Thomas Greanias - The Atlantis revelation

Most amazing of all, by bringing the three Solomon globes to their final resting place, Gellar would essentially activate them at their point of origin, revealing the real prize beneath the Temple Mount that Midas and the Alignment were after. It was a revelation greater than anything found in Judaism, Christianity, or Islam, and the foundation of a master civilization that would supplant anything that had come before in human history.

History itself would be history.

In under twenty-four hours, Midas marveled, the Jews once again would be betrayed by thirty pieces of silver. A final Crusade would be unleashed on the Middle East that would ensure lasting world peace and the rise of a new Roman Empire in the twenty-first century. All it would take was a little piece of Atlantean technology tweaked by the Nazis.

If that wasn't the final solution, Midas thought, what was?

Everything, mostly, was following the plan. Midas almost allowed himself to smile. Then he saw Vadim pull up in the limousine. Well, almost everything.

"You look like shit, Vadim," Midas said as they drove out of the town and into the hills toward the airstrip. "I'm amazed security let you through. Did you get the bullet out?"

"No," Vadim grunted, clearly in pain. "But the bleeding stopped."

"We'll take care of it after Jerusalem," Midas said. "At least you had enough presence of mind to get out of the street after you failed to kill Serghetti."

"The Inn of Provence is about the only one on the street with a side door," Vadim explained. "No problem, what with the smoke and confusion caused by Abdil's explosion."

Midas said nothing and turned on the television to watch the BBC.

"Despite the terrorist attack on Rhodes today, the twenty-seven European foreign ministers unanimously agreed to intensify their dialogue with Israel on diplomatic issues," the big-haired anchor said. "Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni said that this is a meaningful achievement for Israeli diplomacy, opening a new chapter in Israel's diplomatic relations with EU states. Israel intends to use the intensified dialogue to convince Europe to increase pressure on the Palestinians over the fate of Jerusalem and ensure that Israel's strategic interests are protected in the Middle East peace process."

Midas turned off the TV and checked his messages on his BlackBerry. He was still bothered by Vadim's failure. He'd have to get rid of Vadim as soon as he had fulfilled his purposes, two of which were still out there somewhere.

Then he saw the text from the Alignment spy code-named Dantanian.

It read: i've got them.

Midas smiled. It was turning out to be an even better night than he could have imagined.

Serena set the Otter on autopilot so she could collect herself after the devastating loss of Benito and before whatever end-of-the-world madness she and Conrad would have to deal with now. They would need to land on the water near the coast of Israel and find some way in, if they didn't get shot down first. But that was for Conrad to figure out, because she could barely think at all.

She looked over at Conrad in the copilot's seat. The entire flight, she felt him keeping one eye on her and one on Lorenzo, who was fast asleep in the rear of the cabin.

"It doesn't stop, does it, Conrad?" she asked him. "The death, the violence, the evil in this world?" She couldn't hold back anymore, and she burst into tears. "He was like a brother to me. My only real family." She started weeping uncontrollably in a way she hadn't for years. She knew Conrad had never seen her like this because she had never seen herself like this. Not even in her private moments. But it was as if something had broken inside.

"I can't do it, Conrad," she said. "I'm all used up. I have nothing left."

Conrad held her in his arms as best he could with their seating arrangement and brushed the wet hair away from her eyes. "What matters is what's required of us," he told her softly. "I need to know what Gellar told you."

"I told you what he told me," Serena said sharply, realizing that she wouldn't get much more in sympathy and that Conrad was right. "He wants to build a Third Temple and seems to think he's going to start very soon. The only place to build it, according to Orthodox Jews, is on the Dome of the Rock."

"Which is considered Islam's third-holiest shrine and where Al-Aqsa Mosque sits," said Conrad. "You destroy the mosque, and all hell breaks loose. I get it. Gellar gets what he wants, and the Alignment ultimately gets what it wants. But tell me about this whole Uriel thing."

"That's what doesn't make sense," she said. "In the Bible, there's an angel who guards the gate back to Eden with a flaming sword. Some traditions specifically reveal the angel's name to be Uriel."

Conrad nodded. "So you figured that Midas was bringing the Flammenschwert to Uriel."

"But it doesn't make sense with Gellar," she said. "He wants to destroy the Dome of the Rock and build a Third Temple for the Jews. The Flammenschwert turns water to fire. But there's no water in Jerusalem. No lakes, no rivers, nothing. The ancient Jews depended on precipitation from the skies, collecting rainwater in tanks and cisterns."

He looked at her and said, "You're forgetting the Gihon Spring and the network of tunnels beneath the Temple Mount."

She knew where he was going and liked to see him enthusiastic, but this wasn't realistic. "The Gihon Spring isn't really a river. That's why they call it a spring."

"It could be enough," he told her. "Back at the EU summit, Midas was pitching his mining technology as a means to extract water from the desert. Some kind of tracing technology that could reveal underground rivers and aquifers with thermal imaging."

Suddenly she saw it all. "There's going to be plenty of thermal energy after he sets off the Flammenschwert."

"The Temple Mount is honeycombed with well shafts, including one I've seen directly under the Dome of the Rock," Conrad told her. "All you have to do is position the Flammenschwert somewhere in that underground spring system, and boom-you destroy the mosque on the surface and maintain the integrity of the Temple Mount foundations. It's like a neutron bomb."

Serena said, "I suppose it would almost look like divine judgment. It's brilliant, really."

Conrad nodded. "Gellar gets his Third Temple. The Alignment gets its Crusade when it rises to defend Israel against the Arabs. And Midas gets the water and technology rights." Then he looked her in the eye. "How much do you want to bet that the warhead from the Flammenschwert is inside one of the globes Gellar took back to Israel? He's probably placing those globes inside some secret chamber under the Temple Mount right now."

Serena switched off the autopilot and took the steering column. "We have to warn the Israelis."

"Which Israelis?" Conrad asked her. "We could be warning the very people who are perpetrating the plan, like Gellar. We need to know for certain who's not Alignment, and right now, except for me and you-actually, just me-we don't even know that. We need to get to Jerusalem on our own."

"I have friends in Gaza," she said. "Catholics who helped me run food relief supplies through the blockades the Israeli coast guard set up. They could get us official work permits and fake IDs and smuggle us into Israel. I'll have to splash down within a few miles of shore, though."

"Now you're talking," he told her as she leveled off and prepared for their descent.

Then a voice from behind said, "No water landing, Sister Serghetti. You will take us to Tel Aviv."

She looked over her shoulder at Lorenzo, who had a gun pointed at her head and was glaring at Conrad.

"Now the weasel shows his true colors," Conrad said, unusually calm. "You gave me up to the police on Rhodes, didn't you? Told Midas I came so he could go and kill Serena and you could take her precious medallion?"