The Moses Legacy (10 page)

‘I still don't like it,' said Daniel, feeling self-conscious as they walked into Heathrow Airport from the car park.

‘Would you prefer that we just sat around doing nothing?'

‘I can't help thinking I should be trying to clear my name instead of running off in pursuit of academic glory.'

‘And how do you propose to do that? Do you have the investigative resources of a police force? Their authority to arrest people? Access to a forensic lab perhaps? A computer to co-ordinate all the information?'

Daniel sighed. ‘No, but I can try and find out what Harrison was talking about… about the plague and the fiery snakes and all that.'

‘And how are you going to find out? Are you planning on consulting a medium?'

He looked at her in shock. She was being surprisingly cold and heartless considering that it was her uncle who was dead – the uncle with whom she had spent so many summers as a child and later as a teenager. But he sensed that she was using aggression to keep her grief at bay.

‘If I leave now I'm breaching my bail conditions. That'll make me a more credible suspect in their eyes.'

Gabrielle was shaking her head.

‘I don't think it'll make a difference one way or the other.'

‘What if they stop me when I try and pass through to airside?' he asked nervously.

‘You think they've got a list of everyone who is out on bail?'

‘In this day and age? It wouldn't surprise me.'

‘Well, you can quit worrying. They may have a list of people who have
jumped
bail or people who have outstanding warrants against them. But they wouldn't have a list of everyone on bail. If they did that, they wouldn't have needed to hold on to your passport.'

‘I hope you're right.'

‘I
am
right. Now stop worrying. Let's check in and get airside. Then we can see if we can track down a copy of Uncle Harrison's paper. If he sent it to an American journal, someone must know about it.'

 

What Daniel didn't realize was that now that he had switched on his mobile phone, it was transmitting his location again. That meant that someone thousands of miles away was tracking him.

The curator was sweating, but it wasn't just from the heat. It wasn't such a warm day and the air conditioning was on. It was something on the
inside
and he felt like he was going down with flu. And it had started soon after that visit from Gabrielle Gusack.

It must be swine flu. Damn!

He decided to check the symptoms online. Fever, sweating, headache, aching muscles, limb and joint pain, tiredness. On the other hand there was no diarrhoea, no sore throat, no runny nose and no sneezing. And there was something else. He was itching all over his torso, like he had measles or even chickenpox. But he had had both of those as a child.

He opened his shirt and looked at his torso only to be confronted by a frightening sight. His body was covered in red marks – not streaks but more like the elongated letter S or several such letters strung together. He touched one and his mind shrieked with pain, like he was burning. But now he realized that with this fever, his whole body felt like it was burning. The touch only made it worse.

A wave of fear swept over him. His mind panicked as he wondered what it could be. He had come into contact with people from a foreign country where hygiene standards are not so high and now he was going down with something
that produced these S-shaped marks and a fiery pain on his flesh.

He felt his legs going weak.

Is that just fear or the disease itself?

Whatever it was, he knew that he had to act quickly. He leaned over to grab the phone and called 999.

‘Emergency services, which service do you require?'

‘Ambulance,' he rasped as he felt the heat rise up in his stomach. He wanted to say more, but he felt his vision go blurry and could no longer support himself.

The last thing he remembered before passing out was his body slumping to the floor.

‘It couldn't have come from the Aswan High Dam excavations,' said Mansoor.

‘Why not?' asked Daniel, defensively.

‘Because I've been thinking about why the jar and papyrus are undocumented and I think I know the reason.'

In Mansoor's office at the SCA, Daniel and Gabrielle sat forward.

‘Which is?' Daniel prompted.

‘The most likely cause of an artefact not getting recorded would be if it were found round about the time when the museum moved to a new location. The museum was built in 1835 and has moved twice, first to the Boulaq district in 1858 and then to its present location at Tahrir Square in 1902. But the High Dam wasn't constructed till the 1960s.'

Daniel thought for a moment about Mansoor's comment. But then a thought came to him.

‘What about the old dam?'

‘The
Low
Dam?' Mansoor considered this. ‘It was initially constructed between 1898 and 1902 and then raised twice after that.'

‘So maybe it was found when they were nearing completion… in 1902.'

Mansoor was shaking his head.

‘They would have been more likely to find an artefact during initial excavations than when they were finishing construction. Besides, the Elephantine papyri date from the fifth century BC. There's no way they'd still be using the script then, when they already used the Aramaic alphabet!'

Daniel felt frustrated. He and Gabrielle had already considered this objection, but hearing it now from Mansoor reminded him how far off the mark that particular theory had been.

‘What about Deir el-Medina? Could it have been found there?'

‘None of the papyri that survived from there were in Proto-Sinaitic.'

‘I guess that puts paid to
both
those theories,' said Daniel with a wry smile.

‘I'm sorry to put the dampener on it,' said Mansoor. ‘Especially after you came back here to help out.'

‘Actually, what really prompted me to come back here was your message about that outbreak of illness.' He preferred not to mention what Harrison Carmichael had said about the plague at this stage. ‘Any more news on that front?'

Mansoor looked tense.

‘It's not looking good. We've had four more deaths. Most of the rest are on the road to recovery. But we still don't know what caused it and we're having a hard time keeping the lid on it. They
are
foreign citizens after all.'

‘Why are you trying so hard to keep it a secret?'

Mansoor looked at Daniel as if he were an idiot.

‘My country thrives on the tourist business. Can you imagine what it'll do to the trade if it leaks out?'

‘You're right, I'm sorry. I just wish I understood what was causing it.'

‘We have our best doctors working on it. They're checking
dust samples from the site. They sent teams there to conduct chemical and radiological analysis, but so far they haven't turned up anything.'

Daniel was on the verge of mentioning Carmichael's cryptic words, when Gabrielle changed the subject again.

‘I just had a thought about what you said about the public works projects, Daniel. Could it have been found in some other public project?'

‘Like what?' asked Mansoor. ‘A road? A bridge?'

‘Yes,' said Gabrielle.

‘Holy shit!' Daniel blurted out.

‘What?'
asked Mansoor, ignoring the vulgar language and latching on to Daniel's contagious excitement.

‘I think Gaby may be on to something – sorry, Gabri
elle
.' He looked at Mansoor. ‘When was the Suez Canal constructed?'

‘Between 1859 and 1869.'

‘And you said the museum moved to Boulaq in 1858?'

‘That's right.'

‘So the jar and papyrus might have been found during the initial Suez Canal excavations.'

‘Quite possibly,' Mansoor replied, approvingly. ‘And the chief engineer of the Suez Canal project was Linant de Bellefonds. He was a close friend of William John Bankes. He would have made sure that it was handed over to the authorities!'

‘Then we've cracked it!' said Daniel, his voice rising with elation.

‘But why is that so exciting?' asked Gabrielle, confused. ‘If it was found by workers excavating the Suez Canal?'

‘You don't understand, Gaby. If this papyrus
was
found during the Suez Canal construction, then we don't just know where it was found.
I know what it is!
'

‘What?'
Mansoor and Gabrielle said in unison.

‘The Song of the Sea!'

‘What could it possibly be?' asked the consultant.

‘It's nothing I've ever seen before,' the toxicologist replied.

The curator was in an isolation unit at University College Hospital as the experts discussed and debated what he was suffering from. They had ruled out swine flu, bird flu and pretty much any other form of flu. But that didn't tell them what it was.

They were treating him with a cocktail of antibiotics in case it was bacteriological and antipyretics to bring down the fever. They were awaiting the results of toxicology and blood sample tests and they had asked his colleagues what he had eaten and drunk recently and if any of them had experienced similar symptoms.

So far they had drawn a blank on every one of their speculations. They were further hampered by the fact that he alternated between unconsciousness and delirium, making it impossible to glean any useful information from him.

Right now, he was just emerging from unconsciousness and apparently trying to speak. They couldn't enter the isolation chamber because that would be a contagion hazard, but there was a microphone by the bed and they were pointing to it and telling him to speak into it. He half sat up and struggled to move his lips close to it.

‘Nehu… Nehu…'

‘What's he saying?' asked one of the doctors.

‘It sounds like Nehu.'

‘What does that mean?'

‘I don't know. Sounds like something in Hindi maybe.'

‘Nehushtan!' the curator finally blurted out and then slumped back on to the pillow.

The monitoring equipment let out a high-pitched whine, warning that the patient's vital signs had failed.

‘Nehushtan?' one of the doctors echoed.

‘It must be a country,' said another.

‘Why would he mention a country?' asked the first.

‘Or a province?' a nurse suggested.

‘You've heard of it?' asked one of the doctors.

‘No, but it could be a province or a region instead of a country. Maybe it's where he comes from.'

Meanwhile, down the corridor, a member of the hospital ancillary staff had gone to use a phone.

‘Hallo, is that the news desk? I've got a story that might be worth a few quid.'

‘“I will sing to Jehovah for he has…” and then the next words in the Hebrew are “
Ga-ah, Ga-ah
” or “
Ga-oh, Ga-oh
.” It depends on which vowels you insert and also whether you use the Sephardi or Ashkenazi pronunciations.'

Daniel was reading a biblical passage out loud, anglicizing words like
Jehovah
to make their meaning clear to Gabrielle.

‘In the Bible,' Daniel explained, ‘when the same word is repeated in immediate succession, it's for emphasis. It's like saying “very” in English. In this case, the word itself means to triumph or achieve victory. So the repetition, “He is triumphant, is triumphant,” could be translated as “He is very triumphant,” or “He is highly triumphant.” It could even be a superlative: “He has triumphed above all.” And on the papyrus we see the word
Jehovah
followed by a similar repetition of a word. That's one point of comparison.'

‘But what made you think it's this Song of the Sea?' asked Gabrielle.

‘It's all a matter of location. Once you suggested that the papyrus was found in the Suez Canal excavations, it all fell into place. You see, in the Bible, the sea that parted to let the Israelites escape from the pharaoh was called
Yam Suph
in Hebrew. That's usually translated as the
Red
Sea, but it actually means the
Reed
Sea or Sea of Reeds and most modern
scholars believe that it was a shallow body of water in the place that today is occupied by the Suez Canal.'

‘But what exactly
is
the Song of the Sea?' she pressed on.

‘Well, according to the Bible, after the Israelites crossed the Sea of Reeds, with the pharaoh's army in hot pursuit, the waters flooded back and the Egyptian soldiers were drowned. When this happened, the Israelites were so delighted that they sang a song celebrating their escape and the destruction of their enemies. It's called the Song of the Sea or the Song of Miriam, after Moses' sister. When the song is described, with Moses singing it, there's a repetition of the first verse sung by Miriam and the women – hence its alternative title. That incidentally is also the reason why Orthodox Jews insist on separating men and women in synagogues: because the women sang
after
the men.'

‘But why would the Song of the Sea be written on its own, if it was part of the Bible?' asked Gabrielle. ‘And why would this copy of it be at precisely the location of the Sea of Reeds? I mean, presumably the Israelites carried on with their travels. They didn't
remain
on the eastern banks of the Sea of Reeds. According to the Bible, they
moved on
, crossing the Sinai Desert. So why would this manuscript be there?'

‘According to modern theories about the Bible, the Song of the Sea was originally a separate work, an old poem that existed before the rest of the narrative. In fact, according to one theory, it's the oldest text in the Bible. And this might be one of several manuscripts of the song that happened to be left at the scene. It probably described some minor event or battle that was then elevated to a greater importance.'

Mansoor picked up on this.

‘The idea that it was a separate ancient work that got written into the biblical narrative fits in very neatly with the carbon dating of the papyrus. 1600 BC would put it well
before the traditional dating of the Israelite exodus. But more importantly, it would also fit in very neatly with the volcanic eruption of Santorini round about that time.'

‘Why would the eruption of Santorini have anything to do with the parting of the waters in Egypt?' asked Daniel.

‘Because according to oceanographers, the eruption of Santorini would have produced a tsunami that would have reached the shores of Egypt and would have been especially pronounced in a shallow body of water that had an outlet to the sea. And when a tsunami strikes, because of the way waves move, the first thing that happens is that the water flows
out
, thereby creating a dry area which then becomes flooded when the water rushes back.'

‘Of course!' said Daniel. ‘And that perfectly fits the biblical account of the parting of the waters, followed by the deluge.'

‘Are there any other points of comparison in the text?' Mansoor followed up.

‘Well, if we look down to lines five and six in the biblical text, using the common word
El
or God as our point of comparison, we see, “
Zeh Elohi veAnveihu
.” This is my God and I will live with him, or it could be translated as “I will beautify him”, depending on how you understand the problematic word
anvei
. Then the next line is “
Elohei avi veAmromemenhu
,” which means: “God of my father and I will exalt him.” Now if we turn to lines five and six of the papyrus, again we see the letters for
El
written as the beginning of a longer word, and in
just the right places
, relative to the length and word spacing on the lines.'

He looked over at Mansoor for approval. Mansoor nodded.

‘Okay, now if we go down to the next two lines in the biblical passage, we see that they begin with the name Jehovah. And again the same is true of the papyrus.'

‘So it's looking like a match,' said Gabrielle.

‘It's beginning to,' Daniel confirmed.

‘So does that mean,' asked Gabrielle, ‘that by comparing the papyrus text to the version of the Song of the Sea in the Bible you can use it like the Rosetta Stone to decipher the ancient language?'

‘Basically yes,' said Daniel. But he realized that the downer was that this papyrus could not be the one that Harrison Carmichael had translated – the one about the plague. Assuming that his mentor really had translated a papyrus that made reference to the plague, he still had to find it.

But where?

‘I guess all we need are some more samples of the ancient language to translate.'

It was a long shot, but he noticed a flicker in the face of the SCA chief.

‘I have some more good news for you,' said Mansoor. ‘While you were away, I did some checking in the archives and it appears that there are a few other samples of the ancient script that haven't received all that much publicity.'

Daniel's eyes lit up. Did Mansoor unwittingly have a papyrus that described the plagues?