Laura 02 The God Code (25 page)

“What I heard from my sources is only that the kidnapping looks strange.”

“How so?” Victor asks.

“Well, from the damaged cars found on the scene, apparently it seems that some of the bodyguards assigned to protect the President were involved in the kidnapping, but it is unclear.”

“Okay, who stands to gain the most with the President gone?”

“Russia?” Ernest replies, scratching his head.

“No man, the Vice President. He immediately assumes presidency without an election, remember the sniper’s words,
His leader
.”

“Right, but why would he go through all the trouble to become President?”

“Let’s go and ask him.”

“What, how? We can’t just walk in and say we have an appointment.” Ernest says laughingly.

“Why not, if we have an invitation we can, we will just disguise ourselves a bit.”

“And how exactly will we get an appointment with the new acting President?”

“Simple, we ask a favor. Come on, we have no time to lose.” With that, Victor quickly enters the building and Ernest has to run to keep up with him.

***

Phil stares at the annoying white light on the telephone. He had switched the ringer off, and asked Dora that he was not to be disturbed, so why is she calling him? Not able to ignore it any longer he grabs the receiver and answers, “Yes!”

“My apology for disturbing you Sir, but you have a very urgent phone call.”

“Who is it?”

“It is the Pope Sir.”

“The Pope?”

“Yes Sir.”

“Well, okay, put him through.”

There is a click sound and then a soft voice. “Hello?”

“Hi, this is acting President Phil.”

“Hi Mr. President, this is Pope John Paul II.”

“Your Holiness, this is an unexpected phone call, to what do I have the pleasure of your call?” Phil thinks that the call is not just unexpected, but unplanned as he was hoping the Pope to be dead by now.

“The Vatican is deeply sorry for the kidnapping of the President, we all love him. I have sent two of my best sons to meet with you and pray with you, helping you through this time until the President is found again.”

Phil jumps up from his seat, knocking his water glass over on the table, onto his laptop.

“Shit.”

“I am sorry Mr. President, I do not understand.”

“No no your Holiness, just a report that was placed on my desk. You really do not need to go to all the trouble, I will be fine.”

“It is no trouble, and it is in times like these when we really need faith with us. My sons will be at Nashville International Airport soon, please see them immediately upon their arrival and pray with them.”

“Your Holiness I-” before he can complete his sentence, the Pope interrupts him.

“I thank you for all the efforts you are doing in finding the President again and bringing his kidnappers to justice. You must please excuse me now as I must prepare for the next service. Good bye Mr. President.”

“Thank you your Holiness.” The phone goes dead. Phil quickly rings his secretary.

“Yes Sir?”

“Dora, there are two representatives from the Vatican sent by the Pope on their way to Nashville International Airport. Please arrange to have them picked up and brought to me immediately.”

“Yes, Mr. President.”

Phil sits down in his chair again. As if it is not enough that the Pope is still alive, he has to go and mingle into Phil’s plans. Phil decides that he will quickly see the two people, and then send them to a hotel nearby with the impression that he needs to do work and will call them when they hear anything more about the kidnapping.

***

Somewhere in an old abandoned house three men prepare for an interrogation.

“Okay, time to wake him up.” Werner is fastening his pony tail with his thick muscular hands. Were it not for his quick temper and muscular body, the other men would have given him far more crap about his pony tail. He is known to be ruthless and unsympathetic, but also devious in his ways of getting what he wants. Slowly he takes a bucket of ice water and throws it over the President, who is bound with his hands behind his back on a wooden chair, blindfolded.

The shock of the ice water brings the President to.

“Welcome Mr. President.”

“Who are you, what do you want?”

“We will come to that in a moment, but for now, know that if you work with us, you and your family will not be harmed.” Werner’s thick German accent sounds vaguely familiar to the President, and as Werner slowly takes the bag off Abraham’s head, he smiles as Abraham recognizes him.

“You’re one of the bodyguards who escorted me when I got taken, you are one of them.”

“Yes, and if you and your driver had not ruined our plans, we would have had him drive the car into the back of a truck waiting in the side street and not leave such a mess.”

“I take it there were a lot of strings pulled to get so many people involved and get me captured, how high does this thing go?”

“Not your concern, you need to focus on keeping yourself and your family safe by telling us what we want to know.” Werner brings a chair closer and sits down in front of Abraham before continuing. “So let’s see if we are going to do this the easy or the hard way. Give me the unlock combination for this.” Werner holds a metal suitcase in front of Abraham, who realizes that it is the remote launch device for nuclear missiles, commonly called the football.

“You’re insane!”

“Okay, the hard way it is then.” Werner snaps his fingers and suddenly two men standing behind Werner come forward. One puts a bag over Abraham’s head, while the second man tips the chair backwards. The first man then brings a bottle of water and addresses the second one.

“15 seconds on, then 15 seconds off, if he does not talk we take it to 25 seconds.” The man nods and waits for his companion to pour water over Abraham’s face. Abraham kicks and tries to swallow the water, but there is too much. The 15 seconds feels like an eternity for the discomfort Abraham is in. Suddenly Abraham is tipped forward and the bag is removed.

“Ready to talk?” Werner asks, playing with a clipboard he brought from a table a short distance away as they tortured Abraham.

“Go to hell!” Abraham spits the words out, trying to catch his breath. Immediately the bag is placed over his head again, and the process repeated, this time for 25 seconds. When the bag is taken off his face again, it is clear that the procedure is taking its toll, but Abraham is not about to give in.

“I think he would rather die than give the code, boss.”

“We will see, let’s maybe give him some time to think. Get the camera.”

The man who poured the water nods, and then walks to the desk where Werner got the clipboard from. He picks up a small handheld video camera, and returns to Werner’s side with it.

“We have some demands. We are going to record you on video and send it to the US embassy. If you read this correctly and fully, word for word, we will give you no more torture for today, and we promise not to go into the hospital and kill your wife and daughter. To make sure you get it right, I want you to do a dry run and read everything perfectly before we start filming.

Werner holds the clipboard in front of Abraham, who glances over the contents. Abraham thinks the requests are stupid and futile. He decides to trick Werner and read the demands perfectly until they start filming, then give a message that the American people will never give in to terrorists.

“Okay, I’ll do it,” Abraham replies, then clears his throat and starts reading.

“I, Abraham Jefferson, President of the United States have been captured by unknown forces who have made the following demands.

“One, we ask that all troops be removed from Afghanistan.

“Two, that the Alfa and Delta companies responsible for the mass killings on 20 November, as well as the Bravo and Foxtrot companies that assisted in the disposal of the bodies, be held accountable.

“Three, that 20 fishing trawlers be given and placed at the following coordinates. 70 degrees North and 5 degrees West.” Abraham frowns after reading the coordinates then comments, “This is near Norway and Greenland, it makes no sense.”

“Thank you, that is all we need,” Werner comments as he bends forward and picks up a digital tape recorder from under Abraham’s chair.

Suddenly Abraham realizes he was conned. “You never wanted the launch codes, you wanted something else, what is it?”

“A nuclear submarine.”

Abraham bursts out laughing then replies, “Nothing I say will enable you to get hold of a nuclear submarine. They run on strict orders and need multiple verifications before they will act on a command.”

“That is correct, but not your pet project you have been keeping from most of the cabinet. That submarine is undergoing testing and since it is not on active duty, it only needs a command from you. And we have all the words spoken by you to make up a command message to have the submarine be exactly where we want it to be and meet with a fishing trawler to pick up some of my men. As soon as they are onboard, they will take over the submarine.”

“That submarine can only be contacted from one secure location, and only the President can access that location,” Abraham laughs.

Shock and horror fill the President’s face as Werner replies.

“And who do you think is now acting President since you are missing?”

Suddenly the whole plan dawns on Abraham. “He is behind all of this?”

“He is just a pawn like me in a far bigger network, but yes he planned most of this.”

“What do you plan to do with the submarine, start a war?”

Werner smiles at the President as he replies, “We are already at war with terror, we just aim to finish it.”

“What about me and my family now?”

“We have no need to harm you or your family, and a live President is more valuable than a dead one. We will leave here as soon as we get orders and take you to a secure location where you will be guarded but treated fairly,” Werner lies. The President is the only one who knows the plan and can stop them, he needs to die. Werner stands up and addresses one of the men before leaving the room. “Get him some food and water, but be careful and guard him closely, we cannot afford to have him get away and tell the world about our plans, shoot him if you have to.” Glancing over his shoulder he gives one last comment to Abraham before leaving the room. “Try to escape, and we will immediately kill your wife and daughter.”

***

Laura leans back in the chair, a frown on her face. It has been hours since she started her search. There is something wrong. She is unable to find any documents referencing Peru that mention the decoded scrolls. However, she did manage to find a number of documents that make reference to priests decoding scrolls found in Peru.

Some of these documents mention other documents by name and file position that deals with the decoding of the scrolls. However, when Laura searched for these documents the shelves were empty yet the document number tags were still on the shelves. She can also not find the file names in the computer database. It is as if the documents were removed from the archives, and the references removed from the computer. Laura decides to talk to the Pope. Using the route Laura thinks Phil brought her, she tries to return to the Pope, but gets lost. A nun spots her on her way and offers to take Laura to the Pope’s office, where she finds Bill outside his office.

“Hi Bill, may I see the Pope?”

“Hi Laura, I will check for you, he is very busy.”

Bill opens the door and enters the Pope’s office, closing the door behind him. A few minutes later he returns just as Phil arrives at the Pope’s office.

“Laura. I thought you were still downstairs searching, did you find something?” Phil has a concerned look on his face.

“The Pope will see you quickly Laura, go ahead.” Bill chips in, holding the door open for Laura. Just as Laura enters the office, Phil immediately follows her.

“Laura, welcome, what can I do for you? Oh Phil, I did not expect you as well.” The Pope looks on as Phil closes the door behind him.

“Hello your Holiness. I have a problem with my search.”

“Maybe you need some assistance to locate the documents? I will happily assign a priest to help you,” Phil quickly replies.

“No thank you. The problem I have is that the documents I need are not there. They have been removed from the shelves and deleted from the computer system,” Laura snaps back.

“Are you sure about this Laura?” the Pope asks.

Before Laura can respond, Phil asks, “If the documents are not there, and they are not in the system how do you know they are missing or ever existed in the first place?”

“Because they are referenced in a number of other documents that are there,” Laura angrily answers, getting annoyed with Phil. Phil goes white when he hears that he missed documents, he was sure he removed all the documents and any references to those documents that had any link to the decoded scroll text.

“Maybe they have been moved. Laura, when did you last have something to eat and a good rest?” The Pope stands up as he addresses Laura.

“It has been a while your Holiness.”

“Then I suggest you ask Bill outside to have one of the other guards take you to get something to eat. I will arrange for the nuns to prepare a bed for you. When you are rested you may continue your search, maybe things will be clearer then.”

“Thank you your Holiness.” Laura smiles at the Pope, and then leaves the room. Outside she informs Bill of the Pope’s wishes. Bill radio’s for a guard to take Laura to get some food. As Laura walks away Phil exits the Pope’s office, having finished what he came to see the Pope for. Quickly he walks back to his room, halting outside to check if someone is watching him before entering.

“I am getting tired of waiting, how much longer am I supposed to wait?” Andrea stares furiously at Phil as he enters.

“You will have your chance soon. Laura is asking too many questions. We need to eliminate her before she digs too deep. She will be sleeping soon. Here are directions to her room. Wait until no one is around, and then silently take her out.” Phil draws a crude map on a notepad he took from his jacket pocket.