‘You mean like Eli in Safed?’ said Jack as he reached for the guy tucked into his waistband and tried to figure out through the pounding rain where they were.
‘Hand over the tablet,’ the man shouted again.
Jack assessed their situation. He was at the top of a tiny hill in the middle of fields. They had no escape route.
‘Mina,’ he hissed, ‘take a photograph of the tablet, quickly.’
She was petrified.
‘Mina!’ he repeated.
‘My camera’s flash doesn’t work. What should I do?’ she asked.
‘Don’t you have your notebook?’ he muttered.
‘Yes.’
‘Well get on with it,’ Jack replied instantly ‘while I think of something.’
Mina started copying the signs on the tablet as fast as she could, but it was hard work, writing while holding an umbrella at the same time.
‘Hand it over,’ yelled the man from below, ‘and you have our word you won’t be harmed. We’re only interested in the tablet.’
‘So you work for Shobai?’ shouted Jack. ‘He doesn’t mind murdering old men?’
‘That was a mistake, our brother shouldn’t have killed the old man in Safed. All we want is the tablet.’
By this time, the river had broken its banks and overflowed into the fields, which were so flat the water quickly reached the lower part of the mound. Jack looked at Mina, scribbling away feverishly in her notebook. He had to gain more time. He heard the man shouting something from below.
‘You’re still there?’ asked Jack to the voice down below.
‘Yes,’ said the man.
‘You’re still there?’ repeated Jack, pretending not to hear.
‘Major, I told you, I am not going without the tablet,’ said the man.
‘What do you want with it?’ asked Jack.
‘That is not your concern. We don’t want to harm you. Just give us the tablet. You will never see us again.’
Jack turned to Mina and whispered, ‘Have you finished?’
‘Almost,’ she replied. She looked up and saw the water rising almost to her feet. She yelped. ‘How are we going to get out of here Jack?’
‘We’ll swim if need be,’ he replied grimly.
Jack suddenly realised he shouldn’t have wasted time talking to Mina. He had misjudged his opponents. There were two of them, but he had been speaking to only one. Where was the other man? He quickly turned around and there he was, climbing the other side of the mound. He had circled it while Jack was foolishly trying to gain precious time by bartering with the other man. It was too late. Before he could dive behind the tree, the man shot Jack twice. The force of the impact spun him around, and with a thud, he fell down on the sodden ground.
‘Jack!’ screamed Mina.
The man then took a shot at Mina, who instinctively flung her arms up to protect her face. The bullet hit the clay tablet still clutched in her hands, which shattered into tiny pieces and plopped into the rising waters. In shock, she watched the pieces sink into nothingness.
‘Yakov, we must go. We’re done here,’ shouted the first man, from down below.
‘I’m coming,’ he called, throwing a last look at a pitiful Mina, who had crawled to Jack’s body and was hugging him to her, her tears merging with the steady rain.
‘Are they gone?’ muttered Jack.
‘You’re alive? Oh Jack, I thought you were dead!’
‘Have they gone?’ he asked again, weakly.
‘Yes,’ she answered.
‘I think he shot me below the shoulder, I’m losing a lot of blood. The other bullet just grazed my wrist. We need to get back to the cottage.’
He was breathing heavily and his head was spinning. They waded through the muddy water, Mina supporting him most of the way, until they reached the main road which, fortunately, wasn’t flooded. From there they managed to make faster progress back to the cottage. As they reached it, Jack slumped, unconscious, on the doorstep, finally overcome.
Chapter 27
December 20th. Hildersham. Mulberry Cottage
Mina stayed by Jack’s bedside in the upstairs room for two days. When they had returned on that fateful night, Joshua had made up his mind quickly. Although Jack had lost a lot of blood he was confident he could take care of him at home rather than take him to hospital, where they would have had to explain the gunshot wound. Jack had drifted in and out of consciousness the first night and had slept through most of the next day. This morning Joshua had pronounced that he was out of danger and was recovering. Mina thanked the heavens in a silent prayer, and kissed Jack’s brow.
Joshua and Daniel were sitting downstairs, discussing Mina’s notes. The night she returned with Jack, she gave Daniel what was left of her soaked notebook. He had managed to salvage most of it, but some parts were missing. On the second day, Mina had translated viva voce what was left of the cuneiform inscription she had copied in the storm, and this was what Joshua and Daniel were now discussing.
‘There you are, Mina. How’s Jack?’ asked Daniel.
‘He’s much better. We spoke a little, but he fell asleep again.’
‘I’m still stupefied,’ Joshua said to Mina, ‘to realise that the tablet was hidden under Noah’s Ark and not in the church.
I cared for this church all my life and my father before me! Never mind, I’ll probably never be able to resolve that mystery. How do you feel about talking over your translation of the tablet?’ Joshua asked.
‘Alright,’ replied Mina.
‘OK. Unfortunately, we’ve lost the introductory elements so I don’t know how the Babylonian scientists made their predictions,’ said Daniel.
‘They weren’t really scientists, you know, Daniel,’ replied Mina.
‘Are we going to quibble about terminology?’ asked Daniel.
‘No, no. So what do we have?’
‘We have a series of omens and lots of equations. I don’t know if they are dates, astronomical precisions, places, or something else. I just can’t tell.’
At that moment, they heard footsteps coming down the stairs.
‘Jack,’ said Mina, ‘are you crazy? You should be resting right now.’
‘I’ve rested enough, and I can’t leave the three of you to figure it all out without me.’ They laughed. Daniel fetched cushions for Jack, as he fell into an armchair.
‘Man, I’m exhausted,’ Jack said. ‘So where were you?’
‘Well, we were just assessing what we’ve got so far,’ said Daniel.
‘And?’ asked Jack.
‘Not much. Have a look,’ he said, handing him Mina’s translation of the tablet.
After a few moments, Jack put the notes down, ‘I have an idea. It isn’t really my field but I think some of these are mathematical equations, a little basic, but very effective in flood management. I had no idea they were so advanced. I mean, really. Sure, there have always been floods, but we have always considered flood management to be something new.’
‘But what about ancient dams, Jack?’ said Mina.
‘There’s more to flood management than just a dam. How do you build a dam? Which material do you choose, inclinations, localisation, height, etc. and for each new variable, new equations. We’re talking about complex systems.’
‘And can you tell which equations have to do with flood management techniques?’ asked Daniel.
‘Maybe,’ said Jack.
‘Fantastic,’ said Mina, ‘could you do that while we work on the rest? But take it easy.’
‘Alright. First I will take a nap,’ he replied, smiling at Mina.
Later that evening, Jack woke up in the armchair to find Mina and Daniel’s heads almost touching, so focused were they on the translation. Mina turned around to see Jack’s pointed gaze, drilling an imaginary hole into Daniel’s skull. She gave him a look in return which said ‘You’re being silly.’
Knowing that he was still watching her, she pretended to yawn and stretched her back, lifting h
er arms above her head and arching her back towards Jack. He was mesmerised by the outline of her figure under her tight jeans. Had he not been recovering from a serious wound, he would have grabbed her by the waist there and then and pulled her to him. Instead all he could do was stare.
Daniel sat up suddenly, totally oblivious to what was passing between Jack and Mina.
‘We’ve made some progress, but we’ll need you to explain the equations,’ said Daniel.
‘Alright, alright. I’ll get down to it. I’ll need a pen and paper.’
‘Here you go,’ Daniel said, handing him what he needed.
Jack read through Mina’s translation and understood why they had been so transfixed. It was a maze of calculations, imbedded within the biblical flood narrative. It was very weird, but quite clearly it was done on purpose to hide their findings. An hour later, he had finished.
‘Here you go,’ he said. Mina and Daniel turned around together.
‘Can you explain what you’ve found, Jack?’
‘Well, I’ve highlighted what I think are equations to do with flood management, and what I think is astronomical data.’
‘That’s great. Astrological information could be the key,’ said Daniel.
‘I said astronomy,’ said Jack, ‘don’t go confusing science with hocus pocus astrology.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Daniel.
‘I’ll tell you what I mean,’ replied Jack. ‘There are two hundred and fifty billion stars in our own galaxy and over one hundred billion galaxies swirling about in space. That’s a lot of stars in space to be influencing or predetermining a man’s personality, or his direction in life. How many planets and stars did Babylonian astrologers know and use at the time, and how many are used today?’
‘That’s not the point,’ said Daniel. ‘Babylonian astrology focused on predicting events that affected the entire nation and its cities. Whatever it is today, astrology then was about trying to predict future meteorological events, earthquakes, famines, wars.’
‘I still think it’s horseshit,’ said Jack, ‘the only thing this tablet does is give a few exact moments in the sky. It’s astronomical information.’
‘He’s right you know,’ said Mina to Daniel.
‘He might be right, but how did they find these dates or places, if not through astrology?’ asked Daniel.
‘That, I don’t know,’ she answered, ‘it could be through a number of different observations. We don’t have that part of the text.’
‘OK. Jack, what about dates?’ asked Daniel.
But Jack had already fallen asleep.
Chapter 28
December 21st, 2004. Hildersham. Mulberry Cottage
Mina peeped through Jack’s door. ‘Morning Jack.’
Jack had had a rough night, but he felt better this morning.
‘Morning beautiful.’ She came and sat on the edge of his bed.
‘We’re making progress,’ she said. ‘Come down for breakfast and we’ll tell you all about it.’
‘You know, if you’d rather I stayed up here, just tell me. I’ll leave the two of you alone,’ said Jack.
‘Jack, you aren’t really jealous of Daniel, are you?’ Mina asked, grinning.
‘Me. Never. Why? Should I be?’
‘No, you shouldn’t,’ she said, and she slowly bent down to kiss him.
Just as they were about to share their first kiss, they heard Joshua at the door and sprung up out like guilty teenagers. Joshua came in to check on his patient. After examining him, he announced that he was quite satisfied with his condition.
‘Jack, I’m amazed by your recovery. You must be made of steel,’ he said appreciatively.
‘I know, doc, it’s my curse,’ said Jack with a smile.
‘You’re almost as good as new,’ said Joshua.
‘It’s all thanks to you. I owe you one.’
‘Bring this whole matter to a close and you won’t owe me anything.’
‘I’ll do my best,’ said Jack.
When Jack eventually came downstairs, he found Mina and Daniel sitting at the breakfast table, arguing about the notes, which put Jack in an excellent mood.
‘We’re not getting anywhere,’ said Mina.
‘I don’t agree,’ said Daniel.
‘What’s going on?’ Jack said, pulling up a chair.
But Mina went on regardless. ‘Alright Daniel, maybe you’re right, but how do you explain the term ocean of water?’
‘It must be an image to describe the huge scale of the flood.’
‘And the mouth of the earth?’
‘That I don’t know. I’ve thought about it the entire night and I still don’t have a clue.’
‘But what sort of river flood are they talking about?’ asked Jack, ‘what sort of flood could be that awful that they’d think of warning us thousands of years ago? Are we talking about a major city?’
‘That’s why we may be wrong in our interpretation of the text,’ said Daniel.
‘What if my first guess was wrong, and what I took for flood management measurements were actually successive dates, maybe encrypted?’ said Jack.
‘Come on Jack, Daniel has been at this for days,’ said Mina.
‘I don’t know,’ said Jack, ‘even if we had a perfect description of a star position, we’d still need another event to compare it with.’
‘Mina, he may be right. Let me try out his theory.’
Daniel stayed at the kitchen table, covering sheets with calculations. Suddenly he looked up, dazed and rushed to his laptop. He typed ‘1755 flood’ into Google. As he read through the results, his face drained of colour. Jack and Mina looked at him, as he frantically scribbled more calculations. After a while, he turned to Mina and Jack, horror-struck, and motioned for them to approach the screen.
‘Jack was right. It is a date. I thought to myself, we have a date, 1755, the year the letter was sent to Safed from Hildersham. It’s a weird letter. There’s no other correspondence between the two places. What if Alejandro Cardozo and his family fled Portugal for some imperative reason and needed to write to say the tablet was safe? What if something dramatic happened in 1755? Well something did happen that year: the Lisbon earthquake. It’s one of the worst earthquakes ever recorded in history and it was followed by a horrifying tidal wave on November 1st, 1755, at about 10.25 am. It killed over sixty thousand people.’
Mina did not respond. Her smile had vanished. She was thinking back to the letter Yeshua had written to his brother. It was dated December 1755. So Yeshua had left Lisbon with his family after the earthquake. Had he known how to use the tablet, surely he’d have left the city weeks beforehand. So why had he taken the tablet with him? She could only conclude that it was his duty to preserve the family’s treasure out of respect for his ancestors. And, as it said in his letter, he’d keep on taking care of the tablet until the day it could be returned to the Jerusalem temple and used appropriately. ‘Simply stupefying,’ thought Mina.
‘When and where will the next natural disaster hit?’ asked Jack, whose brain, as ever, was trying to ignore the horrifying details and move to practical considerations.
‘Oh I think I know,’ said Daniel.
‘So, tell us!’ said Jack and Mina in unison.
‘I calculated backwards from 1755 to find out what the date would have been in Babylonian terms… I used an online calculator. It seems that some astronomers spend a lot of time writing such software. To cut a long story short, the next gigantic natural disaster, whatever form it takes – earthquake, flood, eruption or other – will happen on 26th December, 2014. But we have no idea where it will hit. I wish we still possessed the stone tablet I found in Mosul. Maybe the clue was there? What are we supposed to do? I mean, we can’t exactly make a list of all the great rivers, volcanoes, seismic faults in the world and warn everyone living nearby, can we?’
Daniel came running into the room where Jack was re-checking his calculations.
‘Jack! Mina has found
out where it will hit.’
They both went to the kitchen.
‘Boys,’ said Mina, ‘I’m pretty sure it will hit in the middle of the Indian Ocean. I’ve calculated the planetary and star alignment described in the text, and it corresponds roughly to the sky map on the 26th above the middle of the Indian Ocean.’
Jack looked at her calculations dubiously, but Daniel seemed uplifted. ‘Jack, let’s assume Mina is right. How bad do you think this could be? I mean, really, an earthquake in an ocean isn’t going to do much is it?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe you’re wrong about the location.’
‘Maybe. In any case, we have ten years to prepare, to do more research, and warn the appropriate authorities.’ Mina smiled and felt more hopeful than she had in weeks.
Mulberry Cottage. Later that afternoon
Mina, Jack and the Bamarts were relaxing in the living room. They could at last enjoy a peaceful afternoon together, without fear. Jack kept stealing glances at Mina. He still could not believe they had survived their ordeal and were having tea and scones in this delightful cottage. They had a decade to prepare for the worst.
‘Mina?’ asked Jack, idly stroking her hand.
‘Yes?’
‘Would you like to spend the Christmas holiday with me?’
‘I’d love that. With everything we’ve been through, I’d completely forgotten about Christmas. I’ll need to call my parents first, they expected me to be back home over the holidays.’
‘I don’t know how you managed that in England!’ said Daniel.
‘Managed what?’
‘Well, not noticing it was Christmas! People go nuts over Christmas in this country. You must have noticed the decorations, the Father Christmases and decorated crackers all over Cambridge?’
‘Nope. I’ve been immersed in the ancient tablet world the entire time,’ she replied. ‘Where are we going?’ She asked Jack, ‘West Virginia?’
‘No. I was thinking of somewhere more exotic,’ he broke off, smiling.
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