“Actually no. There is something called the Upper Aqueduct, but it follows a completely different route, This is more of a later development to the Lower Aqueduct that runs between this point under the Jewish Quarter and the Hill of Evil Counsel.”
“The Hill of Evil Counsel?”
“Where the UN building is located.”
Ted smiled.
“Very apropos.”
Ted, Daniel remembered, was a Daily Mail reader.
“It’s not really a different channel,” Daniel explained. “Part of the way it’s a separate parallel channel running slightly higher than the original. But in other parts, the Byzantine engineers simply expanded the existing channel.”
“But why would Byzantium expand the water channel to the Temple Mount?” asked Ted. “They were Christians. Surely they wouldn’t have any interest in the Temple Mount.”
“They didn’t. The Temple mount was abandoned by then. I mean it wasn’t in use. In fact they let it degenerate into a rubbish heap — something that shocked the early Muslims when the Caliph Omar invaded after Mohamed’s death. But the Byzantines didn’t just widen the aqueduct, they also diverted the waters… probably to the Nea Church. The Muslims then diverted it back to the Temple Mount and later the Mamluks made further improvements.”
“How come it’s so dry now?”
“Well the Ottoman Turks rebuilt it in 1500 using an enclosed ceramic pipe. That was still bringing in water to the Old City up until 1967.”
“Good God.”
“Fortunately for us, the old channel is still navigable. But we may have to crawl in parts.”
“Anyway, if we want to make any progress, we have a choice. We can either climb up into the upper channel and stand, or stay down here and stoop or even crawl part of the way.”
“I’m not sure if I can get up there,” said Ted.
“I can make a hand stirrup.”
“And then how will you get up?”
“I can run and jump and you can pull me.”
Ted weighed up the options.
“Can we stand all the way up there?”
“No, at some point we’re still going to have to crawl.”
“Then lets just stay down here… follow the original tunnel.”
Daniel switched on his torch and led the way, stooping rather than actually crawling.
“We’re now following the Western Hill,” Daniel grunted as he struggled along awkwardly.
“What’s that?”
“It’s what Josephus referred to as the Upper City. At some point soon we’ll be crossing under the Old City wall, just west of the Dung Gate.”
“The Dung Gate?”
“That’s what it’s called. And it did exactly what it says on the tin.”
“Hopefully we won’t smell it down here.”
“I said did. It hasn’t been used for that purpose for ages. And it’s possible that the original Dung Gate was in a different location.”
“And where does it lead from there?”
“Around the slopes of Mount Zion, it crosses the Hinnom Valley, then past the Sultan’s Pool and goes under Mishkenot She’ananim.”
“The Sultan’s Pool?”
“A water basin dating back to the time of Herod, or possibly even the Hasmoneans. It was expanded into a reservoir by the Ottomans — hence the name.”
“But if it was used as a reservoir…”
“Yes it was fed by the lower aqueduct. And yes we may be able to get out there! But I think the exit is blocked and we’ll have to go via the old route that bypasses it to the North.”
“Then how are we going to get out?”
“We’ll have to go all the way to East Talpiot… that’s the neighbourhood by the Hill of Evil Counsel.”
“And that means…”
“A long walk.
Chapter 74
It was the dead of night when Bar Tikva crept out of the hidden chamber and back into the Marwani Prayer Hall, leaving the body of the Arab behind him and Daniel trapped in the underground chamber along with his friend. But neither the darkness nor the silence held any fear for Bar Tikva. He was a God-fearing Jew.
Beyado afkid Roohi,
beh’eit eeshan veh’a’eerah,
veh’im roohi geveeyati,
adonai lee veh loh eerah
Into his hand I commit my spirit,
When I sleep and when I awake,
And with my spirit my body,
The Lord is with me and I will not fear.
That was how he felt. Strong not because of his own native bodily strength, but because of the strength and courage that his faith gave him. He knew that the Muslims had finished their late night prayers. That was why Daniel Klein and the Englishman had come here now, thinking they were safe. That was why Bar Tikva felt safe, crossing through the mosque and leaving the way he came, crossing the Temple Mount and leaving.
But now they were doomed. Even if the cried out for help, the Muslims would not hear them through the stones and above the sound of their prayers. And if they did find them, they would probably suspect them of some manner of wrongdoing and would tear them limb from limb! They would think they were agents of the Temple Mount Faithful — those vile Zionist, nationalist Jews who wanted to rebuild the Temple!
Rebuild the Temple?
Without a command from Hashem?
It was bad enough that the Zionist vermin had rebuilt the Jewish state — a state based on secular values and not the ideals of purity taught by all the great Jewish sages throughout the ages. The redemption of Zion would only come when the Messiah came! And that day would only come when all Jews returned in repentance.
And that day was surely not now. Not when Jews were brazenly breaching the Sabbath. Now when restaurants in Israel were serving pork! Not when Jewish men in America and elsewhere were marrying non-Jewish women and worse still Jewish women marrying non-Jewish men!
We should live in peace and friendship with the goyim, and accept their government, but we should not consort with them.
To Baruch, as to his father, this was the greatest sin of all. And it was this that was keeping the Messiah at bay. These chilonim — these irreligious Jews — were not only holding back the Messiah for themselves, they were denying their fellow Jews, the more pious among them, the joys and bliss that would be brought by the harbinger of the perfect era.
So he had no qualms about what he was doing now.
He made his way through the Jewish Quarter that had been turned into a slum during the nineteen year Jordanian occupation and rebuilt by the Zionists after the Six Day War, leaving the Old City via the Dung Gate. Oblivious to the fact that he was following the same route, on the surface, as the subterranean route being followed by Daniel and Ted, he walked by the city wall, taking out his mobile phone and calling his father’s mobile. He knew that his father was in hiding. But he would surely take a call from his son.
“Is it done?” asked his father.
“It is.”
“Did they beg?”
There was a cruel streak in his father. But it was not his place to judge.
“I didn’t stay to hear.”
“What do you mean, ‘stay to hear’?”
“I didn’t manage to shoot them. But there was no need.”
“What do you mean?”
Baruch explained how he had trapped them in the underground cavern with the heavy stone and bragged how even he had great trouble lifting it. But before he could finish his explanation his father interrupted him in a tone of unmitigated rage.
“Have you been sent from Shamayim to be a curse upon me!”
It took no more than these words to his strong, tall, powerfully built son, into a fit of tears like a small child. His father was angry. But what had he done wrong? He had done as his father had told him. He had killed Daniel Klein and the other man. Why should his father be angry?