‘To his right is Father Anthony Fowler, who will act as the Vatican’s observer on the expedition. Beside him are Nuri Zayit and Rani Peterke, cook and assistant cook. Then Robert Frick and Brian Hanley, administration. ’
The two cooks were older men. Zayit was skinny, aged around sixty, with a down-turned mouth, while his helper was heavy-set and a few years younger. Andrea couldn’t quite tell his age. The two administrators, on the other hand, were both young and almost as dark as Peterke.
‘Besides these overpaid workers, we have my idle and sycophantic assistants. They all have degrees from expensive colleges and think they know more than me: David Pappas, Gordon Durwin, Kyra Larsen, Stowe Erling and Ezra Levine.
The young archaeologists shifted uncomfortably in their chairs and tried to look professional. Andrea felt sorry for them. They must have been in their early thirties, but Forrester had them on a short leash, which made them seem even younger and more insecure than they actually were – which was the complete opposite of the people in uniform seated next to the reporter.
‘At the other end of the table we have Mr Dekker and his bulldogs: the Gottlieb twins, Alois and Alryk; Tewi Waaka, Paco Torres, Marla Jackson and Louis Maloney. They’ll be in charge of security, adding a high-calibre component to our expedition. The irony of the phrase is devastating, don’t you think?’
The soldiers didn’t react, but Dekker righted his chair and leaned across the table.
‘We’re going into the frontier zone of an Islamic country. Given the nature of our… mission, the locals could become violent. I’m sure Professor Forrester will appreciate the calibre of our defence if it comes to that.’ He spoke with a strong South African accent.
Forrester opened his mouth to respond, but something on Dekker’s face must have convinced him that now wasn’t the time for any more acid retorts.
‘Further to the right you have Andrea Otero, our official reporter. I’m asking you to cooperate with her if and when she requests any information or interviews so that she will be able to tell our story to the world.’
Andrea flashed a smile around the table, which some people returned.
‘The man with the moustache is Tommy Eichberg, our head driver. And lastly, on the right, Doc Harel, our official quack.’
‘Don’t worry if you can’t remember everyone’s name,’ said the doctor, raising her hand. ‘We’re going to spend a fair amount of time together in a place that’s not renowned for its entertainment, so we’ll get to know each other pretty well. Don’t forget to carry the ID badge the crew left in your cabins-’
‘As far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t matter if you know everyone’s name as long as you do your job,’ the old professor interrupted. ‘Now, if you would all turn your attention to the screen, I’m going to tell you a story.’
The screen lit up with computer-generated images of an ancient city. Above a valley rose a settlement of red walls and tiled roofs, surrounded by a triple outer wall. The streets were full of people going about their daily routines. Andrea was amazed by the quality of the images, worthy of a Hollywood production, but the voice narrating the documentary was that of the professor. This guy’s got such a huge ego he can’t even hear how lousy his voice sounds, she thought. He’s giving me a headache. The voiceover began:
Welcome to Jerusalem. It is April in the year AD 70. The city is in its fourth year of occupation by rebel zealots, who have expelled the original inhabitants. The Romans, officially the rulers of Israel, can no longer tolerate the situation and Rome charges Titus to administer a decisive punishment.
The peaceful scene of women filling their water vessels and children playing beside the outer walls near the wells was interrupted as distant banners crowned by eagles appeared on the horizon. Trumpets sounded and the children, suddenly frightened, ran back inside the walls.
Within a few hours the city is surrounded by four Roman legions. This is the fourth attack on the city. Its citizens have repelled the previous three. This time Titus uses a cunning trick. He allows the pilgrims entering Jerusalem for the Easter celebrations to cross the line of battle. After the festivities, the circle is closed, and Titus does not allow the pilgrims to leave. The city now contains twice as many people and its food and water supplies are quickly being depleted. The Roman legions launch an attack from the northern side of the city and knock down the third wall. It is now the middle of May, and the fall of the city is only a matter of time.
The screen displayed a battering ram destroying the outer wall. From the city’s highest hill temple priests witnessed the scene with tears in their eyes.
The city eventually falls in September, and Titus fulfils the promise he made to his father, Vespasian. The majority of the city’s inhabitants are executed or dispersed. Their homes are looted and their temple, destroyed.
Surrounded by corpses, a group of Roman soldiers carried a gigantic menorah out of the burning temple while their general looked on from his horse, smiling.
The second temple of Solomon was burned to its foundations, and remains thus to this day. Many of the temple’s treasures were stolen. Many, but not all. After the fall of the third wall in May, a priest by the name of Yirməyáhu had come up with a plan to save at least part of the treasure. He chose a group of twenty brave men, giving packages to the first twelve with precise instructions on where the items should be taken and what should be done with them. These packages contained the temple’s more ‘conventional’ treasures: large amounts of gold and silver.
An old priest with a white beard and dressed in a black robe was talking with two young men as others waited their turn in a large stone cave lit by torches.
Yirməyáhu entrusted the last eight men with a very special mission, ten times more dangerous than that of the others.
Holding a torch, the priest led the eight men, who were carrying a large object with the aid of a litter, through a network of tunnels.
Using the secret passages under the temple, Yirməyáhu led them beyond the walls and away from the Roman army. Although that area, at the rear of the 10th Fretensis Legion, was patrolled from time to time by Roman guards, the priest’s men managed to elude them, reaching Yəriho, the modern-day Jericho, with their heavy load the following day. And there the trail disappears for good.
The professor pressed a button and the screen went dark. He turned to the audience, who were waiting expectantly.
‘What those men did was quite incredible. They travelled fourteen miles carrying an enormous load in roughly nine hours. And that was only the beginning of their trip.’
‘What were they carrying, Professor?’ Andrea asked.
‘I suppose it was the most valuable piece of treasure,’ Harel said.
‘All in good time, my dears. Yirm əyáhu went back inside the city and spent the next two days writing a very special manuscript on an even more unusual scroll. It was a detailed map with instructions on how to recover the different portions of the treasure that had been salvaged from the temple… but he couldn’t manage the work alone. It was a verbal map, etched into the surface of a copper scroll almost ten feet long.’
‘Why copper?’ asked someone at the back.
‘Unlike papyrus or parchment, copper is extremely durable. It is also very difficult to write on. It took five people to complete the inscription in a single session, at times taking turns. When they had finished, Yirm əyáhu divided the document into two parts, giving the first to a messenger with instructions for its safekeeping at a community of Yisseyites who lived near Jericho. The other part he gave to his own son, one of the kohanim, a priest like himself. We know this much of the story firsthand because Yirm əyáhu wrote it down in its entirety on the copper manuscript. After that, all trace of it was lost for 1,882 years.’