It was eerily quiet above them. The brutal shelling had stopped, but nobody trusted that as a sure sign of safety. Tobias knelt on one knee while reaching forward and using a bowie knife to draw in the loose gravel and dirt on the tunnel floor at the edge of the reservoir. Neteru Guardians had gathered around Tobias and his wife with Damali and Carlos, while the others waited, hanging back to hear the full scope of the plan once the lead team nailed down logistics.
"If you were told to go into the tunnels," Tobias said, etching in the ground, his intense gaze going between the drawing he made and Carlos, "you have miles of potential disaster." Tobias wiped perspiration from his forehead with the back of his forearm and then released a breath of frustration.
"You have not seen what has happened to Jerusalem," Habiba said sadly. "Military is everywhere--some don't understand . . . but also there are demon spies everywhere. Human pawns have been manipulated to keep innocent people away from the holy places ... so if you try to enter the tunnels beneath il-Mabka, you could be shot or detained by a person who still has a soul."
"Il-Mabka?" Carlos glanced between the couple for clarity, trying hard to make his brain quickly sort through the volume of information within it.
"The Kotel," Tobias said, seeming impatient. "The Wailing Wall."
"Know it, been there," Carlos said, nodding as he immediately recognized the third name given to the holy site. "Now I understand why the Covenant clerics made us learn all the sites."
"It's also called the Western Wall," Damali said, emphasizing the word Western. "We're from the west." Tobias and Habiba shared a look.
"The Western Wall is on the western flank of the Temple Mount," Tobias said cautiously. "It has the Western Stone, which is the largest piece of unbroken stone . . . about thirteen-point-six meters. It's massive . . . weighs they say five-hundred-and-seventy tons. That part of the wall is underground and heavily guarded."
"That's more than one western reference," Damali said. "Then oddly the weight of it was cut to weigh in at five hundred-and-seventy tons--which reduces to twelve ... a holy number . . . because that reduces to three, the trinity? And it's heavily guarded. C'mon."
"I only wish that your Templar seer had been more specific," Tobias said, looking at Carlos and Damali. "You are talking about a long length of tunnel leading to one of the most bitterly disputed holy sites on the planet. The Temple Mount is built on a hill, but the side walls are hidden behind what is left of residential buildings on the north," he pressed on, beginning to draw again. "Then the southern portion of the west side is the Western Wall, which is only half-visible aboveground. If you enter from the southern end near the Kotel you can walk the tunnel's length and come out on the northern end to escape being trapped underground--but the tunnel passage is narrow in places."
"That's just it," Carlos said, glancing between Tobias, Habiba, and Damali. "Heru mentioned the Temple Mount. He said to ask Solomon and Akhenaton about this tunnel, so--"
"Well, it makes sense the reference to Solomon," Habiba said excitedly, holding the Neterus' gazes. "Solomon's Temple was first on that hill, but it was destroyed by the Babylonians."
"Lilith," Damali said, sucking her teeth and then standing for a second before she settled back down.
"We can only speculate," Tobias said calmly. "But it was overrun by Babylon. The second Temple was build by Herod after that, but then that was destroyed by the Romans with the rest of Jerusalem, which they razed to the ground, leaving only the Western Wall standing. This is why it is so sacred."
Carlos nodded and stood stretching his legs and back. "The clues are all there, I just hate riddles under pressure." He cracked his knuckles with his fist as Tobias, Habiba, and Damali stood. "Looking for a Roman dagger or sword or spear that pierced the side of Christ. . . reference to Roman destruction ties in-- as does Heru telling me to ask Solomon, since the ground was originally broken there for his temple."
"Not to mention, an escape route to the north--we're from North America," Damali added. "I would try to get more from Pearl, but she's spent--just like all our seers are."
"Right," Carlos said, smoothing his palm over his hair. "They want me to go find it in Temple Mount, just not out in the open--because like Tobias said, that's a hot zone. Probably gotta have all sorts of ID to get in there, if it's open at all."
"You are correct, brother," Tobias said, leaning over to stretch the tension out of his back.
"But I do not understand why your guides would tell you to go by way of tunnel," Habiba said, frowning. "It would be much easier to slip through the abandoned buildings, rather than be trapped--and there's no opening in the stone there that could hide such a relic you seek. The stone wall hasn't been chiseled. I have seen it so many times, I could close my eyes and see it now."
"That's just it, though," Carlos said slowly as awareness filled him. "Check it out. If a diversion was created aboveground, it would be far easier to do an energy fold-away into a place that's vacant. Dragon Rider is a class-A stoneworker from Scotland. Aboveground, she can't do her thing, leaning against the Wailing Wall in the open, since that's now off-limits. But if I get her in the tunnels, she might be able to get a GPS on where what we're looking for is hidden in the Temple Mount."
"Oh, boy, here comes the fun part--the diversion part," Rider said sarcastically, now standing as the other Neteru Guardians slowly got to their feet.
"Nah, man. Not this time. Full squad stays here as the fallback position to be the front line of defense for innocents and our away teams. Just me and Dragon Rider are making this run." Carlos looked at Tobias and Habiba, and then at Dragon Rider. "You read the stones, and then I'm jettisoning you back here while I go in and then try to get back in one piece."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Damali said. "Since when was that the plan? Who's watching your back out there?"
"Next question I was gonna ask," Yonnie said, stepping forward. "C, didn't you feel that power boost while you was out there fighting . . . like they made another Chairman or something?"
Carlos gave Yonnie a look, pissed off that he'd let the cat out of the bag in front of Damali.
"Yeah," Carlos said flatly. "Got a dark supercharge that I'm not real happy about." He looked at Damali. "At first I thought it was from all the Light harmonics you all were generating . . .but--"
"Your eyes went black just like mine did, bro," Yonnie said, ignoring Carlos's vibe to chill. "Then we got stupid strong and ripped out everything's heart within a reach radius, so I ain't particularly mad about it." Yonnie pulled the toothpick out of his mouth. "Just for the sake of speculation, who you think it is?"
"We can worry about all that later," Carlos said in a low rumble, his gaze boring into Yonnie.
"Peace," Yonnie said with a sheepish grin. "Just kinda leaves you high, you know. But I'm good, I'm good, I'll come down in a minute--damn, we up against two Chair-level vamps?" Yonnie shook his head. "This gotta be a first. No wonder I feel likeI do."
"Is that what happened out there?" Jose asked quickly, rubbing his jaw as he glanced at Rider. "Dayum."