The 13th Enumeration (18 page)

A massive hand reached for the phone on the third ring. “Yes?” he asked with a passionless tone as cold as ice.

Marcus spoke into the receiver words he had memorized long ago. “I am Tacitus, a fellow traveler, come from the East.”

The cold voice at the other end replied, “For what are you searching?”

“The light.”

Sounding as if it had dropped a few more degrees, the voice replied, “Proceed with your quest.”

While the cold voice listened, Marcus described the leaden capsules and the circumstances surrounding their discovery. When he had finished, the voice, tinged with a touch of anger—or was it fear? Marcus could not tell which—asked, “And you say one of the capsules was marked with the number thirteen?”

“Yes, that is correct,” Marcus replied.

“I want to know everything related to this matter from this point forward, and I want to know it before it happens. Is that understood?”

Marcus, with the sinister, unspoken threat seeping into his bones, replied, “I understand.”

The connection went dead. Marcus was unsettled. He’d never had cause to make the call before, but those many years ago he had sworn an oath—many oaths, in fact. Those oaths demanded a loyalty that superseded all others. He did not know exactly what this was about, but those many years ago they had instructed him that should he ever see or hear of any communications marked or associated with the number thirteen, no matter how inconsequential, he should immediately call the number.

He remembered asking himself back then what could be so important that it demanded such attention. From the tone of the cold voice at the other end of the phone, he knew that after all these years, whatever it was, it was still of great interest to the Order.

Chapter 37

Manhattan, New York City

Sitting at his desk in FBI headquarters, David considered the events of the past several months. So many incredible changes had taken place that the intelligence community was just playing catch-up. The events in Manhattan had devastated the economy of New York City as well as the state. The financial district of New York was no more. Lower Manhattan was deserted. The experts were still trying to determine the extent of the water system’s radioactivity and diesel contamination. Some were even speculating that the only way to make Manhattan habitable again was to replace all of the city’s water piping, from the city’s main to the smallest pipe and fixture in every building and residence.

The case against Joe Douglas was growing. So far they’d determined that he had acted with funding from agents of al-Qaeda and/or Iran. The evidence accumulated showed he had carried out the attack by himself. Every law-enforcement official in the nation was having nightmares about this low-technology assault upon the American urban way of life. There was really nothing that could be done to prevent similar attacks from being carried out in cities and towns across America. Sure, not every attack would have radioactive contamination, but the terrorists really didn’t need it. Without clean, pure water, most urban communities were uninhabitable.

The most unsettling fact was that such an attack could be carried out with impunity, and the results were as disruptive as if a bomb had gone off—maybe even more so. The only good that had come out of this, as far as David could see, was that some of the American people were waking up. Those willing to think for themselves realized that the government, at whatever levels, could not be counted on to protect them. They were taking action. Many decided to provide themselves an edge should similar events happen in their own communities. Some stored their own clean water, while others purchased water purification equipment. On balance, a new awareness of each individual responsibility to self, family, and community was taking hold all over America.

With the events in Manhattan, the subpoena of Google’s download records was granted by a federal judge without a problem. David and his team had been going over the records for weeks now. Finding the intended recipients of the encrypted pictures was not going to be as easy as they had thought. There were literally hundreds of people who had downloaded the pictures in just the New York area alone—who knew so many people cared about their junk mail?

The list of people who had downloaded the pictures was fed into the various law-enforcement databases around the world to see if any of the junk mail downloaders were known entities. It was learned that Joe Douglas had been downloading the Google junk mail pictures for the past several months. This provided them with a link between the encrypted files, Joe Douglas, and a greater, as of yet unknown, conspiracy.

David was under no illusions as to getting quick results. The sheer number of names they had to go through would take several more weeks, if not months. Even then, the recipients might never communicate directly with their handlers, making it almost impossible to prove any connection with a spy network. Well, no one ever said it would be easy. At least Joe Douglas was confirmation that there was a terrorist network out there using the Anaj software to communicate with its members by means of innocuous junk mail. That was a start. With a lot of hard work and persistence, they would be able to track down the other members of the network.

For all their sakes, David hoped they could do it before there was another attack.

Chapter 38

Tel Aviv, Israel

When Michael Goldburg got to work the next evening, Marcus Nayat was sitting in his office.

“I didn’t expect to see you again so soon,” Michael said. “Those little drives must have gotten someone’s attention.”

You have no idea,
Marcus thought to himself. He withdrew the four lead-encased objects from his pocket. “Michael, we need you to take these flash drives and immediately place them back in the sewer line where you found them.”

Michael looked at Marcus with incredulous surprise. “You want me to put them back in the city sewer main?”

“We think you might have stumbled upon a spy network in Tel Aviv. For some time now our intelligence service has been concerned because some of our normal sources of intelligence traffic have gone silent. With your discovery, we may have found the means by which they have been communicating. We believe the electromagnetic field around the sewer pipe in the bakery ensnares these flash drives, allowing them to be retrieved. We have put the bakery under twenty-four-hour surveillance. These four devices,” Marcus held them up, “have files on them encrypted by a method American intelligence believes was used by the American terrorist Joe Douglas. It is possible these files may be part of a much larger network.”

Michael shook his head, bewildered but tracking. Marcus continued, “Our technological wizards have added very small tracking devices to these flash drives. If you insert them back in the pipe, it is our hope we can follow them back to where they came from. If we can do this without being noticed, we have a good chance of discovering who is responsible for the New York attack as well as what intelligence they are passing from Israel. Our agents have also begun to set up twenty-four-hour surveillance of the main sewer piping from various locations upstream of the bakery. If we can figure out how they are delivering these leaden capsules to the bakery magnet, with time, we can gradually back track them to their points of origin.”

With a serious look on his face, Michael asked, “Whoever thought of that idea was pretty clever. Had it not been for the steel wool getting caught on the magnet, we would never have known.”

Marcus interrupted him. “That and your very astute observations, Michael. Had you not picked up the devices, we still wouldn’t have known. Now, hopefully you can get them back to the same location without anyone being the wiser. Be advised: if you do any further video inspection of the main line upstream of the bakery, you may see our monitoring cameras. We would appreciate it if you would keep the number of people who know of our activities to a minimum.”

“I can do better than that, Marcus. I will make that section of the sewer line a mandatory supervisor assist. They’ll have to call me before anyone goes out on a call should that section of the line stop up again.”

Marcus nodded. “That will work. We appreciate your cooperation. Hopefully we can find out who is behind these activities and thwart their future plans.”

After shaking hands, Marcus left. Shortly thereafter, Michael took the little flash drives, and with Rover’s help, placed them back where he had found them in the sewer line.

Chapter 39

Dallas, Texas

After returning from Israel in the fall, Zane had been so busy with school and his obsession with the research paper on the prophecy of Daniel’s seventy weeks that he had not paid any attention to his shares of AQES—that was, until now. Spring break was coming up, and his trip to Israel in the fall had used the money he’d originally saved for the spring break archeology dig. He had been invited to be present when they opened the display for the artifacts he had found several years before with Yoseph. Finding those artifacts had changed the direction of his life, and he had really wanted to be there. He’d volunteered at a dig for a few days as well. Now he didn’t have enough money to go back. He didn’t regret it, though. More soberly he thought about the trip, his rescue of Rachael, and the ensuing media circus
.
She was one interesting individual, that was for sure. Maybe he would look her up when he returned to Israel. He wondered what his impressions of her would be under more normal circumstances.

This year, CPBH had assigned him to the Capernaum dig. To get his hands dirty with the same dirt Jesus had walked on, working in a place where the Messiah had done so many miracles and spent so much time—as a Christian and an archeology enthusiast, it didn’t get much better than Capernaum. It was an opportunity not to be missed, but he didn’t want to ask his parents for any money, so the only thing he could think of was to sell some of his AQES shares.

It was now February, and it had been almost four months since Zane had checked his Ameritrade investment account. Logging in, he almost fell out of his chair.

It said his account value was just over two million dollars. That couldn’t be correct!

Zane looked up the stock price of AQES and saw that in fact it was now worth $103.45 a share. Just to be sure, he opened another window in his Internet browser and looked it up on the MarketWatch financial news site. The same.
Unbelievable,
Zane thought to himself.

He picked up the phone. Sam answered on the fifth ring with a sleepy, “Hello?”

“Sam, how long were you going to wait to tell me AQES was over a hundred dollars?” Zane burst out.

“Well, hello to you too, bro. I figured you had been watching and would give me a call when you were ready.”

“Sam, my account value is just over two million now! Don’t you think I should sell some?”

Sam chuckled. “Yes, I think you should start selling some now. Set yourself a sell schedule and stick to it. I would start by selling a thousand shares right now, and continue to do so at specific price intervals until you’ve sold them all. Right now it doesn’t look like Aquarius Elemental Solutions can do anything wrong. They’re the largest company in the world. And they’re giving most of their gross sale proceeds to the Aquarius Fund to improve living conditions in the third world. It’s hard to see any downside.”

Zane quirked an eyebrow. “Then why do you sound so skeptical?”

“It’s times like these when everything is going perfectly that you should pay the most attention. AQES may go to one thousand or higher over the next several years. But how much money do you really need? I have asked myself—at what point is enough enough? If we live a modest lifestyle, this money will last us both a long time. So my advice to you is, don’t let greed take over. Write out a plan for selling your shares and stick to it. For what it’s worth, I’ve been selling my shares since the twenty-dollar range. I haven’t yet sold them all, but if the current price appreciation holds, I’ll be done in a few more weeks.”

Zane replied in a more subdued tone, “Thanks, Sam, for the advice. I will take it. You’ve given me something to think about as well. Have you talked to David yet?”

“He’s already sold half his shares. He’ll be finished in a few more months as well.”

“Any news from David about New York?” Zane asked.

“You know David, Zane. Always plays it by the book. He won’t say anything more than what we’ve learned on the news. He’s been putting in a lot of hours trying to track down the people who were behind this.”

“Okay. And Sam, all kidding aside—thank you for the recommendation on AQES. I really doubted it would ever amount to anything. I just hope I have the wisdom to use it wisely.” Zane finished with a thoughtful pause.

“I’ve have been thinking the same thought lately. This money has the potential to be a real blessing. On the other hand, if we let it, it could take control of our lives.”

Zane hung up the phone and sat at his desk in thought. Part of him was excited about the money he had made with AQES. The other part of him was worried that it had come too easily. Would he have the maturity to handle it wisely? Over the years he had learned that when he was in doubt about something, the best solution was to simply ask his heavenly Father for wisdom to make the right decisions. Zane got down on his knees and did so now.

“Father in heaven, I know I don’t have all the answers. Please give me the wisdom to honor you with this money. Please make it a blessing and not a curse. I thank you for this opportunity—please help me to use it wisely. I ask you Father, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

Zane got back up, sat down at his desk, and pulled out a piece of paper. Writing down his goals had always helped him get on track. Now he wrote a schedule for selling his shares of AQES. He would sell one thousand shares a week for the next twenty weeks. If they all sold at around these prices, he would make over two million dollars. What unintended consequences would such money bring? What new direction would it take his life? Already he could see that he had new concerns he did not have just thirty minutes ago. What was the biblical quote his mother always used to tell him? “To whom much is given, much is required.” Yes, that was it—and he was just beginning to feel the weight of those words now. “To whom much is given . . .”

The words brought back profound memories. Since Zane was a little boy, his parents had encouraged him and his brother and sister to set aside a portion of their money to help those less fortunate than themselves. They had never told him how much to set aside, but had left that up to his own preference. One of their rules was that he was required to use the money personally to help others. They told him it was his money, and it was his responsibility make sure it was used according to his purpose. Giving it to the church, they explained, was shirking his personal responsibility. Not that their church would not use it properly, but it was his, not their, responsibility. They had wanted him to have personal contact with those he helped.

He had quickly learned that life was challenging and often heartbreaking. As a young child he had looked in the eyes of those he helped. He had felt their humanity, shared their pain, their hunger, anger, sorrow, and joy. He remembered serving meals to children his own age at the homeless shelter on Thanksgiving Day. Taking clothes and other necessities to the orphanage and realizing the children there didn’t have the love and protection of parents like his. Those experiences had a profound impact on how Zane viewed his fellow human beings. They weren’t just a picture in the church bulletin—they were real, living, breathing human beings, each made in the image of their Creator.

Another point his parents had often reminded him of was that he should not be giving out of some sense of guilt for his better circumstances, but out of love. It had taken him many years to understand the difference between the two.

He didn’t know exactly what he wanted to do with all his newfound wealth, but one thing he could do was continue the traditions his father and mother had started so many years ago. He would set aside half of what he sold to be used specifically to fulfill the biblical mandate of helping the widow, the fatherless, and the poor, as well as sharing the gospel message. Yes, he would use the money to help those in his little sphere of influence. Make a difference in the lives of those whose paths he crossed in the short time allotted in this life.

To that end, Zane placed an order to sell one thousand shares of AQES at market open the next day. He also placed another nineteen conditional orders to sell one thousand shares of AQES at market every week until all the shares were gone.

The decision made and put into action, he felt somewhat relieved. Tomorrow he would open a separate account into which he would deposit half the proceeds of all his sales. Over the coming days, he would develop specific plans for the use of those funds. With a yawn, Zane turned off the light over his desk and prepared for bed. As he crawled under the covers, he thought about the Capernaum dig. It was only a few weeks away. He was really looking forward to it. With these pleasant thoughts, Zane, with some difficulty, finally fell asleep.