The Alexandria Link

377 Pages·2007·1.52 MB·English

by  Steve Berry

Annotation
For those readers who enjoy the Dan Brown type of story such as The
DaVinci Code, and, Angels and Demons, this is a book I'm sure you will enjoy.
Indeed Steve Berry's style is very much like Brown's - short paragraphs, fast-
paced, leaving no space in which to get bored. Also, he writes the type of
mystery that I personally like. One that gives the reader a lot of real information
even if the main subject matter seems a bit far-fetched. Wisely, I think,
considering the furor that followed the publication of, The Da Vinci Code, Berry
concludes with a writer's note detailing fact from fiction.
The subject of this book is the lost great Library of Alexandria in Egypt,
once the repository of nearly all of the collected knowledge and wisdom of the
civilized world containing over a half million scrolls, maps, books and codices.
Works by Euclid the mathematician, Herophiles on medicine, Manetho's writings
on the historical Pharaohs and the poems of Callimachus to name a few. The
library was sacked and burned about 1500 years ago by invading Muslim forces.
Christians did similar things, of course. Look at the Crusaders for instance. The
three major religions have all done it down through the ages. What irreplaceable
knowledge, writings and art have been lost!
According to this story, we find that much of the famous library had been
spirited away before the sacking armies reached Alexandria. Stories such as this
have been around for years. That, in itself, would be a staggering find but
reportedly among the documents is one that would blow the lid off the situation
in the Middle East, mainly the conflict between the Palestinians the Israelis. It
refers to differing translations of the Jewish Old Testament and involves Saudi
Arabia.
Cotton Malone, a retired U.S. agent of a section of their Secret Service
named The Magellan Billet, is the book's main character. He is separated from
his wife, Pam, an agent of the U.S. Department of Justice and shares custody
with her of their much loved teenage son, George. The stress of their lifestyles
has pushed them apart and it was not an amicable separation especially on Pam's
side. Cotton now lives in Copenhagen, Denmark and has established a fine
bookshop over the course of a year.
The action starts straight off with an enraged Pam turning up on his doorstep
early one morning literally screaming that George was kidnapped two days
earlier and that it was all Cotton's fault. The kidnappers said that if she contacted
the police the boy would die and she was not to fly to Copenhagen for two days.
She was then to give Cotton a particular cell phone and wait. A very angry and
frightened Cotton awaits the call, while trying to calm down his hysterical wife.
Apparently he has access to something called the Alexandra Link, the only one
in the world supposedly that does.
They want it and will do anything necessary to get it. To Pam the answer is
simple. Give them what they want and get George back unharmed. But Cotton
can't or won't do this. This Link and the knowledge it would reveal would affect
the entire world. The world's three main religions would be shaken to their roots.
I am not giving the plot away by saying that the information involves the
covenant, between Abraham and the Jewish God, Genesis 13.verses 14-17.
While Pam rages on, the call comes, and while Cotton desperately considers
what to do, the bookshop beneath them is blown up by rocket fire. This is just to
help him make up his mind. They escape over the rooftops and head for the
home of their good friend, Henrick Thorveldson. From there the reader is carried
along, first to the castle Kronborg Slot also known as Elsinore in Shakespeare's
Hamlet, where they are fired on by an assassin and one becomes involved with
the highest levels of the U.S. and Middle Eastern governments and the Israeli -
Palestine years long conflict. We meet the mysterious Palestinian George
Haddad who is a "guardian". But a guardian of what, precisely? It would seem
that all was not burned in the destruction of Alexandria and some papers still
exist somewhere concerning this conflict. Does he guard this?
Eventually Cotton contacts his previous boss, Stephanie Nelle, the head of
this Magellan Billet section who he trusts implicitly and informs her of what is
happening. She appears to know something of this already but she in turn trusts
no one around her even up to the Oval Office. She has discovered that some top
files have been breached in Washington to which only very few have the access
codes. There is Attorney General Brent Green; Securities Advisor Lawrence
Daley; someone called Blue Chair and top agents of many countries including
Mossad.
And so we are led with Cotton and Pam to monasteries, deserts, mountain
retreats, various quests, even Camp David and eventually back to Denmark.
Danger is everywhere. How does a book like this end when you know the
mystery must endure? Well, you will have to read it, as I cannot give it away. I'm
sure you will enjoy it.
Steve Berry
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
PROLOGUE
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WRITER'S NOTE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Steve Berry
The Alexandria Link
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Writers should be careful with the pronoun I. A book is a team effort, and the
team I'm privileged to be a part of is truly a wonder. So for the fifth time, lots of
thanks. First, Pam Ahearn, my agent, who met a storm named Katrina but made
it through. Next, to the wonderful folks at Random House: Gina Centrello, an
extraordinary publisher and extremely charming lady; Mark Tavani, my editor,
now a married man who remains far wiser than his years; Cindy Murray, who
outdoes herself each time with publicity; Kim Hovey, whose marketing skills are
beyond description; Beck Stvan, the talented artist with a great eye for covers;
Laura Jorstad, who again copyedited with precision; Carole Lowenstein, who
always makes the pages easy on the eyes; and finally to all those in promotions
and sales-absolutely nothing could be achieved without their superior efforts.
One other individual deserves a special mention. Kenneth Harvey. At a
dinner in South Carolina a few years ago, Ken pointed me toward a Lebanese
scholar named Kamal Salibi and a rather obscure theory that eventually turned
into this novel. Ideas spring up at the oddest times and from the most unexpected
sources-a writer's task is to recognize them. Thanks, Ken.
Also, I have a new Elizabeth in my life who's smart, beautiful, and loving. Of
course, my eight-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, continues to bring nothing but
joy. Finally, this book is for my two grown children, Kevin and Katie, who make
me feel both old and young.
History is the distillation of evidence
surviving the past.
- OSCAR HANDLIN, Truth in
History (1979)
Since the first Adam who beheld the
night and the day and the shape of his
own hand, men have made up stories
and have fixed in stone, in metal, or on
parchment whatever the world includes
or dreams create. Here is the fruit of
their labor: the Library...The faithless
say that if it were to burn, history would
burn with it. They are wrong. Unceasing
human work gave birth to this infinity of
books. If of them all not even one
remained, man would again beget each
page and every line.
- JORGE LUIS BORGES,
regarding the Library of Alexandria
Libraries are the memory of
mankind.
- JOHANN WOLFGANG VON
GOETHE
PROLOGUE
PALESTINE
APRIL 1948

GEORGE HADDAD'S PATIENCE ENDED AS HE GLARED AT THE
MAN bound to the chair. Like himself, his prisoner possessed the swarthy skin,
aquiline nose, and deep-set brown eyes of a Syrian or a Lebanese. But there was
something about this man Haddad simply did not like.
"I'll only ask one more time. Who are you?"
Haddad's soldiers had caught the stranger three hours ago, just before dawn.
He'd been walking alone, unarmed. Which was foolish. Ever since the British
decided last November to partition Palestine into two states, one Arab, the other
Jewish, war had raged between the two sides. Yet this fool had walked straight
into an Arab stronghold, offering no resistance, and had not said anything since
being bound to the chair.
"Did you hear me, imbecile? I asked who you are." Haddad spoke in Arabic,
which the man clearly understood.
"I'm a Guardian."
The answer meant nothing to him. "What's that?"
"We're keepers of knowledge."
He was not in the mood for riddles. Just yesterday the Jewish underground
had attacked a nearby village. Forty Palestinian men and women had been
herded into a quarry and shot. Nothing unusual. Arabs were being systematically
murdered and expelled. Land that their families had occupied for sixteen
hundred years was being confiscated. The nakba, the catastrophe, was
happening. Haddad needed to be out fighting the enemy, not listening to
nonsense.
"We're all keepers of knowledge," he made clear. "Mine is how to wipe from
the face of this earth every Zionist I can find."
"Which is why I've come. War is not necessary."
This man was an idiot. "Are you blind? Jews are flooding this place. We're
being crushed. War is all we have left."
"You underestimate Jewish resolve. They've survived for centuries and will
continue."
"This land is ours. We shall win."
"There are things more powerful than bullets that can provide you victory."