Free The Revelation Code (Wilde/Chase 11) by Andy McDermott Page A

Hebrew. I don’t have a clue what this says.’
    ‘You don’t need to. This was taken twelve years ago. I’ve had it translated since then. In pieces, so that no outsider would know what it all meant.’ Cross brought up another picture.
    Words had been overlaid upon a copy of the original image. But they were positioned almost randomly across the wall, a scattershot translation. Nina frowned. ‘These are only fragments. Is there even a complete sentence there?’
    ‘Only a few,’ he replied, with clear frustration at the fact. He pointed them out. She read them: The guidance of God led His chosen through the desert and showed them water when they thirsted ; Three times shall it be said, seven is the number of God, and man is always lesser ; And the Elders sent their people into the lands around . ‘They were all we could find, even after the picture was enhanced. But it told me enough.’
    ‘Which was?’
    ‘That this place was used by the twenty-four Elders – the ancient Hebrew leaders who sit around God’s throne in His temple, just as Revelation says.’ Cross indicated some of the translated text. ‘You see? The Akkadian symbols for the number twenty-four – and here in the Hebrew text,’ he added, pointing out one of the half-submerged slabs, ‘it actually uses the word “Elders”.’
    Nina shook her head. ‘So it was an important religious site. That doesn’t prove that God personally stockpiled his angels there. The ancient Hebrews spread out over a wide area, including into Mesopotamia.’
    ‘There’s more.’ Cross’s finger moved to other snatches of translation. ‘These Hebrew sections say that the Elders sent the other three angels away for safety, dispersing them as more tribes came into the region. And the older text, the Akkadian, describes how the angels were bound in the first place – or rather, what was bound inside them.’
    ‘And what would that be?’ said Nina, her cynicism muted by the fact that she now genuinely wanted to know. She had no intention of taking Cross’s deductions at face value, but at the same time she couldn’t deny that his find deserved proper archaeological study.
    ‘Do you know what the Umm al Binni lake is, Dr Wilde?’ Before she could speak, he provided the answer. ‘It’s a meteorite crater. A meteorite hit Mesopotamia around 2200 BC . The destruction it caused led to the downfall of the Sumerian civilisation – the Sumerians being replaced by the Akkadians.’
    ‘That’s conjecture,’ Nina corrected. ‘It’s a possible cause for the fall of Sumeria, but there are others. And yeah, I have heard of Umm al Binni. It might be a meteorite crater, but considering the state of things in Iraq since the war, nobody’s been in a big hurry to check it out.’
    ‘I believe it was a meteorite. And you will too.’ Cross went back to the cabinet, gazing down at the chunk of stone within. ‘Let me quote from Revelation again.’
    ‘Oh, I doubt I’m gonna be able to stop you,’ she sneered.
    Anna strode right up to her. ‘Don’t talk back to the Prophet again. Understand? I can hurt you without hurting your baby.’
    ‘Anna, that’s enough. For now,’ said Cross. ‘Revelation chapter eight, verse ten: “And there fell a great star from heaven, burning as if it were a lamp.” Now, what does that describe, in modern terms?’
    ‘A meteorite,’ Nina had to admit – then her mind made a connection to another ancient story. ‘Wait . . . there’s a section in the Epic of Gilgamesh , I think the eleventh tablet, that could be interpreted the same way. It describes the Anunakki – a group of Sumerian sky gods – “setting the land ablaze with their torch” and “shattering the land like a pot”. That’s followed by a great flood, maybe the same one from Genesis, but the timing of the Gilgamesh legend roughly coincides with a date of around 2200 BC .’
    Cross exchanged glances with Anna and Simeon. ‘You know your subject, Dr Wilde,’