Adam Palmer - The Moses Legacy

‘But the infection is still out there. Look at what happened to that curator in England. He had all the symptoms: the fever, the snake-like lesions…’

‘It doesn’t appear to have spread.’

‘And what about the Egyptians?’

‘They seem to have contained it too.’

‘So it’s not all that virulent.’

‘Not the Egyptian strain certainly. If Carmichael’s translation is right, then it mutated into a more virulent strain in the Jordan area.’

‘How can we be so sure of that? I mean it’s not like Carmichael was an epidemiologist.’

‘No, but it’s a case of reading between the lines. We got hold of a copy of Carmichael’s paper and gave it to our own epidemiologists for an assessment.’

‘And how badly should we be worrying?’

‘Well, as long as it’s in stasis, there should be no problem.’

She was about to say something more when Dov’s phone went. She watched as his face went from sombre to grave.

‘Has General Security been notified?… Okay, keep me posted.’

When he put the phone down, his face drained of blood and Sarit looked at him expectantly.

‘That Samaritan rabbi they spoke to, Aryeh Tsedaka… he’s been found dead in the synagogue in Holon. There were signs of a struggle and his neck was broken.’

‘Shall I wait for them?’ Daniel asked Gabrielle when she returned.

She had been outside to find out what was going on. The priest who had stormed out was not merely angry; he was crying at what Daniel had just revealed from the text. The other was trying to comfort him. But Gabrielle did not want to reply until the high priest had spoken.

‘It is not our custom to let an outsider read from our scrolls unless at least two priests are present.’

‘I don’t think they’re going to be back anytime soon,’ said Gabrielle.

The high priest seemed to be wrestling with his conscience before replying. Daniel knew that this must be hard for him. Ephraim was not just one of the patriarchs of the tribes of Israel. He was the patriarch of one of the two tribes from which the Samaritans specifically claim their descent. And this ancient scroll cast him as a cunning schemer, an incestuous adulterer and a murderer.

‘Please continue,’ the priest said finally through his pain. In his twelfth year, Pharaoh raised his wife Nefertiti to rule at his right side and she ruled with him, and when his heart was calm he ruled and when his heart was troubled she ruled. And at the end of summer of his seventeenth year, he died and Nefertiti ruled alone. But she feared her father and she feared Horemheb, the chief of the army, and she feared Tutankhaten for he was a troubled boy and both Horemheb and Neferayim tried to be as fathers to him. And he would not listen to her for he was not her son and she did not have a son. So she wrote to the king of the Hittites and offered to marry one of his sons.

Daniel had to break off when he heard Gabrielle’s sharp intake of breath. ‘Do you know about this?’

‘There is a record of such an incident. It’s called the Zananza Incident. In the early part of the twentieth century, archaeologists found a huge collection of some 10,000 clay tablets written in cuneiform, at the site of the ancient Hittite capital. And some of the tablets are letters referring to this incident.’

Daniel continued reading. But the king of the Hittites was suspicious, for the daughters of Egypt did not marry foreign men. So he sent a messenger to Egypt to accuse Nefertiti of deception. So she wrote to the Hittite king again and his messenger brought her words to the king. She told the king of her fears and swore that she spoke true and would give his son the throne of Egypt. And so the Hittite king sent Zananza his son to be her husband, but Horemheb, the chief of the army, heard of this and he sent out his men and they met Zananza on the road and smote him.

Daniel looked up at Gabrielle, waiting for her inevitable comment.

‘That’s how history records it,’ she said. ‘But it doesn’t tell us what happened to-’

‘The next bit does.’ He lowered his eyes and continued. And when this became known in the royal court, there was much anger. And Horemheb accused Neferayim and Nefertiti of plotting with the enemy. And Neferayim swore that he knew not of his daughter’s treachery and he had her put to death and Tutankhaten became king.

When Daniel looked up this time, Gabrielle seemed more shocked than the high priest.

‘You have to send me in there,’ Sarit told Dovi.

‘Send you in where? You think he’s hanging around waiting to be arrested? He’s got whatever he came for.’

‘Let me go to Holon. I can help the police. Give them a description.’

‘They’ve already got descriptions.’

‘Well, at least let me work with them.’

‘They don’t need you. Look, they now know what he looks like and a big man like that is going to find it very hard to hide.’

‘He’s managed to stay hidden till now.’

‘The Egyptians actually had him and then they let him go when Senator Morris intervened.’

‘And now he’s somehow managed to enter Israel. That makes it personal.’

‘That’s what I’m worried about, Sarit: you making it personal. He’s already survived an attack by you and he knows what you look like.’

‘And by the same token, I know what he looks like.’

‘As long as he’s in Israel it’s in the hands of the General Security Services.’

‘What – that bunch of clowns? If they were doing their job, they’d’ve arrested Goliath as soon as he crossed the border. How did he even get in?’

‘We don’t know that yet.’

‘And what identity is he using?’

‘We don’t know that either.’

‘So let me get this straight. Some guy who’s six foot five tall, who we’re looking out for specifically, enters the country undetected, gives the GSS the slip, kills a prominent Samaritan rabbi and then vanishes without leaving a trail?’

‘He’s evidently a lot smarter than we thought.’

‘And what about the senator?’

‘What about him?’

‘Can’t we get anything from the phone intercepts?’

‘Goliath must have a new phone and we haven’t identified it yet. We’re working on it.’

‘What about the senator?’

‘We can’t monitor him with a US-based intercept ’cause it’s against Federal law.’

‘Do we care? It hasn’t been sanctioned by the PM. If we get caught, there could be a whole lot of fallout.’

‘It’s a matter of life and death!’

‘We have to work within our means.’

‘So how did we monitor Morris until now?’

‘That’s why we need assets like Audrey Milne. When he called Egypt, we could monitor locally from Urim. It seems like Goliath is a whole lot more resourceful than we gave him credit for.’

‘So all the more reason for me to get in on the act. At least I know what he looks like.’

‘But you’re no better placed than the security services to track him down. In fact, rather less so.’

‘Look, I know this is painful,’ said Daniel. ‘If you want me to stop, I will.’ He understood how difficult it must be for these serious men of religion to find their sacred truths contradicted by a text more ancient than the Bible; their patriarch exposed as an incestuous adulterer and a murderer who betrayed his own daughter.

The high priest refused to succumb to the pain. ‘No… please continue.’

Daniel looked down and again struggled with the text as he continued. And Neferayim had the ear of Tutankhaten and advised him to fulfil his father’s wishes and worship the Aten and not to allow the priests of Amun to pray to their false god or to offer sacrifices to him. And the king worshipped the creator of all. And Neferayim persuaded Pharaoh to marry Ankhesenpaaten his favourite granddaughter who was also his daughter. But Horemheb had the other ear of the king and he told him that Neferayim and Nefertiti killed his mother because she wanted to restore the old gods.