The Boudicca Parchments (32 page)

And when he
did
explain and they came down to retrieve the body, there would be an almighty incident about the fact that a Jew had killed a Muslim on the site of Haram ash Sharif, as the Muslims called the Temple Mount.

“Daniel?”

“The voice was Ted’s, gently snapping Daniel out of his daydream.”

“Sorry. I was just thinking about Salim.”

“I know,” said Ted, sympathetically. “But we need to get out of here.”

Ted led the way down a tunnel from the chamber but then suddenly stopped as if he had been struck by lightening. For he now found himself standing in a humongous cavern, larger in area than the one where they had just been and with a much higher ceiling.

“What the…”

His voice trailed off into silence as he swung his torch around and the light bounced off the stone walls. The reflected light was feint, indicating the distance between his torch and the yellow-plastered walls, as well as the divergence of the beam. Daniel joined him and used his torch to view the opposite side to the one where Ted was aiming his.

“It’s the Great Sea,” said Daniel.

“The what?”

“The Great Sea. This is one of the biggest reservoirs under the Temple Mount, if not
the
biggest. It was discovered by two explorers in the nineteenth century: Conrad Schick and Charles Warren. Warren was the man who discovered an ancient gate to the temple mount that now bears his name. Anyway Warren and Schick discovered that there were many ancient underground reservoirs or cisterns under the Temple Mount. The biggest one that they discovered was this one, which they called the Great Sea. They even brought an artist with them, called William Simpson, a Scotsman who had documented the Crimean War with water colours.”

“But there’s no light down here? Did they have oil lanterns?”

“They did. But he painted it by the light of a burning magnesium wire. Anyway, we need to go that way.”

He pointed to a tunnel and set off in the direction he had pointed, leaving Ted to follow.”

“I presume we’re still under the Temple Mount.”

“Yes, but we won’t be for much longer.”

“Where does this lead?”

“If my memory serves me right, it leads to somewhere called Wilson’s Arch.”

“I assume that’s named after another nineteenth century explorer,” said Ted.

“Of course. I mean obviously he didn’t build it – it existed in the time of Jesus and even earlier – but Charles William Wilson discovered it. It’s located at one end of the Western Wall and once supported a road bridge that was level with the Temple Mount and that led to a gate called the Gate of the Chain.”

“So it predates the Muslims?”

“Not exactly. The arch was we now see it, was
re
built by the Muslims after they conquered the city in the seventh century. But it rests on the remnant of an older bridge that was built by Herod the Great. During the first Great Revolt of sixty six to seventy, the original bridge was destroyed either by the Romans, or more likely by Jewish freedom fighters to make it harder for the Romans to attack the Temple Mount.”

They continued on their way, alternating in the use of their torches so as not waste battery power unnecessarily.

“I think we’re now somewhere under the Jewish Quarter,” said Daniel.

“How do you know?”

He shone his torch to show an opening in the wall above the tunnel.

“During the Byzantine period, between three fifty and six fifty, the city experienced a period of tremendous growth because of the stability brought by the eastern Roman empire. In order to provide water for the growing population, the Byzantines built a second channel above the first.”

“The Upper Aqueduct?” asked Ted.

“What?”

“I assume that if this is the Lower Aqueduct, then the one that the Byzantines built above it was the
upper
aqueduct.”

“Actually no. There
is
something called the Upper Aqueduct, but it follows a completely different route, This is more of a later development to the Lower Aqueduct that runs between this point under the Jewish Quarter and the Hill of Evil Counsel.”

“The Hill of Evil Counsel?”

“Where the UN building is located.”

Ted smiled.

“Very apropos.”

Ted, Daniel remembered, was a
Daily Mail
reader.

“It’s not really a different channel,” Daniel explained. “Part of the way it’s a separate parallel channel running slightly higher than the original. But in other parts, the Byzantine engineers simply expanded the existing channel.”

“But why would Byzantium expand the water channel to the Temple Mount?” asked Ted. “They were Christians. Surely they wouldn’t have any interest in the Temple Mount.”

“They didn’t. The Temple mount was abandoned by then. I mean it wasn’t in use. In fact they let it degenerate into a rubbish heap – something that shocked the early Muslims when the Caliph Omar invaded after Mohamed’s death. But the Byzantines didn’t just
widen
the aqueduct, they also
diverted
the waters… probably to the Nea Church. The Muslims then diverted it back to the Temple Mount and later the Mamluks made further improvements.”

“How come it’s so dry now?”

“Well the Ottoman Turks rebuilt it in 1500 using an enclosed ceramic pipe. That was still bringing in water to the Old City up until 1967.”

“Good God.”

“Fortunately for us, the old channel is still navigable. But we may have to crawl in parts.”

“Anyway, if we want to make any progress, we have a choice. We can either climb up into the upper channel and stand, or stay down here and stoop or even crawl part of the way.”

“I’m not sure if I can get up there,” said Ted.

“I can make a hand stirrup.”

“And then how will you get up?”

“I can run and jump and you can pull me.”

Ted weighed up the options.

“Can we stand all the way up there?”

“No, at some point we’re still going to have to crawl.”

“Then lets just stay down here… follow the original tunnel.”

Daniel switched on his torch and led the way, stooping rather than actually crawling.

“We’re now following the Western Hill,” Daniel grunted as he struggled along awkwardly.

“What’s that?”

“It’s what Josephus referred to as the Upper City. At some point soon we’ll be crossing under the Old City wall, just west of the Dung Gate.”

“The Dung Gate?”

“That’s what it’s called. And it did exactly what it says on the tin.”

“Hopefully we won’t smell it down here.”

“I said
did
. It hasn’t been used for that purpose for ages. And it’s possible that the original Dung Gate was in a different location.”

“And where does it lead from there?”

“Around the slopes of Mount Zion, it crosses the Hinnom Valley, then past the Sultan’s Pool and goes under Mishkenot She’ananim.”

“The Sultan’s Pool?”

“A water basin dating back to the time of Herod, or possibly even the Hasmoneans. It was expanded into a reservoir by the Ottomans – hence the name.”

“But if it was used as a reservoir…”

“Yes it was fed by the lower aqueduct. And yes we
may
be able to get out there! But I think the exit is blocked and we’ll have to go via the old route that bypasses it to the North.”

“Then how are we going to get out?”

“We’ll have to go all the way to East Talpiot… that’s the neighbourhood by the Hill of Evil Counsel.”

“And that means…”

“A long walk.

Chapter 74

It was the dead of night when Bar Tikva crept out of the hidden chamber and back into the Marwani Prayer Hall, leaving the body of the Arab behind him and Daniel trapped in the underground chamber along with his friend. But neither the darkness nor the silence held any fear for Bar Tikva. He was a God-fearing Jew.

Beyado afkid Roohi,

beh’eit eeshan veh’a’eerah,

veh’im roohi geveeyati,

adonai lee veh loh eerah

Into his hand I commit my spirit,

When I sleep and when I awake,

And with my spirit my body,

The Lord is with me and I will not fear.

That was how he felt. Strong not because of his own native bodily strength, but because of the strength and courage that his faith gave him. He knew that the Muslims had finished their late night prayers. That was why Daniel Klein and the Englishman had come here now, thinking they were safe. That was why Bar Tikva felt safe, crossing through the mosque and leaving the way he came, crossing the Temple Mount and leaving.

But now they were doomed. Even if the cried out for help, the Muslims would not hear them through the stones and above the sound of their prayers. And if they
did
find them, they would probably suspect them of some manner of wrongdoing and would tear them limb from limb! They would think they were agents of the Temple Mount Faithful – those vile Zionist, nationalist Jews who wanted to rebuild the Temple!

Rebuild the Temple?

Without a command from
Hashem
?

It was bad enough that the Zionist vermin had rebuilt the Jewish state – a state based on secular values and not the ideals of purity taught by all the great Jewish sages throughout the ages. The redemption of Zion would only come when the Messiah came! And that day would only come when all Jews returned in repentance.

And that day was surely not now. Not when Jews were brazenly breaching the Sabbath. Now when restaurants in Israel were serving
pork
! Not when Jewish men in America and elsewhere were marrying non-Jewish women and worse still Jewish women marrying non-Jewish men!

We should live in peace and friendship with the goyim, and accept their government, but we should not consort with them.

To Baruch, as to his father, this was the greatest sin of all. And it was this that was keeping the Messiah at bay. These
chilonim
– these irreligious Jews – were not only holding back the Messiah for themselves, they were denying their fellow Jews, the more pious among them, the joys and bliss that would be brought by the harbinger of the perfect era.

So he had no qualms about what he was doing now.

He made his way through the Jewish Quarter that had been turned into a slum during the nineteen year Jordanian occupation and rebuilt by the Zionists after the Six Day War, leaving the Old City via the Dung Gate. Oblivious to the fact that he was following the same route, on the surface, as the subterranean route being followed by Daniel and Ted, he walked by the city wall, taking out his mobile phone and calling his father’s mobile. He knew that his father was in hiding. But he would surely take a call from his son.

“Is it done?” asked his father.

“It is.”

“Did they beg?”

There was a cruel streak in his father. But it was not his place to judge.

“I didn’t stay to hear.”

“What do you mean, ‘stay to hear’?”

“I didn’t manage to shoot them. But there was no need.”

“What do you mean?”

Baruch explained how he had trapped them in the underground cavern with the heavy stone and bragged how even he had great trouble lifting it. But before he could finish his explanation his father interrupted him in a tone of unmitigated rage.

“Have you been sent from
Shamayim
to be a curse upon me!”

It took no more than these words to his strong, tall, powerfully built son, into a fit of tears like a small child. His father was angry. But what had he done wrong? He had done as his father had told him. He had killed Daniel Klein and the other man. Why should his father be angry?

“I don’t understand,” said Baruch, in the tone of a little girl, as the tears streamed down his cheeks.

“Do you think the cavern is nothing but a sealed chamber? It is an
aqueduct
– like Hezekiah’s tunnel! They can escape!”

“But I thought Hezekiah’s tunnel was… was…”

“There are
two
aqueducts! And this one is the other one!”

“I am sorry. I am
sorry!
”

“Never mind that now! Tears are for fools. Do you have the car with you?”

“I parked it near the Sultan’s Pool.”

“Okay come to the house of Aryeh. And be careful that you are not followed. Tomorrow we have work to do! I intend to end this once and for all!”

Chapter 75

“How much farther?” asked Ted. Despite his general fitness and his regular work-out regime, the long walk and crawl was beginning to take its toll. They had been going for nearly four hours now. If it had been a normal walk for Ted, that would have translated into at least fifteen miles. But this was a staggered walk in fits and starts over uneven ground, partly in high-ceilinged narrow tunnels, partly in stooping passages and partly in crawling “pipes” where the greatest strain was in his knees, as the pressed into and rubbed against the hard stone.

“I’d say we’re very nearly there,” Daniel replied, puffing like a worn-out locomotive. Despite following a fitness regime himself, on the advice of his nephews, he too was feeling the strain.

“Nearly where?”

“I think we’ve passed Abu Tor… well past by now. That means we’re under the promenade that overlooks Jerusalem. The one that leads to the Hill of Evil Counsel.”

Ted looked at his watch.

“You know it’s four in the morning!”

“I know. It’ll be dawn soon. That could be useful.”

“Why?”

“Because if there are any openings, we’ll be able to see them from the light shining through… once there
is
light.”

“What do you mean
if
there are any openings? Does that mean there might not be?”

“There are
some
. I mean I know there’s one at the entrance to the forest near Government House.”

“Government House?”

“The UN Building. It used to be the residence of the British High Commissioner. But it’ll be a lot easier to find if we’ve got some light.”