Destiny

EIGHTY-SEVEN

A half hour later, they made it back to the grotto, the ladder still where they’d left it. Marcus climbed the ladder, knocking on the trapdoor. He waited a few seconds and knocked again.

“Maybe you can push it up,” Alicia said.

Marcus braced the palms of both hands under the trapdoor and started to push just as it opened, the smiling face of Bahir looking down at him. “Thank God you two made it safely.” Marcus stepped back down the ladder, took the torch from Alicia and let her exit. He extinguished the torch on the floor and climbed up the ladder. Bahir closed and locked the trapdoor, pulling the rug back over it. “I believe the aftershocks are gone. Did you make it to your destination?”

Alicia said nothing, looking at Marcus. He said, “Yes.”

“And, was what you hoped…was it there?”

“Bahir, you had the map. You knew which tunnel to take. Did you ever go there? Did you ever make it to that sacred room?”

“I went as far as I could go. It was not meant to be for the British explorers a century ago. And it was not meant to be for me. But for you two, the time is now. What did you find?”

“What Newton tried to find. Is my laptop under the counter?”

“Yes.” Bahir led them back out to the coffee shop. He reached below the counter and retrieved the computer.

Marcus turned it on and uploaded the picture he’d taken of the old document. He pulled the last coding he’d broken from Newton’s papers, his fingers jabbing the keys, his eyes staring hard at the coding. A few seconds later, Marcus read the Hebrew words that materialized across his screen. His hand was trembling as he stuck a flash drive in the side of the computer and transferred the information. Then he deleted it from his computer.

“What is it, Paul?” Alicia asked.

“I think Bahir knows.” He looked at the old man.

Bahir closed his eyes for a moment. “It is not what you now know, Paul. It is what you choose to do about it. I believe, at this point, you no longer look at life in a linear fashion.”

“What the hell can I do?”

“Whatever you believe you can do.”

“Where is He?”

“Where is who, Paul?”

“Is all this, the second coming? Is this when the world ends! Tell me, Bahir. You know, don’t you?”

“It is not where the physical likeness of God may be at this moment. The significance is what we, mankind, are going to do. That’s where you, Paul, and now you Alicia — man and woman, can or cannot become who and what you were chosen to be…messengers.”

Alicia hugged her upper arms. “What is the message?”

Bahir smiled. “The message is what Paul figured out. God is walking among us, but is not ready to fulfill the destiny, because part of that fulfillment is forgiveness.”

“What do you mean?” asked Alicia.

“Fulfilling what he left behind, the capacity of human love for one another. It is the word of God. The example was displayed in the deeds of Christ. The Angel of Death will pass over those who are or will become believers. The rest shall perish. Like the webs you had to break through in the tunnel, you will knock down webs of evil spun by wicked people…those who will try to stop you. It is a warning…the last warning. You had to begin a journey to find its consequence, a passage that has not reached its final destination. Paul, you need to finish it. Transport the result of your discovery to the world and unveil those who will stand in your way.”

Marcus shook his head. “How?”

Bahir looked at the empty computer screen, and then his eyes met Marcus. “I hear Sweden is charming this time of year. Go, Paul! Do not squander time, because there may be precious little time left to throw away.” Bahir reached up and touched Marcus’s shoulder. Then he turned and did the same to Alicia. “It is time.”

Marcus shut his laptop and Bahir stood up, stepping to the open door of his coffee shop. Marcus and Alicia followed. “You must go now,” Bahir said.

Marcus looked at the old man a moment. “Thank you…thank you for all you did. I’m going to miss you.”

Bahir smiled. “I shall see you again.” He glanced at the smoke and dust outside over the Old City, his eyes meeting Marcus. “Your journey, my friend, is not over, Paul. The rest will be much more difficult. Follow the compass within you. It will lead you.” He used both of his hands to grasp Marcus’s right hand and said, “I feel, perhaps see, that the man who killed your wife and child, his time grows short.”

“What do you mean, ‘grows short’? Where is he?”

“He comes from a den of evil. Be ready. Follow the instructions given to you.”

Bahir turned to Alicia. “Look at me, let me see your eyes.”

“Okay, but what are you looking for—”

Bahir touched her wrist, his eyes searching then connecting, pulling her quickly into a place where the wail of the sirens in the distance faded. Bahir’s voice was slow, above a whisper, purposeful. “The man who hurt you when you were a little girl…you will never fear that memory again — he perished in a house fire after your eighteenth birthday.”

Alicia stared at Bahir for a few seconds in silence, the air-raid wail slowly returning, and the staccato chop of helicopters arriving. Her eyes watered. “Thank you,” she whispered.

Bahir hugged her and then embraced Marcus before leaving the shop. He stepped out into the swirling smoke and steam that oozed up from the crevices and rubble of a smoldering Jerusalem. Within seconds, he was gone, lost in the clouds of dust that drifted above and down across the Old City.