Desecration: Antichrist Takes the Throne (Paperback)

Chapter One

David Hassid sat in the front passenger seat of the rented van with his solar-powered laptop. Leah Rose was driving. Behind her, Hannah Palemoon sat next to Mac McCullum, while Abdullah Smith lay on his back across the third seat. They had spent the night hidden behind a rock outcropping a mile and a half off the main road, midway between Resurrection Airport in Amman, Jordan, and Mizpe Ramon. The last thing they wanted was to lead the GC to Operation Eagle.

David found on the Net that he, Hannah, Mac, and Abdullah were still presumed dead from the airplane crash in Tel Aviv the day before, but Security and Intelligence personnel were combing the wreckage. “How soon before they realize we’re at large?” Hannah said.

Mac shook his head. “I hope they assume we’d a been vaporized in a deal like that. Pray they find small bits of shoes or somethin’ they decide is clothing material.”

“I can’t raise Chang,” David said, angrier than he let on.

“I imagine the boy’s busy,” Mac said.

“Not for this long. He knows I need to be sure he’s all right.”

“Worryin’ gets us nowhere,” Mac said. “Look at Smitty.”

David turned in his seat. Abdullah slept soundly. Hannah and Leah had hit it off and were planning a mobile first aid center at the airstrip. “We all fly back to the States when the operation is over,” Leah said.

“Not me,” David said, and he felt the eyes of the others. “I’m going to Petra before anybody else even gets there. That place is going to need a tech center, and Chang and I have already put a satellite in geosynchronous orbit above it.”

His phone chirped, and he dug it from his belt. “Hey,” he heard. “You know where I am, because I’m on schedule.”

“You don’t need to talk in code, Buck. Nothing’s more secure than these phones.”

“Force of habit. Listen, somebody missed their rendezvous.”

“Just say who, Buck. If we were going to be compromised, it’s happened already.”

“Hattie.”

“She was with Leah in Tel Aviv. Then she was supposed to—”

“I know, David,” Buck said. “She was to check in with me at dawn today in Jerusalem.”

“The old man’s there and okay?”

“Scared to death, but yeah.”

“Tell him we’re with him.”

“No offense, David, but he knows that, and Hattie is a much bigger problem.”

“She’s got her alias, right?”

“David! Can we assume the obvious and deal with the problem? She’s supposed to be here, but I haven’t heard from her. I can’t go looking for her. Just let everybody know that if they hear from her, she needs to call me.”

“She crucial to your assignment?”

“No,” Buck said, “but if we don’t know where she is, we’re going to feel exposed.”

“The GC lists her deceased, just like us.”

“That could be what they want us to think they believe.”

“Hang on,” David said, turning to Leah. “What was Hattie supposed to do after you two split up?”

“Disguise herself as an Israeli, blend into the crowd in Tel Aviv, go to Jerusalem, check in with Buck, and watch for signs that Carpathia’s people recognized either Buck or Dr. Rosenzweig.”

“Then?”

“Lie low in Jerusalem until everything blew up there, then head back to Tel Aviv. Someone from the operation was going to pick her up and fly her back to Chicago while all the attention was on Jerusalem and the escape.”

David turned back to the phone. “Maybe she got spooked in Tel Aviv and never got to Jerusalem.”

“She needs to let me know that, David. I’ve got to hold Chaim’s hand for a while here, so inform everybody, will you?”

Continues...