something to Leo before jumping from the open door and splashing into the water below.
“What’s he doing?” Nava shouted. “Has he lost his mind?”
John was swimming like a madman toward something bobbing in the water. A small speedboat from one of the ships arrived and pulled up alongside of him just as he reached the object and pulled it to his chest. Two burly Israeli sailors reached out and yanked him from the water while he held the backpack above his head for everyone in the helicopter to see.
“What kind of idiotic stunt was that?” one of the sailors said to him. “You could have been killed. No piece of luggage is worth that.”
“This one is,” John said.
As soon as he was winched back aboard the helicopter, John opened the backpack. The Devil’s Bible was still resting securely inside, untouched by the crash. Leo could only smile with relief. They had the book, but they were still in Israel. Leo started to speak, but Moshe held up his hand. “I’ll say it for you, Father. Now, one more time, John: never
Nava tilted her Blackhawk toward the shore, and after a short but speedy flight, they were landing on the roof of the hospital in Tel Aviv, where they would spend the next few hours being X-rayed and prodded until the doctors were satisfied that it was safe to send them home.
Sitting next to each other in the hospital waiting room, Ariella and John began describing Sarah’s dream to Father Leo.
“You’re kidding,” Leo said. “She actually said she heard the word chosen?”
They both nodded their heads. “Those were her exact words, Father.”
Leo had to think this one through. “Give her some time to rest after we get back to the villa, Ariella. If she is truly one of the chosen, God will reveal His plan to us soon enough. I have a feeling she is here for a reason, so if she starts asking questions, tell her the truth.”
As the helicopter lifted off from the hospital roof, everyone who had been in the crash sat frozen in silence. Their nerves were frayed, and their expressions had taken on the thousand-yard stare, a look frequently seen on fatigued combat soldiers who had witnessed horror that exceeded their imaginations.
Within minutes, they were landing on the lawn in front of the villa, where they were surrounded by all of their friends who tearfully welcomed them home and escorted them to their rooms. Ariella was trying hard to let Sarah decompress in a strange environment, but after hearing all the whispers surrounding her arrival at the villa, Sarah insisted on learning the truth behind their flight to Rome. Ariella led her upstairs to a dorm-like room, and while some of the girls from the villa gave her dry clothes and some food, Ariella began telling Sarah about the dreams and the Bible code and the special group of people who were called
In the wake of the colossal news story from the United States dominating the airwaves, the crash of a private jet in the Mediterranean was never mentioned by the media. The search for the missing pilots would continue into the night and on through the next day, even though the searchers were convinced that the two brave men were now resting in God’s arms at the bottom of the sea.
Chapter 31
Light from inside the villa cast yellow boxes of color across the brick walkways outside the windows as the sun dipped below the horizon. Upstairs in his room, Leo awoke from a brief nap, unable to sleep any longer. He wandered down to the poolside bar where he found John sitting quietly by himself with the backpack at his side. Leo poured two glasses of wine as they looked at one another with unspoken relief at being alive. They sipped their wine in silence before deciding to walk out and sit on the beach. In the gathering darkness, the sound of the surf pounding against the shore provided a rhythmic backdrop to their discussion.
Leo was deep in thought as he gazed out into the total blackness covering the sea and held the wineglass to his nose, inhaling the multilayered aroma. “I think we should have paid more attention to what the code was trying to tell us before we rushed off with the book today.”
“I know, Father. That crash was no accident. Something was with us on that plane. It’s like some form of enveloping energy follows the book wherever it goes. If I hadn’t spotted this backpack when I did, it would have washed back up on shore and then someone or something would have recovered it. No doubt it would have found its way back into that desert or another hiding place somewhere in the world.”
“We’ve got to get that book to Rome somehow,” Leo said, “but I don’t want to risk trying to fly with it again.”
“How about traveling over land?”
“Too risky. We would have to cross Lebanon and Syria before we reached Turkey.”
“Yeah, those are fun countries.”
“Exactly. That’s why I think our best bet is to go by boat.”
“Couldn’t the same force that destroyed the jet do the same to a boat? I mean, don’t you think one rescue at sea is enough for a while, Father?”
“True, but I’m not sure if the force we’re facing is coming directly from the book itself or from farther away. Something is trying to keep the book from leaving the Holy Land, John, and it’s capable of reaching out and bringing down an airplane.”
Leo twisted the base of his glass in the sand. “When we rushed to get on the plane, we failed to take any precautions, and we were almost killed. This time, we’ve got to be more vigilant. I’ve really got to think this one through, because time is running out.”
“Well then, Father, I guess we need to find an unsinkable boat that can take us to Italy.”
Leo laughed out loud as he finished his wine. “I think we both know who we need to talk to. Let’s go find him and see what he’s probably already worked out for us.”
They rose and wandered through the dunes to the silent villa before finding Lev sitting quietly in his upstairs library under a single lamp, absorbed in a book. Lev noticed the two enter the room and pushed his reading glasses up on his forehead, his wrinkled brow furrowing over his bushy eyebrows as Leo and John took seats across from him in matching green wingchairs.
“Ah, what a day, my friends,” Lev said. “I don’t know whether to feel sorrow or happiness. The attack in Houston has brought great sadness to the world. But on the other hand, God has given me back my Ariella. It’s like a giant hand reached down and snatched all of you from a certain death. I had to come up here to read for a while. It helps to clear my head.”
“What are you reading?” Leo asked.
“Revelation. I thought it was appropriate at a time like this.”
“You’ll have to pardon me, sir,” John said, “but I don’t think reading Revelation would clear anyone’s head.”
“No, you’re probably right, my young friend, but I was trying to find some insight into the events of the past few days. I only wish we could have found a warning about the attack on Houston, but sadly, predictions about the future only happen by chance. It’s all part of God’s plan after all. We can never be in complete control or have knowledge of everything. After the attack this morning, we entered the words “Houston” and “nuclear bomb” into the code program, and immediately, the computer found an encoded reference to the event, including the exact hour the bomb would explode. Unless you know specifically what you’re looking for, the only way to find predictions is to accidentally stumble across them like they did with the encoded message of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination. After he was killed, the researchers went back and found the name of the assassin, but his name wouldn’t have meant anything to them beforehand. The Bible code keeps giving us snippets of information, like God whispering in our ears.”
“What’s on your mind, Lev?” Leo asked, sensing that something else was troubling him.
“I’ve just finished talking with Daniel. He’s begun to translate the Devil’s Bible.”
John literally jumped up from his chair. “You’re kidding. That’s great!”
“I don’t know if
“Has he been able to learn anything so far?”
