The Omega Scroll (30 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Langley, Virginia

M
ike McKinnon put down the file ‘Nuclear Fallout – Medical Issues’ and shook his head. Even if al-Qaeda issued a 30-minute warning and the emergency broadcast system was activated over TV and radio, only those few who had immediate access to a nuclear fallout shelter would be able to react. Even those who survived the devastating blast would suffer terribly. The radioactive cloud, Mike knew, could cover hundreds of square miles, especially if the wind and weather conditions were un-favourable. The brain cells in people subjected to any more than a few thousand of what were known as rads or radiation doses would be so damaged they would immediately start to swell. After a day of vomiting, excruciating headaches and seizures, tens of thousands would die. Even after a few hundred rads, half those exposed, perhaps a million people in the larger cities, would experience intense abdominal pain as the cells of their intestinal lining were destroyed. Their hair would drop out, bleeding would occur from the gums and anus, and death would occur within days. Those who staffed the city hospitals would themselves be part of the death toll. The countdown for civilisation had begun the day that man split the atom, Mike thought bleakly. As soon as they were ready, he knew the Islamic fundamentalists would not hesitate.

Mike reached for Professor Kaufmann’s paper on ‘The Omega Scroll and the Islamic Nuclear Factor’ and again he wondered whether there was a connection between the nuclear suitcases now in the hands of al-Qaeda and the ancient Dead Sea Scroll. Kaufmann had argued persuasively that in monotheistic religions there had been three revelations, the first to the Jews, the second to the Christians and finally to the Muslims, and he had now deciphered the ancient codes that seemed to make a connection with the third revelation, Islam and a coming atomic holocaust.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Qumran

A
nother pair of patrolling Israeli F-16s shrieked over the ruins of Qumran and Allegra and David watched them disappear, twin trails of hot exhaust drifting down over the Dead Sea border with Jordan.

‘Where does the DNA model fit in with the Essenes?’ Allegra asked David, determined to find out as much as she could about the second element of the scroll.

‘Those models in the Shrine of the Book were made from diagrams found in the Qumran library. Your Professor Rosselli from Ca’ Granda was starting to investigate further when he was shot. Did you know him well?’

‘Pretty well,’ Allegra said sadly. ‘He was a mentor.’

‘I’m sorry. It didn’t get much coverage here but Yossi was shocked. He confided in me at the time that he thought someone didn’t want Rosselli to get too close to the truth. Did Rosselli talk much about his theories on the origin of DNA?’

‘He was pretty wary. I think someone had warned him, but he had a lot of time for Francis Crick. I read his book but to be honest, I still have an open mind about DNA being introduced from a higher civilisation.’

‘So do I, and in the 1970s suggesting that a higher civilisation had sent rocket probes here would have qualified Crick for a padded cell, but when you think about it, we’ve got space probes headed for the icy wastes of our own galaxy and in the billions of others, it’s absurd to think we’re the only planet with life.’ David’s face grew serious. ‘Yossi has an open mind too, although his code work indicates that the Omega Scroll might confirm Crick’s theory.’

Allegra was seeing another side of this fun-loving man with the boyish good looks and impish sense of humour; the serious side.

‘Feel like lunch?’ David asked. ‘There’s a cave over there,’ he said, pointing to an opening halfway up the other side of the wadi. ‘For that one we won’t need climbing spikes.’

‘Sounds good to me,’ Allegra said, following him out of the ruins.

It took them nearly half an hour to negotiate the same rocks that the young Bedouin boy had scrambled over fifty years before, searching for his goat, but it was worth the effort. Allegra followed David into the same long narrow chamber where the Bedouins had discovered the first of the scrolls.

‘It’s a pity the two Bedouin boys didn’t know what they’d found,’ Allegra said. ‘It would have been an incredible feeling to have known you were the first person in here after nearly two thousand years.’

‘Not the case now though,’ David replied ruefully. ‘It looks as if an army’s been through here.’

Even an army of people could miss something critical if it had been deliberately sealed from view. Another tiny sprinkle of dust fell from the high ledge concealed just inside the entrance to the cave, but neither David or Allegra noticed it as they found a place for lunch in the shade of the cave opening.

‘Chardonnay?’

‘Why not. I’ll bet you didn’t bring anything else.’

‘Did too. Water is the lifeblood out here.’

‘Then I’ll have some of both. I wonder what Lonergan is hiding in that vault,’ Allegra mused, accepting a smoked salmon roll.

‘It will take a bit of finding out. They haven’t even given us access to the museum yet but Yossi’s on his case and from experience I know my father doesn’t give up on things without one hell of a fight.’

‘Is it hard having a famous father?’

David smiled. ‘You get used to people saying “Oh, you’re Professor Kaufmann’s son”, but Yossi has always encouraged me to do my own thing and he makes it pretty easy. Even when we served in the Army together the father–son thing wasn’t really a problem.’

‘What’s it like? Fighting a war.’

‘I think when you’re young there is a feeling of excitement. Until someone starts shooting at you and you realise you need a spare set of underpants.’

Allegra laughed.

‘Some of the politicians milk war for all they’re worth,’ David continued, ‘especially if they think it will go down well with the public. But when you’ve been involved in one, you realise how utterly senseless and what a terrible waste it all is. I guess it took the death of my brother Michael for it to really hit me.’

‘I had no idea,’ Allegra said apologetically. ‘I shouldn’t have asked.’

‘That’s OK. It took a while to come to terms with his death but there is hardly an Israeli family, or a Palestinian one, who haven’t lost loved ones. Part of the price of war. I was very angry for a while, and I still miss the crazy bastard.’

‘I’m so sorry, David. These days we seem to turn to war as the first solution to a problem.’

In the car park below Yusef Sartawi answered his mobile. ‘Yes, I am in position. They are at the entrance to Cave One.’ The message was deliberately short and cryptic.

‘We all have a defined time span and we should make the most of it,’ David said, getting to his feet, ‘but a lot of us spend our time killing each other and manoeuvring for power. Take this cave.’ David wandered back inside. ‘What they found in here is for the whole of humanity, not just a few privileged Catholic academics, yet we’re still fighting the Catholic Church tooth and nail to try to get to the truth.’ He brushed at what he thought was a bug in his hair. Another fine sprinkle of sand fell on his neck and he brushed at it again, but this time he stopped and looked up as he felt the sand trickle down his back. Above his head he could see what looked like a small crack in the rough rock of the overhanging wall. He turned to Allegra, who was still standing in the entrance.

‘Come and have a look at this.’

‘What,’ she said, stepping back into the cave.

‘There’s a crack in the rock here.’

Together they peered at the crack as a few more grains of sand trickled out of it. David retrieved the small pick from his backpack and started to scrape at the fissure. The ancient mortar that had finally succumbed to the same tremors that had rocked Bishop O’Hara’s whiskey bottles and Allegra’s apartment in Jerusalem came away easily. David’s pulse quickened.

‘This is mortar,’ he said excitedly. The pick started to come up against the rock of the cave and the straight edge of what looked like a small sealed cavity started to appear.

Working more slowly David picked at the mortar, edging his way around the extent of the cavity opening. The cavity was only about 60 centimetres square and the entrance had been ingeniously blocked with rock that had been chiselled from the cave wall. The mortar had been carefully mixed to match it.

‘Whatever is in here the Essenes obviously wanted to hide it from the outside world,’ David said as he slowly scraped away at the last of the mortar. Suddenly he stepped back and covered his nose.

‘Ugh!’ The air escaping from the cavity was foul.

‘Cover your face,’ he said quickly, signalling for Allegra to get out of the cave.

‘
Cryptococcus neuromyces
?’ Allegra asked, giving the fungus spores that had killed more than one unwary archaeologist their scientific name. The lung disease caused by it would start with headaches and a fever coupled with difficulty in breathing. The bleeding would follow and the toxins would be transported to the brain, where they would attack the meninges and the victim would hallucinate and die.

‘I don’t think we’re faced with an Essenes’ version of a curse of the Pharaohs,’ David replied. ‘The air here has a very low humidity so it’s unlikely to have any nasties in it, but let’s be careful just the same. Whatever’s in that cavity has waited for two thousand years. It can wait another few minutes.’

David was right to be cautious.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Langley, Virginia

I
n the basement below Mike McKinnon’s office the massive Cray mainframe computers hummed quietly, collecting and collating thousands of reports from all over the world. Reports from station chiefs in over a hundred countries; analysis from seismic listening devices and satellite imagery; results from bugs placed in embassies and offices and reports from dozens of other sources, both human and electronic.

Mike McKinnon’s initial views on being assigned to a presidential search for some ancient scroll had been unprintable, liberally sprinkled with a four-letter word for intercourse, but true to his years of training he had put together a plan that might turn up even the smallest clue. Kaufmann’s paper on the Dead Sea codes had been caught in the net, and now Echelon was producing results as well. Echelon was the codename for the National Security Agency’s system for intercepting phone calls, emails, faxes, telexes and any other electronic emission from anywhere around the globe, but the Echelon file on the Omega Scroll posed more questions than it answered.

Some things were not adding up, Mike mused. Why would the Vatican put out a surveillance contract on an internationally renowned expert in archaeological DNA? Her presence at some ruins was normal enough, but which one. ‘At the entrance to Cave One’ wasn’t much help. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. And why was Hamas involved? And who was this fellow Lonergan who kept getting a mention? McKinnon decided it was time to get a little closer to the action by relocating to Israel. He would be able to monitor the report collection from the CIA cell in the American Embassy in Tel-Aviv.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Qumran

N
either David or Allegra could contain their excitement any longer and David eased the rock from the front of the cavity in the cave wall. Both of them gasped.

‘My God, David. It’s another urn.’

The rough clay pot had stood on the concealed shelf since the destruction of Nehemiah’s Temple. David carefully lifted the urn and gently placed it on the floor of the cave. Not quite 30 centimetres high, it had been sealed with the same bowl-like lid as the others that had been found over forty years before. David took his penknife and carefully sliced through the seal of soft black pitch. He reached into the jar and took out a roll of faded yellow linen that had started to disintegrate. Inside was a leather bundle.

‘Allegra! It’s another scroll.’

Allegra nodded, speechless. The earlier discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls had been hailed as the greatest archaeological discovery of the twentieth century. Allegra wondered whether this might be its equal in the twenty-first.

‘Someone’s gone to an awful lot of trouble to hide it,’ Allegra said, her heart rate slowing.

‘The problem is,’ David mused, ‘how do we get it out of here without someone seeing us.’

‘Interfering with the property of the State?’

‘I’m more concerned that we don’t start a stampede of Bedouins out here armed with pickaxes and mattocks. I’d rather keep it quiet until I’ve done the translation and we can see what’s in it.’

‘What if one of those Israeli patrols stops us on the way back. If they search the vehicle …’ Allegra said, thinking out loud.

‘We can’t leave it here!’ they said together.

‘Snap!’ David said with a grin. ‘I guess we’ll just have to risk it and hope that Captain Shagnasty and his boys out there aren’t in too much of a checking mood. In the meantime, we’d better try and make this cavity look as if it was part of the original find,’ he said, reaching for his brush.

They certainly would not have been done for speeding. David’s driving was uncharacteristically sedate as Allegra cradled the priceless cargo. Yusef Sartawi followed at a discreet distance, allowing a big truck to get between him and his surveillance targets. One thing was puzzling Yusef. When the pair had returned from the ruins, the Israeli had seemed extremely cautious in handling his satchel.

As David and Allegra passed the turnoff to Jericho an open-backed Israeli truck loomed from the opposite direction, two heavy machine guns trained on Onslow’s windscreen. Allegra held her breath. The truck cruised slowly towards them, the Israeli soldiers suspicious and alert, then just before the soldiers drew level they seemed to relax and the truck went past.

‘Israeli plates help,’ David said. ‘Not to mention my stunning artwork on the doors, although just because it says Hebrew University is no guarantee. These guys have learned to take absolutely nothing at face value.’

Six more Israeli trucks scrutinised their progress but surprisingly none of them stopped. Just the same, Allegra was very relieved when they reached the Mount Scopus campus and they got their priceless cargo safely into their office in the laboratory.

‘It’s in Aramaic,’ David said after they had carefully laid the scroll out on the desk. A look of confusion shadowed his face. ‘It looks like an inventory. Why would the Essenes go to such lengths to hide an inventory?’ His confusion was replaced with astonishment as the reason for the urn being hidden from the rest became apparent.

‘Allegra,’ he said, looking up from his magnifying glass. ‘This is not only the complete list of scrolls, this scroll contains the precise locations of all the caves in Qumran that the Essenes used to store their library.’

‘That explains why it was so well hidden,’ Allegra said. ‘If anyone found this it would automatically lead them to all the other documents.’

‘Exactly.’ David’s grasp of Aramaic was unequalled by anyone else in the field and he translated it as easily as he might have from Hebrew into English. He frowned as he read the titles and locations of the scrolls, and then he whistled softly. ‘The Omega Scroll! There are three copies listed here.’

‘Which makes it far more important than any of the others,’ Allegra said.

David rubbed his eyes. After two hours spent deciphering the inventory in the scroll his initial exhilaration was replaced by disappointment.

‘The three copies of the Omega Scroll are listed, but from what I know of Qumran and the caves, all of the caves on this list have been thoroughly explored already. How many were taken by the Bedouin and traded on the black market is anybody’s guess,’ David said. ‘This inventory just completes part of the puzzle. We’ve no idea where any of the copies of the Omega Scroll might be now, or even if they still exist,’ David said dejectedly.

‘But we do know they
were
written. Professor Rosselli knew and someone killed him before he got too close, and the Vatican has been pretty ferocious in keeping the scroll secret,’ Allegra said, thinking back to her conversations with Giovanni.

‘That protection might be as much to distance Christ from the Essenes as anything else,’ David said, still pessimistic. ‘It’s not widely known, but Christ’s use of the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount was not original. “Blessed are the meek” has an earlier form in an Essenes scroll, and “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” came from the War Scroll found in Cave One. Christ’s Beatitudes of the Gospels were built on the Beatitudes found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Christ’s message in the Bible is not unique, and the Vatican will do anything to prevent that from coming to light.’

‘I agree with you,’ Allegra said, ‘and that is something carbon dating can resolve.’ She decided it was time to declare her hand. ‘The duplication of the Beatitudes would be enough to explain the Vatican’s extraordinary efforts to distance Christ from Qumran, but there is another reason. When I said to you earlier today that all would be revealed, it wasn’t me you thought you’d see.’

David grinned. ‘I thought my luck had changed there for a while.’ His face became serious as Allegra continued.

‘As damaging as Christ’s relationship with the Essenes and Mary Magdalene might be to the dogma, it is the Omega Scroll the Vatican fear the most. What I’m about to tell you will put someone’s life at risk, so it can’t go past us.’

David nodded.

‘You remember Giovanni Donelli?’

‘I met him at dinner at Patrick O’Hara’s. Is he still in the Vatican?’

‘He’s now the Patriarch of Venice. It’s his life that is at risk.’

David shook his head in disbelief when Allegra finished recounting Giovanni’s time with Pope John Paul I and his suspicions over Petroni.

‘They don’t muck around, those guys in scarlet. I won’t mention it, but when you’re ready you might think about bringing Yossi into the loop. He will give Giovanni every protection.’

Allegra nodded. ‘I’m sure he will and I’m sure he already knows that any challenge to the uniqueness of Christ or the dating of the scrolls in the Rockefeller will be denounced by Lonergan and the Vatican. The Omega Scroll is
not
a myth, and its existence will be met with a sustained fury and passed off as a total fraud. If we ever do find it, it might be better to have one of the Vatican’s own onside before any announcement.’

David laughed. ‘That’s a bit radical. Does such a creature exist? Apart from Patrick O’Hara?’

‘Patrick would do it, but they’d crucify him. He hasn’t got the academic cred, although he’d run rings around a lot of their Gregorian University types. But there is one who might.’

‘And where might they be hiding him? I presume it’s not a her!’

Allegra smiled. ‘No I think the old men in scarlet are threatened by women who go to university. Incongruously enough,’ she said, ‘it’s Giovanni who would do it.’

‘What makes you think the Patriarch of Venice would be part of any announcement, especially if his life’s at risk?’

‘It’s a long story but he’s a very wide thinker, and in a way it would give him some protection. If the Vatican wanted to get rid of him, they would have to think twice and not risk the heat of the inevitable inquiry uncovering the truth of the Omega Scroll,’ Allegra replied. ‘Giovanni has a towering intellect, although he hides it pretty well. Any more relaxed and he’d fall over.’

‘If you think he would do it, it’s worth a try because if we ever do find the Omega Scroll those bastards in the Vatican will pay whatever it costs to get hold of it before any theologian could comment on it, then it will just disappear into the depths of the Secret Archives,’ David said. ‘I guess we can hold off on announcing this inventory and that’ll keep Lonergan and the Vatican in their place, at least until we’re ready, although I’d love to know what’s in the Rockefeller’s vaults that made Lonergan so jumpy.’

‘I don’t think there is much hope of finding out,’ Allegra said.

‘I don’t know …’ David let his thoughts trail off, a conspiratorial look on his face. He carefully wrapped up the scroll and locked it in the office safe before they both headed off to David’s apartment for the dinner he had promised Allegra. Both were silent, acutely aware of the powerful consequences of their discovery.

David’s apartment was in Levi Eshkol Boulevard, not far from the Old City. It was on the top floor of an older stone building and had sweeping views across the lights of greater Jerusalem, out to the ramparts where King David had once governed.

‘I’m impressed, David. You’re quite the chef,’ Allegra exclaimed as David placed the dish on the table with a flourish.

‘Pesach cholent with stuffed eggplant.’

‘Pesach cholent?’

‘What I hope is very tender steak that has been slowly cooked with potatoes and eggs. Shalom,’ he said, raising his wine glass.

After dinner David and Allegra headed out onto the balcony with their coffee. The city was golden-hued and the inkiness of the night made the scene seem otherworldly. They leaned on the railing, relaxed and joking about getting on with their research and thinking of ways to infuriate Lonergan, making a deal that whoever got him to explode first had to buy the other dinner.

David bent low over Allegra’s hand making a show of sealing the deal with a theatrical kiss on her upturned palm. Allegra caressed his cheek and gently brought his face up to meet her gaze. David’s lips brushed hers and Allegra responded with an intake of breath. Her fear and apprehension of loving a man evaporated into the night air as David gently wrapped his arms around her body. She closed her eyes, capturing the moment. David’s lips pressed against hers and Allegra lost all sense of place. It was as though they belonged to each other and he knew how to make her head swim. His hands slid from her waist to her hips and he pressed her body against him. She began to kiss him back, urgently, passionately. David’s heart felt like it was beating in his throat, and he lost the power of speech. Keeping her close, David led Allegra back into the apartment towards the bedroom, the scent of her hair heightening his desire.

‘I haven’t done this for a very long time, David,’ Allegra whispered. Her body arched against his and they both melted into each other as they collapsed to the floor.

Allegra smiled as the message popped up on her computer screen. An email from Giovanni.

Buongiorno

Ho una sorpresa
. I am coming to Jerusalem.

I will be in Jerusalem for a few days next week. There is an interfaith dialogue conference where I will formally, if belatedly, hand over the reins to my successor and I’m to present a final paper on the Catholic Church’s response to Islam and Judaism. You will no doubt remember the Vatican politics. They’re still the same and the Veneto is a wonderful change. I had an email from my old friend Patrick O’Hara singing your praises – he says you’re doing brilliantly – nothing less than I expected. Dinner?

Best wishes from your old friend, Giovanni.

After all this time they would finally catch up face to face. There had been plenty of emails but so often they had missed each other by a few weeks in different countries around the world. It was as if the universe had been keeping them apart. Allegra eagerly typed in her reply.

Dinner would be wonderful. Would you like me to pick you up at the airport?

Giovanni’s reply came back immediately.

Thanks but Patrick already has that in hand (no doubt in the other he will have a bottle of Irish whiskey). If you’re free on Wednesday night – I’ll let you choose the restaurant.

‘What are you up to?’ David asked as he came in. He bent down to kiss her shoulder.

‘Giovanni’s coming to Jerusalem,’ Allegra replied, turning her head towards him.

‘That’s great news. When does he arrive?’

‘Patrick’s picking him up from the airport next week and I’ve organised dinner for Wednesday night. Can you join us?’

‘Not for dinner. You two haven’t seen each other for years and you both need time to catch up, but I can drop you off in Onslow and I’ll join you for a drink. It will be good to see him again.’

‘I’m not sure he’ll be thrilled about a ride in Onslow but he’s Italian and I’ve always had a strong suspicion that’s where you learned to drive.’

Numero Venti was still only half full as Elie showed Giovanni and Allegra to their table by the window. A moment later a well-dressed Arab smiled politely to Elie and indicated he would like the table behind them.

‘David is a very charming man,’ Giovanni said, a touch of wistfulness in his voice.

‘And like you, he has many talents,’ Allegra said. ‘He hasn’t made up his mind but he told me the other night he is thinking of running for election in Yossi’s party.’

‘If he’s anything like Yossi he will be very successful,’ Giovanni said. ‘Yossi is probably one of the few politicians in Israel who can see that the present policy is never going to work.’

Allegra nodded. ‘Your friend Ahmed Sartawi has similar views and it seems that ordinary Palestinians are coming around to his way of thinking. Provided he can deliver a Palestinian State, he thinks the militant groups can be brought onside as well.’