THE OMEGA SCROLL, page 42
The 1960’s lifestyle of the inhabitants of Tricarico with their ‘Men Only’ westerns was beautifully captured by Ann Cornelisen when she disguised the little town as Torregreca. Armed with just her book, the photographs within it and the knowledge that ‘Torregreca’ (not its real name) was a town ‘somewhere’ between Potenza and Matera (of The Passion fame), I made several forays into the snow-covered Basilicatan mountains and was about to give up when I came across a signpost to Grassano and Tricarico. When the photographs of Tricarico matched those of ‘Torregreca’, Ann Cornelisen’s secret was uncovered and the townsfolk of Tricarico were everything Ms Cornelisen said they would be, even when I got my Peugeot 206 stuck between buildings in one of their impossibly narrow streets. Mi dispiace, sono Australiano!
Many authors provided insightful studies on the Middle East and Islam, among them Mark Tessler’s A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Robert Donovan’s Six Days in June and Karen Armstrong’s Islam: A Short History. Paul L. Williams has written perceptively on al-Qaeda and the nuclear threat, and on the Vatican in Osama’s Revenge and The Vatican Exposed. I am grateful to Elaine Pagels for The Gnostic Gospels and to Michael Drosnin for his detailed discussion of Eliyahu Rips’ discovery of codes in the Torah in The Bible Code.
The greatest danger in the nuclear threat posed by al-Qaeda and other terrorist organisations would be for us to adopt an attitude of ‘that can’t happen’. Helen Caldicott’s The New Nuclear Danger and Frank Barnaby’s How to Build a Nuclear Bomb caused me to go back to my early days as a science student, and right now I think it is more a case of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’.
In Magdalene’s Lost Legacy, Margaret Starbird (as always) has produced some excellent work on the codes of the New Testament and 153, the number I suspect the Vatican fears most. There are no models of the tenth planet or the DNA helix amongst the depictions of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Qumran in the entrance to Israel’s Shrine of the Book Museum, but Dolores Cannon, who has travelled back through time using regressive hypnosis in Jesus and the Essenes, and Sir Francis Crick’s Life Itself: Its Origin and Nature have shown what they might look like.
Amongst the books on my shelves are several by one of my favourite philosophers and theologians, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, including The Phenomenon of Man. Daring to speak out, he prompted the Vatican’s usual response of threat of excommunication, but with brilliant scholars like Hans Küng and Edward Schillebeeckx also speaking out, it is the dogma that is under threat.
Space does not allow acknowledgement of all the works I consulted in my research, and as much as some lawyers might see the need to footnote a novel, that day is still hopefully some way off. There are, however, several people who most certainly require my thanks and acknowledgement, although like the authors consulted in my research, the list is inevitably incomplete. Firstly, thanks go to the great team at Penguin and in particular to Clare Forster, who believed in The Omega Scroll from the start. Thanks also to Kerry Martin, who always encouraged me to write, and to Jody Lee and Janet Austin, my long-suffering and tireless editors. I’d also like to thank my literary agent, Jane Adams.
Sandy McCutcheon, the highly regarded author and ABC journalist, read (the much bulkier) early drafts and provided some much-needed advice. Thanks to Chris May for her encouragement, and Olivia Isherwood and Sophie; to Rob Ennever, my insightful Italian coach – any errors are mine alone; and to Antoinette and friends. I also send my appreciation to the wonderful people of Falerna and Tricarico in southern Italy – God knew what she was doing when she made the Italians – and in particular, Tatiana Mario, Nonna and Michaela, Ida and Willy.
And finally to Robyn, who was always there when the going was at its roughest.
Adrian d’Hagé
Adrian d’Hagé was born in Sydney and educated at North Sydney Boys High and the Royal Military College Duntroon (Applied Science). He graduated into the Intelligence Corps in 1967, and was later transferred to Infantry and served in Vietnam as a platoon commander, where he was awarded the Military Cross. His service in the Australian Army included command of an infantry battalion and Director of Joint Operations for Defence. In 1990 he was promoted to Brigadier as Head of Defence Public Relations.
In 1994 Adrian was made a Member of the Order of Australia for services to communications. His last appointment was Head of Defence Planning for security of the Sydney 2000 Olympics, including defence against chemical, biological and nuclear threats.
In October 2000 Adrian left the Army to pursue a writing career, moving to Italy to complete The Omega Scroll. He holds an honours degree in Theology, entering his studies as a committed Christian and graduating ‘of no fixed religion’. Adrian is currently a research scholar at the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (Middle East and Central Asia) at the Australian National University, and is also completing a further degree in Wine Science.
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
CONTENTS
THE OMEGA SCROLL
BOOK ONE January 2005
CHAPTER ONE: Roma
CHAPTER TWO: Atlanta, Georgia
CHAPTER THREE: Roma
CHAPTER FOUR: Washington
CHAPTER FIVE: Roma
CHAPTER SIX: Langley, Virginia
CHAPTER SEVEN: Jerusalem
CHAPTER EIGHT: Venezia
BOOK TWO 1978 – 1979
CHAPTER NINE: Roma
CHAPTER TEN: Tricarico
CHAPTER ELEVEN: Jerusalem
CHAPTER TWELVE: Tricarico and Milano
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Maratea
BOOK THREE 1985
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Milano
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Jerusalem
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Milano
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: Mar'Oth
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Nablus
CHAPTER NINETEEN: Mar'Oth
CHAPTER TWENTY: Jerusalem
BOOK FOUR 1990
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: Milano
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: Milano
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: Jerusalem
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: Milano
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: Acre
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: Roma
BOOK FIVE 2004
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: Langley, Virginia
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: Milano
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: Jerusalem
CHAPTER THIRTY: Roma
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: Jerusalem
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO: Tel-Aviv
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: Qumran
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR: Langley, Virginia
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE: Qumran
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX: Langley, Virginia
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: Qumran
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT: Roma
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE: Jerusalem
CHAPTER FORTY: Jerusalem
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE: The Hindu Kush
BOOK SIX 2005
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO: Roma
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE: Tel-Aviv
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR: Jerusalem
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE: Jerusalem
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX: Tel-Aviv
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN: Nablus
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT: Jerusalem
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE: Jerusalem
CHAPTER FIFTY: Roma
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE: Roma
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO: Roma
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE: Roma
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR: Roma
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE: The Hindu Kush
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX: Roma
Author's Note
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adrian D'hagé, THE OMEGA SCROLL
