The Moses Legacy by Adam Palmer Page B

Gabrielle, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you this before, but there are some things happening here that we need to talk about. I heard about Harrison Carmichael being killed and I understand that Daniel has fallen under some sort of suspicion. I have explained to the British authorities that I invited him here. I do not know if this helps, but in the meantime, I have to tell you that I have not been completely honest with you. There was no food poisoning epidemic at the dig site, but there was some sort of outbreak of disease which we think may have had something to do with the site itself. We are looking into this but in the meantimewe have put the volunteers into quarantine. However, the first one to become ill was at another hospital and he has since died. The reason I am calling you is that a nurse in the hospital wing where he was being treated was murdered. It is unclear if the two things are connected, but I just want you to know that we have concerns on a number of fronts. Please call me as soon as you can.’
    â€˜You’d better call him,’ said Daniel, handing back the phone.
    â€˜I don’t think you should bother unpacking,’ Gabrielle responded.
    He looked at her in shock.
    â€˜I can’t leave now. I’m on bail.’
    â€˜I’ll talk to Mansoor, but I think we’ve got more important things to worry about than you being on bail.’
    At the back of Daniel’s mind, he was thinking about the outbreak at the dig site and remembering Harrison’s words about the resurgence of the plague. Harrison had said that he knew the plague could return based on his translation of an old manuscript in Proto-Sinaitic script. Mansoor had shown him such a manuscript. Could that be the one that his mentor had translated?
    Yet there was still one obstacle in his way.
    â€˜They’ve got my passport.’
    A smile lit Gabrielle’s face.
    â€˜What about your US passport – the one you had when you were married to Charlotte?’

Chapter 20
    Sarit arrived in Cairo from Cyprus, entering the country using her Irish passport under the name Siobhan Stewart, after they had tracked down Goliath via the Urim telecommunications monitoring unit, the same unit where Sarit had served.
    The unit functioned like a well-oiled machine. Anything that was flagged by the system as important was then sent for human analysis to ‘Unit 8200’, the Signals Intelligence centre in Herzliya. Any intercepts that were found to be encrypted were also sent there. From there, the messages were deciphered or simply analysed for relevant content and disseminated to the appropriate department or organization, such as the Mossad – based in the same building – or military intelligence.
    In this case, the key word that they had picked up on was the name ‘Joel Hirsch’ that Audrey Milne had given them. This had given the monitors at Urim both the number of Goliath’s cell phone and the means to track him in the future.
    But Sarit’s initial instructions were to proceed to the hospital and find out what was going on on the ground. When she arrived, she saw several police cars, and police milling about, along with dozens of onlookers both outside the building and in the reception area.
    â€˜What happened?’ she asked a nurse in Arabic.
    â€˜A nurse was killed.’
    â€˜How?’ She made sure to sound surprised.
    â€˜By a madman. A big man. He ran away.’
    â€˜How did he kill her?’
    â€˜With his bare hands. He broke her neck.’
    The nurse seemed to be enjoying herself as she told the story. But at the back of Sarit’s mind, a question was nagging away: had he got the sample of Joel’s clothes? She went to the reception desk.
    â€˜I’m here to find out about a patient called Joel Hirsch.’
    The receptionist looked mildly alarmed.
    â€˜Are you related to him?’
    She had to think carefully. If she said yes and it