The Moses Legacy

Chapter 89

‘There’s something I don’t understand,’ said Goliath as they clambered up the steep slopes and over craggy rocks on their long trek. ‘The Nabateans were in the sixth century BC, but the ancient Israelites were a lot older than that. I think they entered the land of Canaan in something like the twelfth century BC. So why would The Book of the Wars of the Lord be here?’

Sheikh Ibrahim smiled. ‘We’re not actually going to the city of Petra. That’s why we didn’t go through the siq. You have to understand that people lived in this area as nomads as far back as 7,000 years before Jesus. The first people to actually settle here did so around 3,200 years ago.’

‘That was just after the Amarna period,’ Gabrielle proffered. ‘Although I think this place is even mentioned in the Amarna letters.’

‘Exactly,’ said Ibrahim. ‘And this is reflected in some of the names. For example, that is Pharaoh’s Column.’

He pointed to a cylindrical column of red rock in the distance. They looked briefly, but stopping and admiring the scenery was almost as tiring as walking, not physically but psychologically, because it kept them further from their goal. So they trudged on, not fully appreciating the explosion of colour – running the entire gamut of the rainbow – that was written across the landscape in solid rock.

‘We are actually taking the old caravan route that Bedouin and other nomads used to take between Sinai, the Araba valley and Petra itself. There are many shrines and tombs in this area which may be associated with the Israelites. Stations 19 to 26 of the Exodus are in or around the area of Petra. This is also reflected in some of the names of the places here. For example, Wadi Musa means the Valley of Moses. The wind that roars through the valley is sometimes called Aaron’s Trumpet. And of course there is also Jebel Haroun, which means Mount Aaron, where the brother of Moses is believed to be buried.’

‘Is that where we’re going?’ asked Goliath.

‘No, but where we are going is on the road to Aaron’s tomb. It is called the Snake Monument.’

‘But I thought we’d already seen…’ The big man trailed off in a state of confusion.

‘No, that was the Snake Tomb. What you’re going to see soon is the Snake Monument – something very different.’

As they carried on in silence, Daniel wondered what was going on in Gabrielle’s mind. Outwardly she was calm, but he was worried about her. Their abductor had made it clear that she would be the first one to be killed if there was any show of resistance. But would he let them live if they offered no resistance? Could he afford to? He had already shown his true colours; the man was ruthless. Was doing nothing really an option?

As they gained altitude, the colours converged on a kind of pale yellow.

‘There it is!’

From the mountain ridge on which they stood, they found themselves looking across a gulch at a massive square-cut rock upon which stood the lower extremities of a stone snake.

Gabrielle wanted to ask a question, but she found herself struggling to find her voice. ‘That’s not… a natural feature?’

‘Of course not,’ said Sheikh Ibrahim. ‘The base has been cut by the hand of man into a shape resembling a cube. The snake too was carved out of the stone.’

‘It doesn’t look much like a snake,’ said Goliath.

‘That is all that remains. It is believed that it was once a full snake, but it was worn away by the passage of time. Come this way.’

Without waiting for anyone to respond, Ibrahim began scrambling along the rock, using his hands as well as his feet to traverse the difficult terrain. Daniel followed automatically, but Gabrielle only went when Goliath gave her a shove. He followed close behind her.

They arrived at a cave which Ibrahim had already entered.

‘Come on,’ said the sheikh. ‘There’s nothing to be scared of.’

Daniel knew that in fact there was a great deal to be scared of. Once Goliath got his hands on The Book of the Wars of the Lord, then what would he do? At that point he would have no further use for any of them. Would he kill them? Would he simply destroy both documents? Or would he take them and let them live?

The more he thought about it, the more Daniel realized how perilous their situation was. He wished he had offered some resistance before now. The trouble was it was so much easier being an armchair hero than a real one.

Daniel entered, his trepidation notwithstanding. Gabrielle and Goliath followed. The cave in fact was quite small, more like an average-size living room. Relying on nothing but the light entering from outside, Ibrahim went to a wall of the cave and removed a number of stones to reveal a crevice in the rock. He reached deep inside and seconds later his arm emerged holding something the size of four bricks, two on top of the other two, wrapped in a fragile, almost decaying white linen.

‘This isn’t the only thing that was found here,’ Ibrahim said in a conspiratorial tone. ‘A few years ago, they found some old bones.’

‘Bones?’ asked Gabrielle.

‘They had been buried here but an animal had apparently dug them out – or partially dug them out.’

‘And what were they? Animal bones?’

‘No… human.’

‘What, like… recent? I mean… new bones?’

‘No… they said they were old. Very old.’

‘And what happened to them?’ asked Goliath.

‘They were taken to the University of Jordan to do some tests on them.’

‘And?’ asked Gabrielle.

‘That was the funny thing. I asked the professor from the university afterwards and he didn’t want to talk about it. He told me not to ask about it ever again. I think he was afraid of something.’

‘Who was he?’ asked Gabrielle.

‘The professor? His name was Fikri – Hakim Fikri.’

He put the linen-wrapped package on the floor of the cave and carefully unwrapped it, putting the linen to one side, to reveal a set of tablets made from the red clay of Petra.

‘I think I’ll take that,’ said Goliath, reaching out and grabbing the linen shroud in which the tablets had been wrapped.

‘What are you doing?’ Ibrahim demanded indignantly.

‘I’m going to make the evil usurpers drink the water of death!’

‘You cannot!’ said the Bedouin.

Daniel didn’t understand what Goliath was doing. He had left the tablets and grabbed a torn and ragged piece of cloth. It made no sense. But it made even less sense that Ibrahim was challenging a man nearly twice his size to stop him. He tried to warn the sheikh not to resist, but before he could get more than the first syllable out of his mouth, Goliath had produced the semi-automatic and shot the sheikh, once, twice, three times, a vicious smile on his face, as if he took pleasure in the excess of force.

I should have acted before, Daniel’s mind screamed, cursing himself for his previous indecisiveness. There was no reasoning with this man. He was mentally deranged beyond all logic. But regrets served no purpose. If Daniel was to redeem himself, the time to act was now when his and Gabrielle’s life hung in the balance.

He hurled himself at Goliath, clamping his left arm around him in a headlock and hooking his left leg around Goliath’s right in an effort to wrestle him to the ground. He lacked the strength to bring down the bigger man, but as they twisted this way and that, Goliath’s mobile phone fell from his pocket with a sharp, staccato thud.

Goliath swung the semi-automatic towards Daniel and Daniel intercepted it with his right hand, clamping his fingers across the top and his thumb at the base of the slider that reloads the chamber. The gun discharged a round that ricocheted off the walls of the cave producing a moment of panic before the bullet found a resting place somewhere in the sand outside. But the vice-like grip of Daniel’s hand and the desperate pressure of his thumb prevented the slider from coming back to discharge the empty cartridge and reload the chamber.

With a violent twisting motion, Goliath managed to wrench the gun free from Daniel’s grip; but when he swung it back, aimed at Daniel’s head and squeezed the trigger again, he was greeted by a soft click as the firing pin landed not on a live round but on the empty cartridge of the previous round.

Daniel and Gabrielle were not safe yet. Their deranged enemy could still pull the slider back manually with his right hand. But Goliath wasn’t thinking rationally and he assumed that the gun had jammed or malfunctioned in some way. Besides, he was ultimately reliant on superior strength and brute force to prevail. To this end, he dropped the gun and delivered a vicious punch to Daniel’s face, sending him reeling to the ground, landing next to Gabrielle.

However, before Daniel could think which way to roll or jump, Gabrielle had scooped up a large rock and smashed it into Goliath’s face. A cry of pain rang out from the big man’s throat as he reached out to grab Gabrielle’s wrist. But she pulled back as quickly as she had closed in, retaining possession of the rock. He lunged at her trying to grab the improvised weapon, but Daniel stuck his leg out tripping Goliath so that he landed on the rock floor of the cave with a terrific thud.

Without a trace of hesitation, Gabrielle rolled clear. Goliath, for his part, pushed himself up on to his hands and then stood up, turning around in the process.

For a second, Daniel and Goliath eyeballed each other and Daniel wondered if he was dead. Then Goliath smiled at him, turned abruptly and left the cave, still holding the linen shroud.

Daniel watched with puzzlement as the giant disappeared from view. Meanwhile, Gabrielle rolled back into a seated posture gasping for breath.

‘What the hell was that all about?’ she asked.

‘I don’t know. I thought he wanted the Book of the Wars of the Lord, not some stupid piece of cloth.’

He looked round at the supine form of the Bedul sheikh, but there was no trace of movement or even breathing.

‘We need to get out of here,’ said Gabrielle, helping Daniel to his feet.

‘What are you talking about? We need to report this.’

‘And we will, only not now.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘We don’t know how the authorities will react. Two people from Israel and a dead Bedouin sheikh. What do you think they’ll make of it?’

‘But we can’t just run – not again.’

‘We don’t have any choice. Look, at least let’s get out of here for now. That’ll give us time to think. We have to get back to the visitor centre anyway, and the only way back is on foot. It’s too late for him. Let’s get back there and then decide.’

Daniel nodded reluctantly. As they were about to leave the cave, he noticed that Gabrielle had gone over to where Sheikh Ibrahim had put the red clay tablets.

He saw immediately the writing on the first tablet. It was Proto-Sinaitic.

‘ The Book of the Wars of the Lord,’ said Daniel.

Gabrielle nodded and carefully put them into Goliath’s carrier bag.

‘This is what we came for,’ she said.

‘I’m not sure if that’s the most important thing right now,’ said Daniel.

‘Why do you say that?’ asked Gabrielle.

‘That man killed your uncle and several other people and tried to kill us for something. If it wasn’t for those tablets or the Book of the Straight, then what on earth was it for?’