The Secret Chapel

Aside from those he had recently met who were named after lions, he was struck by the way all of the Israelis seemed to have names that fit their roles in life. For instance, Alon’s last name was Lavi, obviously another lion, and Moshe’s surname, Ze?ev, meant literally “son of wolf”. It appeared that Lev had chosen both a lion and a wolf to be in charge of protecting those he loved.

Then there was Daniel’s name-the strangest coincidence of all. As Leo had mentioned earlier, Daniel was called the interpreter of dreams in the Bible, but his last name, Meir, meant brilliant. Putting the two together, Leo saw that the name of the team’s chief cryptographer meant brilliant interpreter. It was a very appropriate name for a code breaker, and a strange coincidence indeed.

Lev grew serious as he gazed at Leo and John across an immense coffee table hewn from the single trunk of an olive tree. “We would like to extend an invitation. Before I picked you two up at the airport this morning, we all took a little vote. The result was unanimous, and we’ve all agreed that we would like both of you to join our team here in Israel.”

The others nodded silently in agreement.

Leo and John looked around the room and studied the faces staring back at them. Wasn’t this why they had come to Israel in the first place? Not only had they developed a keen interest in the code, but they were now becoming totally entranced with their new friends in this exotic setting. The Israelis waited for their answer.

“It looks like I’ll have to request a leave of absence from my teaching position,” Leo said. “It would be an honor, Lev.”

Lev fixed his eyes on John. “What about you, John?”

“I believe joining your team is the reason we’ve come here, Professor. Father Morelli sent us to the Holy Land with a definite purpose in mind, and even if we’re not sure what that is right now, I know he wanted us all to be together.”

“Good. It’s final then. Baruch haba!” Lev used the Hebrew phrase for welcome.

Moshe stood from his place on the couch and gave Lev a sly wink. “Why don’t we take them downstairs and show them around our little playground?”

Lev smiled when he saw the puzzled looks on Leo and John’s faces. “Follow me. I think this is something you will both find interesting.” John and Leo traded looks before following Lev and his team down one of the side hallways to an alcove with a staircase descending below ground level. Following a short hallway at the bottom of the stairs, they passed through a double-wide doorway and entered a dimly lit room painted dark gray.

There were two rows of glass-topped tables holding several computer screens and keyboards. Five enormous flat-panel screens lined one wall, and another side of the room had a thick, vault-like steel door in the center. The opposite wall was taken up with an enormous map of Israel and a large erasable board covered in Hebrew writing.

The back of the room held a communications center and was separated from the rest of the space by a floor-to-ceiling glass wall. This area looked like something one would see in a command bunker at NASA and created a futuristic-looking backdrop to the scene. The light from the large screens on the wall infused the area with a bluish hue, while small spotlights scattered in the ceiling created pools of white light around the room.

“I’m not a military man,” Leo said, “but this looks to me like some kind of command center.”

“You’re right,” Moshe said. “That’s exactly what it is. You’re standing in the command center for the Bible Code Team. I copied it from the one I had in the army.”

John was amazed. “It looks like you’re still in command of an army. This place is really something.”

“These are our computer stations, which are connected to a larger mainframe,” Ariella explained. “The main computer is programmed with a powerful Bible code search engine. Just enter any word or phrase, and the computer will begin searching in an effort to pinpoint its encoded location in the Bible. Our portable laptops have similar software for field use.”

John and Leo walked around the room with Lev, taking in the layout and looking at all of the equipment, while the Israelis continued to study the two new members of their team.

From one of the tables, Alon grabbed a small radio and clipped it to his belt before plugging in the tiny earpiece and boom microphone. He then walked over to the locked vault door and entered a code into a keypad on the wall. The thick steel door opened slowly, allowing Alon to enter the vault and return with a backpack and a large pistol in a shoulder holster. He motioned to John. “Come with me.”

John cast a “who, me?” look at Alon. “Where are we going?”

“Outside for a quick patrol of the perimeter.”

Sizing up Alon, who truly did seem as solid as an oak tree, John knew it was pointless asking any more questions. Looking back over his shoulder at Leo, he timidly followed Alon up the stairs, looking like a teenager who had just stepped off the bus to boot camp trailing behind his new drill instructor.

Once outside in the bright sunshine, Alon explained to John that the property was surrounded by individual rings of security. Walking past a young man armed with an assault rifle, the two continued along the sand dunes for a quarter of a mile until Alon came to a stop at the perimeter of the property.

“What do you see?” Alon asked.

Looking down the line of shifting sand dunes toward the villa in the distance, John was puzzled by the question. “I’m not sure what you’re asking, Alon. I see the ocean, fields of crops, some houses, and the villa over there. Other than that, I just see sand dunes and some palm trees.”

“That’s all we want people to see.”

Opening his olive-colored backpack, Alon pulled out a small shovel and a device that resembled a mini metal detector. Pointing the device at the ground, he began scanning the sandy soil around them. After receiving a strong, audible signal, he began to dig. Barely three shovelfuls of sand later, he exposed the tip of a wire connected to a black plastic box.

“There. That’s a motion detector,” Alon said. “They’re all around the perimeter. When anything crosses this area, an alarm goes off and the exact location of an intruder flashes on a computer screen in the command post by the front gate.”

“Pretty impressive, but why are you showing me this? I’m not a security person or a soldier. Do you want me to help you patrol around the villa for terrorists or something?”

“No, I’m sorry, of course not, John. We have our own trained people for that, although in this country, we’re all soldiers until a certain age. Something happened a few hours ago that you need to know about.”

Alon scooped sand back over the motion detector, and the two began heading back down the line of dunes. They were almost to the villa when John noticed the blue flashing lights of an Israeli police vehicle as it raced through the front gate, followed by two dark-brown military Humvees. Holding his hand to his earpiece, Alon said something in Hebrew into the microphone and began running toward the villa while signaling for John to follow.

The vehicles skidded to a halt on the circular gravel driveway in front of the house and several uniformed police officers piled out, dragging two handcuffed men dressed in suits with them. A senior officer approached Alon, and after a brief exchange, everyone headed inside.

“What’s going on?” John asked. “What are all these police doing here?”

“I believe this has something to do with what I was getting ready to tell you about. Come on. Let’s go inside.”

The police led the men through the doors of the main entrance, where they came face-to-face with Lev and the rest of his team standing at the bottom of a winding staircase.

“Are these the two men we called you about, Commander?” Lev asked.

“Yes, sir. The license plate on their car matches the number you gave us and they have pictures of the villa on their digital cameras. We stopped them about twenty miles south of here outside of Tel Aviv.”

Lev patted the police commander on the shoulder. “Nice work, David. Thanks for helping us out.” Lev had known this policeman since he was just a boy, the son of a close friend. “Have they said anything to you?”

“Not a word. Here are their IDs and passports.”

“They’re not Israeli?”

“Look for yourself, Professor. These guys are Swiss Guards from the Vatican.”

The two men in handcuffs shot glances at Leo and John, followed by a quick look back in the direction of the