“This was the proof I needed,” Alice said as she stepped away from the case and watched differing views of the skull come and go on the large screens.
“But our proof…” Sarah said, and everyone noticed that she had said “our proof,” automatically aligning herself with Alice. “… is right here in the case.”
“And to risk a young man’s covert cover, and possibly his life, for evidence we already had minus the field report of a long dead Roman officer,” Jack said to Alice’s back, “is pretty weak stuff.”
“The proof I speak of isn’t the skull, although the report helped confirm my own research, it was the link I needed—the trail of provenance that’s required to declare an Event.” Alice turned back to the case. “Europa, bring the lighting up 80 percent please and place Items 4564 and 4565 from the file coded Grimm.”
“Yes, Mrs. Hamilton,” replied the Cray supercomputer and before she was finished with her response the ring of monitors came alive once again with alternating pictures of two items, both looking as if they were some sort of cloth.
Jack nodded his head only slightly as he knew exactly where Alice was headed with her proof because he had studied the same pictures and read the same Roman report as she, and that was exactly why this particular meeting was taking place.
“The two items you see are what is known as homespun. The weave itself is common enough throughout the known world for the time and place these two pieces of material were in actual use. These items were recovered from a sepulcher of ancient Egypt—northern Egypt to be precise. The dig was sponsored by the American University in Cairo five years ago. The material was commonly used by a shepherd or herdsman. The two swatches of cloth were recovered from the ancient site known to the modern world as the land of Goshen, the Hebrew city located northwest of the Nile.”
“A sepulcher? So you’re saying that these items came from a Hebrew crypt that was located in Goshen?” Virginia Pollock asked as she stood to get a closer look at the weave and the design of the pattern.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. Now if you will notice as Virginia already has, the distinct pattern woven into the swatch. Red, although faded, and a darker red, also in the same condition. This pattern was worn by the tribe of Levi, who served the other tribes of Israel and did particular religious duties for the entire nation. This particular pattern, designated by the second stripe here,” Alice pointed to the second of the three red-dyed stripes, “was worn by the men who were the suppliers of meat, milk, and grain for that particular tribe.”
“So you have made a connection between the petrified animal specimen you saw in Hong Kong to this?” Virginia asked. “I don’t see it. Where was this petrified animal bone recovered? You didn’t answer that.”
Alice smiled and looked at everyone around the table and ended with Jack.
“The ancient city where this specimen, the small piece of hewn stone encasing the flesh and bone of the animal, was recovered and then stolen from was the city of Jericho. A more exact location was the diggings at Tell es-Sultan in Palestinian-controlled territory.”
“Jericho, the city supposedly destroyed by the archangel Gabriel with his horn?” Jack asked.
“The same, but I suspect that there may have been a little more to the story.”
“Meaning what?” the colonel persisted.
“That maybe the attacking army laying siege to Jericho had a little more help in their assault than just Gabriel and his horn.”
Virginia looked at Jack and shook her head just enough so that he saw the disbelief in her eyes, and if he and Alice lost the deputy director that meant that Niles Compton would never accept Alice’s theory.
“That petrified bone was from a complete animal that Garrison Lee and I both saw on board the Golden Child. The damage to the remains had been great because it had been crushed between the two massive blocks that were widely known to have made the city impenetrable. The blocks had scorch marks dating back thousands of years.”
“Alice, I believe you saw what you saw,” Virginia said, “but actually saying this is a connection, well, that’s pretty slim.”
Jack had to agree with Virginia even though he knew different—was already convinced, whereas Virginia was not.
“Yes, slim until you put two and two together with the design of that material on the screen. That is a Levite section of cloth, there is no doubt of that. The city of Jericho was conquered by the Israelite army, which is a historical fact. An animal that is the exact match for the beast inside this case was found among the ruins of that city, entrapped at approximately the same moment as the city’s downfall. This second pattern on the screen—not the cloth depicting the hierarchy of the Levite tribe—but the second tier tribe that served the Levite known as the Jeddah.”
“I’ve never heard of them before,” Sarah said, looking at the difference between the two swatches of woven homespun.
“There’s good reason for that, Lieutenant. The Jeddah are one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, only the Jeddah tribe became lost long before the other nine.” She paused for effect. “At the same time as the fall of Jericho.”
There was silence around the room. Jack glanced at Ellenshaw and Golding, who were following the same trail as he had earlier when scanning the file. Now he could see how Alice convinced the two scientists to help her.
Alice could see she was losing Virginia and possibly even Sarah. She acted quickly.
“The proof of that particular timeline is confirmed by none other than Joshua himself as he listed the Jeddah as destroyed many years after the battle of Jericho in one of the first citizen censuses of the new Hebrew nation.”
Alice walked toward the specimen case once again. “Europa, replace the exhibits on the screen with Artifact 5657—Grimm, please.”
Again, Europa complied. On the screen was what looked like the exact same picture as before. The weave in this material was exactly the same as the one previous. This was the exact same pattern as the sub-tribe known as the Jeddah.
“The same cloth design and the exact same weave, so I assume this is the Jeddah?” Virginia asked.
“Yes,” answered Alice as she waited for Virginia’s next obvious question.
“Where was this material recovered and when?”
“The material is the exact same weave, color, and design as the Jeddah tribe with the one exception; this vertical stripe right here. This is a warrior’s mark. So we have another sub-tribe of the Levites. Still Jeddah, but this tribe was known as warriors that once guarded the northern gates of the Lower Kingdom of Egypt. They battled Libyans on a constant basis and are well documented through Egyptian accounts. This symbol and this design disappeared over three thousand years ago. This material in this photograph was recovered three weeks ago through a close contact Senator Lee and I have in Eastern Europe.”
Everyone inside the vault, including Jack, heard Alice use Senator Lee’s name in the present tense.
“This material is only one year old and is still in use in the high Carpathian Mountains of Romania, by villagers in the remote mountain passes of that country.”
“And it is connected by…” Jack prompted.
“By this,” Alice said, holding up a facsimile of the Roman action report filed by Centurion Marcus Paleternus Tapio. “It says the battle took place in a pass known then as Lup Pass, or in English, Wolf Pass, today known by the name Patinas. It was once protected land handed down since the time of Vlad Tepes, or as many of you know him, the Impaler, who sanctioned the area and kept hands off by every ruler on down the line as a reward by Vlad for aid rendered by that region’s inhabitants during the invasion of the Ottoman Empire in 1456 through 1462. What that aid was to Prince Vlad is unknown, but well documented by none other than the Holy Roman Church, another small connection, or coincidence.”
“The Patinas Pass is in—” Virginia started to ask.
“The Carpathian Mountains, located in a region once known as ancient Walachia, or otherwise
known as Vlad Tepes Dracul’s Transylvania. The land of vampires and werewolves,” Alice said in a mysteriously mocking tone as she glanced at Charles Hindershot Ellenshaw III, who nodded his head in appreciation of her inflection.
“Perhaps you can explain why you think this region is noteworthy for the existence of your wolves,” Jack urged as he looked closely at the cloth depicted on the many screens inside the vault.
“Because of this.” Alice smiled at Jack, silently thanking him because now she realized what his game was. “Europa, display Exhibit 6758—Grimm on the screen please.”
On the monitors around the vault appeared a hundred pictures of an old woman. They were differing views in a number of locations.
“She looks like an old-time Gypsy in some of the pictures, and in others she looks quite regal, not Gypsy-like at all.”
Alice smiled at Virginia, who never missed anything. “Correct, she is a Gypsy, and she is regal indeed. Her name is, or was, Madam Ladveena Korvesky. In 1946 she was known as the queen of Gypsies. She was hunted by soldiers of Germany during the war and protected by soldiers of communist puppet Ceauşescu during the Cold War. She is an enigma. She had strange enemies and even stranger allies.”
“What have you learned of her?” Virginia asked.
“What I’ve learned is what prompted me to involve our friends here, Professor Ellenshaw and Dr. Golding. We managed to track her movements by Europa’s prowess at breaking and entering into other systems.” Pete Golding beamed but stopped when he saw the scowl on the colonel’s face. He just looked down after that. “The census for the last communist count inside Romania listed her in the region known as the Patinas Pass.”
“Coincidence?” the assistant director asked.
“Not hardly. This woman here is the key. We know absolutely nothing about Gypsies unlike what we do of the other peoples of Europe and America, but we do know this woman is respected by every band of Gypsies around the world. The reason for this is unknown.”
“Also because Gypsies have been long rumored to be one of the Lost Tribes of Israel,” Charlie Ellenshaw interjected.
“Yes, along with the American Indian and also the Ethiopians, all ridiculous hypotheses,” Virginia countered.
“Yes, on the surface, but couple everything with the fact that this woman and her granddaughter went on board the Golden Child for the specific reason of destroying that stone block with the remains inside of it, and to me there’s too much coincidence here.”
“And this is the granddaughter?” Virginia asked as she looked closely at the dark-haired woman.
“Yes, she actually admitted to the sabotage of the Golden Child as she mocked us afterward.”
Jack looked closely at the picture of the young granddaughter that Alice had uncovered in her research. That was the face that had awakened him in his quarters after he saw those same facial features in another photo he had been sent. He listened as Alice continued.
“Look, the evidence is here, there are no coincidences. There are two mysteries here on why I believe an Event designation should be declared. Declared because I think history is changing right before our eyes. The answer to the riddle of the animals is tied to their role in helping and then hiding something that has been an actual legend for three thousand years—the location and circumstance of one of the Lost Tribes of Israel—and that, ladies and gentlemen, is why a history-altering Event needs to be declared.”
This time the room fell silent. Even Charlie Ellenshaw and Pete Golding looked up with pounding headaches and saw that Alice had actually requested an Event. All eyes went to Jack, who stood looking at Alice.
“And what do you propose, Mrs. Hamilton?” he asked.
Alice looked from face to face and then glanced into the darkness of the viewing gallery above. She smiled and looked at Collins.
“This old lady thinks we should get to the Carpathians and see what sort of animal and Gypsy-style life may be hiding up there.” She kept her smile in place as she looked again to the darkened gallery above them. “And maybe discover one of the hiding places of a tribe of Israelites that supposedly vanished sometime after Moses led his nation out of Egypt. That’s all.”
The stunned silence overwhelmed the small vault. No one could really talk, as proof as thin as this had never been accepted for an Event. Charlie was the first to lower his head.
Jack met the eyes of Sarah and slowly shook his head.
“Europa, monitors off, please.”
The dim lighting held the vault in shadows as the monitors with the pictures of the two Gypsies from Alice’s tale vanished. The room was silent as Collins looked at Alice and then turned toward the darkness of the student seating gallery.
“What do you think, Mr. Director? Does Mrs. Hamilton have enough proof to call an Event?”
“No, Mrs. Hamilton does not.”
All eyes turned and looked up.
“Europa, lighting up one hundred percent please.”
As the gallery lights came on to full power everyone in the vault saw Director Niles Compton as he sat stoically with one leg crossed over the other and his fingers steepled under his chin. Niles slowly stood from his seat and walked to the railing and looked down into the vault. His white shirt had its sleeves rolled to his elbows in his usual mode of dress, as was the tie halfway unknotted as he placed both hands on the railing in front of him.
“You know how long I have wanted to believe in this theory? Hell, I believe everything Alice has said. But everyone here knows what kind of pressure it takes to declare an Event. There’s just not enough here.”
“Niles, I—” Alice started to say but Niles held up his hand. Even Jack was now feeling uncomfortable, thinking this may have been a bad plan.
“Please, Alice, allow me some time here.”
Alice lowered her eyes and nodded.
“Thank you. I have hated that thing, that pile of bones and fur, since I first laid eyes on it. It went against everything my education told me was possible. Even after all we have discovered in just my time here. It’s unbelievable I could have had such a closed mind when it came to … well, what amounted to a werewolf. Even Charlie here thought the possibility was ridiculous many years ago.” Ellenshaw again nodded his head. “But Alice, you got to the professor and eventually convinced him, and then Pete, and now Colonel Collins.”
Jack looked at Niles and wondered where the director was going with this.
Compton removed his hands from the rail and put them in his pants pockets and started pacing along the railing over their heads.
“I can’t fight everyone. It’s an intriguing story, I will grant you that. I am also impressed with your research, Alice, but why should that surprise me? But until I get something that ties all of this together other than a few pieces of old cloth and a rock that has a petrified bone in it and a story about how a bunch of Gypsies have a connection to an ancient tribe of Israel, I have to say no. This is not an Event, and thus far there is no indication that history took a turn at that point … sorry, just not at this time.”
The vault fell silent on the last word on Alice’s Event.
“Colonel,” the director said, “this situation may change if we come across more on this Mossad quest to find out information on Alice’s wolves.”
“I would like to present one more piece of evidence if I could that is related to that very subject,” Alice interjected.
Niles pursed his lips and then nodded his head.
“Europa, bring up secure File 22167—Goliath, please.”
On the screen the picture of the exact same young woman came up, only this one was in color and looked far newer. Alice turned to Jack and her face was a mask etched with questions.
“This can’t be! How old is this picture?” Alice finally asked. “It’s the same girl from the Golden Child, the granddaughter!”
“Well, if you’re correct, Alice, the young woman you’re looking at in this picture, the same woman you met in 1949 and caught in a pi
cture that was taken just yesterday afternoon, is quite spunky for her age.”
“How old is she, Colonel?” Sarah asked.
“The young lady would have to be well over eighty-seven years old.”
5
BEIT AGHION, JERUSALEM, OFFICIAL RESIDENCE OF ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER
Mossad Lieutenant General Addis Shamni sat patiently in an overstuffed chair outside the prime minister’s study. He felt uncomfortable having been led through the back reaches of the residence in order to avoid the constant throng of press and protesters that occupied most of the front area of the residence at the corner of Balfour and Smolenskin streets. Shamni adjusted his uncomfortable behind in a chair that seemed to swallow him whole.
“General, the prime minister will see you now,” the stern-looking assistant said as she stepped from the study and held the sliding doors open for the general.
Shamni adjusted the civilian sport coat and plain blue shirt he wore in place of his usual army uniform and stepped through the threshold and into the chamber of the most powerful man in the Middle East. The general saw the prime minister as he sat at his desk with his head down and was writing furiously, with his nose only inches from the paper. Shamni stood at attention through force of habit.
“Relax, General, I know how you hate being drawn out of your lair in Tel Aviv, but no one’s going to shoot you here for not acting like a soldier,” the bespectacled man of sixty-eight said and finally stopped writing long enough to look at a man he had known for over thirty years. They had served in the same company during the war of ’73 and had remained close ever since. “Besides, being a soldier here doesn’t matter much because any infiltrator to the residence would go after me first and that would give you time to get out.”
The general finally saw the smile he had known since the seventies and he did relax.
“So our problems in Rome seem to have gotten away from us, yes?” the prime minister asked as he returned to his writing after asking the direct question.
Carpathian: An Event Group Thriller (Event Group Thrillers) Page 18