CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
TOM WATCHED AS THE MERCEDES MERGED INTO TRAFFIC AND turned the corner, disappearing. The woman, whoever the hell she was, knew everything. And his salvation depended on finding the Temple treasure. How was that possible? Why would that be possible?
A hand touched his shoulder, startling him.
He turned.
Berlinger stared back and said, “She’s gone.”
“Who is she?” he demanded. “She said you knew she was here.”
The old man shook his head. “I did. But she did not identify herself, nor did I ask.”
“But you did what she wanted. You made sure I heard what she had to say.”
“I saw no harm in that.”
“Rabbi, this is important to me. What the hell is going on here?”
“I have to show you something and tell you a few things. Important things.”
“Where’s Alle?”
“I don’t know.”
“Your cameras can’t find her?”
“I’m sure they can. But this we have to do alone.”
“You have no idea what I’ve gone through. No idea what happened to me.”
He was exasperated.
And angry.
“Come,” Berlinger said. “Walk with me and I’ll tell you a story.”
“My father passed this on to me,” Marc Cross said to Berlinger.
He listened as his friend explained.
“The first Levite was Luis de Torres, who was given the task by Columbus. The duty has been passed for five hundred years from one to the next, and all has been fine until recently.”
The Second World War had been over nearly ten years, but its remnants remained. Nobody knew, as yet, how many millions of Jews had been slaughtered. Six million was the number most widely bantered. Here, in Prague, the pogrom’s effects were clear. A hundred thousand were taken, only a handful returned.
“It’s our Temple treasures,” Marc said. “The sacred objects. That’s the secret we hold. Columbus took them to the New World. His voyage was financed by Jews of the Spanish court. Ferdinand and Isabella were useless. They lacked either the vision or the money to explore. Columbus possessed the vision, and the Sephardi Jews of Spain provided the money. Of course, they’d all been forced to convert in order to stay in Spain, and Columbus too was a converso.”
He’d never heard such a thing. “Columbus was a Jew?”
Marc nodded. “And remained one all of his life. He sailed to the New World hoping that he would find a place where we could live in peace. A prevalent theory of the time said that Jews in the Far East lived free, without persecution. He, of course, thought he was sailing to Asia. That’s why he brought de Torres with him. A Hebrew translator. Someone who could speak to the people he found.”
This was amazing.
“The Sephardi Jews had long protected the Temple treasure. It was brought to them in the 7th century. But in 1492, Spain became a dangerous place. All of the Jews had either been expelled or converted. The Inquisition was rooting out the faintest hint of false Christianity. To even be suspected of being Jewish meant death, and thousands were executed. So they tasked Columbus with a special mission. Take the Temple treasure with him. When he found those Asian Jews, have them protect it.”
“But there were no Jews waiting for him.”
Marc shook his head. “And when he finally realized that, at the end of his fourth voyage, he hid the treasure in his New World. Luis de Torres was there and assumed the duty of guardian, calling himself the Levite. I am his successor.”
“You know where our precious objects rest?”
“That I do. To reveal this to anyone is a violation of my duty, but what happened during the war changes things. I need your help, good friend. This is something I cannot do alone. You are the most honest man I know.”
He smiled at the compliment. “I would say the same about you.”
Marc reached out and grasped his shoulder. “When I first came here and climbed to the loft, and you followed, I knew then that you were a man I could trust. The world has changed and this duty that I have been given must change, too.”
“He told me where the treasure was located,” Berlinger said to Tom. “We were standing not far from where you and I are right now, though these streets looked much different in 1954.”
Tom imagined that was true. The Nazis would have left a mark, then the Soviets made it worse.
“Our synagogues were in ruins,” the rabbi said. “The Germans had gutted the interiors, using the buildings for
