The Columbus Affair: A Novel (37 page)

“Why didn’t they come and ask me?”

“ ’Cause we knows the answer,” one of the black forms said. “
Da posses seh
you to pay.”

He wasn’t interested in what some gang had decreed. He was more concerned with Frank Clarke’s betrayal.

“Mi nuh like di vides, man,”
he said to his friend in patois.

He meant it, too. Lots of bad vibes here.

Frank stared at him.
“Mi nuh like, either. But dis your worry, Béne.”

The colonel turned to leave.

“If yu a deestant smadi, mi wi gi yu a cotch.”

He knew Clarke understood him. “If you were a decent man, you’d stay a little while.”

“That’s the thing, Béne. I don’t feel so decent.”

And Clarke left through the portal.

“I wuk o soon done,”
one of the men said to him.
“We gon kill you.”

No more patois. He’d used it to disarm these two. “I’m going to give you a chance to leave here and we’ll forget this happened. That way you’ll stay alive. If you don’t, I’m going to kill you both.”

One of them laughed.
“You nut dat good, Béne. A no lie. You gon die.”

He’d not had a fight in a long while, but that did not mean he’d forgotten how. He grew up in Spanish Town among some of the roughest gangs in the Caribbean and learned early on that to be a Rowe meant to be tough. Challenges came from all quarters, each pretender wanting to be the one who took Béne Rowe down. None had ever succeeded.

The two men flanked him. Neither was armed. Apparently they intended to kill him with their bare hands.

He almost smiled.

Apparently, the idea had been to lure him here using Frank Clarke. He wondered how much the gang had paid for that service, since little in Jamaica was free.

He studied the men. Both were tall and broad. Surely strong. But he wondered how tested they were. British redcoats had been the best-trained, best-equipped soldiers in the world. But a group of runaway slaves with little more than spears, knifes, and a few muskets brought them to their knees.

This was his world.

His time.

And nobody was going to take that from him.

He pivoted, grabbed the nearest lantern by its handle, and hurled it at the man to his left. The projectile was deflected with a bat to the ground. It only broke the glass receptacle and spread the oil, which burst into flames, the fireball driving the one man back. He seized the moment to yank his trouser leg up and free the blade from its sheath.

A diving knife, used when he snorkeled. He kept the thick blade sharp, one edge serrated.

As the one man rounded the flames, he advanced on the other, faking right, then thrusting left, grabbing the man’s arm and whirling the body around. As he did the hand with the knife rushed up and, with one swipe, he opened the throat.

He shoved the man aside.

He heard the gurgle of breath and saw blood spurt out. The man reached for the wound, but there was nothing he could do. The body dropped to the ground, twitching in agony.

The other man pounced, but Béne was ready.

The knife swished upward again and a second throat was slit.

Shock filled his assailant’s eyes.

He watched as death immediately grabbed hold and the body collapsed.

Enough of this.

Frank Clarke was now his concern.

Movement in the darkness beyond the exit caught his gaze. He leaped to one side of the portal, knife ready. Reinforcements?

Someone entered the chamber. A man.

He lunged and slammed the body to the rock wall, bringing the knife up, its leading edge pressed to flesh, ready to cut.

Tre Halliburton stared at him, eyes wide with terror.

He exhaled and relaxed his grip. “I told you to stay outside.”

Tre aimed a finger at the doorway. “He told me to come.”

Béne’s gaze darted to the man who stood there.

Frank Clarke.

T
OM’S PATIENCE HAD RUN OUT.
“E
XPLAIN YOURSELF, OLD MAN
. And fast.”

“Is what that woman said about you true?”

He nodded. “I was set up. Taken down.”

“Your daughter does not know?”

“It wouldn’t matter to her. My mistakes there were my own. And as you’ve seen, probably irreversible.”

“I had a son like that, too.”

He caught the past tense.

“He died before I had the chance to make amends. I’ve always regretted that.”

Not his concern. What mattered was the woman. Barely a hundred yards away. Who could clear his name. His gaze darted to the monitor.

“You can’t do it,” Berlinger said, seemingly reading his mind.

“The hell I can’t.”

“If you confront them, the quest will end.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“Because it can’t continue without my assistance. I won’t give that if you leave this room.”

“I don’t give a damn about this quest. My life was destroyed. Everything I worked for was taken from me. I was about to blow my brains out a few days ago because of that. I want my reputation back.”

“It’s not that simple. You are the grandson of Marc Eden Cross. He knew this day would come. He told me many times to be ready. You have to fulfill what he started.”

“For what?”

“For us.”

He knew what he meant.

“I’m not a Jew any longer.”

“If that were the case, then why did you come to Prague? You climbed to the synagogue’s loft, just as your grandfather did. You know, in your heart, that you have to do this. You’re the only one who can.”

“Do what?”

“Find the Temple treasure. Give it back to all of us.”

But in his mind he heard the words the woman on the screen had said.
“So finish this last battle, start your war, and allow Israel to reap the reward.”
“What
is
Simon going to do?”

“I don’t know, but it’s clear that it will not be good.”

“Go to the authorities.”

“And tell them what? There’s a treasure? Lost for two thousand years? Zachariah Simon wants it?” Berlinger shook his head. “No one would listen.”

He pointed to the screens. “You have a video.”

“No, I don’t. Nothing was recorded.”

“Why not?”

“This is not about involving the authorities. This is about you. Only the Levite can complete this journey. I will tell what I know only to the Levite. I promised Marc that would be my duty, and I will not violate that pledge.”

“Then tell me what it is and I’ll go to the authorities.”

“If what that woman said is true, about you being ruined, who would believe you? You have no proof.”

He was right. If the woman and Simon were in a conspiracy, neither was going to admit it. He’d have no source, no information, no corroboration. Nothing. Just like eight years ago.

Simon and the woman were now leaving the cemetery.

This may be his only chance.

The hell with it.

He rushed from the room.

———

A
LLE FINISHED HER PRAYERS
.

She’d been escorted by an older woman the rabbi had brought to her. Clearly, Berlinger had wanted to speak to her father outside her presence. If she was going to have any chance of learning anything, she would have to give them some slack. Already she’d been able to read her grandfather’s complete message. But she’d pressed her father hard in front of Berlinger.

Maybe too hard.

And Jamaica.

That locale seemed important.

Why else include a fifty-plus-year-old road map?

The Old-New Synagogue was about to open for the day, the vestibule busy with attendants preparing themselves. She stood in the main hall, drawn to a set of seats that abutted the east wall, right of the tabernacle. One was adorned with a raised back, higher than the others, topped by a Star of David.

“The chief rabbi’s place,” the older woman told her.

But a chain barred anyone from sitting.

“It has long been reserved only for Rabbi Loew. No one else sits there. He was a man greatly respected and we honor him by preserving his seat.”

“How long has he been gone?”

“Four hundred years.”

“And no one has sat there?”

“Only during the war. The Nazis learned of our honor. So they all sat in the seat. As many as could be. Their way of providing an insult. Of course, that was before they started killing us.”

She did not know what to say.

“My parents died during the war,” the woman said. “Shot by Germans not far from here.”

She wondered if this woman was Berlinger’s way of sending her a message. She’d resented being shuttled away. Treated as a child.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” she said. “I’m going back to the ceremonial hall.”

“The rabbi asked us to stay here until he sent for us.”

“No, that’s not right. I’m sure he asked you to
keep
me here until he sent for us. I’m going back.”

She headed for the vestibule.

The older woman nipped her heels.

“Please, my dear, stay.”

She stopped and turned back, wondering at the urgency. So she decided to make clear, “This does not concern you.”

And she left.

———

Z
ACHARIAH WALKED WITH THE AMBASSADOR BACK TOWARD THE
same iron gate where he’d entered, adjacent to the ceremonial hall. He noticed that the mayor was gone and that a group of visitors had finally entered the cemetery from the opposite end.

“They come here from all over the world,” the ambassador said. “This is as close to Israel as many of them will ever get.”

“But it is not Israel.”

“Few understand the pressures faced in the Holy Land,” she said. “Unless you live there every day and know the fear that comes from being surrounded by enemies, how could you? We fought that fear for thousands of years. Now the people may have finally succumbed to it. You and I know what a mistake that is.”

“My father tried to warn them decades ago. We gave away too much then, and received too little in return.”

“Jerusalem has been invaded more than any other city on earth. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Syria, Greece, Rome, Persia, Muslims, Crusaders, Turks, the British, Palestinians, and now, finally, the Jews. I don’t plan to give it back.”

“I shall parade the treasures to the mount without warning,” he said. “The more public the display, the better. To make that happen, I may need some of your help.”

He knew what would happen. Jews would see the return of their treasures as a sign. The menorah, the divine table, and the silver trumpets had returned. Thousands would come. In the past large crowds had been routinely turned away. But this was different. Muslims, too, would see a sign. The presence of the Jewish treasures would be taken as a challenge to their presence, something they had defended for centuries with violence and blood.

This time would be no different.

Or so he hoped.

“I am afraid not, Zachariah,” she said. “For that you are on your own. As I said, you and I will not speak again.”

No matter.

Until yesterday, he’d planned on accomplishing his goal without any help.

He’d stick to that plan.

They stood before the ceremonial hall, part of which jutted into the cemetery grounds, shaded by ash trees. More people were entering from the far side, admiring the graves, some offering stones to markers in remembrance. They all wore yarmulkes, which he knew were given to them with their admission tickets.

“Our heads should be covered, too,” he said.

“Not to worry, Zachariah. The dead will forgive us.”

———

T
OM LEFT THE SECURITY ROOM AND FOUND A DOOR THAT LED
outside.

But it was locked, no way to open it without a key.

He rushed to the interior stairway and leaped the short risers two at a time up to the first floor where visitors were entering the exhibits, showing their tickets to one of the female attendants.

This was too much.

Here he was in the Czech Republic, eight years after the fact, about to be confronted with someone who knew the truth.

He told himself to calm down. Think. Be rational.

Calmly, he left the stairs and excused himself past the visitors and out the door to the exterior staircase. The landing was enclosed on three sides, periodic openings offering views down to the cemetery. Through one of those he spied Simon and the woman, standing on a graveled path among the graves, talking. He watched them from the safety of his perch, no way for them to see him. To his left the stairway right-angled to ground level, the view open to a street that led down a short incline, past the vendor stalls, to the Old-New Synagogue.

He spotted Alle.

Fifty yards away.

Marching toward the hall.

———

A
LLE IGNORED THE VENDOR STALLS TO HER LEFT, BUSY WITH
tourists, and concentrated on the iron gate fifty yards away. More people were negotiating the exterior staircase for the ceremonial hall, heading up to the exhibits on the first and second floors, where she had been an hour ago.

Berlinger’s rebuke still stung.

As did her grandfather’s.

In the final years of his life she’d been there for him, pleasing him beyond measure with her conversion. He’d never thought his grandchild would practice his faith. He’d resigned himself to the fact that since his son had abandoned the religion, all would be abandoned.

“But you, my dear, are so special. You chose on your own to become what your birthright entitled you to be. It must be God’s will.”

They’d many times talked of life and the Jews, in the abstract, him responding to her questions.

“I may not agree with your mother’s beliefs,” he told her. “But I respect them. As much as I wanted my son to be a Jew I understand how she would want you to be a Christian. So I would never violate that.”

And he never had.

But in the end, he still hadn’t thought her worthy.

Or at least her new religion had not.

The Levite must be male and I failed to find anyone capable. So I took the secret entrusted to the grave
.

She kept walking up the street, stepping around several tour groups.
She
was worthy.
She
could be the Levite. And do a better job than her father, who seemed not to care about anyone or anything. And where was he? Still inside the ceremonial hall? Her gaze focused ahead and she spotted two people beyond the iron gate, up another inclined path.