Thomas Greanias - The Promised War

"That's not your reason, Deker. You want to blow the walls so that Rahab and all the Reahns can escape. Once they see their defenses fall, they're going to run. That's not Bin-Nun's plan."

"Bin-Nun's plan is to murder every man, woman, child and animal." Deker looked at Rahab and said, "Plans change, Elezar. You said so yourself."

Elezar spat on the ground and straightened up by the window. "What are you doing, Commander?" he demanded of him in English, pulling rank on him.

"The Israelites are talking more than holy war… Colonel," Deker said, without the respect he knew his superior officer demanded. "They're talking genocide as a strategy to strike the fear of God into their enemies. To do that, they'll kill everything that breathes."

"So you think that if you blow the walls now, you'll put the fear of God not just into the Reahns but all the cities of Canaan."

"They'll surrender like Japan did after the Americans dropped the atom bomb, and Israel will have her Promised Land without the genocide," Deker explained. "Maybe this will generate some kind of good karma in the future and spare our people centuries of worldwide hatred and even the Holocaust you want to prevent."

"Maybe even save Rachel in the future?" Elezar added.

Deker nodded. That was exactly what he was hoping for. "Think, Elezar: we can stop the forever war between Jews and Arabs and the rest of the world."

"You're a fool, Deker. Your arrogance might not only get us killed here in this time, but it could also prevent us from even being born in the future, maybe even prevent the birth of Israel as a nation. You're the genocidal maniac, Deker, not Bin-Nun. Stand down."

Deker knew there was nothing Elezar could do to stop him now, so he ignored him and turned to Rahab. "So what now?" he asked in Hebrew.

"Ram will take you inside the fortress to set your signal," she told him, and looked over his soiled clothing. "Where is your uniform?"

"We left them behind to avoid detection when we approached the walls."

She matched him up with one of the other brothers, Rah, and they stripped and switched. Rah then gave him his identification card, a square of bronze with an official seal on it along with his engraved serial number: 3,257.

Deker showed Elezar the card and then looked at Rah: "You are number 3,257?"

Rahab translated and Deker suddenly seemed to understand the gist of their language when Rah spoke.

"I am," said Rah, with a What's it to you? inflection in his voice.

"Then there are at least 3,257 soldiers in Reah?"

"Ten thousand," Ram answered.

"Ten thousand?" Deker repeated to make sure he understood correctly, too easily expressing his surprise and spooking Rahab, Ram, Rah and the rest in the cellar. Then, aware of the stares, he got ahold of himself and took a breath. "The shadow army, of course."

Hamas had certainly evened his odds with Bin-Nun's 8,000 troops. No, he had done more than that. Suddenly the prospect of blowing the walls wasn't enough. Not if Bin-Nun was expecting to confront 1,500 Reahn troops inside the city, only to be swarmed by 10,000. How could he have missed the count so badly on his first visit? Where had Hamas hidden them?

"What's wrong?" Rahab asked him, and Deker could see her concern, but there was also a flicker of shame in her eyes that confused him.

"Nothing," Deker said, and strapped on his explosives pack. "I'd like to see this shadow army with my own eyes."

Ram nodded. "I'll take you now."

"Deker," Elezar said sternly. "We're supposed to wait."

"You wait here," Deker said, and gave Elezar five C-4 bricks and detonators and kept ten for the fortress wall.

Elezar seemed surprised that he would entrust him with the explosives. But Deker knew that if he succeeded in bringing down the upper fortress wall, these bricks weren't necessary. Faced with such a breach, the Reahns would surely pour out the main gate and flee. If he failed at the upper wall, he'd at least have some backup below. And if he was captured, the Reahns wouldn't have the remaining explosives.

"Once I've set the charges at the fortress and established the direction of destruction, I'll come back and we'll set the rest here farther north along the city wall that lines up with the first blast," he concluded. "Then we'll blow this whole thing open. Tonight if we can, later if we must."

Deker followed Ram past the blocks of darkened houses toward the fortress, smelling only suspicion and fear on the surface streets of Jericho. The citizens were holed up inside with their families, while the soldiers outdoors floated like shadows on the dim walls above and in the empty squares below.

In almost no time Deker followed Ram straight through the fortress gate. Not one guard dared stop the big Reahn and what appeared to be one of his many brothers nipping at his heels-such was Ram's reputation-and Deker began to appreciate even more the tangled web Rahab had spun just to make it this far to save her family.

Deker's plan to bring down the fortress involved setting off a blast in a weak spot in the northern wall, and this was where Ram said he would take them before they left Rahab's cellar. Deker had pointed him in the right direction by suggesting they find a section of the wall where a gate once existed but had since been walled up. Ram said he knew of just such a section.

Now the spire of Jericho's giant stone tower gleamed like a minaret against the full moon as they crossed the fortress's plaza. The iron door Ram was heading toward was on the opposite end of the plaza, in the middle of the north wall.

The central plaza of the fortress was dark, but Deker could make out the columns of the royal palace to his left and the colossal metallic temple of Molech glinting to his right. It was at least several stories tall, with two great bronze doors in its belly and a head in the shape of a bull.

Deker could almost feel Molech's eyes follow him and Ram toward the inside gate of the north wall.

So far, Deker had yet to see the garrison headquarters and troop barracks, let alone the military supply dumps. Which was odd, considering the number of troops Ram claimed Hamas had under his command.

The guards on duty at the iron gate recognized Ram and let them in.

What Deker found inside was another world: a network of tunnels built inside the fortress walls, floor upon floor.

"Welcome to our barracks," Ram said as they pushed their way through the crowded tunnels, past stepladders and rows of hammocks. Torches hung like chandeliers above to give as much shoulder room as possible.

This was how you hid ten thousand healthy, well-fed troops in a city of two thousand or so, Deker thought: pack them inside the upper walls enclosing the six-acre summit of Jericho's inner fortress.

"The shadow army?" Deker asked quietly.

"Yes," Ram grunted.

"So there are at least as many more in the lower city wall?" Deker pressed, knowing that perimeter wall around the entire eight-acre city mound could theoretically hold almost twice as many troops.

"We do not speak of those," Ram whispered gruffly.

At least, that's what Deker thought he said. "What do you mean?"

Ram either didn't understand him or was simply changing the subject. "The torches make it too bright in here. You are no longer my brother but a soldier. I don't know you. Follow me at intervals."

They crossed several more compartments and made their way past one of the mess halls before turning down a narrow flight of steps.

Deker could only marvel. This was a city within a city.

Although the tunnels in the wall were laid out in relatively straight lines, he quickly lost his sense of direction as he followed his guide up and down ladders and steps through various levels and compartments toward the middle of the north wall.