The Temple Mount Code

by Charles Brokaw

‘Who has the last laugh now?’ Davari lay in the shadows as the battle raged around him. There was nothing he could do to stop Lourds. They would already be making their way around the ridgeline on horseback. Even if Davari could get a car, he wouldn’t be able to trail them. They could make it into Turkey on horses now.

  But Davari knew where they were heading. Lourds was going back to Jerusalem – and if he had solved the mystery of Mohammad’s Koran and the Scroll – the professor would only be going to one place – the Dome of the Rock.

  Davari would be there waiting for him.

  50

  Dome of the Rock

  Temple Mount

  Jerusalem, the State of Israel

  August 18, 2011

  Lourds sat in the passenger seat of the rental car with his backpack at his feet. The morning heat was sweltering, and he felt sweat trickling under his shirt. The thobe, bisht, and keffiyeh he wore made the heat even more oppressive. Part of that was nerves, though.

  Although he’d chafed to return to Jerusalem for the day and a half it had taken Miriam and him to get back there, now he was extremely nervous.

  ‘Having second thoughts?’ Alice sat behind the wheel. She was elegantly dressed, as befitting a happy widow.

  Klaus Von Volker’s death was currently the subject of an ongoing investigation that investigators felt would tie back to his proclivities for black market weapons. The consensus was that one of Von Volker’s unhappy customers had blown him to smithereens – though enough of him was left over for identification. As a result, Alice wasn’t just getting what she’d absconded with. She was getting it all. And widowhood seemed to agree with her.

  ‘Oh, I’m well past second thoughts and into near panic.’

  Alice reached over and took his hand. The dark sunglasses hid her eyes, but worry tightened her lips into a near frown. ‘You could let someone else do this.’

  Lourds saw Miriam tense up in the backseat. He wasn’t sure if it was because of Alice’s suggestion or the casual familiarity the older woman showed with him. Lourds suspected it might be a combination of the two and knew he might have some explaining to do later.

  Provided he survived the trip into the Dome of the Rock.

  ‘Who would I let do this?’ Lourds shook his head. ‘If I told the Israelis about this, and they got caught, it would turn into – at the very least – an international incident, if not a war. And I’m not interested in telling the Ayatollah that he might have the very objects that he killed Lev to obtain at his fingertips. That’s not going to happen.’

  ‘If you’re caught, they may kill you.’

  ‘If I’m caught, they’ll be killing a curious American professor of linguistics who wandered into a place he shouldn’t have been. That’s not an international incident.’ Lourds couldn’t believe he was talking so casually about his own death. He told himself he was worrying needlessly, that he wasn’t going to get caught.

  After all, no one even knew to look for him – or Mohammad’s Koran and Scroll – there.

  ‘And if that should happen, you go to the United States embassy and give someone in the State Department all the information I’ve given you.’ Lourds had made copies of Lev’s journal and all the translations he’d rendered, including the map from the corner pieces.

  ‘I will. But I’d much rather you come back safe and sound, whether you find anything there or not.’

  Lourds gazed out at the Dome of the Rock. The octagon-shaped building looked beautiful and benign in the morning sunlight. Built in the shape of a Byzantine martyrium designed to hold saintly relics, the Dome was covered with mid-Byzantine art. The colorful mosaics included blue, white, orange, yellow, and green Iznik tiles in ornate shapes, giving the building its unique, glassy appearance.

  At one point it was said that one hundred thousand dinars had been reforged into the Dome’s exterior. Originally, its construction had taken seven years, but considerable effort had gone into the maintenance, too. In 1960, the Dome had required additional protection, and the distinctive aluminum and bronze alloy had been added. Cast in Italy, the metal covering shone in the bright sunlight.

  ‘Me too.’ Lourds smiled. ‘I’m all about being safe and sound. It’s the situations and circumstances that keep disagreeing with me. If these things were hidden in safe places, however, everyone would find them.’ He opened the door and prepared to get out.

  Alice caught him behind the head and pulled him to her in a passionate kiss. That surprised Lourds, as well as complicating the situation with Miriam, but it didn’t stop him from kissing her back.

  She drew back. ‘I’ll see you soon.’

  ‘Yes.’ Lourds slid out of the car, regretting that he couldn’t take his backpack and hoping he’d brought everything he needed in his cargo pants. He also hoped the flashlight, pry bar, and other tools wouldn’t clank when he walked.

  He pulled the keffiyeh into place to better shadow his face and turned to face Miriam as she got out of the car. Like him, she wore Muslim dress. They started walking toward the Dome.

  ‘Kissing in public?’ The note of disapproval in her tone was unmistakable, and it seemed to be even sharper because she spoke in Farsi. ‘That hardly suits a Muslim man.’

  ‘I don’t think anyone noticed.’

  ‘You don’t know that.’

  ‘And there are several Muslim men who have American and European girlfriends. Even when they have several wives.’

  ‘Whatever.’

  Whatever? Lourds knew he was on dangerous ground. Not just from whatever waited on him in the Dome.

  ‘You know, Professor Lourds, I’m putting my ass on the line for you here, hoping you can hold up your end.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘This is hardly the kind of thing that you should have brought your girlfriend to.’

  ‘She’s not my girlfriend. She’s just a … good friend.’

  ‘A good friend? That’s what you call it?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Does she know she’s a good friend?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘And that you have other good friends?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Are you going to be good friends again anytime soon?’

  ‘I don’t know. I’m working hard on just surviving the next few minutes.’

  ‘That’s exactly why I want you to stay focused.’

  Lourds stopped in the street and faced the young woman. ‘If I have hurt you in any way, Miriam, I’m sorry. That was not my intention.’

  She stared at him for a moment, then let out a breath. ‘I know. Getting involved with you was my idea.’

  ‘Maybe I should have said no.’

  Her eyes flared open wider. ‘You could have told me no?’

  Lourds desperately backtracked in his mind. This was what he hated about trying to maintain a relationship that lasted more than a few days or weeks. There were just too many things to pay attention to and revisionist history regarding events and motivations shifted as suddenly and dangerously as quicksand. Translating dead and forgotten languages was much safer. ‘Of course I couldn’t have told you no.’

  ‘Your problem is that you can’t tell anyone no.’

  Lourds felt like he’d walked out into the middle of a minefield. There were no right answers. He hated that. At least working translations, there were right answers.

  ‘Did you tell her about us?’

  ‘No. Why would I do that? I didn’t tell you about Alice and me.’

  Miriam frowned.

  Lourds sighed. ‘Might I suggest there’s a better time and place to work this out? We’re all consenting adults.’

  Obviously not happy about the situation, Miriam turned and continued walking toward the Dome.

  Lourds hurried after her. ‘Hey. As a proper Muslim woman, you’re supposed to walk behind me.’

  Miriam turned and glared daggers at him, but waited until he passed her and trailed behind him. Somehow, that didn’t make Lourds feel any safer at all
.

  As with every other time he’d visited the Islamic shrine, Lourds found his breath taken from him when he stepped inside the wooden walkway adjacent to the entrance to the Wailing Wall. Already he could hear prayers at the Wall. Jews were not permitted inside the Dome to pray.

  Muslim security guards from the Ministry of Awqaf checked all the visitors.

  The huge rock face in the center of the Dome, surrounded by gorgeous pillars, was steeped in the emotional history of the Bible, the Koran, and the Talmud.

  It was here that Abraham had come to sacrifice his son, Isaac, as commanded by God, and it was from this Rock that God had created the world. It was here that Mohammad had arrived on the winged beast, al-Buraq, and – some believed – his footprint was still upon the rock. It was here that the Ark of the Covenant was delivered to the First Temple, which was built by King Solomon after his father, King David, was denied the task by God. That temple had been destroyed by the Babylonians and rebuilt, renamed Herod’s Temple, and was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70.

  Lourds’s chest swelled at the sight of the Rock. Even though he knew the location was argued over by the different theologies, and they even disagreed if this was the Rock, he knew there was something hugely significant about it. He could feel it. That bothered him because he preferred his feelings based in history and fact.

  This, though, was pure faith.

  And he’d come to plunder this holy place. Thinking that wasn’t a most auspicious beginning, especially since Lourds was immediately reminded of the penalty he faced if he got caught. But he put one foot in front of the other and got to it.

  Men and women were allowed to enter through different doors, and had to occupy different parts of the Dome. Neither Miriam nor Lourds was certain where the entrance to the underground labyrinth – if it even existed – was.

  Lourds walked in a semicircle around the Rock, watching carefully through the ornate pillars. He followed the small morning crowd of Muslims and tourists through the tour, ending up in the Well of Souls. The cave was located below the Foundation Stone.

  He peered through the small hole that showed the interior of the cave, then continued to the entrance on the southern side, where the stairs were. The stairway was lined in brown-and-white carpet, but the hard stone underneath was evident. At the bottom, he walked through the gap between the Stone and the rock wall.

  In wonder and frustration, he surreptitiously searched the room. If there was a clue to the location of Mohammad’s Book and Scroll, he didn’t see it. A steady resonance filled the room, and Lourds was reminded again of the sound of the sea. Many people believed the phenomenon was created by the enclosed space and the presence of so many people above and around the Well of Souls.

  ‘You see, my son, this is where the souls of the dead come to await Judgment Day.’ A man in American clothing stood holding the hand of his small son.

  ‘When I die, I’m going to come here?’

  ‘Some say that.’

  The boy looked at the cave thoughtfully. ‘Seems small. And there’s no bathroom.’

  Lourds chuckled, then masked the sound with a small coughing fit. Frustrated, knowing Miriam would be worried, he turned to go back up the stairs. Then the feeling he’d first gotten when he’d entered the Dome slammed into him again. This time he thought he was going to fall.

  Several people around him got excited and nervous.

  ‘That was a tremor!’

  ‘The ground moved! Did you feel it?’

  ‘Was that an earthquake?’

  All the voices spoke different languages, but Lourds understood them all. What he didn’t understand was the tremor. He’d never experienced one inside the Dome before though he knew the earth shifted and moved constantly, and that this region was overdue for a major earthquake.

  At the bottom of the stairs, behind the stairwell, Lourds spotted a crack in the wall that he was pretty certain hadn’t been there before. As he stared at it again, another tremor surged through the cave, and the crack grew wider. He walked closer and saw that the crack actually outlined a section of the wall. Standing next to it, he felt a stone at his feet shift.

  Looking down, he saw that the carpet had shifted slightly to reveal a winged horselike beast. ‘Al-Buraq.’ His heard his own whisper though he couldn’t remember speaking.

  The cavern shifted again, and this time a new exodus began, this one involving panicked flight from the Well of Souls. Hasty feet and frightened voices echoed up out of the cave.

  Lourds stood his ground, hiked up his thobe, and took out his pry bar. Inserting the hardened tip into the crack, he pushed hard.

  The wall section slid open to reveal a small crawl space beyond. On the lip of the entrance, another image of al-Buraq was cut into the stone.

  Lourds took a flashlight from his pocket, turned it on, and crawled inside. He paused long enough to push the wall section back into place, then started crawling forward into the darkness.

  51

  Dome of the Rock

  Temple Mount

  Jerusalem, the State of Israel

  August 18, 2011

  Keeping her head down, trying not to make eye contact with anyone, Miriam circulated through the Dome of the Rock. She tried to concentrate on finding Mohammad’s Koran and the Scroll, but her thoughts kept returning to Thomas Lourds. Even though she’d held no illusions about the intimacy they’d shared turning into something lasting, seeing Alice Von Volker’s obvious familiarity with him had been a bit much.

  Even worse, Lourds didn’t even seem that upset by what had happened. He’d stayed focused – eyes on the prize. That was enough to undermine a woman’s confidence.

  Get your head together. Concentrate on doing what you came here to do. If you do anything less, you’re going to be dead soon.

  ‘Orchid, do you have the package in sight?’ That was Katsas Shavit over the earpiece Miriam wore. The Muslim security people hadn’t caught that.

  ‘No. We’re still separated.’

  ‘You need to find him.’

  Miriam glanced at her watch and realized that more time had passed than she had realized. She’d gotten lost in her thoughts. Getting back from Turkey had been a nightmare, and they’d been on the move almost constantly.

  Almost.

  They’d managed to find a hotel room last night before meeting with Alice Von Volker this morning. Miriam hadn’t been happy about Lourds’s choosing to share information with the woman, but she hadn’t been able to do anything about it without blowing her cover. Such as it was.

  Though Lourds hadn’t said anything, she was fairly sure he wasn’t buying the ‘graduate assistant’ story anymore.

  ‘I’m looking for the package now.’

  ‘Where would it have gone?’

  Miriam wanted to point out that the ‘package’ had the distraction level of a two-year-old and could forget it was in danger. ‘It was en route to the Well of Souls.’

  ‘Can you get there?’

  ‘Yes. I’m on my way.’ Miriam turned and headed for the Well of Souls.

  ‘Hold your position.’

  Casually, Miriam stopped and adjusted her hijab. One of the buttons on her burqa had been replaced with a minicam. Signal boosters for the earpiece and the camera had been built into her shoes. Getting through security had been nerve-wracking, but she’d worked with the hardware before and trusted that the modifications were undetectable.

  ‘Do you see the man at your three o’clock?’

  Looking forward, Miriam used her peripheral vision to look at the man Katsis Shavit had pointed out.

  He was lean and bearded, with a haughty demeanor. A scar from a knife wound bisected his nose and scored his left cheek. Miriam was certain she’d never seen him before, and just as certain that she would remember him.

  ‘That is Bozorg Alavi, a member of the Revolutionary Guards. He’s an associate of Colonel Imad Davari.’

  Miriam’s stomach churned a little at the man’s name.
Those hours she’d spent in Evin Prison were still too close. They haunted her dreams, and only lying next to Lourds had prevented them from overwhelming her.

  She felt a flush of guilt then as she realized why she’d been drawn to him. She’d been using Lourds as a security blanket. That was not what she wanted in a man.

  ‘Then Davari is here.’

  ‘We couldn’t confirm him as a casualty during the skirmish at the Turkish border.’

  Miriam took a deep breath. ‘I’ve got to get to the package.’ She headed toward the Well of Souls, hoping she would be in time. At that moment, another of the strange tremors that had manifested only moments ago shook the Dome.

  At the stairwell, a crowd of people emerged from below, and the wailing noise inside the cave intensified. An electric pang of fear passed through Miriam.

  Bozorg Alavi had headed for the Well of Souls, too.

  Colonel Davari paused at the top of the staircase and peered down as the crowd of people fled up the steps. He despised them, knowing they’d gone down into the cave and frightened themselves over the small tremors. Those were nothing.

  At the bottom of the stairs, Lourds paused at the wall. Something long and metal glinted in his hand as he worked on the wall. In the next moment, Davari watched in astonishment as the American professor pulled out a section of the wall, crawled inside, and pushed the section back into place behind him as though it had never been disturbed.

  All the frightened idiots fleeing up the stairs didn’t notice the professor’s disappearance.

  Davari called to his men over the earpiece he wore, summoning them as he descended into the Well of Souls.

  Pausing for a moment, still on his hands and knees, Lourds shined his flashlight around and saw the surrounding stone was worn smooth. Obviously, the tunnel had been used frequently in the past, but had sealed over and been forgotten long ago.

  Pointing the flashlight forward again, he kept crawling. After a couple of turns, he came to a large cavern. He slid out of the tunnel headfirst, landing on his hands, losing the flashlight for a moment, then rolling to his feet.