by Speiser, Zvi
2036
THE PROOF
ZVI SPEISER
Translated from the Hebrew by
Yael Schonfeld Abel
2036 The Proof / Zvi Speiser
All rights reserved; No part of this book may be reproduced, reprinted, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or by any other current or future means without the prior written permission of the author or his representative.
Copyright © 2017 Zvi Speiser
Translation from the Hebrew: Yael Schonfeld Abel
Contact: [email protected]
The author wishes to thank Professor Zvi Mazeh,
Dr. Eytan Elhanany, and engineer Moshe Weissberg
for their help and advice.
Chapter 1
The Ark of the Covenant
Jerusalem, 586 BCE
Ahiav and Aviram heard the sounds of battle waged at the foot of the city wall. The thundering of the catapult stones as they landed was frightening, especially the sounds that the breaking, crumbling walls produced upon their collapse. The noise of the battering ram, pummeling against the entry gate again and again, was terrible. Each impact was accompanied by the rumble of wood gradually falling apart and about to collapse at any minute. But the tumult of battle was eclipsed by the screams of the many wounded, the horrific tormented shouts of those whose lives were being taken from them.
In the last meeting of the Guardians, which took place once it was discovered that Nebuchadnezzar’s army had been sighted approaching the Kingdom of Judea, it was decided by majority vote that the Ark of the Covenant must vanish, to be secreted away in the hiding spot that had been designated for it back when the temple was first built. The objectors mentioned the reaction of the Holy Ark every time it was touched by a human hand, such as the incident with Uzzah, who tried to prevent the Ark from falling and was stricken dead by it. The other participants did not ignore this hazard, but made it clear that the organization’s age-old duty was to prevent the Ark from falling into the hands of the Gentiles, at any cost.
Eli the High Priest was also present at the meeting, and promised to aid in concealing the Ark. His role was to make sure that the bolts on all tabernacle doors would be unlatched in time, in order to enable rapid access to the Ark and a speedy retreat. The decisions regarding the time of execution and the concealment of the Ark were assigned to the Ark Band, headed by Ahiav, son of Elisha.
The terrible sounds of battle testified that its outcome was apparent, and that Jerusalem was about to fall into the hands of the enemy very shortly. Ahiav instructed his four men to go into action. They ran into the temple, heading into the tabernacle and the Holy of Holies at its center. No man other than the high priest had ever gotten so close to the Ark of the Covenant. Ahiav froze in his place when he felt a tingling in his face, as well as in his exposed hands and feet. The other men did the same as they faced the ornamental veil shielding the Ark.
The clamor of battle outside grew stronger, indicating the infiltration of the city itself by enemy soldiers. It was obvious that the enemy’s troops would stream first and foremost toward the ornate temple, which was prominent from afar. It was a location signaling the sovereignty and control of the Jewish people, as well as, and perhaps primarily, the place where many treasures could be looted.
Ahiav realized they had no more than a few moments to smuggle the Ark away. He drew one step closer to the Ark’s ornamental veil and froze again. The tingling became stabs of intense pain. His men, who had also attempted to draw closer, stopped as well once the pain increased, becoming intolerable. A minute that lasted an eternity trickled by, and then, as if from a wave of an invisible magic wand, the pain disappeared. Eli the High Priest appeared in the Holy of Holies, dressed in his ceremonial garments and wearing the bejeweled priestly breastplate.
He called out urgently, “Hurry, enemy soldiers have infiltrated the city. Time is running out!”
Without stopping to think why the pain had vanished or to what extent it might come back with a vengeance, Ahiav and his band hurried inside beyond the ornamental veil and, for the first time in their lives, gazed upon the Ark of the Covenant itself.
The gold chest of the Ark rested upon the Foundation Stone, the same stone that tradition claimed was the site of the Binding of Isaac, as well as being the most elevated stone in Jerusalem and the base for the Ark of the Covenant. Most of the light in the room was emanating from the top part of the Ark, where, between two cherubs, a bluish glow spread out, accompanied by a sound resembling the buzz of bees; it was a kind of luminescence, soft and gentle yet steady and persistent, different from anything the men had ever seen before.
The awesome sight overwhelmed those entering the room and, despite the immense time pressure, they froze briefly in their spots. Eli, who had followed them in and who was accustomed to the sight of the Ark, raised his voice, urging them to keep going while he handed Ahiav the two gold-coated wooden poles intended for carrying the Ark, which had languished unused for many years.
Ahiav strode hesitantly toward the Ark. Only when he was close enough to touch it did his men dare to slowly join him. The holiness of the site and the atmosphere of mystery made them briefly forget the terrible war being waged outside the temple, as well as the fact that time was quickly running out.
Much to their surprise, the Ark was as light as a feather. In fact, it appeared to be carrying itself without requiring any investment of strength on their part. Ahiav and his men watched Eli as he removed a layer of gold from one of the temple walls, revealing a hidden door behind it. Eli urged them to hurry through the door into a secret passage beyond it.
When Ahiav noticed that Eli wasn’t joining them, he stopped fleeing and asked, “Why aren’t you joining our escape?”
Eli shook his head sadly, saying, “I’ll return the gold coating to its place, and after I’m dead, no one can give away your location, or the place where the Ark is hidden.”
The doorway revealed a wooden staircase leading down. Once the door had closed behind them, Ahiav felt as if they had been cut off from the terrible events they had left behind. What a shame that Eli hadn’t joined them and saved his soul from dying, he thought. At that moment, something Eli had just said began to gnaw at him. What exactly did Eli mean when he said that after his death, no one could give away the location of the Ark? At the very least, Ahiav and his assistants would know the secret. And perhaps… No, impossible, he thought. Would he and his men not live on to reveal the location of the Ark? For a moment, he was overcome with horror. We’re heading toward certain death. None of us will survive after the Ark is hidden. And perhaps it was better that way. Only the death of the entire group would ensure that the location of the Ark was never discovered. Even he himself, had he been required to make such a decision, would have reached this exact same conclusion.
Once he understood what awaited them, he felt slightly more relaxed. His imminent death no longer bothered him. The goal was so much more important than the deaths of a handful of people, including his own.
The glow of the cherubs on the Ark allowed them to spot several wooden rungs leading down. They descended carefully. The wooden rungs were replaced by steps carved in stone, which stretched downward, ending in a tunnel.
The tunnel in which they walked was narrow and dark, illuminated solely by the Ark’s pale blue luminescence, which occasionally cast ominous shadows on its walls. The tunnel curved, descending and ascending, sometimes revealing sta
ircases that the Ark crossed in a near-float, almost untouched by the men carrying it.
To their surprise, even when making their way down a steep slope or climbing up, the Ark did not slide from its position on the supporting poles. It acted as if it were familiar with the route, adapting itself to the curves. The tunnel, isolated against the tumult of battle, was silent. The stillness was only interrupted by the delicate buzz emanating from the cherubs and by the soldiers’ heavy breathing.
Ahiav was immensely tense. He had no idea where the tunnel led. Would they find themselves among enemy soldiers the moment they emerged? What exactly would they do with the Ark, which seemed to be cooperating with them at this stage, but might change its conduct at any moment, as it had indeed done in the past?
He emerged from these thoughts abruptly. A barrier blocking the entire width of the tunnel had materialized in front of them. A quick inspection, guided by the light of the Ark, confirmed their fear. The tunnel was entirely blocked off. There was no way to get past the barrier or go around it. The odd thing was that the barrier did not seem to signal the end of the tunnel or anything like the result of a rockslide, but was rather like a brick wall that had been intentionally built in this location. Perhaps this was the edge of the tunnel, where they should put down the Ark and return to the temple.
But no, that wasn’t a logical option. The site they had left behind was surely flooded with enemy soldiers who would loot the Ark and slaughter them the moment they showed up at the temple. Eli the Priest’s previous reply had also clearly conveyed that he was awaiting his death in order to ensure that the location of the Ark would not be revealed.
As he was deep in thought, he heard the voice of sharp-eyed Aviram. “There’s a strange handle in the wall. I saw four loose bricks and thought I could start with them in order to gradually take apart the barrier, but I found the handle on the other side of the bricks,” he explained.
In the bluish light emanating from the Ark, Ahiav examined the odd handle. It was made of metal and was large enough to be gripped by one hand. The edge of the handle was inserted into the barrier wall. Ahiav tried to twist it slowly in either direction, but the handle did not cooperate. He stared at it intently, trying to imagine which direction would enable him to exert maximum power over it. He believed pulling it outward would attain this effect.
Whoever had constructed the tunnel had expected him to pull the handle; there was no other solution. With a determined resolution, he pulled the handle as hard as he could. An immense roar of collapsing rocks echoed from every direction, and a cloud of dust obstructed any other sight from his eyes. He couldn’t even see his own men. The dust made breathing difficult, and all of them began coughing violently.
“Cover your faces with fabric,” Ahiav called out, as he covered his own face with his cloak. Apparently, pulling the handle had triggered the collapse of some hidden entryway in the tunnel through which they must pass, he decided. I wonder what the tunnel exit will look like, he thought, having an increasingly hard time breathing the dusty air.
“Everyone try to feel the walls and find out where an opening has formed in the tunnel. Anyone who finds it, let us know immediately so that we can pass through it to a less dusty area,” he called out to his men.
However, the search did not reveal any opening. On the contrary. To their immense horror, they discovered a rockslide behind them, in the direction from which they had come. Apparently, the top of the tunnel had collapsed, blocking their route and flooding them with dust. They all understood that they were blocked in every direction.
It can’t be, Ahiav thought. How could they conceal the Ark in a safe location if they couldn’t move? Or was this the Ark’s hiding place, a burial site for it and for them? Once again, he remembered what Eli had said. He was ready to sacrifice his own life in order to prevent the enemy from discovering the opening to the tunnel. And as Ahiav realized at that moment, their lives had been sacrificed as well. This was the way the tunnel had been designed many years ago, when the temple had been constructed. Anyone who knew its location had to die, taking its secret to the grave with him.
This line of thought made sense; he himself would have acted in a similar manner. But perhaps there was still an opening? Perhaps the collapse behind them had been an accident, perhaps there was an opening they hadn’t discovered, perhaps it was the ceiling of the tunnel that had opened, or perhaps he hadn’t pulled the handle hard enough. It was worth a try, he decided, fumbling his way back toward it. The handle was still affixed to the wall.
“I’m pulling the handle again,” he called out. “Be prepared for anything.”
This time, the handle moved relatively easily, as if its hidden part was moving within a viscous liquid, perhaps honey or tar, he thought. Then the handle fell loose from the wall, and he found himself holding it in its entirety. A strange, pungent smell filled the tunnel. One by one, each of them fell, suffocation and darkness engulfing them for eternity.
***
Eli only had time to take a few steps away from the hidden doorway when he was stabbed to death by a soldier from Nebuchadnezzar’s army. In his last moments, he felt proud to have fulfilled his destiny on Earth, to hide the Ark of the Covenant in the place that King Solomon had designated for it when he had built the temple, and of course, to convey the knowledge of the Ark’s location to his eldest son, who had left his homeland and was living in Egypt in order to preserve this immense secret, just as the high priests who had preceded him had done. At last, life in exile, far from his family, had proved to be a worthy endeavor. There would always be one among them who was far, far away from danger, who would know where the Ark was located and who had been ordered to guard the secret of the Ark and its origin, bequeathing it only to his own offspring.
The soldier who stabbed Eli didn’t understand the meaning of his ecstatic smile as he lay dying.
Chapter 2
Kazuki
Tokyo, Thursday, August 17, 2017
Kazuki put down NASA’s latest scientific report. Its main chapter dealt, naturally, with the observations of the space telescopes, whose number was gradually increasing. As of today, there were sixteen telescopes active in various ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum. Good old Hubble was still a force to be reckoned with and was providing amazing observations. There was also the Kepler telescope, which had discovered about five thousand planets whose chances of discovery had been less than 10 percent, leading to the conclusion that the universe was teeming with planets orbiting suns.
How can you stop such scientific progress? he muttered to himself. How do you deal with an abundance of research in every area of biology, such as mapping the human genome? They’re already talking about cloning a human. Who knows where all this will lead?
The organization’s work had been so easy in the 3,330 years since it had been established by Aaron the High Priest, the brother of Moses who had brought the Israelites out of Egypt. In fact, the only task the organization had dealt with since its establishment was preventing the discovery of the Ark of the Covenant, the “smoking gun,” to use the legal term. The Ark had to disappear completely. Its discovery might have led to a change in the very fundamentals of existence and, in that regard, the Guardians had succeeded in their task.
Despite intensive searching throughout the years by numerous groups, the Ark was not discovered, and not even the slightest clue leading to its location was uncovered. This was aided by the spreading of quite a few rumors, the majority of them initiated by the Guardians, which had steered the search into useless venues.
From their earliest days, they had acted covertly, keeping the number of activists to a minimum. Their main occupation was accumulating property resulting from the inheritances of the organization’s members and, later, from wise and extremely long-term investments.
Here and there, massive excitement broke out over the appearance of unidentified flying objects i
n the sky. In the pre-technological era, it was easy to attribute such phenomena to various gods, to demons and angels and other components of the believers’ menagerie, including the chariots of the gods, flying dragons, vimanas, and other supposed means of transportation that they purportedly used.
During the past century, the global superpowers were also motivated to conceal the facts in order to prevent mass hysteria, and thus effectively carried out the Guardians’ job. In the current era, where the media ruled the masses and every year the race for explosive journalistic scoops intensified, it required careful, constant work to blur and devalue the discoveries that they had been ordered to prevent.
Yes, it was time to call a meeting of the members. The agenda would include the latest scientific developments, allocating the tasks of monitoring pertinent research among the members, looking into the option of using external specialists, and, of course, reviewing the rules in regard to interfering with research.
Chapter 3
The Guardians
Tokyo, Sunday, August 20, 2017
The nice weather brought the masses to the Yumanoshima Marina in Tokyo. The fair dedicated to beach and sailing merchandise currently being held also attracted many people from the area, who were swarming every alley and dock in the marina. Everything was working in favor of the Guardians, whose members blended in with the crowd until the moment when, one by one, they boarded The Blue Fin, the yacht Kazuki had rented, and on which he was waiting with his right-hand man, Takumi.
First came colorful Koro, a squat Japanese man in his fifties, who was in charge of finance as well as being the liaison with various industries, some of which were fully or partially owned by the organization. Although he controlled the flow of funds, he never abused his power, always acting in accordance with the organization’s decisions and never delaying payments. On the contrary, he always paid on time so as not to attract any particular attention to his activities. His colorful outfits blended in with the prevailing atmosphere in the marina, making him look like a typical visitor. No one would suspect even for a minute that Koro controlled investments worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
