His eyes were gentle, but firm as he finished his perfect delineation of just who I was. My hands shook and twisted together in my lap. He'd known all along who I was! He knew too much! Why did it have to be like this!
"I…..." his hand was tugging on my arm interrupting me and I looked up with pain filled eyes to meet his honest gaze.
"I didn't play you! I've been nothing but honest with you from the beginning. I didn't want you to become involved in this, but fate intervened. I suspected it was you, as you matched the description I had, which your father later confirmed. If your father hadn't started hacking people up I doubt I would have ever crossed paths with you. I was content to leave you alone Lisa. You have to believe me!"
And somehow, I did believe him.
"Now, unbuckle that seatbelt and scoot over here."
My fingers, seemingly of a mind all of their own, unbuckled the harness and he more or less pulled me to his side and folded an arm around me securely. I pressed my face to his shoulder liking his smell. Once again, he was security and a calm place in the storm of my life.
"If I were true to the traditions of my past I should kill you right now, as I doubt very little now that you won't find the treasure." I said, softly against his neck.
I watched as he pulled a knife out from somewhere and offered it to me handle first. I pushed it away and he chuckled kissing the top of my head.
"Does this mean that you have caved into my magnetic charm and are now as malleable as clay in my fingers?" He said in a Machiavellian tone.
I smiled, "Not quite. I'm still not telling you what I know."
His fingers squeezed my shoulder, "And I'll never ask you to."
There was silence in the companionable atmosphere of the plane for a while.
"You didn't finish your story. Where do you think the treasure is?"
"Ahh, the curious little bird wants to know everything. Better put, I know where the treasure came from, but I'm less sure of where it is. To find the source of the treasure you have to go back to Solomon again and the treasure convoy that he received. Now, as I said before there isn't a source of gold in the Ethiopian area capable of producing the kind of wealth talked about in Solomon's time, where silver was considered worthless because gold was so plentiful. So I looked where else could such a limitless supply of gold have come from. The most likely place was West Africa, which is known as the gold coast. The gold is mostly alluvial, so it would have been easily mined. Mali, where we're heading right now, situated on the Congo River, was the epicenter of this rich trade in the old days. Back then, present day Mali was known as Ghana. There was a caravan trail known as the 'Gold and Salt Road' that led up through the Sahara toward lower Egypt, aka Kush. I'm positive that this caravan's trail, as well as maritime trade via the Phoenicians and possibly the tribe of Dan, was where the wealth of both Solomon and the kingdom of Kush originated from. Now, to help back this theory up that the Hebrews knew where their gold was coming from. A man by the name of Za Alayaman founded the Za dynasty in Ghana. The dynasty had many kings, but what's fascinating is that they claimed to be of Hebrew origin. The members of this Za dynasty claimed descendence from the tribe of Dan, and they kept up this lucrative caravan trade route of gold and salt long after Solomon was gone. As to the origin of these Danities coming to Ghana, they said that they came from the Lower Egypt area, which was the Kingdom of Kush. This goes to show that there was a heavy Jewish influence in that kingdom. This dynasty stretched out for a very long time, until in 1050 AD the fifteenth king Za Kusoy converted to Islam, mostly based out of a need to ensure the security of the lucrative trade routes, as the lands north and south of the Sahara had come under Islamic control. Now I don't think the treasure is in modern day Mali, but what I'm hoping for is to find clues as to the actual trade route and possibly the destination points in Kush that will help me track down the flow of gold. So, I think the treasure is in Ethiopia or near it, but I'm not sure where, which puts me at a decided disadvantage with your father and anyone he might team up with."