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She ate as she studied him. Not much deterred her from eating when she was hungry. Her lifestyle meant she took in a lot of calories and used them all.
You’ve been taken in before, she reminded herself. But the rabbi would have to be a diabolically skillful actor to fake this goofy artlessness, this seeming fundamental decency. He strikes me as kind, she thought. There’s a virtue I encounter way too infrequently.
She sighed. “I hope I can live up to your expectations, Levi,” she said. “I’ll certainly try.”
He lit up. “You mean you’ll do it?”
“Against my better judgment,” she said, “yes.”
4
Annja was sitting at a table with a lot of men in a hotel conference room in Ankara, Turkey.
“You must understand,” said the enormously tall, gaunt man with the eagle’s-beak nose and dark circles under his eyes, “that there exist certain elements within my government who…resent American patronage of Kurdish separatists.” He wore an olive-drab military uniform with a chestful of colorful ribbons.
The room air-conditioning worked with a nasty subliminal whine. It was a race whether it would slowly but inexorably give Annja a blinding headache or drive her mad. It worked though, keeping the temperature to arctic levels despite unseasonable heat in the streets of the Turkish capital outside, almost three thousand feet above sea level in the middle of the central massif of the Anatolian peninsula.
Unfortunately, it also reacted in some insidious way with the smoke generated by their host’s harsh-smelling Turkish cigarette to produce about the same reaction as tear gas in Annja’s eyes. The Ankara Sheraton had a strict no-smoking policy. Apparently being a general of the Turkish army allowed you to opt out on that. Big surprise there, Annja thought.
“Well, General,” Leif Baron said, leaning back in his chair and tapping a pen on the polished tabletop before him. “You should understand the Kurds have been our good friends in Iraq. They’re the best indigenous allies we have there. What was that, Mr. Wilfork?”
“Nothing of consequence,” said the man he’d addressed the last question to. He answered in what sounded to Annja like an Australian accent. It had also sounded as if he’d muttered, “The only ones who don’t switch sides or bloody run away,” under his breath at Baron’s mention of the Kurds.
He wore a tan tropic-weight suit that fit his bulky frame as if he’d picked it off the rack, possibly at Goodwill: the suit was taut to near splitting at the shoulders, straining the buttons over his belly, the fabric bagging and rumpling at the chest. Despite the room’s chill he mopped at his big crimson face with a scarlet handkerchief. His hair was thinning, combed over the top and white-tinged with yellow, although Annja had the impression he was only in his early fifties. She glanced at the equally tall and out-of-shape-looking Charlie Bostitch, who lounged across the table from the general at Baron’s side, looking smug and at ease.
“Nonetheless, the United States has seen fit to provide assistance to certain Kurd groups internationally recognized as terrorists,” the general said. “Indeed, the United States itself so recognized them, before they found a use for their services. Please, gentlemen—I do not raise these points in order to obstruct or cause complications. I, too, am eager for this expedition to take place. But it must be founded on a realistic appraisal of the situation, yes?”
“We’ve paid out plenty of money,” Baron said, lounging back in his seat and crossing one leg over the other. He wore a pale yellow polo shirt, stretched tight over the bulging muscles of his chest and upper arms, and khaki trousers. “That ought to smooth our way.”
“Now, now, gentlemen,” Bostitch said, shaking his head. “Why don’t we all just try to get along, here? We’re men of goodwill. And the issues are bigger than all of us, after all.”
General Orhan Orga gazed at him with his sad bloodhound eyes for a long moment before nodding.
“It is also true,” he said, “that the army feels especially embattled now in its traditional role of maintaining the official secularity of our Turkish Republic against a rising tide of Islamism in political life. It is, I fear, a case of democracy in practice defeating democratic ends.”
“Oh, I can understand that,” Bostitch said, nodding his head. “And after all, you’re fighting the good fight against the Muslim infidel.”
“Dear Lord,” Wilfork said out loud into a sudden silence. Annja noted that even the half-dozen young men, Rehoboam Christian Leadership Academy graduates all, who made up the bulk of the expedition were staring at their leader in something like dismay.
Orga’s mouth compressed to a line beneath his magnificent brush of moustache. “Please understand that a majority of Turks, inside the army and out, are faithful followers of Islam. It is the job of the army, as outlined in our constitution, to maintain a clear distinction between religion and politics. That is all.”
“Ah,” Bostitch said, nodding and smiling. “Separation of church and state. That’s—”
He stopped and did an almost comical take. He’d caught himself just in time praising a political concept he was quite famous for denouncing back home in the States. Annja scratched her upper lip to hide an incipient grin that she just couldn’t quite hold in. She wondered if their fearless leader had been covertly hitting the bottle again.
Despite the whirlwind rapidity with which she’d been whipped from Manhattan’s Chinatown to the Turkish capital of Ankara the process had still managed to entail lots of time sitting in airports waiting for flights. Using that time and Wi-Fi she’d done a bit more research on her current associates. She had discovered some interesting things about their employer. Including that he had a reputation as a real party animal, who every couple of years made a weepy public renunciation of his bad old ways, only to be caught in a few weeks or months half in the bag with his face between some stripper’s boobs. Annja was experiencing more than a few second thoughts.
She shot a quick glance to Levi. He looked amiably befuddled. Still, he was being a good sport about it all.
He reminded her why she still felt committed to this project, increasingly weird and possibly, well, doomed as it seemed. There was his enthusiasm. And his innocence. And, oh, yes—the lure of uncovering ancient mysteries. And maybe a hint of adrenaline rush. Just a teensy, tiny bit.
“General Orga,” Larry Taitt said with horrible playful-puppy brightness, “the key point here is that we’re relying on you to smooth our way east to Mount Ararat. And I’m sure our fate, and the fate of our expedition, couldn’t be in more capable hands.”
Annja looked at the floppy kid—she couldn’t help thinking of him that way—with a certain expanded understanding. He may be a happy-go-lucky goof who’d had the bad judgment to lock himself into weird religion and weirder associates. But he clearly had something on the ball.
Orga was frowning still, but now it was with a sort of generalized concern. “I will certainly do what I can for this expedition,” he intoned. “It is, after all, for science.”
“Science,” Wilfork said. He raised his glass of beer. “I’ll drink to that.”
Leif Baron, who had apparently decided to reclaim the “good cop” role, slapped his hands noisily on his thighs and stood. “We know you will, General Orga. Thanks for coming out.”
Everybody else stood, so Annja did likewise. She wasn’t sure what had actually been accomplished here. If anything. But now Baron and Bostitch were showing all hail-fellow camaraderie to the general, who himself was looking as jovial as he could with those bloodhound eyes. She was not a woman who yielded to gender stereotypes, for either sex, and if anything tended to consider herself, and be accepted as, one of the boys. But this scene baffled her. Maybe it was some male-bonding ritual she hadn’t encountered yet.
She found herself out in the curving hallway walking away. Aside from the smoking thing the Ankara Sheraton was a fabulous hotel. She felt a strong yearning to return to the extravagant comfort of a room she never could have afforded on her own. Then maybe a few laps in the huge indoor swimming pool would get her tuned up again.
“Ms. Creed,” an Australian-accented voice called from behind her. “Wait one, if you’d be so kind.”
She stopped and turned. Robyn Wilfork lumbered after her. His gait resembled that of a none-too-well-trained dancing bear. She couldn’t attribute it to alcohol: he had a long torso and short, bowed legs for his height.
Well, maybe some of it was alcohol, considering how hard he’d been hitting the beer back in the room.
“Might I offer you a drink?” he asked. “The hotel sports an altogether splendid bar.”
She was on the cusp of answering that she thought maybe he’d had enough in that department when she saw a knowing look come into his blue eyes.
“Nothing improper, I assure you,” he said hastily. “It just strikes me that, since we appear to be the odd ones out—quite a striking fact itself, in this company—we might profitably get to know one another.”
“Ah,” she said, “sure. Why not?”
THE COPPER BAR OF ANKARA’S Sheraton Hotel and Convention Center was a splendid bar, Annja had to admit. The bar proper was a highly polished teak arc beneath outward-expanding concentric rings of copper hung from the ceiling. It was such a striking effect that she actually permitted, not altogether in accordance with her better judgment, the journalist to buy her a glass of wine. Having placed her order with the bartender, who appeared to be French, she followed Wilfork as he rolled like a sailor in a high sea to one of the blue-gray chairs. These proved to be quite comfortable.
The bar was almost empty. Soft chamber music played in the background. While the afternoon view outside the tall windows was pleasant, prominently featuring an outdoor pool and the tall tower in which the rooms were located, she chose to sit with her back to them. She always liked to be able to see the entrance of the place she was in. The more so since there seemed to be some possible controversy concerning their expedition.
Which wasn’t totally surprising, inasmuch as the whole enterprise was flamboyantly illegal.
“So, Mr. Wilfork,” she said, “what brings you all the way from Australia?”
“Australia?” He laughed heartily. “Oh, no, no. My dear, you’re grievously wrong. I am a Kiwi, born and bred.”
Her eyebrows rose in surprise. “I’m sorry. I guess I don’t know enough to tell a New Zealand accent from Australian one.”
“You are quite forgiven. But I must say, the question you want to ask is, what is a confirmed atheist and semi-lapsed communist doing wrapped up in all of this religious mummery?”
That made her pull her head back and blink. “You’re right. I guess that is a better question.”
“Perhaps the answer is the same as what might bring a respected American archaeologist of decidedly skeptical bent into such an operation,” he said. “Simply, money.”
She frowned slightly. “It’s not so simple,” she said. “Not in my case. And anyway, what use does a communist have for money?”
“Why, all the use in the world. That turns out, perhaps, to sum up the history of world communism in a nutshell. Besides, I told you I’ve become apostate.”
“And there you have it,” she said, laughing. “I guess that’s fair enough. And I have to admit that in my case the answer is partially money. But I’m legitimately interested in learning what really lies on top of that mountain.”
The waitress, a trim diminutive woman with a tight bun of gray hair who appeared to be local, brought their drinks. “Gin and tonic with a wedge of lime?” Annja asked. “Isn’t that rather…colonialist of you?”
“Well, I could remind you again I’m a lapsed communist.” He shrugged. “Then again, I drank the same when I was fully communicant in the faith.”
He held up the highball glass in salute. “Here’s to Thomas Friedman’s flat earth,” he said. “Also to his flat head. What on earth ever possessed you Americans to give that self-inflated buffoon a Pulitzer Prize?”
“I’m not the one to ask. They didn’t.”
He sipped, smacked his lips and sighed. “Splendid. And splendidly retorted. You display a quickness of wit that they seem to be able to conceal quite well on that television program of yours.”
“They don’t exactly encourage spontaneity. At least, not from their resident skeptic.”
“But they do in the case of the show’s lead. At least if by spontaneity one means ‘a remarkable gift for losing one’s top in the most unlikely of circumstances.’”
She laughed. She was finding Wilfork and his self-satirizing bluster not just amusing but likable. Actually she so far found everybody on this trip, bizarre as it was, basically likable. Except maybe Baron, with his shark eyes.
And maybe the other Rehoboam Academy types, although they were polite and seemed a little less manically cheerful than Larry. Even if when she had been around them so far they had mostly been subdued out of due Christian deference to their elders. She still couldn’t quite shake a distressing mental image of them as a pack of young wolves.
“So have you decided to throw over the whole voice-of-reason thing, then?” Wilfork asked.
She tasted the wine. It was sweet enough that she found it palatable. As far as wine-drinking went she was fated forever to provide a handy butt for jokes by wine snobs. She was resigned to that fate. Uncharacteristic, perhaps; but then, it didn’t matter to her much one way or another. There were lots of other, more pressing fates to rebel against.
“Not at all, Mr. Wilfork. If you’ll think back, you’ll recall I said, whatever’s really up there. Or words to that effect.”
He nodded. “So you did. So you did. What do you think’s up there?”
“If I knew, would I have to go?” She shrugged. “As you said, it’s science.”
“Did I? Ah, yes. My sardonic toast. Mostly I was trying to bait our employers.”
“Isn’t that kind of a dangerous game? Especially considering your background. What would they do if they found out about the whole ex-commie thing?”
“Oh, they’re well aware of that, make no mistake. Our Lieutenant Commander Baron has access to things like secret dossiers, despite no longer being a member of your military.”
“Is he CIA?”
Emphatically Wilfork shook his head. It made his yellow-white hair flop on his red scalp. “I’m fairly certain not. The agency rank and file seem to be quite disenchanted with ring-in-Armageddon fundamentalists of his ilk—and in any case, that lot appears on their way out. And bloody good riddance, too. But he still contrives to be plugged into a good old boys’ network. It may just be among SEALs and other special-operations types. You know how warriors are—blood is thicker than water, unless it’s that of bloody foreigners.”
Belatedly Annja was having a cold flash at the prospect of those gray flat eyes scanning her dossier.
“How did they happen to hire you as their official chronicler?” Annja asked, eager to steer the conversation in a different direction.
“Back when I was a prominent international left-wing journalist I was often critical of Mr. Bostitch’s attempts to influence foreign policy—especially since they all seemed peculiarly geared toward enhancing his own defense contracts. Also, if I may flatter myself, I proved something of a thorn in the side of special-operations murderers Mr. Baron so joyously served before deciding the grass was greener on the civilian-contracting side of the perpetual-war fence. I think it was because that established my objectivity—at least, gave credibility to the notion I wouldn’t slant my reportage to suit my employers, even though of late I’ve become noted for my harsh criticism of my former comrades. All of it quite sincere, by the way—a bunch of humorless dolts, and most of them unacknowledged fascists.
“But I digress. A frequent weakness of mine. One among many.” He sipped his drink.
“Also, in much of my recent writing I’ve been most critical of Islam, especially the more violent sectarians. That’s made me more attractive to a good many people to whom I was once distinctly persona non grata. And finally, I suspect a certain element of revenge, as it were, my former foes making me subordinate to them.”
“They must be paying you well.”
He beamed. “Oh, they are. They are.”
His expression turned troubled. He stared into his half-emptied glass as if seeking oracle there. “I only hope it’s enough,” he said. “I confess, I doubt things will proceed near as smoothly as our beloved pet Turkish army general is at such pains to assure us they will.”
He tossed back the rest of his drink. It had no visible effect on him. He set the empty glass on the table with a decisive thunk.
“Ah, well,” he said. “Our vicissitudes should make a ripping story, anyway. Perhaps I’ll win a journalistic prize of my own. Or at least get a bestseller for my pains. A decent return on the sale of one’s soul, wouldn’t you say?”
5
The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations was a beautiful museum converted from an old covered marketplace situated close to the Ankara Citadel. It contained samples from Asia Minor’s long cultural history, specializing in artifacts from the Paleolithic through Classical periods. Annja was admiring an ancient Hittite statue of a highly stylized deer of some sort, whose rack of antlers totally dwarfed its actual body, when her cell phone rang.
She flipped it open. “Yes?”
It was her team from Chasing History’s Monsters, who had just arrived at Ankara’s airport. Imagining what sparks might fly when a trio of doubtless liberal young New Yorkers came in contact with Charlie Bostitch’s born-again culture warriors, she hastily offered to meet them at the hotel to help get them settled in.
Three hours later they were all sitting on the big mossy stone foundation blocks of the ruins of the stage area of Roman Theater. It also stood near the castle on its lava outcrop atop one of Ankara’s many hills. Excavation of the theater’s seating area was still ongoing; Annja hoped she’d have time before they took off for the wild, wild east to pay a visit and see if she could schmooze her way into the dig as a visiting archaeologist. She might even be able to make use of it for Chasing History’s Monsters. The team told her they were looking for local-color shots to establish setting at stages of their journey to the forbidden mountain.
“I always thought Ankara was kind of a pit,” Trish Baxter, the soundwoman, said. She was a pretty, medium-size blonde with a snub nose and ponytail. She dangled legs left bare by her cargo shorts over the edge of a block. A green slope stretched down toward the city center below them. “But it’s really kind of pretty.”
“There’s a lot of green here,” Annja said. “I was surprised the first time I visited Istanbul by how much greenery there was. I expected something more of a blend between desert desolation and cement-canyon modernism.”
“Ankara doesn’t seem to be much of a tourist Mecca,” Tommy Wynock said. He was a stocky blond guy of medium height with a Mets cap turned around backward. He was the chief techie and secondary cameraman.
“So to speak,” said lead cameraman Jason Pennigrew. A wiry black kid an inch or so taller than Annja, he had a brash but engaging manner and an olive-drab do-rag tied around his head. He sat with his back to a pillar and his long legs drawn up before him. “I wonder how much of that might be because of problems the government’s having with Muslim fundamentalists.”
“Actually, the government kind of is the Muslim fundamentalists,” Annja said. “The democratically elected civilian government, anyway. They’re in a state of more or less perpetual confrontation with the army, which turns out to be the guardian of Turkey’s officially secular status. The religious-minded members of the government insist they don’t want to turn Turkey into a full-on Islamic state. But it seems like a lot of people in the street do.”
“I thought Turks were supposed to be, you know, kind of lax in their observance,” Trish said. She’d impressed Annja as the most bookish and widely knowledgeable of the bunch. Television production types didn’t always have the deepest understandings of foreign affairs or foreign cultures, even when they spent a lot of time traveling overseas, Annja had found.
“That’s true, traditionally,” Annja said. “And there’s still a solid sentiment with the public for Turkey to maintain its secular status, even with a lot of very religiously fundamentalist Turks. Or that’s the impression I have. Listen to me, sounding like Ms. Turkey Expert. The truth is I only know what the other members of the expedition tell me, and what I read on the Internet.”
She nodded at Trish’s bare legs. “You might want to change out of those shorts, just to be on the safe side. Ankara’s a lot less cosmopolitan than Istanbul. And even if the real crazies are still a marked minority—well, it only takes a run-in with one to spoil your day, if you know what I mean.”
“Oh,” Trish said, “yeah. I wasn’t thinking. It was so hot and stuffy on the plane, and then when it turned out to be hot here, too, I just wanted to kind of, well, air out.”
“You’re not going to have much opportunity to do that anyway,” Jason said. “Ankara seems to be the only place in the Northern Hemisphere that’s getting unseasonable warmth. Everywhere else it’s even colder than last year.”
“Great,” Tommy said, shaking his head. “That’s all we need. We already have too many people questioning global warming.”
Jason unfolded himself from the stone pavement. “Okay, Annja. We’ve stretched our legs, which I gotta tell you was welcome after all those hours sitting around in airports and on airplanes. We should probably get back to the hotel. I could use a shower anyway.”
“I think Annja wanted to prep us to meet the rest of the crew first,” Trish said.
Annja made a humorless noise in the back of her throat. “And prep myself. This is liable to be a pretty hazardous undertaking. I hope that was all fully explained to you in advance?”
