“Yes.”
“Words fail me.”
“We also found something else”
“What?”
“A vase, sealed. I opened it. Why? Because in spite of Nathan Levy’s deception, I believe that’s what I was drawn here to do. I think the words were from Daniel…or at least what God told Daniel and had him seal in a vase.”
“What did it read? What did the words say?”
Marcus took the flash drive from his pocket. He held it in his outstretched hand. “It’s on this. I snapped a picture of what we discovered and loaded to this drive. We’ve found words sealed from thousands of years ago that resonate today, right now. And they’ve pointed Alicia and me to a cancer that’s been festering since before Newton, now about to rise to the surface.”
“What is it, Paul?”
“A few weeks ago, I showed you how Newton used the Bible to predict the return of the Jews to a homeland, and Newton figured the date. What he didn’t know is that the Arab-Israeli War of ‘48 wasn’t as much motivated by the acquisition of land as it was the possession of oil. Business interests, many of the same that supported a war that created the holocaust, supported the stability of what would become the new Middle East. The seeds of OPEC were planted then. The governments of the U.S. and England became the underwriters of the region’s stability…and eventually the leading force in the oil industry. For some companies, those ostensibly with ties to the German oil and chemical giant, I.G. Farben, the goal was the solidarity of Arab states. Why? It would be more lucrative than the establishment of an Israeli state and the likely polarization of oil-rich Arab territories. A new oil cartel was rising from the Suez Canal to Iran. I believe those sitting on trial as Nazi war criminals in Nuremberg, those former Farben executives, looked to their corporate partners in Britain and the U.S. to align the new Middle East to ensure all oil wells flowed to the West. Guys like David Marcus — tough, smart military men, could prolong the fighting against the Palestinians, and men like him were killed.”
Jacob’s eyes lowered. “Who was behind it?”
“A select few people whose families have a centuries old creed and business interests that they think gives them a license to cross international laws and borders to undermine humanitarian efforts that may interfere with them making money. These people will gut a nation if it can add to their coffers and power, usually by building infrastructures that often lead to wars and the funding of wars.”
Alicia added, “And they’ll do business in the charade of development and production to prevent wars, as oxymoronic as that might sound.”
“What do you mean?” Jacob asked.
Marcus said, “Specifically, the National Security Act that’s being proposed in the U.S. Congress, the same one that was discussed in the G8 Summit this summer. If the bill is passed, a firm called Integrated Security Corporation may do a lion’s share of the global satellite communications development.”
Alicia nodded. “It’s the fox watching the hen house scenario. That company is controlled by a man named Jonathon Carlson.”
“Who’s he?” asked Jacob.
“A multibillionaire who not only controls Integrated Security Corporation, but PetChem Consolidated Group that’s believed to have connections to the Russian oil conglomerate, Rosneft, the largest oil company in the world. Carlson may have engineered a deal to extract oil and gas from Syria under an exchange for arms agreement. Carlson didn’t just happen to become a savvy, cutthroat businessman. His dowry goes back a few centuries directly to Isaac Newton.”
Jacob’s eyebrows arched. “Newton…what do you mean?”
Marcus slid the flash drive back into his pocket. “Alicia is one of the best researchers in the world. What she found is a tie, a historical and biological link, to a man named William Chaloner, a brilliant criminal that Newton had to trap in order to prosecute for crimes against England. Jonathon Carlson is a direct descendent to William Chaloner. And to put it in closer viewpoint, Carlson is the grandson of Andrew Chaloner, the man whose firm, Chaloner Industries, backed and financed the companies that built the Third Reich in Germany.”
“Dear God,” whispered Jacob.
“Some of these executives at one company, Farben, were charged with crimes against humanity and tried in Nuremberg after the war. David Marcus helped prosecutors bring the charges against these men. I believe it was Andrew Chaloner who wanted this spear after General Patton was killed. And I think it’s his grandson who wants it today.” Marcus lifted the spearhead from the desk.
Jacob’s eyes opened wide behind his thick glasses. “From Newton’s time, three hundred years ago, to events of today…all related…and all foretold by prophets like Isaiah, following the word of God.”
“Alicia found information that reveals David Marcus and Yitzhak Rabin worked closely together during the Arab-Israeli War in 1948. They’d negotiated a cease-fire. Marcus was killed the next day. Decades later, Rabin was assassinated. I think David Marcus may have been, too. And now Prime Minister Meltzer was assassinated. The new interim prime minister, Eilam Cohen, is a man who was educated in the U.S. at Yale, and was a classmate of Senator Wyatt Dirkson — the same man pushing the International Security Act. He’s also the same man who spent a luxury weekend at Jonathon Carlson’s Texas ranch. Dirkson is priming the pump for a run at the presidency. Most likely it’s Carlson and his political cronies who had something to do with the deadly final flight of John Kennedy Junior when his plane went down in the water near Martha’s Vineyard. Kennedy, in his magazine George, published a story written by Guela Amir, the mother of the man found guilty of Rabin’s assassination. His name is Yigal Amir. His mother contended, at the time, that Amir was goaded into the killing by someone with the Shin Bet.”
Jacob shook his head slowly. “When I saw your name in the Newton papers, never would I have known all of this would unfold. It is God’s plan…and now as his messenger…” Jacob glanced at Alicia. “You both are his messengers, perhaps. What will you do? What can you do?”
Marcus looked at the spearhead in his hand. “Get rid of this…for good, literally, and deliver a memorandum. We have names and faces. Jacob, if there is a true axis of evil, I think we’ve been guided to uncover it. It could lead to all hell breaking out on earth to stop it. But this little blue-green planet is all we have. I believe it’s worth fighting for.”
Alicia looked at her mobile phone. “It’s a few minutes before three. Jacob, do you have a TV here?”
“Yes, why?”
“In a few minutes, the Iranians are supposed to free my niece, Brandi.”
NINETY-ONE
Jacob led Marcus and Alicia to a vacant teacher’s lounge. He switched on the television and handed the remote to Alicia. She scanned the channels, stopping when she came to a Breaking News BBC — Ahmadabad graphic on the screen. She said, “I’m connecting to the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network on my laptop, too.”
On the television screen, the image cut from a news anchorwoman at her desk in London to live video of a jet on the tarmac at Tehran International Airport. The video then cut to shots of Brandi being escorted under guard from a black Mercedes through the airport. Part of her face was covered by a dark blue khimā.
A TV news anchorwoman said, “Iranian television is providing this live feed of American citizen Brandi Hirsh being escorted through Tehran International Airport near Ahmadabad. The Iranians have held the twenty-three-year old woman for more than seven months awaiting a ruling on charges of espionage after her and her boyfriend, Adam Spencer, allegedly walked across the border between Iran and Turkey. Spencer was released earlier. They said the border was poorly marked and they’d been picking berries and taking pictures of wildflowers.”