Barak’s eyes scanned the rest of the museum for any sign that someone was listening in on their conversation. Finally he whispered, “Fear.”
26
“Mr. President, do you have a moment?”
Al-Hassani looked up from a stack of cables he was sifting through and found Khalid Tariq poking his head in the door of his private office.
“What is it, Khalid?”
“Foreign Minister Zeng Zou has just arrived.”
“Ah yes,” said Al-Hassani. “Show him in.”
Al-Hassani greeted the Chinese leader warmly, along with the Chinese ambassador and their translator.
“You are very kind to see me, Mr. President. I am very humbled.”
“It is my pleasure, Mr. Foreign Minister. And please, please, come have a seat. You are among friends here. Have you been offered any tea?”
“Thank you. You are most kind. I understand it is on the way.”
“Excellent,” said Al-Hassani, taking a seat beside Tariq. “Now, what can I do for you gentlemen? I understand you have a problem.”
“We prefer to think of it as a challenge.”
“Of course,” said Al-Hassani. “And an enormous challenge it is. You have just passed Japan as the second-largest consumer of petroleum products in the world, and you’re catching up to the Americans quite fast.”
“This is true,” Mr. Zou replied.
“In 1990, I believe you built 700,000 cars,” Al-Hassani continued as he lit his pipe. “In 2000, you produced 2 million. This year you’ll produce almost 5 million. In just a few short years, you will need 600 million tons of crude oil a year just to keep up with your current economic and population growth rates. And you’re wondering where all that oil is going to come from.”
“I am most impressed, Mr. President. You have certainly done your homework.”
“You once did business with my country, but then came the U.N. sanctions, and then came the wars,” Al-Hassani explained, waving off the compliment. “You cut huge deals with the Iranians, but they suddenly find themselves out of business. You signed a massive deal with Russia, but they, too, are no longer of any help. The Canadians are a possibility, and you’ve been courting them for years, with some success. But the brutal truth is they aren’t producing fast enough, and the oil companies there are in constant battles with environmental groups that seem to care more about porcupine caribou than commerce. Which leaves you with two options — the Israelis or us.”
“We want a deal,” the Chinese foreign minister said flatly. “And we are prepared to pay handsomely for it.”
“Very well,” said Al-Hassani. “Please enlighten me.”
“Mr. President, I am prepared to talk about more than oil,” came Mr. Zou’s reply. “I have come to explore the possibilities of forming a military and strategic alliance between China and Iraq.”
Al-Hassani’s eyes lit up. The Chinese foreign minister finally had his full attention.
“What did you mean, fear?” Bennett asked.
The foursome had been mostly quiet since leaving the museum. Now Barak looked out the helicopter window at the Jordan Valley below, then back at the Bennetts.
“Someone out there is deathly afraid that the Temple treasures are about to be discovered, and they should be,” he explained. “Why? Because finding the treasures would provide conclusive historical proof that a Jewish Temple once existed, thus sealing not only Israel’s legal and historic claim to the Temple Mount but to Jerusalem as her capital. What’s more, if the Temple treasures are actually found on land the world calls the West Bank but which the Bible calls Judea and Samaria, it would powerfully demonstrate that the land was once, in fact, Jewish land — our land — thus undermining the Palestinians’ claim to have a state there. Moreover, such a discovery would end any doubt once and for all over whether Israel would rebuild her Temple on the site of the first two. We would, and quickly. But that’s not all.
“Religious Jews like myself believe that building the next Temple is the prerequisite to the coming of the Messiah, and that when the Messiah finally comes, the judgment of all the nations will begin in full. In other words, we believe what Russia and her allies just went through will pale in comparison to what is coming next. Jewish theology says the worst is yet to come. You Christians believe the same thing, don’t you? Don’t you believe that building the Third Temple will trigger the rise of the Antichrist and unleash the Great Tribulation? And then Armageddon? And then the so-called Second Coming?”
He was leaving out some important details, but he wasn’t that far off.
“That’s pretty close,” Bennett agreed.
“Well, there you have it,” said Barak. “No matter how you look at it, the Third Jewish Temple brings with it the end of days.”
“No wonder there are people out there who will do anything to prevent it from being built,” said Erin.
“Indeed,” said Barak. “You know, for four years after the Copper Scroll was found, the Jordanian government did everything it could to keep its very existence under wraps. Even when the New York Times finally broke the story in 1956, Jordanian archeologists and the royal family insisted that the scroll was a myth, a legend, that there was no treasure and thus no link whatsoever to any Jewish Temple. In fact, the main reason we haven’t rebuilt the Temple until now was out of fear that by doing so we’d unleash a jihad of a billion Muslims attacking us for desecrating the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aksa Mosque. But all that has changed, you see? And now somebody out there is terrified that with the dome and the mosque both gone, plans to rebuild the Temple may finally proceed.”
“Okay, I’m following you,” Bennett said, “but why kill all these Copper Scroll experts now, and why kill Mordechai? Given all that’s happened, isn’t Israel likely to rebuild the Temple now whether the Temple treasures are found or not?”
“Perhaps,” said Barak, “but there is one other issue I have not yet mentioned.”
“What’s that?” asked Erin.
“I hesitate to bring it up because it’s very speculative.”
“Dr. Barak, please,” said Erin. “We need to know everything you know if we’re going to help track down Dr. Mordechai’s killers.”
Natasha was bringing the helicopter down on the roof of the Israel Museum.
“Well,” Barak said finally, “there are some who believe the Copper Scroll will not only lead us to the Second Temple treasures but to something far greater as well.”
“Which is what?” asked Bennett.
Barak pulled out his handkerchief again.
“The Ark,” he whispered. “The Ark of the Covenant.”
27
Bennett had no interest in dining with Salvador Lucente.
His mind was whirring with all he had heard from the Baraks, and he still had so many questions. Had Mordechai, Barak, and the others really been on the verge of finding the Second Temple treasures? Had they actually found a clue that would have led them to the Ark of the Covenant? Was that really why they had all been murdered?
On its face, it all seemed crazy. But in Bennett’s experience, anything was possible if it involved Eliezer Mordechai. This wasn’t, after all, some cockamamy theory they’d just read in the National Enquirer. It was coming from Israel’s highly respected chief archeologist. It involved three of the world’s most renowned archeologists, each of whom had been murdered or died mysteriously in the span of just a few weeks. What’s more, Barak hadn’t come to them with his tale. The prime minister of Israel had sent them to Barak. Each man involved in the story was advising Doron, and Bennett knew Doron did not suffer fools gladly.