The Sacred Cipher by Terry Brennan

Author:Terry Brennan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kregel Digital Editions

The one thing they had talked about on the trip over was that they would keep Kallie Nolan out of this project as much as possible. If nothing else, just to protect her. Who knew where the Prophet’s Guard would turn up next.

Now in Israel, the obvious slapped Bohannon silly. What they had been trying to avoid thinking about for weeks was all around them, living, breathing, and speaking. Men in robes and head coverings; women with veils over their faces; men in uniform, automatic weapons cradled in the crook of their arms; women in uniform, their eyes relentless, always on guard.

This was not America, not even post–9/11 America. Israel was not even like New York City, thought Bohannon, where the scars were deepest and the expectation of “again” the highest.

Life in New York City had changed forever. More and more buildings had surrounded themselves with flower planters—those huge, concrete, reinforced planters that doubled as car bomb protection and fooled no one.

Downtown, the precautions were even more draconian. Streets around the New York Stock Exchange were still blocked with police barricades and uniforms with automatic weapons. But it was around the federal buildings that New York looked more like Baghdad. The streets were impassible, secured by thick, metal, pneumatically controlled barricades that were lowered only after presentation of highest security clearance ID, and only after the vehicle was subjected to a thorough search.

Grand Central Station was constantly patrolled, not only by the NYPD but also by roving squads of military in their camo, each entry under heavily armed guard. Subway stations now routinely, but randomly, were under close surveillance by squads of specially trained NYPD officers. Most New Yorkers were aware of, and thankful for, these heightened security measures. But what most New Yorkers failed to notice was the “army of the normal.” New York’s antiterrorism squads had been well publicized. No one spoke of the spooks: the taxi drivers; UPS deliverymen; street vendors; moms with baby carriages . . . the hundreds of plainclothes disguises that made up the thousand officers who comprised Rory O’Neill’s “army of the normal.”

Daily reminders of how life had changed were dotted all over the New York City landscape.

Yet the flow of New York had not changed.

There was no fear. Concern, but no fear. Millions still rode the A train or the N/R from Queens without a second thought. They ate in restaurants, went to work in ridiculously tall buildings, raised their children. The city continued to grow, rents continued to climb. And people moved from place to place, building to building; neighborhood to neighborhood, city to city, with few worries. America remained an open society even in the face of unseen warriors fighting an unconventional war against Western civilization.

Being driven out of Tel Aviv Airport, past fortified checkpoints, Bohannon realized just how much freedom was being taken for granted in his home city. Israelis were serious about security; they had to be. They were all targets, and their enemies surrounded them. At times, their enemies were right in their midst.

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