The Columbus Code (30 page)

“Was she not vetted before she came here?”

“Your friend Mr. Snowden assured us he had done all of that with his employees.”

Now, after Tejada had sent Molina to make arrangements, after hours thinking of what to do next, he could only blow smoke from the cigar and watch it fade away.

Did Maria come back to Barcelona to further her ambitions with Snowden's law firm? Or was that a cover? Was she working for her father? Spying on Tejada? Gathering information?

About what?

Tejada snuffed out the cigar in the marble ashtray that sat near his elbow.

The US Secret Service was part of Homeland Security. What would they want with antique Spanish documents? Tejada didn't know what those documents were and at this point he was averse to going to Abaddon with that question. Abaddon knew too much already.

Tejada glanced at the cell phone screen and saw that Maria had left a message. He had invited her to come to use his home as a place of retreat, then reiterated that invitation just yesterday. The call just then was probably to arrange that, and if he refused her now she would be suspicious . . . unless she was not involved with her father. Unless it was a mere coincidence that he was in Spain, wreaking havoc on its artifacts at the same time his daughter was wreaking havoc on Tejada's heart. The heart he was supposed to keep only for the Brotherhood. For the plan. For Abaddon.

Tejada laid the phone in his lap and closed his eyes. He needed to pull himself together. Handle this the way he would any other situation. Gather intelligence. Analyze it. Take the necessary action, whatever that might be.

Only this time, he wouldn't use Molina. This time he would have to do it himself.

Finally, he picked up the phone and tapped Maria's number.

Winters didn't expect to sleep that night, but the absence of rest the two nights before and the several-steps-lower-than-coach accommodations on the cargo plane had left him too wiped out to do anything
but
sleep. He and Sophia arrived at the hotel south of Jerusalem's city center at 3 a.m. Even though he gave her the bed and he crashed on the floor, he got five solid dreamless hours. Which meant his head was clearer and this whole idea seemed more absurd than ever before.

On the other hand, Sophia, who was up and ready, seemed visibly calmer than when they'd left Pamplona Airport. Though her eyes shone, she moved without hurry.

Yeah, Winters thought, nothing said “safe” like Palestinian terrorists and car bombs. “I need coffee,” he groaned.

“Jacob will have something wonderful for us,” she said. “He is sending his driver to pick us up.”

“A college professor can afford a driver? What do they pay them over here?”

“It is a necessity for Dr. Hirsch. He is unable to drive—he has a condition that causes seizures.”

Professor Hirsch's home was in the Abu Tor neighborhood, which Winters knew to be relatively safe. Still he kept his eye on the surrounding vehicles and checked the rooftops of the buildings they passed. It wasn't as though something suspicious would necessarily stand out—everything looked dangerous to him.

Hirsch met them at the door with a German shepherd at his side. He and the dog, who was introduced as Aasim, had similar handsome features—long noses and warm, discerning eyes.

“
Shalom
,” he said. “Come inside.”

He led the way to a high-ceilinged sitting area where, as Sophia predicted, he had a tray waiting for them—coffee and a bakery item that Sophia informed him was
challah
. Winters had no appetite. The sooner he could make sure Sophia would be safe here, the sooner he could get back to Spain and find out what was going on. The thought of leaving her at all took away even his desire for coffee.

When the driver—who apparently doubled as a houseboy—took away the tray, Winters stood by the arched window and surveyed the safety features of the house. He quickly determined that other than the German shepherd, there weren't many.

Meanwhile, Sophia and Hirsch leaned their heads together over the journal.

“Ah, the blood moon eclipses,” Hirsch said. “That term means more when tied to our festivals.” He looked reverently at the journal that lay open on the table. “The fact that he mentions it in his private writings is further evidence of what so many of my colleagues and I believe.”

“That he was indeed Jewish,” Sophia said.

Winters turned to face them. “Maybe you can clear something up for me, Professor,” he said.

“I hope I can.”

“Columbus says in the prophecies that there had to be one final crusade to recapture the Holy Land before Jesus would return, and one of the reasons for his first voyage was to find enough gold to finance that crusade.”

Hirsch gave him an approving nod.

“But if he was a Jew, why facilitate Jesus' return?”

“Excellent question,” Hirsch noted. “We believe that may have been a cover for his real purpose. Or he saw himself as racially a Jew, but spiritually a believer in Christianity.” His eyes fell on the journal again. “Hopefully further study of these writings will tell us more.”

“Then we've brought them to the right place.” Winters moved from the window to sit on the edge of the couch, close to Hirsch and Sophia. “I'm concerned about your safety, yours and Sophia's. These people who are after the journal—whoever they are—they're desperate enough to kill for it.”

Sophia petted Aasim's head. “No one knows we're here. And as soon as Jacob has culled whatever he can from this, he will see that the journals are put in the right hands.”

“Hands more capable than those of our poor departed monk,” Hirsch said.

“I'm sure that sooner or later these people would have stormed in there and found the journal anyway.”

“No,” she said. “We led that man there. If they'd known the journal was there, they would have taken it long ago.”

“Let us not borrow trouble from yesterday,” Hirsch said. “I am interested in the signature here, at the end.” He gestured toward journal.

Winters looked longingly at the door, but there was no cutting off Hirsch without insulting both him and Sophia. He suppressed a groan and nodded.

“You see here,” Hirsch said, pointing to the symbols arranged in a triangle with dots and letters. “This is a formation often found on gravestones in Jewish cemeteries. Columbus ordered his heirs to use that same signature in perpetuity.”

“What does it mean?” Sophia asked.

“It is a symbol for the Kaddish—a prayer of blessing and thanksgiving often said at funerals.” He looked over at Sophia. “Would you like to hear it?”

“Of course,” she replied graciously.

Hirsch stood, spread his arms apart, palms turned upward, and looked to the ceiling, then began in a low rich voice. “May the great name of God be exalted and sanctified, throughout the world, which He has created according to His will. May His kingship be established in your lifetime and in your days, and in the lifetime of the entire household of Israel, swiftly and in the near future; and say, Amen.”

Sophia murmured an amen. Winters was about to do the same when Hirsch continued. “May His great name be blessed, forever and ever. Blessed, praised, glorified, exalted, extolled, honored, elevated, and lauded be the name of the Holy One. Blessed is He above and beyond any blessings and hymns, praises and consolations which are uttered in the world; and say, Amen.”

Winters murmured it this time.

“May there be abundant peace from heaven, and life upon us and upon all Israel; and say, Amen.”

Winters breathed the final amen.

Hirsch lowered his arms and rested his hands at his sides, as if the blessing had taken all of his energy. “By telling his heirs to use that signature forever, with those symbols,” he said, “Columbus was in effect instructing them to pray that blessing over him and his descendants.”

Sophia held a finger over a page in the journal. “What about these ‘four levels,' Jacob? What is this about?”

“It's referring to the basic notion of Kabbalah, which teaches that there are four levels of reality—the obvious, the allegorical, the imaginative, and the inner esoteric meaning. In this case, it would indicate the lunar eclipse, solar eclipse, and the two Jewish festivals of Passover and Sukkot. When all four of those occur in order, an evil one will rise to power.”

Sophia pulled out her iPad to take notes.

“I won't give you a crash course in Kabbalah,” Hirsch said. “But in essence it is based on the belief that nothing is as it appears on the surface. There are always four meanings behind everything, with the obvious being the least important and the esoteric the most important.” He nodded toward the journal. “What Columbus says he was told by Cordovero is just this kind of reasoning. However—”

“John does not like ‘however,'” Sophia said, interrupting.

“Let's hear it anyway,” Winters said.

Hirsch cleared his throat. “I find it hard to believe that Moses Cordovero told him this—about the rise of the evil one and the righteous one vanquishing him forever—as the truth. If he
did
put it the way it's written here, he did so only because he didn't fully trust Columbus.”

Winters wondered why anyone would.

“If Columbus was Jewish,” Hirsch continued, “and it seems obvious now that he was, he was only half Jew. His mother was Jewish but his father was Christian. Jewish business leaders might have dealt with him for commercial reasons, but on religious and philosophical issues they would have been far more circumspect.”

“Are you saying—the journal really isn't that valuable?” Winters asked. “I mean, in terms of truth?”

Hirsch shook his head. “What he wrote here is accurate down to the part about the tetrads.” He pointed again to the journal. “The tetrad he experienced while on his first voyage was, in fact, the first tetrad following the destruction of the Temple.”

“Truly, Jacob?” Sophia questioned.

“Truly,” Hirsch replied. “The evil one doesn't arise to oppose the fulfillment on the first tetrad. That is the part that Columbus has wrong. The evil one arises when the four levels converge—after the fourth tetrad.”

“So . . . did the other tetrads actually occur?” Winters asked.

“Oh, yes,” Hirsch replied. “We've had three so far. All of them associated with the Passover and the Feast of the Tabernacles. The first occurred between 1493 and 1494, just as Columbus was making his discoveries. It announced the first part of the prophecy—a time of tears and tribulation for the Jews. These dates are well known. You can find them on NASA's website.”

“Then,” Sophia said, “the ‘time of tears and tribulation' would be the Spanish Inquisition, correct?”

“I think so. But the tetrad merely releases the thing announced in the prophecy. It's a point of beginning.”

“Well, yeah,” Winters agreed. “Since the persecution of the Jews definitely didn't end there.”

“Correct,” Hirsch said quietly. “It did not.” He scratched absently between his dog's ears.

Winters suddenly wished the conversation would end. A shiver was working its way up his spine.

“And the second tetrad?” Sophia asked, oblivious to Winters' discomfort.

“That one happened between 1949 and 1950. Right after the founding of the Jewish state of Israel.”

“Which part of the prophecy was that?”

“The close of the prior age and the beginning of a time of blessing and triumph,” Hirsch explained. “For the following twenty years Israel prospered beyond all expectations.”

“And the third age?”

“Between 1967 and 1968. That tetrad coincided with the Six-Day War, which marked the complete restoration of Jerusalem to the Jewish people. Until then Arabs still controlled East Jerusalem.”

Winters was afraid to ask the obvious next question. “What about the fourth tetrad?”

Hirsch looked directly at him. “That one was set to occur between 2014 and 2015.”