The Didymus Contingency

by Jeremy Robinson

  Caiaphas turned away from what he now considered Jesus’s last triumph. From here on, he would control the minds and souls of his people. He would use his power to sentence Jesus to death. He would reclaim Israel for the Jews, for the laws of Moses, for the Pharisees...for the Master.

  Tarsus and Caiaphas left the wall, eagerly discussing their plans for the future. As they walked, their shadows followed them, as did a third.

  * * * * *

  Judas strode down a shop-lined street of the lower city. He always took a great amount of pride in his monetary duties, even when it required him to shop for thirteen men. But today’s shopping order was easy: bread; Judas had quickly found and bought five loaves. He then had the time to scan the shops for exotic fruit, which he bought and devoured. No one would be the wiser!

  After having his fill of fine fruit, Judas was returning to the upper room in which they were to dine tonight. But something caught his eye. A jewelry stand selling gold and silver items covered in all sorts of sparkling gems.

  “Can I help you find something? Some gold perhaps? For a lady or perhaps for yourself?” the stand owner asked.

  The extravagant items captivated Judas, his eyes ablaze with interest. The owner saw his chance and seized it. “This would look very nice on you.”

  “I—I don’t know,” Judas said, wide eyed.

  The owner held up a bracelet. It was gold with two green gems and a red ruby. “This bracelet was part of Solomon’s own treasure,” declared the owner.

  “Really?” Judas’s eyebrows rose.

  “Try it on. See how it fits you.”

  Judas raised his arm to the owner, who slipped it on Judas’s wrist, mimicking a servant.

  “There you are, master,” the owner said. “Like King Solomon himself!”

  “Buy it,” said a voice inside Judas’s head.

  “Yes, buy it! You’re a king,” another voice said.

  Dismissing the voices as his own thoughts, Judas smiled wide as he looked at the bracelet, snug on his wrist. It fit him well indeed! Judas looked at the owner. “How much?”

  Judas had never bought something that wasn’t on the order and now that he had, he felt great. True, it was expensive, but he was in charge of the money and no one needed to know. If someone asked, he would tell the others it was a gift. Judas looked at his wrist where the bracelet dangled below the five loaves of bread. King Solomon had nothing on him!

  The shopping district of the lower city was nearly behind Judas as he strode onto an empty street, which was lined with alleys on either side. He was oblivious to the world and almost didn’t hear the high-pitched voice call to him. “Hello!”

  Windows, doors and alleyways spun through Judas’s vision as he searched the vicinity for the body belonging to the voice. Where did it come from and was it talking to him?

  “Over here!”

  Judas pivoted and saw only an empty alley.

  “Where are you, child? I cannot see you.” Judas said.

  “The alley in front of you. Quick, I need your help!”

  Judas approached the alley cautiously and peered into the shadows. He thought he saw a small figure on the ground, but it was too dark inside the alley to make out clearly.

  “Please, hurry,” pleaded the voice, which Judas now thought must belong to a little girl. She sounded scared, maybe hurt. Judas caught a glimpse of his bracelet, strong, noble and kingly. Helping someone in need felt like the right thing for a man like Judas to do. He placed his bread on the ground just inside the alley and entered.

  Looking at the ground before placing each foot forward, Judas edged into the alley and stopped just five feet away from a little girl who was sitting on the ground with her back to Judas. “Are you lost?” Judas asked.

  “I need your help,” the girl said.

  An old feeling suddenly clawed at Judas. Since Judas had saved his friends from being stoned at the temple, he hadn’t felt afraid. He was a new man, a brave man. He couldn’t understand why this was happening again. His fingers grew cold and tingly. He thought of retreat, but wouldn’t leave the little girl to whatever danger might be around. “Tell me, child, what would you have me do?”

  “Do you follow the man named Jesus?” the child asked.

  Judas’s palms grew sweaty and his eyes darted around the alley. What was making him feel this way? His senses pounded on his skull, warning of danger, issuing the call to flee. But the child! “Yes, yes I do. Now then, come along. Let’s get you out of this alley. Quickly, child.”

  “Take my hand,” the child said.

  The girl raised a chubby hand in the air and Judas took a hold of it. Her grip was loose at first but quickly became like a wine press. The girl whipped her head around toward Judas, revealing a chapped and distorted face, as though her skin was peeling tree bark. “Judas, Judas,” the girl said, her voice like an angry old man’s. “How trusting of you. Even the prowling lion can look as pure and innocent as a small child. Did not your master teach you that?”

  Lungs heaving and heart racing, Judas felt his throat swell with anxiety. What was this? He opened his mouth to scream, but no air escaped. The darkness in the alley began to move, to writhe over the walls and floor like a living shadow. The black mass sealed off the entrance to the alley and he felt more alone than he had ever felt in his life.

  Judas yanked his hand away from the hideous girl and fell backwards against the alley’s wall. Before he could catch a breath, the girl was standing above him with her rot-smelling face only inches from his. “Do you know who I am, Judas?”

  His body trembling, Judas was unable to answer.

  “Yes, you do... I can see it in your eyes,” the girl said with a smile.

  “What do you want with me?” shouted Judas.

  “I told you the truth,” the girl said, as she stood up straight. “You see. I’m not all bad.” The girl smiled wider. “I need your help.”

  The swirling darkness closed in tighter, reducing the alley to a ten-foot black box, and shrinking. Voices could be heard from the darkness. “You will help us. Yes, help us. Buy the bracelet. It looks so good on you! Like a king! Like a fool! Like a traitor! Yes, yes, yes!”

  “Will you help me, Judas?” the girl asked.

  The darkness closed in tighter and tighter so that Judas wouldn’t have been able to stand. It threatened to crush them both. Judas felt his life being snuffed. His heart pounded. He wished for death but knew it wouldn’t come. He closed his eyes tight, terrified to see what would happen. “Yes!” he cried. “I’ll help you! Just stop! Please stop!”

  A searing heat burned Judas’s back, spreading through his shoulders and into his head. Then the pain dissipated. Judas waited several seconds. He heard nothing, felt nothing. He opened his eyes. The girl was gone. He was alone in the alley, as though nothing had happened. Resting his head on his arms, Judas whimpered and cried like a beaten child.

  “Get up, Judas!” came a loud voice.

  Judas screamed and jumped to his feet. His head twisted from side to side, searching. But no one was there. No girl. No blackness. There was no source for the voice. It was all around him... No, it was inside him.

  “You know where you need to go. Caiaphas is waiting for you. You know what must be done. Judas, I have faith in you,” the voice said.

  Judas caught his breath for a moment, then ran to the edge of the alley, picked up his bread and ran toward the upper city.

  —EIGHTEEN—

  Betrayal

  2005

  7:01 A.M.

  Arizona

  The noise was immense as Sally crashed into the wardrobe department and spilled into a closet of medieval outfits, knocking chain mail, long swords and shields displaying every sort of national emblem, to the floor. She fell to her hands and knees and vomited into a leather boot. David had told Sally about the side effects of time travel, but the twisting feeling in her stomach was much worse than he had described. And she had yet to actually travel through time. She s
imply used the watch to transport from midair to the wardrobe department, which she supervised. She knew if she was going to save Tom and David then she better fit in as best as possible and her current, skin tight, black ninja outfit wasn’t going to cut it.

  Sally moved to retch again, but her entire body became rigid and she held down her bile as the door creaked open. Someone must have heard the noise! Sally ducked behind a rack of British army uniforms and held her breath. She could hear footsteps wandering in the dark, searching for something...for a light switch!

  The lights clicked on and set the room ablaze with fluorescent light. “Hello?” came a voice that Sally recognized.

  “Director McField, is that you?”

  How did Spencer know it was her?

  Spencer stopped moving. She could feel his eyes searching for her. “I saw you take the watch, Sally. David told me that if something went wrong that I could trust you. He should have been back by now...and that means something went wrong...but you figured that out already, didn’t you? That’s why you’re going back too?”

  “How the hell do you know all that?” Sally said, as she stood up.

  Spencer flashed his teeth with a confident smile, “You hired me, Sally. You know how smart I am.”

  Sally smirked. Spencer was right. He was smart, but he knew entirely too much. “What do you know about David?”

  Spencer adjusted his glasses and only made a halfhearted attempt to hide his proud smile. “I saw him.”

  “When?” Sally asked.

  “Before Tom or David ever went back.”

  “So did I. Everyone did.”

  “Correction. The David I saw had come back from the past, dressed in clothing appropriate to the early A.D. period in ancient Israel,” Spencer explained. “A closer inspection of the receiving area’s inventory reveals that there was, in fact, one item missing, and the second time signature was no glitch in time space, no random effect created by time travel...”

  “It was David…” Sally said.

  “Precisely. David gave me instructions to follow—which I did perfectly, I might add—and that included locating you if he and Tom should not return to within an hour of their departure time. I deduced the logical choice of action would be to send someone else back in time, but upon seeing the beefy Captain Roberts slip into the time stream, I knew it was only a matter of time before you took action yourself.”

  Sally was growing tired of Spencer’s lengthy explanations. “All wonderful, Spencer, but get to the point.”

  Spencer remembered who he was talking to and straightened up. “I’m here to help you, Director McField.”

  What good could a skinny little scientist do Sally now? This wasn’t a time for brain storming, hypothesizing or arguing the fate of the universe. She needed action. “Spencer, can you buy me some time?”

  “Time is our specialty, Director McField,” Spencer said proudly. “Time is our new best friend.”

  Sally went into detail quickly about Captain Roberts’s mission and how he planned to carry it out. She told him about the robot insects with the poison that could kill a man and make it look like an allergic reaction. She told him everything. If David trusted Spencer, she could too.

  “What time to you plan to travel to?” Spencer asked.

  “Same time as Roberts, but far enough away so that he doesn’t see me.”

  Sally threw a robe over her ninja outfit and sneakers. She knew the sneakers might be seen, but she also knew she might have to do some running, and not wearing sandals would give her an advantage. She disguised her watch with some twine as best she could and threw a covering over her head and face. She was pale as a ghost and didn’t want stick out more then she already would. “Can you keep things busy here for a while? Create a temporal emergency or something? Give me some extra time?”

  “Can do,” Spencer said with a thumbs-up. “You don’t have to worry about a thing here. We’ve got everything under control.”

  Sally thought Spencer’s speech was strange. He had referred to himself in the plural three times now. But he was probably just nervous and there was no time to have a personal conversation.

  “Thanks,” Sally said. “You’re a good man.”

  After tapping a series of buttons on her watch, Sally said, “Better stand clear.”

  Spencer walked to the edge of the room and watched as Sally disappeared into time with a bright flash and a boom. This had been easier than he thought it would be. When the idea to turn the recent events to his advantage had entered his mind, as though from divine inspiration, he wasn’t sure it would work. But Sally had played right into his hands and his recent alliances would make sure he moved up the ladder quickly.

  Spencer pulled a cell phone from his back pocket, flipped it open and dialed two numbers. “Director Dwight? Yes, it’s Spencer. Director McField just went back... Yes, sir...same time as Captain Roberts... Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir!”

  Spencer was all smiles as he hung up the phone. Just like that, he had secured David’s position as lead scientist of the time travel unit. He was moving up in the world! Spencer giggled to himself and headed out the door for Receiving Area Alpha, eager to begin studying his priceless artifacts from the future.

  Spencer was feeling too good to notice the voices of congratulations within his mind were not his own. “Good job! You’re so great! But we still have more to do. Yes. Much more work for us to do. Yes! Yes. The future awaits us.”

  As Spencer left the room, two shadows followed him. After rounding the corner, the second shadow detached and moved down the hallway, toward Director Dwight’s meeting room.

  * * * * *

  Director George Dwight and Jake Parrish sat across from each other on plush leather chairs. The room was small and lit only from above. It was the kind of room perfect for a meeting such as this. Soundproof walls. No windows. No vents. No doors.

  “Things haven’t gone exactly to plan, sir, but I think we have things under control now,” Jake said.

  “How’s the throat?” George asked.

  Jake rubbed his throat. It hurt like hell. “That woman can throw a punch.”

  “And she’s as smart as she is strong, so don’t go assuming she’s out of the game just yet,” George said.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “What’s the status on our little friends?”

  “Prepped and ready to go. We know where and when Sally and Roberts are, and with the onboard facial recognition software, the other two shouldn’t be too much more difficult to track down.”

  “Has the poison been altered?”

  “Of course, sir. The poison acts the same, but its kill time has been accelerated to a half hour. Sally will have little time to find them and administer the antidote. Of course, by then, it will be too late for all of them.”

  “Excellent. What a regrettable mess this is. It’s a PR nightmare, really.”

  “Spencer and a team are prepping to retrieve the bodies even as we speak. I think a helicopter crash would be a fitting way to dispose of the bodies.”

  George leaned back with a smile. “You’re trying to make director.”

  Jake smiled. “I believe we have an opening.”

  “Get this done for me... Consider the position filled.”

  Jake stood to his feet and headed for an empty wall. “Better have my door etched. This won’t take long.”

  The wall whooshed open in front of Jake. He exited the bare room and turned to the right, his pace quickening with every step. The door closed silently behind him, leaving him alone in the cool hallway. George was a blind fool. Jake was far more than an assistant. He ran this company. He was in charge. As soon as he finished cleaning up George’s mess, he would apply himself to usurping his boss and taking this company to places of power never before dreamed of.

  “Do you think it’s possible?” Jake asked himself aloud.

  “We think so.” Jake answered.

  “So do we!”

  “Yes!” />
  “This is so fun!”

  * * * * *

  Tom laughed loudly at Matthew’s impression of a Pharisee. It was uncanny. Jesus and the twelve had been dining together in a room they had rented for the night. Rarely did they eat a meal so good that wasn’t given to them for free. This meal was different, it was bought and paid for and the men and women who served them were not being charitable. They were being paid. This wasn’t just another meal. It was formal, as formal as a meal could be when you’re all lying around a table, digging into the same piles of food with shards of ancient Pita bread.

  How the meal had begun was even stranger. Jesus had washed all their feet. Tom had grown used to having his feet washed by servants; it was customary here in the past where everyone wore sandals and ate while reclining, placing their dusty feet precariously close to the food. But Tom had never had his feet washed by another disciple, let alone Jesus. He was amazed at how humbling an experience it was.

  But the washing of Tom’s feet was nothing compared to what Jesus did next. He took some bread and some wine, said something about how it was his blood and flesh and then they all ate it. It took Tom, and he imagined everyone else, some time to shake the feeling that this was Jesus’s way of saying goodbye. Tom wished David were here to explain what was happening.

  The fact that David wasn’t present caused Tom some distress at first because of the recent serious mood. David was waiting outside, eating by himself. Jesus and David had agreed that this meal was for the disciples’ benefit alone. But Tom didn’t feel up to any big surprises. He could usually judge from David’s facial expressions when something good or bad was about to happen, but David wasn’t there. Tom did his best to settle in and forget about what might or might not happen. So far, the meal had gone as they usually did. Matthew told jokes. Everyone laughed.