Tales From the Black Chamber (18 page)

“Heraldic motifs are often stylized, to the point they don't really look like the real animal. Think of the lion rampant. It sometimes looks like a boxing dog-monster,” John objected, though his confidence was ebbing in proportion to the width of the grin on Anne's face, which seemed to grow every time he offered an explanation. Finally, he said, “Okay, Anne, if that's not a pelican, what is it?”

“I thought you'd never ask. That, dear colleague, is a hoopoe,” Anne stated.

“A what?” everyone asked simultaneously.

“A hoopoe. An hoopoe? I'm never quite sure of that rule.”

“Never heard of it,” said Mike.

“Me neither,” chimed in Joe.

“It's an Old World bird,” explained Anne. “You'd never have seen one in this hemisphere outside a zoo.”

“Zoo aviaries drive me nuts,” said Mike, warming to his tangent. “I mean, I go to a zoo to see animals displayed for me, the paying customer. I don't want to be wandering around staring at a bunch of trees hoping to catch a glimpse of the deep-throated Greek swall—”

“Shut up, Mike,” said John, swatting the back of Mike's head. “I've heard of the hoopoe. In
The Conference of the Birds
, a Persian Sufi poem, the hoopoe's sort of the head bird. But I never bothered to find out what one looks like.”

“It looks like this,” said Joe, having pulled the Wikipedia “Hoopoe” page up in another window of Mike's web browser.

“That's the same bird,” Wilhelmina said with finality.

John looked at the picture on the screen. “You're right. That's the same bird.”

“Whoever did this slipped a hoopoe here where you'd expect a pelican?” wondered Mike aloud. “Wouldn't that sort of be blasphemous, if the pelican has all those Christ-like connotations?”

“Oh yes,” said Anne. “And not just because of that. I once read a necromancer's manual in the Bavarian State Library in Munich that said, and I quote, ‘
Debes igitur attendere quod uppupa magne virtutis est nigromanticis et demones invocantibus, quapropter ipsa multo utimur ad nostri tutelam.
'”

Mike said, “
Uppupa
is my new favorite word.”

Joe grimaced at Mike and appealed, “Now
I'm
going to have to say, ‘English?'”

John said, “‘
You should note that the hoopoe is possessed of great virtue for necromancers and those who invoke demons, because of which we use it much for our safekeeping.
' That about right?”

Anne was impressed. “On the nose!”

John said, “Latin rocks.”

Anne said, “It does at that. But I should also add that hoopoe blood is used very frequently in necromantic rituals.”

“Holy shit,” said Mike. “Sorry, Wilhelmina, Anne. But so this is a black-magic bird dripping its hoodoo blood out where you're supposed to see a pelican representing Christ? This definitely must be the guy. There's no way that's a coincidence. And hanging it out here for everyone to see? What an arrogant prick. Sorry, Wilhelmina, Anne.”

“Well, it might not be the same necromancer,” said Joe. “For all we know there are a few.”

“But I bet they'd know each other,” said Wilhelmina. “Who runs this organization?”

Mike clicked a few links on the page and they found themselves looking at the biography of the organization's director, Monsignor Wystan Clairvaux. A professionally photographed black-and-white headshot of a very good-looking, clean-shaven, dark-haired man in a Roman collar looked out at them.

“I saw that guy on Fox News the other day,” Wilhelmina said. “He was great. Very smart, very adept in arguing his points. I disagreed with him, in that I think you Catholics should stay Catholic, but he just about made me forget that. And he's even better-looking on TV. Richard Chamberlain used to be everyone's handsome priest, but this guy could eat his lunch.”

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” swore Mike. “Look at this guy's CV. No wonder he can do what he does. He's totally wired within the hierarchy. North American College in Rome. Taught in Prague and Liège. Stints assisting the Cardinal Archbishops of Los Angeles and Chicago. Speaks six languages. Doesn't say what they are. Had a gig at the Vatican Secretariat of State in the Section for Relations With States. Doing China. Oh crap. What do you bet one of his languages is Tibetan?”

“The breviary came from Prague,” Anne said.

“This can't be a coincidence,” said John. “Where's Claire?”

“In the science lab,” said Wilhelmina. “She's working with Rafe and Lily on some background stuff.”

John picked up the phone on Mike's desk and got Claire to come to the main office. They explained their deductions to her evident satisfaction, and she was quickly on the phone, dialing the Manhattan offices of
Ecclesia Nova
, Monsignor Clairvaux's organization.

“
Allô
? Yes, I am Martine du Bois calling from the offices of France 2 television,” Claire said in a very good, subtle French accent. “I would like please to arrange an interview with the Monsignor Clairvaux on the topic of the future of the Catholic priesthood. No? Really? Is he to be reached there? No? Do you know when he shall return? Well, I am sorry. Our story will run within the week, as there is a current scandal in the Dordogne over the shortage of priests. If you can please to have him call me at the following number …”

Claire hung up and said in pure American, “He's gone. ‘On retreat.' He does this a lot, apparently, and no one really knows for how long or exactly where.”

“Wanna bet he's holed up with the Voynich Manuscript somewhere?” asked Joe glumly.

“All right, this is mostly Steve and Mike's beat,” said John. “I'll go downstairs and get Steve up to speed. John, you start working the property records in and around New York City—check Connecticut and New Jersey, too. Also, maybe check L.A. and Chicago, since he lived there at one point.”

“Got it,” said John.

Wilhelmina walked over to her desk and picked up an overnight-letter envelope. “Claire, this came for you.”

Claire looked at the return address, tore it open, and scanned the first couple of lines. She looked up and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, we have a translation.”

Everyone packed into the conference room, fidgeting nervously and waiting for Claire and Joe. Lily looked a little bleary, and Anne thought Rafe looked hung over. They came in together a few minutes later, Claire still staring at the sheets of blinding white 30-pound bond paper in her hands, and Joe carrying an overhead projector. After Joe set it up, Claire set the papers on the projector and said, “I think this speaks for itself. By way of background, Professor Geoffrey is a wonderful, grandfatherly former professor of mine at Oxford who knows more than anyone else alive about the history of Inner Asia and China. He became a Collaborator at my invitation, as he'd once intimated he'd had an uncanny, terrifying experience in Bhutan. He knows very little about what I do, but he's just the most wonderful gentleman. His books are both scholarly and
funny
. So, anyway, without further ado …” She switched on the overhead projector and put up the following letter, which the members of the Black Chamber read in stunned silence, broken only by the occasional gasp or profanity.

My dearest Claire,

Thank you very much for allowing me to provide you with some slight assistance in your duties, whatever they may be. I am delighted to have this opportunity to put my meager knowledge at your disposal.

The original facsimile you sent showed a word in a handwritten form of Tibetan. It spells
. Which is to say,
bdud
, the written form of
dü
, or
demon
.

Applying them as the numbers 9-21-11-21 in the shorter cipher you provided yields:

14-16-15-
b
-
d
-2-23-23-15-
b
-
d
-
u
-
d
2-
b
-2-
d
-
d
-4-8 2-6-4-l3-7-4-8

Some thought led me to believe that the first word ending in
bdud
might well be the traditional name of one of the Four Māras (
bzhi bdud
), four traditional Tibetan demons syncretized into obstacles to enlightenment by Buddhism. And, in fact, the name ‘
chi
·
bdag
·
gi
·
bdud
, the name of
Chidag Dü
, the Demon of the Lord of Death, fit perfectly. Inserting his name provided me with some further letters to fill in the code, thus:

‘
-
č
-
i
-
b
-
d
-
a
-
g
-
g
-
i
-
b
-
d
-
u
-
d a
-
b
-
a
-
d
-
d
-4-8
a
-6-4-l3-7-4-8

At this point, I was frankly stumped for several days, as the second word does not fit any Tibetan word, demotic or literary, written or spoken, that I could conceive of. My inspiration came by simply Googling the sequence.
Abaddon
is Hebrew for “destruction” and is the name of a demon—“the angel of the bottomless pit”—in the Christian Bible (Rev. 9:11).

‘
-
č
-
i
-
b
-
d
-
a
-
g
-
g
-
i
-
b
-
d
-
u
-
d a
-
b
-
a
-
d
-
d
-
o
-
n a
-6-
o
-13-7-
o
-
n

Examining the beginning of Revelations 9:

1. And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. 2. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. 3. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. 5. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. 6. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. 7. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. 8. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. 9. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. 10. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months. 11. And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.