Next, he added in the routes of Bertram Thomas and St. John Philby, as recorded in the notes he had found. While Philby made no use of the trail, Thomas appeared to be practically standing on it when his guide provided him directions to Ubar, and it seemed he traveled on it for several portions of his journey.
“Alright, here it is,” he said finally to an impatient Wally, who was pacing behind him, and a more relaxed Shane, who was sitting on the couch watching Arabic TV. They both walked over to peer at the screen.
“I’m going to need a little help here, bro,” Shane said. “What are we looking at?”
“This line here represents the ancient camel trails from the LIDAR imagery provided by Ahmed,” he said, pointing at the line he had just created. “You can see the deviation to the west. It’s not as pronounced as the rest of the trail system, but it’s definitely there. There’s only one reason a trade caravan would have deviated that far off the established path.”
“Ubar?” Wally asked.
“Maybe,” Nate replied.
“Maybe?” Shane asked.
“It’s complicated. Keep in mind, there’s very little life out in that desert, at least what we consider to be life. The one thing that would make a caravan travel forty miles out and forty miles back is water, so there must have been a considerable amount of water there. We’re not talking about your average well; it would have been something much,much bigger. And if there was that much water, a trading post certainly could have sprung up in the area.”
“And I’ll bet being the only stop for hundreds of miles would have made it one hell of a tourist destination,” Shane said.
“Precisely. Such a place would have had the monopoly on rest stops. Caravans coming and going would have made their way there to rest, water their camels, and trade. It would have meant massive amounts of commerce and made the city incredibly wealthy.”
“Ubar,” Wally said again, this time more definitively.
“Ubar,” Nate agreed.
“So where does the road stop?” Shane asked.
“That’s the tricky part. It’s not definitive, you can see here on the imagery.” He held the papers up. “It simply fades out instead of coming to a hard stop.”
“So we don’t really know,” Wally said.
“Not exactly. But it narrows down the search area. This trail gives us latitude. We know the resting place of the city likely lies somewhere on or near this line, but we can’t determine exactly where. The longitude is impossible to tell. We have the coordinates for Philby’s well, and a rough idea of where Thomas’s Bedouins plucked trinkets out of another well, but no idea which direction the underground water sources flow or where they might branch. The answer is more than likely in Metry’s report.”
“The water report?” Shane asked.
“Right. There’s a water system that runs throughout the area. Ancient underground rivers. We know they are out there, and we know they branch off deep underground. The biggest, most abundant river that runs under the area should intersect with the latitude of the camel trails, and maybe even bisect with Philby’s or Thomas’s well. And at that point…” He left the conclusion open.
“Ubar,” Wally said for a third time.
“Yes, Wally.” Nate smiled. “Ubar.”
“Well hot damn,” Shane said, clapping his hands together. “Our transportation is all set. We have a plan. Guess the only thing left to do is to make sure this Egyptian smokeshow isn’t murdered in the next twenty-four hours.”
In his excitement over the imagery provided by Ahmed, Nate had temporarily forgotten about the more pressing issue of Anastasia’s meeting and the potential danger she faced.
“Right,” Nate said, putting his research aside. “We’d better come up with a plan for that sooner rather than later.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
The next morning they awoke feeling rested. Nate was able to partake in the massive breakfast spread down in the luxurious dining hall this time and was feeling more like himself. When they were finished, they returned to the room and went over their plan one more time. None of them had weapons, and would simply have to rely on their training and their wits to intercept any possible threats. With their limited numbers, they would only be able to cover the three approaches to the meeting location. Unfortunately, it meant there would be no one in the café in the event they missed intercepting her and the meeting actually went down.
Nate dressed in a light-blue button-down shirt and khaki pants with his brown Todd Snyder boots. Shane and Wally dressed similarly. They weren’t going to blend in completely, but they wouldn’t stand out either. Leaving the hotel room, they made their way to the elevator and Wally pushed the button for the lobby.
“Everybody get a good look at her picture?” Nate asked, knowing full well they had, but going through the pre-mission checks anyhow.
“Trust me, I’m not going to forget a face like that,” Shane answered, licking his fingers and straightening his eyebrows in a comical fashion. Wally rolled his eyes.
The elevator stopped at the lobby and the doors opened. Standing on the other side of them was a burly redheaded man with a thick red beard holding a large army duffel bag. All three instantly recognized Tim McBride. Nate was speechless. Shane wasn’t.
“I fucking told you he’d show!” he shouted, slapping Nate hard on the back. Nate was in genuine shock.
