God's Lions - House of Acerbi (38 page)

“Sounds like you’ve got things covered.”

“I’m your eyes in the sky tonight, Professor. Tell Nava I’m sorry to hear she lost her little bird. I’m sure you’ll get her another one.”

“Daniel’s already put in the order.”

“I’ll be landing at the end of the dock to fly you to the villa. See you soon.”

An unsmiling Leo leaned back in his chair and ran his hands over the stubble on his face. “Should I ask who the
friends
from Tel Aviv are?”

“Mossad. We’re fully under the umbrella of their protection now. We’ve had a fighter escort circling above us for the last ten hours. My friends know what Acerbi is and what he’s capable of. We’re safe here.”

“And just who is Acerbi, Lev? The intrigue surrounding this man is beginning to grow tiresome.”

“Well, you better prepare yourself, Cardinal, because we’ve just arrived back in the Holy Land ... a land filled with intrigue. I’ve been advised that there’s a briefing planned for us once we get back to the villa.”

Leo still wasn’t smiling. “Good. Maybe we’ll finally have some answers.”

“I think you can count on it.”

Soldiers of the Israeli Defense Force lined the dock as Alex eased the Carmela into her berth. As soon as the Israeli commander was satisfied that the area was secure, he signaled the captain that it was safe for everyone to come ashore.

First off were the families with children, who were escorted to a waiting bus, followed by a sleepy-looking Sarah. As soon as she saw Daniel waiting on the dock below, she ran down the gangplank and threw herself into his arms. The two embraced, oblivious to the smiling soldiers all around them as the other members of the Bible Code Team walked off the boat behind her and headed for the idling helicopter that had just landed at the end of the dock.

After hearing that her best friend was piloting the chopper, Nava ran ahead of the group and squeezed into the co-pilot’s seat. In the red light of the cockpit, she grinned as she pushed a helmet down over her head and began to strap in.

Gabriella crossed her arms and adopted a mock frown. “Well, just make yourself at home ... civilian.”

“Don’t mind if I do, former co-pilot of mine. Do you mind if I fly?”

“Think you remember how?”

“I don’t know. Why don’t we see?”

Gabriella moved her hands away from the stick. “She’s all yours, but you might want to wait until all the passengers are onboard.”

“Good idea.” Nava winked. She looked out the window at the team members walking toward the chopper, then turned back to face her friend as her usual grin faded into a look of exhaustion. “The last few days have been really weird, Gabbie.”

“We’ve heard, but you’re home now. No one’s getting through the defensive wall we’ve put up around this entire area. The villa looks like a military command center. Soldiers and police are everywhere. They’ve even moved in some heavy armor and shut down the highway. No one is getting anywhere close to you guys.”

“You don’t know these people, Gabriella. They’re spooky, and they have people everywhere.”

“Who the hell are they?”

“We’re not sure. Right now we’re on our way to an intelligence briefing at the villa, so I’m hoping some of Lev’s Mossad buddies will be able to fill us in on what they’ve learned over the past few hours.”

“I know about the briefing. I received orders to get you guys there as soon as you stepped off the boat.”

The rear door to the chopper slid open and all of the members of the Bible Code Team piled onboard. They were still strapping themselves in when Nava brought the engines up to speed and jumped the fully loaded chopper into the air.

“Doesn’t look like you’ve forgotten how to fly this bird,” Gabriella shouted into her mouthpiece.

“Seems like yesterday. Flying that little chopper off the yacht has kept me in practice, but I miss the power of the big Blackhawks.”

The halogen lights around the harbor faded below as they rose into the night sky and tilted in the direction of the villa. Flying low over the beach, they could see the moonlight reflecting off the white sand and the crests of the breaking waves along the shoreline, while out in the dark void that was the Mediterranean Sea, bobbing pinpoints of light offered proof that there were people out there, going about the business of life on the ocean.

Ten minutes after taking off, they were circling at a steep 45 degree bank over the villa as Nava glanced down over her left shoulder and picked their landing spot. Leveling out, she floated the big Blackhawk down on the lawn between the highway and the villa.

Against the sound of the turbines winding down, the rumble of heavy armor could be heard in the darkness as the team made their way into the villa through the main entrance. From there, they passed down a long hallway until they came to a set of stairs that led down to the command center below.

Leo had been here the year before, and memories of the first time he and John had seen this place flooded his mind as he reached the bottom of the stairs and walked through a pair of double steel blast doors into a room that resembled a NASA command bunker. Highlighted by spotlights embedded in a black-painted ceiling, rows of computer stations sat atop thick glass tables, while huge flat screens lined gray walls in the front of the room and white erasable boards lined another. At the back of the room, a wall of glass separated a high-tech communications section from the main information gathering area. This was the living, breathing heart of the Bible Code Team.

Usually, only team members were allowed down in this inner sanctum, but on this night there was a growing crowd of new faces. Besides the new Spanish team members, men in military uniforms milled about with another group dressed in plain clothes. Leo watched as Lev and Moshe greeted a stout, grandfatherly-looking man with thinning gray hair, a large stomach, and oversized brown eyes that missed nothing.

Alon sidled up next to Leo and nudged him in the side. “Do you know who that man is?”

“I was just wondering that.”

“That’s one of the men who captured Adolf Eichmann after he fled to South America after the war. He personally grabbed him right off the street next to his house in Argentina and shoved him in the backseat of a car. They drugged him and flew him back to Israel to stand trial before they hanged him. That’s one Nazi that didn’t get away.”

Standing behind the stout man were two tall IDF officers flanked by several civilian-looking types dressed in baggy gray slacks and white dress shirts.

“Mossad?” Leo asked.

“You’re getting good at this, Cardinal. Those men represent the top echelon of the Mossad. The man on the left is the current head of the service.”

Leo watched as a dark-haired man that looked like he had been chiseled from stone strode confidently to the front of the room and cleared his throat. It was obvious that this was someone who commanded a great deal of respect among the Israelis, because all talk stopped instantly.

“If I may have everyone’s attention, it’s late and we need to get started. To those of you who do not know me, my name is Danny Zamir. Currently, I am the director of the National Intelligence Agency of the State of Israel ... better known as the Mossad. However, my employment status could change over the course of the next few days if the politicians in charge of our government find out what we’re about to do.”

A hushed murmur circled the room, accompanied by a few nervous laughs.

“After the biological attack on New York, we worked 24/7 to develop a short list of prime suspects, but in the past twenty-four hours that list has dwindled to just one name ... the billionaire Rene Acerbi. Up until now, it was assumed by most people that Acerbi was just what he appeared to be—the head of a very large multi-national conglomerate. However lately, we’ve begun to hear rumors. It appears that our Mr. Acerbi has had his hands in a lot of pies, including blackmail, murder, gun running, and terrorism ... just to name a few. To put it bluntly, Acerbi is a mentally unbalanced criminal who wants to rule the world, and there may be a religious component to his megalomania, a very dangerous combination, as we have all seen in the past.”

Zamir waited for his words to sink in as he watched the members of the Bible Code Team exchange covert glances with one another.

“We have learned that, to accomplish his goal, Acerbi wants to kill off at least half the world’s population. At first we were mystified as to why he wanted to do this, but it all leads down to simple math. In order to rule the world, he must control at least two things. First and foremost, he needs the ability to dominate the masses through sheer military strength. With the world’s current population topping out at seven billion people, no military force in the world would be able to oversee that many people, so he needs to cull the flock, so to speak. Secondly, in order to exert total control over those who remain, he and his group plan on becoming the world’s sole provider of the necessities of life ... things like food, medicine, and energy top the list, but at the world’s current growth rate, that would also be an impossible task unless he decreased the number of souls inhabiting the planet. Less population equals greater control.”

“That’s horrific!” Sarah gasped.

“I see our survivor is among us,” Zamir said. “Welcome, Ms. Adams.”

Zamir looked back at a map of the world displayed on a lighted screen behind him.

“As to the religious component attached to his plan, we’re not entirely up to speed on what Acerbi’s religious beliefs are at this point. One of our sources has told us it’s a twisted aberration of a once noble faith that vanished from the face of the earth seven hundred years ago.”

“What religion is that?” John asked.

“He calls himself a Cathar.”

Instantly, most of the people in the room began talking among themselves or just stared straight ahead with perplexed looks on their faces.

“A what?” John asked.

“A Cathar. However, Acerbi is not the kind of Cather one reads about in history books. He and his followers are an aberration. They are members of a group that broke away from the main body of the Cathar faith that existed when the Catholic Church took up a crusade against them during the Middle Ages. The Cathars themselves were a peace loving people, but seven hundred years ago something happened to split the Acerbi family away from the teachings of the true faith. They’ve evolved into something quite different. At this point, we can no longer call them Cathars, for they have become everything the Cathars stood against.”

Leo fixed Zamir with questioning green eyes. “You’ve been watching Acerbi for quite some time now, haven’t you, Mr. Zamir?”

“You’re quite astute, Cardinal. That’s probably why you’re standing here tonight, but there’s something else you need to be aware of. Aside from taking over the world, another of Acerbi’s goals is the destruction of the Catholic Church ... a church he holds responsible for the destruction of his faith over seven hundred years ago.”

“And rightly so,” Leo said.

The other members of the team glanced over at Leo with astonished looks.

“So you understand,” Zamir said.

“Of course. The Church has been responsible for some horrific acts in the past ... a past we endeavor to put behind us every day. I would also say that as Jews, you would find some common ground with the original Cathars who were persecuted to the point of extinction.”

“You’re even more astute than I originally gave you credit for, Cardinal, which brings us to your original question.”

“That you’ve been watching Acerbi for some time now?”

“Yes, but we were invited.”

“Invited? Invited by whom?”

“Cathars, Cardinal ... Cathars.”

Leo’s mind seemed to go blank for a second ...
Cathars
?

“I’m not sure we’re following you, Mr. Zamir.”

“I had a feeling my last statement would need some further explanation, Cardinal. Most people don’t even know what a Cathar is, much less the fact that they are still with us today. They continue to live among us in peace, but because members of their faith were once hunted to the point of extinction, they prefer to keep their beliefs private. In a world filled with religious turmoil, they’re probably the smartest of the lot. While the rest of us go about pounding on our chests and chanting the convictions of our chosen faiths as if they were ancient blood oaths, they go about their daily lives with quiet introspection, respecting the beliefs of others. When’s the last time you ever heard of a Cathar trying to convert you to their way of thinking?”

“To be honest, I’m one of those who didn’t even know they were still around.”

“Then look around you, Cardinal, because you’re standing next to some right now.”

A thin, feminine hand reached out and touched Leo’s hand. Leo felt the room sway when he saw Evita’s smiling face looking up at him. “You?”

“All the Spanish members of your team, Cardinal,” Zamir continued. “They’re all Cathars.”

A collective gasp reverberated among the original members of the Bible Code Team.

“Wow!” John said.

“I’ll second that observation,” Lev added. “How long have you known about this, Danny?”

“We first learned of their existence a few years ago when Spain’s National Center for Intelligence approached us with news that Acerbi and his group were up to something. If you remember, we were all a little busy after 9/11, and there was no concrete threat at the time, so we put the information on the back burner for a while. To be honest, we just didn’t see the need to become involved in something that wasn’t a threat to Israel. We were mistaken.”

“So, what happened to change your mind?”

“Let me fill you in on a little more background first.” Zamir looked around the room at all the somber faces staring back at him and smiled. “This is a tough crowd.”

A few pockets of nervous laughter erupted around the room. The head of the Mossad was an expert at putting people at ease, a talent he had acquired as a young man when he played the part of the
good guy
during interrogations of suspected terrorists.