Seven Ancient Wonders - Matthew Reilly [37]
Everyone in the team saw it—watching from inside the farmhouse, alerted by a whisper from Doris. The thing was, no-one ever—ever—teased Gunman about the incident.
This was unusual.
They were soldiers. They could and did make fun of each other on a regular basis, but for some reason, Gunman’s relationship with Lily was off-limits.
Well, except for the time he and Lily broke into Aziz’s workshop in the big barn, took a plasticine-like substance from his lock-box and used it to blow up Barbie’s campervan.
Both Gunman and Lily copped hell for that.
And so, gradually, the team became a family—a family centred around the protection and nurturing of one little girl.
Of course, Lily loved the attention—like when she discovered ballet and put on a one-girl show to a cheering audience of seven commandos and two grandparent-like figures.
And still every day, when she appeared in the kitchen for breakfast, whoever happened to be there at the time would turn to see if she noticed the sheet of paper magnetised to the fridge.
But then one day, when she was seven, there was a commotion.
As the team was eating breakfast, a radio squawked: ‘All units. This is Sentry One, I have an intruder coming in through the main gate.’
Everyone leapt up, alarmed at the presence of an outsider, worried that other nations might know of their mission.
The intruder turned out to be a lone man—tall and thin, with a sanguine face—walking casually down the dirt road from the main gate.
Three hidden guns were trained on him as he rang the doorbell.
Wizard answered the door. ‘Can I help you, young man?’
‘Indeed you can, Professor Epper,’ the thin man said. He had a dry pale face, with high cheekbones and deep hollow eye sockets.
Wizard blanched, did a double-take.
The intruder’s grey eyes never blinked. He knew that he had just chilled Wizard to the very bone.
‘Professor Max T. Epper,’ he said, ‘Professor of Archaeology at Trinity College, Dublin, and the representative of Canada on a secret eight-nation task force protecting the daughter of the Oracle of Siwa, with a view to obtaining the lost Capstone of the Great Pyramid. My name is Lieutenant Benjamin Cohen, call-sign Archer, formerly of the Sayaret Matkal, now of the Israeli Mossad. I’ve been sent by my government to join your task force.’
West stepped out from behind Wizard.
‘Why hello, Jack,’ Archer said familiarly. ‘Haven’t seen you since Desert Storm. Heard about what you did at that SCUD base outside Basra. Very nice. And Israel appreciated your efforts; although we still don’t know how you got out. My bosses said you were involved in this, which was why they sent me. They thought you would accept me more than you would a total stranger.’
‘They were right, Ben,’ West said. ‘It’s the only thing keeping you alive right now.’
‘Don’t shoot the messenger.’
‘Why not?’ West said and for the briefest of moments, Archer’s confident air fell.
West said, ‘I don’t like having my hand forced, Ben, and you’ve got us over a barrel here.’
Archer said seriously, ‘This is big, Jack. Affairs of state. Fate of the world and all that. This confrontation between Europe and the US has been coming for a long time. Let’s just say, Israel always likes to be involved. If it makes you feel better, I have orders to place myself under your direct command.’
West pondered this a moment.
Then he said, ‘No contact with home. No reporting back to Mossad until the mission is achieved.’
‘I have to report back sometime—’
‘No reporting back to Mossad until the mission is achieved or I blow your brains out right now, Ben.’
Archer held up his hands, smiled. ‘Can’t argue with that. You’ve got a deal.’
The team was stunned—but they knew they didn’t have any choice in the matter.
Either they allowed Archer to join their team or the Israelis would just advise the Americans of their mission.
How the Israelis had discovered them, they didn’t know—but then the Mossad is the most ruthless and efficient