The Moses Legacy. Adam Palmer

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СКАЧАТЬ sorry, I shouldn’t laugh. But you have to understand that a panic is the last thing we need. We depend heavily on the tourist industry in this country.’

      ‘Look, I’m not going to start a panic. Besides, my father already knows.’

      The official looked at her blankly and then understood.

      ‘Oh yes, aren’t you the one who smuggled a phone into the dig?’

      She blushed and then smiled, realizing that the look on the health official’s face was actually one of approval.

      ‘Okay, yes that was me. Look, I know I shouldn’t have done it, but I just didn’t want him to worry.’

      She gave the official a seductive smile. He looked at her hesitantly.

      ‘Okay, one call. And don’t mention that anyone else is in quarantine. You can tell him that you’re okay – and that you’ll be released in two weeks.’

      She smiled as he handed his mobile phone through the sliding drawer into the isolation area. Then she took the phone and put in the call.

      ‘Hallo Dad.’

      ‘Jane,’ said Senator Morris.

      ‘Listen, I’ve got some bad news. Because of what happened at the dig with Joel, we’ve been put into quarantine.’

      ‘What? At the hospital?’ The shock was palpable.

      ‘Yes, but a different hospital. They’ve said they’ll release me in two weeks, but I’m not allowed to have my phone with me.’

      ‘Why not?’

      She looked at the health official, wondering how much she was free to say.

      ‘Something about contamination.’

      ‘Did you manage to get any of Joel’s clothes?’

      ‘No, I didn’t have a chance.’

      ‘Okay, well, look… don’t feel bad. You tried your best.’

      She did feel bad though, or at least mildly guilty. ‘Thanks, Dad.’

      ‘Oh, just one thing.’

      ‘Yes?’

      ‘You’re sure they don’t know that I told you to get a sample of Joel’s clothes?’

      ‘Absolutely.’

      ‘Okay, that’s good.’

      They said goodbye and Jane handed the phone back to the official through the sliding drawer. He picked it up with an alcohol wipe and cleaned it all over before putting it in his pocket.

      Amused as she was by the official’s paranoia, Jane was more concerned by what her father was up to. She could tell from his tone that whatever he was doing, he wasn’t finished yet.

      Chapter 12

      ‘This is where we keep all the artefacts that aren’t on display,’ Mansoor was explaining as he led Daniel and Gabrielle through a labyrinth of corridors in the basement of the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities.

      Daniel had worked on the details of the translation of the text from the stones on the plane back from Sharm. It was painstaking work, matching the recognized words and then pairing up single words or groups of words from the stones with the counterparts in the Bible. But after a while it had become easier. It was like a crossword puzzle: the more matches he found, the easier it was to find suitable matches for the remainder.

      By the time they landed in Cairo, he had finished the translation and created a concordance of some 138 words in the old language and the equivalent in biblical Hebrew.

      ‘I think we need to agree the terms we’re working on,’ Mansoor had said on the plane. ‘Whilst it’s your translation, Professor Klein, and Gabrielle was in charge of the dig, I am the senior scholar amongst the three of us and I think it should be my name first when we publish our findings.’

      This was more than just a wish. It was a firm decision. He couldn’t actually stop Daniel from publishing a paper from memory about the language in abstract, but the finding of the original Mosaic tablets was much bigger news than the mere decipherment of an old script. Mansoor had control over the stone fragments themselves.

      Furthermore, as Vice Minister of Culture, he could stop either of them from working in Egypt again. This would have been more of a blow to Gabrielle than to Daniel, but it was Daniel who was the more conciliatory of the two.

      ‘That’s fine with me. I don’t even mind if my name goes last. I’m just thrilled and honoured to be part of this.’

      Mansoor responded to Daniel’s pliant reply by offering him a consolation prize.

      ‘You do know of course that we have another long document in the ancient script.’

      ‘What document?’ Gabrielle had asked, taken aback by this revelation.

      ‘Oh, just a papyrus that’s been lying around in the archives for some time. It was never really given much thought, but in the current light, I think it’s fair to say that it takes on a new importance.’

      It was this other document that Mansoor was taking them to see now. He led them into a room full of metal shelves laden with boxes. He went over to a shelf and stood before a brown cardboard box with some Arabic writing on it in thick, black magic marker. Daniel understood the writing, but all it said was ‘Papyrus’ and ‘Clay jar’. Mansoor lifted the box and brought it over to a workbench. He deposited it carefully on one side, while Daniel and Gabrielle stood on the other. Then he opened the box, reached in and produced what looked like a wooden-framed glass box which he also deposited on the table.

      Daniel stared at it in awe. What he was looking at, he realized, was a glass-mounted papyrus which contained about fifty lines of writing in Proto-Sinaitic script. Gazing now at the longest piece of text that he had ever seen in this ancient language almost brought tears to his eyes.

      The writing was set out horizontally relative to the paper in a single column, running parallel to the shorter side of the papyrus and perpendicular to the longer side. In this respect it differed from, say, a Jewish Torah scroll written in a series of columns, to be unfurled horizontally and read one column at a time.

      Daniel stared at it for a long time, taking in the fact that what he had before him was a very ancient papyrus in remarkably good condition. After a while, he looked up at Mansoor. ‘What is it?’ he asked.

      Mansoor frowned. ‘That’s what you’re supposed to tell me.’

      ‘I mean what can you tell me about its provenance?’

      ‘First of all, can you translate it?’

      Daniel sat down, took out his one-page concordance and started looking for words in the papyrus that matched. After some considerable time, he looked up, disappointed.

      ‘There aren’t enough words matching the concordance. I found СКАЧАТЬ