Civilization had died away with the freeway. They passed a sign stating that they were trespassing on Jordanian government land. Talli informed them it also held a warning that anyone crossing into the area could be shot on sight.
So what was new?
The Dead Sea glistened under the waxing moon's rays. So sedate. So blase about the danger to the world. But then again, to the ancient sea what was a Rinderpest plague? How much history had that hypersaline body of water witnessed? How many deaths? How many births? Had those molecules of water witnessed Joshua burying the tablets along its shore?
Soon the loud popping turned to a softer, grittier noise. She looked out the window. They were now traveling over the salt-encrusted shoreline. Lopez arced them north to follow the sea.
When they'd first gotten in the SUV, Rebecca had wanted go over the dense history of the region, but Brandt had waved her off. His only words, "The die is cast."
So now everyone sat silent. None was under the impression this was going to be easy. Somehow the Disciples had tracked them from Russia to Slovenia. Everyone expected them to show up, as a matter of fact.
"Is that it up ahead?" Lopez asked, leaning over the wheel, squinting as he took his foot off the gas.
Through the dim light, Rebecca could make out a set of one-story buildings. Or was that just wishful thinking? Then a cloud passed over the moon. Once the light returned, it glimmered off a small placard next to the door.
"General Intelligence Department. Office number five eighteen," Talli translated.
The SUV rolled to a stop.
"Guess this is it..." Bunny stated into the silence. Not even Brandt moved to open his door.
"I don't like it," Harvish said. Sure the place looked deserted, but that didn't mean there weren't either a platoon of Jordanian soldiers under the outpost or a contingent of Disciples just waiting to pick them off.
"No shit," Brandt snorted. However, the exchange did seem to invigorate the sergeant as he opened his door. "The only person who would like this situation would be a fucking lunatic."
Ah, Brandt and his inspirational speeches.
Rebecca went to get out, but Brandt blocked the door from swinging open.
"Not this time," Brandt stated not all that kindly. "You, Bunny, and Davidson will stay put along with Lopez as driver." A chorus of protests rang through the car. Brandt just held up a hand though. "And that is final."
"At least let me get out of the car so we can discuss-"
"Nope," Brandt cut in. "There could be open Rinderpest in there plus who knows what else. It is just Harvish, Talli, and me. Period." He gave a hard look to Lopez, who shut his mouth mid-word, then to Davidson, who wouldn't meet his gaze.
"Sounds good to me," Bunny said, leaning farther back in her seat. "I am in no rush to see what's down there. I'm perfectly happy translating from the car."
Really? So much for the sisterhood and all.
Perhaps the younger woman and the men could be dissuaded so easily, but Rebecca hadn't come all this way to be shut out. Besides, Brandt needed her. Needed her knowledge. How far would he have gotten if not for her? And maybe Bunny a little bit, but mainly her.
Brandt must have seen the look on her face as he leaned in. "This isn't about the tablets anymore, Rebecca. It's about the Rinderpest. I need you to take a backseat, literally." He then looked to Davidson. "And I'm sure if someone would like to get back into my good graces, he will make you understand this is the only play at this stage."
Lopez took his hand off the driver's door handle. "I've got your back."
"We'll be here when you return," Davidson assured Brandt.
Rebecca couldn't believe Davidson was caving so easily.
"If I find the tablets, I will bring them back," Brandt reassured Rebecca, then turned to Lopez. "If we aren't out in five minutes, and I mean three hundred seconds, I want you to head west to Israel. Get in touch with the American consulate and get the hell out of the Middle East ASAP." Brandt really emphasized his next words. "Do I make myself clear?"
"Fully," Lopez answered.
Rebecca wanted to reach out, grab Brandt's hand. What good would it do though? She knew that set to his jaw. That tone in his voice. He would brook not argument. And what case could she make?
She hated it when Brandt was right.
Brandt fell in behind Talli, who fell in behind Harvish. Since there was absolutely no vantage point besides the squat outbuildings for about twenty miles, there was no sense in Talli sitting out of the insertion. Besides, they had Davidson on the perimeter. Which unfortunately made Brandt feel more secure.
He had to get his head back into the game, though. He had to trust that between Lopez's speed and Davidson's accuracy they could keep Rebecca and Bunny safe.
With purposeful speed and accuracy, the men made their way across the short distance to one of the outbuildings. In the wan moonlight, Harvish checked the door's frame for booby traps.
A curt shake of the point man's head indicated there weren't any. Or at least not any that could be found in this underilluminated environment. They just couldn't risk turning on a light. If there were any assailants inside the building, Brandt would rather keep the element of surprise than not.
Harvish put a hand on the doorknob. It turned easily under his palm. Brandt snapped back, far more worried. Because the GID was really going to leave even an outbuilding to their supersecret outpost unlocked. Right.
Off his nod, Harvish jerked the door open, charging into the building. It was small and boring. Whatever had been stored here had long ago been taken away. It was basically an empty warehouse. They checked the walls and floor just to be sure. They hit the other two smaller buildings to find the same thing. A bit fat nothing.
With slightly more caution they approached the main building. Harvish ran through his checks before the point man swept into the room. Talli came next, taking the left as Brandt swept in, clearing the right side of the room. Still running silent, they didn't report their findings. Besides running silent there wasn't much to report. Just a dingy, empty reception area with a cluttered desk and five really uncomfortable looking steel chairs. Guess the GID wasn't exactly known for its hospitality.
Behind the desk lay another door. Perhaps that direction would be a bit more promising.
Without hesitation, the point man strode to the exit as Talli shut the outer door. Since they were enclosed, Brandt turned on his gun's light. Harvish followed suit, carefully checking this new doorframe for any signs of tampering.
Still none. Harvish turned the knob, also unlocked.
They were so screwed.
Unfortunately, they only had one direction to go. Forward.
They burst into the next room to find it equally boring. It appeared to be some kind of intake room. A table stood in the center with a chair on either side. If the reception room had been shabby, this room hadn't been painted in thirty years. Under the layer of peeling dirt, brown paint showed shades of blue and green. Beyond a picture of King Abdullah I, the room was devoid of any other adornment or comfort.
The GID must really have taken their training by the KBG to heart.
They went through the sole exit door with similar results. Only this time they found a poorly stocked kitchen and break room with a fifties-style television. Swiftly they moved through several other rooms. Each the same. Standard-issue military bare essentials. This latest room had bunk beds practically stacked upon themselves. Berths for at least ten men. Which if they rotated through three shifts could mean that the facility could sustain thirty men.
But where were they?
"Um, Sarge?" Harvish said, breaking their silent entry.
Why the hell not? There didn't appear to be anyone to hear them. "Yes?"
"There's no door out of here."
Brandt double-checked his point man, running his hands along the walls to check for hidden exits, but Harvish was correct. They'd hit a dead end.
"Then where's the entrance to the underground levels?" Talli asked.
Hell if Brandt knew.
Rebecca stared at the facility's door so hard that she truly feared she would blind herself. She was even afraid to blink in case she missed Brandt's return.
"One hundred seconds," Davidson reported.
Only two hundred more to go before the corporal's orders were to get them as far away from here as possible.
"Lopez," Rebecca asked, "can't we take a cruise around the place?"
While Lopez looked tempted, he shook his head. "Sarge said to stay put."
"No," Rebecca corrected him. "He said to stay in the car."
"She's right," Davidson piped up.
Lopez's frown deepened. "I don't think that was the spirit of the order."
"And since when are you this enslaved to the rules?" Rebecca challenged Lopez.
"Like, never," the corporal answered, turning on the car. The car rolled forward slowly, making an arc around the squat facility.
Bunny leaned forward next to Rebecca. "What are we looking for though?"
Rebecca was about to answer that she had no idea when Davidson piped up. "A grate of some sort. If the main building has a lower level, they had to provide ventilation, and given the fact that the place looks like it was built in the fifties, they had to vent to the outside."
"Alright then," Lopez said. "Davidson, you and Bunny check the right side. Rebecca, you and I are on the left."
Opening her eyes as wide as they would go, Rebecca tried to use every ounce of illumination to study the desert as the SUV slowly rolled forward. But all Rebecca could make out were a bunch of rocks and clumps of salt. Nothing man-made. Nothing to indicate another possible way into the structure.
Then the front tire clanged against something, which was followed shortly by an answering clang from the rear tire. Lopez smiled as he stopped the SUV and backed it up. Rebecca tucked her leg under her to lift herself high enough to see over the hood to the dark metal grate in the desert floor.
"Now what?" Bunny asked.
Rebecca didn't have to wait for Davidson to pull his pack out and start molding a C-4 charge. Whether to breach into the facility or to create an escape hatch, they were going to blow that grate.
"But we only have like another hundred seconds," Bunny protested.
Lopez though, he just grinned. "Darlin', a lot can happen in a hundred seconds."
And Rebecca knew he wasn't kidding.
Brandt cursed under his breath as they backtracked through the whole damned building. But no matter his foul language, the structure refused to give up the entrance to the underground portion of the outpost.
He glanced to his watch. Ninety seconds. Did he give up the search, admit defeat, and bug out with the rest of the team? Or did he let the time expire and tear this place apart, one crumbling wooden beam at a time?
"Maybe we're looking at this wrong?" Talli suggested.
"I don't doubt it," Brandt grumbled. They were missing something. And it was far bigger than just where a door was hidden.
"If you were the architect of a subterranean base, where would you put the entrance?"
"Depends," Harvish asked. "Do I want the men stationed here to know where it's at, or is it for higher up the food chain?"
"But was this place really used? I mean, sure it looks good, almost too good," Talli suggested.
Brandt swept his light across the kitchen. It was pretty damned clean. No trash. No dirty dishes. You put thirty men in a space this small and it was going to get messy.
"And where's the head?" Talli asked. "The showers?"
His man was right. All the other "necessities" were covered, with one important exception. An outpost has got to have a toilet.
"So this is all for show, like a model home," Brandt concluded. "While all the real work happened downstairs."
"Where does that get us though?" Harvish asked.
Brandt looked to Talli. The man shrugged. "I think the entrance would be the entrance then, right?"
Without another word they moved to the reception area, however it was equally unhelpful as before. They tossed chairs, the desk, even a map of Jordan, but nothing.
"Fuck!" Brandt shouted with less than sixty seconds to go, slamming the heel of his hand against the wall. Wait. Did that sound hollow? He knocked along the wall. Sure enough a large portion of it sounded hollow.
Harvish did the same along the intake room's wall. They mapped out a large hollow area hidden behind the walls.
"These rooms aren't the right size," Talli said. Sure enough there was a good four-by-four-foot space taken up by these false walls.
Brandt hauled back and kicked at the area. Drywall splintered. He kicked again, getting his foot caught in the debris. Yanking his leg back, he pulled out a whole section of the wall, only there was no staircase. There was an elevator.
"The gate is on this side," said Talli, exhibiting some actual enthusiasm as he hit the reception wall with the butt of his rifle.
Within seconds they had the false wall out of the way, which it turned out looked like it just needed to be pushed in to open. Oh well, it felt good to knock something around. Harvish lifted the elevator's latch and rattled the metal lattice open.
Brandt looked to the front door and then to his watch. Forty-five seconds. They could never go down, survey the underground structure, and make it back in time.
"Sarge?" Talli asked as the two men stood in the elevator, waiting on his go order.
His gut ached at the thought of the others driving away, but perhaps it was best.
Now the die was truly cast.
Davidson shoved the blasting cap into the wedge of C-4, then stuck the mini-bomb against the metal grating. This was the third such explosive they'd placed and the farthest away from the building. The underground portion of the complex sprawled out under the desert. And possibly even extended under the Dead Sea. One of those ventilation shafts had been pretty damned close to the shore.