The Betrayed Series: Ultimate Omnibus Collection

by Carolyn McCray

  “Look,” he whispered. “Look at this, ‘Becca.”

  Finally she glanced toward him, at first with annoyance, then with recognition. She set down her laptop and rose to study the object.

  “Is it… is it really a piece of Torah?”

  Carefully unfolding the document, Lochum confirmed its origin. Hebrew scrolled down the left but the entire right margin was covered in ancient Greek. Bartholomew had torn, actually damaged, a piece of his most sacred scrolls. Even Rebecca was impressed.

  “He would not have done that if it wasn’t a vital passage,” she said.

  Lochum did not argue as she gingerly took the parchment and sat down with her laptop.

  * * *

  God, how Rebecca hated it when Lochum was right. The professor sat gloating as she typed in the Torah’s passage. She already recognized that James’ name was mentioned more than a few times.

  As the translation program whirled, Rebecca rested her head against the pocked wall. Lights occasionally flickered through the gray curtains, but they were in the distance. The ghosts were keeping them safe so far.

  Her mind wandered back to something Lochum had said. Something about how this place must have held significance to the region’s ancient peoples. At the synagogue, Rebecca had Googled the phrase “four and one” a hundred times and followed every possible link, but found only some hockey scores, odds on a racehorse, and a cream to make one’s boobs bigger but nothing relevant. The search was just too general.

  But what if the second passage was not talking about any Judeo-Christian reference, but one from the region James was laid to rest? Typing furiously, she punched in the term “four and one” and added “Hungarian mythology.”

  Immediately several references popped up. She hit the first link.

  “Oh, crap,” Rebecca said before she could stop herself.

  Lochum was by her side in an instant. “What’s wrong?”

  “Here it is,” she said, as they both read frantically.

  The early settlers of the Hungarian region, the Magyars, had an elaborate mythology that included spirits and demigods, but five in particular were worshipped by all. The four elements—earth, wind, air, and fire, and the one true God who had spawned them all.

  The four and one. She remembered reports that early evangelists had mistaken the Magyars for Christians, since their rituals and customs were very similar, but this civilization was only quasi-monotheist. They held one god above all others, but believed in other spiritual beings. Rebecca could see how these Magyars would be steady allies of the early Christians.

  Most scholars believed this region had so readily and quickly converted to Christianity because of their similar mythologies, but now Rebecca wondered. Perhaps they had more in common than that.

  Lochum sat down hard enough that Rebecca feared the bed’s old frame would give out from under them. “Of course, now the stag makes sense.”

  For a moment, Rebecca didn’t understand the reference. How were the four elements and one true God related to the stag in the magical forest of Divei llai? Then she realized she was making the same mistake as before. This was about Magyar mythology, not Jewish or proto-Christian.

  Her mind spun as quickly as her laptop’s hard drive.

  Stag. Stag. Stag. Unfortunately, Hungarian ancient mythology was not one of her specialties.

  Lochum sighed next to her. “You do not remember, do you?”

  She felt her cheeks flush against her will. If she had known they would be searching in Hungary instead of the Ecuadorian jungle, she would have brushed up on her Eastern European mythology. Just a few more moments and she would have it, but her professor could not wait.

  “Nimrud? Symaria? The name itself—Magyar? Ring any bells?”

  Rebecca wanted to smack herself. Of course.

  She talked quickly, bringing back stale knowledge. “The tale of Nimrud’s two sons, Hunor and Magor. They went out hunting and encountered a white stag. They tracked it day and night for nearly a week. By the time they had it within range, the brothers held such respect for the beast that they could not kill it, and to their surprise the stag lay down and would not budge. The brothers knew that they were in the presence of a god, and that they had been chosen to rule this land. In thanks, they ran to get the beast food and water, but when they returned the white stag was gone. Only the antlers remained.”

  “B-plus work,” Lochum replied. “Unlike Cain and Abel, the two brothers did not quarrel over this heavenly gift. Instead they looked at the antlers. Hunor took all the land that lay to the right of the antler and Magor took the rich soil to the left.”

  Rebecca jumped in. Her teacher’s pet reflex was almost impossible to extinguish. “Thus the Huns were born to the East and the Magyars to the West.”

  “Attila’s ancestors spread eastward. Centuries later, the prodigal son came westward to conquer his own cousins. The brothers’ civil pact shattered.” After a sad exhale, Lochum looked around the deserted room. “History does not seem to favor the fair and honest, does it?”

  After the past few days, Rebecca could not argue with him. Greed and lust seemed to overwhelm the much quieter impulses of generosity and compassion. The image of Brandt’s face as she walked away from him in the Parisian airport flashed. Why had she not appreciated his concern for her safety? A few minutes of discussion, and they might have reached a compromise. If Hunor and Magor could do it, why not them?

  “Is the translation done?” he asked.

  She looked down. The software was only eighty-six percent done. “Almost.”

  “Then let us see it.”

  Rebecca shook her head. “You know better. The finished product is rough enough, let alone while it’s still trying to discern the syntax pattern.”

  A light flashed across the wall, much brighter and stronger than before. They could hear someone trying to force open the metal gate.

  “We may not have a choice,” Lochum said pointedly.

  Bringing the partially decoded text up, Rebecca skimmed the content, then inhaled sharply.

  The professor recited the passage. “The bearer was most intent. The ossuary box must be interred in the most holy of places. The priest knew of great brotherly love and wished to grant his request, but it was forbidden to build upon the spot where the stag lay down…” He flashed a smile to her, then continued, “The bearer told them of their own stag the Kenesh, and the forest of Divei llai. So it was agreed. The fish would protect James for eternity.”

  “Huh?” she said as she reread the passage.

  The professor became annoyed as well. “That can’t be right.”

  “I told you to wait until the program was done.”

  But then the software dinged, indicating that it was finished. The text stayed as it was. There was no mistake.

  “Perhaps the fish refers to the ancient Christian symbol?” she asked.

  “Yes, yes. It must be metaphorical. Referring to God or James’ brother Christ.”

  She nodded, but frowned at the same time. “But how does the passage help us, then?”

  Lochum grimaced as they heard the telltale creak of the gate opening.

  Where to go?

  “Come,” the professor said as he led her deeper into the house. “Start checking floorboards and cabinets.”

  He was right. This had been a Jewish Ghetto during the time of the Nazis. Even under such harsh conditions, the imprisoned had sought to protect their own ill from the death squads by building false floors and walls. Rebecca packed her laptop and began ever so softly tapping the broken plaster, searching for a hiding spot of her own.

  * * *

  Tok walked through the center of the Great Synagogue’s many pews. The acoustics were astonishing. A whisper from the pulpit could be heard all the way back to the last row. The ceiling was especially pleasing to the eye as well as the ear. The sea-blue and emerald tiles provided a lift to the spirits and helped convey the sound over the domed structure. He was not stru
ck so much by the strange mingling of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions as how incredibly similar they all were.

  For all the fighting and deaths, the religions all believed in nearly the same thing. Each building upon the other. Why was praying to a single all-powerful God not enough to unite them all? If the world chose to focus on the religions’ differences now, the knowledge he carried in his heart would add an inextinguishable fuel to that fire.

  His musings were truncated as Petir dragged the rabbi from his office.

  “Bartholomew, I thought we had an understanding?” Tok said into his sub-vocal microphones, and Petir relayed the words.

  The rabbi blanched as sweat dripped from his brow. “You said nothing of Lochum.”

  “Perhaps because we all thought him dead. Something you might have thought to report immediately.” Steadily Tok closed the distance between them. “Why is it that I had to hear from the old woman who sells the tickets that the professor had sprung back to life?”

  There was no reply.

  Tok had to admit that the man displayed great loyalty to his old professor, but they had not the time for such sentiments. Lochum and Monroe had been flushed within the half hour. Their scent was still strong. They needed to net them now.

  “Open the Aron Kodesh.”

  “No,” the rabbi said, but his voice shook.

  “Don’t make me resort to techniques that will stain this beautiful hardwood floor.”

  Bartholomew looked to him, then to Petir, who showed him the hilt of his knife. The rabbi gulped but held firm.

  Tok had always been fond of the man. While the rabbi had only peripheral knowledge of their secret, he knew enough to be of help in eliciting clues from the various scriptures he collected. Until now he had been a neutral source of information. In this moment, however, after assisting Lochum, he was an enemy.

  “Perhaps your circumcision was not done fully enough the first time?” Tok asked through Petir.

  The rabbi’s eyes dilated as Tok predicted they would. Torture was bearable in theory. However, once you began describing the actual technique and the bodily focus of such attention, most became cooperative before the knife was ever brought to bear.

  Bartholomew took the key out of his pocket and walked to the metal curtain, unlocking the hidden room. The beautifully inscribed, gilded doors had always impressed Tok, but today his focus was on the Ark’s contents—the rolls and rolls of ancient Torahs.

  “Perhaps you might point out the one of most interest?”

  The rabbi tried to look everywhere but to the far side of the room. Tok walked to the back and touched the edges of the scrolls. It was clear which ones had recently been unrolled and then re-rolled. One in particular had been hastily returned to its place.

  Tok removed it from its binding and unrolled the parchment upon the glass cabinet. The upper left corner was torn. And this injury was not suffered in antiquity. The inner fibers along the edge were starkly white compared to the aged yellow on the surface.

  He turned to the rabbi. “Oh, Bartholomew, what have you done?”

  Petir’s knife reflected in the Ark’s polished doors.

  * * *

  Their enemy approached, but they had yet to find a single loose board. Rebecca chanced a look out the window. Their pursuers were heading into the house directly across the courtyard. It would not take them long to work their way around to this home. She finished tapping the inner wall of the water closet and moved onto the floor under a child’s bed.

  She and Lochum’s lives were in jeopardy, but Rebecca couldn’t help but turn the riddle of the Torah’s passage over in her mind.

  Obviously Bart had known, or at least suspected, far more than he had let on. Was he familiar with the translation of that passage before they had arrived, or did he only realize its significance once he saw the transcription from John’s bone?

  And why did he send them into this dead-end neighborhood? Granted, the Ghetto might have hiding places, but couldn’t he have just gotten them a cab to take them far away from here, unless…

  Hadn’t a small historical journal with an even smaller footnote suggested a reason the Romans had banished the Jews across the Danube into Buda? The author proposed that the Jews had been flushed from Pest after they joined the native Magyars in protesting a new temple to Apollo. They had insisted that the ground was sacred and had been banished for it.

  Rebecca searched her memory for what happened to that Roman temple. After the fall of the Empire, the Huns had burnt the sanctuary to the ground. The trail ended there.

  Frustrated, she moved onto the western wall, while Lochum tried to pry the floorboards open. His fingertips were bleeding. He was so desperate to get beneath the house.

  Beneath.

  Wait. Wasn’t the parchment specific that they could not build over the stag’s sacred resting place? But what about beneath it? Pest was known for its enormous series of tunnels lying under the entire city. More than ten thousand people had lived underground throughout the bombings of World War II. They even had postage delivered down there. The connecting tunnels made up a sprawling network. Some lay just beneath their feet.

  And why was there a water closet in a home such as this? Even before the neighborhood had become a ghetto, this house had been no estate. In Eastern Europe, even as late as the 1930s, indoor plumbing had been reserved for the gentry. Unless…

  “Lochum, help me here,” she whispered, sure of her instincts.

  He seemed eager for a new tactic as he helped her tug at the wood around the toilet. “We’re making too much noise. They’ll hear us.”

  “Just pull harder.”

  Lochum stopped until she indicated the Star of David above his head. In the center of the Jewish symbol was etched the tiniest fish, the icon that proto-Christians used to identify themselves. Not only was it a symbol that identified secret meeting places that predated the cross by a millennium, but it was also mentioned in the Torah’s passage. Strength seemed to find its way to his limbs. They worked together, but the damn thing would not budge.

  Then she remembered the gate. “Lift it.”

  “What?” he asked. Then, with very little effort, Rebecca lifted the china basin, and the entire floor gave way to a darkened stairwell.

  They both just stood there, stunned that her ploy had actually worked.

  “I think… I think we need to go down there,” she said, not quite sure she wanted to follow the steps.

  “Yes,” Lochum answered with little enthusiasm, then found his passion again. “Yes, we must.”

  With no more hesitation they headed beneath.

  * * *

  A bullet whizzed past his ear.

  Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

  The enemy must have circled around. Until now his team had managed to avoid any dead ends, but this place was a fucking maze.

  As his men returned fire, Brandt grabbed Svengurd’s arm. “We need a new fucking plan.”

  The tall man yelled over the gunfire. “I say we go deeper.”

  Up until this point they had avoided passages that slanted downward. They needed to get to the surface, pronto. However, the tunnels that sloped toward the surface ended up meandering and circling back, but now it wasn’t about getting out of here so much as staying alive.

  “Do it.”

  As Lopez and Davidson laid down suppression fire, Brandt and Svengurd made for the next downward passage, but bullets came from that direction as well.

  He didn’t even bother to cuss. They were screwed. Pinned between two superior forces. Why the fuckers hadn’t just lobbed some grenades at them and end this quickly, Brandt didn’t know.

  Or maybe he did. Their enemy must have a sense of self-preservation. Even a small fragmentation grenade could cause enough damage to destabilize the tunnel. And a percussion grenade? Forget it. An entire section of caves could collapse.

  Wait a minute.

  Brandt turned to Svengurd. “You still have that C-4?”

 
; “Yeah, why?”

  A savage smile crossed his face. He might not have the book smarts like Lochum, but he could be an evil genius when he needed to be.

  * * *

  Lochum followed Rebecca down the steep stone stairs. The steps were cut from the walls themselves. His hands trembled in anticipation. How glad he was that he had brought her along. For all her flaws, she had a brilliant, deductive mind. He never could have cross-referenced all the new information so quickly to find this path.

  As they exited the stairwell, the temperature dropped a good fifteen degrees, but the goose bumps on his arms were not from the cold. He could see a dim light in the distance. It was more a glow. Rebecca looked anxiously at him, but there was no turning back.

  He led the way down the slick slope to find the source of the light. A pool of water glowed in the dark cave. Water dripped from the ceiling and walls, but none of that liquid shone like the pool. A pure, white light washed over them.

  Surprisingly, it was Rebecca who put a finger into the water. She swirled her digit around the edge of the pool. “It’s bioluminescent bacteria. But this deep in a cave?”

  His student was right. With the exception of the New Zealand glow worm, most light- producing species were confined to the twilight zone of any given cave system. Bioluminescence was a costly biological product, which took enormous energy input. Bacteria this far down simply should not be able to produce light.

  “Are you seeing this? The fish aren’t albino. Shouldn’t they be albino?” she asked, her voice full of both disbelief and wonder.

  Not only were the darting fish not white, they were a rainbow of colors—yellow, red, orange, and turquoise—far more brilliant than even marine creatures. They looked almost painted. If they found nothing else, this pond alone would be the biological find of the year.

  But he noticed a rectangular object far deeper in the water. “Is there something at the bottom?”

  Rebecca plunged her arm into the water. “I think… Yeah, yeah, my fingers are touching something flat and smooth with—”