“The invasion plans, Deker,” said another voice with a thick Aramaic accent. “That’s your name, Hebrew, isn’t it?”
Deker blinked to see that he was in some dank cell, and that a large figure was standing next to Ram. The figure bent over, and his smooth face with hooded eyes and long hair came into focus.
A hand reached out toward the silver Star of David hanging around Deker’s neck and roughly dangled it before his eyes. The IDF insignia in the center came in and out of focus, and Deker felt a profound aura of deja vu settle over him.
“The Hebrew invasion plans,” Hamas repeated. “Or Ram will have to kill you.”
Deker spit in Ram’s face, just to show Hamas they were on different sides and to let Ram know that he needn’t fear exposure—yet. Everything depended on how this all played out.
“What invasion?” Deker asked as Ram wiped the spit from his face.
Hamas said, “Ram, show him.”
Ram grabbed him by his hair and dragged him across the floor with his chains and propped him up by the window. Deker looked out to see a cloud of dust in the distance. There was the glint of the golden Ark, seven priests with their trumpets in front of it. Armed guards marched before the priests and behind the Ark. They formed the clasp of a great necklace of Israelite soldiers encircling the city, six men deep and more than five hundred cubits away beyond the range of the archers.
“That invasion,” Hamas said as he stood behind him, and Deker could smell his foul breath. “Behold the dust kicked up by the vast host of Israelite troops. Bin-Nun has been circling the city for six days now. Did you really think you could frighten us into surrendering with tall tales of Yahweh’s divine power?”
Deker tried to piece together how long he had been held in captivity here. Surely it couldn’t have been six days. But his mind was a jumble of beatings and blackouts, and he had no clue. He turned to look the general in the eye. “Whether I live or die, Hamas, you already know that Bin-Nun is going to win no matter what.”
Hamas smiled. “It’s been six days, Deker. Without you, they have already failed. Including your comrade Elezar. He only lasted two days before he died.”
Elezar dead? Deker didn’t believe it. Dogs like Elezar never died; they always survived somehow. That the Israelites were circling the city, however, was no lie. He could see it with his own eyes.
The familiar feeling of dread that so often overwhelmed him returned with a bitter vengeance. Deker cursed himself for his failure and resolved that, whatever else happened, he wouldn’t break.
“Your cause is lost, Hamas.”
“It’s Bin-Nun who looks lost to me, Deker,” Hamas said. “Is he waiting for a signal from you? Is that why he circles without striking? Or are you the one waiting for a signal from him?”
Deker said nothing.
“Ram, give him a signal.”
Deker turned in time to see Ram cock his giant clenched fist before it hit him like a sledgehammer in the face. His head slammed against the wall and he blacked out.
41
Slowly the lights went on in Deker’s head. He was in a small, spare room with a table and two chairs on either side. On the table were his bricks of C-4 and detonators and a bowl of rotten apples. Two guards stood at the door.
“I’ve always been fascinated by the occultic practices of the Hebrews, and before he died your comrade Elezar called these magic mud bricks,” Hamas said. “What did he mean by that?”
Deker said, “If that’s why you’re keeping me alive, you’re wasting your time, Hamas. Kill me and be done with it.”
“I need you for the show trial. But you need not worry. It will be brief. And then you’ll be exterminated. The people have to see that we’re doing something about the Hebrew vermin crawling inside our walls.”
Deker said nothing. He was too tired. Hamas was disappointed he hadn’t gotten a rise out of him.
Hamas was smarter than he looked. But perhaps that was because of the care he took to maximize his size and build with his armor. He was beefier than the lean Israelite commanders. But his eyes betrayed a stormy disposition, as if he were constantly running scenarios through his head. None of the faraway look of a nut job like Bin-Nun. Perhaps because the Israelites had nothing to lose except their lives. Hamas was compromised in this way, dealing with fanatics like Bin-Nun and presumably Elezar. Perhaps he saw some hope in Deker—a kindred spirit, so to speak.
“Did you know Bin-Nun was a mercenary with the Egyptian army before the Exodus, Deker?” Hamas said. “Oh, yes. He and my father served together. They even got cut together. That’s right. Circumcision used to be a rite of passage for elite Egyptian officers. I see that Bin-Nun has begun to institute the practice with his men, like you. What I can’t understand is why he’d risk using such men as spies. It’s a dead giveaway that you’re a Hebrew. Because you’re certainly no Egyptian.”
Deker was clothed now, but Hamas had wanted him to know he had been carefully inspected.
“You know what I do with my men who disappoint me?” Hamas asked rhetorically as he picked up a worm- ridden apple from the bowl of fruit and began to slice it and the worms to pieces. “I cut off their penises and then their balls to make them eunuchs so they can become priests in the service of Molech. It’s a shame I can’t do the same to you. But I need to show your circumcision at the trial to prove you’re Hebrew. No matter. It’s not like you’ll ever get to use it with Rahab again.” Hamas paused for effect. “I’d hate to drag her into this nasty business.”
Deker showed no emotion, but Hamas smiled as he stood up and pointed his knife over the table at him. The Reahn general either suspected or knew for certain that Deker was one of the two spies who had escaped him the week before at Rahab’s.
“You think you can drop into my city for a night and make one of our moon princesses fall in love with you and risk her life and family for a bunch of Hebrews? Which is more likely, Deker: that Rahab used me to pass along information of our fortifications to you, or that she used you to betray your invasion plans?”
Deker stared at the mud bricks spread out before him as
evidence. “I don’t believe you.”
“Just explain the plan to me, and I’ll spare her,” Hamas said. “There’s no reason why she should be executed along with you this morning for the king’s pleasure.”
Deker’s mind raced in circles, and to his profound amazement he found himself standing up and heard himself shouting.
“We are the Jewish people!” he cried out. “We came to this land by a miracle! God brought us back to this land! We fight to expel the non-Jews who are interfering with our conquest of this holy land!”
“So be it,” Hamas said, and delivered a devastating blow to Deker’s gut.
Deker collapsed to the floor, bloodied and bowed. He writhed in pain and saw flashes of light and stars and then the tip of a boot as Hamas gave him another swift kick to the face, breaking his nose.
“The last thing you will see before you leave this earth is me killing Rahab before your eyes,” Hamas told him, making a gesture with his knife across Deker’s neck as everything began to fade. “Then I’ll make a show of killing you in front of the king. Then my ten thousand troops and I will kill Bin-Nun and all the Hebrews. As surely as the sun sets today, the world will finally be rid of your kind forever.”
42
Deker kept his head up as the guards brought him outside to the vast temple court of the fortress like a condemned gladiator into the arena. At least two thousand chanting Reahn citizens were on hand to watch him burn as a sacrifice to their god Molech in hopes the deity would save them from Yahweh.
The rising sun bathed the dust on the paving stones with a golden hue in the early-morning light. The ground quaked as he walked and he could hear the Israelite war trumpets blasting in the distance. With every blast of
