The Alexandria Link

“Of course. You know where the information is hidden?”

“He told me.”

“Then let’s deal with this.”

“That’s the plan. See you there in half an hour.”

She clicked off.

“I’m sorry,” Cassiopeia said.

She wasn’t going to dwell on someone else’s failure. “We have to stay sharp. Green had Daley killed. We know that now. He’s also plotting to kill the president.”

“And us,” Cassiopeia said. “Those men were working for the Saudis. The Saudis apparently think Green and the vice president are on their side. But the VP is also dealing with the Order. Which means the Saudis will never see a thing. The Order will get it all, to use however they want.”

The interstate congealed as they approached central Washington. Stephanie slowed the Tahoe and said, “Let’s hope the Arabs understand that before they decide to deal with us.”

SEVENTY-EIGHT

SINAI PENINSULA

GEORGE HADDAD LED HIS EXECUTIONER INTO THE LIBRARY OF Alexandria. The brightly lit subterranean chamber could dazzle at first sight. The walls were alive with mosaics fashioned in the spirit of everyday life-a barber shaving, a chiropodist, a painter, men crafting linen. He still recalled his first visit, but his assailant did not seem impressed.

“Where’s the power come from?”

“Do you have a name?” Haddad asked.

“That’s not an answer.”

He knit his heavy eyebrows in a puzzled ma

“Name’s Dominick Sabre.”

“Have you come for yourself or others?”

“Myself. I’ve decided to become a librarian.”

He smiled. “You’ll find the job a challenge.”

Sabre seemed to relax and stared around at the surroundings. The chamber was cathedral-like, with sloping walls and a barrel ceiling. The polished red granite shone like a gem. Columns rose from floor to ceiling, chiseled from the rock, each ornamented with letters, faces, plants, and animals. All of the chambers and tu

Sabre motioned to a mosaic emblem prominent on the far wall. “What’s that?”

“The front of an Egyptian sledge, decorated with the head of a jackal, a heavy block on the sledge. The hieroglyph for wonder. Each of the library’s rooms bears a symbol, which is the room’s name. This is the Room of Wonder.”

“You still never said where the power comes from.”

“Solar. The electricity is low-voltage, but enough to power lights, computers, and communications equipment. Did you know that the concept for solar power was born more than two thousand years ago? Converting light into energy. But the idea was forgotten until the past fifty years, when someone once again thought of it.”

Sabre motioned with his gun. “Where’s that doorway lead?”

“The other four chambers. The Rooms of Province, Eternity, and Life, and the Reading Room. Each contains scrolls, as you can see. Approximately ten thousand are in this room.”

Haddad casually moved to the center. Diamond-shaped stone bins, turned on edge, spa

“You talk a lot.”

“I only thought that, since you intend to become the Librarian, you should begin to learn your charge.”

“How did all these survive?”

“The original Guardians chose this location well. The mountain is dry. Moisture is rare in the Sinai, and water is the printed word’s greatest enemy-other than, of course, fire.” He motioned at extinguishers that rested at regular intervals around the room. “We’re prepared for that.”

“Let’s see the other rooms.”

“Of course. You should see it all.”

He led Sabre toward the doorway, pleased.

Apparently his attacker had no idea who he was.

That should at least even the odds.

HERMANN OPENED HIS EYES. THREE BUTTERFLIES SAT PERCHED on his sleeve, his arm stretched out across the schmetterlinghaus‘s putty-colored earth. His head ached and he recalled the blow from Thorvaldsen. He hadn’t known the Dane was capable of such violence.

He pushed himself to his feet and spotted his chief of the guard lying prone twenty feet away.

His gun was gone.

He staggered to his employee, grateful no one was around. He glanced at his watch. He’d been down twenty minutes. His left temple throbbed and he gently traced the outline of a knot.

Thorvaldsen would pay for that assault.

The world was still unstable, but he caught hold of himself and brushed the dirt from his clothes. He bent down and shook the chief of the guard awake.

“We need to go,” he said.

The other man rubbed his forehead and stood.

He steadied himself and commanded, “Not a word of this to anyone.”

His minion nodded.

He walked over to the telephone box and lifted the receiver. “Please find Henrik Thorvaldsen.”

He was surprised when the voice on the other end said he already knew the man’s whereabouts.

“Out front. Preparing to leave.”

SEVENTY-NINE

SINAI PENINSULA

SABRE COULD NOT BELIEVE HIS GOOD FORTUNE. HE’D FOUND the Library of Alexandria. All around him were scrolls, papyri, parchments, and what the old man called codices-small, compact books, the pages brittle and brown, each one lying flat on the shelves beside the next, like bodies.

“Why is the air so fresh?” he wanted to know.

“Ventilation fans move the dry air from outside into here, where it’s cooled by the mountain. Another i

They stood in the third room, named Eternity, another mosaic hieroglyph-a squatting man, his arms raised like a referee signaling a touchdown-high on the wall. More shelved codices spa

“Much was retrieved in the months leading up to that change in political rule,” the Librarian said. “These words exist nowhere else on this planet. Facts and events, what the world regards as history, would change if these were studied.”

He liked what he was hearing. It all translated into one thing-power. He needed to know more, and quickly. Malone may well have forced another Guardian to show him through the maze. But his adversary could also just wait until he came out. That seemed more logical. Sabre had marked each of the doors they’d taken with an X scratched into the stone. Finding his way out would be easy. Then he’d deal with Malone.

But first he needed to know what Alfred Herma

“Are there manuscripts here about the Old Testament?”

HADDAD WAS PLEASED THAT HIS GUEST HAD FINALLY COME TO the point of his visit. He’d gone to a lot of trouble to make this happen. After his faked death in London, he’d waited, the apartment wired for sound and video, and watched to see if anyone else came. Sure enough, the man holding a gun on him had found the information left on the computer and the audiotape.

At Bainbridge Hall, Haddad had then waited for Malone, since the material he’d stashed beneath his bed had pointed straight there. Sabre’s coming had been a bit of a surprise. His killing of the two men whom he’d sent into the mansion in the first place only confirmed the man’s ill intentions.