Abu Sitta had made the trip to Tehran once again, not trusting to the network connections or satellite connections; he preferred face to face meetings. He had no appointment set with Minister Hooshy Ar Karimi, and had merely called him as he was leaving Palestine to say he needed to speak, urgently. Karimi was not used to people demanding to see him with such short notice, however the association with Sitta was an important one, and he was subject to the courtesy laws of Iran. He would just have to grin and bear it. Sitta had arrived at the Ministry before the Minister and was now waiting in the anteroom sipping a strong coffee.
At twelve minutes past nine the Minister strode through the room and beckoned Sitta to follow him into his office with a nod of the head. Sitta stood and carried his drink into the inner office and Karimi closed the door.
“What is so urgent Dirar,” asked Karimi before Sitta had a chance to sit down.
“We have a problem,” Sitta stated in a totally flat tone. “Please, sit; now tell me what this urgent problem is.”
“My sources have informed me that the Israelis have the Ark stored beneath the Temple Mount, in that cavern that they found,” Sitta said.
“Yes, and so,” responded the Minister.
“So, in case you haven't watched the news lately, there's volcano pumping up lava from below the Mount and as if that wasn't bad enough, there's that dam laser-beam shooting into or out of the lava.”
“Ah yes, I see what you mean, that may be a problem, is there no way to get in,” Minister Karimi asked.
“The access from the top of the Mount is currently flooded with bubbling lava; the tunnels that those archaeologists cut have been well sealed with solid concrete. There is another way in, if the Ark has not been destroyed,” explained Sitta.
“So what is the problem, use that way in?”
The problem is, I don't know where it is,” explained Sitta, “when the archaeologists found the Ark, we had some one planted with them, and we had a unit that found her and went to her assistance, out in the wilderness somewhere, a long ways from the Mount, an ancient tunnel I guess.”
“So, ask your people, they must remember where the entrance was.”
“I can't, many of the unit were killed in a fire-fight with the Israeli army, and the ones that weren't killed are locked up somewhere, you know what Israeli security is like.”
“Is there no one else that knows where the access point is,” asked the Minister.
“Only the archaeologists that found the Ark,” answered Sitta.
“Well find one of them; do you even know where they are?”
“No,” said Sitta.
“Listen my friend,” said Karimi, “you must do better than this; you need to think with that brain of yours. These archaeologists, they are famous people, no. The famous are always easy to find, they leave a trail behind them and they always have a path laid out in front of them. Go, and find these people, get one of them to show you where the entrance is.”
“Yes,” Abu Sitta hesitantly mumbled, “I should have thought of that.”
“Yes, you should, now good morning Mr. Sitta.”