13th Apostle by Richard F. Heller, Rachael F. Heller

Christian Infidels can once again swallow it up.”
    Hassan had been reluctant to give up so easily. “But if Ludlow and DeVris locate the scroll, they won’t hide it,” Hassan had protested. “Why don’t we let them find it and bring it to the world?”
    â€œAs others before them did with many of the Dead Sea Scrolls?” Maluka asked pointedly. “No, DeVris is a poor academic in a world of very wealthy supporters. He watches contributors, without blinking an eye, write checks for ten times his annual salary. He has become bitter and greedy and sees the scroll only in terms of the potential wealth it may bring him.”
    â€œBut Ludlow…” Hassan interrupted.
    â€œYes, Ludlow sees the scroll’s worth in terms of the truth it may hold. He is honest but weak. A bad combination. If they find this scroll, DeVris will sell it to the highest bidder, and Ludlow will have no say in the matter.”
    Hassan hesitated. He knew better that to contradict his mentor. His fear of making so great an error in judgment would allow to him to give in. “But they worked together on The Cave 3 Scroll,” Hassan protested. “They were both instrumental in getting it here so that all the world might see it. Wouldn’t they do the same for the new scroll?”
    Maluka shook his head. “Ludlow, yes. DeVris, never. When the two of them first arranged to get The Cave 3 Scroll brought here from the Amman Museum, DeVris had only one thing in mind. If he got the actual scroll in his hands, he hoped he might discover some clue to the treasure described in The Cave 3’s writings.”
    â€œThe treasure that no one has yet uncovered,” Hassan echoed thoughtfully.
    â€œExactly. If DeVris had believed that he could extract favors or fortune by keeping it hidden, he would have done so.”
    Hassan had thought long and hard about Maluka’s answer.
    If what Maluka says is true, what then might DeVris be willing to do in order to get his hands on the new scroll?

Chapter 10
    Later that morning
Office of the Director of Acquisitions
Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum
    Dr. Anton DeVris glanced down at the caller ID on his cell phone. Just what he needed, a call from Nathan McCullum, CEO of White Americans to Save Christianity. DeVris braced himself for the quick thinking he required to keep track of all of the lies, past and present.
    McCullum’s voice was warm and sympathetic, almost believable. “I just heard about Ludlow,” McCullum began. “How tragic. So sorry for your loss.”
    After having read an account of Ludlow’s brutal murder on the Internet, McCullum could have been expected to act in a number of predictable ways: he might have voiced his displeasure at not having been informed immediately by DeVris of the turn of events; he might have demanded an earlier estimated time of arrival for the translation of the final section of the diary; or he might have reminded DeVris how much he was paying him to keep things on schedule. A sympathetic acknowledgement of DeVris’ loss, with not a single mention of the diary was not only out of character, it was downright suspicious.
    Ludlow had been working full-time at the Museum when McCullum had first contacted DeVris more than six years earlier. McCullum’s initial phone call to DeVris was of a completely innocent nature, related only to a donation.
    â€œMy accountants say I can use a tax break,” McCullum had explained. “And given all the negative press that Evangelicals are getting in the States these days, an ecumenical donation couldn’t be bad for WATSC’s image.”
    WATSC, an acronym for White Americans to Save Christianity, was not your typical Evangelical congregation. Having risen from the back swamps of KKK country, WATSC—pronounced “watt-see”—found fertile ground in twenty-first century finance. In his climb to the top, McCullum, grandson of the