Alex Mitchell - The 13th Tablet

‘Dear brother,

I hope the printing business is picking up as you hoped it would when you left for Safed. I am writing to reassure you. As you probably know by now, we had to leave Lisbon in a hurry. Everyone is alive and well. As for the clay tablet, I followed father’s instructions. I keep it with me at all times. Let’s hope that when the time is right, our sons or their descendents will receive a sign from G’d, and return this burden to its rightful place, wherever it may be. I miss you brother and I pray G’d we can be reunited before long. If you wish to write to us, we’re now in Cambridge. Hildersham’

I remember thinking it was a rather odd letter, but not until now did it make any sense’.

‘Well, I still don’t understand…’ said Mina.

‘I do’, said Jack, ‘the tablet which was found by Ari’s search party was entrusted to this guy or his family in Portugal, and the tablet’s now in England’.

‘Exactly’, said Eli, ‘or at least it was there in the 18th century.’

‘But where in England? And what were their names?’ asked Mina.

‘The man signed his letter ‘Hildersham’ from Cambridge, so I guess we have the answer.

Eli sighed. ‘I am too old for all this. But you should continue.’

‘We will,’ said Mina.

‘Then go to Cambridge at once. A number of scholars from Cambridge came to visit Safed years ago. They worked at a Research centre in the University Library. I’m sure they could help.’

Suddenly, Jack braked hard and the van juddered to a halt. A car was blocking the road up ahead and because the road was very narrow he could not do a U-turn. Three men had jumped out of the car and were flashing their torches up the road in their direction. They were armed and pointed their guns at the van.

‘Oh my god,’ said Mina.

‘Maybe it’s the plain clothes police,’ said Eli.

‘I don’t think so’ hissed Jack, ‘Stay still!’

The men slowly approached the van. Jack waited until they were almost at arms length from the passenger door, then suddenly reversed at full-throttle. One of the men fired his weapon, but the van was already out of range. Mina and Eli cringed in terror, as Jack drove the car backwards at high speed into the darkness, scraping against the walls on either side of the road. The men had run back and jumped into their car and were driving fast down the alley after them. They were almost back to the cobbled stone path that led to the Ari shul. There was no way out.

‘I’ll stop the van in the middle of the road, and we’ll have to run for it,’ yelled Jack, ‘Eli, go back to the Ari synagogue and find a place to hide. We’ll hide in the old cemetery.’

The poor man, still clutching his papers, hobbled out of the back of the van and Jack and Mina watched him hobble as quickly as he could back to the synagogue.

‘He’ll be alright. Let’s go,’ said Jack, pulling Mina by the hand.

As they rushed towards the cemetery, they could hear the men climbing over the van. They ran as fast as they could, trying not to fall on the uneven ground.

Safed had known a number of earthquakes and the cemetery was a chaotic assemblage of tombs and paths from different ages. They could hear the men’s heavy steps thumping the ground in hot pursuit. Mina hid behind a tombstone as Jack slowly crept to one side, gun in hand, waiting for the men to arrive. As the first one appeared, he shot at him but missed. Mina started running again. He could not rush after her as he was cornered by two of the gunmen. The third man was catching up with Mina. Jack saw her stumble and lose balance. She dropped her bag in her fall, and for an instant hesitated to pick it up. But as she saw the man fast approaching, she left it where it had fallen in the dust and ran further on. The man stopped to pick up the bag. Jack watched him as he searched with one hand while holding his flash light in the other. He pulled out something and dropped the bag. He then turned round and signalled to the other two to follow. Jack understood at once what this meant. They had the stone tablet. There was no need to pursue Mina or him any longer. They had what they’d come for.

Eli hid in the only place where he felt truly safe, in the Ari’s room. A candle was still burning, but he couldn’t summon up the courage to put it out, even at the price of his own safety. He waited in absolute silence for what seemed an eternity. Suddenly he heard footsteps coming towards him. A tall dark shape entered the softly lit room. Eli clutched the bundle of papers as tightly as he could under his coat. When he saw who the man was, he was surprised and started to rise to his feet, but the man pushed him violently against the back wall and held him there by the throat. Eli‘s eyes widened in shock. The man grabbed the scarf from around the old man’s neck and slowly tightened it around Eli’s neck until he was gasping for breath. Eli’s last sensation was that of his precious papers being wrenched out of his helpless hands.

December 12th, 2004. Flight from Tel Aviv to London

‘Two whiskeys and a coke, please,’ Jack said to the flight attendant, smiling meekly. Mina was sitting next to him, brooding. He reckoned she would need more than a few drinks to shake off her mood, but he did not want to get her drunk. Her dark eyes were lost in a world of despair and hatred. He understood how she felt; everything had gone so horribly wrong in Safed.

They had discovered so much information about Tudela and the tablet in just a few days and then, within hours, Wheatley’s men had retrieved it and murdered Eli. Jack would never forget the pitiful sight of Eli’s frail body propped up against the wall in the Ari’s room. Luckily, they had been using false identities while in Safed, so no-one knew who they really were. They’d be long gone by the time the local police found out about the young couple that had wanted to meet Eli. Their quest now hung by a fine and mysterious thread: a short letter written from Cambridge about a tablet being safe. They didn’t even know if it was linked to ‘their’ tablet. Jack had found the letter in Eli’s shoulder bag and taken it with him. Eli’s death had plunged Mina into a deep melancholy.

Jack had done the only thing he knew how to do. He channelled his grief and guilt into a cold rage aimed at one person: Oberon Wheatley. He missed Eli and knew they would mourn his loss, but right now they had to bite the bullet and pursue their journey. Wheatley’s men were assassins. Where Mina’s first reactions to Eli’s murder had been to freeze up with guilt and shame, the effect on Jack had been the opposite; it had spurred him on to pursue their search. Based on sparse information from an 18th century letter and an ancient kabbalist chronicle they were now travelling to England. With any luck, what the letter hinted at was true and the mysterious tablet was still in England.

Even though he knew it was seriously inappropriate at a time like this, Jack couldn’t help but look at Mina’s desolate face and think she looked more beautiful than ever. He felt sick to the stomach. He needed to focus right now, not start thinking like that. Mina raised her head and noticed his expression. She turned her head away as if she knew just what he was thinking.

‘Here you go,’ he said, serving her a whiskey and coke, ‘drink up.’

‘Thanks.’

‘So, what now?’ asked Jack.

‘I don’t know. I thought you had great plans for us in England.’

She was angry with him. She had noticed his look earlier on, and could not believe how insensitive he was. How could men think of sex at such times? But she also felt guilt, grief and frustration at their situation. She knew her anger ought to have been directed at Oberon, but Jack was the only one around. It was unfair, but she was not in a state of mind to think properly.