“Brother Ephraim read it a few weeks ago because another monk predicted that an ancient secret was about to be revealed and that someone would come to question the priests about it. I think he believes that someone is you.”
Feeling like cold death, Mercer didn’t know what to say. When he looked at Ephraim, he saw the priest was serious. It sent a superstitious shiver up his spine. “Why me?”
“For one thing, you and I are the first outsiders to visit this monastery in decades. Also, when I told him that you’re a miner, he said that your presence here and your professional skills make perfect sense when you consider the subject of the book.”
“My being a mine engineer relates to some old religious book?”
“The Shame of Kings is more of a history than a religious text; the chronicle of an ancient diamond mine in Eritrea first worked by the priests of King Menyelek. It’s the story of the mine we just discovered.”
“Menyelek, not Solomon?”
“Yes. He was the first-born son of the Queen of Sheba and Solomon, the King of Israel. The diamonds that Menyelek found are certainly the basis of the King Solomon’s Mine legend, only the fable was off by a generation.” She paused. “But there is something even greater at stake here.”
Mercer caught an undertone in Selome’s voice and remembered he’d felt that she had been holding something back from him. Something she’d known all along. And he knew he was about to find out what it was.
“The tale begins in another book, the Glory of Kings, which is the Ethiopian version of Sheba’s visit to Solomon. It’s a very different story from what is written in the Old Testament. You see, she was duped into sleeping with Solomon by a trick played on her by the King. Afterward, Sheba returned to Ethiopia with their baby, Menyelek, but the boy’s destiny was to return to Israel. He was twenty-two when he visited his father in Jerusalem. There, a high priest told Menyelek that God had commanded him to remove the Tabernacle of the Word of God and carry it back to Ethiopia, transferring the Seat of God from Israel to Africa.”
Seeing his bewilderment, she explained in simpler terms. “Solomon’s son stole the Ark of the Covenant from the Temple and spirited it back to his own kingdom.”
Mercer could not believe he’d heard correctly. “The Ark of the Covenant? That’s what this is all about?” He could tell that she hadn’t wanted to reveal any of this, and his anger mounted. This was what she’d been hiding from the beginning. “The diamonds are meaningless to you. You’re all after the Ark and think it’s hidden in the mine.”
“Yes. Defense Minister Levine’s agents are in Eritrea to find it and return it to Israel.” Selome’s voice took on a strident note, full of emotion and fear. “It will give him the moral authority to destroy the Dome of the Rock and erect the Third Temple.”
Mercer was thoughtful for a moment. “I’d make him Emperor for Life if he pulled off a feat like that. But the Ark of the Covenant? You can’t be serious. Selome, I’m not doubting your faith, but the Old Testament and this Glory of Kings aren’t historical fact. They’re stories.”
“So was the Iliad until Heinrich Schliemann used it as a reference book,” Selome countered hotly, “and discovered the city of Troy, a place many archaeologists said existed only in folklore. If you’ll hear me out, you’ll see Ephraim’s story lends credence to Levine’s plan.”
“How so?” he asked with little interest. This was too much to believe.
“Soon after returning to Ethiopia with the Ark, Menyelek became embroiled in a number of wars, expanding Ethiopian territory as far as India. The revenue from trade caravans weren’t enough to pay for his campaigns, so one of his priests, Azariah, told him of a mountain of diamonds far to the north of their capital.
“The Shame of Kings describes the discovery of this fabulous mountain and the history of the mining operation. The priests in charge used soldiers captured during Menyelek’s battles to do the actual work. After the wars had ended, the priests turned to slave labor brought from Kush, modern-day Sudan. According to the book, the conditions were terrible and the worst was yet to come. After a hundred years, the workers had exhausted the diamonds that could be recovered from the surface and they were forced to tunnel into the earth. At first they used pygmies because of their smaller stature, but they died quickly in the shafts. One passage of the Shame of Kings laments this, for it had seemed like a promising idea.”
“And it was still the priests using slaves to dig?”
“Yes.” Selome obviously didn’t want to continue, but she did, her voice heavy. “Because the pygmies didn’t work out, the mine’s overseers started using children. Boys and girls as young as six were herded into the mine, never to return. Female slaves were used as breeding stock to replenish the losses. It sounds like a system more cruel than what the Nazis did during the Holocaust, and the mine was in operation for over four hundred years. Countless tens of thousands of innocent lives were snuffed in a subterranean hell and the perpetrators of this atrocity were followers of Judaism.”
“Selome, it happened two thousand years ago.”
“Brother Ephraim says they were proud of what they did. Not only does the book describe some of the huge gems they found, but it also talks about the inhuman conditions and the practices used to get more work out of the children. If hate groups and anti-Semites found out that the first concentration camps were built by Jews, do you think it would matter how long ago it was? This can never be revealed!”
Mercer wanted to disagree, but he had a suspicion that she was right. Hate was an easy commodity to sell. “Okay, I’ll grant you the Shame of Kings is right about an ancient mine in northern Eritrea,” he conceded. “The awful working conditions ring true and I know using children in mines was a common practice until just a hundred years ago, but what does this have to do with Levine and the Ark?”
“Levine’s quest dates back two decades. He’s always been obsessed with holy relics, especially the Ark. When Operation Moses rescued Ethiopian Jews in 1984, he had the refugees questioned about religious artifacts left in their home country. Rumor surrounded a particular church, St. Mary of Zion in Aksum, Ethiopia’s ancient capital. Some said the Ark was still there. Levine secretly sent a team of agents to break into the church, but they found nothing to convince them that it had ever been a resting place for the Ark.”
“And he still thought it was in Ethiopia?” he scoffed.
“Goddamn it, Mercer! It doesn’t matter if you believe this or not. Levine does, and as long as he’s holding your friend Harry, that’s all that’s important. Enough people have died in the past weeks to convince you that your doubts don’t mean anything.”
Mercer’s scientific background made him naturally skeptical, but he suddenly realized she was right. It was Levine’s motivation that mattered, not its validity. And even if he didn’t believe, he knew he shouldn’t close his mind to the possibilities. Hadn’t the Shame of Kings been correct about the mine? “I’m sorry, this is all so… Anyway, you were saying Levine thought the Ark was here.”
“Ethiopia is the oldest Christian country in the world and has Jewish ties that date back even further. Besides, he was certain it wasn’t in Israel. There isn’t much of our country that hasn’t been combed by archaeologists. Levine started to investigate some of the less-credible rumors the refugees brought with them. He learned that the Ark might have been on an island on Lake Tana but that also turned out to be a false lead. The only other reference he got to the Ark was a story about a golden chest placed in an ancient mine to help ward off an evil that was killing the workers long, long ago. When Levine saw the kimberlite pipe on the Medusa photographs, he was sure he’d find the mine the refugees spoke of. He also felt that somewhere near the pipe, he’d discover the Ark’s final repository.”