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FIFTY-SEVEN
VIENNA
10:30 PM
THORVALDSEN SAT IN THE CHaTEAU’S GRAND HALL, WATCHING the Order of the Golden Fleece’s winter Asseilded antique chair They were aligned in rows of eight, the Circle facing them, Alfred Hermann’s center chair draped in a blue silk Everyone seeravitated to the Middle East and what the Political Co At that tis were now different And not everyone agreed
In fact, there was more dissent than Alfred Hermann had apparently expected The Blue Chair had already twice interjected himself into the debate, which was a rarity Usually, Thorvaldsen knew, Her the Jews is impossible and ridiculous," one of the meian heavy into North Atlantic fishing "Chronicles makes clear that God chose Jerusales says God gave Solomon one tribe, so David would have a lamp before Him in Jerusalem The city He chose for Himself The reestablishment of modern Israel was not an accident Many believe it came by heavenly inspiration"
Several other es of their own from Chronicles and Psalms
"And what if all that you quote is false?"
The inquiry came from the front of the hall The Blue Chair stood "Do you recall when the modern state of Israel was created?"
No one answered his question
"May 14, 1948 Four thirty-two PM David Ben-Gurion stood in the Tel Aviv Museuht of the Jewish people the state of Israel was established"
"The prophet Isaiah made clear that a nation shall be born in a day," one of the members said "God kept his promise The Abrahamic covenant The land of the Jeas returned"
"And hoe know of this covenant?" Hermann asked "Only one source The Old Testament Many of you have today called on its text Ben-Gurion spoke of the natural and historic right of the Jewish people He, too, was referring to the Old Testa evidence that mentions these divine revelations-but its authenticity is seriously in doubt"
Thorvaldsen’s gaze swept the room
"If I were to have a deed to each one of your estates, documents that were decades old, translated fro dead who could not even speak your language, would not each one of you question its authenticity? Would you not want more proof than an unverified and unauthenticated translation?" Hermann paused "Yet we have accepted the Old Testament, without question, as the absolute Word of God Its text eventually eopolitical consequences"
The gathering see for Hero a e Haddad, a Palestinian biblical scholar, penned a paper published by Beirut University In it he postulated that the Old Testa"
"Quite a premise," a member said The heavyset woman stood "I take the Word of God more seriously than you"
Hermann seemed amused "Really? What do you know of this Word of God? You know its history? Its author? Its translator? Those words ritten thousands of years ago by unknown scribes in Old Hebrew, a language dead now for more than two thousand years What do you know of Old Hebrew?"
The wo
Here is understandable It was a highly inflected language in which the import of words was conveyed by their context rather than their spelling The sas, depending on hoas used Not until centuries after the Old Testament was first written did Jewish scholars translate those words into the Hebrew of the time, and yet those scholars could not even speak Old Hebrew They sied theThen centuries passed, and ain They, too, could not speak Old Hebrew, so they, too, guessed With all due respect to your beliefs, we have no idea as to the Word of God"
"You have no faith," the woman declared
"On this I do not, since it does not involve God This is the work of ue?" anotherthat he was interested
"Correctly, he postulated that when the stories of the covenant made by God to Abraham were first told, Jews already inhabited their Promised Land-what is now Palestine Of course, this was many, many centuries after the actual pro to the biblical premise, the Proreat River Euphrates Many place-naiven But when Haddad matched the biblical place-names, translated back into Old Hebreith actual locations, he discovered soly pleased with himself "The Promised Land of Moses and the land of Abrahaion of Asir"
"Where Mecca sits?" came a question from the floor
Hermann nodded Thorvaldsen saw that nificance
"That’s impossible," one member said
"Actually," Hermann said, "I can show you"
He -mounted holder A projector ca a jagged shoreline from north to south, appeared A scale hly four hundred kiloions spread east over a hundred kiloes of the central Arabian desert
"I knew there’d be skeptics ah the Assenaled and the screen changed
"Projecting the boundaries of the biblical Proe Haddad precisely identified, the dotted line delineates the land of Abraham, the solid line the land of Moses The biblical locations, translated back into Old Hebrew, ion perfectly Many even still retain their Old Hebrew designations-adapted, of course, to Arabic Ask yourself, why has no paleographic or archaeological evidence ever been found to substantiate biblical locations in Palestine? The answer is simple Those locations are not there They lie hundreds of miles to the south, in Saudi Arabia"
"And why has no one ever noticed this before?"
Thorvaldsen appreciated the question, as he’d been thinking the sa
"There are only half a dozen or so scholars alive who can effectively understand Old Hebrew None of theate But to be certain, I hired one of those experts three years ago to confirs And he did Down to the last detail"
"Can we speak with your expert?" a member quickly asked
"Unfortunately, he was elderly and passed away last year"
More likely the ht The last thing Her a spectacular biblical coup
"But I have a detailed written report that can be studied It’s quite coe appeared on the screen A second illustration of the Asir region
"Here’s one exaes 18, the Israelite tribe of Dan established a settleion of the same name The Bible says that this toas close to another called Zidon Near Zidon lay the fortified city of Zor Christian historians in the fourth century CE supposedly identified Dan with a village at the headwaters of the Jordan River In 1838 a team searched and found a mound, which they announced as the remnants of the biblical Dan That site is now the accepted location of Dan There’s even a modern Israeli settlement, actually called Dan, that flourishes there today"
Thorvaldsen noticed that Her hi tiarete may have accelerated his host’s tiists have explored the mound for the past forty years Not one piece of evidence has been found to confirm the biblical identity of that site as Dan" Herain Names appeared on the second map of Asir
"This is what Haddad discovered The biblical Dan can easily be identified with a west Arabian village called al-Danadinah, which is located in a coastal region called al-Lith, the principal town of which is also called al-Lith Translated, that name is identical with the biblical word Laish Also, to this day, a village called Zidon lies nearby Even closer to al-Danadinah stands al-Sur, which, translated, is Zor"
Thorvaldsen had to ad He ree of his nose,to think
"And there are raphical correlations In 2 Samuel 24:6, the town of Dan was close to a land called Tahtim No place known as Tahtim survives anywhere in Palestine But in west Arabia, the village of al-Danadinah stands near a coastal ridge called Jabal Tahyatayn, which is an Arabic form of Tahtiists dug in this area, there would be evidence to support the presence of an ancient Jewish settlement But that has never occurred The Saudis absolutely forbid digging In fact, five years ago, when faced with a possible threat from Haddad’s acadees in this area, conta it nearly iical evidence ever to be found"
Thorvaldsen noticed that as the Asserew more attentive, Hermann becahout the Old Testament, Jordan is noted by the Hebrew yarden But nowhere is that term ever described as a river The word actually means "to descend, a fall in the land" Yet translation after translation describes the Jordan as a river, its crossing a reat ay The inhabitants of both banks have waded across it for centuries But here"-he pointed to reat West Arabian Escarpes fold, and even there it’s difficult Every instance where the Old Testaraphy and the story round here, in Arabia"
"The Jordan is a e?"
"No other translation from the Old Hebrewback at him and said, "Place-names are handed down as sacred tradition Old names survive in folk memory and usually reassert themselves Haddad found that particularly true in Asir"
"Have there not been discoveries that link Palestine with the Bible?"
"There have been discoveries But none of the inscriptions unearthed so far proves anything The Moabite Stele found in 1868 speaks of wars fought between Moab and Israel, as s Another artifact found in the Jordan Valley in 1993 says the same But neither say that Israel was located in Palestine Assyrian and Babylonian records tell of conquests in Israel, but none says where that Israel was located Kings says the armies of Israel, Judah, and Edom marched seven days in waterless desert But the rift valley of Palestine, which is co and contains plenty of water"
Now Hermann’s words ca
"Not one re has ever been found, though Kings says he used great stones, costly stones, hewed stones Would not a block have survived?"
He came to the point
"What’s happened is that scholars have allowed their preconceptions to color their interpretations They wanted Palestine to be the land of the ancient Jews frooverned the y has indeed proven one thing-that the Palestine of the Old Testa in hahly astute Israelites of the post-Solomon era That is a scientific fact"
"What does the Psal out of the earth"
"What do you want to do?" someone asked
Herardless of the Saudis’ refusal to allow any archaeological research, Haddad believed there is proof of his theory that still exists We are presently trying to locate that proof If his theory can be substantiated-at least enough to call into question the validity of the Old Testament promises-think of the consequences Not only Israel, but Saudi Arabia, too, would be destabilized And we’ve all been frustrated by that governine what the radical Muslims there would do Their most sacred spot is actually the biblical Jewish homeland? This would be similar to the Teions claim a home That site has bred chaos for thousands of years The chaos in west Arabia would be equally incalculable"
Thorvaldsen had sat silent long enough He stood "You can’t believe that these revelations, even if proven, would have such far-reaching effects What else is there that so interested the Political Committee?"
Hermann stared at him with a contempt that only the two of the his son Now he’d acted on Hermann Of course the Blue Chair would never reveal that weakness Thorvaldsen had wisely played his trump card here, at the Asse told him that the Austrian still held one card
And the smile that curled on the old man’s thin lips caused Thorvaldsen to pause
"That’s right, Henrik There is another aspect One that will bring the Christians into the fight, as well"
FIFTY-EIGHT
VIENNA
10:50 PM
ALFRED HERMANN CLOSED THE DOOR TO HIS PRIVATE APARTMENT and reht taxed his tired liarments across his bed, pleased with the Asseun to understand The Order’s plan was both grandiose and ingenious Now he needed to back up his explanation that the proof would be forthcorow concerned
He hadn’t heard fro
Anxiety twisted his stoain ht well be his last grand endeavor as Blue Chair-his tenure was drawing to a close The Order of the Golden Fleece was about opportunity and success Many a government had been altered, a few even toppled, so that the collective could thrive What he’d concocteda few more to their knees, perhaps even the Americans themselves if he played his hand with skill
He’d known Thorvaldsen ht be a problem, which hy he’d ordered Sabre to prepare a financial dossier Sitting in the schree to the task, he’d never believed Thorvaldsen would be so aggressive They’d been long-standing acquaintances Not necessarily close friends, but certainly coh, the Dane had quickly linked what happened in Copenhagen to him and the Order
He hadn’t expected that a trail existed
Which made him wonder about Sabre
How careless had the man been?
Or was it intentional?
Margarete’s warnings about Sabre rang through his mind Too much freedom Too much trust Why hadn’t his acolyte called? The last he knew, Sabre was on his way to London, by way of Rothenburg, to find George Haddad He’d tried calling several times, but had been unsuccessful He needed Sabre Here Now
A light rap on the door
He stepped across and turned the knob
"Tireed
Thorvaldsen stepped inside and closed the door "You can’t be serious with all this, Alfred Do you have any idea what your planning could spawn?"
"You’re speaking like a Jew, Henrik That’s your flaw Blinded by God’s supposed promises Your so-called entitle Who knows if the Old Testament is correct? I certainly have no idea But the Islaestion that its holiest earth was soiled by Judaism They will react violently"
"The Saudis," he said, "will be given a chance to bargain before any information is released That’s our way You know that The violence will be their fault, not ours Our aireat many economic concessions can be obtained that will benefit our ree"
"This is insanity," Thorvaldsen declared
"And what do you plan to do?"
"Whatever I have to"
"You don’t have the backbone for this fight, Henrik"
"I ht surprise you"
Here "Perhaps you ought to be more concerned about your own situation I’ve checked your financial status I never realized how tenuous the glassworks business can be Your Adelgade Glasvaerker is dependent on a variety of volatile factors for success"
"And you think you can affect those?"
"I’m fairly confident I can cause trouble"
"My net worth easily matches yours"
He smiled "But you value reputation Unthinkable that one of your companies be perceived as a failure"
"You’re welcome to try, Alfred"
He realized that they each possessed billions of euros, most accumulated by ancestors, each of them now a faithful steward And neither a fool
"Rehter"
He shrugged "And I have you and the boy"
"Really? You willing to risk her life?"