The Omega Scroll (37 page)

Ten minutes later Petroni was confident the story would get a run. Anything that kept the Muslims and the Jews at each other’s throats could only be to the benefit of the one true path. Satisfied, he sat back to watch the progress of his intervention in the ceremony. Petroni was back in control, or so he thought.

Jerusalem

Marian looked at her watch, less relaxed now. ‘I wonder what’s keeping David and Allegra,’ she whispered to Giovanni.

‘They’ll be here,’ he whispered back. ‘Patrick told me they had some very urgent business to attend to, but they’d be back as soon as they could. The music is telling you not to worry,’ he added reassuringly.

‘Isn’t it magnificent.’

Giovanni smiled. ‘God knew what He was doing when He gave Levi Meyer a baton,’ he said, as the voice of one of the world’s truly great sopranos, Michelle Ortega, carried clearly over the Damascus Gate. As the orchestra and the choir reached their finale, and to a growing applause from those seated, as well as from the thousands crowded into Nablus Road, Prime Minister Yossi Kaufmann and President Ahmed Sartawi came in from the Old City side of the Damascus Gate. They walked side by side towards their seats on the podium.

‘In the one hundred and fifty thousand years or so that we have inhabited this planet,’ Giovanni began when the applause had died down, ‘we have fought and killed each other, only to have one war finish and another one begin. Sometimes it seems that we have not taken the slightest notice of the lessons of history, but I am here tonight to tell you that there are two great leaders behind me who understand the futility of killing your brother or sister.’

Yusef shivered as he fingered the small transmitter hidden in his pocket. From the shadows of the control marquee next to the podium that was located to one side of the Damascus Gate, he stared at the brother he no longer knew. The two had not spoken since that fateful day they had buried their family.

‘Too often these wars have been fought in the name of religion and culture,’ Giovanni said. ‘As a Christian I can tell you that is not what Christ had in mind. He didn’t believe that one man’s faith and culture is better than another’s and that we should all fight to the death to prove it. The Prophet Muhammad was also a man of great tolerance and justice,’ Giovanni continued. ‘He is credited with saying “if you wish for others what you wish for yourself, you become a Muslim”, which has given rise to the Golden Rule. Sadly though, the Muslim is often portrayed in the media as a terrorist or a fanatic. I have come to know the true Muslim as a man and woman of peace and prayer. I have also had the privilege of meeting many marvellous men and women of the Jewish faith, a faith that alongside Islam and Christianity shares the one father, Abraham. So often we seem to behave like a bad family, arguing over his will, over what we think belongs to us. There are some within the Jewish religion who claim Abraham for their own, maintaining that God’s blessings and the land are only for the Jewish people. There are some Muslims who claim Abraham as the model for Islam alone; and there are some of my own faith who would claim that the promises given to Abraham have only ever been fulfilled by Christ.’ Giovanni smiled. ‘Abraham is entitled to be a little confused.’ Laughter reverberated off the ancient walls. ‘Like all good fathers, Abraham has been all of those things to all his children. It would be a very strange God who, having created a Muslim child in Baghdad, or a Christian child in Bogotá, or a Jewish child in Berlin, would then turn around and close the gates of the Kingdom to two thirds of those children because they were not born into the correct culture.’ Giovanni was being characteristically bold in his quest for greater peace and tolerance. This comment, he knew, would be greeted with quiet fury in the Vatican, but it was a stunning public admission from a cardinal that there was more than one path to the Omega, to eternity.

Yusef Sartawi listened. He was sceptical, but he was also touched by this man. Yusef felt the safety catch for the hundredth time, instinctively trusting this Christian priest, which made it more puzzling as to why the infidel would want him assassinated.

‘I know,’ Giovanni concluded, ‘that Abraham, Muhammad and Christ would all applaud this peace agreement as a turning point in the history of civilisation. A turning away from the killing and the bloodshed, a turning towards tolerance and recognition of the values of different cultures and religions. A move towards justice and peace.’ As the lights shone on the smiling Italian cardinal, the crowd rose to their feet in a standing ovation.

The tension in the CCN news room in New York was rising.

‘We can’t run that, Daniel! It will derail the peace process before it even gets off the ground,’ Geraldine argued passionately. She glared at the Head of News and wondered how such a detestable little man managed to be so well informed.

‘It may have escaped your notice, Ms Rushmore, but you do not decide what goes to air at this station. I do,’ he said icily, his eyes more piercing than usual. ‘The public has a right to know and we will run it. Now. Does Schweiker have the copy?’ he asked, turning to his secretary. She nodded, alarmed at the ferocity of the meeting. In Jerusalem President Ahmed Sartawi was beginning his address.

‘I am indebted to the vision and wisdom of His Eminence Cardinal Giovanni Donelli and to that of my friend, Prime Minister Kaufmann,’ Ahmed began.

Yusef watched as his brother endorsed the sentiment of peaceful co-existence as the only alternative to the killing. His brother urged the West to get behind Yossi Kaufmann’s broad-sweeping vision and to provide the support and investment for a Middle Eastern Economic Union. This and Giovanni’s words on the futility of killing your brother brought back a long-forgotten memory, a memory of picking olives and of dreams for the future. Torn and confused, Yusef took his hand out of his pocket.

‘For Palestine and Palestinians,’ Ahmed concluded, ‘it will mean equality and justice. Palestine will be a country that is characterised by neither a godless secularism, or a fanatical adherence to religion, but one that is based on justice and freedom of choice. I would remind those who might seek to impose their will to the exclusion of any other,’ he said, in a clear warning to those at the militant end of the spectrum, ‘that in countries where extremists have sought to impose their will, the results for Islam have been catastrophic. I am reminded of what the Great Prophet Muhammed, peace be upon Him, had to say about violence. For those of you who might not be familiar with it, let me quote from the Qu’ran:

Do not argue with the followers of earlier revelation otherwise than in a most kindly manner – unless it be such of them as are bent on evildoing – and say: ‘We believe in that which has been bestowed on high upon us, as well as that which has been bestowed upon you; for our God and your God is one and the same, and it is unto Him that we all surrender ourselves.

As the applause died down, Prime Minister Yossi Kaufmann rose to speak.

‘I have shared a great friendship with Cardinal Donelli, over many years, and I am indebted to him for his leadership, his insight and his wisdom. I am also indebted to my friend and neighbour, President Ahmed Sartawi, for his leadership and patience during these past few weeks. It reminds me of a day some years ago when the three of us went fishing, and Cardinal Donelli, who was then a priest in the little village of Mar’Oth, remarked that there was a Christian, a Jew and a Muslim on a small boat and the only ones in danger were the fish.’

As Yossi’s speech gathered pace, the crowd caught the mood and the message that finally there might be a real opportunity for peace. ‘I am also reminded of the words of another Israeli, Prime Minister Golda Meir,’ Yossi continued. ‘Some fifty years ago, on the night the United Nations approved the new State of Israel, she was a minister in David Ben Gurion’s first Cabinet. Not very far from here she addressed a crowd not dissimilar to the one we have tonight and she said, “It is not all that you wanted. And it is not all that we wanted, but let us go forward in a spirit of compromise and peace.” Back then, as we do tonight, Israelis and Palestinians faced a stark choice. The choice of recognising the strengths and achievements of both cultures and the right to exist peacefully as good neighbours, or a decision to continue killing our children and our families. Sadly, back then, we all went to war and we have been killing each other ever since. Tonight we choose peace.’

Yusef Sartawi listened to the tall, distinguished Israeli and he was struck by the integrity of this prime minister. He wondered whether this time the Israelis and their US backers might mean what they said; perhaps this time there might be a chance for Palestinians to lead normal lives. Maybe after all these years of hating the Israelis, he could begin to let go and forgive. Maybe Ahmed had been right after all to adopt a peaceful path. He turned, and saw that the coverage on the Arab Channel on the banks of televisions in the control room was being interrupted by a live telecast from CCN.

‘Even before the peace agreement has been signed in Jerusalem tonight, and as the ceremony behind me continues, pressure is mounting on the White House to step back from the commitment to support the removal of the Jewish settlers from what, at least in name, is now the country of Palestine.’

Yusef watched, his anger rising as Tom Schweiker’s authoritative delivery was dubbed in Arabic and subtitles rolled across the bottom of the screen.

‘The Jewish lobby,’ Tom continued, ‘has objected to any American tax payers’ dollars being used for Arab development and has called for the United States to continue to provide the billions of dollars Israel is seeking to spend on American arms and military equipment to fight Palestinian militants in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. A spokesman for the White House has said the US Government is committed to a just peace in the Middle East, but has refused to comment on the provision of the large amount of military aid requested by Israel.’

‘What about the Jewish settlers, Tom?’ Geraldine asked, reading from the script Daniel had given her.

‘There are reports, Geraldine,’ Tom replied, quoting his News Director’s sources, ‘that the White House is under fire from the strong Jewish lobby and the Christian right in the United States to pressure the Israeli Government into allowing the settlers to continue living on Palestinian land, especially those in the West Bank.’

‘Wouldn’t that derail the peace agreement, Tom?’

‘In all likelihood, yes. It would mean a Palestinian State in name only. In reality, the country of Palestine would consist of a series of isolated Palestinian towns and cantonments overlaid with dozens of Jewish settlements and roads.’

‘And the investment for the region?’

‘Despite the support from European countries, the United States has yet to indicate it will provide any funding, but analysts here are suggesting that unless the United States provides strong support for the Kaufmann/Sartawi Peace Plan, resentment against the West will simply resurface.’

‘Tom, thanks for joining us. We now return to our live coverage of the peace ceremony.’

Yusef Sartawi looked at the Israeli Prime Minister who was coming to the end of his speech and his hatred for the infidels and his brother’s treachery reignited.

‘This is a new beginning,’ Yossi said, ‘but it is only the beginning. Neither I nor President Sartawi underestimate the difficulties of the road ahead. There will be disagreements. When we negotiated the terms of this agreement there were some on our side who maintained that we’d given up too much. There were others on President Sartawi’s side who believed Israel had not given up enough. The choice is clear. For there to be an equitable peace there has to be compromise on both sides.’

Deafened by his rage, Yusef didn’t hear any of it. He didn’t see his brother sitting between Marian and Giovanni. All he saw was a president who had sold out to the infidels who had demonstrated their treachery yet again. For once Yusef’s calculating calm was overcome with emotion. He forgot to dial the encryption on Tom Schweiker’s mobile and he didn’t wait for the three targets to gather at the table. He raised his fist defiantly.

‘Allah be praised,’ he shouted, pushing the button on the transmitter. Yusef Sartawi died convinced of his place in heaven.

The production crew in CCN watched in shock and disbelief as an apocalyptic blast engulfed the official dais. Body parts and chairs were thrown into the air. The colours of the orchestra and choir were scattered across the back of the dais as metal and glass rained down on what was left of the audience. After the massive boom of the explosion the eerie silence of death fell over the gathering, and only the sound of spot fires and sparking electrical equipment could be heard. Then the crying and calls for help started – children sobbed, people called on their God for mercy. People horrifically burnt and injured dragged themselves upright and were starting to run, panicking, trying to escape the scene of devastation. Bodies were trodden underfoot as the chilling cry of wounded humanity was pierced by the shrill wailing of sirens. Convoys of ambulances were racing towards the carnage at the Damascus Gate. The Semtex and the five thousand ball bearings hidden in the panels of the lectern had created total devastation.

Cardinal Petroni watched dispassionately as the cameras took in what looked like a battlefield. He was searching for evidence that Donelli and Bassetti were dead. The cameras captured the frantic ambulance crews working desperately around the official dais. One of the crews raced a stretcher to the ambulance and Petroni saw the blood-spattered form of Donelli. He smiled thinly until there was a movement on the stretcher. Donelli was obviously not dead yet and Petroni’s smile was replaced by a seething snarl.

The news commentators were speechless as the grinding of metal on cobblestones signalled the arrival of lumbering tanks. The air was filled with the menacing sounds of combat helicopters. After so many years of practice the Israeli Command swung immediately into gear.

‘Good evening, Hafiz,’ David had said earlier as the old security guard got out of his car.