James BeauSeigneur - In His Image James

Tom, who seemed to be more interested in sightseeing than Decker, picked up brochures on all the historical and religious places to visit that they had missed on their whirlwind tour with Joshua Rosen. Decker looked over a few of them, making mental notes of where to take Elizabeth and the girls when they arrived the week before Christmas. Since Decker's stay in Israel would last into January, Elizabeth thought this would be an excellent opportunity to take advantage of an otherwise bad situation, and spend Christmas with Decker in the Holy Land.

At about four in the afternoon of their eighth day, Tom returned from visiting one of Jerusalem's many shrines and sat down just as the phone rang. On the other end was a man whose accent gave him away as a Palestinian. "I need to speak to the American, Asher."

"I'm sorry he's not here," Tom responded. "May I help you?"

"Tell the American, 'Many dogs shall weep tonight, but their tears will find nowhere to fall.'"

"What?" Tom asked. "What are you talking about? What does that mean?" But the man had hung up.

"What was that?" Decker asked, responding to Tom's excited but puzzled expression.

"I don't really know," he answered. "I think it must have been one of Hank Asher's informants; either that or a kook."

Decker waited a second for Tom to continue and when it seemed that he might keep the mystery to himself, Decker finally asked, "Well, what did he say?"

"He said to tell Asher 'Many dogs shall weep tonight, but their tears will find nowhere to fall.'"

"Any idea what it means?" Decker asked.

Tom picked up the phone and began dialing as he answered. "None, but I know who might." Tom was calling Hank Asher in America. It took four calls to locate him and when they reached him he had no more idea what the message meant than did Tom or Decker.

"The only thing that I can think of," said Asher, "is that sometimes one or more of the Palestinian groups will call after a bombing or a kidnapping to take credit for it. There's quite a bit of rivalry that goes on among the different factions of Palestinians. Maybe the guy that called is trying to establish responsibility before the fact so his group will get credit for it afterward. If so, you can expect a second call from him after the fact. I suggest you call the Israeli police and tell them about the call. In any case, it doesn't seem like you'll have long to wait to find out what he meant. Whatever it is, he said it will happen tonight."

"Okay," said Tom. "Listen, give us a call at the hotel if you think of anything else."

"Sure thing," said Asher. "Oh, one other thing: when you call the police, don't tell them the guy asked for me. I'm trying to take a vacation over here."

Tom called the police, who wasted no time responding to the call. Figuring out what to do about it was another thing. The police inspector, Lt. Freij, said that since the caller was apparently Palestinian, the use of the term 'dogs' must refer to Israelis. "We call them dogs and they call us dogs," Freij said. '"Weep and tears' obviously means that something will happen that will cause grief for Israel. 'Tonight' must mean just that: whatever is going to happen will occur tonight. Beyond that it's guesswork." Lt. Freij also suggested that it might all be just a hoax and that such things were not that uncommon. "Just in case, though," Freij said, "I'll order all the standard precautions and see that all the appropriate authorities are alerted to the possibility of a terrorist attack."

Tom and Decker discussed the caller's message for a while longer but came to no conclusions. A little after eleven o'clock Tom decided to go to bed and Decker went up on the roof of the building for some fresh air.

As he sat on a large gray fixture on the roof, Decker thought back to his discussion with Goodman about the boy, Christopher. In truth, the matter was never very far from his mind. There has to be some way that I can write that story without hurting people, he thought. A dozen scenarios ran through his mind, but all had the same conclusion: too great a risk of exposure; someone was sure to figure it out.

Decker looked out over the beauty of the old city of Jerusalem. For the most part, the city lay silent in the late evening darkness, with only scattered points of light shining in defiance of the moonless night. The gold-covered Dome of the Rock sparkled in the starlight near the Wailing Wall.

"That's it!" he said to himself suddenly. Decker ran at full speed from the roof to the hotel suite. "Tom, get up!" he shouted as he burst through the door. Tom had not gone to bed, but was watching an old John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart movie. Decker reassessed the situation and restated his command, "Quick, damn it! Get your shoes on!"

Tom grabbed his camera, coat, and shoes while running toward the door. "What's going on?" he asked.

"The phone call!" Decker said, abbreviating his speech to save time. "They're going to blow up the Wailing Wall!"

Tom thought for a second as he boarded the elevator on the way to the lobby. "Of course, 'weeping' but 'no place for their tears to fall!'" he said, catching Decker's sense of alarm.

Halfway down to the first floor it occurred to them that they should call the police to let them know what was going on. When they reached the lobby Decker went for the car while Tom called and left a hurried message for Lt. Freij.

Decker drove the short distance from the hotel to the Joffa Gate and turned down David Street into the old city. They were only about a mile from the Wailing Wall, but at their present speed Tom felt that the car would shake apart on the ancient roads before they reached it. Because it was late, the one way street was fairly clear and Decker had no trouble as he made the sharp right onto Armenian Patriarch Street, past the Zion Gate and then onto Bateimahasse Street. They were almost there.

Decker pulled the car into the parking lot at the Wailing Wall and slammed the door as he and Tom ran the remaining hundred yards to the Wall. All was quiet and deserted in the cold, late night. Even the tourists had gone to bed. Decker and Tom waited and looked around for signs of activity but found none. The only sound was the wind and the barely audible late night sounds of the new city outside the walls. They looked at one another.

Decker was the first one to speak. "You know," he said, "any minute now Lt. Freij is going to be driving up here with his sirens blaring and his lights flashing and we're going to be standing here looking like total idiots."

They sighed together. "I don't suppose that we could call him back and tell him to forget it," Tom said in strained jest.

"No use," responded Decker. "They'll be here any minute."

That's when it hit them. They stopped talking and looked around them.

"What's wrong with this picture?" Decker quipped, as he scanned the scene more closely.

"Police," Tom answered dryly. The ever-present Israeli security were nowhere to be found.

The next instant they were startled as a young boy emerged from the entrance to the tunnel Joshua Rosen had shown them. Seconds later he was followed by about eight men for whom he apparently had been standing watch. As he ran, the boy passed close enough for Decker and Tom to get a look at him. It was the Palestinian boy from Jenin.

Decker and Tom ran to the tunnel entrance and found the bodies of four Israeli security personnel laying in pools of blood, their throats cut. Decker stooped down over them, vainly looking for any sign of life. He had seen worse in Vietnam, but dead was always dead. Tom turned his head away from the bloody sight and as he did he caught the distinctive smell of a burning fuse.

"Decker! Run!" he shouted as he grabbed Decker's arm.

The two men ran from the tunnel as fast as they could. Sixty yards away they stopped, thinking that they were probably safe. In the distance they could hear the sounds of Lt. Freij's sirens. As Decker looked toward the approaching police cars, the ground shook with the first of a rapid series of huge explosions.