The Moses Legacy - Adam Palmer [24]
‘But how could you track so many objects with such a fragmented system?’
‘We couldn’t. It was a real nightmare. And to make matters worse, we didn’t even have anyone specifically trained in archive maintenance. In practice, responsibility for keeping the records was divided between the sections. Each section had responsibility for its own objects and artefacts.’
‘Okay, may I see the clay jar?’
Mansoor put on a pair of latex gloves, reached into the box, pulled aside some padding and then produced the clay jar, carefully depositing it on the workbench in front of them. Daniel put on a similar pair of gloves and gently turned the jar this way and that to get a better look. The outside of the jar looked quite plain. Then a very faint trace of an engraving on the side caught Daniel’s eye.
‘Holy shit!’
‘What?’ asked Mansoor, picking up on Daniel’s excitement.
‘Take a look at that,’ said Daniel, handing the jar over to Mansoor.
The Egyptian held it up to the light and tilted it back and forth to get a better view. His face changed when he saw what Daniel had seen: a barely visible engraving of a serpent coiled around a pole.
‘But that looks like…’
‘The Rod of Asclepius!’
‘But that’s a Greek symbol,’ said Mansoor, lowering the jar and meeting Daniel’s eyes. ‘It didn’t exist at the time when Proto-Sinaitic script was used.’
‘Not under the name Rod of Asclepius,’ said Daniel.
‘Wasn’t Asclepius the Greek god of medicine?’ asked Gabrielle.
‘Exactly,’ said Daniel. ‘And the Rod of Asclepius – the rod with a snake coiled around it – is widely associated with medicine and used by a number of pharmaceutical organizations. Snakes were often associated with medicine as well as illness. Hence snake oil.’
‘Also in ancient Egyptian culture,’ said Mansoor.
‘But not in this specific form,’ Daniel cut in. ‘The snake coiled around a pole, I mean.’
‘That’s true, Professor Klein. But then again there’s a lot of ancient Egypt that remains undiscovered, even today. And much of what we had was lost to theft – both foreign and domestic.’
Daniel was thinking about something Gabrielle had said about the Greek god of medicine. At the back of his mind he was also remembering what Harrison Carmichael had said about fiery snakes, Moses putting a snake on a pole and the possibility of the sixth plague returning. Now the dig had been closed down because of ‘food poisoning’ according to Mansoor. He was turning these thoughts over in his mind, uncertain of what to make of it. For a moment he considered asking Mansoor why the dig was really closed down, but he sensed that if Mansoor was holding out on him, he was unlikely to be more candid and open if pressed. He was more likely to clam up completely.
Daniel decided to test the waters.
‘I wonder if we could get some outside advice on this point. Would it be all right if I called Harrison Carmichael?’
‘Okay,’ said Mansoor. ‘But be discreet.’
Daniel called Carmichael’s number on his mobile, but the voice that answered was not that of Professor Carmichael. ‘Hallo, could I speak to Harrison Carmichael please… Daniel Klein. Yes, he knows me… What?’
Gabrielle was looking at him, concerned.
‘When?… How?… The police?’
‘What is it?’ asked Gabrielle.
When Daniel looked at Gabrielle next, his face had turned to stone.
‘It’s Harrison. He’s dead.’
Chapter 13
‘They’re anti-Semitic, anti-American, anti-British and anti-Western. They’d like to wipe us off the face of the earth.’
Sarit Shalev stared at Dov Shamir, trying to gauge how much of his manner was showmanship for her benefit. It was hard to tell with Dov, or ‘Dovi’ as she called him. Everything about him was uniformly dark – appearance and mood alike – except for the odd flash of excitement. Although he was dressed like a typical casual Israeli in a blue shirt and jeans, he somehow reminded her of Heathcliff – or at least the way she imagined Heathcliff to be when she first read Wuthering Heights as a gangly teenager.
Now a compact but