Adrian D'Hage - The Omega scroll

‘How tightly are your plans held?’

‘This particular plan is held strictly on a need-to-know basis. You have a rough outline because without you I can’t get the Semtex,’ Yusef responded coldly.

Giorgio Felici had only known the Palestinian through coded messages, but he felt a growing respect for the man.

‘Anything else?’ he asked.

‘Twenty million dollars. Over and above expenses and payable in advance,’ Yusef answered.

‘That is a very large amount, my friend.’

‘It’s in keeping with a very large risk,’ Yusef replied, his face expressionless. ‘Hamas is no different from any other organisation. If we are to continue to fight, we need funds.’

‘The Italian scientist is likely to be at the peace ceremony?’ Felici asked, returning to the original target.

‘In the front row,’ Yusef replied. ‘It is possible that we may catch her in the net as well,’ he added, reading Giorgio’s mind.

Before Giorgio Felici left for Rome he left a coded message for Cardinal Petroni. The Semtex would need to be provided through one of the Vatican’s companies that manufactured explosives and delivered in the black bag.

Jerusalem

‘A big concession,’ David said as he waved to the well-wishers in the hospital foyer and escorted Allegra to the waiting government car. ‘I’ve given Onslow the day off.’

‘You said that almost wistfully,’ Allegra chided him.

‘Well, half a day. We’ll pick him up at my place.’

‘Our place!’ Allegra whispered, elbowing him in the ribs.

‘How do you feel? Fully recovered, I’d say,’ David said, massaging his midriff.

‘Raring to go. The laboratory after lunch?’

‘Well, sort of,’ he replied with his trademark grin.

After lunch they drove towards the Old City heading for Bishop O’Hara’s.

‘Where are we going?’ Allegra asked, when she realised they weren’t heading for Mount Scopus.

‘All will be revealed,’ David said with a strange look on his face.

They were met at the door by the irrepressible Sister Katherine.

‘David! Allegra! Come in, come in. I’m so glad you’re all right, Allegra.’ The words tumbled over one another as she led them up the stairs.

‘Allegra!’ Patrick greeted Allegra with outstretched arms. ‘We’ve all been worrying sick. Sister Katherine and I were coming to the hospital today but they said you were fine. It does my eyes good to see you on your feet.’

‘I was very lucky, Patrick, thank you. Not my turn to go, I guess,’ she added with a smile. ‘Although I’m a little puzzled as to why we’re here when there’s so much work to do.’ Allegra looked quizzically at David.

‘May I, Patrick?’

‘To be sure, David. It’s been as safe as houses here.’

David walked over to the large painting on the wall and lifted it gently onto the floor, revealing an ancient wall safe. He dialled the combination and took out two large envelopes that Allegra recognised instantly.

‘Only two?’ she asked, a look of concern on her face.

‘The Gospel of Thomas and the Omega Scroll.’

‘I don’t understand. What happened to the Isaiah Scroll?’

‘The morning of the bombing I got a call from Yossi. One of his contacts in Mossad let him know that it was possible the scrolls were under surveillance at the laboratory so I enlisted Patrick’s help and brought him into the loop.’

‘Giovanni and I talked about the Omega Scroll often, Allegra,’ said Patrick, ‘and he told me about what happened to John Paul I. The fragments were never going to be safe at the university, there are just too many people who have access to the laboratories.’

‘The shifty-eyed lab assistant?’ Allegra asked, turning to David.

David nodded. ‘Found dead in a garage in Tel-Aviv, interestingly enough, along with a CIA agent. A Mossad car was shadowing them both but was hit by a truck when it ran a red light. Whoever has the envelope with the Isaiah Scroll in it thinks they have the Omega.’

‘So there is more than one group after this,’ Allegra observed.

‘Yes, and while any one of them thought we had it, they would be watching us like a hawk. I marked an envelope with the omega symbol but I had to have something to put in it, something that would fool them as long as possible, so I sacrificed the copy of Isaiah. We had hoped that Mossad would retrieve it, but… well, no security service is perfect, I guess,’ he said, a note of disappointment in his voice, ‘but at least the original Isaiah is still in the Shrine of the Book.’

Allegra smiled. ‘Quite the conspirators, you two,’ she said. ‘This is probably the last place anyone would think of looking.’

‘In a previous life I was one of Nebachadnezzar’s spies,’ Patrick said with a chuckle. ‘I’d love to stay but I’ve got an appointment across the road,’ he said, inclining his head towards the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. ‘Although I’m looking forward to finding out what’s in the Omega Scroll.’

‘That’s going to take a while, Patrick,’ David said. ‘Thanks for making your lounge room available.’

‘It’s interesting that more than one group is after this,’ Allegra said after Patrick had left. ‘Although I’ve got a fair idea who one of the groups is.’

David nodded. ‘Petroni and his boys. They may still be watching us, so we’ll dummy up some stuff so that it looks as if you’re still working on fragments in the lab, although if they think we’ve no longer got the Omega, the heat will be off for a while.’

‘How long will it take to put the Omega fragments together?’

‘Hard to say, but now that the scrolls have been separated, our task will be a lot easier. Yossi tells me they’re planning the peace ceremony for two months’ time, which is still well before Lonergan gets back, so hopefully we’ll be close by then.’

‘Should we get the other fragments back to the vault?’

‘Plenty of time. I’d rather wait until we can replace the three pieces of the Omega Scroll that were taped to the lid of the box and do it in one hit. I have a friend who restores old books and parchments. One of his skills is copying documents and making them look old. In this case very old.’

‘You have some interesting friends,’ Allegra said, rolling her eyes.

Jerusalem

T he media had had the story for nearly two months. The murder of Mike McKinnon had been embarrassing for both Israel and the United States, and the CIA categorically denied McKinnon had any authorisation for involvement with what was now suspected to be the theft of an Israeli antiquity. Mossad wasn’t buying any of it. Eventually a compromise was reached. Provided the name of ‘the man in his fifties’ or his relationship with the CIA was not disclosed, an increasingly restive media would be allowed to report on the double murder in the laneway off Yehuda ha-Yamit and publicly air the speculation on the Omega Scroll that had been swirling around Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv for weeks. Four billion dollars worth of defence equipment bought a certain amount of cooperation, even from the Israelis. The first report appeared on the front page of the Jerusalem Post, alongside a report on Pope John Paul II’s throat surgery and his deteriorating condition. Hunt for the Omega Scroll Goes On Tel-Aviv police are baffled by a robbery at the Hebrew University several weeks ago, and a subsequent double murder in a laneway off Yehuda ha-Yamit, the police officer in charge of the case, Chief Inspector Amos Raviv, admitted today. In a daring raid on one of the university’s laboratories, a suspected Hamas operative driving a van carrying the signage of a local security company stole a safe pretending to collect it for repair. The driver of the van was found shot dead in a garage near the Old Yafo Port area along with another male, believed to be in his fifties, whose name has not been released. ‘At this stage we still have no idea what interest Hamas might have had in the safe,’ Inspector Raviv said, acknowledging there were rumours that it might have contained the Omega Scroll. The Hebrew University has dismissed the rumours as speculative nonsense. ‘To the best of our knowledge the safe was empty,’ a spokesman for the Hebrew University said, denying that the university had any involvement with the Omega Scroll. The Rockefeller Museum has refused to comment. ‘We have no significant leads at present and we are appealing to anyone who may have seen anything to come forward,’ Chief Inspector Raviv said. – Associated Press