Blowback

“No. He told me he didn’t have any money. Not right now, at least. He offered to give me a small deposit and pay me later, but I wouldn’t agree.”

“Smart lady,” said Harvath.

“I told him I needed all of the money right away. He became very angry, telling me they belonged to the foundation. When I told him I knew there was no foundation, he tried to make excuses. Finally, I threatened to go to the police and tell them everything I knew if he didn’t cooperate.”

“I bet he didn’t like that,” replied Harvath as he remembered what a temper Rayburn had.

“Not at all, but he was in a similar position as me. He had no choice. He could not afford to pay me, and he definitely did not want me taking the artifacts or my story to the police, so we settled on the compromise of selling everything through Sotheby’s.”

“So what’s at Sotheby’s represents everything Ellyson uncovered?”

Lavoine looked away for a moment before responding. “No. Not everything.”

“There’s more?” asked Jillian.

Lavoine tried to explain. “Even though we were dealing with Sotheby’s, I still didn’t trust Monsieur Burnham. I thought he might find a way to cheat me. I couldn’t risk everything on the first venture. Besides, Ellyson had never even told Monsieur Burnham exactly where the site was, much less what he had recovered from it. Monsieur Burnham had no idea what I had in my possession. By doing it my way, if the first sale went well, I could wait a while and then quietly go back to Sotheby’s with more.”

“And without having to split the money with anyone.”

Marie nodded her head.

Harvath stood from the table and said, “We need to see those remaining artifacts.”

“Why?”

“Because even though your husband never made it back from that chasm, the weapon the Romans paid so dearly to prevent getting to Rome actually did.”

Lavoine was shocked. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, the man you call Elliot Burnham has been working with Muslim terrorists, and they plan on using Hannibal ’s weapon against the Western world.”

“The weapon actually exists? What is it?”

“An illness of some sort,” replied Jillian. “Please, Marie, whatever artifacts you have still, we need to take a look at them. We promise you, that is all we want to do. We have no intention of taking them from you. Millions of lives may be at stake here. We know Bernard had no idea as to whom he was helping, but you can help us to fix this. Please, we need your cooperation.”

Lavoine thought about it for several moments and then said, “Okay,” as she stood. “Get your coats. You’re going to need them. It’s very cold outside.”

THIRTY-EIGHT

WHITE HOUSE SITUATION ROOM

WASHINGTON, DC

O nce the secure videoconference link with CIA headquarters in Langley had been established, the president began speaking. “I assume I wasn’t called out of my meetings upstairs because you have good news.”

“Unfortunately no, Mr. President,” responded the director of Central Intelligence, James Vaile. “Two days ago we made a very important electronic intercept related to the village of Asalaam.”

“If you made it two days ago, why am I just hearing about it now?”

“With all due respect, sir, our Arabic translators are seriously overworked and dangerously backlogged.”

“I know. I know,” said Rutledge, “and I’m doing everything I can to get you additional funding to hire more of them, but now’s not the time for this discussion. Why don’t you tell me what you’ve got.”

“We intercepted a posting in an Islamic chat room that commented on the hand of Allah successfully striking down all but his most faithful followers in a remote location referred to as the place of peace.”

“Asalaam?”

“That’s what we think,” replied Vaile. “The fundamentalists like to describe Iraq as the crusaders’ burial ground. The people talking in that chat room signaled that the place of peace was within the land known as the burial ground of the foreign crusaders.”

The president was silent as the DCI continued. “One of Osama bin Laden’s most beloved was also said to have been present to witness the power of Allah firsthand.”

“Khalid Alomari.”

“We think so. There were enough allusions to his past accomplishments for us to be fairly certain it’s him. We’ve been monitoring the room, but the poster hasn’t returned, or at least not under the same handle as before. We’re not holding out much hope of tracking him down. Just like cell phones, these guys will use a chat room once and then never come back to it again. They know it makes it impossible for us to trace them that way.”

Though none of this was exactly good news, Rutledge knew his DCI well enough to know that he was saving the very worst for last. “What else did you find out?”

“One of the people in the chat room claimed that what happened at the place of peace was only a small example of what Allah and his most holy warriors had planned for the enemies of Islam, in particular the United States.”

The president was again silent for several moments as the confirmation of their worst fears began to sink in. Finally, he asked, “Is that it?”