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An opportunity not to pass as they could slip out of reach again very quickly. I mean, could anybody really trust Mossad and their agenda?
 

Chapter 17
    Raiding the Ark
 
    We jumped up and got into Artem’s vodka vapour reeking car. As the heater warmed up we opened the windows wide which meant about a quarter inch. A hell of a way to die.
     
    Artem had the address of the cousin. We rushed to the location. Osanna still hurting from the still suspicious accident remained in the car. Artem and I ran up the stairs of the apartment and banged on the door. Apprehension ran through us as the big door just swung open on its own. Cautiously we went in. The place was torn to shreds. Everything was everywhere. In the kitchen we found the cousin. Obviously a tortured man. He was unmoving on the floor still tied to a tipped chair. Artem determined he was dead. For the first time realization really set in. Somebody was pissed off.
     
    We did not take time to be sorry but scrambled onto the balcony looking for the planter and there it was in the corner untouched. Artem pushed it over and we dug with our hands into the dirt. I felt the strap and pulled. There it was. The satchel now in our hands. Amazing. We looked at each other, went inside to keep from prying eyes viewing us from an adjoining balcony and opened the satchel. There it was. All the diamonds in a black felt bag glistening madly on the coffee table as they fell out of their womb. Artem quickly tossed them back into the satchel threw it too me and moved to the door. We were out of there.
     
    Getting into the car our nervous giddy glee quickly caught Osanna’s attention. She saw we had the goods. I never had heard her gasp with appreciation and finality. Osanna was ecstatic. This woman hardly showed emotion but it was evident now she could.
     
    I yelled to Artem “Head for the Israelis’ cutting facility.”
     
    I could not believe this car. Here I was under the impression Artem was a mogul in his own right and of course he was. He just did not want to show this around the city and kept his secret close. This car put him in the league of the average. Nobody was following us or came out of the woodwork.
     
    We found our way to the Israelis via cell phone directions. They were waiting. Quickly we slipped into a building into a room and there was a delegation of Israelis sitting with absolute gratitude on their faces. We were greeted like royalty and offered coffee and tea immediately.
     
    The satchel was put on the table and when the stones were revealed, the room broke into dance and jubilation. We were hugged. Kissed. Shook. It began to get just too weird for me. It was the type of scenario Taylor would revel in. He hugs most anything, with a skirt or not.
     
    Osanna was holding back tears from her injuries being jostled about. Artem was the happiest guy as once again his people were very responsible for solving the mysterious loss of the stones. We left everybody happy.
     
    Unfortunately the government recipient of the stones was no longer happy. Someone found his hiding place. The Israelis reported he was found spiked to a door frame of the Blue Mosque; "Gök Jami" built between 1764–1768, located on Mashtots Avenue, right in busy downtown.
     
    The building is the only operating Mosque in Armenia. Refitted and paid for after the Russians left by the Iranians with Armenian approval. Armenia is overwhelmingly Christian. There are some 1,500 churches spanning centuries. Some of them are active and others are now architectural icons.
     
    Christianity came into Armenia as early as AD 40. King Taridites 111 ( AD 238–314) made Christianity the religion of the state, AD 301, creating the very first officially Christian country, ten years before the Roman Empire gave Christianity an official acceptance, and, 36 years before Constantine the Great was so baptized. Many deem Armenia the cradle of Christianity.
    Why the Mosque? The significance escaped me.
     
    The