The Sacred Blood

at the Temple Society.”

“Parfait,” Amit said, praising her. “The courtyards mimic the original Israelite desert encampments where Moses and the twelve tribes would have set up camp around the tent that acted as the first mobile Tabernacle.”

Amit further explained that from the middle courtyard, there would be three gates in each of the four walls, each named for one of the twelve tribes of Israel. The expansive outer court extended eight hundred meters in each direction, enclosed by a perfectly square wall. From there, another twelve gates led out to bridges spanning a fifty-meter moat to the residential precincts surrounding the Temple City.

“The scholars who’ve studied the Temple Scroll, me included, have theorized that the Gospels are encoded with this stuff.”

“How so?”

“Three inner courtyards and three rooms in the temple—the Trinity. Twelve gates—twelve disciples gathered from twelve tribes. It’s built into the temple’s physical design,” he said, spreading his hands. “And Jesus himself references the temple’s design in Matthew nineteen, verse twentyeight. Jesus says to his disciples, ‘I assure you: in the Messianic Age when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.’ ”

She pursed her lips. “Amit, you know any theologian will say those passages are a metaphor for the afterlife and heaven.”

“Not so,” he said, correcting her. “Religious authorities in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all agree that the Messianic Age is a time of great peace and prosperity, which the Messiah will bring to the living earth prior to the Final Judgment—the End of Days, or whatever you choose to call it. This reference clearly describes a new kingdom in the here and now. And Jesus refers to himself as ‘the Son of Man,’ not only in this passage, but throughout the Gospels.”

Amit explained that the phrase “Son of Man” had actually been ascribed to many great prophets—human prophets—by God Himself. He used Ezekiel as an example.

“In the first sentences of Ezekiel two, when the prophet is standing in God’s presence, God says to him: ‘Son of Man, stand up on your feet and I will speak with you.’ Then Ezekiel states: ‘As He spoke to me the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet.’ ‘Son of Man’ is then used numerous times throughout the text. It’s a reference to an earthly prophet transformed by the essence of God. Same with Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the others.”

“But still in human form?”

“Of course.”

The implications shook her to the core.

“The Temple Scroll also goes on to spell out how this new kingdom should be governed and protected with a praetorian guard. There’s another scroll in the Dead Sea collection that is dedicated to a New Jerusalem—it details how this Temple City would flourish during two millennia of peace under messianic rule. That’s a lot of time to grow, so they’d certainly have envisioned a mighty big palace. I’m sure you’ll also remember that in the Gospels, Jesus points to the buildings on the Temple Mount and tells his disciples, ‘Don’t you see all these things? I assure you: Not one stone will be left here on another that will not be thrown down!’ ”

“Jesus’s prediction about the Roman destruction of the temple in seventy c.e.?”

He shook his head.

She rolled her eyes. “So what does the learned Amit Mizrachi have to say about it?”

“It could just as easily mean that Jesus was announcing the Essenes’ plan for the Temple Mount’s refurbishment—knock it down and rebuild according to God’s original plan given to Moses.” He paused to study the diagram again. “Which leads one to ask: was Jesus one of the architects of the Third Temple?”

“All right, smart guy. So do you have any idea what he was planning to put in the empty room?” she added.

He shot her a confused glance.

“The Sanctuary? The Holy of Holies?” She was thinking back to the Temple Society’s last exhibit. “I doubt Jesus would have planned on leaving it empty, right?”

Amit’s face went ghost white. “That’s right.” He checked his watch. “There’s a phone in the back office. Let me make a quick call to Enoch, see what else he’s got for us.”

50

******

Charlotte’s numbed senses responded sluggishly as consciousness returned once more. Slowly her eyes opened, eyelids fluttering spasmodically against the intrusive overhead lighting.

Something was covering her mouth, straining her breathing. When she tried to touch her face, she found that her hands were still immobilized. Looking down, she saw a thick silver strap—duct tape? —digging so tightly against her wrists that her fingers felt nothing but pins and needles. Her forearms were pinned to the armrests of a metal chair. The tight pressure around her chest and shoulders was another thick wrapping of silver tape that kept her snug against the chair back. Testing her feet confirmed that each of her ankles had been bound to a leg of the chair. Her cracked lips barely moved against the tape wrapped tight over her mouth.

What the hell . . . ?

Her eyes darted back and forth. Definitely not a plane. This time she was in a cramped, windowless room. She was facing a metal door and it was shut tight.

No sign of Donovan.

The room’s storage shelves, stacked with cleaning utensils, brought to mind Salvatore Conte’s makeshift surveillance room in the basement of the Vatican Museums. Could these bastards have hurt Donovan . . . or done something worse? God, the idea of it was torturous. They’d already killed Evan.

What wack-job is behind all this? she wondered.