The Boudicca Parchments

Chapter 72

“So you’ve been blogging about Israel for how long?”

“Quite a few years now.”

Nili was enjoying this man’s company, even if he was a lot older than she. He had a warm sophisticated charm and an air of bon vivant about him, that made her feel comfortable, perhaps even somewhat aroused. He had come around after everyone had left and she was getting ready to leave herself, just finishing up. He wanted to see one of the professors about the project. He had heard that a friend of his — Daniel Klein — was helping them with the translation and he wanted to blog about it, especially if Danny had got some results.

But they had all gone home.

She suggested that he call “Danny” who was after all in Israel, but the man had explained that the call would be routed through England and Danny “really hated” getting calls like that because the mobile phone company charged him a fortune for rerouting those calls. He said never mind, he would hook up with Danny back in England.

It was at that point that Nili took pity on him. She explained that she didn’t know where Danny was staying or how to contact him but that he had got some good results on the translation and that they would be published in due course, but that she couldn’t reveal any of the details without permission.

Then the man took the initiative and asked if she was doing anything this evening. For a moment she had hesitated, feeling a bit on the defensive. But before she could say no, he had smiled at her and said “just dinner. I like to dine in fine restaurants and perhaps you could advise me on which is a good one, while I’m here in Jerusalem.

The truth of the matter was she didn’t know good restaurants from bad because most of them were out of her price range. She knew which were the expensive ones, but price didn’t necessarily guarantee quality and if she was going to avail herself of this man’s generosity — or loneliness — then she didn’t want to make a fool of herself. So she agreed to let him take her to dinner and then, on a pretext of going to the bathroom, she had put in a quick mobile call to a friend.

Two minutes later, when she emerged, she suggested that they go to the Colony restaurant, which in fact was not expensive at all, but came highly recommended.

Now they sat there enjoying their main courses, he eating the grilled entrecote steak in red wine sauce, she enjoying the stuffed chicken breast — after starting with shared plates of stuffed mushrooms and sweet potato ravioli.

“So no juicy titbits,” the man said, hopefully.

“Unfortunately not,” said Nili. “But I mean if you can catch up with your friend Danny, I’m sure he’d be happy to tell you.”

“But you don’t know where he’s staying?”

“No, sorry.” Then she brightened up. “You could try calling Ted, if you know him.”

The man looked up from his food, surprised, but quickly gathered his wits.

“Oh Ted’s with him?”

“He was when they did the translation. I mean it was Ted who did the translation. Your friend Danny just transliterated the Hebrew.”

“We are talking about the same Ted, I hope. You mean Ted Hynds, yes?”

Nili inclined her head in silence for a moment.

“I think that was his name.”

“I did have his number. But it’s probably in my old address book back in England. I haven’t been in touch with him for a long time. Oh well.”

He carried on eating.

“I suppose the other thing you could do is call the office in the morning and get the contact details. Professor Peres will be there.”

“Whose he?”

“She. Irene Peres. She’s a scientist who did the tests on the manuscript and prepared the digital copy that Danny and Ted used for their translation. She’s related to him apparently — to your friend Danny I mean.”

“Okay I’ll do that. I just hope I don’t end up missing him. You’re sure he said he’s staying in Jerusalem aren’t you. It would be a pity if he jumps on a plane to another destination like the USA or Greece or somewhere and I end up missing him again. It’s happened before you know.”

“Oh I don’t think there’s any chance of that. They’ve still got more work to do on the translation and writing the paper.”

“Yes but knowing Danny they’ll probably end up working long distance via the Internet. He’s very peripatetic is our Danny.”

“Perri…”

“He travels a lot.”

“Well he won’t be leaving the country tomorrow, because I think he’s got plans to visit Masada before he leaves.”

“Masada?”

Nili blushed. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to have mentioned that. It had been the Temple Mount Parchment that had drawn his attention to Masada. She realized that she had effectively given away something that she should probably have kept silent about.

“Oh well,” the man continued. “I’ll call tomorrow and ask this Professor…?”

“Peres.”

“Peres… whether she can give me his local contact details. Maybe you can tell her to expect my call.”

“Sure.”

Nili looked a little uncomfortable.

“Is there a problem?” he asked.

She blushed again.

“I’m sorry… only I’ve forgotten your name.”

She squirmed. But the man just smiled.

“Oh is that all? It’s Sam… Sam Morgan.”