Adam Palmer - The Moses Legacy

Gabrielle stifled a scream. Daniel looked on with horror. The high priest had trusted them and they had sealed his fate. There was no other interpretation of the facts. Now Daniel suddenly realized that it was him the big man was interested in. That was why he had been on the same plane when Daniel went to Egypt, and he had been following him ever since. In other words – it finally dawned on Daniel – he had effectively led the man here. And this vile man had killed the high priest when he tried to protect his sacred scroll.

But the question that haunted him now was what should he do? Should he dive for the exit and try to raise the alarm? That would merely endanger Gabrielle. Should he throw himself at the man and give Gabrielle a chance to escape? What, indeed, was this man intending? Did he mean to eliminate all witnesses to his actions?

‘Give it to me!’ Goliath barked at Gabrielle.

This time she did not hesitate. She did as he had told her. The big man put the glass sheets containing the papyrus into the heavy-duty carrier bag he had with him. Daniel’s eyes returned to the high priest whose life was slipping away before his eyes. He wanted to help him, but he knew that there was nothing he could do.

‘What are you going to do?’ asked Gabrielle.

‘I spoke to Aryeh Tsedaka. He told me that there is another scroll. The Book of the Wars of the Lord.’

Daniel was about to ask why Rabbi Tsedaka would tell him that. Then he realized. And in that moment, he also understood that if the rabbi had been forced to disclose that information then he had probably also been forced to disclose where Daniel and Gabrielle were going. Further, if he had been forced to do that, then he would have wanted to warn them of the danger. He clearly hadn’t done so, and that could only mean one thing: Aryeh Tsedaka was dead.

Daniel looked at the man no longer with fear but with hate. This was an evil man motivated by some sort of religious fanaticism, the nature of which Daniel could barely comprehend.

‘He told me that the scroll is in Petra…’

‘But he said that the book is lost,’ said Gabrielle nervously.

‘He thought it was lost. But he doesn’t know. It was entrusted to the Bedouin, and they are very good at preserving the past… and you two are going to help me get it.’

And just to make it clear how serious he was, he reached into his pocket and produced a semi-automatic pistol.

He put it back in his pocket as he directed Daniel and Gabrielle to the door. It was late afternoon and there were not many people about so there was little opportunity to resist or to call for help. Besides, it was obvious that the big man was utterly ruthless and ready to kill anyone who got in his way.

What was not clear was how strong his instinct for self-preservation was, but now did not seem like a good time to test it. So instead, Gabrielle and Daniel complied as he directed them out of the office. Any residual thoughts of resistance were cut short by the sight of the security guard lying dead by one of the lab machines. There was no sign of a wound, but they knew the killer’s strength and his ability to kill with his bare hands.

They walked ahead of him and left the building via the side exit that led to the car park where Daniel and Gabrielle had left their rented car.

He dictated the seating arrangement. Daniel in front, driving. He and Gabrielle in the back, with Gabrielle behind Daniel. That way he could keep an eye on both of them… and maintain his threat against both of them.

There was an eerie silence in the Conservation Department when Sarit gingerly pushed the door open and walked in. She didn’t expect to find any work in progress at this time, but the silence was palpable. She looked around and saw no sign of anyone, although the fact that the department was unlocked suggested that there should at least be some human presence: a caretaker, a cleaner, a solitary member of staff doing some late-night work.

Where is everybody? Maybe they just popped out for a minute?

No. That didn’t make sense.

Then she saw the security guard lying there, unmoving. His eyes were open, but as she studied them for a few seconds she noticed that they didn’t blink. She realized that he was beyond help. She studied his body carefully, noting the empty side holster as she pondered her next move.

Sarit looked around to try to get her bearings. At the end of the corridor was a door. It seemed to be beckoning her to enter, but there was something that troubled her. The door was slightly ajar and she felt a strange aura coming from the room.

Stop it! she told herself.

She held her head up, forcing herself to overcome this strange sense of trepidation that had come over her, and walked towards it quickly. Then, instead of opening the door and boldly walking in as she normally would, she simply pushed the door open. It was as if she was waiting for an explosion, as if the door had been booby-trapped.

The room was quiet and eerily still. And lying on the floor, face down with his head turned towards the door, was a man in the traditional robes of the Samaritans. What caught her attention was the trail of blood flowing from his neck. She realized that his throat had been cut, and that he too was dead.

Despite her helplessness, a feeling of solidarity forced her to step forward into the room. Although she was not in fact Jewish, she remembered reading that according to Jewish law one should not leave a dying person, ‘lest the soul leave the body bewildered’.

But all of these thoughts were cut short by a rustling sound behind her and a sharp intake of breath. For as she spun round, she found herself confronted by two Samaritan priests, the look of accusation burning in their eyes.

‘Do not give him any sign that you are under duress,’ said Goliath. ‘I can shoot her before they shoot me and I am not afraid to die.’

Daniel wondered if their abductor was really quite as mad as he sought to portray himself. Did he really have no instinct for self-preservation? There were such people in the world, but was he one of them? But remembering how Goliath had acted at the National Library in Jerusalem, he realized that the man’s words were true. He had shown just how ruthless he was when he murdered the Samaritan priest.

So when they showed their passports to the Israeli border officials at the King Hussein Bridge, Daniel neither said nor did anything to alert them to his predicament. He would bide his time and hope for an opportunity. That time was not now.

He wondered idly if the border officials might pick up on the fact that Daniel was sitting alone at the front, while Gabrielle was at the back with the big man. The one thing that worried Daniel was the possibility of one of them being asked to step out of the car. However, the fact that they were from the West and the fact that they were leaving meant that they were not seen as a threat. Their faces were checked against their passports and the passports then stamped to show their exit. Then they were on their way to the Jordanian side, where the process took about the same time. They gave the purpose of their visit as ‘to see Petra’.

Then they were through and on the open road.

‘Well, that was painless, wasn’t it?’ said Goliath sarcastically.

Daniel forced himself to put his thoughts on hold as he drove. But every so often he glanced in the rear-view mirror to assure himself that Gabrielle was all right.

‘When we get there, we’ll buy one-day tickets,’ said their kidnapper.

The drive to Petra along the desert road took about three hours and Daniel’s mind was reeling, desperately trying to think of an opportunity to disarm their abductor and get away. Sitting in the front as he drove along this naked stretch of road with very little traffic, there was not much he could do.