The Revelation Code

26

Eddie yanked the rope, pulling Jared on to his back just before he plunged. The whole bridge shook. The Israeli’s flashlight spun away into the darkness below as he grabbed at the crossing. ‘Jared!’ yelled the Yorkshireman, reeling in the line. ‘Hold on, I’ve got you!’

Jared secured himself. ‘It’s okay, it’s okay!’

Eddie held the line taut. ‘You sure?’

The younger man waited until the bridge stopped shuddering, then very slowly sat up. More moans came from the supports, but the structure held. ‘Yes! Let it out again so I can get up.’

Reluctantly, Eddie did so. Jared cautiously rose to a crouch. Nina aimed her flashlight to illuminate the bridge ahead of him. He surveyed the dusty wood, then continued onwards with great care. Eddie played the rope out in his wake.

The Mossad agent passed the three-quarters mark — then froze, as did Nina and Eddie, as a pole cracked beneath him. The structure swayed… then steadied. Nina shone her light at the supports. ‘I think it’s okay,’ she said.

‘How does the bridge feel?’ Eddie asked Jared.

The Israeli glanced back. ‘About two thousand years old! Nina, can you give me more light?’

She brought the beam to the top side of the crossing. Jared composed himself, then set off again. Five feet to go, three… ‘There,’ he said with a gasp of relief. ‘Okay, I’m going to secure the rope.’

It did not take long to hammer another two pitons into place and fasten the line to them. Eddie tested that it was firmly secured by hanging beneath it. ‘All right,’ he said, ‘we can get across without worrying about falling into the lair of the white worm.’

Nina raised an eyebrow. ‘Okay, your movie references keep getting more obscure.’

‘Now we need to get that door open. I’m guessing the dynamite method isn’t going to be approved.’

‘Nope,’ she told him. ‘Jared, come back over so I can look at the scale. We shouldn’t risk having two people on the bridge at once.’

‘Or even one person,’ Eddie said.

Jared remained in place, examining the alcove beside the door. ‘No, you’ll need my help. There’s more ancient Hebrew here.’

‘Okay,’ Nina decided reluctantly. ‘Translate as much of it as you can and tell me what it says.’

He nodded. ‘I need a light.’

Eddie held up his own torch. ‘Hope you can catch better than you can walk across bridges.’

‘Yeah, yeah, old man. Just throw it to me.’

Eddie tossed the torch across the gap; Jared caught it with one hand. ‘Show-off.’

The Israeli grinned, then directed the light at the alcove. ‘What do you see?’ Nina asked.

‘There are about thirty stones, all different sizes,’ he reported. ‘Each one has a letter carved into it… No, wait, they must be numbers. I can read parts of the text. It says that God’s number is seven, and then something about… wisdom, needing wisdom?’ He was silent for a long moment, scanning the ancient words. ‘Okay, I think it says that you have to prove your wisdom, I guess, to get through the door. You were right about it being a test. You have to know the… the number of a man?’

An idea had already formed in Nina’s mind at the mention of the word wisdom, and now it came to her in a flash of — appropriately enough — revelation. ‘That’s right!’ she called, excited. ‘It is the number of a man. I don’t remember the exact chapter and verse from Revelation, but I know what it says: “Let him that hath understanding” — or wisdom in some translations — “count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man.”’

‘That sounds familiar,’ said Eddie. ‘You’re about to quote some Iron Maiden lyrics, aren’t you?’

‘Not quite. The King James Version isn’t as catchy. But according to John of Patmos, the number of the Beast is “six hundred threescore and six”.’

‘Six! Hundred threescore! And six! The number of the Beast!’ he sang tunelessly. ‘Yeah, definitely not as catchy.’

‘What was that noise?’ demanded Jared.

‘Tchah! Kids today don’t appreciate the classics. So are you supposed to put three stones with sixes on them on to the scale?’

‘Seems like it,’ Nina told him… though with a hint of doubt.

‘I can do that right now,’ Jared called out. ‘It’s using the Hebrew system, so the symbols we need are tav resh, six hundred…’ He plucked a pebble from the group, then located a second. ‘Samekh for sixty, and then… here — vav, six. Six hundred plus sixty plus six. So I put these on the scale and the door should open, yes?’ He picked them up, about to deposit them on the bronze slab— ‘No, no!’ Nina suddenly yelled. ‘Don’t do anything!’

‘What’s wrong?’ Eddie asked, alarmed — though not nearly as much as Jared, who froze with one hand above the scale.

‘Give me a second. I need to think.’ She closed her eyes for a moment. ‘The number might not be six-six-six. That’s the generally accepted version today, but there are several ancient copies of Revelation where it’s written as six-one-six. The Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, Papyrus 115 from the Oxyrhynchus excavation in Egypt… they pre-date the King James Bible by over a thousand years.’

‘Both versions can’t be right,’ said Eddie.

‘No, they can’t. One of them is a transcription error… but there’s no way to know which.’

Jared put the stones back in the niche. ‘So should I change the second number to yud, ten?’

‘I don’t know,’ admitted Nina.

‘It’s a fifty-fifty chance,’ Eddie pointed out.

‘I don’t want to risk Jared’s life on a coin-toss.’

‘What should I do?’ asked Jared. ‘Shall I come back over?’

‘Hold on.’ Nina stared at the alcove, then redirected her flashlight. ‘Jared, can you move sideways so I can see the door?’

The Israeli reluctantly leaned aside, holding the rope for support. ‘What is it?’ asked Eddie. ‘You found something?’

‘Maybe.’ The light shone upon the symbol of the menorah. ‘That’s the sign of the twenty-four Elders — the people who contained the meteorite fragments in the angels, then dispersed them for safe keeping. Cross showed me a photo he took inside the ruins — the same symbol was there too.’ She frowned, trying to tease out a memory. ‘There was some writing with it, something about numbers… Jared, what exactly does it say there about the number of God?’

Jared checked the text upon the door. ‘As near as I can tell, it reads, “The number that is Yahweh is seven.”’

‘That’s what it said in the temple Cross found,’ Nina said thoughtfully. ‘Seven is the number of God… and man is always less than God.’

‘So the number of a man would be six?’ suggested Eddie.

The truth came to her as she finally remembered the rest of the translation the cult leader had shown her at the Mission. ‘Yes — but the Elders said more than that. “Three times shall it be said” was how they put it. And in the catacomb in Rome, they said it again: “It is three times spoken, the dragon’s number is that of man.” It’s not just the number six on its own, and it’s not six hundred sixty-six — it’s six, repeated three times for emphasis. Just like in your song,’ she added with a smile. ‘Six! Six! Six! That’s the number of man — and that’s the answer to the test.’

She called out across the cenote. ‘Jared! The stone that represents the number six — put it on the scale three times.’

‘You mean, put it on, take it off, then put it back again twice more?’ he asked, puzzled.

‘That’s it exactly. But for God’s sake, keep hold of the rope in case I’m wrong!’

Jared took a firm hold of the line as he used his other hand to pick up one particular stone. With a nervous look back at Nina, he placed it on the scale.

The metal shelf dropped slightly under its weight. Everyone held their breath…

The bridge remained intact. ‘Well, that’s a start,’ said Eddie, exhaling.

‘It made a noise,’ the Israeli reported. ‘There was a clank from behind it, like two pieces of metal hitting each other.’

‘Do it again,’ Nina said.

Jared picked up the stone. The scale rose back to its original position. He repeated the process. Another faint sound came from whatever mechanism was hidden behind the wall. A third time; a much louder bang resounded through the shaft. Jared grabbed the rope with both hands — but the bridge stayed in place.

‘Look!’ cried Nina. ‘It’s opening!’ The door swung slowly inwards. It stopped after moving only a foot, but that was enough for Jared to step on to a solid floor. He pushed it wider. ‘What can you see?’

‘Another tunnel,’ he replied.

‘Wait for me. I’m coming over.’

‘We’re coming over,’ Eddie corrected. ‘And you’re not taking any risks, either. Hold on.’ He hooked Nina’s climbing harness to the rope. ‘Right, now you can go. But take it easy.’

‘Okay, Dad,’ she huffed.

‘Hey, I actually am going to be a dad, so I’m allowed to be overprotective.’

‘Point taken.’ They smiled at each other, then Nina set off, sidestepping across the bridge with both hands on the rope. A moment of worry as she reached the broken plank, but she picked her way over without incident. Once clear, she hurried to the doorway, standing on the step before detaching the harness.

‘You okay?’ Jared asked as he helped her through.

‘Fine, thanks.’ She panned her light around the new passage. It had the same rounded cross-section as on the other side of the shaft, but its decorations were far more elaborate, gold leaf and precious stones set around the paintings of religious scenes. The door was not merely a barrier; it also marked the boundary of an inner sanctum, a place of great importance to the ancient Israelites.

Eddie made his way across behind them. ‘All right, so what have we got?’

‘This must be the entrance to their temple,’ Nina said, pointing the flashlight along the tunnel. The ornate walls curved away out of sight. There was no sign here of the mushrooms growing around the cenote; the door had apparently acted as a seal, keeping the air inside dry. ‘Come on.’

‘Will there be any more traps?’ asked Jared, eyeing the paintings with suspicion as they started down the tunnel.

‘I don’t think so. This place was protected by a combination of obscurity and inaccessibility, and probably had people defending it too. Revelation said it had been “prepared”, so somebody had to be here to do that. That door was the final barrier, to make sure that only people who knew the true meaning of the Elders’ texts would be able to get in.’

‘All the same,’ said Eddie to Jared, ‘keep an eye out, will you? Just in case anything pops out of the walls.’ The younger man hurriedly redirected his flashlight beam to the sides of the passage.

No booby-traps interrupted their progress, however. Before long, something came into view ahead. ‘Ay up,’ said Eddie, surprised. ‘There’s a light in there.’ The tunnel opened out into a larger chamber, where they could clearly see the gleam of gold even without their torches.

‘It’s not daylight,’ Nina noted. There was an almost rainbow-like iridescence to the illumination. She entered the room — and stopped in astonishment. ‘Oh…’

Eddie moved up beside her, equally amazed. ‘Christ, that’s impressive. What is this place?’

She surveyed the wonders before her, almost unable to believe what she was seeing. ‘Based on the description in the Book of Revelation… I think we’ve just found God’s temple.’

The chamber was an expansive oval, an existing cave made much bigger by years, even decades of patient excavation. The walls were largely covered by drape-like hanging tapestries bearing Hebrew symbols. The dominant feature was a massive opal over two feet across embedded in the rock of the high ceiling. There was evidently a fissure in the mountain above that reached to the surface, letting in sunlight, which was then refracted by the great gemstone into a brilliant prismatic display.

The brightest spot was directly beneath the opal, a dazzling beam shining downwards like a laser. It landed upon a large golden throne, which stood on a patch of highly polished quartz set into the floor. More thrones, similar in design but somewhat smaller, encircled it. Nina started counting them, but already knew how many there would be. ‘Twenty-four,’ she said, confirming her belief. ‘These are the thrones of the twenty-four Elders.’

Eddie glanced at the central seat. ‘So whose is number twenty-five?’

‘God’s. He sits in the middle of everything, with his followers around him.’ Nina moved hesitantly into the ring. She was not religious by nature, but couldn’t help feeling a reverential awe. ‘Everything matches John’s description. The circle of thrones around God’s seat, the rainbow surrounding it…’ She indicated where the opal was casting a spectrum of light on the floor, catching the swathe of quartz. ‘Even this; John described it as a “sea of glass”, which considering that he was having a vision based on something he’d only read is pretty accurate. And then there’s the altar, the seven lamps…’ A large menorah stood before the throne, near a golden dais with a horn-like protrusion at each corner.

Jared nervously followed Nina and Eddie into the circle, having to force himself not to avert his eyes from the throne beneath the opal. ‘It feels like this is something I shouldn’t be allowed to see.’

Nina noticed something at the chamber’s far end. ‘If you’re worried about being struck down by God, then you really shouldn’t get any closer to that.’

Beyond the golden circle was something extremely incongruous in the splendour of their surroundings: a simple tent made from animal skins. It was rectangular, around fifteen feet wide and three times as long. Time had dried and decayed the hides in the stillness of the chamber, but they had clearly been exposed to the harsh elements of the desert beforehand. The entrance was draped in woven curtains, the faded remnants of once-vibrant colours still showing after uncounted centuries.

‘Okay, that doesn’t really go with the other furniture,’ Eddie said.

‘You don’t know what it is?’ she replied. ‘Oh, right; you always skipped Sunday school when you were a kid, didn’t you?’

‘I had better places to be. Like literally anywhere.’

‘I know what it is,’ gasped Jared. ‘It’s… it’s the Tabernacle, the communion tent!’

Eddie couldn’t hold back a smile. ‘So the Ark of the Covenant is actually here? In your face, Indiana Jones!’

Nina started towards the tent. ‘Wait, wait,’ said Jared, suddenly worried. ‘Should we go in there?’

She gave him an incredulous look. ‘Are you going to tell me that because we’re not Levites, we’ll be killed if we get too close?’

‘No, but… it’s a holy place. The most holy place.’

‘And this is why I didn’t go to Sunday school,’ said Eddie, joining his wife. ‘So this kind of thing doesn’t scare me off. If the angel’s here at all, it must be in there or we would have seen it by now. We’ve got to find it.’

The younger man nodded reluctantly. ‘Okay. But be careful. I don’t want to be the one who destroys the Tabernacle!’

‘You think I do?’ Nina hooted.

They approached the entrance. Nina shone her flashlight over the curtains, then removed her backpack before hesitantly moving them aside and slipping through. The two men followed.

The animal-skin walls were thick enough to block the glow from the crystal. Jared added his light to Nina’s. The space they had entered occupied two thirds of the tent’s total length, but was only sparsely furnished. A wooden table stood to one side, whatever offerings had been placed upon it long since turned to dust. Near it was a seven-branched menorah on a tall stand, dark smears of old oil upon the metal lamps. Beyond them, before a white curtain, was a golden altar, glinting in the torch beams.

‘Is that the Ark?’ Eddie asked.

Nina shook her head. ‘That must be the Altar of Incense. If the Ark’s in here, it’ll be beyond the veil.’ She indicated the curtain.

‘That’s where that saying comes from, is it? Huh. Learn something every day.’

‘Stick with me, kiddo,’ she told him with a smile, leading the way through the room. ‘On the other side of the veil is—’

‘The Holy of Holies,’ said Jared. ‘I learned all this at school,’ he added to Eddie, who grinned.

‘That’s right,’ said Nina. She examined the altar, then turned her attention to the curtain. ‘Okay. If God is going to strike us dead, he’ll do it about… now.’

She parted the veil. Swathes of the material disintegrated like gossamer as her hand brushed it. She cringed in dismay at the damage, but pressed on through.

The last room was square. The only thing in it was a large box, coated in gold.

All three recognised it instantly.

They had found the Ark of the Covenant.