The Aleppo Code (The Jerusalem Prophecies)

by Terry Brennan

  “Where did you learn that?” asked Joe.

  “I haven’t spent my whole life playing video games, wise guy. We use that kind of a harness when we’re scuba diving.”

  “What?”

  “Keeps you more stable in the tricky currents.”

  “No. I mean … when were you scuba diving?”

  “I’m not crippled, dog breath. I’ve been diving for the past five years. Something even you didn’t know about me. It’s one of the few places on the planet where I’m equal to people of average size and inferior brains, like you, Attila. Now let me get back to work.”

  Rizzo returned his attention to tightening the harness on Rodriguez’s chest.

  “Okay, big boy,” Rizzo whispered. “Now it’s our turn.” Rizzo shifted over to Rodriguez’s back. “You’ve got to get us across to the other side of the river and get under that opening so I can crawl up into it.”

  “Is that all?”

  “Yeah, but it’s a snap for Superman. Let’s go Clarky-baby.”

  They were slightly upriver, along the left-side wall, from the alcove. Eight … ten feet of water. Not that far. Probably two, three long strides. Normally. Then, another eight to ten feet to the alcove and the shaft opening. Rodriguez looked down at the rushing water. It didn’t seem to be rising anymore, but the water was still up to his knees. And deeper where the current was moving fastest. There was nothing to hold on to. And he had Rizzo on his back. How was he supposed to do this?

  “Bend over at the waist … spread your arms out in front of you. Change your center of gravity. Bend your knees. Try to get your weight distributed evenly over your hips. Now you’ve got two points of balance—over your knees and over your hips. When you step, keep your feet inside, between your hips and your knees. Slow, small steps.”

  “More scuba diving?”

  “No, tae kwon do.”

  Incredulous, Rodriguez twisted his neck to get a look at Rizzo.

  The little man held up his hands. “Remember … I told you once. Hands of death. Let’s go.”

  Rodriguez looked at the water, felt foolish in the arm-pointing crouch Rizzo described, and took his first step.

  37

  11:09 p.m., Babylon

  He was amazed. It worked. Not that crossing the rushing water was easy. Rodriguez feared every step, tried to feel the floor through his boots, searched for a telltale waver in any of his muscles. But with each step, his confidence grew and his fear subsided. Before he was fully aware of it, they were across. His outstretched hands touched the wall on the far side of the tunnel.

  “Stop,” Rizzo whispered. “Rest a moment. You gotta be careful here. Turning is tough. Don’t let your weight rock back, or we’re goners.”

  Careful not to tip his balance, Rodriguez rested a hand against the wall. “How do I do this? How do I keep my balance? Just go sideways?”

  “Too hard,” said Rizzo. “This is all about shifting your weight without losing your balance. It’s what we do with kick moves. When you’re ready, turn your left foot, slowly, out to a ninety degree angle. When your left foot is settled, slowly rotate your shoulders and hips to the left. About halfway through the turn, stop, and bring your right foot along. Then rotate your hips and shoulders again and extend your arms in front of you. When you turn ninety degrees, stop and rest. Then we’re almost home.”

  Rodriguez twisted slightly from his waist so Rizzo could settle himself in a seated position on the lip of a small shelf at the entrance to the chamber at the mouth of the tunnel.

  Lifting himself off the shelf sent a bolt of pain through Rizzo’s side. He gritted his teeth as he untied a rope secured to Joe’s harness. Walking deeper into the shaft with the lead rope in his hand, Rizzo took Joe’s hammer and looked at the clay wall.

  “This is going to hurt like a bleeding booger.” He swung the hammer in a wide, sidearm arc, and drove one of the pitons into the clay wall. “Oh, my—” He dropped to his knees, the hammer still in his hand.

  Now the lead rope stretched above the water, across to the other side of the shaft. Tom gave Annie the backpacks, lighter now that some of the equipment was in use. Hand-over-hand, Joe used the rope to cross the river once again, curled one arm around Annie’s waist, and helped lead her through the river as she held the packs aloft. On the other side, they passed them up to Rizzo one at a time, then Joe cupped his hands under Annie’s boot and hoisted her up onto the shelf to join Rizzo.

  Then it was Tom’s turn. Bohannon hooked first his right, then his left boot over the suspended rope and, pulling with his left hand, shimmied to Rodriguez’s waiting arms on the far side.

  Joe boosted Tom up to the opening. The three in the shaft then combined their remaining strength to help Joe scramble out of the water and up the side of the tunnel wall. When he cleared the lip, the tension on the rope suddenly slackened and sent them sprawling across the floor of this new shaft.

  Tom’s eyes searched into the darkness that led deeper into the earth.

  “C’mon,” he said as he pushed himself out of Annie’s grasp and rose to his feet. “C’mon. We’ve got to leave.”

  Annie put a hand on Bohannon’s arm. “Tom, please. Rest a moment at least.”

  “No. There’s no time. We have to go,” he said, taking a step forward. He turned quickly. “We’ve got to go. Now!”

  Joe came up to his side, Rizzo in tow. “What is it?”

  “I don’t know,” said Tom. “But we’re late. Time’s running and we’ve been delayed … hindered. We’ve gotta move.”

  Annie still had the final flashlight in her hand. Its beam remained strong. Tom held out his hand, took the flashlight, and turned into the tunnel, his pace rapid. He knew they would follow. But his mind wasn’t dwelling on those with him. It was on those waiting for him. And they were close.

  This tunnel was man-made, not water-made. The sides showed clear signs of tools. They were square at the base to the floor. The ceiling was arched, for strength, but it was worked, not worn. Tom registered the difference in the back of his consciousness, but at the moment, it was superfluous information. He searched the space ahead of him as the shaft began a slight descent. And stopped. At a door.

  He stopped so fast the others piled up behind him.

  “A door?” Annie was at his side. “Is it …”

  Tom moved close. There was no doorknob … no handle … nothing. The door was large, heavy, thick wood, metal braces extending from the hinges. He laid his hand upon the weathered wood—and the door swung open, silent, on well-oiled pinions. A vast darkness lay before them, as if Bohannon stood at the threshold of the center of the earth.

  He felt Annie’s hand on his shoulder, her breathing on his ear. “Tom …”

  This was it. He knew it. Somewhere out there, in that space … somewhere out there was the garden of God, the birthplace of the human race. And, now that he was here, he didn’t know if he really wanted to get any closer.

  Tom stepped forward, through the doorway, and the sun rose.

  The light was blinding after hours in the dark, only the beams of their flashlights for illumination. But this wasn’t beams. It was intense, immense, all-encompassing light. So bright, Tom could feel it sizzling across the surface of his skin. It warmed his soul.

  The first shock of light passed, and Tom focused on what faced him. A huge wall of blue-glazed brick dominated the far side of a massive chamber, the sides of which were invisible. The wall ran in an arc for hundreds of yards on each side until it disappeared into a twilight that swallowed the flanks of the chamber. The wall extended up into the cavernous vault above—a strange sight even in such an incredible place. It appeared as if the wall had no end, no top. The blue brick rose, and rose, and simply blended into the vaulted roof, which also seemed to have no limit.

  “Oh … my sweet Lord,” Annie breathed. “I believed … but I doubted, too.” She wrapped her arms around Tom’s left arm and pressed into his side.

  “I’m bummed I don’t h
ave an iPhone with me,” said Rizzo as he and Joe joined them. “Imagine this on YouTube. Going viral in a heartbeat.”

  “Shut up, Sam,” said Joe. “Or watch out for lightning bolts from heaven.”

  “Holy Zappo … shut my mouth!”

  Lowering his eyes, Tom scanned the lower reaches of the wall itself. Spaced equally along the portion of the wall’s arc they could see were seven huge gates of highly polished bronze, bound by heavy timber frames and metal braces. But these were King Kong–sized gates that looked like they would need motors to move—or dozens of bodies pulling resolutely on thick ropes. The gates were intricately carved with what, from a distance, looked like a riot of stars and symbols. And each one looked unique.

  “The garden is probably on the other side, through one of those gates,” whispered Joe, giving voice to the thoughts in Tom’s mind. “But which one?”

  A vast plaza of blue-glazed brick spread before them, alive in the brilliant light, as if the sky had fallen to the floor and Tom stood with his feet in heaven. In the very center of the plaza he could see a huge circular symbol on the floor. This was it. The starting point!

  Bohannon stepped forward, moving toward the circular symbol. He crossed the blue plaza until he stood at its edge. It was a vast sun symbol, carved into the surface of the bricks, the carved surfaces covered with what looked like gold paint. Around the circumference of the sun, rays and tongues of fire marked the points of the compass.

  “Tom, what does that symbol remind you of?” asked Annie.

  He stepped back and took a longer look. It did seem familiar.

  “Loughcrew!” Rizzo pointed a chubby finger at the gold symbol. “That was one of the symbols that our leprechaun McDonough found on the sarcophagus at Cairn T in Loughcrew. Jeremiah’s tomb, and now Jeremiah’s clue.”

  “What now?” asked Joe. “Which gate?”

  “Well, we finally know what the directions are for,” said Tom.

  Suddenly, a shocking dawn came to Tom’s memory. He spun to face Rodriguez.

  “Joe … the directions!”

  “Safe,” he said. Joe reached under his shirt, and pulled out a gold chain. A gold cross hung from it, along with a sealed plastic bag pinned to the chain. He held the chain in front of him. “Used to hold the crucifix my mother gave me. Now it holds Deirdre’s cross.” He opened the bag and extracted the directions. “Now we put Abiathar to the test.”

  Tom unfolded the paper to look at the symbols written on it—the directional clues deciphered from the leather sprockets inside the brass mezuzah—and stepped into the middle of the sun carving.

  Without warning, the compass points began to spin around the circumference of the sun, slowly at first, growing to a blur until Tom felt its dizzying effects. Then the flashing compass points skidded to a halt. And changed before his eyes.

  There were now only six compass points. And Tom finally knew how he would follow the directions. The compass points were marked with the same Demotic symbols etched into the mezuzah’s sprockets. He read what Roberta Smith believed was the first clue. Fourteen paces in the direction of that symbol … straight ahead. Now the directions made sense. Next was seven paces in the direction of the second symbol. But pacing off across the plaza, he would quickly lose track of the right direction.

  “Joe, stand in the middle here, will you?”

  Tom handed Joe the sheet of directions and stepped on the Demotic symbol at the circumference of the sun. He started pacing, Annie at his side, glued to his arm, Rizzo following close behind. Fourteen healthy steps and he stopped, turned, and faced Joe. “Which direction next?”

  Rodriguez lifted his arm and was about to wave Bohannon to the left when the symbols at the circumference of the sun began to spin again. “Wait! They’re moving again.”

  Standing still, Bohannon had a thought. This is crazy. What am I doing here?

  “Welcome, man of God.”

  Annie’s arms closed like a vise, her breathing hard against his bicep. “Ooohhh …”

  “What was that voice?” Rizzo whispered.

  “There,” Joe blurted, waving his arm to the right. “North-northeast.”

  But Tom wasn’t moving. Seven paces north-northeast would get him closer to the wall and its gates, but the voice. The voice reverberated through his mind, turned his blood to ice. All the hunches, all the ideas, all the excitement fell away under the power of that voice. Bohannon wasn’t about to move an inch.

  “Onward, man of God. Follow your destiny.”

  Tom looked down into Annie’s eyes. She nodded her head. He looked up at Joe.

  He waved. “North-northeast.”

  Through each of the directions, Bohannon moved closer to the wall. He was heading to the left, away from the middle gate. He finished his eleven paces and turned to get his final instructions from Rodriguez.

  It was a beautiful, burnished bronze, gleaming in the profuse light. Shining as if it had been polished the day before, the portal gate soared above Bohannon’s head and disappeared into the twilight. The door had two panels, both sides decorated with an expanse of stars, so vividly and precisely worked into the bronze by its creator that the door looked like the night sky itself.

  Tom stood on the spot of the final direction, his feet unwilling to follow Joe’s urging to move straight ahead. The gate was ahead of him, third gate from the left. The last one he would have selected, but clearly his destination. But now, oh so close, Tom didn’t want to move.

  “The moment of truth.” Annie was by his side, grasping on to his left hand until he felt like his fingers would burst. “I’m not sure why, but I’m absolutely terrified. After all we’ve been through, after all God’s done for us and led us through to get us here, I shouldn’t be frightened by anything. But looking at that gate and wondering what’s behind it—what it might mean … to us, to everybody …”

  Annie took a step forward and turned toward her husband. “I know it’s crazy to say at this point, but we don’t have to do this.”

  Tom looked at his wife, and he knew what was going through her mind.

  “We don’t know for sure what will happen,” said Annie, “what we’ll start by going through that gate. But I know what I think is going to happen … what I’m afraid we may be starting.”

  Tom pulled Annie close, wrapped his arms around her, and suddenly realized he was dry. Their clothes were dry. “It’s already started, Annie. Once there was ritual sacrifice in the Temple, the clock started ticking. We don’t know what it all means, but we know it’s happening. Yeah, I think what we do next will play a part. It may accelerate the timing. But if we don’t do what we’ve been called here to do, to open that gate—at least to try—then who knows? Will it be worse, or better? I’m scared to my bones. But I also feel this is something I must do. You do, too. I know it.”

  Annie pulled back and looked into his eyes. “Well, let’s get it done, then.”

  Tom took Annie’s hand once more, turned to look over his shoulder at Rizzo and Rodriguez back in the sun symbol. “Let’s go.”

  In Bohannon’s right hand he held the design the team had drawn from the clues on the sprockets. If they were correct, the combination sequence to open the gate would start with the North Star and then progress through the pattern of stars that filled the sky in Judea the night Christ was born, ending with the Star of Bethlehem. What they didn’t know was how to apply that conclusion, what sequence to use in choosing the stars. What was the right way to unlock the doors to Paradise?

  Drawing near the gate, Bohannon could hear the running feet of Rodriguez and Rizzo catching up with them.

  Bohannon looked at the directions in his hand and faced the gate. “Where do I start?”

  “What happens if you touch that gate in the wrong place?” Rizzo whispered. “How do you know you won’t turn into a rotisserie chicken?”

  Thanks, Sam. That helps a lot. Lord, what am I supposed to do now?

  “Forward, man of God. It is for you to ope
n the gate.”

  Bohannon knew the voice was an invitation. He stepped closer, found the largest star on the gate—what he hoped was the North Star—and gingerly brushed the fingers of his right hand against the edges of the design. He nearly had a stroke.

  As soon as his fingers touched the bronze symbol, the surface of the star warmed and glowed. At the same time a star lower and to the left of the North Star also began to glow. Bohannon moved his right hand from the North Star to the one on the left and, immediately, the glow faded from both stars. He pressed his fingers more purposely against the second star, but nothing occurred. When Bohannon returned his touch to the North Star, it warmed again and both stars glowed once more.

  “Keep your right hand on the first star and put your left hand on the second,” Annie suggested.

  The left star was smaller than the first, and Tom covered it with his palm. Immediately a third star began to glow, higher and to the right. And each of the stars continued to glow as Tom moved from one to the next. Soon the door shone like the night sky, brilliant stars glimmering across its surface.

  His hands rested against the carved bronze surface, reluctant to take the final steps. Should he push? Pull? And what would be waiting for him on the other side?

  “Do not be afraid, appointed one.”

  As the voice echoed around the chamber, Bohannon shifted his weight and leaned against the gate. It swung open easily. Inside, dense fog enshrouded everything in a gray cloud.

  On one side, Annie continued her lock on his left arm. On the other, Rizzo stood at an angle, looking like he was ready to run in whatever direction was necessary.

  “Hey, is anybody home?” Rizzo called.

  Tom took one step over the threshold and felt like he had walked into a gelatin wall. Something soft and pliable, warm, swallowed him up and surrounded him from head to toe. In the moment it took for Bohannon to register what was going on and wonder how he was going to breathe while held in this viscous cocoon, he was through and on the other side, like emerging from an eyeball.