Globusz^® Publishing 

At the local police headquarters in Tbilisi, Henry and his men supervised the safe removal of the cesium from the small bomb. Henry then dispatched half of his team to take the cesium to the safe zone in Germany and other men would remain at the U.S Embassy in Tbilisi awaiting further orders. As he walked outside to his car, Henry’s cell phone rang and Deputy Chief of Mission Evans was on the line.

“We received the interpretation on the back of the painting that you asked for, Mr. Carr, it’s a poem.”

Henry pulled out a note pad and said, “Go ahead, Mr. Evans.”

Protected by the twelve from above

Yet held in Sidonia’s strong grip of love

Behold what warms the pure heart of the Lord

Blessedly lying beneath the cold floor.

From the front tenth pew find rest on the right

In the middle go down and you will find the light.

“Twelve above, Sidonia, warms the heart of the Lord, front tenth pew, middle go down, does that mean anything at all to you?” Henry asked Evans.

“Sorry, sir, not a clue.”

Henry ended the call and sat there thinking about what it could mean. The only thing he was somewhat sure of was that the tenth pew, as he suspected earlier, was probably in a church.

Twenty minutes earlier, Ella Mamedov could not believe her eyes. She walked from her hotel over to a cafe to get a cup of coffee as she watched the commotion as the buildings across Freedom Square were being evacuated. She did a double take when she thought that she saw Abdula Nassir getting out of a motor home with another man. Fairly sure that it was Abdula, she walked toward him to see if he might know anything about Tafar’s killer when a man jumped from out of nowhere and slammed Abdula against the side of the RV. Her jaw dropped and she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw that the man who attacked Abdula was Tafar’s killer. She composed herself, pulled a knife out of her purse and hid it up her sleeve and started walking toward him when suddenly four other people came hurrying out of the RV. She moved back into the crowd and watched Henry’s every move from that moment on. She followed him when he went over to the Shervnadze apartment building, and from there down to the police station two blocks away where she patiently waited in the shadows for a chance to attack Henry when he came out of the station. She was now puzzled by her emotions, yesterday, she would have thought nothing about killing anyone or anything that got in the way of her hated target. He was only a few feet from her and totally preoccupied with Abdula, she could have killed him easily. She was somehow changed now, even though her heart was still aching with the grief of her lost love, self-preservation had entered the picture. She may have killed Tafar’s murderer, but there was little doubt that she would have been killed or captured in the process. As painful as her present ordeal was, the idea of suffering through it in a jail cell was certainly not an option. Physical pain was something she was used to as a career soldier, but emotional pain was no less severe. There was no question that she was going to fulfill her promise to Tafar by avenging his death, but she would accomplish this by assuring that the only two acceptable options were a fight to the death or escape. The bottom line was that Tafar’s killer would soon join him on the other side.

As Ella stood in the cool night air near the police station, she thought about going back to the hotel to get her warm car to wait in. As she was ready to relent, she finally saw Henry come out of the police station talking to some other men. When their conversation ended, the men went to their car and drove off, and Henry started walking to his car that was parked on the street. She started moving toward him but backed up when she saw him answer a cell phone call. When he slowly got into his car, Ella pulled a small pistol from her purse, put it in her coat pocket and starts walking toward him. She clenched the pistol with her finger on the trigger as she approached the car quietly from the rear. She was careful to stay out of the range of the car’s mirrors and as she got within ten feet of the rear of the car, she walked closer and looked for the best angle to get a clean shot through the car windows. As she got along side the car, the car started and then she heard voices as the door to the police station opened and three uniformed policemen came out. By the time she reacted, the car sped away into the night, and Ella slowly walked back to her hotel.

Earlier, Henry Carr and his men left the police station and were on their way over to the Embassy to get some well-deserved rest. Henry was walking to his car when he got the call from Evans who gave him the translation of the poem on back of the picture. What he had trouble understanding is why a cold-blooded mercenary had a religious poem in his wallet and on the wall of his office. He ran the words through his head a dozen times looking for some meaning. He gave up for the moment and started up his car to head over to the embassy. Before he pulled out, he noticed a young lady walking up the sidewalk next to his car and also saw some policemen coming out of the station. Henry thought nothing of it and drove over to the embassy to get some sleep.