knees and covered her ears. He heard a sudden burst of automatic fire and a female scream coming from within the room as Lieutenant Ash thundered past with his troops, and he realized that he had missed.
A bright flash of light burst from the room as the IDF troopers tossed in a flash-bang to blind Sheviz. Ethan, his arms trembling, shifted position and peered through the doorway.
A man in a white coat lay beneath the writhing bodies of two IDF troopers, one of whom had wrestled a pistol from the man’s hands. Ethan glanced up as Lieutenant Ash reappeared in the doorway.
“God knows how but Sheviz is down and Lucy’s okay,” he said quickly.
Ethan felt a flood of relief as he lowered his pistol. Damon Sheviz glared at him with a fanatical expression, thick blood staining his shoulder.
“This is God’s work!” he spat in fury.
“We need him to tell us everything he knows and then get back to Jerusalem,” Ethan said.
Sheviz shook his head, his teeth gritted against the pain of his wound.
“I’ll die before I’ll tell you anything.”
Ethan watched as Lucy Morgan was carefully lifted from the gurney by two soldiers who set her onto unsteady legs in time for Rachel to fold her arms around her daughter. From somewhere deep within, Ethan felt a warmth radiate from the abscess of pain he harbored, and his shoulders sagged with relief as his eyes closed.
A hand clapped him on the shoulder, jolting him alert.
“I never thought I’d say this, but good work,” Lieutenant Ash said. “That was a hell of a shot.”
Rachel looked at him as she held her daughter and smiled as tears flowed like rivers from her eyes. Ethan could see that the spark of life had returned within them, glowing brightly once more.
He turned his attention to Sheviz.
“This man,” he said to Jerah Ash. “What do we do with him?”
Lieutenant Ash considered the surgeon before them.
“I want to know everything,” he said. “Now.”
“Go to hell,” Sheviz shot back.
The lieutenant took a pace toward him and slammed his hand around the surgeon’s neck, lifting him off the floor.
“Now.”
Sheviz choked for a moment until the soldier released him. Coughing, Sheviz shook his head.
“My allegiance is to God,” he rasped. “Anything you do I’ll report to the Court of Human Rights.”
“Like your victims could?” Ethan snapped. “What is MACE’s connection to all of this?”
Sheviz remained silent. Ethan turned to Lieutenant Ash.
“You’re answerable to the Court of Human Rights, as a soldier,” Ethan said. “But I was never here.”
Ash thought for a moment, and then looked at his fellow soldiers.
“Didn’t see a thing,” one of them said.
Sheviz looked at the troops, and his defiance crumbled into panic.
“You’ll never get away with it!” he stammered.
The soldiers silently filtered out of the laboratory, leaving Sheviz, Lucy Morgan, Ethan, and Rachel. Lieutenant Ash remained, glancing at a pile of videotapes stacked on a counter nearby.
“What are those?” he demanded.
“We taped the procedures,” Sheviz said.
“Did you tape what you did to Ahmed Khan?” Ethan asked.
The surgeon’s eyes widened briefly.
Ethan moved to stand in front of him, reaching down beside him and picking up a scalpel that lay on a bench. He examined the cruel little blade as he spoke.
“If you fail to tell us everything, then I’ll make damned sure you lose your life. But I won’t have you killed, Sheviz. I won’t let them put you on trial or go through any legal process. I have a friend—Ayeem Khan—a Bedouin man who lives out in the deserts near Bar Yehuda. His son disappeared at the same time as Lucy, and from the same place. His name was Ahmed. You remember him, don’t you, Damon?”
Sheviz’s eyelid twitched. “I remember him.”
“Good,” Ethan said softly. “Ayeem is a popular man, with friends among the best and the worst of all Palestine. I promise that these soldiers and I will take you to Ayeem and show them that video, and he will take you to his Bedouin family.” Ethan paused for a long moment, letting the information sink in. “What they will do to you for weeks and months and years will be worse than a thousand deaths. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Sheviz stared at Ethan, taking in his uncompromising expression before speaking.
“I will help,” he said quietly.
Ethan nodded slowly. “Start talking.”
“I work for an organization in the United States called the American Evangelical Alliance. They called me some months ago to conduct experiments in America using DNA extracted from the fragmentary remains of a Nephilim, a