wandering around the outer temple kept his gun hidden.
“Where are we going?” David demanded to know.
“Inside…” Tom replied.
David could see Tom was getting winded. This had better end soon.
The pair entered the Court of the Gentiles, which was unusually placid for a Thursday. David surmised that Jesus’s trial must have been attracting the people’s attention, pausing their worship of God to kill him.
As they neared the entrance to the Court of Women, David noticed a sign above the door that he had never taken notice of before. He read it quickly as they passed beneath: No foreigner is allowed within the balustrades and embankment of the sanctuary. Whoever is caught will be personally responsible for his ensuing death. David smiled.
“Tom, you’re a genius,” David said, as they passed through the gates into the Court of the Women.
They ran across the Court of the Women, up the curved staircase and to the heavy bronze door at the Nicanor Gate. David and Tom pushed with all their strength to open the gate. Roberts had entered the Court of the Women and was running toward them at full speed.
David and Tom spilled into the Court of Israel. The seven Jewish men who were worshiping in the court shot annoyed glances at Tom and David, who had slammed the heavy bronze door behind them. Out of breath, Tom struggled to speak. “Quickly brothers…fetch the Levites! A foreigner has entered the inner temple…and wants to spill Jewish blood in the house of God!”
The Jewish men reacted at once, running toward the Court of the Priests, shouting for the Levites.
Tom and David were too tired to continue running and they knew help would soon arrive. They turned toward the bronze door, which had just finished closing behind Roberts. He was out of breath and looked supremely irritated. He walked toward them calmly, like a predator who knows its prey is trapped.
“You don’t have to do this, Roberts,” David said.
“You know my name. How nice for you,” Roberts said, as he continued forward.
Roberts pulled his knife out from under his robe.
“Leave now and we’ll let you live,” Tom said with confidence.
Roberts stopped walking. Tom couldn’t believe it had worked, but he then realized it wasn’t Tom’s command that had stalled Roberts’s advance. Roberts’s eyes were focused just beyond Tom.
The world spun as Tom turned around and came face to face with a massive Levite. The Levite held a grapefruit sized stone in his hand and his eyes were darting up and down Roberts’s body, taking snap shots of every detail: the blond crew cut, the knife’s unusual design, the shining object hanging on his wrist and that Roberts was taking the same mental images of the Levite. The two warriors sized each other up, both knowing what the other didn’t know was about to get him killed.
Roberts slowly reached into his robe. His fingers touched the butt of his gun. This would be over in seconds. Roberts took his eyes off the Levite for a split second and looked at David’s eyes, which were wide, but not staring at Roberts…he was staring…behind Roberts!
Roberts grabbed his gun and spun around. He fired two shots through his robe, which missed their marks. A second Levite, who had crept up behind Roberts raised his hand, which held a large stone. The Levite brought it down quickly on Roberts’s skull.
Falling to one knee, Roberts dropped his weapon. He clutched his knife and lunged at the Levite. Before Roberts could even swing the blade through the air, a second stone struck him between his spine and right shoulder blade. Roberts dropped the knife and fell to the ground again, but refused to scream in pain.
Roberts struggled to his feet again, glaring at the Levites, who had already picked up new stones. The seven Jewish men who had been worshiping stood behind the Levites, their hands armed with stones.
“You will be tried and executed by the Romans for breaking Jewish law,” said one of the Levites.
Roberts’s eyes twitched as blood from his head poured down his face and into his mouth. He looked at David and said through gritted teeth, “Don’t let them take my watch.”
Roberts removed the watch from his wrist and threw it at David as hard as he could. The watch landed on the stone floor, five feet from David. Roberts was obeying his orders to the end, protecting time, but his intentions to hurt David at the same time were clear to everyone present.
“No more!” shouted the bigger Levite. “Lay on the ground, now.”
Roberts’s grimaced in pain and spit at the Levite, who easily dodged the saliva-blood mixture. The spit flew several feet before landing on a tablet one of the men had been studying.
“He has spit on the Word of God!” shouted one of the men.
Roberts stood to run but was barely on his feet when the first of several stones pummeled his body, hurled by the Levites and Jewish men. Roberts staggered forward until a large stone hit his head, creating a sound like a breaking coconut. Roberts’s body went lax and flopped onto the stone floor.
“Quickly,” said one of the Levites, “remove his body before the Romans see what we have done.”
The seven Jewish men rushed forward and picked Roberts up. They carried his body away quickly, supervised by the two Levites. As the group exited into a side passageway, one of the Levites turned to Tom and David and said, “Well done, brothers. Your alert kept the house of God from being defiled by this man. God will reward your service.”
With that, the group of men disappeared with Roberts’s body, leaving Tom and David alone in the Court of the Israel.
David covered his mouth in disgust and sat down. Tom ran to where the fight had taken place and took the knife, watch and silenced handgun. He tucked them inside his own robe and ran back to David. “Let’s go,” he said. “I don’t want to be here to answer questions. Do you?”
“He died to protect time,” David said. “If only he’d have given us a chance to explain. He would have known that time is in no danger.”
“Stupid people die stupid deaths, David, and I don’t want to be next. Let’s go.”
David got to his feet silently. He had never seen a man killed before. Captain Roberts was an evil man who wanted to kill both him and Tom, yet David couldn’t help feel sorry for the man. His stomach turned as the image of Roberts’s death replayed in his mind. But what worried David the most was that he knew he would soon see another man die, the ramifications of which would change the world forever.
Tom and David headed through the Nicanor gate and into the Court of the Women. As the gate opened, a sound hit them, like waves of static. They knew the noise couldn’t be good, as did everyone else in the temple, all of whom began hurrying toward the exit.
The crowd of concerned worshipers flooded out of the Temple, pulling Tom and David with them. Once outside the Court of the Gentiles, the static became clear and they could hear the chanting of hundreds, maybe thousands of people repeating the same word, over and over, “CRUCIFY! CRUCIFY! CRUCIFY!”
TWENTY
Verdict
30 A.D.
Tom was horrified by the events of the past few hours. Jesus had been taken and beaten. He had been whipped, beaten again and then made to carry a large wooden cross to a hill, while people who, only a week ago had welcomed him with cheers and palm branches, now taunted him with insults and stones. Then came the clanging of metal upon metal as Jesus’s wrists were pierced by large nails, binding him to the wood like a plank. After hearing Jesus’s screams, Tom had left, knowing that if he heard the tortured sound of his friend again he might go to the future and return with an assault rifle.
