He tore open a consignment note stuck to the side of the crate, and raised his eyebrows in surprise as he read the address.
“It’s for a Kelvin Patterson.”
“The man behind everything,” Lucy Morgan hissed as she looked at the crate. “I’ll bet a year’s salary that the remains I found are in there.”
Lieutenant Ash looked at one of his men. “Open it.”
The soldier produced a digging tool from his webbing, lodged the hook under the lid of the crate, and pulled hard. The wooden lid splintered as the nails popped out, and Jerah Ash reached over and pushed the lid clear.
Ethan stared down into the crate to see a rectangular block of sandstone. Inside, illuminated by the interior lights of the aircraft, lay the skeletal remains entombed in rocks that had held its body for millennia.
“That’s the one,” Lucy Morgan said as she joined him beside the crate.
Lieutenant Ash stared at the remains, apparently caught between relief and alarm. “And this … thing. It’s—”
“Some kind of ape,” Ethan said, shutting the lid. “First things first, this isn’t over yet. There’s still Kelvin Patterson. He must be involved and he must have people waiting for this to arrive in DC. Let’s fly this plane over there and see who turns up.”
“Not a chance,” Lieutenant Ash snapped. “You can’t fly this plane anyway.”
Aaron and Safiya Luckov, standing behind the officer, spoke together as though prompted.
“We can.”
Lieutenant Ash looked over his shoulder at them in mild surprise, but shook his head vigorously as he turned back to Ethan.
“These remains belong here in Israel, and I’ve already risked enough bringing you here. This ends now.”
“It won’t if you don’t let this aircraft travel back to the United States,” Ethan said calmly. “If we repair the aircraft’s tires and leave now, then you’re in the clear. You found and protected Lucy Morgan and you ensured that I left the country, as ordered to by Shiloh Rok. You’re the hero of the hour, Jerah. If you don’t, there’s going to be one hell of a diplomatic spat over these remains. We only have Sheviz’s testimonial evidence against Patterson, but people have died in America as a result of these experiments and neither I nor the United States of America want to let that go unpunished. Do you?”
Lieutenant Ash stared at Ethan for a long moment, and then a bitter chuckle erupted from his throat. He shook his head and rubbed his temples wearily.
“If I do this, will you promise that I’ll never, ever see you again?”
Ethan grinned.
“That, I can promise you.”
Jerah Ash sighed, and turned to the troopers standing behind him.
“We wouldn’t have time to offload that … thing anyway. Seal the crate and repair the damage to the aircraft’s tires.”
As the soldiers hurried to do their work, Lieutenant Ash turned back to Ethan.
“And what exactly are you going to do in Washington?”
Ethan wiped the exhaustion from his eyes with one trembling hand, and looked longingly at one of the Gulfstream’s plush leather couches. Suddenly, for the first time in years, he desperately wanted to go to sleep.
“I’ll figure that out when I wake up.”
Rachel looked at Ethan, but said nothing.
“Not like you to be at a loss for words,” Ethan said.
Rachel smiled, shrugged. “I don’t know what to say. You were right.”
“I’m making the most of it—doesn’t happen that often.”
“I don’t believe that for a moment,” Lucy Morgan said from one side. “I owe you one.”
“You owe me two,” Ethan said, and gestured to the crate. “Why did these things leave one of their own behind, do you think?”
“Everything dies,” Lucy said sadly.
“Unless what?” Ethan encouraged her. “There’s a reason. Sheviz said it himself: he couldn’t find as many remains as he felt sure were out there. Why would that be?”
“Sheviz said that he found similar remains in India and Iraq,” Lucy replied, looking at him curiously. “Both are part of what was once Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization and the origin of many claimed instances of extraterrestrial influence on mankind in ancient history.”
“And Hans Karowitz told us about the change in climate at the end of the Younger Dryas, which affected sea levels,” Ethan said. “That would alter certain conditions.”
Lucy paced up and down in deep thought.
“He said something about experiments in Washington DC too, something to do with blood groups?”
Ethan nodded.
“They think that O-negative blood stems from these beings, as it has no apparent origin in human evolution and can’t be cloned.”