The Apocalypse Script (28 page)

“
But
isn’t
Lilian
an Ardoon name?”

“
In fact, your
wife’s name is
Lilitu
. She only uses Lilian when
interacting with Ardoon. Fiela will sometimes call herself
Felicity
, if you’re
wondering.”

“
What should I call Lilian,
then?”

“
She
is quite comfortable with
Lilian. The
Stratton
surname is a fabrication. Her short name is really
Lilitu of Sargon
.”

Ben rubbed the back of his neck
and mumbled. “I never thought I’d find myself married to a woman
whose name I didn’t know.”

“
I’m certain you never foresaw any
of what has happened in the past week.”

“
True. But still, I should know
more about my so-called wife.”

“
Wives,” Ridley corrected him. “A
serretu is a wife.”

“
I
really
didn’t think I’d
find myself married to
women
whose names I didn’t know. I’m pretty sure I
merit my own reality show.”

“
You know what matters. You know
that Lilian believes the other Houses wronged her and her father.
She considers herself her father’s rightful heir and considers the
prevailing King of the Fifth Kingdom a puppet of the Seven, which I
happen to agree with. She plans on outlasting her father’s foes and
to fill the void they leave behind.”

Ben said, “She must have been very
young, though, when her father was usurped. Does she even remember
him, really?”

“
She has some
bona-fide memories, yes, and others that are highly idealized
mental reconstructions based on fragments of actual events. Lilian
has always worshipped her father. It’s
understandable.
Anax Sargon
- King Sargon, that is - was a force to be
reckoned with. He was a good-looking man with a remarkable
presence. He was also incredibly smart and talented. He loved music
and played several instruments.”

“
As does Lilian.”

“
Yes, of course. She learned to
play in order to please him and proved to be a prodigy with the
violin. She played for visitors to King Sargon’s court when she was
seven years old. Remembering her intensity at such a tender age
still gives me chills. But the truth is, King Sargon was not a
particularly good father or husband. He wasn’t abusive or anything
of that nature. Merely indifferent. Children were for him a
byproduct of sexual intercourse. His wife, a kind but undemanding
woman of noble lineage, died giving birth to a stillborn son who
would have been his only rightful heir. After that he had a string
of mistresses, mostly the daughters of lesser nobles of various
Houses.”

Ben checked behind him before
saying in a low tone, “Ridley, Fiela told me yesterday that Lilian
has something of a…
reputation.
It is hard for me to fathom that the woman I
know, cool, collected, and refined, could have ever done the kinds
of things she is accused of.”

The scribe let out a troubled
breath. “It is wrong that Lilian’s past should haunt her so. We all
make mistakes when we are young and Lilian had more reasons and
more capacity for mistakes than most. In her teens and early
twenties she was, to be frank,
promiscuous
.
W
ildly
promiscuous
. She orchestrated sexual
orgies in her home on weekly basis. It was a thing of
infamy.”

Ben shivered. He hadn’t expected
confirmation in that level of detail. “How long did this behavior
go on?”

“
Years, I’m afraid. I think she
was, in a way, looking for a man to replace her father, but no man
could live up to that imaginary standard. She isolated herself from
those of us who loved her and embraced those who only sought to use
her. Lilian also experimented with a variety of drugs and
disappeared for months at a time. It was a bleak period. She was
bitter, you understand, not only because of her father’s overthrow
and her status as a bastard child, but also because she was exiled
from court. Lilian has a proud soul.

“
Fortunately, by the time of the
Maqtu rebellion, she had matured and realized that her actions were
counterproductive. Only then did she reach out to me again. The
rebellion gave her new hope. She regrets her past actions but
cannot undo them.”

Ben meditated on that. “She
certainly seems in control of herself, now.”

Ridley nodded. “Oh yes, she is now
a force to be reckoned with. The coming cataclysm has made her
focus laser sharp.”

The two men strolled into the
Great Hall.

Ben said, “About the ‘collapse’ - what’s the
timeline?”

“
Two, maybe three days, before
events reach critical mass. As any glance at a newspaper or
television would convince you, it has already started.”

“
Nothing can be done to stop
it?”

“
No. If it would put your
conscience at ease, you are free to notify the local authorities of
what is coming. Telephone or text the newspapers. Blog or put up a
website. Tweet. Call the President. Whatever you like.”

The linguist said wryly, “I’ve
obviously considered all of the above but you know as well as I
that any of those actions are futile. Even if other Nisirtu didn’t
work against me, which I’m sure they would, what could I hope to
achieve? I can’t expect anyone to believe that a secret society
that traces its roots back to ancient Mesopotamia is scripting the
end of the world. Even if I stole some scripts and posted them on
the Internet, it would be days before anyone in a position of power
would take notice. Even then, they’d assume I was a spy or a
charlatan. Given a few
months
of brutal interviews at the CIA it’s possible
that I might make inroads, but probably not. I’m sure the Nisirtu
would have me killed within hours.

“
Besides, the crops are already
dying. Cage’s disease is already a pandemic. The markets are
already crashing and wars are already erupting. I could never undo
what is already in motion. It’s hopeless.”

Ridley nodded again. “Quite right.
The end is inevitable now.”

Ben shook his head. “I don’t see
how any of us can survive the type of calamity you and Lilian have
described. For one thing, Lilian, Fiela and I might contract Cage’s
disease.”

“
No, nephew. Cage’s is a creation
of the Seven Houses. It was designed to bypass the Nisirtu. You
were immunized by Lilian’s physician the night he tended to the
gash in your cheek.”

The other man, surprised, felt an
odd, guilt-laden wave of relief wash over him. Sure, billions of
others would die, but he would be just fine, thank you very much.
“Why don’t you, or the Maqtu, immunize the entire population,
then?”

“
Ardoon immunizations must be
individually tailored after a protracted study of a person’s DNA. A
single study requires weeks. It would take decades to immunize a
fraction of the population and we have but days. Besides, to do so
would be treason, and the Seven would simply deploy a different
strain.”

“
How did you
get
my
DNA?”

“
We liberated a bit from the
Department of Defense.”

Ben felt like thwacking himself on
the forehead. He should have thought of that. All members of the
U.S. military were required to contribute blood for DNA samples.
The military used the DNA it had on file to identify remains when
an attack left so little of a serviceperson’s body that no other
form of identification was possible.

He said, “Okay, so Cage’s isn’t an
issue. There’s still the external threat. I assume you are
providing us this hotel as a refuge but if there are no stores or
markets, how would we get food, medicine, clothing?”

“
Have you forgotten the cave?
There you have rations sufficient to feed four hundred people for
two years. Also, there are several productive wells on the
property, over fifty fruit trees, a good lake for fishing, ample
wildlife, and a reasonable amount of land to farm.”

“
Two years?”

“
Yes, that’s one of the perks of
having a cave for a basement and unlimited resources. The stored
food won’t provide the most diverse menu but it should suffice.
There is also a wine cellar with several hundred bottles of some
good years, cases of various liquors, tobacco products, medical
supplies, books, movies, clothing, shoes, and so forth. There is
also a stable of some fine horses two miles down the road managed
by one of your fetches. Lilian is quite the equestrian and I’m sure
she’d be happy to teach you to ride if you don’t know how to
already.”

Ben considered this before saying,
“People will kill for food and medicine. Armed hoards could show up
on our doorstep and take everything from us.”

The scribe shook his head. “This
location will be exceptionally difficult to reach once engines stop
working, especially when winter hits. You probably won’t be
bothered for several months. Not by Ardoon.”

“
Yeah, but after that?”

“
After that you’ll probably need
an army.”

Ben tried not to laugh. “Where
will I get an army?”

Ridley shrugged. “Right now all
the Houses of the Nisirtu are jockeying for position. After the
apocalypse all of the Ardoon armies that the Families today control
will be decimated. The Houses must then leverage their limited
resources for maximum gain. Control of the Peth-Allati is
paramount. You might think that a few thousand Peth are
inconsequential on a global scale. However, if you use your insight
and resources to make each of those Peth a local commander or
Governor you have the foundation for an empire. Once that
foundation is in place you can send your spies abroad, and once you
have your spies in place, you can put your scribes to
work.”

“
I have no Peth legions,” replied
the other man. “Or spies. Or scribes.”

Ridley placed his chin in one
hand. “I suspect there will soon by many of each looking for work.
You need only stand your ground while the other Houses tear each
other to pieces. The Families think they will remain unified and
govern the world together after the collapse, but that is a
romantic fiction. They struggle to do that even in the best of
times. After the collapse there will be another civil war. Even now
the Seven Houses are secretly plotting against one
another.”

“
And
us,
” Ben ventured.

The scribe nodded. “Very much
so.”

At mid-day the first of
reception’s visitors arrived. He was Wilfred Barnum, Esquire, and
he had flown in on a customized EC 135 with three fetches and
enough luggage to test the load capacity of the luxuriously
upgraded aircraft. Lilian, seeing the helicopter, had gone to the
helipad to greet him.

“
Ah, Lilitu, it’s good to see ye,”
he said in English with a Scottish brogue, holding open his arms so
that she could embrace him. As tall as the average Nisirtu but a
bit wider at the waist than most, the fifty-seven year old man wore
a gray three-piece suit and a black silk bowtie. Atop his head was
a lush if unkempt mass of red hair that was matched by an equally
lush and unkempt red beard.

“
It’s so good to see you, Willie,”
the woman yelled over the whine of the blades as they slowed to a
stop. “It’s been years!”

“
Ay, fower! A misst ye sae
muckle!”

Lilian released him and said in
Agati, “Four years, really? Time is a wicked creature.”

Barnum replied in the same tongue,
though the accent remained. “Yes, the older you get that faster it
moves. So is life. I was pleased to receive your invitation even if
the announcement of the marriage threw me for a loop!”

She took one of his arms in hers
and walked him toward Steepleguard. “It was my intent to
throw
everyone
for a loop. I had to do it quickly, you
understand.”

“
Most assuredly. You’ve put the
Seven on their heels, lass.”

“
You’ve reviewed the marriage
contract?”

“
Yes, and Ridley has done an
excellent job, as I’d expect. Still, I would like to sit down with
you and your husband and sister to sift through some of the finer
points. I think there are some implications you should be made
aware of.”

Lilian’s pace slowed. “Nothing
that affects the legitimacy of the union, I hope.”

“
Nothing like that, dear. Your
marriage contract is iron clad.”

“
Good.” She patted the man’s
forearm. “Would an hour be adequate for you to recuperate from your
trip?”

“
One hour and some whiskey,
yes.”

“
Then you shall have both.” She
twisted her body and motioned for Mr. Fetch, who was trailing them
by twenty feet, to catch up. She said, “Mr. Fetch, please see Mr.
Barnum to his suite and ensure he is provided a bottle of
Glenfiddich.”