Fowler looked out at the ruins with suspicion in his eyes. Then he recalled something. “An archaeological team had been studying the ruins before we arrived. They were part of Saddam’s effort to rebuild Babylon and were searching for the more famous monuments, like the Hanging Gardens.”

King tried to show no reaction. If they had been searching for the Hanging Gardens it’s possible they had also been searching for Babel. “That may be helpful. Knight, Bishop, why don’t you check it out? We’ll start in the ruins. General, do you know if the archaeologists working here are still around?”

“Two of the lead archaeologists are dead,” Fowler said. “One is missing. But much of the support staff is still here in Baghdad. I’ll see who I can track down.”

King gave a nod of thanks. He headed for the back of the Hummer, opened the trunk, and handed XM25s to Bishop and Knight. “Keep your ears and eyes open. If you find something that points us in a direction, let me know.”

“You got it, boss,” Knight said before turning to the general. “After you.”

Fowler gave the weapons a long look before he turned and walked away. “This way.”

As Fowler led Knight and Bishop away, King turned back to the open Hummer and took out the most important piece of equipment they had with them. With the war in Afghanistan requiring better cave detecting equipment, the military had been borrowing technology from NASA’s Mars program. The result were handheld Quantum Well Infrared Photodetectors (QWIPs), which could see through the desert sand and collect thermal data. The resulting images were called thermograms. They showed the difference in temperature between desert sand or bedrock and the open space of a cave, or in this case, the open chamber of a buried tower. Since the user wore the device on the left hand—sensor in the palm facedown, images displayed on the forearm-mounted LCD display—King and his team could also carry their weapons without a problem.

Armed with the most high-tech handheld weapons and technology the military had, King, Queen, and Alexander set off for the ruins of Babylon.

Chapter Sixty-Seven

SIXTY-SIX

Babylon, Iraq

KING TOOK A drink from the twenty-ounce bottle he’d been nursing for the past two hours. He knew he needed to get more liquid soon, but with Fiona’s insulin deadline long since up, he had to stretch the water as far as possible. And right now, that meant walking a grid over a very large area of desert. He had a second bottle with him meant for Fiona if he managed to find her. But if the day went long, he’d have no choice but to start on the second bottle.