Ark of Fire

CHAPTER 78

“Doom and gloom of the worst sort, eh?”

Sitting side by side in front of the ship’s computer monitor, Edie and Caedmon stared at the Warriors of God home page.

“‘When the Warriors of God battle the dark forces—will you be ready for this holy Revolution? Will you be a Patriot marching under God’s golden banner’?” Edie read aloud from the computer monitor. Unnerved by the apocalyptic “announcement” that was prominently displayed on the screen, she shuddered. “You don’t really think there’s a secret message buried somewhere in this so-called announcement, do ya?”

Leaning back in his chair, Caedmon slowly tapped his index finger against his chin. Several seconds passed in contemplative silence before he finally said, “My guess is that MacFarlane has used a simple alphanumeric substitution cipher. Since his flash message was intended for mass consumption, I doubt that he would employ too elaborate a cipher.”

“The old KISS rule, huh?” Seeing Caedmon’s quizzical expression, she smiled. “As in ‘Keep it simple, stupid.’”

Amused, Caedmon chuckled. “Clearly, we are of like mind. Employing the KISS rule, I propose that we consecutively number each letter and punctuation mark in MacFarlane’s hate-filled diatribe.”

Pencil in hand, he carefully wrote out the “announcement” on a sheet of paper. Then he sequentially numbered each letter and punctuation mark.

While Caedmon busied himself with laying out the cipher, Edie nervously glanced over her shoulder; the ship’s Internet computer was set up in the very public club room. A few tables away a middle-aged quartet played cards. From the cigarette butts overflowing the table’s only ashtray, she guessed that they had been playing for some time. About twenty feet away, an older well-dressed man and his much younger male companion were huddled together in front of a soft drink machine. And on the other side of the club room, a harried mother openly breast-fed her infant.

“I’ll have you know that this is the same cipher that won you Yanks your independence, the words revolution and patriot being the dead giveaway.”

Her eyes opened wide. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Not in the least. Created by Benjamin Franklin, this particular alphanumeric cipher was used to code messages shuffled back and forth between the Continental Congress and sympathetic French diplomats. Would you like to do the honors?” Caedmon offered her the pencil.

Taking the implement, Edie first glanced at the alphanumeric chart that he had created from MacFarlane’s Web page.

Then she glanced at the list of numbers from the text message.

104-13-94-38-35-17-89-62-122-57-19-97-33-26-42-109-86- 70-40-9-53-2-119

“Wish me luck.”

Caedmon having done all the work, it only took a few moments for her to write out the deciphered message.

dome of the rock eid al-adha

Neither of them said anything; Edie was not altogether sure what, if anything, the message meant.

“The Dome of the Rock is the big gold-leafed Islamic shrine that sits on top of the Temple Mount, right?”

“Unquestionably the most famous silhouette on the Jerusalem skyline,” he confirmed; Edie could detect a husky catch in his voice.

Something was wrong. That much was readily apparent.

“MacFarlane’s message means something to you, doesn’t it?”

Still staring at the decoded message, Caedmon slowly nodded. “I now know why Stanford MacFarlane and all of his followers wear the Jerusalem cross ring. As you, no doubt, recall, the Jerusalem cross was the symbol adopted by the medieval crusaders when they conquered the Holy City in the eleventh century.” The entire time he spoke, he stared at the decoded message.

“And why do you think that’s significant?” she prodded, not altogether certain that she wanted to know the answer.

“Because Jerusalem was only theirs for the briefest of i nterludes; the Muslim caliph Saladin retook the city in 1187.” Suddenly resembling a sad-faced crusader from a medieval woodcut, Caedmon turned his head and looked at her. “Clearly, MacFarlane has taken upon himself the crusaders’ cause.”

“I don’t understand. What cause?”

“Like the crusaders of old, MacFarlane and his men intend to conquer the holy city of Jerusalem, their first military target being the Dome of the Rock.”

At hearing that, her jaw slackened. “When? How?”

“I have no idea as to the how. As to the when, it is obvious that they intend to launch their attack on the Islamic holy festival of Eid al-Adha. Which, unless I’m greatly mistaken, begins on December the eighth.”

“But”—she did a quick mental calculation—“that’s less than two days away.”