The Genesis Plague - Michael Byrnes [81]
He picked up the object and held it under the light. It was a tool that resembled a hi-tech surgical instrument. Something a dentist might use to—
‘Extract teeth.’
Had to have been left behind by one of the scientists brought in for the 2003 excavation. He pocketed the plier-like forceps.
There was one item left, and Jason remembered the bot had spotted it to the right of the exit. Shining the flashlight waist-high, Jason ran the light along the curve of the wall until he found the spot that had clearly been smoothed by tools for a very obvious purpose: to prepare the surface for etching. And the image etched into stone made his jaw drop open.
45
LAS VEGAS
As the Cessna’s engines whined down for final descent into McCarran International Airport, Thomas Flaherty’s BlackBerry chimed. He checked the display. ‘It’s from Jason,’ he told Brooke Thompson. When he brought up the text message, he noted a handful of icons for picture attachments. ‘Says: “Al-Zahrani in custody. Have Brooke review pix from inside cave. Is this Lilith?”’
Brooke sat bolt upright, not sure what to be most excited about. ‘Wait. Is he saying that Al-Zahrani has been captured? Fahim Al-Zahrani?’
Realizing he just slipped up big-time, Flaherty’s eyes went wide. Oops. ‘Yeah. About that …’ He cast his eyes to the BlackBerry, thinking how he could change the subject.
‘Go on … you can tell me,’ Brooke said. ‘You know I’m really good at keeping secrets.’
He glanced up at her. ‘I suppose.’
Flaherty briefly explained how Jason’s team had been tracking Al-Qaeda operatives for the past few months leading up to the ambush that forced Al-Zahrani and his surviving posse to take cover in the mountain.
‘Wow. That is huge,’ she said, mouth agape. ‘That’s like catching the Devil himself.’
Flaherty tried to wrap his brain around it too. ‘It’s ten million dollars huge,’ he murmured.
‘What?’
‘Nothing.’ He shook his head. ‘Wow. I just hope he’s okay.’
‘Al-Zahrani?’
‘No … Jason. See, Al-Zahrani is Bin Laden’s new right-hand man. And, of course, Bin Laden was responsible for what happened at the World Trade Center. Jason’s brother had been an insurance broker for Marsh USA. Went to work early that morning … to his office on the ninety-fifth floor of the North Tower. They never found the body. So indirectly, one could say that Al-Zahrani, or at least what he stands for, was also responsible for killing Jason’s brother,’ he explained.
She nodded.
‘Jason must be freaking out.’
‘I bet he is.’
‘I hope he doesn’t do something drastic.’
‘What, like kill him?’
Flaherty nodded. ‘Not that anyone would shed a tear for Al-Zahrani. But Jason could get himself in a lot of trouble.’
‘I doubt he’d be anything but a hero,’ she disagreed.
‘I suppose. God, imagine when people find out about this. It’s amazing.’
‘So let’s see those pictures,’ she said, anxiously eyeing the BlackBerry.
‘Sure, let’s have a look.’ Flaherty read aloud the name Jason had assigned the first attachment, ‘Mass Grave’. He exchanged an uneasy glance with Brooke, then opened the file. When he saw it, he cringed. ‘Yikes. Take a look at this.’ He handed the BlackBerry to her.
The picture clearly showed a dense pile of human bones. Brooke wasn’t sure how to react. ‘This is what Frank’s team had been studying?’
‘Seems so. There are a few other pictures here,’ he said, showing her how to open the remaining files.
There were two more shots of heaped bones showing wider angles that Jason obviously had taken to emphasize the magnitude of what he’d found. The continuous death pile seemed to circle the cave. In the images, Brooke could make out the rocky walls and ceiling.
‘It’s pretty spacious in there,’ Flaherty noted as he looked on.
‘And it’s packed full of bones,’ she muttered. ‘God, look at all that … There’s got to be hundreds, maybe thousands …’
‘I’d go with thousands.’
The next picture Brooke brought up hit her like a sledgehammer. ‘Look at this,’ she said, turning the display to Flaherty.