To the Death Read Free Page A

surprisingly strong, he called out to his God, “I entreat thee, oh Lord God, forgive them as I forgive them”.

    One of the police, the son of Rechab, suddenly sprang forward, trying to shield James with his own body. As he did so he cried out “Stop. What are we doing? The righteous one is praying for us”.
    Startled by this unexpected intervention, arms that had been pulled back ready to hurl another deadly shower of projectiles, paused and the fusillade petered out.
    But one of the Temple police, who was also a fuller, stepped out of the crowd. In his hands he carried the tool of his trade – a heavy club. With a savage head butt he knocked the son of Rechab aside. With the mob screaming its encouragement, the skull of James the Just was shattered with a single blow.

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    A fter the murder of James, Eleazar went to a villa he kept in the lower city. He not only wielded enormous power in Jewish society, he lived in considerable luxury, supported by a generous share of the immense profit skimmed off the Temple’s vast revenues.
    As a secret nationalist, he controlled one of the many clandestine terrorist groups that were scattered around the country, some of which had hidden agendas that were mostly concerned with gathering wealth and power for themselves. Publicly they professed the common cause, whose manifesto was ‘Home rule for Israel’. This and ‘Romans out’ or ‘Roman pigs go home’, were scrawled on walls in towns and villages across the country, despite the fact that when caught the perpetrators were crucified.
    Among the growing opposition to the Romans was a group of terrorists known as Zealots, who laid claim to be the true champions of the people. Unfortunately, the people had to put up with rival groups of nationalists who were as often at odds with each other, as they were with the Romans.
    What they had in common was that they all battened on the people. From Galilee in the north, down through Samaria, Judea and Idumaea in the south, they forced the people to hide weapons, shelter and feed them.
    The most feared of these terrorist organisations were the Sicarii, the dagger men, led by a self-styled ‘freedom fighter’ called Menahem. They got their name from the unusual dagger they carried, which had a thick straight central rib, supporting a wavy double-edged blade coming to a needle point. With these weapons hidden in their clothing, the Sicarii would join a crowd and single out their victims, attacking them with a sudden deadly thrust, then they would disappear from the immediate scene by mingling with the crowd.
    While influential Jews were the Sicarii’s principle targets, they also assassinated members of rival groups and murdered citizens who refused to support their ‘cause’ which was financed by theft and extortion.
    When Eleazar arrived at his villa he was on edge. The adrenalin rush from the action at the Temple still coursed through his body. The violence of James’ murder had left him excited and sexually aroused. He was a man with a large and catholic sexual appetite.
    Eleazar kept his wife and children in a town house in Jerusalem’s upper city and Amal, his Egyptian mistress, in his villa in the lower city – an arrangement that protected his reputation and kept his wife in ignorance.
    Amal had been expensively and carefully trained in Memphis. She had cost Eleazar a fortune but he had never regretted the cost. She knew his moods, his needs. She listened to plots and kept his secrets. She often advised him on a course of action, or counselled caution when he would have been reckless, or boldness when he would have held back. It was Amal who now greeted him on his arrival. She stood quietly while he rinsed his hands in the bowl held by a slave. He looked at her appraisingly from beneath drooping eyelids, eyes still bright from the morning’s drama. She smiled and held out her hand, leading him from the