Free The Prophet Conspiracy by Bowen Greenwood Page B

By the time she was standing, every nerve in her back prickled with awareness of his physical presence near to her. There was so much strength in him; she thought she could feel it even without touching.
    She said, “I love your books. There are quite a few of these sitting in my own ‘to be read’ pile back home.”
    Cam smiled at her.
    “Take any of them you want if you need something to read to help you fall asleep. Tomorrow, we’ll get you to the airport and get you home to the states. This is almost over, Siobhan. Once you’re on that plane, you won’t have to worry about it anymore.”
     
     
     

CHAPTER 11
    The two men greeted each other with hopes for Allah’s favor, ignoring the irony of the fact that they did it in a bar. They occupied a table in a back corner, sitting so each of them could have their back to the wall. They both ordered soft drinks. Toma wore a scowl, and it pulled the scar under his eye into an even more grotesque shape.
    “What happened?” were the only words out of his mouth.
    The other man was a fellow member of the militant arm of Hamas. He was a foot soldier — a thug. His job was to commit violence on orders.
    His voice quavered, and he wiped sweat from his brow as he replied.
    “We had her. We were just getting started wiping her phone when someone rescued her. She's gone.”
    “Who rescued her?” Toma asked.
    “We don't know, yet. He was trained, whoever he was. He took out one of our men in a way that left no doubt he was trained in hand to hand combat.”
    Toma pressed his line of questioning.
    “Should we assume the Israeli government knows what's going on, then?”
    The other man shrugged.
    “I don't think so. I think if the Shin Bet had her, they would have already swooped down on that dig with three hundred soldiers. I think she's still on the loose somewhere.”
    “Why do you think so?” Toma asked, leaning forward toward his compatriot. He was in the other man’s personal space, a looming presence of menace. “I don't believe in coincidence. If a trained operative interfered with our work, we should assume the worst. We cannot fail at this. The girl threatens Islam itself!”
    “It doesn’t have to be that bad!” the hired muscle replied, trying not to let his voice squeak. “In this country everyone serves some time in the military and gets elementary Krav Maga training; that would explain the hand to hand combat. It could have been a boyfriend. She’s an American citizen, so it could have been the CIA. In any case, if the girl were in Israeli hands now, they would already have dropped a bomb on us.”
    Toma shrugged and said, “I am not convinced, but I pay you well, so I ought to use your opinions. You live. For now.
    “Now we must reacquire her. She's not in her hotel room, she's not at the dig, and we're watching Ben Gurion to see if she shows up there tomorrow to try to get back to the States.
    “But I say we take the simple way. If she stole her phone back, then we can track her. Phones are like bugs people do us the favor of carrying without us having to plant them.”
    The henchman nodded. The Al Qassam Brigade had already acquired cell phone spying software from Russian hackers. They had gotten the necessary data from the American woman’s phone when they had it. It would be easy. He nodded again.
    Toma said, “When you find them this time, we no longer care about holding her or interrogating her or preventing any American interest. Kill her. Destroy the phone. Defend the faith.”
    “With pleasure,” the terrorist replied. “With great pleasure.”
     
    **********
     
    The sun edged above the mountains in the east. Siobhan emerged from the bathroom with her hair still wet. The shower had been wonderful. Even though her khaki pants and white t-shirt were the same as she had worn yesterday, she still felt like she’d washed away a week’s worth of dirt and sweat. She walked down the hall to find Cameron sitting on the couch, sipping a