P. Deutermann - The Last Man

Skuratov just stared at her. David didn’t know what to do. He looked up to the terrace above them, but the men were not there. Shapiro, back on his feet, was also looking but remained in place. He’d told his troops to back out.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about,” Judith said, putting the gun barrel up to Skuratov’s right eye. He blinked and took an involuntary step backward.

“Yehudit,” Ellerstein began softly, but she waved him silent. Gulder just watched with his arms folded.

“No, Yossi. This is justice here. He drowned my husband like a rat, all for the sake of his heavy water. Well, here we are, Zealot. In Herod’s palace on the mountain of Metsadá. You wish to protect the secret of your own treason and murder? Do what the Kanna’im did, and your secret is safe.”

She jabbed Skuratov in the eye with the gun. He yelped and took another step backward, toward the wall. His right eye puffed close.

“Come on, Colonel Murderer. Whatever you were doing here, it is finished. You think Dov was in good company? Time to find out. Your life for Dov’s. Hammurabi rules now, yes? Eye for an eye?”

Skuratov, never taking his one good eye off hers, slowly raised his right hand. He pushed the gun barrel out of his face with the back of his hand. Then, without another word, he turned and stepped up onto the parapet. Ellerstein yelled something in Hebrew, but in the same instant, Skuratov was gone. Judith lowered the gun and then tossed it back to Colonel Shapiro, who fumbled it and then dropped it. He bent to retrieve it, got up, and went to look over the parapet as Judith turned away.

Judith did not see Israel Gulder boot the colonel over the parapet, but they all heard him scream.

David resisted an urge to go to the edge and look over. He went instead to Judith and put his hands on her shoulders. She was trembling, but her face was set in a rigid mask as she willed back tears. The sun burst over the Jordanian hills across the Dead Sea, projecting bands of bright yellow light onto the ancient stones of the fortress. Up above, on the top terrace, the sergeant and Gulder’s two bodyguards reappeared. Gulder noticed them and went up the steps. He said something to Ellerstein in Hebrew. They both looked at David. Ellerstein came over to him while Judith sat down with her arms wrapped around her chest.

“You have heard some sensitive things here this morning, Mr. Hall,” he said. “How good is your memory?”

“Not worth a damn, Professor,” David said, not missing a beat.

“Is that a promise, Mr. Hall?”

“Absolutely. My main concern is for what’s in that cave — and for her.”

Ellerstein glanced down at Judith. “Do you truly understand, Mr. Hall?” he asked. “Promises made in this place are binding, yes?”

“I understand,” David said.

Ellerstein nodded slowly. “I will try my best for you, then,” he said.

Gulder was coming back down the steps with his bodyguards. Ellerstein intercepted him, and they stepped aside to talk in Hebrew. David sat down beside Judith and put his arm around her shoulder. She sagged into him.

“What is it about this place?” he asked quietly. “Everything is about blood and dying.”

“Not the wine bowl,” she said.

Yes it was, David thought to himself, especially if it’s what I think it is. What had Ellerstein meant by trying his best?

Then there were soldiers standing around them. Israel Gulder came over, closely escorted by his bodyguards.

“Mr. Hall,” he said in English, “will you kindly go with these people?”

“Where?” David asked.

Gulder did not reply but only signaled with his chin that David should get up and go with them. Judith didn’t appear to understand what was happening.

“Now, Mr. Hall,” Gulder said. He gestured again with his chin.

When they got up to the top, there were many more soldiers standing along the eastern parapet walls, looking down. The sergeant was busy shouting orders, and there appeared to be a recovery detail shaping up by the eastern gate. David had little time to watch; the bodyguards escorted him directly to the helicopter, whose turbines were already spooling up. They sat him in the left rear seat, helped him strap in, and put a headset on his head. Then one of them strapped in next to him while the other got in the right front seat, next to the pilot. A soldier outside closed the door and stood ready with a fire extinguisher until the engines came up to power. Then they lifted off.

As soon as they were safely airborne, the bodyguard next to him produced a set of plastic handcuffs and snapped them onto David’s wrists. He did not resist: What would have been the point, at two thousand feet over the Dead Sea? Then the guard produced a black sleep mask, which he gently fit over David’s eyes. David felt a hand on his chest, pushing him back into the seat. The gesture said it all: Relax. He slumped in his seat. After watching Gulder calmly send the colonel to his death, he wondered now if the ministerial aide had told them to throw him out of the helicopter somewhere out over the Mediterranean.

Judith saw the helicopter lift off without Gulder and asked Ellerstein where David Hall had gone. Ellerstein nodded at the rapidly disappearing helicopter.

“Yossi!” she exclaimed. “Where are they taking him?”

“Away?” he tried. She stared at him. Gulder had been talking on a small radio set and now ended the call. He walked over to them. “So, Dr. Ressner, tell me in complete detail, please: What have you found down there in that cistern?”

“Not until you tell me where you’ve taken Mr. Hall,” she declared. Some soldiers were standing at the top of the steps, watching them. The morning heat was rising in shimmering waves, distorting the view.

“We’ve taken Mr. Hall to a safe place, Dr. Ressner,” Gulder said. “Until we can sort out the ramifications of what you two have done here.”

“What ramifications?”

“Well, because you chose to speak in English, after I twice asked you to speak in Hebrew, Mr. Hall knows things that he might otherwise not have known. Also, in certain respects, you are responsible for the death of a senior counterintelligence officer. For starters.”

“Mr. Gulder,” protested Ellerstein, but the aide waved him silent.

“Listen to me, Dr. Ressner. Yossi here tells me you have found artifacts from Herod’s Temple in that cave. Is that true?”

“Yes, I believe it is.”

“And there is writing on the walls? The testament of the last Zealot?”

“So it says.”

“Anything else?”

“What appears to be the remains of my husband at the bottom of the cistern,” she said defiantly. “If that matters to you.”

“Yes, yes, I understand that, but I’m talking about antiquities. What else is down there?”

She glared at him again as if he were inhuman. He shook his head impatiently and tried again. “Dr. Ressner,” he said, “I am truly sorry that your husband was killed by that man, but now you’ve wiped that slate clean, yes? So: Now you must see things my way. The government’s way. We must deal with the present, and the present is a gathering avalanche of international media interest even as we stand here talking. You know you will be the most famous archaeologist in the world in about six hours, don’t you?”

“ Me? What do you mean?”

“Because we are going to announce these discoveries, immediately, just as soon as the army can either get some divers down here or get the water pumped out of that cistern. Independent confirmation, then announcement.”

“It wasn’t my discovery. It was David Hall—”