God's Lions - House of Acerbi (49 page)

“What the hell?” Wilson said.

Lev drained his cup while he stared at the screen. “It appears as if our friend is preparing to release the dogs of war on some of his fellow conspirators.”

“It’s brilliant,” Evita said, shaking her head. “He’s getting ready to give up some of his so-called friends in order to divert suspicion away from himself, and I think it’s safe to say that his list will contain only the names of people he’s already decided to eliminate for one reason or another. By revealing his own plan, he’s just discarded some unwanted baggage while making himself look like the savior of the world. Now, if any of his buddies try to expose him for what he really is, everyone will think they’re just trying to save their own hides. This guy is home free, while some of his friends are no doubt running for their private jets to escape the mobs that will soon be coming after them.”

Leo stood and reached for Wilson’s bottle. After pouring two fingers in a short glass, he downed it all in one gulp.

“You have to hand it to the man for his ability to stay two steps ahead of everyone else. I’d be willing to bet that every government that doesn’t disappear within the next forty-eight hours is already under his control. There’s no telling how many countries have accepted his terms and now look to him as their de-facto leader. Rene Acerbi has just become the twenty-first century version of Napoleon Bonaparte. He’s going to rule the world, and he’s done it without firing a single shot.”

“I can’t believe this is happening,” John said. Everyone looked behind them to see that he and Ariella had just entered the trailer. “We can’t let this guy get away with this. He still has the capability to take out the entire human race, and we’ll be the only ones left to stop him if the rest of the world buys his story.”

Lev pulled a cigar from his shirt pocket and ran it under his nose. “Evita just made an interesting observation. She said that Acerbi just revealed his own plan. I think she hit the nail right on the head. This whole thing is coming directly from him. It’s like he has a giant blueprint in his head of how all the pieces will come together, and that’s what makes it so tough to pin him down. It’s probably a fair assumption that even his closest allies don’t have a true picture of what he’s really up too. The only way we’re going to stop him is to find out what his real plan is. His true plan is his Achilles heel and ...”

Lev stopped in mid-sentence to answer his ringing cell phone. His face remained stone-like as he listened to the caller. He mumbled a quick “
thank you”
before he clicked off and turned to face the others.

“That was Eduardo Acerbi. He wanted us to know that Rene knows who and where we are and that he’s laid a trap for us in Mexico. He thinks we should pack up and fly back to Israel as quickly as possible.” Lev paused to light his cigar. “Anyone want to put it to a vote?”

“Wasn’t it Eduardo who sent us here in the first place?” Leo said. “Now he’s telling us we should leave. To be honest, I’m starting to have some doubts about him. I mean, as far as we know, he’s the only one outside our circle who knows where we are.”

“You’re forgetting Acerbi’s connections,” Lev said. “Plus the fact that he intercepted two of our people and had a chance to examine the truck they were in. That vehicle was full of evidence that linked those men to us.”

The others in the room nodded as Ben Zamir stood against a wall, clinching his fists and gritting his teeth. “We don’t need to take a vote. This is non-negotiable. As long as two of my men have their heads impaled on spikes in front of Acerbi’s ranch, my team is staying. He’s a dead man.”

Lev looked over at Colonel Wilson. “Did you make the call?”

“Yes. The President won’t authorize the use of nukes.”

“Why not?”

“Mainly, he’s against using them for any reason, but right now people all over the world think Acerbi is a hero.” Wilson bent his tall frame forward. “I’m afraid I have more bad news. We’ve just been ordered to pull out, and the Pentagon wants you guys out of here tonight.”

“What?” Ben practically screamed. “Never ... we’re going in ... with you or without you!”

Wilson cast a sympathetic look at the seething young warrior. “I’m sorry, Ben. My men were itching to go after this guy. We were ready to give him some serious payback for what he did to your people, but I’m career military, and orders are orders.”

“We can’t do it without your choppers, Colonel,” Lev said. “If you leave, it will make our job even harder, if not impossible, and this is the best chance we’ve had so far to get this guy before he takes out half the world.”

Wilson winked. “I suppose I could leave a few choppers behind for
mechanical
reasons, but that’s about the extent of what I can do at this point unless you guys want to visit me in Leavenworth Prison for the next twenty years.”

“Unbelievable!” Ben smashed his fist against a wall and walked outside.

“We’ll take the choppers, Colonel,” Lev said quietly. “Thank you.”

“I wish I could do more.”

Leo leaned back in his chair and stared out the window just as the red light on the satellite phone began to flash. It was a call from the villa in Israel. “Now what?”

Lev reached for the phone and hit the on button.

“Hello ... Professor?”

“Daniel?”

“I meant to call sooner, but I fell asleep in front of my computer again ... sorry. We’ve just decoded some new phrases in the Bible.”

Lev felt the hair on his arms begin to rise. “And?”

“I’m sending everything now by secure fax.”

“Good. There’s a lot going on here now, and it’s not looking good. How’s Sarah?”

“She’s fine. I think I have some good news for a change.”

“The pathogen?”

“Yes. There may be a reason why she didn’t die from the virus.”

“Are you saying she had some sort of immunity?”

“It’s possible we all do. Just read the fax, and call me back if you have any questions.” Daniel hung up and hit the send button on the fax machine.

Lev grabbed the first page as the others crowded around and began to read over his shoulder. Right away they could tell that it was a page from Genesis written in Hebrew. Across the top, they saw the first of several phrases circled in red. The name,
Eduardo Acerbi
was crossed diagonally by a second phrase—
Father of the Evil One.
Below that, they saw the one word they all hoped they would never see again—
Antichrist
. Everyone stopped reading.
There it was
. Eduardo Acerbi was the father of the Antichrist, and that could only mean one person—Rene Acerbi.

The eyes of everyone present met with the unspoken knowledge that Rene Acerbi was evil incarnate. His was not the mindless evil of a disease, nor was it the evil of a megalomaniacal villain who wanted to emulate countless others who had sought to rule the world throughout history. This was a biblical kind of evil, an evil revealed to mankind in the Book of Revelation, an evil foretold by God Himself. It was evil that was here now. Ariella gasped as she pointed to another phrase.

At the bottom of the page they saw two words—
dark star.
These two words were crossed by another puzzling phrase that stumped them all—
it
w
ill appear in the child’s sixteenth year
.

A second fax began printing out. This time it was a page from Leviticus, the third book of the Pentateuch. In the middle of the page, the word
virus
jumped out at them, and to the left of it, running side by side horizontally down the page, were two phrases—
God’s chosen
and
safe from the plague.

“So that’s what Daniel meant when he said we were all immune to the virus,” Ariella said. “He was talking about us, the Bible Code Team. God’s chosen are safe from the virus.”

No one spoke as Lev looked from his daughter over to Leo. “Cardinal, would you please be so kind as to lead us all in a little prayer?”

Breaking the stillness of the desert night, the large white passenger jet streaked low over Acerbi’s hacienda as it circled above the moonlit sagebrush on its descent to the runway at the base of the hill. After taxiing into position next to the single, darkened hangar, the pilot began shutting down the engines as fifty well-dressed men and women exited the jet and made their way down the aircraft stairs to an empty concrete ramp.

The area seemed deserted. With no vehicles or people in sight, the curious group was left only with the silence of the barren desert to greet them. The eeriness of the scene gave some reason to pause as they stood on the still-warm tarmac and gazed up at the lights coming from Acerbi’s hacienda on the hill.

To the well-heeled arrivals who were used to being catered to, the lack of a welcoming committee was an affront, especially considering the fact that they had all traveled to this desolate piece of Mexican real estate to witness a ceremony that would mark the beginning of a new world order. Their plan had come together perfectly. They had finally done it, and by this time tomorrow, they would be united as the new rulers of a world completely under their control.

Standing on the warm concrete, some shivered with the knowledge that other members of their group hadn’t been so lucky. They had been exposed to the world in a brilliant double-cross that had shifted the blame for the deadly viral outbreak onto them. They had been cast out by their elite peers and left to fend for themselves in a brutal purge orchestrated and justified by Acerbi for the greater good of the organization as a whole. It was a perfect example of the Darwinian theory of the survival of the fittest, a fact not lost on the men and women who now stood exposed and defenseless on an isolated desert runway in the middle of the night.

“This is preposterous!” Alan Thorn said, loosening his tie. In the moonlight, the others could see that the face of the short-tempered oil man was turning red. “He can’t treat us this way. What are we supposed to do ... hike through the cactus up to his house?”

Dana Waters looked toward the darkened hangar. “Calm down, Alan. This obviously isn’t a country club.”

The others cast cautious glances in Thorn’s direction as an instinctual primal fear began to spread through the human herd like chaff on the wind. Then, one of them pointed. There, at the edge of the tarmac, they saw the surreal image of Rene Acerbi, emerging all alone from the darkness. His sudden appearance took them all by surprise, for it was well known that Acerbi never went anywhere without his hand-picked legion of security men. Yet there he was, walking out of a desert wilderness at night without a single guard. Evidently, they thought, he must feel completely secure here in Mexico.
If only they felt the same way.

Watching Acerbi come closer, the group saw that he was smiling. Apprehension turned to relief, and relief turned to joy when he walked right into their midst and began shaking hands all around.

“Good evening, my friends. I trust your flight across the Atlantic was comfortable.”

“It’s almost nine o’clock at night, Rene,” Thorn said. “And they didn’t give us anything to eat on the plane.” He sneered as he looked past Rene at the empty desert. “Where’s your usual entourage, Acerbi?”

Acerbi’s dark eyes narrowed as he maintained a tight smile. “We’re completely safe here. No need for guards. As for the crew’s failure to feed you on your flight over, please accept my apologies. They were just following my instructions. I’m sure you are all starving, but I didn’t want to ruin the surprise dinner I had prepared in honor of your arrival. Come, please follow me.”

With that, Acerbi turned and began walking toward the darkened hangar. As if on cue, a few lights began switching on, infusing the area with soft light. Outside, those walking toward the hangar could see the outlines of men dressed like waiters lighting candles at a dozen tables spaced out over the concrete floor.

“Dinner in a hangar,” Thorn said. “How special. I would have thought we’d be dining in your new hacienda.”

“The house is being prepped for the ceremony tomorrow,” Acerbi said, keeping his eyes focused straight ahead. “We had to improvise. On a more positive note, you’ll be pleased to know that your rooms are ready and that you’ll all be joining me up at the hacienda later for cocktails.”

Dana Waters smoothed her short blonde hair back out of her face as she walked next to Acerbi. “This is most gracious of you Rene. I’m starved.”

“Thank you. You’re looking beautiful this evening, Dana.” Acerbi smiled. “At least I’ve been able to make some people happy.”

“We’re all happy, Rene. Don’t pay any attention to Alan. He’s been like this for weeks ... business problems.”

“Oh, but I’m afraid I do have to pay attention to him, as well as some others.”

Dana’s face became a white mask. “You mean ...”

“Yes, it appears that some of our guests will not be joining us at the ceremony tomorrow. My security people have informed me that a few of our trusted friends have been discussing business with outside interests.”

“Outside interests? What outside interests?”

“Does it matter? They’ve broken a sacred bond.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Let’s just say that they’ve thrown away a very bright future.” Acerbi could see the fear in her eyes as her pace began to slow.

“Come now, Dana. Our core group must be completely trustworthy, especially now that our plan is beginning to come together. We can’t afford to overlook mistakes of this magnitude, because if we falter, everything we’ve worked for all these years will collapse overnight because some idiot had too much to drink and wanted to impress.”

“I know, Rene. It’s just that ...”

“It’s just that what? That these people are friends of ours? That it’s easier to eliminate someone when you don’t have to look at their face and pretend that you’re not making plans to destroy them?”

“Yes ... that’s exactly what I’m saying. Take Alan for instance. He could be a great asset to us someday.”

“No. His days are over. He’s the worst of the lot ... his fate was in his hands, and he let it all slip away.”