“We tracked down one of the men involved in the pre-2003 excavations. He might be able to help make sense of all this,” Fowler said, motioning to the stacks of boxes. “Let me know when you’re finished with him and we’ll send an escort. Now if you’ll excuse me, my attention is needed elsewhere.”

Fowler left quickly, leaving a nervous-looking Iraqi standing in the middle of the room.

“What’s your name?” Knight asked.

“Rahim, sir. My English not so good.”

Without standing or turning around to greet the newcomer, Bishop said, in perfect Arabic, “You were a part of the Babylonian excavations, Rahim?”

Rahim replied in Arabic. “I was an assistant to one of the archaeologists. I was here for three years.”

“Do you know of the Tower of Babel?” Bishop asked.

“We searched for it for years,” the man said, growing excited.

“And?”

“It’s not here.”

Bishop stopped paging through the journal in his hands. He closed it, stood, and turned around. Rahim stumbled back away from Bishop, his eyes fearful. The military hardness of Bishop combined with his muscles and shaved head no doubt brought back memories of times when men like Bishop were to be feared.

“You’re Iraqi?” Rahim asked.

“I was born in Iran,” Bishop said.

This only deepened Rahim’s fear.

Bishop showed a relaxed smile. “But I was raised in America. You have nothing to fear from me.”

Rahim’s fear eased a little, but he didn’t take his eyes off Bishop for very long.

The conversation was interrupted by King’s voice in their ears. Rahim looked at them like they were insane as Bishop and Knight stopped everything and listened. Then Bishop turned to him. “You said the tower isn’t here?”

Rahim nodded. “We scoured the whole site with ground-penetrating radar. We found many exciting sites, but no ziggurats large enough to fit the profile of the Tower of Babel. But some of the team believed the tower lay elsewhere, outside of Babylon.”

“What is beneath the mound on the opposite side of the river?” Bishop asked.

The man’s head snapped up, his face excited. “We never got a chance to dig, but the archaeologists suspected it was the Hanging Gardens.”

“The Hanging Gardens,” Bishop said to Knight in English.

Knight relayed the information. “King, a man from the original dig is here. He’s saying that the Tower of Babel isn’t here, and that the site you’re checking out might be—”

A burst of static cut him off.

“King. King? Do you copy?” Knight looked at Bishop. The only reason King wouldn’t reply was if he couldn’t.

“Rahim, we need you to show us where this mound is,” Bishop said.

*   *   *