God would forgive her for everything.' Decker shook his head in wonderment.
'There's one other strange thing about them,' the driver added after a moment. 'They claim that one of their leaders is the Christian Apostle John.'
Decker was about to ask the driver to explain when Christopher, who until this point had remained silent and distracted, suddenly jumped as if he had received an electric shock. 'What?!' Christopher asked the driver, his voice full of both surprise and dread. 'Yes, pretty crazy, huh?'
Christopher's brow seemed to furrow in pain. His eyes moved slowly but erratically, as though there was a very unpleasant scene running through his memory over and over again.
'Christopher, are you all right?' Decker whispered. Christopher didn't answer. For the next several minutes they rode in silence, but Decker could see that inside Christopher's mind there was a battle raging. After a few more minutes Christopher seemed to slowly resign himself to whatever was bothering him. Finally he spoke.
'I'm sorry for not answering you earlier,' he told Decker. 'I've just remembered something.' Decker remained silent, though it was obvious he wanted to know more. But this was not the place; it would have to wait until they reached the hotel.
A half hour later the driver pulled up to the front door of the Ramada Renaissance Hotel. It was Decker's choice. It was the same hotel that he and Tom Donafin had stayed in twenty years earlier. He had even tried to get the same rooms but they were unavailable. As they got out of the car, Decker's thoughts were torn between his own memories of this place and wanting to know what Christopher had remembered in the cab. The pain had passed from Christopher's eyes. Now he was just deep in thought.
About forty yards away on the other side of the street, two men watched. On the forehead of one was the mark of the KDP.
'There they are,' the smaller of the two men said.
'I see them,' answered the one with the mark.
'So, let's do what we came for.'
The one with the mark hesitated. 'Maybe we should wait until they're separated.'
'You're not changing your mind, are you, Scott?' the smaller one asked.
'No… I mean… I don't know; maybe I am, Joel. It all made so much sense before, but now that we're here,' Scott Rosen shook his head, 'all of a sudden I'm not so sure we should do it.'
Decker tipped the bellman who brought the luggage to their adjoining rooms and then closed the door. Finally, he and Christopher could talk openly. 'What did you remember in the car?' he asked, not wanting to waste any time.
Christopher seemed to be searching for words. 'It's about the crucifixion. It's… ' Christopher paused, and then started again, 'Somehow, what the driver said about the Apostle John brought back a memory that… I don't know, maybe I've suppressed it. Maybe I don't want to remember.'
'What?' Decker prodded.
'The Bible says that it was Judas who betrayed Jesus.' Christopher shook his head. 'He has always been blamed, but Judas is not the one who betrayed me. He had a part in it, but he was deceived. The one who put him up to it was John. I remember it clearly,' Christopher continued, 'but I still don't understand why he did it. John was one of my closest friends. And yet he betrayed me. He got Judas to do the dirty work and then blamed it all on him. But John planned it. Somehow he convinced Judas that it was necessary to turn me over to the Sanhedrin – the Jewish officials – in order to fulfill an Old Testament prophecy. He told Judas that when the prophecy was fulfilled, I would call down the armies of God to defeat the Roman legions who occupied Israel and I would bring about a Jewish kingdom that would be like heaven on earth.
'I can see it like it was yesterday. As I hung there on the cross, of all of the disciples, John was the only one who came.56 I knew what he had done. When I saw him there, I thought he had come to ask forgiveness. I called to him to come closer so I could speak with him. I told him I knew what he had done. To my surprise, he admitted it freely, but without remorse; he almost seemed to boast about it. Yet to everyone else, he let the blame fall on Judas. And poor Judas, overcome by his undeserved guilt, hanged himself.57
'I tried to reason with John. I told him that if he would just ask, he would be forgiven. I would forgive him and I was sure the others would as well. But he refused. He bragged that forevermore Judas would be known as the betrayer of the Messiah, and then he laughed and said that he would be remembered as 'John the beloved.'
'I told him that despite his lack of repentance, I forgave him for what he had done to me, but I could not forgive him for what he had done to Judas.'
'But that was two thousand years ago,' Decker argued. 'How could John still be alive?'
'I don't know,' Christopher answered. 'But I know it's him. I can feel it.'
Decker realized he was just going to have to trust that Christopher knew what he was talking about, no matter how fantastic it sounded.
'Do you think he knows about you?' Decker asked.
'I don't think so.'
'Maybe coming to Israel was a mistake. If John really has a hundred and forty-four thousand followers it may not be safe for you to be here.'
'I don't think we need to worry, Decker. There's no way he could know about me. I just wish I could understand why he betrayed me.'
Decker and Christopher decided to nap for a few hours before going out for the afternoon. Decker had not seen the Temple since it was completed and Christopher, who was well known in Israel as the man who had returned the Ark, had an open invitation from the High
56 John 19:25-27. ' Matthew 27:5.
Priest for a personal tour. Much of the Temple was forbidden to non-Jews, so they would not be able to see all of it, but they would see more than most.
When Decker awoke he looked at the clock and realized he had overslept by several hours. It was almost three-thirty. This would make it much harder for him to adjust to Israeli time; but he thought the extra sleep would be good for Christopher. He got dressed quickly and knocked at the door between their two rooms to wake Christopher, but there was no answer. Decker knocked again and then opened the door. Christopher was not there. Taped to the mirror in his room was a note in Christopher's handwriting.
/ knocked on your door but you didn 't answer. I decided to let you sleep. I'm just going to wander around the old city for a while. I need some time to think. Don't wait up if I'm late.
Decker decided he'd do the same. The old city wasn't that big – maybe he'd run into Christopher along the way.
As Decker walked down the narrow streets and still narrower alleyways of the city, he thought back to the time he had been here with Tom Donafin. Tom had done all the sightseeing then; Decker just looked at the brochures and picture postcards Tom brought back. He had been saving most of his sightseeing for when Elizabeth and the girls arrived for Christmas vacation. But that had never happened. Decker sighed. Even after all these years, he thought of them every day and still missed them terribly.
By five o'clock the sun had begun to set and Decker found a small restaurant down a side alley where he had dinner. Afterward he headed back to the hotel. Christopher still had not returned, so Decker left the door between their rooms open and watched a movie until he fell asleep. When he awoke it was still dark outside and he assumed he had slept for a couple of hours. He went to Christopher's room and found it just as it was before; the note still hung on the mirror. Decker went back in his room to turn off the television and saw that the clock on his night table said that it was nearly six o'clock; Christopher had been gone all night. Decker ran back into Christopher's room as if that might make some difference. It made none.
Decker called the number for Christopher's pocket phone and then realized when he heard the ringing from Christopher's suitcase that he had not taken it with him. He called the front desk, but the night desk clerk had not seen him. He called the hotel restaurant, but it was closed. He called the hotel bar, but it too was closed. Reluctantly, he called Jackie Hansen, who was just getting ready for bed in New York, but she had not heard from him. Finally, he called the Italian embassy in Tel Aviv. Decker identified himself to the person in charge and at his insistence, the ambassador was roused from his sleep. The ambassador, who didn't really appreciate being awakened, said he had not heard from Christopher and was not even aware that he was in the country. He took advantage of the opportunity to point out to Decker that it was proper protocol to notify the embassy whenever a visiting ambassador was in the country. The ambassador recommended calling the police, but Decker said he
