Conspiracy at Desert One
A novel
By Bernace Charles
The Iranian
Chapter Thirty-Five
Jerusalem, 1998
David Rice walked in The Old City. It was nine P.M. as David moved down
Christian Street. He did so from the direction of the Church of the Holy
Sepulcher. Now, the street was empty as though all slipped behind its walls.
The doors of the shops and cafes sat sealed behind locked, metal doors.
Rice stood before the house belonging to Laleh Sanders. Gazing in both
directions knowing no one was on the street, he lifted over the wall and
dropped into the inside courtyard. He managed past Roya's scooter and bicycle,
climbed the outside stairs, and stood at the door. Soon, he picked the
lock and slipped inside. Inside, he stood in absolute quiet. After allowing
his eyes to collect starlight through windows he moved toward a door, walked
a short hallway, and focused his eyes on the dark form of a bed. The bed
was empty. He left the room, stepped down the hall to a second door, and
pushed open the door of Roya's bedroom. Someone had shut the shutter and
there wasn't enough light to see the bed. Feeling for a light switch he
turned it on and as quickly turned it off. Going back down the hall he
turned the light on in the first bedroom and knew Laleh and her daughter
weren't there.
Returning to the kitchen, David turned on the light. As he turned to
the table, he saw the novels written by Wes Walker. Knowing Walker reached
Laleh before him, David brushed the books to the floor in a crash. He heard
a foot strike the iron door of the courtyard as someone climbed over the
street wall. He moved back from the door and pressed against the kitchen
wall.
***
Lewis opened the door. He said, "Roya, are you back? I thought
the man might have killed you." With these words, Lewis found himself
at the end of a Biretta pistol.
David Rice said, "Close the door and sit." Rice waved Lewis
to the near chair at the kitchen table and asked, "Where are they?"
Lewis stared at the man he thought to be code-named The Raven. He said,
"You're too late. They're gone."
"Where?"
"I don't know. If I did, I wouldn't tell you."
David asked, "Where did they go?"
Lewis studied the man. He said, "You've come to kill them. You're
too late. The mother died two days ago. The daughter has left the country."
"To where?"
"I don't know."
David believed the boy. He knew it would have been better for him if
he didn't. He said, "Stand up and walk to the bedroom."
Lewis did as ordered and knowing the American was probably going to
kill him. Pushing Lewis into Laleh's bedroom, David said, "Lay on
the bed. Face down." After Lewis did, he moved the urn holding the
mother's ashes and thought of how those killed in the death camps of Nazi
Germany had simply followed orders. Now, he was doing so, and knowing it
somehow didn't matter. As his thoughts turned to Roya, he felt a pillow
pressed against his skull and the hard steel of the pistol buried within
it. The room filled with a muffled sound. >>>
Go to Chapter Thirty-Six
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