At sundown Deker stood in the clearing where he had blown up the dolmen monument and watched the column of smoke atop the signal tower turn into a pillar of fire. The change announced the start of a new day on the Hebrew calendar along with his and Elezar's mission to spy out Jericho.
Ancient Israelites. General Joshua bin-Nun. The Promised Land. Yahweh.
None of it made any sense. All he knew was that he wanted to cross the Jordan River and enter the Israeli-occupied West Bank territories and escape this nightmare. The shouts of the commanders from that afternoon were still ringing in his ears.
Every breathing thing. Every thing that breathes.
Deker scratched at his itchy change of clothing, which included a long-sleeved gray cashmere shirt, tight-fitting brown-burgundy wool pants and white deerskin boots. He couldn't wait to see Elezar's getup when his superior finally emerged from the nearby changing tent.
Standing by to bless them on their way was Phineas the Levite. The young, fat priest actually seemed sorry to see him go.
"You and the angel Elezar appeared and gave Bin-Nun his first miracle today," Phineas told him in ancient Hebrew while he stood before the signal tower.
Deker was beginning to understand his ancestral tongue after hearing it spoken over his cattle-and-corn dinner, most of the talking coming from Phineas. The priest's monologues were longer than Elezar's. Speaking ancient Hebrew, however, would be a challenge, one Deker hoped would be wholly unnecessary as soon as he and Elezar were off.
"He needed a sign of Yahweh's blessing on him as Moses had," Phineas went on about General Bin-Nun, seemingly unaware that the halo effect of the pillar of fire behind him lent him a rather hellish aura. "He seems to have found it with you and your magic mud bricks. He'll need more signs and wonders to lead us into the Promised Land."
Apparently so, Deker realized, what with the likes of Phineas and the rest of the Levites whom General Bin-Nun had to deal with. They obviously had served as Moses' own sort of Praetorian Guards until Bin-Nun wisely disarmed them upon assuming command of not only the army but also the nation, such as it was. Still, Bin-Nun had to assuage the clergy. Especially now, as they prepared to cross the Jordan River into the land they claimed God had promised their forefather Abraham.
"The manna grain that has fed us for forty years is drying up, and the troops have resorted to grabbing food by attacking caravans on the King's Highway to the east," Phineas confided in him. "The sooner we reach the land of milk and honey, the better for us all."
If food was in short supply, Phineas certainly didn't look like he was suffering as he lovingly used a stone to sharpen the bronze tip of his spear like a pool cue. It was the same spear, he had boasted earlier, that he had used to shish-kebab the Midianite princess Cozbi and her Hebrew backslider in mid-fornication. He took particular pride in demonstrating the motion of his single thrust through the back of the Hebrew and into the belly of the Midianite. He even hazarded a hope that she had been with child, although he confessed she would have been too early in her term to be certain.
Deker nodded at Phineas as Elezar at last appeared with Salmon and Achan, the young Judah Division guards who had welcomed them into Camp Shittim by hosing them down and whacking them around the decontamination tent.
Elezar had the horses and supplies, along with his equally hideous change of clothing: a long-sleeved tan cashmere shirt, close-cropped olive wool pants and white deerskin boots.
"What the hell is going on, Elezar?" Deker demanded as they mounted their horses. "We look like pimps from Tel Aviv."
"The book of Joshua in the Hebrew scriptures says that Joshua the son of Nun sent two spies from Shittim to Jericho in advance of the invasion."
"Surely their names weren't Deker and Elezar."
"Scripture mysteriously doesn't say," Elezar answered him. "But we have no choice except to play along and hopefully cross the Jordan to our time."
What a strange idea, Deker thought. But he said nothing as Phineas blessed their horses with his branch and holy water, said his prayer for the success of the jihad-obsessed Israelite army and waved them off.