The Second Messiah

Now Ari came out of the bathroom and tossed her a fresh white bath towel and a tube of shower gel. “For you. In the great Jewish tradition, when it comes to spending on nonessentials Mossad is as tight as a rusty nut. The soap’s cheap and the towels like sandpaper. But at least the water’s hot enough for a shower.”

“Thanks.” Lela climbed out of bed, pulling the cotton bath towel around her to cover her nakedness. “Any particular reason why you deprived me of eight hours’ sleep, Ari?”

There was a sound of footsteps outside the door and Ari smiled. “I think you’re about to find out.”

A sudden rap came on the bedroom door, then it yawned open and Julius Weiss stood there. He wore a fresh blue shirt, khaki trousers, and the same old sandals. “So, you’re awake, Inspector Raul. Have you told her yet, Ari?”

“I thought I’d leave that to you, sir.”

Weiss jerked a thumb toward the door. “Outside, in ten minutes. Something’s come up and we need to talk.”

57

QUMRAN

“Before this goes any further, I’ve got some news you might like to hear,” Savage announced.

“What’s that?” Jack asked.

“Mosberg said his forensics people had the parchment flakes and ink analyzed and carbon-dated. It’s the same material used in other Dead Sea scrolls, and in all probability dated between A.D. 25 and 50.”

Jack slapped a fist into his palm. “I never doubted it for a second, Buddy.”

“Neither did I. But don’t keep us in suspense, tell us what you found,” Savage demanded.

“I think Father Novara was trying to decipher some kind of message contained in the scroll. I saw jottings and lists of Aramaic words and characters lying on his desk, as if he was in the process of decoding something. I even found a couple of sentences he appeared to have translated and they’re pretty remarkable indeed.”

“Let’s see them.”

Jack reached for his notebook in his back pocket. “Over fifty years ago one of the translators working on the original Dead Sea scrolls, Professor Schonfeld, discovered a recurring cipher in some texts. A hidden language, if you like. He called it the Atbash Cipher. Ever heard of it?”

Savage nodded. “Sure. I thought it was found in scrolls written in Hebrew.”

“It seems it may occur in Aramaic texts too.”

“I never really paid much attention to Schonfeld’s work. Didn’t folks think he was a crackpot?”

“Some did. But a number of respected academics eventually recognized that Schonfeld had stumbled across something highly unusual.”

Yasmin said, “Why would the Essenes want to devise a hidden code?”

Savage shook his head. “Nobody’s ever come up with a credible answer, except that they were an eccentric cult and inclined to be secretive, which is probably one of the reasons why they hid their scrolls in the first place. It’s probably also why the Essenes stashed their scrolls in local caves for safety when the community was destroyed by the Romans as part of a crackdown on Jewish insurgents, some time between A.D. 66 and 73.”

“So what was Father Novara trying to decode?”

Jack said, “You’re asking the million-dollar question, Yasmin. Some of the code had a biblical reference and Schonfeld suggested that certain of the parchments may have been encrypted with a prophecy or revelation. But Schonfeld died years ago and afterward his work became a sort of curiosity, not always taken seriously.”

“What kind of prophecy or revelation are we talking about?”

“No one knows. But Schonfeld’s study of the codes led him to believe that it was significant.”

Savage put a hand on Jack’s shoulder. “You’re talking pure speculation, Jack.”

“Am I? Have a read of this. I found this sentence jotted on one of the pages I discovered beside Novara’s desk . . .”

Savage studied the lines Jack had recorded in the notebook:

When the messiah’s corpse was removed from the cross, it was placed in a tomb in the burial caves outside Dora, on the road to Caesarea.

Savage raised an eye. He looked totally flummoxed a moment, then he said, “What the heck have we got here? Are you sure you didn’t make a mistake transcribing the words?”

“No, Buddy, I made sure of it.”

Savage stared at the lines and shook his head. “ ‘When the messiah’s corpse was removed from the cross, it was placed in a tomb in the burial caves outside Dora, on the road to Caesarea.’” He looked up, stunned. “If it’s meant to be the messiah Jesus, biblical history records he was buried near Jerusalem.”

“Exactly.”

Confused, Savage studied the lines again. “It’s a pretty explosive statement, but what exactly does it mean?”

Jack said, “Buddy, believe me, this is one conundrum that’s only going to be solved by a complete translation of the full text.”

Savage scratched his head. “You’ve sure got my attention. Still, I meant what I said. Don’t be dumb enough to go tearing off and getting mixed up with criminals like Pasha, not unless you’ve got a death wish. Tell the police everything you know and leave the rest to them.”