Contract With God (16 page)

That didn’t seem likely. Tommy personally drove each truck to the top of the dune, a task that required experience to avoid the risk of overturning the vehicle. First he took care of the two Kamaz supply trucks, leaving them parked on the hill just below the steepest part of the climb. Then he dealt with the two water trucks while the rest of his team watched from the shade of the H3s.

Meanwhile Andrea was observing the whole operation through her telephoto lens. Each time Tommy got out of a vehicle, he waved to the reporter at the top of the dune and Andrea returned the gesture. Tommy then took the H3s to the edge of the final ascent since he was going to use them to tow the heavier vehicles, which, despite their large wheels, did not have enough traction for such a steep sandy climb.

Andrea took a few photos of the first of the trucks as it made its way up to the summit. One of Dekker’s soldiers was now driving the all-terrain vehicle, which was connected to the Kamaz via a cable. She observed the enormous effort required to get the truck to the top of the dune but after it rolled past her, Andrea lost interest in the procedure. Instead, she turned her attention to Claw Canyon.

At first the huge rocky gorge looked no different to any other in the desert. Andrea could see two walls about 150 feet apart that stretched out into the distance then split off. On the way there, Eichberg had shown her an aerial photograph of their destination. The canyon looked like the triple talon of a giant hawk.

Both walls were 100 to 130 feet high. Andrea aimed her telephoto lens at the top of the rocky wall, searching for a higher vantage point she could use to shoot from.

That’s when she saw him.

It was only for a second. A man dressed in khaki, watching her.

Surprised, she looked up from the lens but the spot was too far away. She aimed the camera at the rim of the canyon once more.

Nothing.

Switching her position, she scanned the wall again, but it was useless. Whoever had seen her had quickly hidden himself, which was not a good sign. She tried to work out what to do.

She went and stood in the shade of the first truck, which was shortly joined by the second. An hour later the whole expedition had arrived at the top of the dune and was ready to enter Claw Canyon.

Title, all caps.
The Ark Recovered
. No, wait, delete that. Title . . .
Treasure in the Desert
. No, that’s no good. I have to refer to the Ark in the title - that will sell papers. All right, let’s leave the title until I’ve finished writing the article. Lead sentence:
To mention its name is to invoke one of the most prevalent myths of all humanity. The history of Western civilisation began with it, and today it is the object most coveted by archaeologists the world over. We are accompanying the Moses Expedition on its secret journey across the southern Jordanian desert into Claw Canyon, the place where almost two thousand years ago a group of faithful hid the Ark during the destruction of the second Temple of Solomon . .
.

This is all too dry. I’d better write it out first. Let’s start with the Forrester interview . . . Fuck, that old guy gives me the creeps with his wheezing voice. They say it’s because of his illness. Note: Look up on the Internet how to spell pneumoconiosis.

 

 

QUESTION
: Professor Forrester, the Ark of the Covenant has been firing the human imagination from time immemorial. To what do you attribute this interest?

 

ANSWER
: Look, if you want me to give you an introduction, you don’t need to go round in circles and tell me what I already know. Just say what you want and I’ll talk.

 

Q: Do you give a lot of interviews?

 

A
: Dozens. So you’re not going to ask me anything original, anything I haven’t already heard or answered before. If we had an Internet connection on the dig, I’d tell you to look some of them up and copy the answers.

 

Q: What’s the problem? Are you worried about repeating yourself?

 

A
: I’m worried about wasting time. I’m seventy-seven years old. I’ve spent forty-three of those years searching for the Ark. It’s now or never.

 

Q: Well, I’m sure you’ve never answered like that before.

 

A
: What is this? An originality contest?

 

Q: Professor, please. You’re an intelligent and passionate man. Why don’t you try to reach out to the public and transmit some of your passion to them?

 

A
: (
a brief pause
) You want a master of ceremonies? I’ll do what I can.

 

Q: Thank you. The Ark . . . ?

 

A
: The most powerful object in history. This is no mere coincidence, especially considering it was the beginning of Western Civilisation.

 

Q: Wouldn’t historians say that civilisation began in Ancient Greece?

 

A
: Nonsense. Human beings spent thousands of years worshipping sooty stains in dark caves. Stains they called gods. Time went by and the stains changed in size, shape and colour, but they continued to be stains. We didn’t know about the existence of a single deity until it was revealed to Abraham only four thousand years ago. What do you know about Abraham, young lady?

 

Q: He’s the father of the Israelites.

 

A
: Correct. And of the Arabs. Two apples that fell from the same tree, right next to one another. And straight away, the two little apples learned to hate each other.

 

Q: What has this to do with the Ark?

 

A
: Five hundred years after God revealed himself to Abraham, the Almighty became sick and tired of the fact that people kept turning their backs on Him. When Moses led the Jews out of Egypt, God once again revealed Himself to His people. Only one hundred and forty-five miles from this spot. And it was there that they signed a contract. On the one hand, humanity agrees to comply with ten simple clauses.

 

Q: The Ten Commandments.

 

A
: On the other, God agrees to give man eternal life. It is the single most important moment in history - the moment at which life acquired its significance. Three thousand five hundred years later, every human being carries that contract somewhere in his consciousness. Some call it natural law, others dispute its existence or meaning and they’ll kill and die to defend their interpretation. But the moment Moses received the Tablets of the Law from the hands of God: that is when our civilisation began.

Q: And then Moses puts the tablets in the Ark of the Covenant.

 

A
: Together with other objects. The Ark is the safe that holds the contract with God.

 

Q: Some say that the Ark has supernatural powers.

 

A
: Nonsense. I’ll explain that to everyone tomorrow when we begin work.

 

Q: So you don’t believe in the supernatural nature of the Ark?

 

A
: With all my heart. My mother read to me from the Bible even before I was born. My life has been dedicated to the Word of God, but that does not mean I’m not prepared to disprove any myths or superstitions.

 

Q: Speaking of superstition, for many years your research has caused controversy in academic circles that are critical of using ancient texts to discover treasure. There have been insults hurled on both sides.

 

A
: Academics . . . they couldn’t find their own ass with two hands and a flashlight. Would Schliemann have found the treasures of Troy without Homer’s
Iliad
? Would Carter have found Tutankhamun’s tomb without the obscure Ut papyrus? Both were heavily criticised in their day for using the same techniques I now use. Nobody remembers their critics, but Carter and Schliemann are immortal. I intend to live forever.

 

Q: Your illness?

 

A
: You can’t spend this many years in damp tunnels, breathing dirt, without paying the price. I have chronic pneumoconiosis. I’m never too far from an oxygen tank. Go on, please.

 

Q: Where were we? Oh, yes. Have you always been convinced of the historical existence of the Ark of the Covenant, or does your belief date back to the time when you began translating the Copper Scroll?

A
: I was raised a Christian, but converted to Judaism when I was relatively young. By the 1960s, I could read ancient Hebrew as well as English. When I began to study the Copper Scroll of Qumran I didn’t discover that the Ark was real - I already knew that. With over two hundred references to it in the Bible, it is the most frequently described object in the scriptures. What I realised when I held the Second Scroll in my hands was that I would be the one who would finally rediscover the Ark.

 

Q: I see. How exactly did the second scroll help you to decipher the Qumran Copper Scroll?

 

A
: Well, there’s been a lot of confusion over the consonants like
he
,
het
,
mem
,
kaf
,
wav
,
zayin
, and
yod
. . .

 

Q: In layman’s terms, Professor.

 

A
: Some of the consonants weren’t too clear, which made deciphering the text difficult. And the strangest thing was that a series of Greek letters had been inserted throughout the scroll. Once we had the key to understanding the text, we realised that these letters were the titles of sections, which changed the order and therefore the context. That was the most exciting period of my professional career.

 

Q: It must have been frustrating to dedicate forty-three years of your life to the translation of the Copper Scroll, and then have the whole matter resolved in the space of three months after the Second Scroll turned up.

 

A
: Absolutely not. The Dead Sea Scrolls, including the Copper Scroll, were brought to light by accident when a shepherd threw a rock inside a cave in Palestine and heard something break. That’s how the first of the manuscripts was found. That’s not archaeology: that’s luck. But without all these decades of in-depth study, we would never have come to Mr Kayn . . .

 

Q: Mr Kayn? What are you talking about? Don’t tell me that the Copper Scroll mentions a billionaire!

 

A
: I can’t talk any more about that. I’ve already said too much.

AL MUDAWWARA DESERT, JORDAN

 

 

The next hours were a frenetic coming and going. Professor Forrester had decided to establish the camp at the entrance to the canyon. The site would be protected from the wind by the two walls of rock that first narrowed then widened out and finally joined once again 800 feet beyond, in what Forrester called the index finger. Two branches of the canyon to the east and south-east made up the middle and ring fingers of the claw.

The group would live in special tents designed by an Israeli company to withstand the desert heat, and it took a good part of the afternoon to erect them. The work of unloading the trucks fell to Robert Frick and Tommy Eichberg, who used the hydraulic winches on the Kamaz trucks to unload the large numbered metal boxes containing the equipment for the expedition.

‘Four thousand five hundred pounds of food, two hundred and fifty pounds of medicine, four thousand pounds of archaeological equipment and electrical gear, two thousand pounds of steel rails, a drill and a mini-excavator. What do you think of that?’

Andrea was amazed and made a mental note for her article as she checked off the items on the list Tommy had given her. Because of her limited experience in pitching tents, she had volunteered to help with the unloading and Eichberg had put her in charge of directing where each box should go. She had done so not out of a desire to help, but because she supposed that the sooner she was finished the sooner she would be able to talk to Fowler and Harel alone. The doctor was busy helping to set up the tent for the infirmary.

‘There goes number thirty-four, Tommy,’ yelled Frick from the back of the second truck. The chain on the winch was attached to two metal hooks on either side of the box; it made a loud clanking sound as it lowered its cargo towards the sandy soil.

‘Be careful, this one weighs a ton.’

The young reporter looked anxiously at the list, fearing she had missed something.

‘This list is wrong, Tommy. It only has thirty-three boxes.’

‘Don’t worry. This particular box is special . . . and here come the people in charge of it,’ Eichberg said, unhooking the chains.

Andrea looked up from her list to see Marla Jackson and Tewi Waaka, two of Dekker’s soldiers. They both knelt next to the box and released the locks. The top came off with a slight hiss, as if it had been vacuum-sealed. Andrea glanced discreetly at its contents. The two mercenaries didn’t appear to mind.

The contents of the case couldn’t have been more mundane: packets of rice, coffee and beans, arranged in rows of twenty. Andrea didn’t understand; especially when Marla Jackson grabbed a packet with each hand and suddenly tossed them at Andrea’s chest, the muscles of her arms rippling under her black skin.