“Moshe was a general in the Israeli Defense Force before joining the Mosad, our version of the CIA,” Lev continued. “Let’s just say he knows more than your average citizen about what goes on in this country and other parts of the world.”
A large man dressed in khaki pants with a tight-fitting brown T-shirt stood up. He was six feet five inches tall and looked like a linebacker in the NFL. At the age of thirty-five, he had black hair worn short on top and shaved on the sides and was the only one of the group who did not have any facial hair.
“This is Alon Lavi,” Lev said. “Alon was a captain in the Israeli Special Forces and is Moshe’s second in command here at the villa.”
“I’m happy to meet you, Father. And you too, John.”
Leo reached out to shake his hand. “Alon is a Hebrew name, isn’t it?”
“It means oak tree,” Lev said, cutting in. “Very fitting, don’t you think?”
Alon blushed slightly as the Israeli men began to laugh. John stood to shake hands with the big man while making a mental note to be standing close to this guy if a fight ever broke out.
The third man extended his hand toward Leo and John. In his late twenties, with short, dark hair, horn-rimmed glasses, and a beard, he had a decidedly more intellectual look about him than the others. He was dressed in a loose-fitting white shirt that was one size too large and wearing the ever-present khaki shorts that seemed so popular among the staff at the villa.
“Hi. I’m Daniel … Daniel Meir.”
“The Book of Daniel calls you the interpreter of dreams,” Leo said,
Lev seemed impressed. “Very good, Father.” The Israeli men nodded their approval and obvious respect for Leo.
“It also means one who is pious and wise in the Book of Ezekiel,” John added, also earning a few nods of respect from the others.
Quiet by nature, Daniel was embarrassed by the attention. “Well, since you’ve given me the challenge of having to live up to my name, I hope I don’t disappoint you. Of course, one can’t help but remember that Daniel was also thrown into the lion’s den. I have a feeling history is repeating itself.” The room erupted in laughter at the obvious reference to all those present whose names meant lion.
Lev put his hand on Daniel’s shoulder and smiled. “Daniel was a cryptographer or ‘code breaker’ in the ministry of defense and, like me, has a PhD in mathematics.”
John was just sitting back down when he noticed the girl he had seen earlier on the beach enter the room from one of the side hallways. She walked right up to Lev and kissed him lightly on the cheek. John suddenly felt self-conscious and began brushing his hair back from his forehead with his fingers.
“Let me introduce you to the final member of the team, running late as usual,” Lev said, smiling at the girl. “This is my daughter, Ariella.”
Leo took her small but strong hand in his. “It seems we have yet another lion. Ariella is Hebrew for lioness of God. Daniel truly is in the lion’s den.”
Ariella laughed and swept a strand of long brown hair back over her shoulder. “It’s an honor to meet you, Father Leo.”
John wiped his hands on his shorts and reached out to shake her hand while uttering a squeaky hello. Ariella smiled sweetly at him before she lowered her enormous brown eyes and turned shyly back toward her father. She was the same height as John, and he couldn’t help but notice that her lean tan legs gave her the look of an Olympic swimmer. John thought she was the most beautiful girl he had ever met.
“My daughter has honored me by following in the footsteps of my second career,” Lev said. “She just received her degree in archaeology from Hebrew University in Jerusalem.”
Leo and John had a newfound appreciation for the individual talents and abilities of this special group of people, a group that had obviously been assembled with a definite mission in mind.
One of Leo’s favorite pastimes was looking up the meanings and origins of names that were new to him. Aside from those he had recently met who were named after lions, he was struck by the way all of the Israelis seemed to have names that fit their roles in life. For instance, Alon’s last name was Lavi, obviously another lion, and Moshe’s surname, Ze?ev, meant literally “son of wolf”. It appeared that Lev had chosen both a lion and a wolf to be in charge of protecting those he loved.
Then there was Daniel’s name-the strangest coincidence of all. As Leo had mentioned earlier, Daniel was called the interpreter of dreams in the Bible, but his last name, Meir, meant brilliant. Putting the two together, Leo saw that the name of the team’s chief cryptographer meant brilliant interpreter. It was a very appropriate name for a code breaker, and a strange coincidence indeed.
Lev grew serious as he gazed at Leo and John across an immense coffee table hewn from the single trunk of an olive tree. “We would like to extend an invitation. Before I picked you two up at the airport this morning, we all took a little vote. The result was unanimous, and we’ve all agreed that we would like both of you to join our team here in Israel.”
The others nodded silently in agreement.
Leo and John looked around the room and studied the faces staring back at them. Wasn’t this why they had come to Israel in the first place? Not only had they developed a keen interest in the code, but they were now becoming totally entranced with their new friends in this exotic setting. The Israelis waited for their answer.
“It looks like I’ll have to request a leave of absence from my teaching position,” Leo said. “It would be an honor, Lev.”
Lev fixed his eyes on John. “What about you, John?”
“I believe joining your team is the reason we’ve come here, Professor. Father Morelli sent us to the Holy Land with a definite purpose in mind, and even if we’re not sure what that is right now, I know he wanted us all to be together.”
“Good. It’s final then. Baruch haba!” Lev used the Hebrew phrase for welcome.
Moshe stood from his place on the couch and gave Lev a sly wink. “Why don’t we take them downstairs and show them around our little playground?”
Lev smiled when he saw the puzzled looks on Leo and John’s faces. “Follow me. I think this is something you will both find interesting.” John and Leo traded looks before following Lev and his team down one of the side hallways to an alcove with a staircase descending below ground level. Following a short hallway at the bottom of the stairs, they passed through a double-wide doorway and entered a dimly lit room painted dark gray.
There were two rows of glass-topped tables holding several computer screens and keyboards. Five enormous flat-panel screens lined one wall, and another side of the room had a thick, vault-like steel door in the center. The opposite wall was taken up with an enormous map of Israel and a large erasable board covered in Hebrew writing.
The back of the room held a communications center and was separated from the rest of the space by a floor-to-ceiling glass wall. This area looked like something one would see in a command bunker at NASA and created a futuristic-looking backdrop to the scene. The light from the large screens on the wall infused the area with a bluish hue, while small spotlights scattered in the ceiling created pools of white light around the room.
“I’m not a military man,” Leo said, “but this looks to me like some kind of command center.”
“You’re right,” Moshe said. “That’s exactly what it is. You’re standing in the command center for the Bible Code Team. I copied it from the one I had in the army.”
John was amazed. “It looks like you’re still in command of an army. This place is really something.”
“These are our computer stations, which are connected to a larger mainframe,” Ariella explained. “The main computer is programmed with a powerful Bible code search engine. Just enter any word or phrase, and the computer will begin searching in an effort to pinpoint its encoded location in the Bible. Our portable laptops have similar software for field use.”