God's Lions - The Dark Ruin (31 page)

The briefing Ben and his team had received onboard the ship before they took off had been just that—brief. Team 5 was accustomed to being thrown into sudden combat situations, but this time things were different. The intelligence officers who had conducted the briefing had come equipped with week-old satellite images of the area, and the details about the target were so inadequate that Ben came close to declaring the mission unsafe for lack of planning.

Simply put, they were to fly to Babylon and land in the Iraqi desert somewhere near Acerbi’s walled compound. From that point on they were pretty much on their own. After scouting the area and taking note of the size of the force guarding the palace, they would decide if it was safe to proceed or if they should pull back and call for an air strike.

Along for the ride was Daniel Meir, Israel’s chief cryptographer. He had been assigned to Team 5 as their computer specialist in an effort to help them achieve their main objective—to pinpoint the source of the worm that had infiltrated every aspect of Israel’s communications infrastructure. For now, the only information he had to go on was Eduardo’s observations and the fact that the worm had been traced back to a computer in the vicinity of Acerbi’s compound, so as soon as they arrived on target he would be especially interested to see what kind of satellite dishes and antennas sprouted from the rooftops of the compound. If he could pin down the exact location of the source computer, he and the team had orders to enter the compound and either steal it or destroy it, and from Eduardo’s description, stealing it would be out of the question.

At the end of their pre-mission briefing, the intelligence officers had added one more thing to Team 5’s to-do list. With straight faces, they had asked them to locate Acerbi’s sixteen-year-old son Adrian, and if it looked like they could safely nab him, they were to fly him back to the ship—and they were to do all of this before the sun came up.

An hour and a half after they crossed the beach, the two choppers settled down behind some dunes a mile from Acerbi’s compound. In the distance, they could see the lights of Babylon casting an orange glow over a quiet desert that contrasted with a black sky sprinkled with stars. Checking their watches, the team set off at a jog across the sandy terrain, stopping every so often to listen for the sound of approaching vehicles or voices in the darkness. By now it was almost midnight, and just as they topped a large dune on the outskirts of Babylon, they spotted Acerbi’s lighted compound spread out below their position.

The soldiers were shocked by what they saw. Halogen floodlights lit up an area that hummed with activity as vehicles entered and left the compound in a constant flow. Sentries with dogs could be seen patrolling outside the walls, and farther out the Israelis could see that Acerbi’s people had taken perimeter security to a whole new level. Five-man teams of specialized soldiers equipped with night vision goggles and carrying heavy weapons could be seen moving out into the surrounding desert, and it was a no-brainer to figure out that they would be on top of the Israelis’ position in a matter of minutes.

Although Team 5 had been briefed on the fact that the compound surrounded a large palace, the real scope of the place was just beginning to sink in. The building and grounds covered at least 30 acres, and the walls surrounding the compound were twelve feet high and topped with spools of razor wire. This was definitely not a home. They were looking at a fortress—a fortress that probably came with state-of-the-art security—the best money could buy. Right away Ben knew that they were in over their heads, because trying to get inside an area this well protected would be like trying to make their way into a heavily fortified military installation—an installation that was protecting something very valuable.

In other words, they were looking at a suicide mission, one that had probably ended before it had even begun. About all they could hope for at this point would be to take a few pictures and make a quick scout of the area before retreating back to their choppers to call in an air strike.

“Anyone here want to guess what I’m about to say?” Ben Zamir whispered into his headset.

Sergeant Efron, the team’s oldest commando, crawled forward in the sand until he was next to Ben. “We don’t have much choice, boss. There’s no way we can infiltrate that place.”

Ben pounded his gloved fist in the sand. “Damn! The intelligence guys really messed up on this one.”

“Are we headed back to the choppers?” Efron asked.

“Yeah, pass the word to the men while I take a few pictures. I want to show those intelligence pukes back in Tel Aviv what they just tried to send us into.”

“Yes, sir.” The sergeant twirled his hand over his head and pointed with two fingers back in the direction of the choppers, but just as they were sliding down the backside of the dune, they froze when they spotted a ribbon of lights snaking along a highway through the dunes. Using their rifle scopes, Efron and Ben peered into the distance and focused in on a convoy of trucks headed for the compound.

The sergeant’s face peeled back in a grin. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking, sir?”

Ben’s mood immediately lightened. “It might work. I noticed they weren’t stopping any of the vehicles entering or leaving the compound. My guess is that they have a check point back down that road so they can search the trucks for explosives before they get close enough to do any damage. They’re also probably being tracked by computers.”

“Those trucks are a pretty good kink in their armor, sir. What about the dogs on the perimeter?”

“Unless you think we smell any different from the guys driving those trucks, I don’t see them being a problem.”

“Sergeant Efron doesn’t smell human,” one of the soldiers laughed. “We’re all dead men if the dogs get close to him.”

Ben grinned as he gathered his men around him to go over the plan forming in his mind. He would radio the two helicopters and have one of them fly up over the last truck in the convoy. Three soldiers would then rappel down onto the moving truck, and after they had overpowered the driver, they would keep driving behind the other trucks until they saw Ben’s signal on the side of the highway. At that point, they would slow and pick up the waiting commandos before driving right through the gate of the compound. It was a long shot, but Israeli Team 5 was known for thinking on its feet against overwhelming odds, and they had never failed to carry out a mission before.

“This is crazy, Ben,” Daniel said.

“Sorry, my friend, but you’re with a Special Forces unit now. We get physically ill if we have to retreat.”

“No, I meant
good crazy
. After listening to Alon’s war stories all these years, I’ve always wanted to go on a mission like this. This is great.”

“Here, Daniel ... take this,” Efron said, handing Daniel one of their spare assault rifles. “Your dream is about to come true. I have a feeling we’ll need every man tonight.”

Slinging the backpack containing his laptop over his shoulder, Daniel grabbed the rifle as the team headed off into the darkness and moved into position behind some dunes at the side of the highway. In the distance they could see a line of headlights, but just as they were preparing to move closer to the highway, Efron grabbed Ben by the shoulder and pointed behind him. Slowly making their way through the dunes was one of Acerbi’s 5-man weapons teams, and they were headed straight for the Israelis.

“They must have zeroed in on our radio transmission when I called the choppers,” Efron said. “I used a scrambled burst transmission, so at least they don’t know what I said. But they know someone with a very sophisticated radio is out here somewhere.”

“Great,” Ben whispered. “We just stirred up an ant’s nest. Let’s hope they think it’s the Iraqis playing with a new toy.”

As the first truck approached their position, they saw the last truck in line suddenly weave over the centerline just as the dark shape of a helicopter reared up and blotted out the stars before flying away. On top of the truck, the three-man Israeli team that had just been lowered from the chopper had their hands full. Climbing over the canvas that covered the back of the truck, one soldier reached the roof of the cab and shot the driver before flinging himself through the open window and grabbing the wheel. Meanwhile, behind him, the other two commandos cut a small hole in the canvas top and shot two surprised security men riding in the back. After enlarging the hole, they jumped down into the back of the truck as it continued up the highway. Stage one of their plan was now complete.

Up ahead, hiding in the dunes, the rest of the team waited. They had to time their next move perfectly, because if the men tracking them reached the highway before the Israelis had a chance to hop into the back of the truck, they would be caught in the middle of a firefight and the mission would be over.

“What do you want me to do?” Daniel whispered to Ben.

“Just stay close to me and don’t look back when I give the order to run. My guys will take care of the men behind us if they spot us. Keep your head down. We’re going to need you once we’re inside the compound. You’re the most important man on this mission, Daniel.”

As the trucks passed their position, one of the Israeli soldiers shot an infrared laser beam across the highway, signaling the commando driving the last truck in line to slow almost to a stop. Running for all they were worth, the soldiers waiting in the dunes at the side of the road scrambled into the back of the truck just as the driver hit the gas so they wouldn’t be caught falling behind the rest of the convoy.

As the truck’s tail lights faded from view, the roving 5-man weapons team from the compound walked out onto the highway and scanned the area with their night vision goggles. With nothing to look at but a friendly convoy disappearing into the distance on an otherwise empty highway, their commander quickly assumed that their high-tech sensing equipment had picked up some random radio skip that sometimes bounced off the atmosphere on clear nights and ordered his men back into the dunes.

In the back of the lumbering truck, Ben looked down at the bodies of the two dead security men stretched out between a row of wooden crates and nodded to one of the commandos who had just shot them. “Any idea why these two men were riding back here?”

“There must be something important back here, sir” the soldier responded. “The body of the driver is still up front in the cab. We didn’t want to throw the bodies out along the highway and give away the fact that one of the trucks had been hijacked.”

“Smart thinking,” Ben said. “There was a 5-man weapons team right on our tails. If they had discovered any bodies the game would have been over.”

“What happens when we reach the gate, sir?”

“We’ll have to throw the bodies out before we reach the compound and hope none of those roving teams discover them until after the sun comes up. Hang on to their uniforms and make sure our guy driving is wearing one when we reach the compound. Keep their weapons too.” The commandos exchanged knowing glances as they checked their weapons one final time, for they all knew that if an alert guard spotted an Israeli-made weapon lying next to the driver, their cover would be blown at the gate and they would be in the firefight of their lives with little chance of escape.

Moving around among the crates, Daniel pried one open with his new combat knife and lifted out what looked like a flat electronic panel floating inside a thick, clear plastic box. After a few more minutes of rummaging around inside, he waved Ben over and pointed inside. “Uh ... Captain ... I think you need to take a look at this.”

“What is it?”

“Take a look for yourself.”

Peering inside, Ben shook his head. “Sorry, Daniel. I have no idea what any of this stuff is.”

“That’s because none of this stuff is supposed to exist yet. You’re looking at computer components from the future.”

“The future! What in the world are you talking about?”

“Someone has jumped the technology gap tenfold, because I’ve only seen schematic-type drawings of stuff like this in classified technology briefings. Everything we’re looking at is still in the
what if
category. It’s like looking beyond the conceptual stage into the future, because supposedly this technology doesn’t even exist yet.”

“I’m still lost. What do you mean?”

“I mean that, up until this moment, these components were considered to be purely theoretical. Even the world’s top computer scientists have said we wouldn’t see anything this advanced on the horizon for at least the next twenty years. Here, look at this.” Daniel reached into a padded metal case and lifted out a small, cylindrical crystal. “If I’m correct, we’re looking at the components for a quantum computer. This crystal probably contains beryllium ions, an essential component for a system that uses quantum mechanics rather than conventional computing technology.” Reaching further down into the crate, he grabbed another padded case and opened it, revealing a metal disc inside. “And this is the
pancake
.”

“The what?”

“The pancake. Inside this disc are approximately 300 atoms suspended in a vacuum within a 15cm metal trap. I wasn’t sure what it was until I saw the laser components lying in the bottom of the crate. They attach this disc to a laser and use it to manipulate individual atoms. We’re talking about computing done at the atomic level. A system like this can eclipse the capacity of current computers by at least 80 orders of magnitude. That’s a one with 80 zeros after it. We’re getting into a very esoteric field here, but we’re looking at particles that transmit information in more than one location at the same time. Whoever developed this system has taken computing into a whole new dimension.”

Ben stared at the tiny crystal in Daniel’s hand and shook his head. “I’ll have to take your word for it, Daniel. This stuff is way over my head. I guess that explains why they had two guards riding back here.”

“Seems to me that they would have had even more security surrounding something as important as this,” Daniel said.

“These guys know what they’re doing,” Ben said. “We use this tactic all the time when we’re trying to maintain a low profile on intelligence missions. A lot of people would be shocked to find that nuclear warheads have been driven through the Negev Desert in broad daylight in the back of old pickup trucks. If you’re trying to guard something really valuable, the best security measure you can take is to make it look as worthless as possible. If you surround it with security vehicles, especially in a country like Iraq, it’s like waving a red flag in front of a bull. Saddam used to load big 18-wheeler trucks full of cash and have them driven down the highway without so much as a single security vehicle in sight. Besides, whoever is waiting for this stuff probably didn’t want to tip off their own security people that something this valuable was coming into the compound. Any of these low-paid guards could probably be bought off for the price of a new car.”