The Third Day Page 7

  I glanced back toward the interior of the cave. I couldn’t see how far it ran, but it surely came to an end. If the Romans came in after us, they would kill everyone and sort it out later. We had no real options.

  I leaned over to Lavon and whispered, “Can you tell them we’re travelers, that we’re not their enemies?”

  He had reached the same conclusion. He cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted in Greek.

  The soldiers stopped, though they did not lower their swords. One, however, called out and moments later, a senior man appeared. The red transverse crest of a centurion topped his helmet.

  “Come out,” the officer ordered.

  As Lavon translated, I took stock of our odds. Both he and Markowitz were clean shaven, while the Romans’ enemies that morning all had beards – Jewish Zealots, I guessed. We had a plausible chance.

  “Tell him not to kill us,” I said. “Tell him we’re not Jews.”

  Markowitz spoke for the first time. “I’m Jewish.”

  “That’s not something I would advertise right now,” I grunted.

  Lavon spoke once more in halting Greek. Nothing happened for a second or two, but then the soldiers lowered their swords. Though the Romans continued to hold their shields high, this was at least a step in the right direction.

  We had one last card to play. I tapped Sharon on the shoulder and instructed her to say, in loud English, “We’re a peaceful people. Don’t hurt us please.”

  She protested. “They won’t understand a word.”

  “Just do it,” I said. “Let them hear a woman’s voice.”

  This had the intended effect. The soldiers finally lowered their shields, even though their wary expressions did not entirely disappear.

  I turned to Lavon again. “We’re going to have to go out. Tell them we have no weapons.”

  He did so; then he lifted Sharon to her feet and pulled back her shawl to expose her blonde hair. After a quick instruction not to resist in any way, I gently nudged her toward the cave’s mouth.

  At the sight of her, the centurion visibly relaxed and ordered his men to take a few steps back.

  That was progress, I thought. We might live to see the end of this day after all.

  She walked slowly toward the Roman with her hands held shoulder-high. As she got close, the centurion pointed to a spot of flat ground off to his right and motioned for her to sit.

  Sharon followed these instructions and sat upright, with her arms around her knees. A junior soldier hovered over her, but he made no overtly hostile move.

  After watching for a few more seconds, Lavon glanced back and took a deep breath. “Well, here goes nothing.”

  He stepped out of the cave with his hands in the air and received the same instruction. This time a Roman pushed him to the ground, though Lavon quickly collected himself and crawled to Bergfeld’s right, where he sat upright in a similar fashion, with his hands easily visible.

  The rest of us followed, and after being frisked – none too gently, I might add – we found ourselves seated on the ground, facing the cave’s mouth.

  A couple of the soldiers began to rummage through our bags, but found no weapons other than my small folding knife. One of them opened and closed the knife with great curiosity, but the centurion soon ordered him back to his duties.

  A second soldier pulled a sack of coins from Markowitz’s bag. The centurion once again shook his head, so the legionnaire replaced the money and joined his comrades – reluctantly, I could tell, since I don’t think their morning’s exertions had brought them much in the way of loot.

  I could see right away that our centurion was an old pro. A few minutes later, he called for a torch and sent two men into the cave, just to be sure. They emerged after a short time, shaking their heads, and at that point, the immediate tension abated. Whoever we were, he could see that we were not Zealots.

  The soldiers had not yet completed their tasks, though. The officer glanced up the hill and signaled to a legionnaire standing next to their supply wagon. Then he turned and motioned for us to stand up and follow him.

  As we trudged up the slope, a handful of nearby Romans searched through the scrub for wounded enemies hiding in the brush. Those they found, they either finished off with swords or crushed their skulls with their heavy shields.

  At each splat, Markowitz and Bergfeld gasped, without understanding the kind hand fate had dealt these men. That may seem an odd type of kindness to the uninitiated, but everything’s relative, as we all would see shortly.

  Chapter 15

  When we got up to the road, a soldier directed us to sit off to one side, across from their supply wagon. The centurion and Lavon got into a conversation, and I watched him point to a short stick about five feet to his right and gesture to the Roman in supplication.

  The centurion nodded. Lavon picked up the stick and scratched something in the dirt that looked like a map, as several other legionnaires watched with great interest. For his finishing touch, he drew three large triangles near the bottom right-hand corner of his diagram.

  The Roman officer stared at the ground for a minute; then he burst out laughing and directed Lavon back over to join us.

  I couldn’t tell what the man found so humorous, but I thought it best to remain silent for the moment. Aside from a few leering glances toward Sharon, the soldiers paid little attention to the strangers in their midst. I wanted to keep it that way.

  I looked around and counted about eighty in all. Two legionnaires stood as lookouts at the top of the tallest nearby hill, about a hundred feet away, while twenty or so others gathered equipment that had been scattered in the fight and brought it back to the wagon.

  To our west, a group of about a dozen – either men new to the unit or soldiers on punishment detail, I guessed – had the unenviable task of collecting disemboweled Zealot bodies, which they stacked haphazardly by the side of the road.

  I counted thirty-eight dead Zealots, and the soldiers gathering the enemy corpses didn’t appear close to finishing their work. Against this, only six Roman casualties had come hobbling back; all but two under their own power.

  “Efficient, aren’t they?” I muttered to Lavon.

  He nodded slowly but didn’t reply.

  I glanced over toward the map he had scratched in the sand. “I assume that centurion wanted to know where we came from?”

  “Yeah; I told him we were from a place called Norvia. If the Romans ever make it to Finland, it might end up with a new name.”

  That made everyone chuckle quietly.

  “What are those shapes you drew?” I said.

  “He asked me what we were doing here. I told him we were travelers heading to Egypt. We wanted to see the Pyramids.”

  I laughed out loud. “Think he bought it?”

  “We’re still alive, aren’t we?”

  “So far.”

  ***

  The centurion wasn’t the only person seeking answers that morning. I reached under my tunic and pulled out my chip, which I held up to Bryson.

  “Dr. Bryson,” I said, “I think I can speak for all of us when I ask if you have any idea why this thing is not working.”

  “Your wife said the capacitors only needed half an hour to charge,” added Markowitz. “We first saw these soldiers over an hour ago.”

  Bryson looked genuinely nonplussed. He shook his head. “At the moment, I have no idea what could possibly be going wrong.”

  “Then I suggest you think harder, Professor,” said Lavon. “We are by no means out of the woods.”

  Bryson stared at him curiously. “Pardon me, but I don’t think we’ve met.”

  “Forgive me for not introducing our travel companions,” I replied. “You know Ray, of course – Jonah’s son.”

  Bryson nodded.

  “And this is Dr. Robert Lavon, a leading archaeologist, and to his left is the lovely Sharon Bergfeld, who made a key contribution to unraveling an odd mystery at their Israeli dig.”

&
nbsp; Bryson nodded in their direction, but made no move to shake their hands. He rubbed his aching forehead, where his bruise had begun to swell into a nasty dark purple splotch. He eyed them for a couple of minutes as his mind absorbed what he had been told.

  Finally, he turned to me. “How did you all get here?”

  “Like I told you in the cave, your wife sent us.”

  “Juliet sent you all?”

  “Not exactly,” admitted Markowitz. “Her plan was for Dr. Lavon to come alone, but after hearing the story, the rest of us decided to tag along.”

  He glanced up at a passing Roman. “Perhaps that was a mistake.”

  Bryson turned to Lavon. “Why would she send you? I know most of her friends. I don’t recall ever meeting you.”

  “I specialize in reconstructing the history of this region.”

  “So?”

  Lavon looked him straight in the eye. “It’s actually quite straightforward, Dr. Bryson. You died. Sharon and I are the ones who dug up and identified your bones.”

  Bryson shook his aching head again, wondering if perhaps he might even have a mild concussion. He listened as Lavon explained how their paths had crossed, from the first oddity noted by the Israeli lab to the surgical pin they had traced back to the hospital in Boston.

  For what seemed like an age, Bryson just stared down the hill. Finally he turned to Lavon. “You really uncovered my skeleton, in that cave?”

  Lavon nodded. “It seems an odd thing to say, but indeed we did. Tell us, Professor, why were you running so fast?”

  “Bad luck, I suppose. I landed near the road just as these poor bastards launched their attack. I ducked down behind some rocks, but my curiosity got the better of me. I stood up to video the battle, and two Romans spotted me before I realized my error. They came straight at me. I saw that opening and realized it was my only chance.”

  “Not much of one, as it turned out,” said Lavon. “They must have come in there after you.”

  Bryson grew pale as the realization sank in. He stared down the hill for several more minutes before finally turning to the archaeologist. “You have my gratitude, Doctor.”

  Lavon glanced at two Romans tossing yet another Zealot body onto the pile. “We’ll see. How does that saying go – out of the frying pan?”

  I was about to ask the Professor if he still had his camera when two soldiers dragged the remains of a young man past them and dropped their burden at the feet of the centurion. An animated discussion broke out between the three Romans.

  Bryson stared at the corpse, whose face was caked with dried blood and whose white robe was now drenched bright red.

  “My God!” he said. “It’s Scott. What was he doing here?”

  I scratched my head for a moment as I tried to place the face; and then it struck me: the lab geek from the control room.

  So that’s why our return ticket hasn’t worked.

  Bryson, though, wasn’t thinking of home, and none of us managed to jump up fast enough to hold him back. He ran over and knelt beside the kid’s body.

  “Oh, my God. Oh, my God,” he kept repeating.

  The centurion watched for a few moments with a puzzled expression before he finally signaled for Lavon.

  I couldn’t understand him, but there was no mistaking his tone. Whatever had just happened, he didn’t like it, and our chances appeared to have taken a noticeable turn for the worse.

  I could see Lavon trying to explain, but the Roman didn’t appear to be going for it. A minute later, he sent Lavon and Bryson over to us. Then he barked an order; and two soldiers grabbed the corpse by the ankles and dragged it back down towards the cave.

  Chapter 16

  “That brainless imbecile,” Lavon muttered as he took a seat on the ground between Sharon and myself.

  She looked at him as if he were the most callous brute on the planet. “You can’t say that! The poor boy is dead.”

  “He may yet take us with him,” Lavon replied.

  I asked for an explanation, and the archaeologist, to his credit, paused briefly and took a deep breath to settle himself down. It wouldn’t do for the Romans to see us arguing among ourselves, something he had the good sense to recognize.

  “Did you see the purple stripe bordering his white robe?” he asked.

  “The robe you told me not to take?” asked Markowitz.

  Lavon nodded. “That stripe marks the wearer as a Roman citizen, entitled to special privileges and protection. Pretending to be one when you’re not is a serious offense.”

  “That shouldn’t matter now. No one can question him,” said Markowitz.

  “No, it’s worse,” said Lavon.

  “A Roman citizen killed by a Roman spear,” I interjected.

  “That’s right. That centurion probably sees his career going down the toilet just a few years before he can retire.”

  “It obviously happened during the heat of battle,” said Markowitz.

  Lavon shook his head. “Roman soldiers took pride in their discipline. That white robe stands out; and the kid doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to these Zealots. At best, the centurion will have some explaining to do, and it stands to reason that whoever threw that spear won’t be our friend.”

  Markowitz’s eyes followed the men lugging the body down the hill. “I don’t know. It looks to me like they’ve decided to cover it up.”

  I still wasn’t sure what the fuss was about, either. The Romans could always say the Zealots had done it. And it wasn’t as if the kid’s family would come looking for him here.

  “I’m sure they will,” said Lavon, “but the story could still get out. What bugged the centurion, though, is how he became associated with us. Unlike that kid, we’re all wearing common garments. Why were we together?”

  “Who said we were together at all?” asked Bryson.

  Lavon stared at him hard. “It’s obvious that you knew him.”

  “How did you explain it?” I asked.

  “Not very well, I’m afraid. Though I read it fine, I’m still struggling with the spoken Greek. I didn’t have enough time to make up a proper story.”

  “So what did you say?” asked Bergfeld.

  “I told the centurion that we met the man in Caesarea. We agreed to travel with him for a few days because he insisted that we see Jerusalem before going to Egypt.”

  “That’s plausible,” said Bryson.

  “It would have been, except for your carrying on. From Caesarea to this spot is only a two-day walk. He quite naturally wondered why you would mourn so ardently over a man you had known for such a short time.”

  “What did you tell him?” I asked.

  “I made up some story about your grandfather owing his a great debt, but I don’t think he was convinced.”

  That was plain enough.

  “What do you think he’ll do?” I asked.

  Lavon shook his head. “His own men are under control. If he’s going to keep this quiet, he only has a small group of other problems.”

  I struggled not to cringe. Having a hardened killer – and that’s what a Roman centurion really was – view me as an inconvenient witness was not something to keep my stomach settled.

  The others were a bit slower on the uptake, but I could tell by their collective shudders that they finally figured it out.

  And there wasn’t a thing we could do.

  I turned to Bryson and smiled. “I wouldn’t worry about it, Professor. I doubt they’ll kill us. They’ll probably just cut your tongue out.”

  ***

  We stewed for another half hour as the Romans finished mopping up. The Zealots had gotten us into this fearful mess, and as it turned out, a Zealot saved us, though I’d expect that our health and good fortune were the last things on his mind.

  The centurion started toward us with a gesture that could only be interpreted as unpleasant when we heard a piercing cry near the base of the hill. A wounded Zealot, barely clinging to life, had summoned his last reserves of st
rength and had lashed out at his tormentors with a knife.

  This final act of defiance found its mark, and two stretcher bearers leaped off the supply wagon and ran to attend the injured soldier. I watched them rush back to the road, where a Roman medic struggled in vain to staunch the bleeding from the man’s thigh.

  If, as I suspected, the blow had nicked the femoral artery, the soldier wouldn’t last long. The centurion had apparently reached the same conclusion. He spat on the ground and shook his head in helpless frustration.

  I reached into my bag and pulled out a packet about four inches square and then I turned to Lavon.

  “Ask him if I can help.”

  Lavon did so, but the Roman only snapped, “What can you do?”

  I held up the packet and pointed to the leg. The centurion stared at his medic for a brief instant – the man was obviously losing this battle – and then ordered him to back away.

  It was the chance I needed, and I didn’t let it go to waste. I immediately knelt down beside the wounded Roman, ripped open the wrapping, and pressed the bandage into the gash. Thankfully, it worked as advertised. Within a couple of seconds, the bleeding came to a complete stop.

  I then pressed the two sides of the wound together which had the effect of folding the back sides of the bandage onto themselves, where they quickly bonded together. I held everything in place for a few minutes and then took a strip of gauze tape out of my bag and wrapped the man’s leg several times.

  Satisfied that the wound would not rip apart, I stood up and took a step back.

  “Tell him that this soldier should live,” I instructed Lavon.

  He did so, but the centurion didn’t move. He kept staring at the leg – waiting for the vessel to burst open again, I suppose. Finally, he seemed convinced that his man would be all right.

  He turned back toward us and gestured in my direction. “Tell this man he has my gratitude,” he said to Lavon.

  I nodded in acknowledgement. Then he spoke to Lavon again. Not surprisingly, this time his tone was friendly.

  “I am Publius,” he said.

  Lavon stated his own name, but the centurion struggled with the pronunciation when he tried to repeat it. Lavon introduced the rest of us, too, but our names were apparently even more incomprehensible. The officer shook his head, muttered a few words along with something like “Lavonius,” and headed toward the front of the assembling Roman column.