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Back 36 Righteous Men
Chapters (43)
  1. Cover
  2. BOOK ONE
  3. 1
  4. 2
  5. 3
  6. 4
  7. 5
  8. 6
  9. 7
  10. 8
  11. BOOK TWO
  12. 9
  13. 10
  14. 11
  15. BOOK THREE
  16. 12
  17. 13
  18. 14
  19. BOOK FOUR
  20. 15
  21. 16
  22. BOOK FIVE
  23. 17
  24. 18
  25. 19
  26. 20
  27. 21
  28. 22
  29. BOOK SIX
  30. 23
  31. 24
  32. 25
  33. 26
  34. 27
  35. 28
  36. 29
  37. BOOK SEVEN
  38. 30
  39. 31
  40. BOOK EIGHT
  41. 32
  42. SPECIAL THANKS
  43. ALSO BY STEVEN PRESSFIELD

The climate conference is everything! You’re the world’s last hope, Amos! You can’t risk your life. You must get to Cyprus!

Manning, with admirable self-restraint at triple digits Fahrenheit, makes the case that Cyprus can wait. The conference is six days away. We must go to Gehenna now, Manning says, with or without the trucks and equipment.

MANNING

This was the plan, Amos. You agreed to it in New York.

RACHEL

Don’t listen to him! You’re bait to him, that’s all. He wants you at Gehenna to draw Instancer. He doesn’t care if you die!

Manning tells Ben-David he’ll die if he goes anywhere except Gehenna.

MANNING

Instancer will kill you on the road, Amos. He’ll kill you in Haifa, he’ll kill you at the Cyprus conference, he doesn’t care. When you’re gone, the full slate of Righteous Men will have been eliminated. The only place we have a chance against Instancer is at the dig—at Gehenna.

RACHEL

Don’t believe him, Amos! You’re Number Thirty-Six to him, nothing more.

The paratroopers look on. How much of this can they make sense of? Do they have any idea who Instancer is, or what the stakes are in this debate?

Ben-David glances to his sister, then to Manning. He turns at last to Dana and the troops.

BEN-DAVID

Carry on as you were instructed, Lieutenant. The convoy will move out, as soon as the storm abates, for Haifa.

29

SHIT HAPPENS IN THE HOLY LAND

EIN GEDI TO HAIFA is 140 miles. It takes us twenty-seven hours just to get to Jerusalem, a third of the way.

The electrical storm refuses to subside. Ben-David orders the start anyway. We pull out at 1030 precisely on April 28, 2034.

I have never seen atmospheric conditions as hostile as these, or a landscape as bleak and devoid of life. Surface temperature of the macadam on Highway 90 is 55° Celsius (130° Fahrenheit). The asphalt has literally melted. We drive over dust and sand mixed with petroleum-derived goo.

Our convoy is Manning and Ben-David in army truck #1 with a soldier-driver, Eli. They are led by Humvee #1 with Dana as convoy commander, the sergeant from the airport, Giora, and a third trooper to man the .50-caliber in the turret. Truck #2 is, like the first, an IDF “six-by” with a male soldier-driver, Hemi, short for Menachem. I ride beside Rachel in the tall, open, unbearably broiling cab. Behind us, the tarp-covered cargo bed is stacked roof-high with tech gear and distillation apparatus, part of the equipment that Ben-David is bringing with him to the Cyprus eco-conference. A second and third Humvee trail ours, providing rear security.

Manning has lost the argument of Gehenna versus Haifa.