The Guardian (32 page)

She felt strangely safe with him. The whole time they were bouncing around London, she never once felt the urge to look over her shoulder or wonder what was around the next corner. It was as if she knew by some weird sense that she was safe as long as Jason was around.

It also didn’t hurt that he was one of the handsomest guys she’d ever seen. But it was his heart that really captivated her. He was so genuine and transparent, talking about this passion for God that he had deep within himself. A passion for being a servant to other people.

He told her that not a day went by without him thinking about what his life would be like if he were not following Christ. That should have sent up red flags. To this point in her life, she would have done anything to avoid the “Bible thumpers.” But Jason was different. He wasn’t like other religious people she had met. He told her not to judge all Christians by the actions of a few. He said that too many people made Christianity about cleaning up your life and getting the outside stuff fixed. And they completely missed that it was about letting God change the inside. He didn’t just talk about it; he lived it. And for some reason—one that she couldn’t explain—that was one of the most attractive things about him.

Breakfast was over, and they sat drinking their coffee. Anna took his hand. She hesitated, but Jason just smiled at her. She might as well get it over with. She had to find out what was bugging him once and for all.

“I’m going to ask you a question that I’ve asked you several times this week. Only this time, I want an answer. If we are going to do this—I mean us”—she waved her hand back and forth between them—”then I need to know that you’re not keeping something from me.”

“Anna, I—”

“No,” she held up her hand, “listen to me. Let me finish.” He nodded.

“This week has been something else. I mean, I really have some strong feelings for you. But I will not be manipulated or lied to. Do you understand me?”

Again he nodded. Strange—he didn’t look like he was hiding anything. At least nothing bad. But there was a secret light to his eyes. He was keeping something from her. That couldn’t continue. “My last boyfriend lied to me. I can’t deal with that again. I don’t have the patience to deal with immature little men who can’t get their heads out of their …”

“Anna.”

She looked at him, a little perturbed at being cut off.

“You want to know why I’ve been so quiet this week. And why I’ve been keeping to myself at times.”

“Yes. You don’t have a girlfriend or something like that, do you?”

He burst out laughing.

“What?” she asked, annoyed.

“Are you serious?” He continued to laugh. “You think that I have a girlfriend?”

“Well …?”

He stopped laughing and held her hand up to his lips and kissed it gently. “No, Anna. I do not have a girlfriend. At least not one that you don’t know about.”

“What does that mean?”

He smiled. “You, silly. I mean you. You are the only woman in my life at this point and time. Scout’s honor.” He held up two fingers.

“Then why have you been so quiet and reserved for the last few days?”

“‘Cause I’ve been trying to figure out what all of this is about. And until last night, I couldn’t be sure. But now I’m fairly positive I know what the riddle on the scroll means.”

Anna’s face lit up. “You’ve figured it out?”

“I think so.”

“So tell me.”

“Not here. Let’s take a walk. Or go back up to the room.” “Let’s go for a walk. We’ll find someplace quiet.” They made their way outside and walked down King David Street.

“Can you give me a hint?” she asked.

Jason leaned in and whispered in her ear, “Are you familiar with Moses’ staff?”

She pulled away and looked at him quizzically but nodded yes.

He leaned back in and whispered, “Do you know where it is? Or rather, where it’s supposed to be?”

Again she looked at him, but this time shook her head.

He leaned back in and smiled. He knew this would get her blood going. “Ever hear of the ark of the covenant?”

C
ardinal Wickham was in his study reading a book and smoking his pipe when the phone rang.

“Hello?”

“It’s me. I’m back in the game.”

So the rat had come crawling back. Wickham had wondered if he’d ever hear from Jonathan again. “I can’t talk right now. I’ll call you back in fifteen minutes.” He looked at the caller ID. Blocked. “Give me the number.” He grabbed a pen and jotted it down. “Okay. Fifteen minutes.”

Twenty minutes later, dressed in blue jeans, sweatshirt, and ball cap, he was dropped off by cab in front of a small café. Once seated at his usual table, he ordered the four-cheese omelet and punched in the numbers on his phone.

“You’re late. Why can’t you just say thirty minutes if that’s what you intend?”

“Oh, calm down, Jonathan. What’s fifteen more minutes?”

“It’s a lot when you need to catch a flight.”

“Where are you going?” “Jerusalem.” “Jerusalem? Why?”

“‘Cause that’s where that girl and your scroll are.”

“Really? And how did you find that out?”

“What do you think you pay me for, Wickham?”

“I was beginning to wonder that myself.”

“Very funny. Listen. I’ve had her tailed for the last week. I was told she hopped on a flight to Jerusalem last night. A commercial flight.”

“Yes, so?”

“So I was wondering why she would fly commercial and not her little G-5?”

Wickham paused for a minute. Should he tell Jonathan about Hale and the girl assassin? No, probably not. He would wait and see how it played out. “I have no idea,” he finally said. “Where in Jerusalem?”

“I don’t know yet, but I have people working on it. I have a couple of Palestinian friends who owe me big favors. I’ll put them on it. If they can’t find her, no one can.”

“Just get me what I’m paying you for.”

“If everything goes right, you’ll have it by this evening.”

Wickham didn’t even say good-bye as he hung up the phone.

The waitress brought him his breakfast, along with his Bloody Mary. A broad smile creased his face as he took his first bite. Good. Very cheesy. Just like he liked it. And the Bloody Mary … ah yes. Just enough spice.

He set down his fork down and reached for his phone again. He punched in the numbers and listened to it ring.

“Cardinal Wickham’s office. May I help you?”

“It’s me.”

“Oh, hello, sir. What can I do for you?” “I’m going out of town on an emergency. Cardinal Joseph McCoy is in charge until I get back. Understood?” “Yes, sir.”

“Good. And as far as anyone else is concerned, you don’t know where I am or when I’ll be back. I’m simply out of the office. Call the head of the Swiss Guard and tell him I need a pilot. Someone who is qualified to fly a Gulfstream 5. Have him meet me at the airport at three o’clock, sharp.”

“Yes, sir. Anything else?”

“No, that will be all.”

“Okay then. Have a nice flight.”

Again, he hung up the phone without saying good-bye. He picked up his fork and started eating again. Yes, yes, indeed, very cheesy. Just the way he liked it.

Jerusalem

“The ark of the covenant! Are you serious?” Anna stopped in her tracks. They were standing just outside the hotel. “Forget going for a walk. Let’s go back to the suite so we can talk.”

They didn’t say much on the way back to the hotel. At the suite, Anna closed the door. Then she reopened it, hung the Do N
OT
D
ISTURB
sign, and shut it again with a
click.

“Jason, what are you talking about? Do you mean that my grandfather was looking for the ark of the covenant?”

“Not exactly.”

“Then what?”

Jason pulled the chair out from the little desk that sat along the wall and sat down. Anna plopped down on the sofa.

“Okay. This is gonna sound really outrageous, but trust me. I think I’ve figured it out.”

Anna sat there with raised eyebrows.

“Okay. Your grandfather has all these maps of temples and churches, right?” He watched Anna’s head bob up and down. “Well, we know that he dismissed all but two: the temple here and, from the looks of the maps, the Vatican.” Anna was still nodding in agreement. “Okay. Now back to the riddle. ‘The key is found in the temple.’ I think your grandfather knew what the key was. And if he’s right, then this is really big, Anna. I mean
really
big. The ark. See—and when I finish explaining, this will all make sense—the ark was kept in the temple. Inside the ark there were some things—the most famous were the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments inscribed on them. But what we’re looking for is Moses’ staff.”

“Why would we need Moses’—”

“I’m getting to that.”

“Sorry.”

“Okay. So here’s the deal. Throughout the Bible, there were narrow escapes and miraculous getaways. The most famous of these is probably the parting of the Red Sea. Just like the second part of the scroll says, God opened the way. There was another time later when Joshua needed to cross the Jordan. The Israelites didn’t know what to do. Joshua commanded the priests who were carrying the ark to go stand in the water. When their feet touched the river, it opened up, just like the Red Sea, and they all passed over the Jordan, completely dry. Some people believe that because Moses’ staff was in there, it had the same effect on the river that it did on the sea. We need Moses’ staff, which is supposedly still in the ark. Like the scroll says, it will open the way. I think it’s the key. And it’s in the temple.”

Anna sat there, jaw open, staring at him. She finally let out a
“Whew!”
She ran her fingers through her hair. “Jason, I don’t know a lot about this Bible stuff, but didn’t I hear somewhere that the temple was destroyed, with everything in it?”

“Yes. You did, but here’s the thing. When the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, the ark became a thing of legend. No one knows what happened to it. Some believe it was taken back into heaven by God. Some people believe it’s buried somewhere in the Middle East. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church actually claims it has possession of it. They say it’s hidden in a ‘treasury’ that only their high priest can visit. Most people think that’s a pretty bunk theory. Here’s what I think. And apparently your grandfather thought it, too.” He hopped up from the desk and settled next to Anna on the sofa. “I think that at some point, after the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, the ark was brought back here and is inside the mosque. The other theory is that it’s in the Vatican. There’s our two temples your grandfather wrote about. Now, I adamantly disagree with the thought that it’s in the Vatican.”

“Why?”

“Because, think about it. If the Vatican had anything like that, something that could lend that much credibility to the Roman Catholic Church, don’t you think it would’ve been made public? Not to mention, your grandfather was in with the pope, just as you are. Well, I mean—you know …”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. But why do we need Moses’ staff?”

“I’m getting to that.” He stood up and started pacing. “See, this is where it gets a little far-fetched. It was the first thing the scroll said that was the real mystery. ‘What once was perfect has now been broken.’ I mean, what the heck does that mean?” He stopped with his arms outstretched, as if waiting for an answer. “Then I started to study the maps your grandfather left us. You remember all the maps of the Middle East?” “Yeah,” Anna said, unsure. “I think so.”

“At first I thought your grandfather subscribed to the theory of the ark being buried in the Middle East. But I had to dismiss that when I realized that’s what he was looking in the temples for. So here I was, staring at these maps. I looked them over. Then I looked them over again. Then I saw it.”

“What?” Anna was on the edge of the sofa. Her eyes were wide with anticipation. “What? Saw what?”

“The rivers.”

“The rivers?” She sat back again, frowning.

“Each one of the maps had different rivers marked on them. But they were all the same map of the same region.”

“So what does that have to do with anything?”

“It has everything to do with everything.” He stopped pacing and sat back down. “Okay. It’s like this.” He shifted and pulled one leg up under him so he was face-to-face with her. “I didn’t think much of it because of the names of the rivers. But the more I studied them the more it made sense to me. Those rivers had different names long, long ago. All except one, the Euphrates. It still has the same name.”

Anna stared blankly at him. “So?”

“I did some studying on my own. Many people believe that their names were the Pishon, the Gihon, and the Hiddekel—all very important rivers named in the Bible.”

He grabbed his Bible off the desk, opened it to the book of Genesis, and handed it to her. As she read the section he pointed out, her eyes became wide. Her finger traced the words as she read them. She looked up at him with disbelief. He nodded a “yes” to her. She read it again. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

“I know,” he said. “Pretty cool, huh?” “I don’t believe it.”

“Believe it. This is what your grandfather was looking for. This is what the riddle on the scroll is about. ‘What once was perfect, has now been broken.’ The only thing that has been perfect in this world, since God created it, was our relationship with him. It was perfect. Then we screwed it up. Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. The relationship was broken when Adam and Eve sinned against God.” He opened the Bible and pointed to the page. “And that’s the only place where it was ever perfect.”

Anna looked at him, still in disbelief. “The Garden of Eden.”

W
ickham finished his breakfast and hailed another cab. He told the driver to take him to his house in the country. The place was a mess. He had rented it out for a social event last night, and the cleaning crew hadn’t been by yet today.

He pushed his way through the foyer and into the living room, moving chairs and end tables out of the way. Dirty wine glasses and paper plates were everywhere. Some still had the remnants of food on them. The whole place stank of bite-sized sausages and merlot.