The Project 02 - The Lance

there's going to be trouble. He wants a face to face meet."
    Carter tugged on the mutilated lobe of his left ear , where a Chinese bullet had taken off the lobe a few months ago. The bandage was off. It had looked better with it on.
    It was the same ear that itched whenever things were about to get dicey, his very own personal early warning system. It itched now. A gift, or a curse, that he'd inherited from his Irish Grandmother, along with dreams he didn't want to have.
    "Have you passed this to Langley? What do they say?"
    "I'm supposed to back off and leave things up to the 'professionals'." There was an edge to her voice. "Lodge says there's no need for concern."
    Wendell Lodge, Acting Director of the CIA.
    "He says he and his Israeli counterparts have everything under control."
    "Mossad?"
    "And Shin Bet."
    "What's Shin Bet?" said Selena.
    Selena Connor sat next to Carter on Harker's leather couch. The ceiling lights caught the reddish blond color of her hair and turned her eyes violet. She wore a tan silk outfit and a pale blouse that went with her eyes. She was the first woman Nick had let get close since Megan died. He didn't know where it was going. Or if he wanted it to go anywhere. She was new to the team, which meant she had a lot to learn, which worried the hell out of him
    Selena brushed a stray wisp of hair from her forehead.
    Harker said, "Shin Bet is Israel's version of the FBI, on steroids. They handle internal security and counter-terrorism. Mossad is foreign intelligence and ops, like MI6 or CIA."
    Carter looked down at his hands and picked at a broken fingernail. "Lodge is a devious bastard and a narcissist."
    "Whatever he is, he's not going to brush us off. You're going to Israel. You find something that threatens Rice's security, give it to Shin Bet and the Secret Service. They've got the manpower, let them handle it. You leave today."
    "I always wanted to see Jerusalem. Maybe I'll get a little sightseeing in."
    She set the pen down and folded her hands. "It's not a vacation, Nick. You're booked into the same hotel as the President as part of his party, right outside the Old City. The Israelis may not let you keep your weapon. They're sensitive about guns and you're not Secret Service."
    "Who's the source over there?"
    "His name is Arshak Arslanian. He has a shop in the Armenian Quarter." She slid the manila folder across her desk. "His photo and info is in there."
    Harker turned to Selena. "Selena, you continue with Ronnie this afternoon."
    Ronnie was the third member of Nick's team. He was just back from visiting his family on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. He'd been coaching Selena. Physical training, weapons, codes, the tricks of personal survival. All the things that might give her a chance to make it through the next year.
    Harker tapped her pen and looked at Nick. "You'll need a lot of time to clear security. You'd better get going."

CHAPTER THREE

    Carter sat with his back against the wall at a café in the New City, drinking espresso, watching the crowd. The night was warm. The pedestrian mall where King George and Ben-Yahuda streets and the Jaffa Road came together in Jerusalem was packed with people.
    For the Jewish people , Jerusalem was the center of the world. It was where the Messiah would some day appear. It was the place where God had commanded the building of His Temple, where every stone, pebble and grain of dust on the Temple Mount was sacred ground. Devout Jews all over the world recited prayers each day for the restoration of the Temple, destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE.
    The most important shrines of Christianity were here. The tomb of Christ, the room of the last supper, the Garden of Gethsemane where Christ received the Judas kiss. The place where Pontius Pilate passed sentence. The place of crucifixion. Every Christian denomination in the world had a church or shrine somewhere in the Old City.
    For Muslims, the al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount was one of the holiest sites in Islam. The Mosque faced the Dome of the Rock, where they believed Muhammad had ascended to heaven on a winged horse to receive instruction from God. The Muslims had lost Jerusalem to the Israelis in the 1967 war. They wanted it back.
    Armies had fought over Jerusalem for three thousand years. T he narrow streets of the Old City had run ankle deep in blood more than once. Unless someone found a path to peace in the region, Carter figured the streets would run with blood again.
    He'd thought he