Cohen Code, the next book in the Marc Wayne adventure romance series, is coming soon. Here is a sneak peek at one of the early chapters in the adventure romance novel.
Israel
Shanina frowned as she studied the genealogical data.
DYS464 is a marker for male infertility. She placed those with that marker into a separate category.
The door to the lab opened and Adi came in carrying two disposable cups with lids. The interruption brought her to the present and the ache in her back caused by long sessions bent over research.
He set a cup on her desk. “English Breakfast, if I remember correctly, is your preferred drink?”
She leaned near to smell the steam that rose from the sip hole. “The aroma of biscuits and royalty.”
“Your studies in Oxford certainly left an impression.” Adi leisurely circled the lab.
“And we are woefully thin on fish and chips back home.”
He turned from the window. “But abundant with the world’s best hummus and challah bread.”
She stretched, bending muscles spent too long in one position. “Speaking of which, what is the news from home?”
“You pursue important work here.” He tipped his chin toward her computer screens. “And meanwhile, back at the kibbutz, people come from far and near for my mother’s hummus and challah.”
“And my pesky older brother?”
“Moshe continues to wrestle the unsolvable problem with Marc from opposite sides of the globe.” He snapped his fingers as if just remembering. “Uncle has a new grandchild.”
She smiled, thinking of the elderly soldier. Years earlier, Uncle came to the kibbutz to rest, fell in love, and discovered he belonged when his parents revealed his Jewish heritage. She sipped her tea, letting the robust English Breakfast renew her energy. “It’s good.”
“The tea or your work?” He leaned over her shoulder to see the figures. “You know, a lot of people don’t care about identifying a Levitical line.”
“And there are many who do.” Tapping a few buttons, she highlighted the infertility marker. While Jewish, possibly even Levitical, most likely these would not have children.
Adi pulled up a chair and sat, crossing his long legs. “More menacing are the many who would actively suppress such information.”
“Suppress or target?” Terrorists constantly sought opportunities to slaughter people just for being Jewish. Enemies lurked who would relish torturing her because she searched for the chosen line established long ago by the Ancient of Days. She shook off thoughts of the October 7 slaughter of her people. Those images bit at her confidence like dogs nipping a sheep’s heels. Fear would only hinder progress.
“I’m not much of a threat.” With a wave of her hand she took in the workspace. “Just an analyst clumsily plumbing the depth of genealogical information to trace a lost Levitical line to serve in a Jewish Temple that currently doesn’t exist.”
Knowing humor shone in Adi’s eyes. “It is our way.”
She opted for one last rant. “The Romans effectively destroyed the family records of the tribe of Levi in their brutal destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.”
“Not to mention the many dispersals of the Jewish people throughout history.” He drank from his cup and she detected the aroma of coffee. “Every generation, some nation did their best to eliminate Jewish people.”
“More knowledge of our roots was destroyed as people were rounded up for the holocaust.” She continued his list of the challenges she faced every day. “Our people have hidden their ancestry to protect their families so often that some folks don’t know they are Jewish until they take one of those popular genetic tests.”
“And?”
“And while this search tool is the most effective in existence, the process is woefully slow.” She pressed a hand to her lower back. “And painstaking.”
“Jewish ingenuity.” He tapped his temple. “What’s the workaround?”
Desalinating sea water for drinking, creating microchips, exchanging 90 enemies for a single civilian hostage, her heritage included a history of solving problems. With little more than spit and chutzpah, her culture imagined the possible and, with God’s help, made the impossible commonplace. Even the Temple Mount, the heart of Jerusalem and Israel, while under Israeli sovereignty, had been given over to the Jordanian Waqf as a gesture for peace. The way of the Jewish people involved thinking outside the box. Far outside.
“Generally speaking, all people groups seem to fall into three categories.” She brought up a genetic map on the computer screen.
“The legacy of Noah’s three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japath,” Adi filled in. “No surprise there. Everyone eventually traces back to the first two humans, Adam and Eve.”
“Well,” she finished her cup of tea. “I can cobble together an effective search for a specific common denominator. Effective being the necessary verb.”
He pointed heavenward. “What’s your guidance from the Most High?”
Taking in the reams of DNA sequences and new genetic information constantly being added, she considered what could be uniquely Jewish.
“Our land has been home for many cultures.” Adi leaned forward. “Archeologists know they found Jewish roots when—”
“When they unearth a mikvah or a menorrah.”
“Our people often kept silent about their heritage to stay alive among constant antisemitism.” He spread his hands. “Paradoxically, Jewish people were sometimes considered unfriendly because they maintained practices that set them apart from others.”
“Family traditions.” A parade of practices flashed through her mind. These gestures reminded them that no matter where on the globe they found themselves, they were God’s chosen people. “In the chicken soup, study of the Torah, the 613 impossible rules, I think God preserved clues.”
When he looked interested, she continued. “Coupling family and community traditions with genealogical information may be a shortcut to identify those connected with the Jewish priestly line.”
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Cohen Code is available for preorder. Order today and receive the first three novels in the series as a thank you bonus.
