The Third Day

any worker had uncovered at the site, from the first day of the excavation until that very moment.

For the sake of scientific precision, and to fend off allegations of potential site contamination, the documents even recorded the details of a volunteer’s lost car keys that a doctoral candidate had found in one of the grids the following day.

I waited until he was out of earshot of the students to ask my question aloud.

“Has anyone located a missing video camera — one with some slight wear and tear, perhaps?”

My attempt at humor escaped him and he continued to flip through the printouts, but eventually he concluded no one had found such a device — at least not yet.

Finally, he closed the binder and just stared at the sky.

“Would a DVD or flash memory survive two millennia under the sand?” I asked.

Neither of us knew; nor did we have any way to determine whether Henry Bryson had met his end coming or going. Any recording device the diggers unearthed could just as easily be blank.

Chapter 8

We returned to the Brysons’ lab, both still jet-lagged from our whirlwind trip. Juliet led us into the conference room, where we were surprised to see that Markowitz and Bergfeld had not left Boston after all.

“I had to hear the rest of the story,” he said. “How was your trip?”

As Lavon and I explained what we had found in Israel, each of us struggled to come up with an alternative that fit the facts as we knew them. No one succeeded.

We could see, too, that Juliet had something else on her mind. Her face reflected a strange sense of peace, serenity almost, that didn’t square with her husband’s demise. I made the mistake of commenting on this.

“I’ve thought of little else since you left,” she said. “I came up with a plan, one that should require only a simple adjustment to the transport apparatus.”

“What kind of plan?” I asked.

“We can still save Henry, Mr. Culloden. Now that we have the precise coordinates of his whereabouts, a rescue should be straightforward.”

“But that means someone else will have to — ” Lavon cut himself short.

“Yes, Robert, and I am thankful that we have a person in this room so uniquely qualified for the task.”

I would have expected Lavon to jump at the chance, but to my surprise, his first impulse ran against the idea.

“He could have died somewhere else,” he protested. “There’s no guarantee anyone would find him alive in that cave.”

“No,” she replied, “but do you think a perfect stranger would have carried his body very far, in that climate?”

Lavon shook his head.

“And you told me yourself that his bones showed no signs of gross physical abuse. Did you mean that, or were you just trying to avoid causing me any more sorrow?”

“No, I meant it. The lab in Tel Aviv analyzed the skeleton with great care, given the discrepancies we found. I think it’s safe to assume he wasn’t executed, nor was he torn to pieces by a mob, or by wild animals.”

“Well, then, it should still be possible to save him.”

“Or leave two skeletons in that cave instead of one,” Lavon grumbled. “Your husband could have died from dozens of other causes that would have left no impact on his bone structure.”

The rest of us watched without saying a word.

“Robert, I implore you: you’re the only one who really understands that world. You’re the only one who speaks the language.”

“I read ancient Greek,” he said. “There’s a difference. Plus, not everyone in that area spoke Greek. If I encountered the wrong people, I’d be more likely to get a knife in my gut than directions to Jerusalem. In fact, that may have been what happened to your husband.”

“But you know he wasn’t robbed,” she replied. “You found a bag of Roman coins by his bones, did you not?”

Lavon nodded. The cache amounted to three months pay for a typical unskilled laborer. No brigand would have left that behind.

“I’m not too proud to get down on my knees and beg if I must.”

Lavon sat in silence for another minute or so. Finally, he sighed. “There’s no need to beg,” he said.

“Just think of the knowledge you’ll gain from just a short visit.”

“I said I’d do it,” he snapped.

***

The rest of us heard the words, but like so much of what we had seen over the last few days, their meaning failed to register immediately.

“You’re serious about this?” Markowitz finally asked. “Someone else can really go back?”

“Yes,” said Bryson. “It will involve an element of danger, but the odds of success are high enough to justify the risk.”

Markowitz pondered this for another moment; then his face lit up.

“Fantastic!” he said. “I want to go, too.”

Lavon shook his head, as did Bryson. This was a bad idea.

“Ray, I’ve never heard you express any interest in the Biblical era,” I said.

“No.” he admitted. “But what an adventure this could be.”

“This will be incredibly hazardous,” said Lavon. “I don’t think you have the slightest comprehension of the dangers we’re likely to encounter.”

“I can handle it,” said Markowitz. “Climbing K2, that was hazardous. Diving the Andrea Doria — people die doing that every year, too. We have to have confidence in ourselves. If we listened to the naysayers, we’d be afraid to walk out the front door.”

“Ray, that may be true,” I said, “but this enterprise has already lost one man. You’ve seen the photos of the skeleton. You saw Dr. Bryson’s finger sitting right here on this table, in a jar.”

“Yes, I did. And we’re going to get him. Actually, we have a golden opportunity not only to save Dr. Bryson, but also to complete his original plan. While you were gone, Juliet told us why he was there; the question he sought to answer.”

I was afraid of that.

“No, we are not going anywhere,” said Lavon. I am going to retrieve Dr. Bryson and come straight back. The risk is too high to attempt anything else.”

“You exaggerate,” said Markowitz. “I’m sure he just ran into a freak infection or something. Don’t those stories about the Black Death all say that the victims died within the hour?”

Lavon sighed.

“Ray, tell me: would you go to Iraq today, as a tourist? It would be a fascinating trip. Some of the greatest archaeological treasures on the planet are there: Babylon, Nineveh, the seats of ancient empires, most never completely explored.”

“No,” said Markowitz. “I’d probably get blown up.”

“And why is that?”

“Religious fanatics — nut-jobs who think killing an American is God’s will.”

“I’m going to give it to you straight,” replied Lavon. “By the time of Christ, ancient Judea had suffered through nearly two centuries of very similar religious and political strife. Two hundred years of constant low level guerilla violence — not to mention the regular depredations of ordinary thieves and highway robbers.”

Markowitz paused for a moment, but then his expression grew firm. “It’s not like we’re planning to stay long. Whatever happens, we’ll deal with it.

He glanced over to Juliet. “My family’s money made your initial work possible. I don’t mean to be obstinate,