The 13th Tablet (34 page)

‘Alright,' replied Mina.

‘OK. Unfortunately, we've lost the introductory elements so I don't know how the Babylonian scientists made their predictions,' said Daniel.

‘They weren't really scientists, you know, Daniel,' replied Mina.

‘Are we going to quibble about terminology?' asked Daniel.

‘No, no. So what do we have?'

‘We have a series of omens and lots of equations. I don't know if they are dates, astronomical precisions, places, or something else. I just can't tell.'

At that moment, they heard footsteps coming down the stairs.

‘Jack,' said Mina, ‘are you crazy? You should be resting right now.'

‘I've rested enough, and I can't leave the three of you to figure it all out without me.' They laughed. Daniel fetched cushions for Jack, as he fell into an armchair.

‘Man, I'm exhausted,' Jack said. ‘So where were you?'

‘Well, we were just assessing what we've got so far,' said Daniel.

‘And?' asked Jack.

‘Not much. Have a look,' he said, handing him Mina's translation of the tablet.

After a few moments, Jack put the notes down, ‘I have an idea. It isn't really my field but I think some of these are mathematical equations, a little basic, but very effective in flood management. I had no idea they were so advanced. I mean, really. Sure, there have always been floods, but we have always considered flood management to be something new.'

‘But what about ancient dams, Jack?' said Mina.

‘There's more to flood management than just a dam. How do you build a dam? Which material do you choose, inclinations, localisation, height, etc. and for each new variable, new equations. We're talking about complex systems.'

‘And can you tell which equations have to do with flood management techniques?' asked Daniel.

‘Maybe,' said Jack.

‘Fantastic,' said Mina, ‘could you do that while we work on the rest? But take it easy.'

‘Alright. First I will take a nap,' he replied, smiling at Mina.

Later that evening, Jack woke up in the armchair to find Mina and Daniel's heads almost touching, so focused were they on the translation. Mina turned around to see Jack's pointed gaze, drilling an imaginary hole into Daniel's skull. She gave him a look in return which said ‘You're being silly.'

Knowing that he was still watching her, she pretended to yawn and stretched her back, lifting her arms above her head and arching her back towards Jack. He was mesmerised by the outline of her figure under her tight jeans. Had he not been recovering from a serious wound, he would have grabbed her by the waist there and then and pulled her to him. Instead all he could do was stare.

Daniel sat up suddenly, totally oblivious to what was passing between Jack and Mina.

‘We've made some progress, but we'll need you to explain the equations,' said Daniel.

‘Alright, alright. I'll get down to it. I'll need a pen and paper.'

‘Here you go,' Daniel said, handing him what he needed.

 

Jack read through Mina's translation and understood why they had been so transfixed. It was a maze of calculations, imbedded within the biblical flood narrative. It was very weird, but quite clearly it was done on purpose to hide their findings. An hour later, he had finished.

‘Here you go,' he said. Mina and Daniel turned around together.

‘Can you explain what you've found, Jack?'

‘Well, I've highlighted what I think are equations to do with flood management, and what I think is astronomical data.'

‘That's great. Astrological information could be the key,' said Daniel.

‘I said astronomy,' said Jack, ‘don't go confusing science with hocus pocus astrology.'

‘What do you mean?' asked Daniel.

‘I'll tell you what I mean,' replied Jack. ‘There are two hundred and fifty billion stars in our own galaxy and over one hundred billion galaxies swirling about in space. That's a lot of stars in space to be influencing or predetermining a man's personality, or his direction in life. How many planets and stars did Babylonian astrologers know and use at the time, and how many are used today?'

‘That's not the point,' said Daniel. ‘Babylonian astrology focused on predicting events that affected the entire nation and its cities. Whatever it is today, astrology then was about trying to predict future meteorological events, earthquakes, famines, wars.'

‘I still think it's horseshit,' said Jack, ‘the only thing this tablet does is give a few exact moments in the sky. It's astronomical information.'

‘He's right you know,' said Mina to Daniel.

‘He might be right, but how did they find these dates or places, if not through astrology?' asked Daniel.

‘That, I don't know,' she answered, ‘it could be through a number of different observations. We don't have that part of the text.'

‘OK. Jack, what about dates?' asked Daniel.

But Jack had already fallen asleep.

 

Chapter 28

 

December 21st, 2004. Hildersham. Mulberry Cottage

 

 

 

Mina peeped through Jack's door. ‘Morning Jack.'

Jack had had a rough night, but he felt better this morning.

‘Morning beautiful.' She came and sat on the edge of his bed.

‘We're making progress,' she said. ‘Come down for breakfast and we'll tell you all about it.'

‘You know, if you'd rather I stayed up here, just tell me. I'll leave the two of you alone,' said Jack.

‘Jack, you aren't really jealous of Daniel, are you?' Mina asked, grinning.

‘Me. Never. Why? Should I be?'

‘No, you shouldn't,' she said, and she slowly bent down to kiss him.

Just as they were about to share their first kiss, they heard Joshua at the door and sprung up out like guilty teenagers. Joshua came in to check on his patient. After examining him, he announced that he was quite satisfied with his condition.

‘Jack, I'm amazed by your recovery. You must be made of steel,' he said appreciatively.

‘I know, doc, it's my curse,' said Jack with a smile.

‘You're almost as good as new,' said Joshua.

‘It's all thanks to you. I owe you one.'

‘Bring this whole matter to a close and you won't owe me anything.'

‘I'll do my best,' said Jack.

When Jack eventually came downstairs, he found Mina and Daniel sitting at the breakfast table, arguing about the notes, which put Jack in an excellent mood.

‘We're not getting anywhere,' said Mina.

‘I don't agree,' said Daniel.

‘What's going on?' Jack said, pulling up a chair.

But Mina went on regardless. ‘Alright Daniel, maybe you're right, but how do you explain the term
ocean of water
?'

‘It must be an image to describe the huge scale of the flood.'

‘And the
mouth of the earth
?'

‘That I don't know. I've thought about it the entire night and I still don't have a clue.'

‘But what sort of river flood are they talking about?' asked Jack, ‘what sort of flood could be that awful that they'd think of warning us thousands of years ago? Are we talking about a major city?'

‘That's why we may be wrong in our interpretation of the text,' said Daniel.

‘What if my first guess was wrong, and what I took for flood management measurements were actually successive dates, maybe encrypted?' said Jack.

‘Come on Jack, Daniel has been at this for days,' said Mina.

‘I don't know,' said Jack, ‘even if we had a perfect description of a star position, we'd still need another event to compare it with.'

‘Mina, he may be right. Let me try out his theory.'

 

Daniel stayed at the kitchen table, covering sheets with calculations. Suddenly he looked up, dazed and rushed to his laptop. He typed ‘1755 flood' into Google. As he read through the results, his face drained of colour. Jack and Mina looked at him, as he frantically scribbled more calculations. After a while, he turned to Mina and Jack, horror-struck, and motioned for them to approach the screen.

‘Jack was right. It is a date. I thought to myself, we have a date, 1755, the year the letter was sent to Safed from Hildersham. It's a weird letter. There's no other correspondence between the two places. What if Alejandro Cardozo and his family fled Portugal for some imperative reason and needed to write to say the tablet was safe? What if something dramatic happened in 1755? Well something did happen that year: the Lisbon earthquake. It's one of the worst earthquakes ever recorded in history and it was followed by a horrifying tidal wave on November 1st, 1755, at about 10.25 am. It killed over sixty thousand people.'

Mina did not respond. Her smile had vanished. She was thinking back to the letter Yeshua had written to his brother. It was dated December 1755. So Yeshua had left Lisbon with his family after the earthquake. Had he known how to use the tablet, surely he'd have left the city weeks beforehand. So why had he taken the tablet with him? She could only conclude that it was his duty to preserve the family's treasure out of respect for his ancestors. And, as it said in his letter, he'd keep on taking care of the tablet until the day it could be returned to the Jerusalem temple and used appropriately. ‘Simply stupefying,' thought Mina.

‘When and where will the next natural disaster hit?' asked Jack, whose brain, as ever, was trying to ignore the horrifying details and move to practical considerations.

‘Oh I think I know,' said Daniel.

‘So, tell us!' said Jack and Mina in unison.

‘I calculated backwards from 1755 to find out what the date would have been in Babylonian terms… I used an online calculator. It seems that some astronomers spend a lot of time writing such software. To cut a long story short, the next gigantic natural disaster, whatever form it takes – earthquake, flood, eruption or other – will happen on 26th December, 2014. But we have no idea where it will hit. I wish we still possessed the stone tablet I found in Mosul. Maybe the clue was there? What are we supposed to do? I mean, we can't exactly make a list of all the great rivers, volcanoes, seismic faults in the world and warn everyone living nearby, can we?'

Daniel came running into the room where Jack was re-checking his calculations.

‘Jack! Mina has found out where it will hit.'

They both went to the kitchen.

‘Boys,' said Mina, ‘I'm pretty sure it will hit in the middle of the Indian Ocean. I've calculated the planetary and star alignment described in the text, and it corresponds roughly to the sky map on the 26th above the middle of the Indian Ocean.'

Jack looked at her calculations dubiously, but Daniel seemed uplifted. ‘Jack, let's assume Mina is right. How bad do you think this could be? I mean, really, an earthquake in an ocean isn't going to do much is it?'