Stephen England - Pandora's grave

That was where he was when Carter found him. “We’ve received a sitrep from Nichols.”

“And?”

“The search is going well-they’ve located two of the four canisters. One of them’s disarmed and they’re working on the other one.”

“Thank God,” Kranemeyer breathed, closing his eyes for a moment. As good as the news was, it came with a chilling reality.

There were less than forty minutes left…

11:19 A.M. Local Time

The Masjid al-Aqsa

It had been days since they had been alone, Hamid mused as he and Davood moved down the stairs to the lower level of al-Aqsa. And the time had not been right.

His face darkened as he thought of the young agent’s treachery. He had sold out his faith for the hope of reward, an unforgivable sin.

At least Hamid had no intention of forgiving it. The Glock seemed to tremble beneath his coat as the pair hustled down the wide limestone steps, entering a vaulted corridor.

“Any ideas on the canister?” Harry asked, watching the surveillance screens. On one, they could see Abdul Ali hurrying back through the main hall of the masjid-on another the forms of Davood and Hamid making their way down a corridor. Worshipers were beginning to flood into the building, in advance of zhurh , the noon prayer.

Tex shook his head. “It sounds like a new design. Won’t know till I’ve had a better look.”

Harry nodded, then motion on one of the screens attracted his eye. The two agents were stopped in a small room, a library, from the look of it. It also looked like they were alone.

He selected the camera on the computer console and zoomed in the camera. Hamid was gesturing angrily at the younger man, who stood with his back to a bookshelf. Something was going on.

“EAGLE SIX to FULLBACK, are we having a problem?”

Without replying, Hamid swung toward the camera, the silenced Glock in his right hand coming into view. A single shot spat from the barrel, smashing into the lens of the camera.

The screen went dark. For a moment, Harry stood there, frozen in shock, then he activated his earpiece once more. “Stand down, FULLBACK. I repeat, stand down ! That is an order.”

“Why?” Davood asked, his voice trembling as he stared into the muzzle of Hamid’s pistol.

“You have betrayed our brethren,” Hamid responded, ignoring the voice in his ear. “You have betrayed the holy jihad. And the penalty for such a betrayal is death.”

“I thought you were one of us.” The young agent shook his head.

Hamid spat on the floor, reaching forward to rip the microphone from Davood’s earlobe, crushing it beneath his foot. “ Never . I have not forgotten the words of the prophets, as you have. It is not without reason that I am called BEHDIN, a man of pure religion.”

“EAGLE SIX to FULLBACK, I need you to put your gun down.”

“I thought you would have had agents in place to prevent him from turning on you,” Farshid Hossein observed coolly from the corner where he had been watching events unfold.

“Prevent what ?” Harry demanded, turning on him in irritation.

The major took in the look on Harry’s face and blanched. “You really didn’t know, did you?”

Harry crossed the room in two strides, anger flashing in his eyes. “I don’t have time for riddles, blast you!”

Hossein never blinked. “The man you call FULLBACK is our sleeper agent. The man who betrayed your team in the foothills of the Alborz.”

“I never would have suspected,” Davood replied, stalling for time.

Hamid glared, circling, the gun still extended in his hand as he talked. “You don’t understand what all this means, do you? You pray at the masjid on Fridays and you dare to call it faith. My whole life has been dedicated to this cause. Ever since my family moved from Isfahan to Basra when I was twelve. I saw the American soldiers shoot their way through my village, and I could not cry. I was forced to live in the country I hated, to establish my cover. I joined that same cursed military at nineteen, because it was the quickest way to achieve my objectives-and Allah forgive me, I killed my fellow believers in the mountains of Afghanistan. All for this time, this moment. This holy mission, to prepare the way of the Expected One.”

Davood shook his head. “The Quran commands that ‘if they incline to peace, incline to it also’. This is not the way of Allah, my brother.”

“I am not your brother!” In that moment, Davood realized he had pushed it too far. He started to turn, to face the older agent.

The first bullet caught him in the side of the jawbone, fragmenting bone and pulverizing tissue…

Harry shook his head. “No, you must be mistaken.”

Yet even as he spoke, his words felt hollow, empty, lacking conviction. Could it be? That they had been wrong all along.

“I’m not,” Hossein replied, utter sincerity in his voice. “I tried to tell your director this, but he refused to listen.”

True enough. And then it all clicked into place-Thomas had been betrayed to the enemy, but Davood hadn’t known his location. Hamid had.

Harry stood there, still frozen in indecision. How long had he and Hamid worked together? How many times had they saved each other’s lives? The blood debt.

The door opened and Abdul Ali appeared, bearing both of the canisters. The Jordanian took a look around at the faces in the security center and asked, “What’s happened?”

Harry ignored him, turning to Tex. “I’m going in.”

“That was not the plan,” Abdul Ali protested, setting the canisters down by the door.

“The plan,” Harry retorted, “has gone out the window. We’ve got a rogue agent in the masjid and two canisters still in play. Tex, I need you to stay here and disarm the second container. Abdul Ali, you’re coming with me.”

“My orders,” the bodyguard replied stoutly, “are to keep you out of the masjid.”

“And my orders are to prevent your people from dying by the thousands.” Harry picked up the UMP-45 and slung it around his neck, buttoning his leather jacket over it. “I’ll leave you to reconcile the two.”

As the Jordanian stood in the door, undecided, Hossein spoke up. “Give me a gun and I’ll join you.”

Harry considered the request for a moment, then motioned to Tex. “Give him your back-up.”

Without a word, Texan pulled a.357 Magnum Ruger LCR from his ankle holster and handed it to the Iranian major, butt-first, along with a pair of speedloaders. Hossein spun the cylinder with a smile of satisfaction, shoving the gun into a trousers pocket.

Ali seemed still to be considering his decision and Harry moved toward the doorway, his face hard as a flint, his hand on his holstered pistol. In the chaos left by Hamid’s betrayal, he saw his mission clear.

For a moment, the two men stood face-to-face, staring into each other’s eyes. Then the Jordanian stepped aside with a sigh. “I have a duty to the Mufti, whom I have sworn before Allah to obey. And I have a duty to my own conscience. I will go with you.”

Ali picked up the two-way at his belt and issued an order in Arabic. “The public is to be denied access to the lower levels of al-Aqsa and the Masjid al-Marwani. Effective immediately.”

Harry’s hand fell away from the butt of his Colt and he nodded, without a trace of a smile.

“Let’s roll then.”

11:26 A.M.

The bell tower

“I think the bleeding has stopped,” Thomas said, stepping back to assess his work. He had torn his t-shirt into pieces to bandage the young woman’s shoulder. “But the bullet is still in your shoulder. A doctor will have to remove it.”

She shook her head. “Why didn’t you kill me?”