Chasm Waxing: A Startup, Cyber-Thriller (35 page)

*

Becca directed the rental
car’s navigation system to drive to the SuperNight Motel, just off
I-81. She turned the radio all the way up. The music would drown
out the NSA’s prying ears. They could be listening through the
car’s speech recognition system
or
either one of their cell phones.
Becca did nothing to hide the purchase of the rental
car.

With the rental car in autonomous
mode, Josh whispered into Becca’s ear, “Why do you want to go to a
SuperNight Motel? We could stay at a nicer place, especially on
such a special evening?”

Becca chuckled. “We need
to stay
at a SuperNight
to establish a pattern,” she whispered
back.

After checking in at the
lobby, Josh parked the car in front of the SuperNight motel room.
They were careful to leave all electronic devices, including mobile
phones, in the car. Josh stored the luggage in the
hall closet
. He
looked back at Becca. “Do you want me to carry you over the
threshold?”

Becca giggled. Once inside
the motel
room,
Becca closed the blinds and stuffed towels
against the bottom of the front door. “Do you think they believed
it?” she whispered.

“
I hope
so.”
He glanced
at the motel room’s two twin beds. “What’s this, I thought this was
going to be
a
super
night
?”

“
Stop,” replied Becca,
“we’re not married yet. I’ve made mistakes in the past. This time
around, I want to do it right.”

“
Do you think that Natalia
is going to take the bait?” said Josh, softly.

“
She already took a
picture of the ring and posted our engagement to Facebook,
Instagram, and her Snapchat Story. She’s my best
friend
and a
total gossip. You can bet that the NSA or FBI is tracking our
location—every minute, of every hour—through our
phones.”

Becca didn’t know the identity of the
lead organization, although she suspected the NSA. Technically, the
FBI should’ve been in charge of US citizens deemed to be
terrorists. But the General didn’t play by rules. He could always
hide behind the veil of national security.

Becca continued, “Once we
gathered at the bar, whoever was listening, moved
to determine
who
we were meeting. They looked at the geo-locations of
everyone’s
Internet-connected
devices. Phones,
watches, tablets—you name it. They built a list of all the bar’s
patrons. Then, they started sifting
through that list
to discover our known
and unknown associates.

“
Natalia is in my
contact
list. I
talk to her all the time. So they probably knew
who she was
instantaneously
. Now, they’ll put her
and her roommates under surveillance. She’ll forgive me once she
finds out why I did it. I’m sure they’ll mention that we’re taking
a road trip. We’re just implementing the first phase of the plan.
Memphis is where we start phase two.”

“
There’s only one item on
my plan for tonight. I hope
they
hear this.” Josh kissed Becca’s
neck. Becca melted into Josh’s arms.

*

After driving all day, Becca and Josh
pulled up to Elisha Robert’s house in Memphis.

A
nerve-racking
aspect of the journey was
making sure that neither one said anything suspicious. When
they
needed to
speak about any of the issues regarding the Ark, the escape to
Mexico, or the
dig
; they did it the old fashioned way.
They wrote letters to one another.

The couple was constantly
looking over their shoulders to spot pursuers. If any were present,
they didn’t see them. It’s possible that
satellites or aerial drones were tracking them,
but Becca doubted it. “Are you ready?”

“
Absolutely,” replied
Josh.

Becca wrote a note. ‘I hope Dad
followed my instructions.’ The two got out of the car and rang the
doorbell.

“
Hi,
Dad. I’d like you
to finally meet Josh Adler
, in the
flesh.”

Josh and Elisha greeted
one another with a handshake and then a hug. The couple followed
Elisha into the kitchen. Becca gathered everyone’s phone and turned
them off.
She found a
gallon-sized, Ziploc bag. Becca sealed the phones. Then the hacker
wrapped the Ziploc b
ag with
aluminum
foil
and placed it in the freezer.

She whispered to her dad, “Did you
make the safe room?”

After
nodding affirmatively,
Elisha led them to the basement. As they descended the
basement stairs, Elisha locked the door behind him.

“
Dad, you’re sure there
are no electronics down here?”

“
Yes. I’m positive,”
replied Elisa, no longer whispering. “They can’t hear a thing down
here. The only
electric
thing in this cellar is that
light bulb.
How are you guys
holding up?”

“
Your daughter is
amazing,” said Josh. “I wouldn’t be able to do this without her.
Her knowledge of hacking, programming, and the capabilities of the
NSA are allowing us to go forward. She’s an operational security
goddess.”

Becca rolled her eyes.
“Oh, Josh. You have such a way with words. Why don’t you just call
me, ‘Dorcas the
Magnificent
.’”

Josh
laughed. “Dorcas, I like that. I was going to say,
‘She-Geek,’ but Dorcas is better.”

Becca ignored him. “Dad,
I’m energized right now. I’m especially appreciative of Jared and
you. I was
depressed
when I quit Gamification Systems. Even
though
it’s been
stressful, Josh and I are in
the midst of a real adventure. During all of the adversity, some
stuff you’ve said in the past has come back to me.”

“
That makes me happy. I’m
proud of you both. You’ve been called to do an extraordinary thing.
I’ve been praying and fasting about this. I’ve given my concerns
about your safety to the Lord. He’s given me peace about your
situation. I believe that this is of
Him,
and He’s going to protect
y’all
.” Elisha’s
voice quivered.

“
Thank
you,
Daddy.”

After an emotional interlude, Becca
continued. “I don’t want to ruin the moment, but we’re in the
process of creating a plan to confuse the NSA analysts. And one of
those fibs is that Josh and I just got engaged.”

Elisha laughed. “Well, congratulations
Josh!”

“
Thanks! If they think
we’re getting married, maybe it’ll take some of the heat
off
us. So, if
you could send some emails and post the news to your social media
accounts, that would be helpful.”

Elisha nodded.

“
Dad, I didn’t write this
in any of our encrypted chats, but we wanted to ask you about the
Ark. Josh’s AI predicts that the Ark
is located
on a crescent-shaped ridge,
known as the Acra
or the City of
David. Does that mean anything to you?

“
How far from the Temple
Mount is the Ark?”

Josh pulled out a printed A-Map from
his pocket. He showed Elisha the geo-marker. “It’s about one-third
of a mile south of the Temple Mount, by the Gihon
Spring.”

Elisha reviewed the map.
While he was not an
archeologist
, he had researched the
Temple Mount quite extensively. The area played a prominent role in
Bible prophecy regarding the End Times. “Right now, Jerusalem and
the Temple Mount are
a
fundamental
source of consternation for
both Jews and Muslims. Muslims want Jerusalem, which they
call
Al-Quds
, to be the capital of Palestine.

“
This is a non-starter for
almost all the Israelis. Then, there is the Temple Mount itself.
Muslims call the Temple Mount, the Noble Sanctuary. In
Arabic,
it’s
called the Haram al-Sharif. The golden Dome of the Rock sits
on
the site, as
does the al-Aqsa Mosque. It’s the third most holy site in
Islam—after Mecca and Medina, in Saudi Arabia.

“
Jews claim that the
Temple Mount was the site of the first and second Temples.
Babylonians
destroyed
the first.
Rome
obliterated the
second Temple, in 70 AD,
nearly 500 years later. The Jews were rioting in the Temple
complex. Roman troops quelled the
unrest
. A
military
base, overlooking the
Temple Mount, housed the Roman soldiers. The base was called,
‘Fortress Antonia.’ When the riots got out of hand, General
Vespasian ordered the destruction of the Temple. Vespasian later
became the ninth Emperor of Rome.

“
Prophesying about that
moment nearly 40 years earlier, Jesus looked at the second Temple
and said, ‘Not one stone here will
be left
on another;
every one
will be thrown
down.’ Most every Jew and Christian believes that the current
Temple Mount was the
site
of the first and second Temples. Many Muslims
deny this claim. The Jerusalem Islamic Waqf administers the site.
They forbid any excavation.

“
The reason this impacts
the
Ark
is that a fair number of people believe that the Ark was
hidden in tunnels or caves
under
the
Temple,
before the Babylonians
destroyed it.
Archeologists
can’t test this theory because the Waqf won’t
allow exploration under the Noble Sanctuary.

“
So…here’s the first thing
that races across my mind in response to your map: the location of
your geo-marker might indicate that the Temple
was located
, not on the
Temple Mount, but in the old City of David. If that
were
the case,
it would mean that the Jews could rebuild their Temple without
destroying the Muslim Noble Sanctuary.

“
I do believe I’ve read
about a theory to that
effect,
but I’d defer to Professor
McMillan. From what I remember about the theory, Gihon Spring
was
indispensable.
To this day, it’s the only natural
freshwater
supply for the city of Jerusalem. In fact, the Gihon Spring
was the reason the Jebusites first established the city in that
location.”

“
Why was the Gihon Spring
so
important for the
Temple
?” asked Becca.

“
Because it was
critical
to
keep
the Temple platform hygienically clean. There were numerous
animal sacrifices
at
the Temple every day. Three times a year, Jews
were supposed to come to Jerusalem. Josephus writes, on one
Passover, there were close to 300,000 animal sacrifices. You can
imagine how much blood needed to be removed to keep the place
sanitary.

“
Also,
there’s another fascinating aspect
about
the
location of your geo-marker. David’s men used the Gihon Spring
water system to
climb
into Jerusalem and take the city from the
Jebusites. That story
is
depicted
in the book of 2 Samuel of the
Hebrew Bible.

“
In any case, your
geo-marker is
precisely
positioned
in a location steeped in
thousands of years of history. I’m sure Professor McMillan will be
able to tell you more.” Professor Harold McMillan was head of the
Classical Archaeology Department at the University of Memphis. He
attended Elisa’s church and taught a men’s Sunday school class.
Elisha had told Becca that McMillan was one of his best friends at
the church.

“
I talked to him at the
Wednesday night prayer service. I scheduled a meeting
for
you
tomorrow. I told him the issue was very sensitive and to ditch all
electronics.”

*

Becca and Josh took a cab
from Elisha’s house to downtown Memphis. Aside from their
work
done
in the server room of Adler Capital, this was the first time
that they wanted to be invisible to the NSA. Becca used one of her
numerous prepaid cell phones—a burner phone—to place the call to
order the taxi. It was difficult to Uber anonymously.

She used cash to buy the
prepaid cell phone. A
prepaid
cell
phone allowed the user a certain
number of minutes and imposed no contract. Josh paid cash for the
cab. Once on the street, Becca tossed
the phone in the trash.
The couple
walked to the Mud Island River Park Monorail.