The Genesis Plague (2010)

here. Seems we stumbled upon some kind of weapons stash … in there.’ He pointed to the cave. ‘And Crawford is doing everything he can to salvage it. We suspect he’s going to somehow release a highly lethal biochemical weapon. If he succeeds … if we let him succeed … countless innocent lives will suffer the same fate as Al-Zahrani.’ He let them contemplate the stakes for five seconds. Then he laid it on the line for them: ‘I need your help. We need to get in there and stop him. Before it’s too late.’
    ‘And if we don’t?’ the soldier in the middle asked.
    ‘That’s not an option,’ Jason replied gravely.
    ‘I mean why do I care if Iraqis die? Better them than us …’
    Jason had to press his hand harder against Meat’s chest to keep him from pouncing on the guy. At this juncture, the last thing he needed was a squabble with Crawford’s unit. These marines had been through plenty, and straining their allegiances could prove unwise. He pointed to the body bags heaped along the road and made one last attempt at diplomacy. ‘You can thank Crawford for what happened here today. This could’ve been avoided. All it would have taken is one call. Crawford has gone rogue and you know it.’
    ‘We’re wasting time,’ Meat said, clenching his fists.
    ‘And if you’re wrong?’ the soldier asked.
    ‘I’m not. And the proof is inside this mountain. Come with us and see for yourself.’
    The marines exchanged glances.
    The sensible marine on the right was the first to break. ‘He’s right. What Crawford’s been doing … it’s crazy. Don’t make no sense. I mean he had us clearing rocks away ‘fore we could even help our own guys. Who does that?’
    Jason took his hand off Meat’s chest and the ringleader took a step back. ‘What’s it gonna be?’

71
LAS VEGAS
    While Agent Flaherty was busy making phone calls to arrange for Stokes to be taken safely into custody, Brooke decided to have a closer look at the artifacts in the vault. The objects Stokes had pillaged from Iraq were pristine specimens that would surely prove to be among the most impressive ever recovered from the region - and to intimately experience them was a temptation she couldn’t pass up.
    First, she approached the case containing a sizable clay jar, just to the left of the case that accommodated Lilith’s macabre severed head. Before commencing her analysis, she gave the head a sideways glance, certain that the demon’s dead eyes were evaluating her every move.
    ‘I’m just going to have a quick look,’ she explained to the head. ‘Nothing to worry about.’ Best to play nice with the evil temptress, she thought … just in case.
    The clay vessel was roughly a a third of a metre wide at its bulbous base, and stood about half a metre tall. Posted behind it was an enlarged photo board containing various pictures documenting its careful extraction from somewhere deep inside the cave.
    The first photo showed one of the bas-reliefs Brooke had herself studied in the entryway. It depicted Lilith carrying this very same jar - the magical vessel the ancients believed had enabled her to destroy every man and boy she’d come in contact with; the cursed jar she’d brought out from the forbidden realm to unleash evil into the world. Pandora’s misnamed ‘box’.
    The cuneiform beneath the relief was barely legible in the image. But with all the time she’d spent transcribing the writings, Brooke could practically recite the story from memory, word for word. The account told how Lilith protected the jar until the very end, and warned that it was the source of her evil. The passage also described how the villagers had entombed the jar with her beheaded corpse in hopes of neutralizing its destructive powers.
    She was surprised that the vessel hadn’t been destroyed immediately following Lilith’s execution. After all, the ancients believed that the ritual breaking of clay dispelled magical spells.
    The second and third photographs showed Lilith’s tomb in two stages: first covered by an ornately carved seal with two protective spirits (she glanced at the real-life version standing on the plinth only a little way away); second with the seal removed to show the in situ contents. The tomb was simple enough: a deep, arched niche carved into a rock wall. The prone skeleton’s rib cage and arm bones were barely visible behind a squat clay pot positioned at the front of the niche. The top of the jar could be seen poking up