourds knew Von Volker. That’s something I would have remembered from his file.’

‘Actually, the history wasn’t with Von Volker.’ Melman smiled slightly and shook his head.

In addition to being good at memorizing files, Sarah was good at connecting the dots. ‘Von Volker doesn’t have a daughter, nor a sister. So it’s the wife then?’

Melman nodded. ‘Lourds and
Frau
Von Volker were classmates at Vienna, as it turns out, and lovers for a couple of years.’

‘How did we miss that?’

‘We weren’t looking for it. We weren’t looking for a connection to Von Volker either.’

‘No, but that would explain the German and Austrian mercenaries that turned up dead where Lev Strauss was killed.’

‘And the two men Agent Abata killed in Namchee Bazaar.’

Sarah made a note in Lourds’s folder to tie him, Von Volker, and
Frau
Von Volker in together. ‘Perhaps we should make a history of every woman the professor has been romantically involved with.’

Melman tugged at his white beard and smiled. ‘I’m beginning to think that even the vast resources of the Mossad might be taxed to investigate such a thing. Professor Lourds seems to find willing women wherever he goes.’

‘We don’t know why Lourds is coming back to Israel?’

‘No.’ Melman shook his head. ‘Not yet. But he found something in that book in the bus locker that sent him to Vienna. That much is clear. I’m willing to bet that he found something in Vienna that brought him back here.’

Pulling up the crime scene photos of Lev Strauss’s flat, Sarah turned the monitor around so Melman could see. ‘There were a number of articles taken from Strauss’s flat according to Strauss’s neighbor.’

‘Mrs. Hirsch, yes, I know. And I was thinking that if Von Volker were behind Strauss’s kidnapping, those things might have ended up in Vienna.’

‘We have discovered the woman’s origins.’

‘The one found at Strauss’s murder site?’

‘Yes. She was from Austria. From her police record, she had a history of selling sexual favors and attaching herself to wealthy men.’

‘A mistress?’

‘If you want to call it that.’

‘Von Volker’s mistress?’

‘We’re investigating that possibility.’

‘Can you bring up a picture of
Frau
Von Volker and this mistress side by side on your computer?’

Sarah pulled the images from the files and placed them together on the monitor.

A cold smile thinned Melman’s lips. ‘Those two women favor each other, don’t you think?’

‘Yes.’ Sarah felt frustrated. That was something she should have caught earlier.

‘You weren’t looking for the connection.’ Melman shifted in his chair. ‘You’re not perfect, Sarah, but you’re closer than anyone I’ve ever worked with before. Occasionally, everyone misses things.’

‘Strauss knew Lourds in Vienna. Lourds knew
Frau
Von Volker in Vienna.’ Sarah pursed her lips. ‘It’s hardly a stretch to believe that Strauss knew
Frau
Von Volker. She could be the reason Strauss left the safe house.’

Melman scratched his beard. ‘So the knots are falling neater and neater.’

‘Yes.’

‘One thing I do detest,
Katsas
Shavit, is Lourds’s blatant disregard for our efforts at keeping tabs on him.’

Sarah smiled at the comment. Melman had a very dry sense of humor that was seldom exercised. ‘He’s hardly aware that we’re onto him.’

‘Even so. The man’s habit of popping here and there is very irritating. I hate playing catch-up on a mission as important as this. So I was thinking we might correct our inability to stay apace with him.’

Interested, Sarah watched him. ‘With Miriam Abata?’

Melman smiled broadly. ‘You anticipate me so well, Sarah. Between you and my wife, I have no secrets.’

‘Agent Abata hasn’t fully recovered from her ordeal in Namchee Bazaar.’

‘No, I wouldn’t expect that she would have yet.’ Melman took a breath. ‘But you know as well as I do that these things are better dealt with by throwing an agent back out into the field as soon as possible. If she is broken, the sooner we know, the more lives we save. Including her own.’

‘I know.’ Sarah contemplated the idea. ‘She’s also exactly the type of young woman that Professor Lourds would allow close to him.’

Melman raised his eyebrows. ‘Type? Dear woman, any female that’s breathing and vertical appears to be his type.’

‘The
vertical
appears to be negotiable.
Horizontal
would be more appealing, I would think.’

Color flushed Melman’s cheeks, but he laughed.

‘Let me talk to Abata. I’ll get back to you.’ But the more she thought about the idea, the more Sarah liked it. Also, after what Miriam Abata had been through, maybe tough love was the answer.

34

The Institute of Archaeology

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Mount Scopus

Jerusalem, the State of Israel

August 9, 2011

Lourds took a taxi up the hill to the college campus in northeast Jerusalem. The land was pretty, falling away in graceful curves equally decorated with dwellings and wilderness.

Mount Scopus peered down on Jerusalem, and it had been the staging point for several efforts to sack the city. The Romans and the Crusaders had gathered there and initiated maneuvers, and the area was hotly contested during the Arab-Israeli War in 1948, then again in 1967 during the Six-Day War. Today, the mountain was zoned within the municipality of Jerusalem.

Looking out over the city, Lourds could pick out all the landmarks that would have been visible to those Roman Centurions in
AD
66, and to the French and English Crusaders so many years later. The mind-set of those warriors would not have changed much. Whether armed with a gladius or an assault rifle, those men would have mentally poked and pried at Jerusalem’s weakness till the city fell.

Rome had supported Herod as the king of the Jews, and he’d kowtowed to the city’s every wish. Under Herod’s guidance, though, Jerusalem had prospered and grown, and the Temple Mount area had more than doubled. His descendants had ruled the city till the Great Revolt in
AD
66. That was what had brought the Romans to fill the streets with blood. It had taken them four years to break the city’s defenses, but eventually they’d done it. Agrippa II, Herod’s descendant and the last of the seven Herodian kings, had fled to Galilee with his sister.

General Vespasian had led more than sixty thousand troops into Galilee and crushed the rebellion in the north. From there, he and his son Titus stalled at Jerusalem’s walls. The army had dug a trench around the city and set up camp. Citizens caught fleeing the city were crucified and left to rot on crosses on the earthen walls the Romans had built to trap Jerusalem. Historians reported that as many as five hundred crucifixions took place in a single day.