‘I’ve said all I can say.’
He got up from his desk and made it clear that he meant not only with regard to that last question but with regard to this entire conversation. Daniel sensed that Gabrielle wanted to press on further, but he also sensed that this was not a good idea. They had gone as far as they could and would not get any more useful information from this man. If they pushed their luck, there was a danger of them outstaying their welcome and possibly getting themselves into trouble.
‘Well, thank you, Professor Fikri,’ said Daniel, standing up and seizing the initiative back from Gabrielle. ‘You’ve been most helpful.’
Gabrielle, who had remained seated, looked daggers at Daniel. Finally, she stood up and muttered a polite thank you.
Chapter 96
Goliath had taken the bus from Petra back to Amman, knowing that if he took the car, Klein and Gusack could report it to the police and they would be on the lookout for the vehicle. It wouldn’t be so easy to catch him on a tourist bus packed with other people.
His plan had been to hire a car to drive back across the King Hussein Bridge and then to Israel’s main Ayalon Highway. However, he was told that because today was Friday, the King Hussein Bridge was closed from midday and would not reopen till Sunday. That left him with a problem. The longer he waited around, the greater the likelihood that he would be stopped.
And he had no intention of being stopped.
Then someone told him that there was another way of getting into Israel – if he hurried.
Chapter 97
‘The spores must have got reactivated at Petra and become even more virulent,’ said Daniel. ‘And the so- called fiery snakes in the Bible that bit the Israelites were actually snake-like boils that infested their skin.’
They were driving from Amman to the King Hussein Bridge, Gabrielle at the wheel.
‘But why would the spores come out of stasis? Petra’s a pretty hot dry place-’
‘Wait a minute, I have an idea.’
He opened the glove compartment and took out a compact book. It was a copy of the Bible that Daniel had bought in Israel and had been keeping with him for reference. He started thumbing through it.
‘Are you looking for anything in particular?’
‘Numbers 21. Oh, yes. Here it is. The Israelites are complaining about not having any water.’
‘Was there ever a time when the Israelites didn’t complain?’
This brought a laugh from Daniel. ‘Not then and not now!’
Gabrielle remained surprisingly straight-faced at his levity. ‘As if they’re the ones who have something to complain about,’ she responded, under her breath. ‘Anyway, what was it about that passage that interested you so much?’
‘Let me read it to you.’ And Moses and Aaron gathered the people before the rock and he said to them ‘Hear me rebels, are we to bring forth water from this rock for you?’ And Moses lifted up his hand and smote the rock with his rod twice and water flowed forth in abundance and the congregation and their cattle drank.
‘So they may have had the spores on their clothing,’ said Gabrielle. ‘And all it took was exposure to fresh water and the plague came back.’
‘That explains what must have happened at the dig. Presumably there were traces of the spores at the dig site.’
‘I must have had some spores on my clothes that infected the curator.’
‘Oh my God!’
‘What?’
‘I’ve been racking my brains wondering why Goliath wanted the shroud!’
Gabrielle’s jaw dropped.
‘You mean…’
‘But who is he planning on using it against?’
‘Wait a minute, Daniel. What did he say?’
Daniel searched his memory.
‘“I’m going to make the evil usurpers drink the water of death”.’
Suddenly, the car behind started to overtake them. Then Daniel noticed that the woman who was driving it was pointing, and appeared to be mouthing the words ‘Pull over.’
Gabrielle wasn’t having it, however. She was getting increasingly angry, and the fact that the woman in the other car appeared to be trying to communicate with her only made her angrier.
The other car continued veering right to push them off the road, and Gabrielle finally snapped. She spun the steering wheel of their much bigger vehicle sharply to the left, side-swiping the smaller car. The trouble was that Gabrielle hadn’t given her own vehicle enough time to recover and it ended up skidding to the side of the road.
Gabrielle screamed, but it was Daniel who was flung against the side as the vehicle rolled. By the time it was inverted, the front airbags had inflated, protecting the occupants from any further damage but forcing Gabrielle to stop. All three of them got out aggressively and in the ensuing confrontation Daniel noticed that the woman from the other car was quite attractive.
‘What the bloody hell were you trying to do?’ he asked.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘My name is Sarit Shalev. I work with Dov Shamir.’
‘You nearly got us all killed,’ said Gabrielle.
‘Like I said, I’m sorry. But I think we have an emergency on our hands.’
Chapter 98
There was a look of solemnity on the faces of Senator Morris and the professor as Audrey entered the library of Morris’s house in north-west Washington DC. For some reason, the senator had called this meeting in his home, instead of the Capitol Building, and Audrey had no wish to rock the boat by questioning him on it.
The professor did not even look up from the cherrywood table, let alone rise to greet her as she approached them. Morris did, but there was a look of sadness in his eyes, as if he had some bad news to tell her.
‘Has someone died?’ she asked, using the old gambit of humour to divert or soften the tension that confronted her.
‘You don’t know?’ said Professor Tomlinson.
Audrey looked at him with shock and confusion written across her face and then at Morris, hoping for an explanation.
‘Sit down,’ said Morris softly, indicating the chair that he had pulled out for her.
She sat, as did Morris.
‘I tried to call Goliath. He was supposed to be going to Petra.’
‘Petra?’
‘To get the shroud that The Book of the Wars of the Lord was wrapped in.’
‘And?’ asked Audrey.
‘There was someone else there.’
‘So?’
‘Using his cell phone!’
