The Lucifer Code (40 page)

‘Then what are you going to do?’

‘I’m going to ride this thing out. See where it goes.’ Cleena made a few sharp turns and parked the car at the side of a shop. She left the keys in the ignition and got out.

‘You’ve seen what you’re up against. What you’re talking about is suicide.’

Cleena strode away forcefully, putting as much distance as she could between the car and herself. ‘We’ve come this far.’

‘You don’t even know if there’s anything to this,’ Sevki protested. ‘Long lost secrets don’t just fall out of the closet.’

‘Sometimes they do. You know that. Part of your business is based on that.’

‘Two thousand years is a long time to keep a secret.’

‘People say the Egyptian pyramids were buried longer than that.’

Sevki sighed.

‘You can have out,’ Cleena said. ‘There’s nothing holding you to this. I needed you to help me find whoever hurt my sister. You did.’

‘Neither one of us has any sense. You know that, don’t you?’

Cleena smiled and her steps felt a little lighter. ‘I didn’t know, but I’d hoped.’

‘Let’s just cross our fingers that the professor is as good as everyone thinks he is.’

‘When the Hagia Sofia was built at the direction of Constantine,’ Lourds said as he smoothed out the maps of the temple Joachim had brought him, ‘several mosaics were built into the walls. They remained there for hundreds of years until the Muslims conquered the city and took over the church.’

Joachim and Olympia crowded in for a closer look. The other monks followed suit until there was scarcely standing room round the conference table.

‘Many of those mosaics were stolen during the Fourth Crusade,’ Joachim said. ‘They were kept in private collections or sold to collectors later.’

Lourds placed his half-empty bottle of beer on one corner of the map to hold down the curling paper. Sweat beads slid down the bottle and stained the paper.

‘They were,’ he agreed. ‘More were damaged during the Muslim renovations. But there are four hidden under the church in passageways. According to the scroll I read, the Joy Scroll can be found using the information in those mosaics.’

‘That’s impossible,’ Joachim said.

‘Why?’ Lourds asked.

‘Because we have been over every inch of those passageways. There are no more hidden passageways that we don’t know about.’

‘If that’s true, then I don’t have a clue where the Joy Scroll will be.’ Lourds returned the monk’s gaze full measure. ‘So how do you want to do this? Either I know what I’m talking about, or I don’t. This is what I translated.’

‘If this passageway was there, we’d have found it.’

‘Not if God didn’t want you to.’

‘That’s sacrilege.’

‘Is it? Either you believe everything is coming together for a reason now—or you don’t. That’s what the Joy Scroll is all about, isn’t it? The omens. The rise of Lucifer in this world.’

‘You’re an outsider. This shouldn’t fall to you.’

‘It wasn’t exactly my choice either,’ Lourds agreed. ‘I had a rather leisurely working vacation planned.’ He tapped the map. ‘But I’m telling you now, on that scroll I read details how to find this passageway. If we go and look, and it’s not there, then I don’t know what to tell you.’ He paused. ‘I’m going there. If for nothing more than to satisfy my curiosity. But I’m also going in the hope of ending this. I don’t have a choice at this point. We’ve nothing to lose.’

‘We’ll go,’ Joachim said, but he clearly wasn’t happy about it.

‘We’ll need supplies.’ Lourds rolled the maps and stuffed them back into a protective cylinder.

‘You’re going to have to forgive my brother, Thomas.’

Lourds stood beside his bed and laced up his hiking boots. Outside the bedroom window, the sun was going down. Golden sunlight filtered into the room but it was on the wane.

‘Joachim is used to doing things his way,’ Olympia went on.

‘I got that.’ Lourds stamped in his boots, making sure that the fit was good. ‘But he can be a tad insufferable when he puts his mind to it.’

‘The biggest problem is that you and he,’ Olympia told him with a smile, ‘are so much alike.’

‘Me and your brother?’ Lourds couldn’t believe it. ‘I hardly think so.’

‘Both of you are wilful, proud and full of self-importance. Neither of you plays well with others. In short—insufferable.’

‘Is any of this supposed to make me feel better?’

Olympia grinned at him. ‘You’re both also intelligent and decisive. And stubborn.’

‘As some of my college students would say, I’m not getting the warm fuzzy out of this.’

Olympia crossed the room and folded Lourds’ collar down. ‘What I’m trying to get at is that the two of you would be better off working together than being at loggerheads. You need to listen to each other. You know more than he does about where the scroll could possibly be and that bothers him. But he has access to those wonderful monastic accounts that he won’t let us see. Not only that, no one has seen them.’ She paused. ‘Feel free to stop me when I start making sense.’

‘If he weren’t so insufferable and cocksure we’d probably get along better.’

‘Funny. He said something similar about you.’

Lourds closed his notebook computer and put it away inside his backpack. ‘At least we can agree on that.’

Olympia’s smile faded as seriousness tightened her features. ‘If you’re right, and I think you are, tonight is going to be very dangerous.’

‘I thought things had already been very dangerous.’

‘They have, but you’ve been consumed by the scroll these last few days. You haven’t seen what’s going on out in the world.’

Lourds knew that was true.

‘When John of Patmos wrote the scroll, he made a prediction.’

‘That the scroll would be revealed during perilous times?’ Lourds smiled at that. ‘A statement like that has to accompany every document that prophesises the end of the world. It’s to be expected.’

‘Come with me.’

Curious at Olympia’s serious demeanour, Lourds slung his backpack over a shoulder and trailed after her. In the common room she walked to the television that had been brought in to monitor local news. When she switched it on, the screen filled with a local news station. The dateline showed Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and showed troops mobilizing. Tanks sped through streets and across deserts while fighter jets blasted off airfields and streaked through blue skies as well as nights.

‘What’s going on?’ Lourds asked.

‘The king of Saudi Arabia was assassinated a few days ago.’

Lourds vaguely remembered something about that but it hadn’t caught his full attention.

‘His youngest son, Prince Khalid, has ascended to the throne. No one thought that would happen,’ Olympia said. ‘Prince Khalid has, more or less, taken a genocidal approach to politics within his country.’ She nodded at the television. ‘Apparently that view is currently quite popular.’

Lourds was quite familiar with the young prince. He’d been in the news several times despite his father’s remonstrations.

‘It’s the hand of Lucifer,’ Joachim stated quietly.

‘It’s tension in the Middle East,’ Lourds responded. ‘Those problems have always been there. Sadly, they’ll probably always remain. I wouldn’t read any more into this than you see.’

‘Yet you advised me to trust you. It’s time that you returned that trust.’

Feeling slightly flummoxed, Lourds tugged at his goatee, then caught himself doing that and stopped.

‘The destiny of our world lies in those lands,’ Joachim said. ‘And in this one. It’s always been that way.’

A knock sounded at the front door.

The monks gathered around.

‘It’s me,’ Cleena called from the other side of the door. ‘I’m alone and I’m coming in.’ The door opened and she stepped through.

Olympia frowned with distaste. Lourds knew she had hoped they’d seen the last of Cleena MacKenna when she’d left earlier.

‘Is that blood on your sleeve?’ Joachim pointed toward Cleena’s right sleeve.

Lourds noticed the speckles Joachim pointed at. They were starting to turn to a crusty brown.

‘Nothing to worry about,’ Cleena shot back.

‘What have you done?’ Olympia demanded.

‘Nothing. If anything, I’ve bought us some time. But not much.’ Cleena stood her ground. Her hand wasn’t far from her pistol and Lourds knew she didn’t trust any of them too much. He couldn’t help wondering what had brought her back. ‘This isn’t even my problem. But I came back to help.’

‘Out of the goodness of your heart?’

Cleena shot Olympia a hard look but didn’t respond. ‘You people don’t realize what we’re really up against. Or who.’

‘Lucifer,’ Joachim said without hesitation.

Cleena cursed. ‘Save your devils and demons. For whatever reason, the United States has declared an interest in this scroll.’

‘What do you mean?’ Joachim said.

‘The men back at the university,’ Lourds said. ‘The ones who followed us down into the tunnels.’

‘Yes,’ Cleena said. ‘Elliott Webster sent another team of CIA agents into Istanbul. I’d be willing to wager he’s also the one behind the military team that’s been hot on our heels.’

‘Elliott Webster?’ Olympia said. ‘The vice-president of the United States?’

‘Unless you know another Elliott Webster that could give the CIA orders, yes. That’s the one.’

‘Vice-President Webster is there,’ one of the monks said.

‘Where?’ Lourds asked.

The man nodded toward the television. ‘There. In Saudi Arabia. He went over on a peacekeeping mission. Although everyone knows it’s only to speak for the American and European business interests that have holdings there. At present, he’s more or less a hostage in that country.’

CHAPTER

23

Central Business District

King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia

24 March 2010

‘M
y God,’ Vicky DeAngelo said as she stood at Webster’s side and watched a row of buildings out on Financial Island suddenly blossom into surging infernos. Light erupted out over the dark water in the harbour and reflected on the rolling waves. ‘They’ve gone insane.’

Webster couldn’t help thinking that God had nothing to do with what was taking place in Saudi Arabia at the moment. In fact, Webster was positive of that. He almost laughed aloud at the thought.

‘You know, boss,’ Tristan Hamilton said with a trace of nervousness clogging his baritone, ‘it might be an idea to step away from those windows. Even if no one decides to shoot up here because they know you’re here, a blast might come too close. If those windows explode, flying glass could chop you up into hamburger.’

‘We’re going to be all right,’ Webster said. ‘This won’t touch us.’

‘I don’t know about you,’ Hamilton said, ‘but I’ve got compadres plenty worried about the way the rebels have been lighting up oil fields like Roman candles. You get nervous about people like that, something’s gotta give. The United States can’t run without oil. Our country will grind down to dust.’

‘That’s one of the reasons I’ve been pushing to develop my technology,’ Stephen Napier said.

‘Yeah, but you’ve been salting the mine, buddy,’ Hamilton said. ‘I know a lot of your heavy investors are oil people, and you’re holding a few blue-chip shares in corporations over here as well. If this cash cow dries up, you’re gonna be hurting too.’

Another explosion, this one even larger, seared the night sky. This time the detonation rattled through Webster’s flesh a few seconds later.

Hamilton cursed.

Vicky’s phone rang. She answered it and stepped away, talking hurriedly.

Retreating to the bar, Webster poured himself another drink.

‘If you don’t mind me saying,’ Napier told Webster when he joined him, ‘you seem to be awfully calm about this.’

‘I am,’ Webster said as he turned back toward the window. ‘The American Navy is sitting out there as we speak. All it will take is one word from me and Marines will be in here to get us out.’

‘That’s good to know.’

‘It is, isn’t it?’ Webster drained his glass and made another drink.

‘Why don’t you call them in now?’

‘Because the time isn’t right. You know about timing, Stephen. How close are you on that alternative fuel source?’

Napier hesitated only a moment. ‘I don’t suppose it would be too much telling you that we’re closer than anyone knows.’

‘No, it wouldn’t.’

‘But the timing of the new energy source is going to be tricky.’

‘Because if you wait too long, you’re going to be playing catch-up in a deflated market that’s not going to be able to pay top dollar. And if you break it too fast and people refuse to change over, you’re going to be forced to sell it more cheaply than you otherwise could just so you can stay in business.’

Napier nodded. ‘You understand.’

‘I do. When most of Japan’s heavy industry sites were destroyed in World War Two, they had to start over from scratch. As a result, they used better equipment and created a much better product than American industry. Just like that. Except they were outside the American economy. The US just pushed the import taxes up enough to help American car manufacturers stay in business. Until 1987 when the Japanese rescued the American dollar. After that, new arrangements were made to allow part of Japanese import manufacture to take place here, getting around the import tax.’

‘Then over the next twenty years, Japanese car sales started outstripping domestic products,’ Napier said. ‘And look at the state of the car industry today.’ He sipped his drink. ‘We can sell my product to America.’

‘But that’s not the only market you want.’

‘No.’

‘You want it all. The world market. Or it’s not worth having.’

‘Or at least as much of it as I can get.’

‘I can understand that.’ Webster glanced at the television where Vicky was watching with keen interest. ‘And I don’t blame you.’

‘It’ll be better for all of us if the alternative fuel is launched big,’ Napier said. ‘More profit means we can back up the changeover, create a cushion for the economy. As people get laid off from the petroleum industry, we should be able to absorb them. Most of them. But only if we capture a world share.’