Chasm Waxing: A Startup, Cyber-Thriller (52 page)

“
Yikes,” said Becca. “Now,
I understand why my dad preached so often that Jesus became our
High Priest.”

“
Alright, alright. Enough
about Jesus. Let’s see the Ark,” said Josh.

“
Josh, God picked you for
this job. You do the honors. Remove the veil,” said Professor
McMillan.

Josh opened the curtain that separated
the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies.

There it was.

The Ark of the Covenant.

Becca’s eyes
immediately focussed on
the two golden cherubim. According to the Hebrew
Bible, the spot underneath their mingled wings was where the God of
Israel would talk to Moses—the Mercy Seat. The Shekinah glory of
God, as the Rabbis called it; the
God the Israelites
believed created the
heavens and the earth, dwelt on the Mercy Seat of the Ark to be
near His people.

Becca, Josh, and the
Professor stood in awe. Not a word
was uttered
. Every moment of their
lives led to the very second.

At the height of this
mystical encounter, grenade-like explosions ripped through the
cave. Concussive waves reverberated through the Tabernacle. Becca
heard screams and pops outside the Tent. Then, the
screams
stopped.
Josh, Becca, and the Professor turned around. They saw Muhammad
Rahmati.
He stood at
the entrance to the Holy Place. An Immortal was
at his side, pointing his silenced AK in their
direction.

“
Hello—
Josh, Becca, Professor MacMillan.
Thank you for finding the Prophet Musa’s artifacts. They now belong
to me.
This is
Babylon’s rightful property. The conniving Jews—Jews with the
same treacherous spirit that allied with the Quraysh—unlawfully hid
them from their conqueror, Nebuchadnezzar.”

“
How do you know who we
are? How’d you find us?” asked
Becca.

“
All good questions, my
dear. I regret to inform you that answers no longer have any
meaning for you. I can’t have any witnesses to this
event.
I’m
sorry. Release the Remora,” commanded Rahmati, through his radio.
He said the order in Farsi, but
Remora
in English.

Within a few seconds,
Becca heard a buzzing noise. Professor MacMillan gasped and
gurgled. Then, he grabbed his heart and fell face first onto
the
Tabernacle
floor.

“
You bastard,” shrieked
Becca. “Why are you doing this?” The Immortal pointed the AK
directly at Becca’s head.

Rahmati’s radio crackled,
as a voice said in Persian, “That’s it. All the Swarmbots
have
either exploded, or
their comm-links are down.” Becca recognized the
word,
Swarmbot
.

“
Roger,” replied Rahmati.
“We’ll just have to execute them the old fashioned way. Josh,
Becca; follow me. After I deal with you, I’ll examine our Prophet
Musa’s Ark, in all its glory.”

The couple looked into each other’s
eyes. Josh mouthed the words, “I love you.” They joined their hands
and slowly walked forward.

Just then, as if someone
whispered into Becca’s ear, the last line of the copper scroll came
to Becca’s
mind.
With your last breath, grasp the light.
As Becca passed the
seven-branched
lampstand
, she reached
out.
With
trembling hands, she clutched the branch nearest to her. “Save us,”
she whispered.

Immediately, a
trapdoor—directly underneath the couple—swung open. Still holding
hands, Becca and Josh fell
through
the
floor in the middle of the Holy Place.
They screamed in surprise. The Immortal ran to the pitch
black opening and fired his AK.

Becca and Josh
dropped
15 feet
before they
crashed onto an
angled, polished stone surface. It felt like quartz.
Becca landed on top of Josh, driving his shoulder
hard into the rock. They began sliding down, faster and faster, at
close to a
45-degree
angle. After a terrifying minute, they were
dumped into an underground pool of
icy water
. They both
popped
up
quickly, gasping for air. Fortunately, the lights on their helmets
were still operational.

Rahmati cursed in
frustration. “I hope that was a bottomless
pit,
and those
two
are dead.”

After briefly surveying
the Ark, he exited the Tabernacle. Rahmati gathered his force in
the golden cave, including Hadi Hadari. “We
need to
dispose of all these
bodies. Wipe down this mess of blood and guts. Make sure to no DNA
remains. Double-check that the bindings are still firm on the Arabs
above. Don’t hurt
them;
they
are fellow Muslims.
The Swarmbot’s explosive capability was
stronger than their technical documentation described.
We need to get the Ark and the artifacts
packed. Then,
we
can transfer them through the Gaza tunnels. All of Musa’s relics
belong in their proper place—Babylon.”

Becca and Josh exited
the
water. “That slide, or whatever you
call it, must have dumped us into the Gihon Spring system,” said
Josh. “Do you hear the water dripping? Let’s follow that sound and
see if we can get out of here.”

Within a few
minutes,
the
shell-shocked couple could see some faint light. After
walking
further,
they
came
to a portion of the Gihon Spring that tourists
visit. There was little ambient light from the quarter moon. Thick
clouds
afforded even more
cover for the couple. Becca and Josh
secretly
made
their way to the Jerusalem safe house, looking over their shoulder
for Rahmati or Israeli security forces. With traumatized psyches
and unraveled hearts they struggled to make sense of the
events.

01:15 a.m. (EST), Thursday, February
18, 2021 – Columbia, MD

SWARM Op Center,
Sixth-Floor SCIF, Defense Innovations
Accelerator

General Shields dialed Josh’s
father.

Adler groggily answered his mobile.
“Jared, this is General Bernard Shields. Your son and his
girlfriend are in grave danger. We know you’re aware of where they
are, and what they’re doing.”

Before Rahmati seized
control of the Swarmbots and ended the surveillance feeds to the op
center; two Swarmbots recorded grainy images of—what looked to
be—Muhammad Rahmati.
The ramifications of
the
pictures
rocked Shields to his core, but he couldn’t
make
a 100%
positive match.

He needed confirmation
from Josh and Becca.
If they were
still alive.
Shields did
know
that
a number of
Swarmbots exploded and that a Jumbo had released its Remora.
NSA assets would later gather the remaining Swarmbots and ship them
back to the Fort.

Jared processed the
information with
a sleepy
mind.
This
is
a trick
, he
thought. “General, I don’t have anything to say. I’ll let Josh know
you called. If he wants to talk to you, he will.”

“
Look, Jared. I’m not
going to
reveal
all the evidence we’ve compiled. We both know
that Josh and Becca have fled the country. They accomplished this
feat in spite of their presence
on
the
no-fly list.”

Jared’s pulse slightly
quickened.

Shields continued, “I can
tell you that we found Josh and Becca’s A-Car at the Grand Canyon.
We know that Becca hacked into a motel computer system. We tracked
them to Jerusalem, where they’ve been digging to find an ancient
historical object.
I warned them
this object
impaired their safety and was
dangerous for our nation.

“
We ran a title on the
property, near the Temple Mount, that’s concealing the excavation.
With the help of four forensic accountants, we’ve
tracked the recent
purchase of that real estate to entities’ affiliated
with
you.”

Jared’s stomach did flip
flops.

“
I’m not sure how Josh and
Becca got out of the country, but I believe you know how. When I
add all this up, there’s been a lot of
state
, federal, and international
laws broken.”

Jared was now fully alert. “General
Shields, perhaps we can all go to jail together. And how’s
visitation day going to be for you? How will your wife avoid
running into your mistress? At the very least, if you don’t go to
jail; you’ll be forced to resign.”

The General’s tone
softened. “I’m sure we both have things we’d like to keep
hidden
.
This isn’t
a
pissing match. The bottom line is that your son and his
girlfriend’s life are in serious jeopardy. Despite what you may
have
been told
, my actions were designed to protect Josh, Becca, and
interests of the United States. If they’re alive, we’ve got to get
them out of Israel and back to the States. NSA needs to debrief
them. They possess
vital
intelligence, with global implications. We must
carefully determine our next steps. And, I’ve got to ascertain if
there’s a mole in my organization or the Intelligence
Community.

“
I’ll help you get Josh
and Becca out of Israel. I’ll remove them from the no-fly list.
And, I’ll get the Justice Department to write up an immunity deal.
Our nation has a serious problem. I need Josh and Becca’s knowledge
and talents.”

Jared’s burner cell phone
started ringing. It was either Josh or Becca. Now, Adler’s
heart
thumped. His
knees weakened. He fully realized that Shields
was neither bluffing, nor trying to deceive him.

Jared rushed through
remaining
deal points.
“I’ve got a lot of connections in
Israel. I’ll work on
getting them out. I’ll need your help getting them through
customs. Once they get home, we’ll fly to Dulles on my jet. I’m
going to bring my lawyers. Not only do they need an immunity deal,
but we’ll need additional ones for me, my CTO, Becca’s father, and
the
archeologist
.”

*

The next day, Shields
caught a CNN report on Muhammad Rahmati. The news anchor said that
Rahmati had secretly entered Gaza. He proceeded to
deliver
a speech
that would reverberate across the Middle East for a long time.
Rahmati chastened Israeli and Palestinian
leadership. Surprisingly, he was harder on the Palestinian
rulers, than the Israelis.

Rahmati admonished the
Palestinian government to work harder to improve the lives of their
people. Leaders must forget about lining their own pockets with the
aid money that pours in from around the world. If not, then
Palestinians should initiate their
own Crescent Revolution, just like
Iraq
and Persia. He called for
a
unilateral
end to Palestinian rocket
attacks and assaults on Israelis with guns and knives. Rahmati
ended the speech by challenging Israel and Palestine to renew talks
on a two-state solution.

The talking heads were effusive in
their praise of the Iraqi PM. “Is there anything this guy can’t do?
Peace between Israel and Palestine? He’s got to be the leading
candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. There hasn’t been an honest
broker like this since Oslo or Camp David. He was way too easy on
Israel, what about the settlements?”

*

72 hours later, Josh and
Becca landed at White Plains Airport. Josh’s right arm hung in a
sling. The Westchester County, New York airport was 20 minutes from
Jared’s home. Jared arrived
in
his limousine.

The three collectively
embraced for an extended time. Becca sobbed. Josh and Jared teared
up. After working
through
small talk, and more of the Rahmati story, Jared
got down to business. He detailed the specifics of General Shields’
immunity proposition. Becca replied first. “That guy can take his
immunity deal and shove it up—”

“
Becca! You, Josh, your
dad, and I are in a lot of trouble.
This is
our get-out-of-jail-free
card,
and we all
need to take it.”

“
Mr. Adler, I told him
this would happen. Swarmbots, with pieces of code I wrote, murdered
Professor McMillan and all the excavation team. I don’t know how
Rahmati hacked them, but he did. Who knows, maybe Shields and
Rahmati are working together?”