The Second Messiah

Gold-threaded gowns were made of the finest linen and silk. The papal hat was embossed with silver and gold and encrusted with sparkling diamonds.

Exquisite slippers lined with Siberian fur were inlaid with precious gemstones, every garment exquisitely tailored by Italy’s finest craftsmen. A secretary bowed. “We are ready to dress you whenever you are ready, Holy Father.”

“I have no need of these garments.”

“Pardon, Holy Father?”

Becket inspected a richly embroidered gown inset with dazzling gemstones, then replaced it on the table and fingered the simple wooden cross at his neck. “In a world scourged by poverty, I should have no need of these expensive garments. I will wear a simple smock. The one I’m wearing will do well enough. Along with my cross and sandals.”

The secretary was aghast as he stared down at the pope’s ragged footwear. “But Holy Father, the international press, TV cameras, and photographers from all over the world will be watching—”

“Then they will see what they should have always seen—that Christ’s representative on earth has no need of such robes. People starve and cry out for shelter in this world. Why should I wear dazzling robes and mock them?”

“But—”

“I have spoken.” The pope turned to Ryan. “Delay the cardinals’ assembly in the Sistine Chapel. I will tell you when to summon them.”

“Is there a problem, Holy Father?”

“I’d like a few moments alone to phone Cardinal Kelly. Then I wish to pray in the Sistine. I will have an important announcement to make when the cardinals join me.”

Ryan inclined his head. “Of course. What about Cardinals Kelly and Cassini?”

“Detain them both.”

118

“You planted the scroll.” Confusion spread on Jack’s face. “I don’t get it. The parchment I found is genuine. Carbon-dating proved it.”

“Of course it’s genuine, Cane. Just like all the others discovered at Qumran. That’s where it was originally found, months ago.”

“By who?”

“Josuf, the Bedu foreman. He saw a copy of the site areas you meant to dig. On my instructions he did his own digging secretly at night, the way the Bedu always do. Several of the guards the Israelis employ are Bedu and turned a blind eye. After Josuf found it, I had it partly translated.”

“You realized how explosive it was?”

Hassan nodded. “I’d been waiting a lifetime for such a prize. So I chose my moment and carefully had it reburied, as if it had never been found.”

“For what reason?”

“I wanted you to find it, Cane.”

“Why me?”

Hassan drew on his cigarette and blew out smoke. “Because as an archaeologist you have credibility. And because I knew that you would do your utmost to make the message the scroll contained public, no matter what it took.”

“But why would a Bedu want the contents made public?”

Hassan’s dark eyes flashed with anger. “I could give you many reasons, Cane. The Israelis destroy Arab settlements. They kill and imprison my people. They steal land that has always belonged to the Bedu, long before the Jews or your Christian Crusaders ever laid claim to it. Even today, you Christians do nothing about their pillage but pay it lip service.”

“So that’s what this is about, simple revenge?”

Hassan shook his head. “There is nothing simple about it. It encompasses centuries of wrongs and occupations. And for those wrongs your people will pay. A two-thousand-year-old truth will shatter your beliefs forever.”

“And your father’s death. Don’t tell me you’ve got that score to settle as well?”

Hassan spat. “You’re wrong. I despised my father. He was a fool who did the bidding of the Jews and the Vatican priests. A traitor who helped them unearth treasure that rightfully belonged to his own people, in return for a few miserable shekels. But you and your kind are the real thieves, Cane. You and your kind come here to steal from us. And for that, I mean to make you pay.”

Hassan took a final drag on his cigarette. “The revelations the scroll contains are not easily dismissed. The Israelis will pay a heavy price too, once the world learns of the other parchments. There’s an old Bedu saying: The desert wind whispers the truth.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Hassan crushed his cigarette in a crystal ashtray. “The Bedu have heard the whispers for decades. How the Vatican and the Jews have kept secret the damning revelations of their religions found in the Qumran scrolls. Revelations that compromise both their faiths. It will prove interesting when the evidence is revealed.”

Cane considered. “It seems to me that no sooner had I discovered the scroll than your plan went wrong.”

“Yes, it went wrong, Cane,” Hassan said bitterly and picked up the silvered Walther pistol from the table. “My plans were ruined. But now I have different plans and I want the scroll back. I think you know where it is, so I’m not going to waste time.”

Hassan stepped back and opened the door. Jack saw the Serb waiting outside with his men. Hassan said, “Bring her in.”