Chapter 9
“Hey, I was thinking about that email you sent regarding deciphering Orit’s email. As a proud English major, I have to believe there is something symbolic in the phrase Orit Peleg used. Aren’t lions the reigning kings of the jungle? And weren’t those diamonds found at the zoo? Check the lion exhibit and maybe get me something from the gift shop.”
- From DIG: The Official Prequel, Inspired by USA Network’s Television Event Series
PETER CONNELLY: FIELD NOTES - AKULA FILES
September 12, 2014 – 3:45pm Israeli time (8:45am EST)
Liat and I have not made much progress on the meaning of Orit’s cryptic email. Liat thinks the quote, “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown,” refers to royalty of some sort. So I decided to be proactive. Since the line mentions the word “king,” I went through all businesses with the word “king” in them, starting with King Falafal and ending my morning casing the King David Hotel here in Jerusalem. After spending 2 billion shekels on a Diet Coke and admiring the marble strip of guest signatures in the lobby, I was done. If Vicki were here, we would have had a laugh over the placement of Jimmy Carter, former President of the United States, next to Naomi Campbell, phone thrower. In any event, I decided that being at the hotel was a total waste of my time. There are cameras in every room, nothing suspicious in the guest records, and nowhere are there any references to Shakespeare. Must be a different place that mentions or has “king” in its name.
Meanwhile, Liat and the cyber-security team have still not picked up any radio signals from a wireless insulin pump near Katamon. Either Dasha Petrova is injecting insulin by hand or we are really unlucky. We have also been unsuccessful in tracking the IP address of Orit Peleg’s email. I have made several attempts to reply and they all bounce back as undeliverable. I am starting to worry she might be in real danger.
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To: PeterConnelly@USconsulate.com
From: LynnMonahan@USconsulate.com
Subject: Orit Peleg Email/Idea
Date: September 14, 2014
Hey, I was thinking about that email you sent regarding deciphering Orit’s email. As a proud English major, I have to believe there is something symbolic in the phrase Orit Peleg used. Aren’t lions the reigning kings of the jungle? And weren’t those diamonds found at the zoo? Check the lion exhibit and maybe get me something from the gift shop. On behalf of all English majors, you owe me one.
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PETER CONNELLY: FIELD NOTES - AKULA FILES
September 15, 2014 – 2:30pm Israeli time (7:30am EST)
A day in the life of an FBI agent. Some agents track down terrorists, some agents find fugitives, and some agents spend hours in the rancid section of the Jerusalem Zoo looking for clues while bored lions look at them like they are their next meal. None of the zookeepers had any insight in my quest to find some unfound clue in the lion exhibit. Honestly, I think they thought I’ve gone off the deep end. But the notion of the lion being the king of the jungle tracks for me as a clue. When I came back from the office and told Liat that the zoo was a bust, she mentioned that there are lion statues all over the city of Jerusalem. I guess I’m hunting down some lions.
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POLICE REPORT
Detective Golan Cohen, Jerusalem Police
September 16, 2014
I went back to Odessa where I’m really starting to like the bird’s milk pastries, that the Berozashvilis make fresh daily. In Russian it’s called ptichye moloko. By the end of the week I’ll either arrest Yusim, become fluent in Russian, or gain ten pounds. I told my new best friends, the Berozashvilis, that I was looking for a power source and the three of us snooped around the place like three bumbling detectives searching for the Maltese Falcon. I just want to be Humphrey Bogart, not Inspector Clouseau.
I didn’t tell the Berozashvilis this, but I am certain someone is tapping into their power lines. They have no servers or mainframe computers in the store and the power company’s audit was clear. Something isn’t adding up.
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To: PhilC@USconsulate.com
From: LynnMonahan@USconsulate.com
CC: SHefner@FBI.gov
Subject: Contract Employees
Date: September 17, 2014
Please get me a detailed report on all contract employees currently employed at the consulate. A preliminary background check of said employees has revealed that many of these new hires have multiple aliases. While I was able to flag many of these individuals, I’m concerned we did not do an extensive enough investigation into all those responsible for safeguarding the consulate in any capacity. The upcoming peace talks will, no doubt, highlight the Jerusalem consulate and we must be vigilant, especially in anticipation of Special Envoy Barnette’s arrival.
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FBI MEMORANDUM
From: Deputy Director Hefner
To: Lynn Monahan
Subject: Yussef Khalid
Date: September 17, 2014
Good work on flagging the contracted governmental employees with questionable backgrounds. This has been an ongoing problem in many consulates and embassies around the world. Just a heads up that there has been some suspicious chatter that indicates Yussef Khalid has left Syria. His whereabouts are unknown.
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PETER CONNELLY: FIELD NOTES - AKULA FILES
September 18, 2014 – 7:30pm Israeli time (12:30pm EST)
Apparently the lion is the symbol of Jerusalem and the city is crawling with them—no pun intended. I have tracked down many, from the Lion statue at Machane Yehuda Market in Jerusalem to the lion at the Gates of Jerusalem. The dry air and heat was intense, and I was ready to head for the nearest air conditioning. That’s when I found the large lion relief outside the Ethiopian Church. I promised myself that this was the last lion I would hunt down (I can’t believe I just wrote that). Inside the cool church I spoke to a nice guide and he translated the words above the church gate to mean, "The Lion of Judah has conquered." I surveyed the lion relief, and asked if there were any surveillance tapes of the area; there aren’t. I don’t know what possessed me, but as I stood there looking at the relief, I saw an odd shoe print at the base of the relief. The guide hadn’t noticed it before. I looked around but couldn’t find any sign of additional shoe prints, which suggests someone was standing on the relief and later tried to cover their tracks. Could Orit Peleg have meant this lion? I decided to call Liat and get forensics to come to the church. Using a ladder, I dusted the relief, thinking that Orit might have left a clue, or that I was losing my mind. It was my last shot. Success! Among remnants of bird feathers and sap from surrounding trees, the black dust picked up a near perfect thumbprint firmly placed on the lion’s crown. A near perfect print! The most fascinating aspect, apart from finding a perfect print on an ancient relic, is that according to forensics it was expertly planted using some sort of permanent adhesive in order to remain intact. Obviously, this is a huge discovery and it’s like Christmas for the forensic team. They are busy tracking the ingredients of the adhesive as well as submitting the fingerprint through any and all identification databases. From tracking down lions to a thumbprint—the chase is on!
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Thanks for reading the latest installment of DIG: The Official Prequel! Whose thumbprint do you think Peter found?
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DIG: The Official Prequel
Mystery / ThrillerPeter Connelly, a highly decorated FBI agent, has just arrived in Jerusalem for a new assignment—there’s been a major cyber heist and it’s up to him to track the missing millions and whoever’s responsible. While the FBI believes this to be the work...
