examined and I need this specimen out of the ground and back in Jerusalem. Whatever it is, it didn’t evolve on this planet.”
The Bedouin glanced at the blackened void above, now shimmering with legions of stars.
“We should leave the camp. It’s dangerous to be out here at night.”
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Sheviz whispered reverentially, ignoring him. “This is going to change everything, rewrite the history books. We’re never going to look at ourselves the same way again.”
“We’re never going to look at anything again if we’re arrested by Israel,” Ahmed pointed out patiently. “We should return to Be’er Sheva and maybe come back tomorrow.”
“No way,” Lucy snapped. “We need to complete the excavation. Do you understand what this is? It shouldn’t be here.”
“Neither should we. You’re digging in a restricted military area.”
“This is more important than Israel’s damned restrictions.”
Ahmed struggled for words.
“Those remains have been here for seven thousand years; they’re not going to get up and run off any time soon.”
“This could be the most important scientific discovery of all time,” Lucy said.
“Perhaps, sadiqati, but I don’t want to be the next set of bones you dig up out here. Your camp lights are visible for miles. How long do you think it will be before Israeli soldiers notice them, or maybe even insurgents from across the Sinai?”
Before Ahmed could stop her, Lucy reached out and slid his rifle from his shoulder.
“Fine, we’ll see you back in Be’er Sheva in two days if you’re worried about guerrillas or a prison cell.”
Ahmed hadn’t expected such a thinly veiled challenge to both his authority as a guide and his courage as a man. He straightened his posture a little.
“As you say, I would not make a big deal out of nothing.”
Lucy tilted her head in acknowledgment. “Neither would we.”
Ahmed sighed heavily, shaking his head.
“I’ll radio the university from the jeep and tell them that you are safe.” He gestured to the rifle. “Six rounds. I’ll come back with supplies in the morning. Ma’assalama.”
Ahmed turned and strode away into the darkness, pursued by Lucy’s mysterious words. It’s not human. A profound thought crossed Ahmed’s mind. We are not alone in the universe. It occurred to him that the remains could be worth a fortune. He was attempting to calculate how much when a scream shattered the silence of the night behind him.
Ahmed whirled. “Lucy?”
The air burst out of Ahmed’s lungs as the weight of a man slammed into him and he fell hard to the unforgiving earth. He rolled onto his back and lashed out with one foot toward the silhouette of a man against the starlight above, slamming him hard in the groin. The man gagged and staggered backward as Ahmed scrambled to his feet.
The Bedouin lunged toward his attacker, but before he could reach him something heavy cracked across the back of his head and plunged him into a deep and silent blackness.
COOK COUNTY JAIL
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
AUGUST 24
The pain woke him.
He lay motionless as a throbbing began to grind around the interior of his skull. His eyes ached as though needles were being driven into his retina, bolts of nausea churning through his stomach to the labored rhythm of his heart.
Open your damned eyes.
A white wall, defaced by the remedial scrawlings of occupants gouged into the brickwork over countless decades. The creeping odors of stale food, sweat, and unflushed latrines caressed his senses as they reluctantly reconnected themselves, revealing forgotten aches and injuries. He breathed a long and weary sigh and tried to free fall back into the dreamy oblivion of sleep.
“Warner. Ethan!”
He rolled over on the hard bench to see a holding cell where about thirty men dressed in orange Department of Correction coveralls, most of them angry young gang hoods, watched him suspiciously. Something heavy clanged against the cell’s steel black gates loudly enough to send spasms of agony shooting through his brain.
“Yeah?” he uttered in a dry rasp.
The young bloods remained silent, but the portly face of a white-shirted prison officer sneered in at him from beyond the gates.
“Get off your ass and over here.”
Keys rattled as the door opened and Ethan Warner struggled to his feet. The floor heaved beneath him as fresh waves of pain scraped across his eyeballs, and he steadied himself with one hand against the wall before shuffling to the gates.
“But you haven’t served breakfast yet,” he said as he yawned.
The guard reached out and grabbed Ethan’s arm in one chunky hand.