Destiny

TWENTY-FIVE

Jacob entered the room with two plates wrapped in plastic. “Chicken, rice, tomatoes, olives and figs. Hope you have an appetite.”

“Thank you.”

Jacob smiled. “When you were working on a cure for heart disease, did you starve yourself then as well?”

“Watch this.”

Jacob set the plates on a desk and looked over Marcus’s shoulder at the screen.

“What is it?”

“It’s a prophecy presumed written by John on the island of Patmos more than two thousand years ago.”

“Book of Revelation?”

“That’s the start. So much is allegorical in Revelation that you have to look at the entire ancient history to decipher the meaning, and who knows if we’ll ever really understand the history and future, or come to terms with it when the chapters begin and end. The number seven is the place I began for trying to decode. I divided it in half to narrow searches and lessen the chance for error. So the decoding is using the number three and a half, or 3.5. John writes that two witnesses are given the power to prophesy 1,260 days, or exactly 3.5 years according to the Hebrew year of 360 days. The witnesses are killed and their bodies lie in the streets of Jerusalem for 3.5 days. The woman clothed with the sun is protected in the wilderness for 1,260 days, or 3.5 years. Gentiles walk the holy city for forty-two months, or 3.5 years. The beast is given permission to continue for forty-two months, again 3.5 years.”

“I follow you.”

“Using this information, I entered data about the enormous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the BP catastrophe, I didn’t include a date. Between Genesis, Revelation 8:8, passages in Daniel and Isaiah, I found this. Look at the screen. ‘The lamb’s wound shall yield blood and water. Then the beast will breathe out a mountain of fire over the waters of the gulf. The sea will glow and become scarlet, as if the ocean filled with blood — destroying life in its path.’”

Jacob pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. He stood and crossed his arms. “What are the mathematical chances of the letters spelling this as we view it?”

“One in seven million, give or take.”

“What else might we find?”

“I haven’t tried decoding for future events, primarily because I’m not sure what to look for, but I did key in data to see if President John Kennedy’s assassination was mentioned.”

“Was it?”

Marcus typed for a few seconds. The screen changed, filling with letters and numbers. Then he hit two keys and a series of letters were highlighted. He deleted the others around it.

“No, President Kennedy’s assassination wasn’t mentioned. But the death of his son, John, was. It reads: ‘Son of Kennedy will fall from the sky in explosion and fire, plunge to death.’ That seems to indicate Kennedy’s plane may have caught fire, maybe exploded. Was it from a small bomb placed inside it? If so, that means it wasn’t an accident? And, if it wasn’t an accident, who would have wanted him dead and why?”

Jacob Kogen entered his university office and locked the door behind him. He pulled at the business card, flipped it over, and read the number to the private line handwritten in red ink. He made the call.

“Hello, Jacob,” said Nathan Levy, field ops director of the Mossad.

“I have yet to grow accustomed to being greeted on the phone before I speak when I make the call.”

“What do you have?”

“I’m calling you because I am not sure what to make from a revelation made by Paul Marcus in his research with the Newton papers and the Bible.”

“Has he found something of concern to Israel?”

“The man is brilliant, perhaps what he’s—”

“Please, professor, I have a meeting to prepare for.”

“I am suggesting that Newton left more than anyone knew then or now. Paul, however, seems to understand the depth of the Bible that Newton penetrated, and he has dug farther. In doing so, he found information that seems to foretell the death of President Kennedy’s son, John.”

“That was an unfortunate day. When did he stumble across this information?”

“Earlier today.”

“What did the information reveal?”

“Only that Kennedy’s plane would fall from the clouds in a fire or explosion.”

“An explosion, are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Is there an indication as to how it may have happened?”

“No, nothing.”

“What else?”

“That’s all. I am praying that we will find hidden information dictated by God that would help prepare Israel for a safer future.”

“Send to me all the information that Paul Marcus is discovering.”

Nathan Levy disconnected.