The Last Patriot

“Khalifa was definitely on to something,” said Ozbek, referring to the documents that had been printed from the flash drive as he joined Harvath at the table. “The problem is that the information is incomplete. He talks about certain pieces of manuscript, but there’s no backup for it, no source.”

“Are you surprised?” said Harvath as he took a sip.

“Not really. It’s just enough information to whet your thirst, but nowhere near enough to quench it.”

“A hearty fuck-you from Mr. Dodd and his Islamist friends.”

Ozbek nodded and took a pull from his beer. “Considering the Italian State Archives all but burned to the ground, Khalifa’s copies of the Sana’a find are probably all that’s left. So if Dodd does have Khalifa’s computer, we can forget about any of it ever seeing the light of day.”

“Which makes the professor’s work even more important.”

“You know,” said Ozbek as he leaned back in his chair and stretched his legs, “this whole Jefferson story is amazing. If it’s true, Khalifa’s work really wouldn’t have mattered anyway. I mean it would have been a nice complement, but an actual missing revelation from the Koran that Mohammed’s closest confidants assassinated him over will be earthshaking in and of itself.”

Harvath agreed. “If it’s handled properly, it could tank the fundamentalists and propel the moderates into true control over their religion. The war on terror could be all but won.”

Ozbek nodded knowingly and took a sip of his beer. “Despite how confusing and contradictory I find that religion, I’ve worked with lots of good Muslim people. Frankly, I don’t think it can ever hack off the Islamist cancer without a huge bombshell being detonated from within. I really hope Professor Nichols finds what he’s looking for.”

“Speaking of which,” replied Harvath as he picked up several of the pages Nichols had decoded and given him to study, “I think he’s getting very close. Have you ever heard of a Muslim inventor named al-Jazari?”

CHAPTER 69

Harvath reached for a box of matches from the study’s mantelpiece. It was going to be a cold night. If he didn’t start a fire now, the room would never get warm. It was both a drawback and part of the charm of living in such a historic structure.

Once the fire was going, Harvath took a seat near the desk where the professor was working, picked up the puzzle box, and asked, “Now that you have decoded some of Jefferson’s notes, how does al-Jazari fit into all of this?”

Nichols scanned several pages on the desk until he found the one he was looking for. “Al-Jazari’s work was well known throughout the Islamic world and his inventions were highly coveted. Like da Vinci, al-Jazari relied on patronage as well as commissions for his livelihood.

“Also like da Vinci, al-Jazari was a dedicated man of science. Even as early as the twelfth century, Muslim scientists and academics were aware of multiple errors throughout the Koran such as Mohammed’s incorrect explanations of the workings of the human body, the earth, the stars, and the planets, which he had communicated as being the true words of God. There were also the satanic verses.”

Harvath knew all too well about the satanic verses. Desperate to make peace with his family’s tribe, the Quraysh, Mohammed claimed that it was legitimate for Muslims to pray before the Quraysh’s three pagan goddesses as intercessors before Allah.

But when Mohammed realized what he had done and how he had compromised his monotheism to get his family’s tribe to join him, he took it all back and claimed the devil had put the words in his mouth. The abrupt about-face acted like gasoline being poured on a smoldering fire with the Quraysh and remained a fascinating retraction, which many throughout history, Salman Rushdie included, have found quite notable.

“There is belief that, like da Vinci,” continued Nichols, “al-Jazari was skeptical of the infallibility of the faith that dominated the society in which he lived.

“Supposedly, when al-Jazari first learned the story of Mohammed’s final revelation and its exclusion from the Koran, he became obsessed with finding it.”

“And did he?” asked Harvath.

Nichols took a breath. “According to what Thomas Jefferson uncovered, yes, he did.”

Harvath waited for the professor to continue.

“Al-Jazari’s notoriety and not insignificant celebrity provided him access to anyone and everyone throughout the Muslim world. He traveled far and wide and met with Muslim heads of state as well as their ministers, scientists, and court officials, as well as merchants, pirates, traders, and numerous scholars.

“By al-Jazari’s time, Mohammed’s final revelation was thought by many who knew the tale to be no more than a myth; more fiction than fact. If such a thing truly existed, why hadn’t it been brought to light?