The Columbus Affair: A Novel

CHAPTER TWENTY

TOM BOLTED OUT OF HIS SLEEP. THE BEDSIDE CLOCK READ 6:30 P.M. His brow was moist with sweat, his breathing labored. He tried to recall the dream, but couldn’t. It had something to do with Robin Stubbs. Since he’d been thinking about her earlier, he was not surprised she’d remained on his mind. A few months ago he spent $125 for an Internet search and discovered that she still worked in Ohio for the same regional newspaper chain that had hired her eight years ago. It had been amazing that she’d found work, but he recalled how some pundits came to her defense. The story he’d been accused of falsifying, on its face, seemed legitimate. It was only when it was carefully investigated that the flaws became evident. And no editors engaged in such detailed analysis. Instead they trusted the people who worked for them.

“How did all this start?” he asked Robin. “How in God’s name did one story of mine come to your attention?”

“An anonymous note was sent to me. It told me that the story was false and showed me where to look.”

“And you believed that?”

“No, Tom. I didn’t.” Anger entered her tone. “But I’m your editor, so I had to look.”

“Which only goes to prove that I was set up. An anonymous note? Come on, Robin. If that plant was any more obvious you’d have to water it.”

“All I know is everything that note said proved true, and everything you wrote proved false. I’ve asked you repeatedly if you can offer anything in rebuttal. Anything at all. You can’t, Tom.”

He saw the concern in her eyes.

“I’ve been here a long time,” he said. “I’ve worked hard. I didn’t do this.”

“Unfortunately, the facts say different.”

That was the last time they spoke.

She’d left his office and he was fired an hour later.

She quit a month after that.

And never knew the truth.

———

BÉNE COULD NOT BELIEVE WHAT HE WAS HEARING. “WHAT DOES that document say? Tell me, Tre.”

The sun had faded behind the blunted peaks and he caught the tang of salt on the southerly breeze from the nearby ocean. He was feeling better from his trek into the mountains. This day turning into something extraordinary.

“Did you steal this from the archives?” Halliburton asked.

“Somebody else did.”

“That’s the problem, Béne. Too much stealing from a place that matters.”

“We can put it back, after we find out what it says.”

“You’re not the only one cleaning out that archive. There’s almost nothing left from the Spanish time. It’s all gone. I’m amazed these were still there.”

His attention drifted for a moment to the rugby field as the players formed into a scrum. He recalled how it felt, being bound together in the rows, arms interlocked, muscles pushing and pulling against other muscles. You had to be careful. He’d heard bones break during a scrum. But what fun. He loved the game. Intense. Fast-paced. Risky as hell.

Just like life.

“I have to know, Tre. What do these documents reveal?”

———

TOM WAS STARTLED BY THE MAN.

He’d been roaming the history section at Barnes & Noble, whiling away another Saturday afternoon. He found he spent a lot of time in bookstores. Never the same one, though, driving all over Orlando, varying where he went in time and place. Part of the self-consciousness that had yet to pass after a year of unemployment. It was hard to get fired. Even harder when the whole world watched.

The man who now stood before him was middle-aged and short-haired. He wore corduroy pants and a light jacket, nothing unusual given that it was actually cool outside for December in central Florida. What raised an alarm was the stare.

One of recognition.

“I came to speak with you,” the man said.

“You must have me confused with someone else.”

“You’re Thomas Sagan.”

He hadn’t heard anyone speak his name directly to him in over a year. While he thought everyone knew who he was, the reality was that no one knew him. His face had once been a staple on television, but his last appearance had been over a year ago. And the public’s memory faded fast.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“To tell you something.”

He noticed the voice. A near whisper. And he did not like the wary look. Was this someone ready to tell him how much he resented him lying? Just after his firing he’d received hundreds of vile emails. He’d read only a few then deleted the rest and canceled the account.

“I don’t think so,” he said, turning to retreat down the aisle and out the front door.

“I know who set you up.”

He stopped.

Never had he heard anyone even hint that he’d been set up, much less voice the words.

He turned.

The man stepped closer.

“When it was done, we decided not to tell you until enough time had passed that there would be nothing you could do.”

Tremors shook his arms, but he steadied himself. “Who are you?”

“We watched your destruction. It came fast, didn’t it? But then, we’re good at what we do.”

“Who is we?”

The man came even closer. Tom did not move.

“Did you ever stop to consider the consequences of what you wrote? Did you know people died because of what you wrote? You were told to stop, but you refused to listen.”

Told to stop? He racked his brain. By whom?

Then it hit him.

The West Bank. Two years ago. A Palestinian official who’d consented to an interview, then promptly walked out of it, but not before saying, “You need to stop, Mr. Sagan. Before it’s too late.”

“That’s right,” the man said. “You do remember.”

He now knew who they were.

“First off, this has nothing to do with any government. We’re an independent body. We work outside the law. Do the jobs that either can’t be done or won’t be done. You happen to fit into both categories.”

“So you destroyed me?”

“We silenced you. It’s not always necessary to kill people. Sometimes it’s even better not to do something that drastic. In your case, we killed your credibility and that was enough.”

He thought back to the story that cost him everything. “You fed that to me. You made sure I went to the Israeli and Palestinian sources you created. You handed it to me, let me run it, then erased it all.”

The man nodded. “It took several months to make it happen. You were a pro. Good at what you did. We had to be careful. But you eventually took the bait. It was just too good, wasn’t it?”

Yes, it was.

EXTREMISTS ON BOTH SIDES, OUT OF CONTROL

“You pissed off some important people,” the man said. “They’d had enough. So they hired us to take care of the problem. We’re telling you this now so that if you even think about trying for a comeback, we’ll be there, ready to take you down again.”

“You’re saying the Palestinians and the Israelis got together to destroy me as a reporter?”

“In a sense. We approached them both, separately, pitched the idea, and they both paid us to do the job. Neither knew the other was involved. They just wanted you out of the way for their own particular reasons.”

“I won’t be that stupid next time.”

“Really? How would you ever know? You had no idea then. I told you we’re good at what we do. Think about that if you decide on a comeback. Every source you talk to, you’ll question in your mind. Every lead that comes your way, you’ll wonder. Is it real? Are they back? Is it going to happen again?”

The sorry SOB was right. He would always wonder. Everything that happened—it had destroyed his life, but it also destroyed something else.

His edge.

“You screwed with the wrong people,” the man said. “I came to tell you, so you’d know. Listen to this message and keep doing what you’re doing. Ghostwriting. That’s perfect for you, so long as you stay a ghost.”

And the man walked off.

———

BÉNE LISTENED AS HALLIBURTON ANSWERED HIS QUESTION.

“Moses Cohen was a pirate. One of the best. He ravaged Spanish shipping. His brother, Abraham, was an entrepreneur. The brothers were never close. They attended separate synagogues and there’s little in the records I’ve seen to link them. That’s what makes this document you have so interesting. By all accounts they didn’t care for each other, and here we have proof of that with Moses suing Abraham. Brother against brother.”

“Why is it important? Seems trivial.”

“Not at all. In fact, it could be critical.”

Oliver Cromwell died in 1658 and, as one diarist commented, “None but dogs cried.” His brand of Puritanism had left the people little to do except contemplate their sins and wail for forgiveness. Having had enough of misery, England looked to its exiled heir, Charles II. In 1660 Charles returned to a magnificent homecoming, one he interestingly compared to “the return of the Jews from Babylonian captivity.”

He was restored to the throne with but one problem.

The Crown was broke.

And so was England.

The Lord Protector Cromwell had bankrupted the nation.

To solve that problem, Charles turned to the Jews.

Edward I had expelled them 370 years earlier, and they remained virtually nonexistent until 1492, when Spain and Portugal issued their edicts of expulsion. Eventually, Jews found refuge in England and a protector in Cromwell, who allowed them to stay. With the king’s return, many English merchants sought re-banishment. But Charles, too, was tolerant and championed an act of Parliament that protected them.

The king was smarter than many believed. He realized that expelling the Jews would grant English merchants complete control over trade, which meant they could set prices as they saw fit. The presence of Jewish merchants countered that power. Also, by being tolerant, Charles acquired a group of friends with money and resources.

Abraham Cohen was in Holland when Charles regained the throne. He watched with great interest as the king’s Jewish policy was established. Jamaica was by then under British control, the Spaniards gone, so Abraham decided the time was right to approach the king. On March 5, 1662, Cohen and two other wealthy Dutch Jews—Abraham and Isaac Israel, a father and son—met with Charles.

The senior Israel told the king how he learned of Columbus’ lost mine from Jews on Jamaica when he was imprisoned there. This was shortly before the British invaded the island in 1655. He was about to be released from custody, so his fellow captives confided to him their dire situation.

The Columbus family’s hold on the island was gone. The Spanish had regained control and the Inquisition would shortly arrive. No longer would anyone protect Jamaican Jews. Thankfully, the community had taken precautions, secreting away its wealth in a location known only to a man identified as the Levite.

“It’s the great Admiral’s mine,” one captive Jew told Israel.

Columbus himself had found the location, and their wealth would stay hidden there until the Spanish were gone. The Jews then in custody encouraged Israel to promote a foreign invasion of Jamaica, seeing it as their only hope.

Which happened.

England claimed the island in 1655.

“You know where this mine is located?” the king asked.

“We think so,” Cohen said. “But Jamaica is a vast place.”

Charles was hooked. Reposing trust and confidence in Cohen’s abilities, he granted the man full power and authority to “search for, discover, dig, and raise a mine of gold, whether the same be opened or not opened.” Two-thirds of the find would go to Charles, one-third to his Jewish partners. Cohen also smartly secured English citizenship and a trade monopoly in brazilwood and pimiento spice, Jamaica’s two major exports at the time.

Cohen returned to Jamaica in 1663 with the Israels, ready to search. But after a year, with no mine found, they were accused of fraud and banished from the island.

“Cohen dazzled Charles II with dreams of gold,” Tre said. “What he was really after were those trade monopolies. That entire year, when they should have been searching for the mine, he spent making money off wood and spice.”

“All this is in that parchment?” Béne asked.

“The story of Abraham Cohen and how he manipulated Charles II is historic fact. Here, in these documents, we learn that Moses forced Abraham to reveal things about the mine during the lawsuit. That explains the governor’s involvement.”

“You said we might have something.”

His friend smiled. “For what he did to Charles II, Abraham Cohen was banished from Jamaica in 1664. If found here he would have been jailed.” Tre motioned with one of the parchments. “Yet he’s back in 1670, taking title to a tract of land. A tract his brother, Moses the pirate, thinks is vitally important.”

He saw the point. “You think Abraham actually found something during that year he was making money and came back to claim it?”

“It’s entirely possible.”

He liked Halliburton. They always seemed at ease with each other, and for Béne there were few people on the island who fell into that category. So he was not self-conscious about showing his intense interest.

“Can you search the archives?” he asked. “Find more?”

“It’s a mess, but I’ll give it a try.”

He clasped Tre on the shoulder. “Tonight. Please. This is important. It’s the closest I’ve ever come.”

“I know this is important to you, Béne.”

More than this man knew.

Much more.