by John Lyman
“It looks like I’ll have to request a leave of absence from my teaching position,” Leo said. “It would be an honor, Lev.”
Lev fixed his eyes on John. “What about you, John?”
“I believe joining your team is the reason we’ve come here, Professor. Father Morelli sent us to the Holy Land with a definite purpose in mind, and even if we’re not sure what that is right now, I know he wanted us all to be together.”
“Good. It’s final then. Baruch haba!” Lev used the Hebrew phrase for welcome.
Moshe stood from his place on the couch and gave Lev a sly wink. “Why don’t we take them downstairs and show them around our little playground?”
Lev smiled when he saw the puzzled looks on Leo and John’s faces. “Follow me. I think this is something you will both find interesting.” John and Leo traded looks before following Lev and his team down one of the side hallways to an alcove with a staircase descending below ground level. Following a short hallway at the bottom of the stairs, they passed through a double-wide doorway and entered a dimly lit room painted dark gray.
There were two rows of glass-topped tables holding several computer screens and keyboards. Five enormous flat-panel screens lined one wall, and another side of the room had a thick, vault-like steel door in the center. The opposite wall was taken up with an enormous map of Israel and a large erasable board covered in Hebrew writing.
The back of the room held a communications center and was separated from the rest of the space by a floor-to-ceiling glass wall. This area looked like something one would see in a command bunker at NASA and created a futuristic-looking backdrop to the scene. The light from the large screens on the wall infused the area with a bluish hue, while small spotlights scattered in the ceiling created pools of white light around the room.
“I’m not a military man,” Leo said, “but this looks to me like some kind of command center.”
“You’re right,” Moshe said. “That’s exactly what it is. You’re standing in the command center for the Bible Code Team. I copied it from the one I had in the army.”
John was amazed. “It looks like you’re still in command of an army. This place is really something.”
“These are our computer stations, which are connected to a larger mainframe,” Ariella explained. “The main computer is programmed with a powerful Bible code search engine. Just enter any word or phrase, and the computer will begin searching in an effort to pinpoint its encoded location in the Bible. Our portable laptops have similar software for field use.”
John and Leo walked around the room with Lev, taking in the layout and looking at all of the equipment, while the Israelis continued to study the two new members of their team.
From one of the tables, Alon grabbed a small radio and clipped it to his belt before plugging in the tiny earpiece and boom microphone. He then walked over to the locked vault door and entered a code into a keypad on the wall. The thick steel door opened slowly, allowing Alon to enter the vault and return with a backpack and a large pistol in a shoulder holster. He motioned to John. “Come with me.”
John cast a “who, me?” look at Alon. “Where are we going?”
“Outside for a quick patrol of the perimeter.”
Sizing up Alon, who truly did seem as solid as an oak tree, John knew it was pointless asking any more questions. Looking back over his shoulder at Leo, he timidly followed Alon up the stairs, looking like a teenager who had just stepped off the bus to boot camp trailing behind his new drill instructor.
Once outside in the bright sunshine, Alon explained to John that the property was surrounded by individual rings of security. Walking past a young man armed with an assault rifle, the two continued along the sand dunes for a quarter of a mile until Alon came to a stop at the perimeter of the property.
“What do you see?” Alon asked.
Looking down the line of shifting sand dunes toward the villa in the distance, John was puzzled by the question. “I’m not sure what you’re asking, Alon. I see the ocean, fields of crops, some houses, and the villa over there. Other than that, I just see sand dunes and some palm trees.”
“That’s all we want people to see.”
Opening his olive-colored backpack, Alon pulled out a small shovel and a device that resembled a mini metal detector. Pointing the device at the ground, he began scanning the sandy soil around them. After receiving a strong, audible signal, he began to dig. Barely three shovelfuls of sand later, he exposed the tip of a wire connected to a black plastic box.
“There. That’s a motion detector,” Alon said. “They’re all around the perimeter. When anything crosses this area, an alarm goes off and the exact location of an intruder flashes on a computer screen in the command post by the front gate.”
“Pretty impressive, but why are you showing me this? I’m not a security person or a soldier. Do you want me to help you patrol around the villa for terrorists or something?”
“No, I’m sorry, of course not, John. We have our own trained people for that, although in this country, we’re all soldiers until a certain age. Something happened a few hours ago that you need to know about.”
Alon scooped sand back over the motion detector, and the two began heading back down the line of dunes. They were almost to the villa when John noticed the blue flashing lights of an Israeli police vehicle as it raced through the front gate, followed by two dark-brown military Humvees. Holding his hand to his earpiece, Alon said something in Hebrew into the microphone and began running toward the villa while signaling for John to follow.
The vehicles skidded to a halt on the circular gravel driveway in front of the house and several uniformed police officers piled out, dragging two handcuffed men dressed in suits with them. A senior officer approached Alon, and after a brief exchange, everyone headed inside.
“What’s going on?” John asked. “What are all these police doing here?”
“I believe this has something to do with what I was getting ready to tell you about. Come on. Let’s go inside.”
The police led the men through the doors of the main entrance, where they came face-to-face with Lev and the rest of his team standing at the bottom of a winding staircase.
“Are these the two men we called you about, Commander?” Lev asked.
“Yes, sir. The license plate on their car matches the number you gave us and they have pictures of the villa on their digital cameras. We stopped them about twenty miles south of here outside of Tel Aviv.”
Lev patted the police commander on the shoulder. “Nice work, David. Thanks for helping us out.” Lev had known this policeman since he was just a boy, the son of a close friend. “Have they said anything to you?”
“Not a word. Here are their IDs and passports.”
“They’re not Israeli?”
“Look for yourself, Professor. These guys are Swiss Guards from the Vatican.”
The two men in handcuffs shot glances at Leo and John, followed by a quick look back in the direction of the police commander.
“Well, it looks like some of your friends from Rome followed you two here,” Lev said. “Undoubtedly, whomever these men take their orders from knows exactly where you two are.”
John and Leo were speechless. They believed they were free from the intrigue and dangers they had faced in Rome. Now, in the foyer of Lev’s villa in Israel, they had two Vatican security men standing right in front of them.
“What are they going to do with them, Lev?” Leo asked. “Can we speak to them?”
The police commander faced Leo. “I’m sorry, sir, but they’re in our custody now. We can’t allow you to talk to them, but I assure you, we will find out what they are doing in our country. For now, they will be charged with trespassing. After we find out why they were taking pictures of the villa, they may have additional charges added on.”
“Do you know when they arrived from Rome?” Moshe asked.
“According to customs, they checked into the airport three days ago.”
“That’s before we arrived,” John said.
Alon looked at John. “It’s also before we knew you were coming.”
Lev handed the passports back to David. “There are still a lot of questions to be answered, and we need to let you do your job and see where that leads us. Thank you for bringing them by, David.”
Ariella stepped forward and gave the police officer some photos the security force at the villa had taken of the men from a hidden rooftop camera. These included pictures of the vehicle’s license plate and one of the men talking on a cell phone.
“One picture is worth a thousand words,” Lev said, looking at the photos in the police commander’s hands. “I sure would like to know who he was talking to.”
The police commander nodded his head. “So would we …we’re working on that. I’ll give you a call, Professor, if we learn anything else that might be of value to you. Shalom.”
“Shalom,” the group responded as the police led the two men away.
“That was amazing,” John said. “If you don’t mind, Alon, I’d like to spend some time learning all I can about the security precautions you guys use.”
The Israelis smiled as Alon slapped John on the back. “Then tomorrow we start with target practice. You’ll be like a soldier when I get through with you. An Israeli-trained soldier.”
“I can’t figure out how they knew we would be here,” Leo said. “These people are really spooky. Father Morelli said our lives would be in danger-that there are dark forces aligned against us. I only hope those forces don’t already have the upper hand.”
“At least we had the upper hand today, Father,” Lev said.
“True, but those men were human. All the motion detectors and weapons in the world are useless if we come up against a supernatural force.”
The others sobered noticeably when Leo mentioned the word supernatural.
Leo looked across the foyer and noticed Daniel walking from the hallway with a sheaf of papers in his hands.
“Professor Wasserman, I think you need to see something.”
“What have you got there, Daniel?”
“It’s a printout of something I just found in that section of the Bible we’ve been trying to decipher for the past two months.”
Lev slipped on his glasses and took the printout from Daniel.
“When were you able to reveal this part of the code?”
“About half an hour ago. I looked around to tell you, but everyone had left.”
As one of the world’s premier code breakers, Daniel was the typical scholar who tended to get so focused on his work that he was oblivious to all outside distractions.
Lev raised the glasses up on top of his head after reading the first page of the printout. “I think we all need to go back downstairs to the command center and have a little meeting.”
Everyone crowded down the narrow stairway into the command center and watched as Lev scrolled through several encoded pages of the Bible at his computer station. He paused to read before looking up at the large screen in the front of the room. “Daniel, can you bring up a map of the area around the Dead Sea on that screen?”
“Sure, Professor.” Daniel punched in coordinates on the keyboard, and the large center screen lit up with a multicolored interactive map of the area.
“Zero in south of the Dead Sea. I want to enlarge that area of the desert.”
Daniel continued to type, causing the display to zoom in on a sun-baked wilderness known as the Negev Desert.
“There,” Lev said, “that’s the area Daniel just pinpointed using the code in the Bible.”
Leo stared at the screen. “What are we looking at, Lev?”
“Since last summer, we’ve been trying to pinpoint the location of something we discovered in the code-a physical place that harbors an evolving disturbance in relation to the balance between good and evil in the world. We also found an encoded reference to an object connected to this disturbance. There’s something out there. It’s probably been there for thousands of years, and we believe it’s very important to none other than Satan himself.”
“Did I hear you correctly, Professor?” John asked. “Did you say something important to Satan?”
“Yes, very important. Daniel just found the exact latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates of this area, along with several combinations of words spelled out in close proximity to each other embedded in the Bible. According to the code, these coordinates point directly to an area here on earth reserved for Satan. It also states that this area is ferociously guarded by him. There is something of great value to Satan at that location, and that is where we must go.”
The rest of the team stood in stunned silence. They knew the Bible code was leading them somewhere, but they had not prepared themselves for anything like this. They were being led into the heart of the barren Negev Desert, to a place spelled out as Satan’s domain here on earth.
Father Leo took a few steps toward the screen. “Father Morelli indicated to me in a letter that what we are looking for is very old, dating to the time when Lucifer was cast from heaven by God. That much we know. What we don’t know is what ‘it’ is. Morelli also warned that this may have some connection with the end of days for humanity. As you might guess, this undertaking could be extremely dangerous, both physically and spiritually. The fact that we must travel to an area said to be reserved for Satan here on earth is especially disturbing to me. I’ve never read anything in biblical literature that mentions anything about a specific place on earth set aside for Satan.”
“How can a place here on earth be held in reserve for Satan?” John asked, incredulous at the thought. “I mean, really, was that an allegorical reference, or do you seriously believe that we’ll be entering Satan’s actual domain?”
“Let me answer that question,” Daniel said. He entered some commands on the keyboard, and a page from the Bible written in Hebrew appeared. Circled in red were the translated words Negev Desert crossed by the words Satan’s domain. Next to these words was the phrase, the five chosen must enter.
Daniel looked up from his computer. “As you can see for yourself, this phrase appears to mean a physical spot here on earth. It also gives the exact number of those who will enter this area. The code is usually pretty specific in its wording.”
Those who were seeing this for the first time found themselves staring slack-jawed at the screen. But there was more to come.
“Daniel, bring up the next page,” Lev said.
Another page of the Torah appeared on the screen. The phrase that which belongs to Satan, was spelled out vertically. On top of that, they saw the words they will give it to God displayed across the top of the page. To the right was the name Leo. To the left of Leo’s name were the names John, Alon, Ariella, and Lev. Crossing both Leo’s and Lev’s names horizontally was the word leaders. Crossing the other names was one word: chosen.
Leo had to physically steady himself. Morelli had specifically told Leo that he had been named in the Bible code as a leader, but here for the first time, he saw his name actually encoded in God’s book. Lev turned to him and clasped the priest on the shoulder.
“You can’t get much more specific than that, Father.”
“What does the phrase ‘they will give it to God’ mean?” Ariella asked.
“I believe it means that five who will enter Satan’s domain will be tasked by God to actually take something that belongs to the Devil and give it to God,” Lev said.
“How do you go about giving something to God?” Moshe asked. The others nodded in his direction, everyone thinking the same thing.
John felt a chill run up his spine. “And how do you take something from Satan? It seems like every time we find an answer, another question pops up.”
Like the humidity from the sea air that flowed through the windows upstairs and crept down the stairway to mix with the cool, air-conditioned environment of the command center, an uneasy silence descended on the group.
&
nbsp; Lev put his hand on John’s shoulder. “We still have a lot of sorting out to do. I think this would be a good time to settle down and try to find some more answers. One thing I know for sure; soon we will be heading out into the wilderness of the Negev Desert.”
Chapter 16
Leo awoke with a start. He had been dreaming. In the dream, he had seen a dark storm coming over the desert, and the word chosen echoed through his mind. He looked around at the stark white walls of the room in an effort to get his bearings before lifting himself up to see the ocean through the open shutters of the bedroom window. He was on the coast of Israel. He was in Lev’s villa. Memories of the events of the past few days were coming back to him as the fog of a long sleep began to clear. What would today bring?
Moving slowly, Leo headed straight for the shower and adjusted the water as hot as he could stand it. He placed himself directly under the spray while the green-tinted glass doors fogged up around him. His taut muscles relaxed, and he could feel the pores in his skin begin to pop open.
A knock at the door interrupted the state of pure bliss he was feeling under the pounding stream.
“I’m in the shower.”
The door opened. “I know,” John said. “I could hear it outside. It’s really steamy in here.”
“You’re starting to test my patience. I take back everything nice I said about you.”
“You’ve been saying nice things about me?”
“Not anymore.”
“Everyone’s at breakfast, and Lev wants to speak with you. I’ll meet you downstairs.”
Leo finished lathering up and let the steaming water rinse the soap from his body. When he finally felt half way alive, he stepped out onto the moist tiles of the bathroom floor and grabbed a towel.
Another knock at the door. This is ridiculous. “What?”
Lev’s voice echoed from the other side of the door. “Just throw your swimming trunks on, Father. We can swim a few laps together before breakfast. We’ll eat outside by the pool.”
Do they always eat outside here at the villa? “I’ll be right down.” Swimming a few laps actually appealed to the priest. He usually worked out daily, but exercise had fallen to the bottom of his priority list over the past week.