The Solomon Scroll

CHAPTER 8

"This is going to upset a lot of people," Selena said.

It was later that night. Open books and pieces of paper with scribbled notes littered the surface of the table in front of her. Nick looked up from a book about a sheriff in Wyoming who was shadowed by the ghosts of dead warriors. He was someone Nick could relate to.

"Can you read the scroll?"

"The part that was x-rayed. It's too bad it can't be unrolled. No one will ever see the rest of it but what there is will make a lot of trouble."

"What does it say?"

"It's an account by a man named Ephram. He seems to have been part of the Jewish resistance to Roman rule that brought on the first Jewish-Roman war, back in 66 CE. That's four years before the Romans crushed the revolt and destroyed the Second Temple."

"Please don't tell me this is going to get everyone upset about the Temple."

"It will, and it's not just the Temple. This mentions one of the most famous people in the Bible, King Solomon."

"I thought that was just a story," Nick said. "About Solomon. Like in the book King Solomon's Mines. The Queen of Sheba, lost treasures, all that."

"Many historians believe Sheba and Solomon were real," Selena said. "No one's quite sure where Solomon's kingdom was. It was probably Israel and part of what's now Jordan and Egypt. According to the Bible, King David was his father. The scroll says Solomon was buried near David, in a place called Ir. That's the City of David in modern-day Jerusalem and the scroll seems to verify the biblical story. By itself it's enough to get everybody excited."

"If Solomon was buried in Jerusalem, how come nobody has dug him up?"

"Because he's not there anymore. The scroll says his bones were taken away as the Romans advanced on Jerusalem. That's not all. The sacred objects of the Temple went with him, a treasure that would be priceless today. The Jews were afraid the Romans would desecrate the tomb and violate the Temple. I don't know about the tomb but they destroyed the Temple after they looted it. "

"Does the scroll say where everything was taken?"

"South to the mountains of Edom and the kingdom of the Dedanites."

"I never heard of Edom or the Dedanites."

"The kingdom of Dedan was in what's now Saudi Arabia, between the desert and the coast of the Red Sea. It's desolate country. There's nothing there but sand, rock and a few villages built high in the mountains."

"Sounds like a perfect place to hide something," Nick said.

"Ephram writes that everything was placed in a hidden tomb. When this gets out, everyone will start looking for it."

"You think it will get out?"

"Of course it will. Too many people already know about it for it to stay secret for very long."

"I see what you mean about it causing trouble," Nick said. "The Israelis would do anything to recover something from the Temple. It's going to get political."

"You can count on it. The zealots will have a field day. The Arabs want to deny Israel any claim on Jerusalem or the Temple Mount. Anything from the Temple would strengthen the Jewish claim, not to mention the remains of Solomon. If everything is in Saudi Arabia, that really complicates things."

"If we know about the scroll so do the Israelis," Nick said. "Israeli intelligence is good. Mossad will have copies of the x-rays by now. They'll be reading the same thing you are. The Arabs won't take it well if the Israelis start snooping around on their turf."

"That's putting it mildly." Selena pushed aside her notes and massaged her forehead. "It gives me a headache, thinking about it. Do you think whoever blew up the train set off the explosion in Grenoble?"

Nick rubbed the stubble on his chin. "Yeah, I do. It's too much of a coincidence. The Israelis could have done it but I don't think it was them. Taking out the train is overkill, they wouldn't need to do that. It's not their style. It could be someone we don't know about, a third-party with an interest in finding the treasure."

"It's not going to be easy to do that even if it still exists," Selena said.

"Is there anything you read that gives something specific about location?"

"There's a section I can't translate yet. There may be something on the next page but it's difficult to read. There are large gaps and what I can see is faint, much less defined."

"Sounds like something Stephanie could help with," Nick said. "There must be some historical mention of what happened to the Temple treasure."

"The only thing I've ever seen is speculation that it was hidden in caves underneath the Temple and later stolen. Or perhaps found by the Templars. Nobody knows," Selena said.

"Okay. But if there is something else, Steph will find it."

Selena yawned. She looked at the clock over the stove.

"My brain is fried." She stretched and yawned again. "I'm tired."

"Let's go to bed," Nick said.

"I'm looking forward to some sleep."

"Just sleep?" He put his arms around her.

"You have a better idea?"

"You know I do," he said.

She reached up and ran her hand over the side of his face. Her fingers touched the scar where a bullet had taken off part of his left ear. His cheek was rough with stubble. She looked into his eyes, gray with hints of gold.

"Why don't you show me what you have in mind?" she said.