The Pilate Scroll

by M. B. Lewis

  “Twelve hours a day? That’s not right.”

  “No, it wasn’t.”

  “So, as a Christian, how did you rationalize not spending time with your family?”

  “I wasn’t a Christian at the time. I mean, I was—or at least I thought so. I was one of those casual Christians. I went to church on Christmas Eve and Easter. I’d never read the Bible. I mean, I’d opened it and read passages, but that was about it. I never let it sink in.”

  Kadie’s head titled. “So, what happened?”

  Duke drained his Coke. “My wife filed for divorce. There was another man, I’m sure. She didn’t want anything from me—she just wanted out, and she wanted the kids. Before the divorce was finalized, she had a car wreck. She and the kids were killed.”

  “I’m so sorry.” Kadie started to reach out and touch his hand but retreated at the last moment. Her eyes moistened; if anyone could relate to losing loved ones in an accident, she could. “But yesterday, you said you were divorced.”

  “I felt that way. It’s what she wanted. And it reminds me I need to work at being a better man. I spiraled downward after they died. It got to the point where I couldn’t function at work. I drank excessively—very excessively. I sold our house and bought a sailboat and lived on that. I couldn’t take care of the house. I couldn’t bear going in rooms where the kids had played. I could still hear their voices and see them running through the living room. Part of me honestly hoped that boat would sink in the middle of the Gulf and take me with it.”

  “That’s terrible.”

  Duke nodded and lowered his head. “The Air Force eventually released me from my commitment. Shortly after that, I discovered I had oral cancer.”

  “Oh my gosh—I didn’t know.”

  “It’s all right. It’s my fault. I’ve come to terms with my disease. Anyway, I had some money in the bank. Drank more, worked less. I became suicidal. It wasn’t until an old friend stopped by the docks one day and took me to his house for a couple weeks. He made me sober up. Then he took me to church.”

  “And the church fixed it?”

  “My soul, yes. Not the cancer.”

  “Must have been a heck of a church.”

  “It was—and still is. Of course, the church didn’t fix me right away, but that first visit made me realize what was missing.”

  “Which was?”

  “I didn’t have a relationship with Jesus Christ.”

  Kadie pondered the comment. Her silence must have told him she was curious to learn more.

  “You see, too many people get wrapped up in organized religion. They don’t focus on the goals of what that religion is supposed to be—a personal relationship with Jesus. So that’s what I focused on. As soon as I understood that Jesus died on the cross for me, to carry the burden of my sins, everything became clear.”

  Duke gazed into her eyes. She saw a genuine man. A confident man who knew who he was. That was different from anyone she’d ever met in college. And it was different from Curt.

  He continued. “Don’t get me wrong. This didn’t happen immediately. It was a long road. But the immediate impact was I stopped drinking. I did that because I dove into the Scriptures. I couldn’t get enough. After a few months of being sober, this job opportunity came open, so I took it.”

  “Couldn’t you work for the airlines? Why come back to the Middle East?” She had asked the question before, bus didn’t know what else to say.

  Duke leaned forward, his elbows on the table with his fingers interlocked. “I figured with my cancer—like I said this morning, I only have so much time left. I thought if I were going to fly, I’d do something good with it. We’ve got guys on the ground in harm’s way. My being over here—well, over there—is helping them. And I feel good about that.”

  Kadie smiled. He was a good man. Sadly, the cliché holds. All the good ones are taken. And this one was taken by oral cancer. But she was glad she met him. And Brian certainly became attached. It was nice to have a man he could relate to—and who could relate to him.

  They finished eating in silence. Duke picked up the check for everyone and found a driver to take them back to Tel Aviv. Kadie tried to sit up front this time, but Brian insisted on sitting there himself. Then she caught him grinning at Duke. She knew what he was up to. Another long ride in the backseat with the pilot. The boy would never stop trying to be a little matchmaker.

  As soon as the car left the confines of the city, Duke turned to her.

  “What exactly were you guys looking for in Egypt?”

  15

  Jerusalem, Israel

  On the road to Tel Aviv

  * * *

  Kadie’s heart skipped a beat. What were they looking for in Egypt? The one question she hoped he wouldn’t ask. “I can’t say. Our objective is classified,” she whispered.

  A smile stretched across Duke’s face, and he leaned forward. “Driver, can you put some music on the radio?”

  The driver glanced back and nodded, then turned up the music. “This is good, no?”

  “It’s perfect,” Duke said. He leaned back in the seat and faced her. “Okay,” he said in a hushed tone. “I’ve got a Top-Secret clearance. Let ‘er rip.”

  Kadie pursed her lips. He probably did have clearance, but she still couldn’t tell him, could she?

  In the front seat, Brian had dozed off, his head rolling side to side, oblivious of the music.

  Duke retrieved his wallet and produced a civilian Department of Defense Contractor I.D. badge. The hard-plastic badge had the information and color photo embedded in the plastic itself, not on paper laminated in plastic. The new civilian contractor I.D. card listed his security clearance, and his clearly stated he had a Top-Secret clearance. “Okay, here’s mine. Let’s see yours.”

  Kadie bit her lower lip. She never got a security clearance; none of them did as far as she knew. Did she even need one? It had never crossed her mind.

  “I-I don’t have one.”

  “That’s okay, I’ve seen this before.” The two of them spoke in hushed tones; the music playing in the background kept the conversation from their driver.

  “Seen what?”

  “Sometimes, NGO’s operating abroad will tell their people something is classified. Makes them feel special and keeps them from talking about things. The fear of the unknown, I guess.”

  “What’s an NGO?”

  “Non-governmental organization. Outfits like GDI, World Food Bank, and the World Health Organization. You’ll also get some black-ops outfits operating under that banner as well.”

  “Oh.” Kadie mulled it over. She shifted in the seat toward him and spoke softly. “Okay, we’re searching for a formula.”

  “Formula?”

  “Yes, ISIS has weaponized the hantavirus. We’re searching for a cure.”

  “What’s the hantavirus?”

  “It’s a virus spread by rodents. It starts slow but eventually becomes incapacitating. Fever, chills, abdominal pain, and ultimately kidney failure.”

  Duke’s teeth clenched as he thought about what she said. “Not familiar, but okay. What else?”

  Kadie recoiled. “What else? There is no else. ISIS has a weaponized version of the hantavirus with plans to artificially create an outbreak. The CIA representative explained that if ISIS could localize the virus and place mass quantities in specific locations at specific times, they could incapacitate almost any place in the world. No city, hospital, or military base was safe.”

  “Interesting, kind of like a poor man’s WMD.”

  “Yes. There is no modern cure. But there is a legend of a cure from two-thousand years ago in ancient Israel. That’s what we’re searching for.”

  “Your company is going to this kind of expense based on a legend?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s nuts.”

  “Not really. King Solomon’s Mines, the Ark of the Covenant. Those are legends.”

  “Those are movies.”

  “Movies
based on legends.”

  Duke eyed her skeptically. “So, if the cure is from Israel, why are you searching in Egypt and Turkey?”

  “The ancient virus primarily struck Europe and Asia. Because the cure was discovered in Israel and the virus was not documented to be in Africa, those are two of the locations we believe had access to the cure. The legend says the formula was kept in a vase rumored to be in one of several different locations. That’s why we have different teams. The vase has Aramaic writing on the side. The formula itself was written in Latin. That’s why I’m here. I’m fluent in Aramaic and Latin.” She paused. “Greek as well. With a working knowledge of Coptic, which is an ancient Egyptian dialect and Punic, which was used by the Carthaginians in North Africa.”

  “But Turkey is in Europe.”

  “Only five percent of it,” Kadie said. “The rest is in Asia. GDI is using Turkey as the furthest north they believe the ancient cure might have made it.”

  Duke appeared surprised. She felt a sense of accomplishment that perhaps she had impressed him.

  “That’s a pretty extensive background you’ve got. Didn’t you ever go out on a date?” he said.

  Her eyes narrowed. “My social life is none of your business.”

  Duke put his hands up. “Sorry, no offense.” He glanced out the window. “So, did this murdered guy find the formula?”

  Kadie turned back to the front and shook her head. “That guy was my friend, Samuel. That night in Port Said, while Brian and I were downtown waiting for Curt, Samuel called. He said he had discovered something important. What we actually were searching for. Something he needed to show me.”

  “Samuel called you?”

  “Yes. He said he was in danger.”

  “So why call you? Do you have a skill he needed?”

  “No. Well, maybe. I don’t know. Samuel was the team’s specialist in carbon dating. He could verify the vase was from the correct time period. But we were friends. Closer than anyone else in the group.”

  “Closer than the Delta Force Commando?”

  She started to bite back but stopped herself. “Samuel was like a father to Brian and me. He was skeptical from the beginning. Since he had nothing official to do until we found something, I guess he was investigating in another direction.”

  “Well, do you want my two cents? At least from the government’s perspective?”

  “Sure.”

  “I’m not a government employee anymore, but I have the same security clearance, and I sit through the same intelligence briefings. And I’m sure we’ve not heard one word about ISIS acquiring any kind of viral weapon. Especially one they planned to unleash on the West.”

  She pondered this new information. “Are you sure? We had extensive briefings on the disease. We even have team members from the CDC.”

  Duke shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t know what to say. This is the first I’ve heard of anything like this. Ever. Including my time in the Air Force.”

  “That’s why GDI formed this team. We’re here to stop the virus—without bullets and bombs.”

  “Yeah, except the one guy who discovered this search for a cure might be a hoax is murdered almost immediately.”

  Kadie backed down. Was he right? Was the search a hoax? What could Samuel have discovered? Who else could have known?

  “You know, I watched how your security guy acted when he realized you had Samuel’s laptop. He kind of went ballistic, like he found something he thought was long gone.”

  She thought about the comment. Curt did act strangely. “Perhaps he was just trying to account for company property.”

  “Maybe. But we left a lot more company property on the runway when we escaped that airfield.”

  She thought about the stacks of luggage and equipment they’d left. He was right. Inside, her emotions reeled. She didn’t know what to think or how to feel. Her head rested against the glass, and she stared in silence at the desert outside for several minutes.

  “Tell me about Brian,” Duke said.

  “What about him?”

  “What’s with his tumor?”

  “After my parent’s accident, he had severe headaches. The doctors took an MRI as a precaution to make sure he didn’t have a brain injury. That’s when they discovered the tumor. They did surgery to remove it, but the tumor came back. It’s a high-grade glioma tumor. A Grade 4 Astrocytomas Glioma.”

  “Astro—”

  “Astrocytomas. It can’t be cured because it spreads too fast throughout the normal brain tissue. Symptoms are seizures and physical weakness. As it gets worse, he’ll suffer memory loss, language problems, cognitive decline, and personality changes.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “We only have another three weeks here. When we get home, he’ll start oral chemotherapy with radiation and electric field therapy.”

  “Will that help?”

  “I hope so. There’s nothing else we can do.”

  Duke sat on his side of the car, wondering if he’d taken the conversation too far. This girl, no, this woman, was unique. Yes, she was attractive, but what she possessed inside compelled him to get closer to her. Her warmth and thoughtfulness for others seemed to drive her. He wondered why she lost her faith years ago. If there could ever be a chance with her, he would explore it. But like her brother, his time on earth was limited.

  Funny. After years of chasing Miss Right Now, never finding Miss Right, he found the first one that might qualify shortly before he would die. He came to grips with his mortality some time back. It wasn’t fair, and it wasn’t right to get involved with anyone else. Duke’s focus was on making things right with God. He had a lifetime of sins to account for. Thankfully, Jesus died to carry that burden for him.

  They reached the outskirts of Tel Aviv, and Duke looked at Kadie. Her eyes were closed as she rested her head against the window. She seemed so peaceful. It was a pity she had to go through the things she had in the last few days.

  “Kadie.” Duke nudged her gently.

  “Hmmm?”

  “Didn’t you say you still had Samuel’s USB drive and cell phone?”

  Kadie pushed away from the door, centering herself in the seat. She scanned her surroundings, disoriented by waking up in a car. Moments later, as she realized she was on the road to Tel Aviv, she calmly said, “Yes, why?”

  “Have you looked at them?”

  She shook her head. “I-I haven’t had time. Everything’s happened so fast, and then we went to Jerusalem.”

  “But you still have them, right?”

  “Yes, they’re in my go-bag. That was the only thing I brought on the plane.”

  “Samuel discovered something that got him killed. Don’t you think—”

  Kadie sat up straight, her eyes wide. “It makes sense! When I went to his room, an ISIS guy was standing over him, a bloody knife in his hands. He got scared, I guess. He ran out of the room when I showed up.”

  “I remember.”

  “That’s when I grabbed the laptop, USB drive, and phone. It must have been instinct. My subconscious protecting the company and the mission we’re on. I took them to my room, then returned to call the police. That’s when the killer came back. He threw a knife at my head. It missed by only a few inches. I turned and saw the size of that thing and decided it was time to go.”

  “Did the killer come back for the laptop?”

  “Maybe. I don’t really know.”

  “And that guy chased you through the city?”

  “Yes, along with two of his friends. It took a while to ditch them. The police detained me, then let me go. By the time I returned to the hotel, the police were everywhere. Curt said the decision had been made to go to the airfield.”

  Duke squinted. “Yeah, for a pick-up coordinated three days prior.”

  “This is too coincidental,” she said. “What should we do?”

  “Find out what’s on that USB drive no matter what.”

  16

  Tel Aviv, Israel


  The Market House Hotel

  * * *

  Kadie, Brian, and Duke arrived back at the hotel shortly after dark, tired from their long day. Kadie and Brian went inside while Duke paid the driver. Curt, his phone stuck to his ear, paced back and forth across the lobby, over the section of glass floor that displayed the Byzantine Church beneath. His animated motions must have chased everyone else from the area. He was not happy about something. When he saw her, his face clenched, and he hung up his phone.

  “Where have you been?” Curt yelled at her, the veins in his neck bulging.

  She stopped in her tracks. Where did that come from? “I-I . . . we went to see some sites in Jerusalem.” Kadie nodded toward Duke and Brian.

  Curt saw Duke approaching from behind her and grew even angrier. “You are not supposed to leave this hotel without notifying me first,” Curt’s voice remained loud and angry.

  “Where does it say that?”

  “It’s understood. That’s what you do.”

  “Says who?”

  “The contract you signed. I’m responsible for your safety. You can’t go traipsing around wherever you want.”

  “That didn’t seem to be a problem in Egypt.”

  Before he could respond, Duke stepped between them and stuck his finger in Curt’s chest. “Look pal, I suggest you settle down,” he said. “You treat this lady with some respect, or I’ll relieve some of that tension you’re showing on your face.”

  The two men glared at each other, their faces separated by inches. Curt backed off and stepped to the side to speak. “Kadie, I’m sorry. I have been worried sick about you. With ISIS after us, I was concerned for your safety. I searched for you all day and thought something happened to you. I couldn’t bear that.”

  “Israel is the safest country in the world,” Duke said.

  “Is that why they have soldiers standing around carrying rifles?”

  “That’s why it’s the safest place in the world. I feel safer here than in any U.S. city, that’s for sure.”