The man’s eyes were trying to follow the numbers. He didn’t seem to blink for a long moment. Then he said, “I have no idea.”
Jacob returned. He glanced at the whiteboard, his face filling with wonder, his eyes tracing the sequence and conclusion to the problem. He said nothing for a half minute.
“Are you sure?” he asked Marcus, his voice just above a whisper.
“I’m sure that’s the solution, but that’s as far as my skills can take it.”
“That’s far enough. The hypothesis has been there a month. A dozen of the best mathematicians in Israel and elsewhere have tried to bring forth a conclusion. No one did until now. Do you know what it may mean?”
“What?”
“The postulate opens doors that may bridge mathematics and the cosmos. Do structures that exist mathematically also exist in the physical sense? Newton explored the premise. The postulate, now perhaps a theorem, is an extension of his notes.”
“But it proves nothing, really.” Marcus placed the marker back on the easel.
“Please, sit down, Paul. I’m a little weak in the knees after seeing that.”
“It’s numbers. Just numbers and beyond measurement, they don’t mean—”
“No, it’s more than that. I doubt if there’s another person on earth who could do what you did in the time I went to the bathroom. I believe you are Isaac Newton’s heir. Newton’s gift was legendary. One day, the great mathematician, Johann Bernoulli, on a quest by the Royal Society in London, brought a problem in physics to Newton. The postulate was to determine the curve of minimum time for a heavy particle to move downward between two given points. This challenge had baffled the most famous eighteenth century mathematicians of Europe for almost a year. Bernoulli left the problem with Newton in the afternoon. Later that day, after dinner, they returned to Newton’s home, and he had solved it.”
“Please, don’t compare what I just did to anything Newton accomplished. We’re still using his math to launch satellites. I might have a grasp on math and ways to approach encryption, but I couldn’t hold a candle to guys like Newton or Einstein. As much as you want it to be, I’m not the guy whose name is on the paper Newton wrote.”
“Your humility is gracious, but your discovery in gene therapy for heart disease places you in an area in which less than a measurable percent of the world will ever go. I believe Newton used science and theology to come as close to prophecy as humanly possible. And I think he was right about another thing — you. The Paul Marcus in his papers and you are the same man. Now, I’m convinced of that. At the end of Newton’s life, you are the man he predicts would carry on the research. Please, open the folder in front of you. That, Paul, is the first step.”
SEVENTEEN
Ten hours later, Marcus still pored through hundreds of Newton’s papers that had been scanned and filed under the Theology heading in the computer file. Marcus drank a pot of coffee and filled two legal pages with notes. He turned down offers of food, absorbed in the world of Isaac Newton, while working and reworking mathematical equations that Newton had begun or finished in the pages.
For much of the time, Jacob Kogen left Marcus alone and ordered that no one disturb him while he was studying the Newton papers. An hour after sunset, Jacob quietly entered the room. Marcus was staring at the computer screen, and then he glanced down at the original pages left in the last file.
Jacob said, “Paul, you must be famished. You haven’t eaten all day, turning away offers of nourishment, and you’re not a small man. I hope you don’t fall out of the chair when your sugar level dips lower than a cold winter’s night in Jerusalem.”
Marcus looked away from the computer screen and focused on the professor’s expectant face. Marcus’s eyes were beginning to flush, red near the irises. He leaned back in his chair.
“What have you found?” Jacob asked, folding his hands in front of him.
“Look, this is all fiction to me. My religious convictions and knowledge of the Bible are flat. Isaac Newton studied this stuff for years. I can’t gain a footing on a guy at that level.”
“But Newton never had the tools you have at your disposal.”
“The first conclusion I’m drawing is I’m not your man. Never thought I was, but you offered a trip to a place I hadn’t seen, and I wanted…”
“What did you want?”
“Nothing. It’s not important. I think you’ve wasted your time on me.”
“I respectfully disagree. Please, then, try to look at it as a science project.”
Marcus closed his burning eyes for a moment and said, “This is like hieroglyphics, really. I’m wondering if Newton lost it somewhere in all this analysis. There seems to be a certain psychosis to the science.”
Jacob nodded. “At one point in his life, he had a nervous breakdown. It’s evident in a letter he wrote to John Locke.”
“It’s apparent here that he was so deep in calculations that his mind must have been swirling, especially since he didn’t have computers or calculators. He had to devise his own new math and computations to figure the time references between the books in the Bible. There are more words and references in Newton’s writing than I would have thought one man could write, especially by hand.”
Marcus looked down at the papers scattered across the desk. “One thing that seems evident to me is coming from this last file of papers you received.”
“Yes, and what is that?” Jacob leaned forward.
“I’m beginning to see how there may be a pattern here.”
“What kind of pattern?”
“I’m not sure. Using the computer, I can quickly cross reference many of the topics Newton wrote about. I’m seeing interesting correlations from the Book of Ezekiel, Daniel, Isaiah, John, Matthew and Revelation.”
“In what areas?”
“A continuation, if you will. It’s almost like the events that Ezekiel spoke about, were picked up again by Isaiah, Daniel, Matthew, and finally by John in Revelation. It’s as if we’re looking at the pieces to a large jigsaw puzzle that expands thousands of years, events, people and places — hidden links to what was…what is…and what might become.”
“Become? What is that picture looking like?”
“I don’t know. It’s going to take me more time, a lot more time than I scheduled here, and I don’t know if I’ll get any further than what I’m stumbling across now.”
“You can stay indefinitely, work out of the library or the university next door. We will underwrite your efforts.”
“Why?”
“Pardon?”
“Why is this so important to you?”
Jacob deeply inhaled, glancing at the whiteboard and back to Marcus.
“The scientist in me is curious about what the greatest scientist of all time might have found in the Bible. The heritage in me, the DNA of Israel flows through my veins, and in that respect, I would like to know whatever may be available.”
“You know the past, the history. So I’d assume you are talking about one thing — the future. Specifically, the future of Israel.”
Jacob smiled, his eyes soft. “Perhaps that can never be told. But if it were possible, maybe not the prophecy, but the probabilities, then we can be better prepared.”
Marcus smiled. “I thought that was what religion was all about, always being prepared for whatever life tosses in your face — faith. Do faith, free will and fate contradict each other?”
“Please allow me to buy you dinner. I have a favorite restaurant close to your hotel.”
“I’ll save this file on the computer, and I’ll save it to my flash drive, too. I want to do a little homework with it.” Marcus inserted the drive, punched the keys, his eyes following the sequence of the computer shutting down.