The Omega Scroll (43 page)

Authors: Adrian D'Hage

Author’s Note

T
he Omega Scroll
has been set in a framework of history that has necessarily involved a considerable amount of research. I am grateful to many people who have given their time and their views. A number of authors have provided inspiration and the following list of sources is by no means exhaustive.

I am indebted to the work of Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh in
The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception
. Whilst the boozy Derek Lonergan and Jean-Pierre La Franci are fictitious characters, and access to the Dead Sea Scrolls has improved considerably in recent years, for nearly three decades the scrolls were kept from public view, raising many questions as to why. David Yallop’s
In God’s Name
provided a compelling case for the murder of John Paul II’s predecessor, John Paul I, who despite reportedly enjoying excellent health was found dead after only thirty-three days in office after he had intimated that there would be an investigation into the activities of the Vatican Bank.

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.

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