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.
Chapter 86
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.
Chapter 87
‘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.
When they arrived at the visitor centre, local Bedouin – mostly children – swarmed around their car, offering them local souvenirs. A snarl from Goliath chased most of them off and the remainder drifted away when they saw that these tourists were not interested.
They went into the centre and Daniel bought one-day tickets for all three of them, as Goliath had instructed him. He wondered if the tension in his face had caught the attention of any of the staff, but there was no sign in their eyes that it had.
‘We wanted to ask you about guides,’ said Goliath, keeping the gun concealed in his pocket.
‘We have guides who offer tours in English as well as many other languages-’ The woman behind the counter broke off in response to Goliath’s raised palm.
‘I have a rather unusual request. What we’d really like is someone who truly knows about the ancient history of Petra, including the period before the Nabateans.’
‘Ah… okay. The man you want is Talal Ibrahim. He’s a member of the Bedul community – a sheikh in fact.’
‘Bedul?’ Goliath echoed.
‘A local Bedouin tribe.’
‘Are they the ones who claimed to be descended from the ancient Israelites?’
The woman at the counter looked surprised. ‘Oh, yes. They did claim that at one time. In fact the second President of Israel – Isaac ben-Zvi – even went as far as to claim that the Bedul had retained aspects of Israelite culture and language.’
Daniel smiled, remembering what Aryeh Tsedaka had told him about the Samaritan community in Holon.
‘But that view isn’t supported by serious historians,’ the woman continued. ‘There certainly isn’t any written record to suggest it.’
‘So they came… when?’ asked Goliath. ‘The time of the Muslim conquest? The seventh century AD?’
‘Oh no, they pre-date the Islamic era, but probably not by all that much. Of course, their ancestors converted to Islam many centuries ago.’
‘So when did they arrive in this area?’
‘Well, their main claim is that they’re descended from the Nabateans who built Petra.’
‘Is there any possibility that we could persuade this Talal Ibrahim to give us a tour?’ asked Goliath. ‘We’re only here for one day and-’
‘Wait a minute – are you asking about Sheikh Ibrahim?’ asked another woman behind the counter.
‘Yes.’
‘He is here today. He actually had a group booked for a tour, but their coach broke down and they had to
