The 13th Tablet (31 page)

‘Great Caliel, I adjure thee by thy great name, thee angel of clarity and justice,
Shofteni betsidkekha adonai elohay ve'al Yismekhu li
.'

He then moistened his skin with pure water from another vial and continued his incantations:

‘Make me invisible, lord Caliel, in the presence of any man from sunset till sunrise. Amen.'

He sat down, crossing his legs, and remained utterly still. A few hours later, he rose from his seated position. Outside, the sun was slowly setting. He moved so slowly that the contours of his body seemed to fade, or blend somehow with the surrounding darkness. He flexed his muscles and thought to himself, ‘It is time.'

Hildersham, Mulberry Cottage

Joshua Bamart was bringing wood from the garden into the house, when he heard someone knocking at the door. He called out to Mina from the bottom of the stairs, ‘Mina, could you open the front door, please. I've got an armful of fire wood right now.'

‘Of course Joshua, I'm coming down.'

Her mind still lost in various letters she had been reading in Joshua's archive, Mina climbed down the stairs, and opened the front door to find Jack standing on the doorstep, with a beaming smile. She thought her heart had stopped beating.

‘So? You're going to leave me standing here?' asked Jack.

‘Oh Jack, I can't believe you're actually here!' She said and threw her arms around him.

 

Old Bamart was building a fire while Jack and Mina sat comfortably in their armchairs. When he was satisfied the fire had picked up momentum, Bamart sat down.

‘A cup of tea Joshua?' asked Mina.

‘A nice cup of tea, Mina, a nice cup of tea. Yes please,' he smiled at her.

He turned to Jack, sizing him up.

‘So, Jack, are you also a scholar from New York?'

‘No sir, I'm from Washington and I'm an engineer.'

‘Please, have a scone,' Joshua said to Jack, offering him a plate covered with scones and another with a pot of thick clotted cream and raspberry jam.

‘Thanks. I'm so glad I found Mina in the end. She lost her mobile phone and I found out she was staying with you from the people at the Genizah Unit.'

‘Well, we'll have to find you a room in the house as well, I suppose.'

‘Well, thanks. I was going to stay at a hotel in Cambridge. Are you quite sure?'

‘Of course I am.'

‘That's mighty kind of you,' Jack replied.

Jack thought Joshua seemed sad, as he left the house with Mina to go for a walk in the village.

‘What's his story, Mina?'

‘He's such a lovely person. He reminds me in some ways of Professor Almeini. You'll get along just fine. I think he's sad because he probably thought I'd be a good match for his son. He also seems to think I'm Jewish and I haven't really had the opportunity to correct him.'

‘His son?'

‘Yes, Daniel, he's a Hebrew scholar at the UL. He's a really nice guy, a bit on the geeky side. It's thanks to him that I found this place.'

‘That was quick thinking,' Jack said, trying not to show his displeasure at the notion of a ‘nice guy' inviting Mina to live with him, and his father's matchmaking plans. His sarcastic tone didn't escape Mina.

‘What do you expect? You abandon me in London and you think I'm just going to sit in some nasty guest house and wait for Oberon Wheatley's assassins to murder me?'

‘I'm sorry. I wish things were different. You did the right thing. And no-one would think to look for you here.'

 

They walked up the main street towards the local church. Mina opened the gate leading into the church yard, and she led the way to its side entrance. They stood outside as she spoke.

‘I came here yesterday already and there's something strange about this church. In fact, everything about this church is weird. Especially the paintings inside, which are made to look like they come straight from the Middle Ages, but in fact were produced in the 19th century. Mind you, the building itself goes back many centuries.'

‘It's beautiful,' said Jack.

‘It's even more beautiful inside. You'll see. But before we enter, look up at the coats of arms which line the upper walls,' she said.

‘Right. And?' he asked.

‘Look at this one, with the circles and the lines between them.'

‘Is it a coat of arms? Who does it belong to?' asked Jack.

‘I don't know, but it doesn't matter. This is a simplified version of a really famous diagram, the Kabbalistic tree of life.'

‘Come on Mina, I think we've spent too much time conspiring together. You're seeing things.'

‘No. I know I'm right. Check it later on. You'll find it on any website about Kabbalah. It represents many things, including the mystical
sefirot
that Eli told us about in Safed.'

‘And in English?'

‘Think of these circles as spheres of knowledge, or
sefirot
, to approach the divine, step by step.'

‘OK. I agree. It's weird to find this here. What about the rest of the church?'

‘That's where it gets interesting. Let's go in.'

 

As Jack and Mina walked into the church, a dark shape moved out of the trees and closer to the building. The man was holding a small device in his hand which he had been pointing towards the couple since they started their walk. It was a ‘shotgun' microphone, a directional sound-locating device. It was specifically designed for medium range frequencies, which allowed its user to isolate and pick up distant human voices. He hadn't missed one word of Jack and Mina's conversation so far. It would be more difficult to hear what they said now that they had entered the church.

‘This church's amazing. It's like a precious jewel lost in the fields,' said Jack.

‘Yes. Don't you feel it's all
too
good? asked Mina. ‘What do you think of those wall paintings?' she asked.

‘The colours are so vivid. But the style of the paintings is medieval. Were they restored?'

‘That's the point, they're made to look medieval, but they're not. No. Everything's fake here. The most ancient thing in this church is the altar slab.' She let the word hang, waiting for Jack's reaction.

‘No…' said Jack, ‘You're not trying to tell me that the Jerusalem tablet is right here, under our noses?'

‘Why not? Why couldn't the tablet be hidden under the altar slab, or be the altar slab itself?'

‘There's only one way to find out. We'll get some tools from Joshua's shed and return tomorrow to check it out.'

‘Alright,' answered Mina. ‘But if we do, we must be very careful not to break anything. If the tablet is part of the altar, we just take a photograph and put it back in its place. I feel uneasy about desecrating an altar but especially because Joshua is the keeper of the church.'

‘I thought he was Jewish?' asked Jack.

‘He is, but he makes sure the church is cared for and plays the organ from time to time. Never mind. You'll be careful, won't you?'

‘Of course, Mina.'

 

In the evening, after dinner, they all sat by the fire. Joshua spoke of the magic of the Gog Magog hills just outside Cambridge, of the strange stone circle nearby and the ancient Roman road you could still follow from Cambridge to Linton. Jack and Mina were fascinated by their host's every word.

 

Chapter 25

 

December 17th, 2004. Hildersham

 

 

 

Jack and Mina both woke up to a loud wailing coming from downstairs. They rushed out of their respective rooms and bumped into each other in the corridor.

‘Did you hear that?' asked Jack.

‘Yes. It's Joshua,' she said alarmed, as she ran down the stairs. The old man was sitting in his armchair. Mina approached him carefully.

‘Joshua? Is Daniel alright?'

‘Oh God, oh God,' he kept repeating.

‘What is it Joshua?'

He looked at her with vacant eyes and said, ‘It's gone.' Mina and Jack looked at each other in total incomprehension. They both knelt next to Joshua, and Mina held his hand.

‘Talk to me Joshua,' she whispered to him kindly.

 

A car pulled out near the house. A few moments later, Daniel opened the front door. He saw an expression on his father's face that he hadn't seen since the day his mother died. Mina was by his side with another man.

‘What's going on here?' he shouted.

Mina walked up to Daniel and said, ‘I don't know. We just came running down the stairs when we heard your dad screaming. He's been like this ever since!'

‘And who are you?' Daniel asked Jack.

Mina answered for Jack, ‘This is my friend I told you about. He arrived yesterday afternoon.'

‘Hi, I'm Jack,' he said.

‘Daniel', replied Daniel quickly before kneeling at his father's side.

‘Dad, what's happened?'

Old Bamart took a deep breath, and sighed.

‘I went to the church early this morning and…' he broke off.

‘And?' asked Mina.

‘And the church was vandalised during the night.'

‘What?' said Jack and Mina simultaneously.

Daniel looked at them suspiciously.

‘The altar was smashed and… and an object I care about was stolen,' said Joshua wearily.

‘What was stolen, Dad?' asked Daniel.

‘I can't speak of it here,' he replied, glancing at Jack and Mina.

But Mina quickly interjected, ‘You can Joshua. I think I know what you're talking about. Was a cuneiform tablet stolen from the altar last night?'

He looked at her in wonder.

‘You knew?'

‘What does she know, Dad? What the hell's going on here?' asked Daniel.

‘I think it's best if Mina and I filled you in on what we're really doing here,' Jack suggested.

 

An hour later, after much talking, all four sat in silence, their faces drained of colour.

‘So you've been a keeper of this Jerusalem tablet all your life and you never told me a thing,' Daniel asked his father in disbelief.

‘I'm sorry son. I was not to share this secret until I felt my life ebbing away, like my father before me and his father before him. I'm still in shock to learn that Mina and Jack found a letter from my ancestor.'

‘How did all this begin?' asked Mina.

‘Well, the letter you found was written by Alejandro Cardozo, my ancestor who settled at Mulberry Cottage in the 18th century. He was a Portuguese Jewish scholar whose real name was Yeshua Ben Moshe. He probably came from a Marranos family, you know the ‘secret Jews' who remained in Spain and Portugal after Jews had been outlawed there in 1492 but took on a Christian name.'

‘Hmm, certainly not one of Portugal's finest hours… talking of which, I thought Jews weren't allowed at Cambridge University until at least the 19th century?' Mina said.

‘He wasn't working for the University. He first arrived in London where he stayed with the large Sephardi community which had settled there centuries earlier. And, just like it says in the letter you found, one of the Cardozo brothers had moved from Portugal to Safed where he set up a printing business. Yeshua was the eldest, and as such was entrusted with the tablet. That's how it ended up in England.'

‘What happened then?' asked Daniel astonished.

‘He was employed by the local vicar, here in Hildersham.'

‘To do what, Dad?' asked Daniel.

‘The churchman was an antiquarian of sorts, and as many other Christian biblical scholars of the time, he had been trying to go beyond the Vulgate, to unlock the full potential of the Jewish Bible.'

‘Sorry guys, what's the Vulgate?' asked Jack.

‘It's the name for St. Jerome's translation of the Old Testament in Latin,' replied Mina.

‘He must have entrusted the vicar with the tablet he brought from Portugal, and ended up becoming the unofficial keeper of the Church of the Holy Trinity… and now it is gone.'

They all sat in silence, deep in their own thoughts. Daniel wondered why and when his family name had changed from Cardozo to Bamart.

‘Who did this Jack?' asked Mina.

‘I don't think it's Wheatley, he doesn't have a clue about the clay tablet. I guess I was followed from the library to Hildersham by our mysterious and relentless pursuers, I'm so sorry!'

There wasn't much more to add. The tablet was gone forever. Whoever these men were, they'd won. Jack was furious at having been duped but there was nothing he could do about it.