The Moses Legacy - Adam Palmer [98]
‘The next bit. If I’ve read it correctly…’
‘What does it say?’
He translated.
And Neferayim feared that he would shrink in Pharaoh’s eyes because Beketaten had borne Pharaoh a son. So he smote Beketaten and killed her. But he spared the child and Nefertiti became his nurse.
He turned to Gabrielle, ignoring the tension and shock on the faces of the priests. ‘Is that in the history books? Ay killing Tutankhamen’s mother?’
Gabrielle also looked tense, but not unhappy as she drew in her breath before answering.
‘Recent CAT scans on the mummy of Tutankhamen’s mother showed signs of an unhealed wound from a severe blow to the side of her face. The wound was covered by the embalming process, which means that it occurred before she died. And the latest medical opinion is that the blow was lethal. In other words, yes, she was killed by a blow to the head.’
Daniel looked around in response to the intake of breath from the priests. That a queen of Egypt had been killed by a blow to the head didn’t bother them, just as it didn’t surprise Gabrielle. However, that it was inflicted by the Samaritan patriarch Ephraim in order to maintain his influence over the pharaoh most certainly did. So when Daniel looked down and translated the next sentence in his mind, he was supremely reluctant to say it out loud. But he realized that he had no choice.
Now Neferayim forced Nefertiti to lay with him and they had a daughter, Ankhesenpaaten.
‘I don’t have to listen to this!’ the youngest of the priests interrupted – and it was clear that he couldn’t take any more as he stormed out.
‘Wait,’ said another, following him out.
‘I’m sorry,’ said Daniel, to the high priest who remained. ‘I can only read what is written.’
‘Are you sure your translation is correct?’
‘I’m sure of the words. I cannot vouch for their truthfulness.’
They both turned to Gabrielle, inquisitively. She shrugged.
‘There’s nothing in any other written record to support it,’ she said tentatively.
‘But?’ Daniel replied, picking up on the hangnail in her tone.
‘It would explain an aberration that was found in the DNA tests. There were two mummified foetuses in Tutankhamen’s tomb. But the DNA tests show that they can’t both be the children of both Tutankhamen and his wife… unless his wife had different parentage to the one the official record shows.’
‘So this is consistent with the DNA?’ Daniel wanted to be sure.
‘Yes, but the chronology of the narrative is all wrong. Tutankhamen’s wife was born a few years before Tutankhamen himself. Yet in this papyrus it is described afterwards.’
‘The order is irrelevant,’ said the priest, his brows furrowing with the weight of the troubles in his heart. ‘Ancient narratives often jump around in their order. It is the words themselves that are painful.’
Chapter 78
‘Why did we let them get hold of the manuscript?’ asked Sarit.
She and Dov Shamir were in the Mossad’s headquarters in Herzliya. She was supposed to be going to Eilat for some R&R, but she had asked for permission to stay and keep working on this assignment. She didn’t like leaving a job unfinished.
‘We couldn’t really stop them. They’re both prestigious academics and they had the Antiquities Authority behind them.’
‘Couldn’t we have said it was a matter of national security?’
‘The PM knows about the security angle. But a three-thousand-year-old manuscript isn’t going to threaten national security in itself. Besides, we know that Harrison Carmichael had a copy—’
‘Which Goliath destroyed in that fire.’
‘The point is he already translated it.’
‘Yes, but the New Covenant managed to suppress publication.’
‘Delay publication,’ Dov corrected.
‘Well, with Carmichael dead and Professor Tomlinson so well connected, he’ll probably be able to block publication.’
‘So Daniel Klein’ll get the credit when he publishes his translation. The point is, Sarit, that we can’t stop it. And there’s no reason why we should. The threat to national security is not in the contents, but in what people do with the information. And let’s face it, The