Suddenly, Costello heard someone pounding downstairs. Then the doorbell rang. It wasn’t spiritual. It wasn’t metaphoric. There was actually someone at his front door. Startled, he put on his glasses and ran downstairs in his boxer shorts and T-shirt. He peered through the curtains. It was a courier. At this hour? He opened the door.
The courier was a tall black man in a large blue parka. “Are you Mr. Kenneth Costello?”
“I am.”
“You ordered a ‘rush’ job from the Library of Congress?”
“I did.”
“Sorry it’s so late, but I got here as fast as I could,” said the man. “Sign here.”
Costello scribbled his name, took the large sealed envelope, and closed the door. Next, he went into the kitchen, flicked on some lights, turned on the coffeepot, and ripped open the package. Inside was a note from the chief librarian—“As requested”—along with a first edition of the book that Costello had a hunch was going to occupy the rest of his day. He stared at the cover.
The Treasure of The Copper Scroll
The opening and decipherment of the most
mysterious of the Dead Sea Scrolls,
a unique inventory of buried treasure
by John Marco Allegro
Costello opened the book to the title page and found it copyrighted in 1960, then began slowly flipping through its pages, trying to get a brief overview before reading it cover to cover. On page 33, he came across Allegro’s translation of the now-notorious Copper Scroll.
ITEM 1: In the fortress which is in the Vale of Achor, forty cubits under the steps entering to the east: a money chest and its contents, of a weight of seventeen talents.
ITEM 2: In the sepulchral monument, in the third course of stones:—light bars of gold.
ITEM 3: In the Great Cistern which is in the Court of Peristyle, in the plaster of its floor, concealed in a hole in front of the upper opening: nine hundred talents.
And so it went, for page after page.
ITEM 47: In the reservoir which is in Beth Kerem, ten cubits on its left as you enter: sixty-two talents of silver.
ITEM 48: In the vat of the olive press, in its western side, a plug-stone of two cubits (it is the opening): three hundred talents of gold and ten serving vessels.
Costello had never read anything like it. Nor had he ever planned to. But now people were apparently being killed, and he had to know more. He skipped ahead to chapter 3, “The Treasure.” One passage in particular caught his eye.
“Tales of buried treasure are to be found in any folklore, and Jewish literature has them in full measure,” wrote Allegro, who went on to summarize some of the more popular versions from the Bible, as well as from extrabiblical literature, like the second book of Maccabees, which said that the prophet Jeremiah once “commanded the Tabernacle and the Ark to accompany him” to Mount Nebo on the shores of the Dead Sea. “There he found a cave in which he placed the Tabernacle, the Ark, and the incense altar, and then sealed its entrance,” Allegro explained. “Even the prophet’s followers did not know its whereabouts, but he promised that it would be revealed when ‘God shall gather His people together again, and receive them unto His mercy.’
“Most of these traditions look to the time when the Messiah would restore the glory and the Temple and its treasures,” Allegro concluded, adding that “all such stories bear the obvious marks of fiction either in the manner and place of concealment or in the nature of the treasure concerned.”
But what intrigued Costello most was that Allegro explained that he believed the Copper Scroll was no legend. He believed that it was real and fully expected the treasures to one day be found.
Is that what Jon and Erin are really doing, hunting for the Temple treasures and the Ark of the Covenant? Whatever they were doing, someone was trying to kill them before they succeeded. Someone was killing everyone connected to the Copper Scroll. And for all Costello knew, it might actually be someone in his own government.
50
SATURDAY, JANUARY 17 – 2:49 a.m. – MCLEAN, VIRGINIA
It was almost 3 a.m. when Rajiv finally got home.
She quietly closed and locked the front door behind her, then checked on her husband. He was sound asleep. Next she tiptoed into her closet, pulled out a small carry-on suitcase, and took it back down to the kitchen of their Tysons Corner town house. There was no time to pack clothes, but she wouldn’t need them anyway. With the money she was being paid, she could buy anything she wanted when she reached her destination.
Rajiv crawled under the sink, pulled up the linoleum, and pried away two wood panels. Inside was a steel box sealed shut with a combination lock. Inside the box were six fake passports, six different credit cards—each tied to the aliases on the passports—and nine thousand dollars in cash, all in well-worn twenty- and fifty-dollar bills. She stuffed it all in the suitcase, zipped it up, and replaced the wood panels under the sink. Then she took one last look around at a home she had loved but always known she’d one day flee.
She would actually miss her husband, she suddenly realized. He had been better to her than she had expected. Indeed, he had turned out to be a very sweet man—attentive, doting, the kind of man she might have enjoyed growing old with, if she had ever planned to stay married to begin with. It had never dawned on Peter Mohan Rajiv that his arranged marriage to Indira Visaloo Parajee had been a sham from the beginning, and in a way, she loved him for that. But it was over now. She hoped it would not destroy him, but she feared it would.
Rajiv jumped in her BMW Z4 and took off; then came the hard part: which airport, which alias, which getaway city? Dulles and Reagan National were out. It was too likely she’d run into someone she knew. The same was true with BWI. Even JFK was risky. She got on the beltway and headed north to 95. She could be in Boston in eight hours, nine at the most, and in London by morning.
It was a gamble. But it was the only chance she had.
51
SATURDAY, JANUARY 17 – 3:13 p.m. – TIBERIAS, ISRAEL
“Erin? Can you hear me?”
She could hear the words. She knew it was Jon. She was just having trouble actually getting her eyes open. She found his hand and squeezed it gently, and a moment later, she was looking into his beautiful green eyes.
“Hey, welcome back,” she heard her husband say.
She smiled and tried to speak.
“You need some water?” he asked, apparently not sure if he had heard her right.
Erin nodded, almost imperceptibly.
Jon quickly poured her a glass from the carafe on the bedside table. He held her head up as she took a few sips and then gently lowered her head back onto the pillow.
“You had me worried for a while there,” he said as his eyes filled with tears. “You’ve gotta stop doing that to me.”
“I’m sorry,” Erin whispered back.
“It’s okay. I forgive you,” he replied. “Just don’t let it happen again.”
He put another pillow under her head to prop her up a bit. “How about some good news?” he asked.
Erin nodded eagerly.
“It’s pretty big,” he said, smiling. “You might want to lie down for this.”
She loved to see those crinkles form around his eyes.
“I found the Key Scroll.”
Erin gasped. “You’re kidding,” she whispered as she tried to sit up.
“I’m not,” he replied, his eyes telling the story.
“In the tunnel?” she asked.
“Absolutely,” he confirmed. “Right where Donovan thought it was all the time. Unfortunately, I found him as well. His bones at least. Harkin’s too. It was pretty grim.”
“How did they die?” she asked of the men who had once been her colleagues.
“Land mine, snipers—I doubt they even knew what hit them.”
Erin winced and squeezed his hand again. It was amazing they hadn’t been killed as well.
There was a knock at the bedroom door.
�
�Come in,” Bennett replied.
Natasha entered the room. She pulled up a chair next to the bed, a yellow legal pad and a pen in her hands.
“You done?” Bennett asked, clearly surprised to see her.
“Yes!” she said, her face showing the relief. “I just finished. It went faster than I’d expected.”
“It’s done?” asked Erin, her voice still barely a whisper. “Can we see it?”
“Right now?” asked Natasha.
“No, next week,” Erin quipped.
“Good to see you’ve still got a sense of humor,” Natasha noted. “I’ll show it to you in a moment. First, let me read you what it says.”
There was an electricity of anticipation in the room as Natasha flipped back through her notes, cleared her throat, and started to read.
“The word of the LORD came to me:
‘Son of man, this is what the
Sovereign LORD says to the
land of Israel: The end!
The end is now upon you
and I will unleash
my anger against you.
I will judge you
according to your conduct
and repay you for all
your detestable practices.
I will not look on you
with pity or spare you.
Then you will know
that I am the LORD.
This is what the
Sovereign LORD says:
Disaster!
An unheard-of disaster
is coming.
Doom has come upon you—
you who dwell in the land.
Outside is the sword,
inside are the plague
and famine.
All who survive and escape
will be in the mountains.
Their silver and gold
will not be able to save them
in the day of the LORD’s wrath.
See, I am setting before you
today a blessing and a curse—
the blessing if you obey
the commands of the LORD your God
that I am giving you today;
the curse if you disobey
the commands of the LORD your God
and turn from the way
that I command you today
by following other gods,
which you have not known.
When the LORD your God
has brought you into the land
you are entering to possess,
you are to proclaim
the blessings, and
the curses
as you know.’”
“That’s it?” asked Bennett.
“That’s everything,” said Natasha.
“I don’t understand,” he continued. “The Copper Scroll pointed toward sixty-four different locations. Line 64 said that the Key Scroll would decode it all and lead us to the treasure. So what’s this? Are we sure this is even the right scroll?”
“What are the chances of you finding anything in those tunnels—a million to one?” asked Natasha. “And what are the chances of you finding a scroll also engraved on copper if it’s not connected to the first Copper Scroll? A billion to one?”
“But what good is it?” Bennett countered. “It doesn’t tell us anything.”
“Maybe it does,” said Natasha. “Look at line 5.”
The end is now upon you.
“See, that’s interesting,” said Natasha, now up and pacing about the room. “That’s certainly consistent with the thinking of the Essenes. They definitely believed the end was upon them.”
“So what?” Bennett complained. “That doesn’t mean that—”
Bennett stopped in midsentence. Erin was whispering something.
“Read a few lines down,” she said. “Something about silver and gold.”
Bennett looked at Natasha, who scanned the text again and read the lines aloud.
“Their silver and gold
will not be able to save them
in the day of the LORD’s wrath.”
“You think that could refer to the Temple treasures?” Natasha asked.
Erin nodded.
“She may be right,” said Natasha, looking at Bennett.
“Maybe,” he said. “But, Erin, sweetheart, that’s pretty thin evidence, you’ve got to admit, especially compared to the Copper Scroll. You said it yourself, Natasha. The first one lists over three thousand talents of silver, almost thirteen hundred talents of gold, more than sixty-five gold bars, some six hundred silver pitchers—all of which are said to contain silver—and over six hundred other vessels made of silver and gold. And you said the Key Scroll would explain it all.”
“Maybe it does,” said Erin.
“What do you mean?” asked Bennett.
“Maybe it does, and we’re just not seeing it clearly.”
“How so?”
“It’s in the mountains.”
“What is?”
“The treasure—read it again—the silver and gold won’t save them, but . . . ”
Again, Bennett and Natasha looked back at the text.
All who survive and escape
will be in the mountains.
Their silver and gold
will not be able to save them
in the day of the LORD’s wrath.
Was she right? Bennett wondered. Was the treasure hidden in the mountains, and if so, which ones?
52
SATURDAY, JANUARY 17 – 3:46 p.m. – TIBERIAS, ISRAEL
“How many mountains are there in Israel?” Bennett asked.
Natasha looked at him with a pained expression. “Where do you want to start? There’s the Mount of Olives, Mount Hermon, Mount Zion of course, Masada—”
“Masada,” Bennett broke in. “Could that be it? That bit about ‘surviving and escaping in the mountains’? Masada is a fortress, right?”
Masada towered some fifteen hundred feet over the Dead Sea. It was the site where the last band of Jewish rebels—more than a thousand men, women, and children—held off the Roman army for four years as the Romans sought to conquer every square inch of the Holy Land for their caesar and themselves. Was it possible the Jews had taken the Second Temple treasures there? Had that been why the Romans had been so determined to seize Masada? When the Roman forces finally stormed the mountaintop fortress, they found that the entire band of Jewish insurgents had already committed suicide. Could they have killed themselves to keep the Romans from ever finding the gold and silver of their beloved Temple?
Natasha suddenly ran out of the room without saying a word. Bennett and Erin just looked at each other, perplexed. But a moment later Natasha was back with her laptop. She logged on to Miriam’s wireless Internet system and pulled up a Hebrew Bible site. Then she typed in the text from their mystery scroll and ran a search.
“What is it?” asked Bennett. “What are you looking for?”
“The language of this scroll is so curious,” Natasha explained. “I’m wondering if . . . ” She leaned toward her computer screen. “I knew it,” she said at last.
“Knew what?” asked Bennett.
“This first section is Scripture,” she exclaimed. “In fact, it’s an excerpt from Ezekiel, chapter 7.”
Natasha punched some keys and ran another search. “The next portion is from the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 11.”
“Does either book mention Masada?” asked Erin.
“That’s what I’m checking right now,” said Natasha as her fingers flew across the keyboard.
“And?”
Natasha looked disappointed. “Masada isn’t mentioned in either Ezekiel or Deuteronomy,” she sighed.
“Check the rest of the Bible,” Bennett suggested.
Natasha did but came up with nothing. Disappointment settled over the room.
“What about the other mountains you mentioned?” asked Bennett.
“I don’t see how that helps us,” said Natasha. “If Erin’s righ
t—if the treasure is buried in the mountains—then there must be a clue that we’re missing.”
Again she went to work on the computer as Bennett and Erin waited impatiently.
“That’s strange,” she said after a moment.
“What’s that?”
“The passage from Deuteronomy . . . it’s not complete.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean it begins in chapter 11, verse 26, and runs through the first phrase of verse 30. But in between, it’s missing several key words and phrases.”
Again Natasha bolted out of the room.
“Where are you going?” Bennett shouted after her.
“Hold on! I’ll be right back,” Natasha yelled back.
A minute later, she was back with Miriam’s personal laptop. She set the two computers side by side. On one, she pulled up a portion of the scroll text.
When the LORD your God
has brought you into the land
you are entering to possess,
you are to proclaim
the blessings, and
the curses
as you know.
On the other computer, she pulled up Deuteronomy 11:29-30.
When the LORD your God
has brought you into the land
you are entering to possess,
you are to proclaim
on Mount Gerizim
the blessings, and
on Mount Ebal
the curses.
As you know,
these mountains are across
the Jordan, west of the road,
toward the setting sun,
near the great trees of Moreh,
The Copper Scroll Page 23
