by Adam Palmer
“It means… ‘And we hid in the hills outside the city… and in the houses of those… who hated the emperor. And we hurt the Romans in many ways… but we did not fight them in the daylight.’”
“That’s it?”
“No Daniel, that’s not it. That’s the first sentence. But the next sentence reads: ‘And then… we made a great fire… in their city.”
Daniel’s jaw dropped. He turned to Dubois.
“The Great Fire of Rome?”
Chapter 59
“Let us go!” shrieked May as the was dragged along down the corridor by one of the men.
“My daddy will kill you!” Shir threatened the man who was dragging her. He was about to hit her when the third ma who had just closed the door behind them, shook his head. He seemed to be the leader and the girls realized that he was the one they had to watch and be careful of.
They were taken to a room at the end of the corridor. At first it looked to them as if the room had no windows, but then they looked up and saw that very close to the ceiling there was a wooden board nailed to the wall, and they both realized in that instant that there was a window behind it, but a small window and one that would be very hard to reach, even if it were not covered. The fact that there was a board over it, meant that if they shouted for help it would be hard for anyone too hear them.
The one strange thing about the room that they also noticed was that it had two small beds and a lot of toys, almost as if it had been a children’s room. They wondered where were the children who used it. Had they grown up? Run away? Maybe they had died and these people had kidnapped them to replace them.
The two men let go of the girls, but stood close to them in case they tried to run away. The third man stood in front of them, looking down at them.
“Okay first of all I want to tell you that we won’t hurt you if you don’t try to escape. We’ve brought you here because we want to get some one to talk to us.”
“Who?” asked May.
“Your uncle,” said the man who had been holding Shir.
The man who was the boss looked at the other man angrily. The twins noted this and realized that the man who had spoken wasn’t supposed to tell them.
“But why?” asked Shir. “I mean why didn’t you just call him on the telephone.”
“Or send him an eMail?” added May.
“He always answers his eMail,” said Shir.
“Or you could call him on Skype,” May suggested.
“Or you can send him a text,” Shir explained.
“Enough!” the man shouted. The huddled together frightened, both wanting to cry, but neither wanting to give in to tears before the other did first. “As soon as we are able to speak to your uncle, we will let you go.”
“Promise?” asked May.
The man hesitated.
“I will promise to let you go, if you promise not to try to escape…”
The girls looked at each other. Then one of them put her hands behind her back, remembering something that they had learned in America from other children they met in Disneyland.
“I promise,” she said.
The other did likewise, also putting her hands behind her back, unseen by the kidnappers. In England, crossing ones fingers meant that one was hoping for something to happen. But in America, if you made a promise with your fingers crossed, it meant that you didn’t have to keep the promise.
“Promise,” she said when finally managed the tricky operation of crossing her fingers.
“Okay,” said the man. “And I promise too.”
They smiled.
“Will you give us food if we get hungry?”
“Yes of course we’ll give you food. We won’t all be here all the time. But there’ll always be one of us here if you need anything. In the meantime, there are lots of things to do here. Look…” He pointed. “Lots of toys. You can play with them.”
They looked around and saw some dolls, and some lego — which didn’t really interest them. But the one thing that caught there eye was a skateboard. The only trouble was, they didn’t have space in the small room to use it.
“Okay I’ll leave you alone now.”
The three men left the room and the girls heard the sound of the door being locked. When they realized they were alone, the girls started to cry and hug each other. But only for a minute. Then one of them said: “I don’t believe that man.”
“But he promised,” said the other. “And he’s orthodox. It’s a sin to lie.”
“Yes but it’s also a sin to kidnap people,” said the other. “And if he did one sin then he might do another.”
“So what are we going to do?”
“We need to escape.”
“But how?”
“There’s a window up there. That’s why they put that board there.”
The other one peered up to it, squinting to see it.
“But it’s got nails or screws or something. Otherwise it would fall.”
“Okay, we’ll have to find some way of tricking them… listen.”
“What?”
“They’re going.”
“But he said there’s always be one of them staying.”
“I know, but listen… to of them are leaving. That means there’s only one. That means it will be easier to escape.”
“But how are we going to escape?”
“I’ve got an idea. I’ll whisper it in your ear.”
Ten minutes later they were calling out to the one who stayed. When he opened the door, they saw that it was one of the nasty ones. But that didn’t matter. In fact, in some ways that made it better.
“We’re hungry!”
“Yes, you said you’d give us food!”
He looked embarrassed and confused, like he didn’t think it would actually happen,
“What… what would you like?”
“Chips!” said one.
“With tomato ketchup!” said the other.
He smiled with relief.
“Well I think I can manage that. We’re got oven chips. Would you like some mini schnitzels with that? I can heat them in the microwave.”
They looked at each other and smiled.
“Okay,” they said.
He didn’t know why they were smiling so much as he left and locked the door behind him. It was only food after all. But the happier they were, the less troublesome they would be. One less problem to worry about.
Chapter 60
Dubois shifted uncomfortably as both Daniel stared at him, waiting for his answer to Daniel’s last question.
“There were always rumours circulating at the time. Don’t forget, this was the time of Nero, one of ancient Rome’s most paranoid of rulers.”
Daniel smiled at this.
“I thought they were all paranoid.”
“Actually no. Caligula and Nero were. Later, Domition was. But not all of them. They had probably had cause to be. If anything, some of them were too trusting… like Claudius.”
“But who started the fire?”
Dubois gave this some thought before taking up Daniel’s challenge.
“According to Tacitus, some of the locals blamed Nero himself for the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD. However, Tacitus himself claimed that Nero was in Antium at the time of the fire. Suetonius and Cassius Dio blamed Nero. But their accounts were written later and were clearly second hand. There were probably contemporaneous accounts by other historians, but none have survived, except a vague passing reference by Pliny the Elder to trees being burnt.”
“So all this took about him burning the city to get inspiration for a poem or song was just a rumour that spread among the hoi polloi.”
“One of several actually Daniel. The only thing we can say is that he took advantage of the fact that the area had been cleared of buildings to build the Domus Aurea, his huge prestige project.”
“It sounds like an early conspiracy theory,” said Daniel.
“In many ways that’s exactly what it was. We stil
l don’t know what the cause of the fire was. It may have been arson or it may have been purely natural causes. In fact, fires were not that uncommon in Rome. There were several more after that. It’s just that there were rumours at the time. It’s become part of folklore that Nero started it to inspire himself for a great musical or poetic composition. But even that theory is matched by a counter-theory to the effect that his poetic effort was an exhortation to those who were fighting the fire to succeed in their endeavours.”
Daniel remembered something else.
“But wasn’t there also some story that Nero himself blamed the early Christians?”
“More than a story. He had Christians arrested and tortured and when they gave in to the torture and confessed, their coerced statements were used as a pretext to arrest others. However, the modern view is that the fire was probably accidental.”
“But now this document would seem to contradict that.”
“If it’s true.”
Daniel was surprised by this response from Dubois.
“You think it’s a forgery?”
“Oh no, I’m sure the document is authentic. But that doesn’t rule out the possibility that it contains a propaganda element. Taking credit for an accident that has befallen ones enemies is as old as human conflict itself.”
They noticed that Ted had been silent for a while. Daniel looked at him and saw the almost catatonic look on the Cambridge professor’s face.
“What is it?”
“I’ve been thinking about those words on the map. She shall be aroused.”
“What about them?”
“Well first of all, although there was an arrow pointing to Rome, I assumed that the words referred either to Boudicca or to her daughter… referring to whatever she did in Rome. But from the lack of a neuter pronoun and the use of she, in this context, to refer to Rome. I’m wondering if that too was a reference to Rome.”
“You mean it was saying that Rome shall be aroused.”
“No Daniel, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that aroused is only one way of translating the word. It could also be rendered as… ignited.”
Daniel latched on to this.
“And the map was found in England. So, the implication would be that they intended to start a fire or fires in Rome!”
Dubois pursed his lips and then nodded approvingly.
“You have a point there. Shall we continue?”
Daniel scrolled up and started to transliterate again.
Ted resumed this transcription and hesitant translation.
“ ‘After the fire… there was much… anger towards… those who… kept faith with the one true God… and we were… hunted and killed… where they found us.’ Next bit please Daniel.”
Daniel transliterated the next sentence. Ted translated.
“ ‘And Simon… begged or urged or beseeched me to come with him to his homeland and I did obey.’ ”
At this point, Ted looked at Daniel expectantly.
“What’s next?”
Daniel looked blank.
“That’s it.”
“What do you mean?”
“That’s where the manuscript ends.”
“But why? I mean why not continue after that?”
“Well whatever continuation there was,” said Daniel, “presumably took place in Judea. I mean we know that if this is the Simon Bar Giora, he fought against the Romans in Judea between 66 and 70.”
“Yes, but if she went with him, then why did she leave this manuscript here?”
“There could be any number of reasons,” said Dubois. “It they were planning to escape from Rome, then they would have been mindful of being captured and they would not have wanted to be caught in possession of such an incriminating manuscript. Also, it is possible that some of their faction decided to stay behind and they left the manuscript with them to continue recording their activities.”
“They went to Judea” said Ted, disappointed.
They were now back in Monsignor Dubois’s private reception room, drinking tea, served by a young priest. Sarit was with them and Ted was filling her in on the details.
“After that, we know what happened to Bar Giora — assuming it’s the same one that Daniel was telling us about. But we don’t know what happened to Lanosea. So that’s as far as we can go.”
“Not necessarily,” said Sarit, with a gleam in her eyes.
She found herself, suddenly, the centre of attention. But it was Daniel who spoke for them all.
“What do you mean?”
“While you were in there, I was surfing the net and doing some searches with similar keywords. You’re not going to believe it, but it turns out there’s a parchment written in Hebrew script but in an unknown language and you’ll never guess where it was found!”
“Where?”
“Jerusalem… under the Temple Mount…”
The young priest’s ears pricked up when he heard this.
Chapter 61
“We can eat the schnitzels as long as we leave the chips,” said one of the twins to the other.
The man had brought them a tray with mini chicken schnitzels and chips and several packets of ketchup, just as they had requested, as well as two plastic bottles of water.
“But I thought we need the oil.”
“Yes but the chips have more oil than the schnitzels. And anyway, I’m hungry.”
“Okay then I’ll eat mine too.”
They ate the schnitzels quickly and then set to work.
“I’ll do the floor,” said May, tipping out the chips onto the floor and squidging them around. Meanwhile Shir was tearing off the corners of the packets of ketchup. When they had finished Shir took up her position while May set up the skateboard and covered it with a blanket.
Then they looked at each other nervously.
“Ready?” asked May
“Ready” said Shir, closing her eyes.
May splashed some water from one of the bottles onto her face. Then she ran to the door and started banging frantically.
“Help! Help!”
She banged again.
“Help! Please help!”
They heard footsteps approaching the door.
“Stop that!” said a voice from the other side of the door. “No one can hear you!”
“Please help! It’s Shir… she’s hurt.”
“What do you mean hurt?”
He sounded nervous.
“We were playing… and she fell and hit her head. I think she’s dead.”
They heard the key being turned in the lock and Shir — who had opened her eyes out of curiosity — closed them quickly before he entered.
The door flew open and the man with beard looked into the room and saw Shir lying on the floor, her head covered in blood. May was standing looking at her. But from the profile view of her face, he could see that she was crying.
Realizing that he had to check he strode briskly into the room, stepping on the raised blanket on the floor without really thinking about it. But as he took his next step he noticed something happening to his balance. He didn’t know that under the blanket was the skateboard or that under that the floor had been covered in oil and grease and squidgy chips. All he knew that his foot and leg were flying backward and his body was flying forward.
Hearing the noise, Shir opened her eyes and saw him about to fall on top of her. She quickly drew her knees up, curled up in a ball and rolled away just as the bearded man landed on the floor with a sickening thud and a blood-curdling cry of pain.
“Quick Shir!” said May, running out the door and holding the handle, Shir ran to the door in three steps and straight out. May closed the door behind her and locked it with the key that the man had left in the lock, while Shir wiped the ketchup off her face with her sleeve. Then they ran to the door and tried to open it, but it was locked. And they could hear the man shouting angrily from inside the room at the end of the corridor.
Chapter 62
The
world is going to hell in a hand basket and has been ever since the Second Vatican Council.
Of this the young priest had no doubt. The New World Order — orchestrated by the Jews — was being ushered into what had once been the bastion of God’s Holy Truth. And it was all being done in the name of expediency by those who cared nought for Truth and all for Power.
The Pope — Christ’s vicar on Earth! — had quoted the Talmud… that vile treatise that contained the most evil blasphemies against our Lord and our Lady. And he had done so more than once: both in France and in the United States, when visiting synagogues in those countries.
It was bad enough that the Church had cowered before the Russians when it fiddled the results of the Papal election of 1958 when the conservative, anti-communist Cardinal Giuseppe Siri was elected and then forced to resign, before his name could even be released, by Russian threats to his family and a thinly veiled nuclear threat against the Vatican itself. They had even gone so far as to release white smoke from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel to announce his election and he had already selected the papal name of Gregory XVII. Instead under Soviet threats and pressure from liberal French cardinals, he stepped aside. Two days later the more liberal Cardinal Angelo Roncalli was elected, taking the papal name of John XXIII.
And since then it had been capitulation after capitulation. Absolving the Jews of deicide for the Blood of Christ, Vatican II, Pope Paul VI kissing a copy of the Koran and now the Church was kowtowing to Zionism, with Pope Benedict XVI quoting from that blasphemous Jewish text.
What next? Embrace a Buddhist? Wicca? Satanism?
And now, these Jewish interlopers were in the sacred corridors of the Vatican, translating documents found in Rome and claiming them as their own… using them to justify their actions of the past and being greeted as honoured guests. And it seemed that they had found clues to other similar documents in Jerusalem — documents dating from the time of Christ or shortly thereafter.
He was glad that he had been contacted by HaTzadik and asked to keep an eye on the visitors from England. At least there was one Jew who, despite his lack of acceptance of Christ, at least showed the humility to respect the Church and her teachings. The priest prayed that God would open the heart of HaTzadik and his followers to the acceptance and love of Christ.