Sam Bourne - The Last Testament

‘He’s right there,’ murmured Maggie.

‘You will be asking yourself the obvious question. How do I know this is not a fake? I won’t bore you with the technical details-the quality and origin of the clay, the style of the cuneiform script, the seal and the language, all of which are entirely in keeping with the Abrahamic period-but, I swear to you, any expert in the field would be almost certain that this is genuine. I say almost. What makes me one hundred per cent certain is that no one tried to sell me this, no one tried to convince me what it was. I found it, quite by chance, in a shop in the Jerusalem market. My guess is that it was stolen, from Iraq. It might have come out of the ground, it might have come from a museum, even the National Museum. Whether the thief knew what he was taking, we will never know. Whether the museum in Baghdad knew is also an interesting question. But Iraq makes sense. After all, where was Avraham Avinu , Abraham our father, born but in the great city of Ur in the land of Mesopotamia?’ The on-screen Guttman smiled. ‘And the city of Ur still stands today. In Iraq.

‘You can take my word for it. This text is real. In it, Abraham has come to the end of his life. He is an old man, an ancient man, who has reached Hebron. It seems his two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, are close by. That makes sense, too: we know from the Torah that Isaac and Ishmael buried Abraham, so maybe they were there when their father died. There seems to have been some kind of dispute over Abraham’s will. We know from our texts, where it is repeated again and again, that Abraham bequeathed the Land of Israel to Isaac and his descendants, the Jewish people. I know you and your leftist friends can’t bear to hear this kind of thing, Uri, but just take two minutes and pick up the book of Bereshit , Genesis, chapter fifty, verse twenty-four, where Joseph tells his brothers, “I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”. Or look at Shmot , Exodus, chapter thirty-three, verse one: “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, “I will give it to your descendants”.’” Or this to Joshua: “Be strong and courageous, for you will bring the Israelites into the land I promised them on oath, and I myself will be with you”. That, by the way is Dvarim , Deuteronomy, chapter thrity-one, verse twenty-three. You get the idea: that the Land of Israel was left to the people of Israel, there is no doubt.

‘But Jerusalem, it seems, was a more complicated matter between Abraham’s brothers, just as it is today. This text-’ on screen, Guttman held up the tablet once more, ‘-doesn’t spell it out, but it’s quite clear that Isaac and Ishmael had been arguing and that Abraham had to settle the dispute before he died. He must have called for a scribe to come to Hebron-such people existed, even thirty-seven centuries ago-and take down this testament. So that there would be no confusion.

‘In the text the old man speaks only of Mount Moriah; there was not yet the Jerusalem we know today. He does not refer to what happened there, but we all know, just as everyone around that deathbed would have known. Imagine the tension in that family! Mount Moriah was the place where Abraham was ready to kill his son. It is the ownership of this spot that Abraham decides in this text.

‘My dear Uri, you know the significance of this. The government of Israel now includes three different religious parties. If this text shows that Abraham gave the Temple Mount to the Jews, clearly and unambiguously, they will not be able to stomach a peace accord which compromises on that sovereignty. And what about the other side, our enemy, the Palestinians? Their government includes Hamas, devout Muslims who revere Abraham. If this text says the Haram al-Sharif belongs to the heirs of Ishmael alone, then how can they defy that will? More to the point, and I have thought about this long and hard, what of the first possibility, that this document gives that sacred land entirely to us, the Jews? What then? How would the Muslim fundamentalists cope with that?

‘That’s why I am sure that if either side were to know even about the existence of this tablet, they would take the most extreme measures to prevent it seeing daylight. That’s why I need to handle this carefully. I need to get this information to those who will treat it properly. Later today I will try to speak to the Prime Minister. But if something happens to me, this grave responsibility will become yours, Uri.’

Maggie placed a hand on his shoulder.

‘You’ll notice that I am not saying here what the text reveals. I cannot risk that, in case, as I say, this recording falls into the wrong hands. But if I am not here, it will be your job to find it. I have put it somewhere safe, somewhere only you and my brother could know about.

‘I know that you and I have had bitter differences, especially in recent years. But now I need you to put them aside and remember the good times, like that trip we took together for your Bar Mitzvah. What did we do on that trip, Uri? I hope you remember that.

‘I can tell you only that this search begins in Geneva, but not the city everyone knows. A better, newer place, where you can be anyone you want to be. Go there and remember the times together I just spoke about.

‘ Lech lecha , my son. Go from here. And if I am gone from this life, then you shall see me in the other life; that is life too. Good luck, Uri.’

The screen went black. David Rosen was crumpled in his chair, stunned by what he had just seen. Maggie was speechless. Uri, however, was furious.

He started pounding at the computer keyboard, trying frantically to find something else on the DVD, some further element they had missed. ‘It can’t finish there! It can’t!’ He was skipping back through the speech they had just watched. He played the last line again. ‘…Good luck, Uri.’ Once more, the screen faded to black. Uri put his head in his hands. ‘This is so typical of that bastard,’ he said quietly.

‘What’s typical?’ said Rosen.

‘This. Another fucking dramatic gesture. He has a secret that got his wife killed, that could get his son killed, and does he reveal it? No. He plays fucking games.’

‘But Uri,’ said Maggie, trying to calm things down, ‘wasn’t he trying to tell you where it is? He said we have to start in Geneva.’

‘Oh, don’t listen to any of that crap. Not one word of it makes sense.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean it’s bullshit, from beginning to end.’

‘How can you be sure?’

He looked up, his eyes blazing. ‘Well, let’s start with the very first thing he said. You know, “I’ve put it somewhere safe, somewhere only you and my brother could know.” It’s nonsense.’

‘Nonsense? How?’

‘It’s very simple, Maggie.’ He paused to look her in the eye. ‘My father didn’t have a brother.’

Both Maggie and Uri were too fazed by that, too shocked by what they had seen on the DVD and too rapt in conversation to listen closely as they left the offices of David Rosen, Advocate. If they had, they might have heard the veteran lawyer pick up the telephone, asking to speak urgently to a man both he and the late Shimon Guttman regarded as a comrade, an ideological kindred spirit. ‘Yes, immediately,’ he said into the receiver. ‘I need to speak right away to Akiva Shapira.’

RAFAH REFUGEE CAMP , GAZA ,TWO DAYS EARLIER

They were running out of places to meet. The golden rule of an armed underground-never in the same place twice-required an infinite supply of safe houses and Salim Nazzal was fearful theirs was running out. The peace talks in Jerusalem had not been good for business; the Palestinian street was suddenly less sympathetic to those who would put bombs on Israeli buses and in Israeli shopping malls. Give the talks a chance, that had become the favoured position of the man in the café. No one’s saying we can’t go back to armed struggle if-when-the talks fail. But, for a few weeks, let’s see what the negotiators can bring us.