Synopsis
In the summer of 1914, 16-year-old Evan Sinclair leaves home to join the Great War for Civilization. Little does he know that, despite the war raging in Europe, the true source of conflict will emerge in Ottoman Palestine, since it’s from Jerusalem where the German Kaiser dreams to rule as Holy Roman Emperor. Filled with such historical figures as Gertrude Bell, T.E. Lawrence, Winston Churchill, Faisal bin Hussein and Chaim Weizmann, “Wages of Empire” follows Evan through the killing fields of the Western Front where he will help turn the tide of a war that is just beginning, and become part of a story that never ends.
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Excerpt
Prologue
April 18, 1911
Jerusalem
THE TEMPLE MOUNT was shrouded in darkness. It was the dead of night yet sounds of digging echoed within the Dome of the Rock.
Gunter von Wertheimer knew the sounds well—the steady scrape of a shovel, the bite of a pick, and the whisper of soil poured from full panniers.
Cloaked in a hooded robe, he stood in the shadow of the shrine and looked up at the sky. Among the bright points of stars, the constellation of the scorpion hovered over the Dome, the sharp stinger formed by a bright star the Arabs called Lasa’a, poised to strike.
As the digging continued, another sound whispered out of the darkness.
“It’s time.”
He knew the voice was that of his friend and fellow archeologist, Rahman B’Shara, a hulking shadow in the darkness.
“You know what you must do,” said Gunter.
“It’s strange, though,” Rahman murmured. “When Walker first came, I thought he was like the others—just another greedy treasure hunter, anxious to get his hands on the golden vessels hidden beneath the Foundation Stone. But once I joined the dig, I couldn’t believe how quickly it was progressing.”
“Do you still believe he’ll break through in the next few days?”
“No. He’ll break through in the next few hours.”
“Because of the spiritualists and clairvoyants he hired?”
“More likely, it’s the unchecked access he’s had to dig for the last two weeks. Walker has a keen sense of which Ottoman officials to bribe—starting with the Turkish governor.” Rahman turned, stepped past Gunter and whispered, “There’s no time to lose.”
“Good luck, my friend.”
“Why do I need luck?”
“You know that better than I. His guards are well armed.”
Rahman smiled, his white teeth flashing in the starlight. “We have something more powerful than their guns.”
“Indeed. We have the power of the Temple.”
“In the end, yes, but I was speaking of a power of this world—the power of the mob.”
“And what a mob!” Gunter agreed. “Thousands of pilgrims in Jerusalem for the Feast of Nebi Musa! When they hear the Temple Mount has been desecrated by treasure hunters, Walker won’t need to enter the Temple to experience divine wrath.”
“Yes! The faithful will be quick to avenge this outrage.” Rahman bolted away, disappearing into the darkness.
Gunter knew he was heading to the Muslim Quarter beyond the northern edge of the sacred precincts. After a few seconds, he heard his voice calling out, echoing among the narrow lanes.
“Sacrilege! The Frengi are breaking the foundation stone! Sacrilege!”
Within seconds, two armed Turkish guards with torches shot out of the shrine and sprinted in the direction of Rahman’s voice.
Gunter flattened himself against the smooth tiles and watched as they came to a stop, apparently despairing as they heard the words Rahman was shouting.
“Arise to vengeance! The Turks have given over the Holy Mountain to the greed of infidels. Avenge the sacrilege! Arise!”
The guards ran back into the shrine and within seconds, Gunter heard the anxious voice of Montagu Walker.
“We must get out of here double quick! Hurry! Take whatever you can carry!”
As he waited in the shadows beneath the arches of the arcade, Gunter knew that Rahman had been the one best suited to infiltrate Walker’s scheme—to expose and stop him. Walker had hired Rahman as his consulting archaeologist to give his treasure hunt the patina of a legitimate excavation—Rahman, who could trace his ancestry in Jerusalem back for a hundred generations.
Though Gunter had also been born in Jerusalem, he was the son of German Templers, and never completely trusted by the local population; suspected of working for the Germans, or the Ottomans, or both.
But Gunter served no colonial empire. He, like Rahman, was a Guardian of the Temple Mount, an order that traced its origins to a time before the holy mountain had a name, a time cloaked in the
shadowed silence before history.
A line of flaming torches appeared along the northern border of the Temple enclosure. Shouts of execration filled the air.
Walker and his crew tumbled out of the Dome of the Rock, struggling with heavy sacks, shovels and picks that scraped and clattered on the paving stones.
“Leave that stuff!” Walker shouted. “Run for your lives!”
They rushed headlong away from the mob, frantically clawing past one another.
Gunter knew they were making for a gap in the southern border of the enclosure.
The mob surged forward in pursuit, the light of a thousand torches beneath the black sky.
Walker was finished.
The passages and chambers within the Temple Mount would remain sealed, as they had been for a thousand years.
But Gunter knew that others would come—drawn by the power and mystery of Jerusalem. And he also knew that the Guardians of the Temple Mount would be watching, and they would never rest.
About the Author
Michael J. Cooper emigrated to Israel in 1966 and lived in Jerusalem; during the last year, the city was divided between Israel and Jordan. He graduated from Tel Aviv University Medical School, and after a 40-year career as a pediatric cardiologist in Northern California, he continues to do volunteer missions serving Palestinian children who lack access to care. His historical fiction novels include “Foxes in the Vineyard,” set in 1948 Jerusalem, which won the 2011 Indie Publishing Contest grand prize, and “The Rabbi’s Knight,” set in the Holy Land in 1290. “Wages of Empire” won the 2022 CIBA Rossetti Award for YA fiction along with first-place honors for the 2022 CIBA Hemingway Award for wartime historical fiction. He lives in Northern California with his wife and a spoiled rotten cat. Three adult children occasionally drop by.
