The Kabbalistic Murder Code: Mystery & International Conspiracies (Historical Crime Thriller Book 1) (17 page)

              “How many amino acids are there?”

              “Twenty,” Orna answered curtly.

              “I find that somewhat puzzling. Had there been twenty-two, that would have paralleled the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet.”

              “Actually, there are indeed twenty-two,” said Orna, as she played with his hair. “There are twenty amino acids, but if you try to join one to the other, you wouldn’t know where one ends and the other begins. So, there are two markers to mark the beginning and the end of each protein, so that there are, in reality, twenty-two items.”

              “Whoa! Are you telling me that all I am is a mixture of amino acids?”

              Orna laughed. “Without going into details, the answer is yes.”

              Elijah thought back to the text and realized that it indeed referred to four elements and three mothers.

              “And these twenty amino acids are all that’s necessary?”

              “Twenty acids are enough to produce billions of different proteins. In any event, it’s much more complex than that. Certain sections of the helix apply to specific parts of the body, while others don’t. There are many sections that don’t seem to fulfill any function. Sometimes, you find more than one unit for a given acid. Do you want to know what I think? I think that whoever posed that riddle to you wasn’t really familiar with the concepts. He read a little bit there and another bit elsewhere, and figured that was enough to make him an expert.”

              While Orna’s answer seemed brilliant, Elijah couldn’t understand its significance. What would this have to do with the redemption of the world?

              Everything Elijah had heard from Orna, added to everything else he had heard and seen, churned about in his mind. He felt himself totally lost as he fumbled in the dark, trying to understand what the
Ari
, Bar Kokhba, and Rabbi Simon ben Yochai had understood, but it simply escaped him.

              The next morning he arrived at the university library early to check out various details regarding the extra section that Alfred had shown him, but which he had claimed was insignificant. After dismissing it as inconsequential, Elijah had been unable to investigate that section in depth, and now he had to rely on his memory of it. He was finally able to work out that the two signatures had been those of Shabbetai Zevi and his disciple, Nathan of Gaza.

              Throughout the centuries, there had been false messiahs - both male and female - who had arisen among the Jewish people. Some of them had drawn a large group of disciples around them. The vast majority had brought nothing but grief and woe to the Jewish people when they were ultimately unmasked as - at best - deluded individuals, if not downright charlatans. They had disappeared along with their disciples, crushed and broken, the nation’s dreams that the end of their troubles was nigh, crushed, too. Elijah found a number of books about Shabbetai Zevi and the movement he had founded. He found that quite a large number of believers in Shabbetai Zevi had maintained their belief in the man even after he was forced to convert to Islam, and that some of these groups exist to this very day. The Turks refer to these groups as “
donmeh
”. These people, while ostensibly Muslim, keep various Jewish laws and customs in the secrecy of their own homes and closed communities. Elijah recalled hearing someone whispering that word behind his back, as he was on his way to Alfred’s store. That person had evidently wanted Elijah to know that Alfred was a member of that sect, and that would explain why Alfred had not said whether or not he was Jewish. Of all those who had emerged from the Jewish people to form other sects, the only one surpassing Shabbetai Zevi in his influence had been Jesus.

              Alfred’s copy had evidently been in the possession of Nathan of Gaza, who was born in Jerusalem and moved to Gaza, and that was probably where this copy had been found. Elijah had noticed that there were comments on Alfred’s scroll which had been added at the time of Shabbetai Zevi, and which had evidently been written by him or one of his disciples. If Alfred was one of the
donmeh
, that might explain how the scroll had come into his possession.

              The fact that Shabbetai Zevi had attempted to solve all the world’s problems merely increased Elijah’s fear that Norman was attempting to follow in his footsteps.

              Very reluctantly, he returned to the Institute, but didn’t know what to do with himself there. On the one hand, he had to report back to Norman, but, on the other, he felt that under no circumstances should Norman find out what he had seen in this copy of the manuscript. He decided that he would send Norman only the added notes he had seen on the scroll and which he had not read to Orna, and would refrain from mentioning the part he had read to Orna the previous night. He sent this extra section in an e-mail.

Two stones build two houses. Three stones build six houses. Four stones build twenty-four houses. Five stones build one hundred and twenty houses. Six stones build seven hundred and twenty houses. Seven stones build five thousand and forty houses. Go out and calculate what the mouth is unable to say and what the ear is unable to hear.

              Norman called him shortly afterwards.

              “Thank you for sending the latest text,” said Norman.

              Taking advantage of Norman’s call, Elijah asked, “Would you have any idea what this is all about?”

              “All I know is that it’s a type of mathematical calculation,” replied Norman.

              “Yes, yes - I can see that. But what’s the basis for the calculation? I tried to come up with some sort of formula, but it totally escapes me.”

              “It’s known as factorials. In mathematical terms, a factorial is noted by an exclamation mark after the number. For example, ‘3!’ would mean “three factorial”. A factorial is the entire series of numbers, starting from one up to and including the factorial number, all multiplied together. That means that ‘3!’ would be 1 x 2 x 3, while ‘6!’ would be 1 x 2 x3 x4 x 5 x 6, and so on.”

              “OK, but what does all that mean?” The impatience in Elijah’s voice was palpable.

              “What it means is that if you have a certain number of objects, the factorial of that number is the number of possible ways those objects can be arranged. For example, if you have two objects, then ‘2!’, which is 2, means that there are two ways the objects can be arranged, namely A and then B or B and then A. If you have four objects, where ‘4!’ gives us the number 24, then there are 24 different ways of arranging four objects.”

              “Marvelous. Your explanation couldn’t be clearer. But what do all these numbers actually mean? That’s what I want to know.”

              “Who said there is any meaning?” responded Norman. “I have no idea. Still, be that as it may, we need to figure out whether it’s worth our while to purchase Alfred’s manuscript. Would our buying the manuscript provide us with a better understanding of Jewish history, and would it help the Institute financially? Keep up the good work, Elijah. Goodbye.”

              Norman had brought the conversation to an abrupt halt, and Elijah was left holding the phone in his hand.

              Elijah had realized by now that Norman was not really interested in buying any more copies of the manuscript. All he wanted was to obtain the seven allusions left by Nehemiah of Peki’in, one in each of the seven copies. Elijah was terrified of what Norman might do once he assembled all the information contained in each of the seventh lines and reconstructed the ancient message contained within them. He assumed that Norman was no less an expert than he in dealing with these ancient manuscripts, and that the only reason he had sent Elijah to obtain the information was because his failing eyesight made it impossible for him to read them himself.

              As the day wore on tediously, Elijah became ever more concerned about the possible dangers involved in this project, but when he read his e-mail that night, his concern was raised from possible to real and immediate. He was as tense as an over wound spring, and tossed and turned the whole night long. Even when Orna embraced him, he could not shake his agitation. From that point on, he basically stopped eating, and his sleep was limited to at best to two or three fitful hours each night. The purple bags under his eyes grew more and more pronounced. Orna saw what was happening, but was powerless to help. She was afraid that Elijah was coming down with some mysterious illness.

              An email message from Mei-Ling had left him petrified. It was terse, but terrifying. “My grandfather fell from the third floor of his bank and died on the spot. The police are investigating. It does not appear to be accidental. My grandfather was the most cautious man I had ever met. You and I both know who was responsible for this. Eliyah, take care!” Elijah tried to relieve the tension and wrote back to her: “Just keep your spirits up. I’m sure I can arrange for help from here. Take care of yourself and don’t cross the street on your own.”

              He had no doubt that this was the work of the Chinese Mafia trying to blackmail Norman, but would their arm extend to Israel as well? If so, he himself was in very grave danger! And what about Norman himself? What was he really up to? And wasn’t Elijah equally at risk from whatever Norman seemed to be doing? Wherever he looked, all Elijah could see was that he was somehow in the direct line of fire.

              Elijah began to vomit. Anything Orna persuaded him to eat, wound up being spewed into the lavatory bowl. In his heart of hearts he was glad that the only information he had given Mei-Ling about himself was his untraceable email address. Hopefully, that would keep the Chinese Mafia away from him - but who could tell? Their power could well have extended to locating him here, in Israel.

              A few nights later, Orna arranged to have someone take her shift, and returned home. As soon as Elijah opened the door, she attacked him. “Who is that whore in Hong Kong?”

              “Orna, what on earth are you talking about?”

              “And she even has the gall to call you ‘Eliyah’, no doubt a lover’s nickname. Look at yourself. You’re obviously head-over-heels in love with her. You’re out of your mind. You’re sick. If you want to carry on an affair with someone in Hong Kong, that’s fine, but I will not tolerate lies. Let’s talk the whole thing over and then we can decide what to do with the girls.”

              “Orna, what are you talking about, for God’s sake?”

              “I’m talking about your email correspondence with Mei-Ling.”

              Had Elijah not been so ill from lack of food and sleep, had he not been suffering from frequent dizzy spells and acute anemia, he might even have regarded the accusation as a compliment.

              “You’re out of your mind! Have I ever struck you as a sex symbol? Would you believe that someone would fall in love with me after a two-day acquaintance in Hong Kong? Whatever gave you the idea that I’m having an affair?”

              “I can read between the lines. All those imaginary troubles she writes about are really a kind of code between you enabling her to form a dependence on you, while you are the white knight in shining armor rushing to her defense, just like in the movies.”

              “I’ve never heard anything so preposterous in my entire life, and I’m especially surprised to hear it from someone as intelligent as you. And I’ve always felt myself to be naive and inadequate compared to you.”

              “That’s exactly the point. You need to compensate yourself for your feelings of inadequacy, so out you go and find some cheap little trollop to whom you can come across as the hero. Elijah, I know you too well. You’re totally transparent to me. I have absolutely no doubt that you’re hiding something from me.”

              “Come with me,” said Elijah, and in a totally atypical action on his part, he more or less dragged Orna over to the computer and sat her down next to it. As soon as he logged on, he heard the distinctive sound indicating that new email had arrived - from Mei-Ling.

              Without even bothering to see its contents, Orna jumped at him again. “You see, you write only to her.”

              Elijah clicked the e-mail open.

              “Dear Elijah, Rabbi Batzri collapsed outside the synagogue after the prayers. An ambulance took him to the hospital; he died on the way. According to the official version, he died of a heart attack. Elijah, I beg you, tell me what to do. Should I come to Israel? Yours, Mei-Ling.”

              Elijah recalled the dream he had had of the two of them - he and Mei-Ling - flying over Jerusalem. Maybe the dream had foretold what seemed to be happening now?

              “So?” said Orna, as if she had proven her point. “Does it seem logical to you that every time she writes to you she informs you of someone else dying? And at such short intervals? Now she has the gall to want to come to Israel!”

              “Orna, I’ve got something to tell you.”

              Orna missed a few heartbeats as she waited for him to go on.

              “There’s no affair here. It’s much worse than you could possibly have imagined.” And even though he had signed an agreement forbidding him to discuss anything related to the Institute with anyone, Elijah broke down and told Orna everything that had happened ever since he had started to work for Luzzato. He told her of the murder of Kim in Hong Kong, of the Hong Kong crime syndicate with the naïvely romantic name “White Lotus”, of the pursuit of the different scrolls, of Norman with the American accent who was nevertheless totally adept at writing Hebrew in the southern Italian style. To top it all, he admitted - albeit reluctantly - that he had almost been kidnapped by the Chinese Mafia.