Laura 02 The God Code (26 page)

“I have no poison with me. Everyone will know she has been murdered,” Andrea answers.

“It does not matter. Kill the Pope after you kill her. However, first we must get the pictures of the scrolls. Laura should have left them in the office in the archives. I am going there now to get them while you kill Laura and the Pope.”

Phil turns and walks to the door but pauses before opening the door. “Oh, and Andrea, please make sure no one sees you.” Andrea draws a knife as Phil leaves the room and throws it as Phil closes the door. The knife perfectly hits the door where Phil’s head was a moment ago, cutting deep into the wood.

***

“I look like an old fart,” Ernest comments, looking at himself in the mirror.

“Agg get over it,” Victor comments next to him, adjusting his tunic. They are preparing to land at Nashville International Airport. A call from the Pope had procured an Air France private airplane ready for them to use within an hour.

Two Sisters from the Vatican art and concert makeup team have been spending most of the flight disguising Victor and Ernest as old men and helping them with their robes.

“You think this will work?” Ernest asks.

“Why not? The Pope himself phoned. The Vice President will be stupid if he does not see us. He will not want to raise suspicion at this moment.”

“Gentlemen, please take your seats, we will be landing shortly,” says one of the air hostesses of the flight as she comes to stand next to them. After taking their seats, the two men sit in silence as the pilot starts the descent and finishes with an expert landing. The airplane taxies to one of the main terminal buildings, where two black Ford Explorers are already parked, with four men waiting for them.

As soon as the airplane comes to a halt, an air hostess opens the door. Victor and Ernest make their way down the steps towards the waiting men.

“Good day. I am Special Agent Keith Hutchinson from the Secret Service. We have been expecting you.”

“Good day Keith, I am Bishop Cortez Vicente and this is Father Gabriele Lopez,” Victor replies, placing his luggage bag of extra clothes down next to him.

“It is an honor to meet you, please follow me,” Keith replies, indicating to Victor and Ernest to hand their bags to the other guards and follow him. Keith leads them to the last SUV and opens the doors for them.

After both men climb in, he himself climbs in, and waits for his other men to climb into the second SUV, before informing the driver to proceed to the White House. Keith turns in his seat and looks at Victor and then at Ernest before speaking. “May I ask a favor please Father?”

“Yes my son, what is it?” Victor replies.

“Will you please pray with me?”

“What?” Ernest replies.

“I am sorry Father. I did not mean to be rude,” Keith quickly replies.

“No need to apologize my son. Prayer is why we are here. All prayers, not just one that your President is found soon, unharmed.”

“Thank you Father, but I am actually hoping you will pray for my four year old daughter, she is in hospital with pneumonia, has been for a week already.”

Victor and Ernest look at each other, not knowing what to say.

“I hope it is not too much to ask, please Father.”

“Of course I will pray with you, what is your daughter’s name?” Victor replies.

“Thank you Father, her name is Emily.”

“Then let us pray for Emily. Close your eyes.” Victor takes Keith’s right hand as he speaks. Victor has no hatred towards the man or his daughter and truly feels sorry for her, thus he does not mind praying for her.

“Oh heavenly father, please hear us now. Please place your hands on dear Emily, and heal her from this sickness. Please drive the evil from her body, so that she may return home to her family who deserve her love so much.

“We thank you Lord for hearing us today, Amen.”

Victor opens his eyes to see Keith wiping tears from his eyes.

“Thank you so much, thank you,” Keith replies, shaking Victor’s hand.

The rest of the trip Victor and Ernest play dumb, asking as much as they dare about the men’s work and the security in the White House, as well as trying to obtain any information about the President’s kidnapping. The men are polite, and answer all the questions they see no risk in answering.

“Here we are,” Keith suddenly comments as the White House gates come into view. A security guard comes up to the driver’s window and the driver rolls down his window to hand over their IDs to the guard. Another security guard is looking under the SUV with a mirror, while a third one is walking around the SUV with a dog, sniffing for bombs.

“All clear, you may enter,” the first guard says, handing back the IDs, then signals to the guard on the other side of the heavy gates to open them. Slowly the electronically controlled gates open and the driver enters the White House grounds, driving right up to the front door.

“Please follow me. I will get you checked in. Do not worry about your luggage; it will be taken to a nearby hotel for you. The Acting President wants to see you immediately before you are taken to your hotel,” Keith says as he exits the SUV. Victor and Ernest follow him to a security desk away from the main one, near a small elevator. After signing them in, he hands them over to another guard.

“This is Donald, he will take care of you while you wait. A guard will come down and take you to see the Acting President. Thank you again for the prayer, I must go now.” Keith shakes their hands and leaves.

“Tea, coffee or something else to drink while you wait Fathers?” Donald asks.

“Water please my son,” Ernest replies.

“Yes Father,” Donald answers, then picks up a phone at the security desk and asks for two bottled waters to be brought to the desk. Five minutes later a man in uniform arrives with two bottles of water, and hands them to Ernest and Victor, who eagerly drink some.

Fifteen minutes later, the door to the elevator opens and a man dressed in a black suit steps out. He greets Victor and Ernest and introduces himself as Gerhard, head of the President’s security detail for the day. Gerhard indicates for them to enter the elevator, then follows them inside. Once inside, he inserts a special key into a keyhole, and the elevator goes down. There are no buttons, and both Victor and Ernest know it is a lift reserved for Presidential services only, taking one almost directly to his office. The two men are then led down a few hallways until they come to a large door.

“Please wait here,” Gerhard says before he enters a door and closes it behind him. Victor looks around and is about to comment on the paintings on the walls, when the door opens again and Gerhard signals for them to enter. The room is the President’s secretary’s office, with a door to the side that leads to the President’s office.

“Fathers welcome, the Acting President is expecting you, please follow me.” Dora walks over to the door and opens it, then announces their arrival to the Acting President. Standing aside holding the door, she signals to Ernest and Victor to enter. Gerhard waits for them to enter before following them into the President’s office, taking up a position behind them.

“Fathers, welcome, what an unexpected visit.” Phil comes out from behind his desk to greet them.

“Mr. President, I am Bishop Cortez Vicente and this is Father Gabriele Lopez. May we say how deeply sorry we are to hear about the kidnapping of the President, and convey our hopes that he will be found soon, unharmed.”

“Thank you Father.”

“We do not want to take up too much of your time, will you join us in a quick prayer?”

“Well, yes, why not,” Phil replies hesitantly.

“Are you praying with us?” Victor asks as he turns to Gerhard.

“Yes.”

“Thank you so much my son, the more of us pray, the better,” Victor says, placing his palms together. “Let us close our eyes.” Victor closes his eyes as he speaks.

“I will pray with you, but I will not close my eyes,” Gerhard replies matter of fact.

“That is perfectly fine my son, I understand,” Victor answers, while keeping his eyes closed. He then takes a deep breath before continuing. “Now say after me. Oh heavenly Father.”

Gerhard looks at the old man in front of him with his eyes closed, palms together, praying, and then looks at the Acting President who also has his eyes closed. With a sigh, he starts to pray with Victor.

“Oh heavenly F-” Victor’s first punch catches him perfectly in the throat; his second punch takes Gerhard in the sternum, and the third one on the right temple. Gerhard goes down without knowing what hit him. Quickly Victor jumps forward and tackles the Acting President before he can press the emergency button, while Ernest disarms Gerhard and starts to tie him up. Ernest places one of Gerhard’s own socks in his mouth just in case he wakes up.

“What is the meaning of this, who are you?” William hisses as Victor presses him to the ground, using his forearm to half choke William.

“Who we are does not matter, what you have done does.” Victor replies.

“I have always dreamed of coming to the White House and seeing the President,” Ernest comments behind Victor, having secured Gerhard.

“And how is that going for you?” Victor replies jokingly.

“Well, I am in the White House, but the President is not here, only an imposter who sold out his country.” Ernest looks angrily down at William as he replies. Ernest is a man of honor, and Phil stands for everything he hates.

“I have not sold out my country, Abraham has, and the Presidents before him who allowed the country to grow weak and be bullied by terrorists. I will make this country strong again,” William replies, spitting out the words.

“By becoming a terrorist yourself, is that how? Killing innocent people in the process, people who trust you?” Ernest pulls William up as he speaks, and drags him to the couch near the wall, throwing him onto it.

“Collateral damage, it is unavoidable,” William sneers back.

“Man, but you have gone cookoo,” Victor answers, as he takes a fountain pen from the President’s desk, then walks over to where William is.

“So what’s the plan?” Ernest is getting impatient.

“You must be morons if you think that I will just spill everything, you can kill me. I will not talk.” William sits upright, showing no fear.

“See, that is the problem with you lot, you are so dedicated, and that is cool, but you put your energy into the wrong cause.” Victor stands in front of William as he talks, then grabs him by the hair and pushes his head down on the couch, pinning him down with his right knee before continuing. “But, we are alike. We despise those who betray us. So, I am going to give you a little gift.”

“What are you doing?” William looks at the fountain pen Victor has in his hand, which he is bringing to William’s forehead.

“This is a fountain pen. I am going to use it to make a tattoo on your forehead that reads TRAITOR. You will really like it.” Victor pushes the tip of the pen into William’s skin, and then wiggles it around before continuing. “Got to get the ink in deep so that you cannot get it undone easily, hold still, or you will ruin my masterwork.”

The Vice President is squirming under Victor’s hold.

“Stop!”

Victor pulls the pen back when William yells. Looking down at the man he waits for him to speak again, the pen only inches from William’s forehead.

“It will not matter what I tell you in any case. The plans are already in motion.”

“You mean the twenty suicide bombers and the training camp that are all destroyed?” Ernest answers back.

“No, I think he means the failed attempt on the Pope’s life and the assassins he sent who are dead as well,” Victor chips in.

“No, the submarine,” William answers, his voice sounding tired.

“What submarine?” Victor eases up some of the pressure on William’s chest as he speaks.

“The President had a special submarine built in secret. The submarine has experimental weapons technology onboard. With it we are going to put all the other countries back into the Stone Age. Only the President can communicate with the submarine by using voice recognition and secret access codes from a top secret encrypted radio, specially built to communicate with the submarine. The system is designed so that no other party can ever track the submarine or send commands to it. I managed to get the codes, but the only way to get control over the submarine was to have the President give the commands I needed to the submarine.”

“And America will be the only country with modern technology, right. So where does killing the Pope come in?” Ernest comes closer to the President, but still keeps an eye on Gerhard.

“With a sudden crash of modern technology, people will start to riot and panic, naturally many will turn to a leader for guidance, and for many that will be the church. By eliminating the Pope, we can create chaos, and by blaming the death of the Pope and our attacks on selected countries, on terrorist groups, no one will blink an eye if we then drop nuclear bombs on those countries, wiping out terrorists, and those who harbor them, for good. That is why I need to be President, so I can give the order to drop nuclear bombs.”

“So you use the submarine to frame countries that you think harbor terrorists, by attacking other countries and causing chaos, just so that no one blinks an eye when you nuke the countries that you do not like?” Victor has hatred in his eyes as he speaks.

“Basically, yes,” William answers, looking from Ernest to Victor.

“Kind of a novel idea, except for two things. One, you are killing many innocent people in those countries to kill but a few terrorists, while at the same time missing many terrorists in other countries you cannot bomb. And second, you are not changing human instinct and behavior with bombs. There will always be terrorists if your solution is killing. People will always disagree with each other, and if the solution is not politics, each side will always revert to better ways to kill the other side. You may get the upper hand now, but in five or ten years’ time, another country or group will invent better technology, and overpower you. Only by stopping the killing and reverting to politics will you stop terrorism.” Victor is standing, sadness in his voice as he speaks.