The Moses Legacy (30 page)

‘Excuse me, I know this is going to sound awfully silly, but I was looking for some friends of mine. I was supposed to meet them here, but I got a bit delayed.'

Sarit was talking to a woman behind the counter at the Petra visitor centre.

‘We get so many people passing through here.'

She had been about to tell the woman the names of her ‘friends' – but the initial response made it clear that this would serve no useful purpose.

‘One of them is quite tall.' She made a gesture with a raised arm and right-angled hand to indicate height.

‘Oh, wait a minute, yes, I remember them. They went with Sheikh Ibrahim.'

‘Sheikh Ibrahim?'

‘Yes. They wanted a special tour with someone who really knows the history.'

‘You mean like a private tour?'

‘Yes.'

‘Well, do you know where they went?'

‘Not really. I mean, knowing Sheikh Ibrahim it'll be well off the beaten track.'

‘But you don't know where.'

‘I'm afraid not. But I can give you his mobile phone number.'

‘Oh, er… thank you.'

She hadn't expected that. Less than a minute later she was outside trying to get a signal. She had to move a few yards away from the building, but eventually she got one. She called the number. It rang for such a long time that she expected it to cut out and transfer to voicemail. But eventually a man answered.

‘Hallo.'

The voice sounded rasping, like he was in some place where he couldn't speak freely, like a church or a library.

‘Sheikh Ibrahim?'

‘Who is this?'

‘My name is Siobhan. You don't know me but I'm—'

‘Help me,' the voice croaked.

Sarit froze. The pain in the voice sounded real.

‘Help me,' the voice said again, in a muted rasp. It sounded like he was struggling to speak.

‘Who is this?'

‘Ib… Ibrahim.'

‘Where are you?'

‘Snake Monument.'

She tried to ask him more questions, but was greeted by silence. She realized that she would have to go there, with or without a guide.

Daniel had recovered his composure and was reading out loud.

‘Jehovah-ites?' Gabrielle repeated.

‘It says
Yahowa da'im.
That could be translated as the ones who knew Jehovah. But it could also be
Yehudim
: the Judah-ites, which in English is translated as
Jews
.'

‘What else does it say?'

He carried on translating.

‘So you've got two peoples joining forces: the Jehovah-ites or Judah-ites…
and
Israel.'

‘That's what it appears to be saying.'

He broke off. ‘I don't know if I pronounced that right.'

‘You did,' said Gabrielle. ‘The
sed
festival was a great feast that the pharaohs had to celebrate their thirtieth anniversary – those that
had
such an anniversary, that is. Then they had other
sed
festivals every three or four years thereafter. Ramesses the Second, who ruled for sixty-six years, had fourteen
sed
festivals.'

‘And what were they? I mean, how did they celebrate?'

‘The
sed
festivals were essentially great banquets for the royal court with sumptuous food and singing by choirs consisting of the royal wives. They also had singers from the temples and performing acrobats and the whole thing was officiated over by the daughters of Asian princes whose main job was to pour drinks for the pharaoh four times into his royal goblet… Daniel?'

He realized that the look on his face had arrested her exposition midstream. ‘Say that again.'

‘I said, the festival of
sed
was a—'

‘No, the bit about the drinks.'

She blinked, uncertain of what he was getting at. ‘They were poured by Asian princesses who—'

‘No, I mean how many times?'

‘What – how many times did they pour the drinks? Four, according to the descriptions in the ancient texts.'

‘
Four
drinks.'

‘Yes,' Gabrielle replied, still unsure of what Daniel was getting at.

‘And it's called the festival of
sed
?'

‘
Yes!
Look, what's all this about? What's so special about four drinks? As opposed to three… or any other number.'

‘The Jews celebrate the Exodus at Passover—'

‘Yes, I know that!'

‘No, what I mean is that Passover starts with a festive
family dinner accompanied by a religious service at the dining table called a
seider
. That means
order
, in both biblical and modern Hebrew, because things have to be done in a particular order.'

‘Mm… I never thought of that.'

‘But there's more. It's a tradition at the
seider
service that we drink
four glasses or cups of wine
!'

‘Good God!'

‘
That's
what I was getting at. Specifically
four
!'

‘And you think that this
seider
service could originate with the festival of
sed
that the Egyptian kings used to celebrate?'

‘That's what I'm beginning to think.'

Gabrielle was unable to contain her curiosity. ‘Does it say any more?'

‘I was translating from the bottom of the second tablet.'

‘Then let's go on to the next one.'

‘Did the Israelites have a leader called Judah at the time?' asked Gabrielle.

Daniel's eyes lit up. ‘No, but there was a
tribe
called Judah! And for much of history Judah was a separate kingdom from Israel. And of course Judah can also mean the One Who Knew Jehovah.'

‘That would explain the fragmented history of your people,' she said with a smile.

‘Absolutely. It explains quite a lot of things such as the varying linguistic styles of the early parts of the Bible and some of the apparent contradictions…'

Again his train of thought had been arrested. This time by the words that he had just read and translated in his mind.

‘Daniel?'

He couldn't continue.

‘So that's what the Snake Monument was,' said Gabrielle.

‘It's mentioned in the Bible, in the book of Numbers, albeit in somewhat different form – just before the reference to
The Book of the Wars of the Lord
in fact. Remember what I told you about the fiery serpents and Moses putting a snake on a pole so that when they looked up at it, they were cured.'

‘But that stone base was hardly what you could call a pole.'

‘I know,' Daniel replied. ‘But
pole
is just a modern translation. It could be a pedestal or base. Aside from that, in order for the Israelites to see it, it must have been something
big
. A small serpent on a pole would hardly be visible to such a numerous band of people. But a huge stone monument on a huge base is something else.'

‘But didn't you say it was a bronze or copper snake? Not a stone one.'

‘Yes, but that was just other people's interpretation. Later
parts of the Bible describe how the bronze snake head of Moses' staff was used to burn incense in the temple – until it was destroyed by one of the kings of Israel. He said it was being used for idolatry. He called it the Nehustan, which is a corruption of the Hebrew for snake.'

‘Let's go on with the translation,' Gabrielle suggested.

‘What about Joshua?'

Daniel's eyes widened.

‘Oh, come on now, Danny, I may not be a Bible scholar like you, but I
know
the story of the twelve spies that Moses sent to spy out the land. Ten came back with negative reports but Joshua and Caleb said it was a land flowing with milk and honey and they could beat the natives and conquer the land.'

‘Well, in this narrative there's no Joshua, just Caleb. Oh, hold on… wait a minute…'

‘Yes?' she said, desperate to know.

‘This next bit…'

‘What?'

He looked up at Gabrielle, unable to continue. It was Gabrielle who spoke. ‘The plague?'

‘I know.' His tone was solemn.

‘Does that mean…'

‘You remember what Sheikh Ibrahim said about those bones in the cave?'

‘Yes.'

‘How the bones were taken to the University of Jordan and then they gave Ibrahim the silent treatment when he asked about the results?'

‘Yes,' said Gabrielle, realizing where this was heading.

‘I think we have to go to Amman. We need to talk to that professor.'

Finding the Snake Monument and the path leading to it was easy enough using the map that they had provided at the visitor centre. But finding the specific cave was another matter. They had suggested she take a guide, especially as she didn't have a travelling companion. But Sarit knew that the danger of taking trails without guides was somewhat exaggerated and she couldn't afford to have anyone else around right now. She had a problem to deal with.

Fortunately there was no one else around, no local Bedul families with screaming kids, and no one making any noise that might prevent her fine-tuned ear from finding what she was looking for.

‘Sheikh Ibrahim?' she called out tentatively. ‘Sheikh Ibrahim!'

She heard her own voice echoing back to her; but no response, even as she strained her ear to detect the slightest sound. She trudged on a bit more.

‘Sheikh Ibrahim!' she shouted a little louder than before. She didn't want to alert others, but she had to find him.

A faint trace of a voice rippled towards her from the distance, but it was hard to gauge its location.

‘Where are you?' she called out, plugging one ear with her finger and straining to hear.

‘Over here.' The voice was still weak, but at least she
could determine its direction. It appeared to be coming from a ridge above her and to the left. She made her way to it and as she got nearer, she could make out the entrance to a cave.

‘Sheikh Ibrahim,' she repeated.

‘In here.'

The weak voice confirmed that she was in the right location. Rather than venturing directly into the lion's den, she peered in to assess the situation. It was hard to see, because her pupils were contracted against the bright light outside the cave. Eventually they adjusted sufficiently to make out some semblance of what was inside.

And what she saw was a bloody mess.

On the far side of the cave a man lay covered in blood. That, she realized, was Sheikh Ibrahim. She approached him cautiously.

‘What happened?'

‘He shot me.' The voice was still weak. This was no act. The man was clinging on to life by a precarious thread.

‘
Who
shot you?'

‘The big man.'

‘What happened to the others?' she asked. ‘The other man and the woman? Did he take them with him?'

‘No.'

She was nervous when she asked the next question.

‘Did he kill them?'

‘No. He took the shroud and left.'

‘The shroud?'

‘The shroud that the tablets were wrapped in.'

She realized what this meant.

‘And where are the man and the woman? Did they go to get help?'

‘No… they thought I was dead.'

Looking down at him, she realized how close to death he was.

‘Listen, I'll go and get help.'

‘No. You must stop him.'

He grabbed her arm, as if to emphasize the seriousness of the situation. ‘He has taken the shroud!'

‘I'll go for help,' she said.

But as she looked down at him now, she saw that he was beyond help. She knew that she had to find Goliath and stop him. But how? And where were Daniel and Gabrielle?

It was then that she saw the gun.

Was that the gun that he used to kill Sheikh Ibrahim?

She noticed that it was jammed. But firearms had been part of her Mossad training and she had learnt several methods of clearing a jammed cartridge from the chamber of a semi-automatic. The quickest method was known as tap-rack-bang.

Running on adrenalin as she followed her training to the letter, she tapped the base of the magazine with the palm of her left hand, to make sure it was firmly in place, then racked the slider back in a fast snapping motion to discharge the empty cartridge. There was no need for the bang as she had no reason to fire. But she felt safer having a weapon.

‘Goliath! Are you there?'

Sarit froze. It was a man's voice, but there was a strange paradox in the sound. It sounded like the man was shouting, and yet the volume was muted. It was tinny and muffled. And it was coming from inside the cave.

‘Goliath!'

No! It was coming from inside Ibrahim's body.

She looked at him in the dim light of the cave, trying to understand. Then she noticed the strange glow coming from beneath his body.

That was when she realized.

She reached under his torso, forcing her hand in deeper against the weight of his body. She had to use her other hand to lift him slightly before she was able to extricate the mobile phone that he had fallen on.

She raised the phone to her ear.

‘Goliath!' the voice said again.

‘Hallo,' she replied.

‘Who is this?'

‘My name is Siobhan. Who are you?'

The line went silent. She looked at the phone and saw that the battery was down to 3% – too little to make a call. Any minute it would die completely. But before it did, she checked the number: +1 202…

She didn't know all the US regional phone codes, but there were a few that stuck in her memory. 212 – New York City, or at least Manhattan. 213 – Los Angeles. And 202 –
Washington DC
.

Senator Morris. It had to be.

She would have liked to follow it up, but right now she didn't have time to find out. She had urgent business to attend to.