The Third Antichrist (35 page)

The Countess smoothed the immaculate mesh of her tweed skirt across her knee. ‘My tame Antichrist, as you call him, is undoubtedly going to be elected President of Moldova come the spring – with the quality of funds he now has at his disposal, and in the poorest country in Europe, how can he possibly fail? And if he wants to buy himself a television station, I would consider it a very wise investment indeed. Look at our friend Silvio Berlusconi. Do you imagine for one moment that he would still be Prime Minister of Italy if he couldn’t manipulate his own publicity via Mediaset’s 90 per cent stake in all Italian national television broadcasts?’

‘Don’t tell me Berlusconi’s a member of the Corpus Maleficus?’

The Countess laughed. ‘Of course not. The man’s a Freemason. Far too stable. People like him worship profit, not anarchy. We only ever recruit our members from the certifiably insane.’

The cell phone rattled in Abi’s pocket. ‘
Mes excuses
.’ He backed away to a corner of the room to inspect his cell-phone screen.

‘Who is it?’

‘Well, speak of the Devil. It’s our tame Antichrist. He obviously has something of note to communicate to us. Maybe he has run out of money?’

The Countess made a downward movement with her arm. ‘Switch him to the main line and put him on the loudspeaker.’ She cupped one hand behind her ear, the better to hear.

Abi did as he was told. Catalin had not contacted them for nearly two months. It would be amusing to hear what he had to say. ‘Monsieur Catalin.’ He hesitated. ‘Coryphaeus Catalin. I should tell you that the Countess and I are both present.’

‘Good. Because I have news.’

‘Please be discreet.’

‘Of course.’ Catalin gathered himself together. His English was adequate but pedantic – his French poorer. Normally, he would have called on Antanasia to translate for him, as her mastery of English was good. But he could no longer afford to involve her in what he was about to say, thanks to her recent lamentable descent into sentimentality. ‘The goal both of us have been seeking is within sight. It is held within the village of Brara. Opposite an abandoned Saxon house with a wooden entranceway with a dancing bear carved upon it. The house lies opposite the main bridge over the river that runs through the village. There are tents in the garden. The houses nearby are all abandoned.’

‘And Brara is where?’

‘In the Maramure
ş
. You will find it on any map. The spelling is self-evident.’

‘Are we talking about all four of the subjects previously discussed?’

‘No. Merely the main one and her subsidiary. And this one is being dealt with now, even as we speak. I understood from our original conversation that you wished to finesse the other subjects of our joint endeavour yourself? I am sure these subjects will be close by. Maybe it would be a wise idea for you to come out to Brara yourself?’

Abi glanced at his mother. ‘Yes. I think that would be in order. Are you sure the main subject will have been foreclosed?’

‘I have ordered it done. Confirmation should come shortly. I will keep you informed.’

‘Thank you, Coryphaeus. We appreciate your consideration in this matter.’

‘And I will appreciate receiving the second tranche of our agreement. All is well here otherwise. I am looking forward to the opportunity to serve my country and cement its borders.’

‘Cement its borders?’

‘The illegal so-called Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, otherwise known as Transnistria, was stolen from us by the Russians in 1990. They are occupying it illegally. It will be my first task in office to rectify this situation.’

‘To rectify how, exactly?’

‘We shall, of course, invade.’

The Countess spoke for the first time. ‘An excellent plan, Coryphaeus. Excellent. I shall make the move on our game board. Will you be using the nuclear-tipped Kh-55s we discussed some months ago in your initial attack? They are the bullet-shaped counters in red plastic in the third compartment from the right in your game box.’

‘Yes, Countess. I shall be using the three Kh-55s you initially proposed. With Tiraspol hors-de-combat, I fairly believe that the game will be mine. I have made certain promises to the forces currently at my disposal vis-à-vis the 2012 endgame we discussed. I would not like to disappoint them.’

Abi was staring at his mother with a stupefied expression on his face. She raised her cupped hand from her ear and made a cutting motion with it. Abi realized that he was expected to wind up the conversation.

‘I shall be in contact again, Coryphaeus, once I have returned to Romania. Let us hope that we can both put a line under our joint undertaking.’

‘As you say.’ Catalin broke the connection.

Abi turned towards the Countess. ‘Nuclear warheads?’

‘Merely nuclear tipped. Hardly earth-shattering. But enough for a satisfactory knock-on effect. One might call it the “initiation of a destructive spiral”. Similar, in effect, to the undersea earthquake that triggers a tsunami. Disaffected elements from within the Ukraine have been offering such things on the open market for many years. I suggested to our mutual friend that he might like to dip his toe into the irradiated water. The Moldovan Army would not be capable of retaking Transnistria without such a weapon. The original Kh-55 has a 2,500-kilometre range when launched from a Tupolev bomber. The Ukraine was left with 1,612 of the things after the break-up of the Soviet Union, most of which needed to be scrapped. Who was going to miss three?’

‘But 2,500 kilometres? From Moldova, that would be enough to target Moscow.’

‘Exactly what I had in mind, Abiger. On a wind-stricken day out stalking, when aiming for the chest cavity, you target the head. After all, what is the Corpus Maleficus if it is not the absolute defender of chaos on earth?’

Albescu, Moldova
Friday, 5 February 2010

55

Antanasia stepped out from behind the screen that dominated one corner of her brother’s study. Her face was white. She was holding one hand up to her neck.

Lupei tossed the cell phone onto his desk. ‘What are you doing in here?’

Antanasia raised her head. ‘I was trying to steal money. Since you have refused to reinstate my allowance, and since your Crusaders shadow me everywhere I go – ensuring that I cannot leave town or make my living in any normal way – stealing from you is my only option.’

‘So you’re not only a whore, you’re a thief?’

Antanasia flushed crimson.

‘A thief who couldn’t help overhearing what I have just said on the telephone?’

Antanasia made as if she were covering her ears. ‘I heard every word. It was disgusting. They are using you, Dracul. You will bring everyone down with you. There are times when I fear for your sanity.’

Lupei lunged at his sister.

Antanasia dodged him and struck out for the door.

Lupei dropped to one knee and scythed at her legs with his foot.

Antanasia vaulted over his shin. She grasped the edge of the door to steady herself, but the momentary hesitation was fatal.

Lupei grasped her by the back of the collar and cracked her head against the door frame.

Antanasia fell to her knees, coughing.

Lupei hauled her to her feet. Then he ran her towards their bedroom, the way SS concentration camp guards would run their victims towards the execution trench.

‘No. No. You leave me alone.’

‘I will not leave you alone.’ He redoubled his hold on her. ‘Who is it? Who have you been seeing these past three months?’

‘I’ve been seeing nobody. How could I see somebody? Your men follow me everywhere.’

Lupei thrust open his bedroom door with one hand and steered the half-bedazed Antanasia towards the bed.

‘Dracul. No. Don’t do this.’

‘What do think? That I’m going to rape you? You should be so lucky.’

He threw her down on the bed and began to lash one of her arms to the bedhead with his belt.

‘What are you doing? Leave me alone.’

Dracul ripped off Antanasia’s blouse and used it to secure her other arm.

Antanasia threw herself back and forth on the bed, but Lupei kept his knee firmly on the small of her back. ‘Who is he? Tell me now.’

‘There has been no one.’

‘Then why have you not slept in my bed for three months?’

Antanasia forced herself to calm down. She understood her brother’s moods. Knew how to handle him. The cracking of her head on the door frame had bewildered her, however, and she was not thinking as clearly as she might.

Dracul was rarely this violent towards her. In fact he had not beaten her for years. With a sinking heart she knew that the least she could hope to get away with in the present circumstances was a forcible sodomization – it had always been her brother’s preferred sexual diversion. There was clearly something about her enforced submission to an act she cared little for which particularly excited him. He had learned the habit from their father, of course, alongside a number of other, less rarefied, predilections.

‘I no longer sleep with you because I do not recognize you anymore. You are not my brother. You kill without compunction. You drag other people into your offences. I heard you on the telephone. Have you gone crazy? What do you think the Russians will do to us? Do you remember what they did in Georgia? This will be far worse. They will send in the Spetsnaz and they will wipe us out. You are insane.’

Lupei had finished tying her up. She was sprawled on the bed in front of him, her face thrust into the pillow, her back exposed.

He rummaged in the bedside cabinet and brought out a knife.

Antanasia threw her head to one side. ‘Dracul. No.’

Lupei began to cut the remainder of her clothes off, until she lay, stark naked, in front of him. He threw the knife to one side. ‘Are you mine?’

‘Whose else am I?’ Antanasia had begun to cry. She remembered her father, and his abuse of her. Remembered all the men she had been forced to entertain so that Adrian Lupei could afford his
rachiu
. Remembered all the bestial things he and Dracul had done to her over the years, and for which she had so fervently tried to forgive them. ‘What are you going to do to me?’

‘Give me the man’s name. The man you gave yourself to. The man you prefer to me.’

‘There has been no man, Dracul. No man that you don’t know of, or that you didn’t give me to yourself.’

Dracul walked across to the dresser. He opened a drawer, felt around for something, and then walked back towards the bed.

‘What is that?’

‘It is a knout. It’s what the Cossacks use to punish their prisoners. The Tatars invented it. You see these multiple rawhide thongs? Usually they have lead weights or sharpened hooks attached to them. Then they are wetted with milk and dried in the sun to give them a good edge. When Peter the Great knouted his son to death, he had the knout changed every six lashes, because he feared that Alexei’s blood would soften the leather and thereby lessen his pain.’ Lupei made a face. ‘This thing is an apology for a knout, in other words. It’s the sort of thing you chastise children with. I am sorry to insult you with it.’

‘Dracul, I have never willingly slept with any man except you. I love you. But I fear for you. You have lost all discretion. Power has gone to your head. You are beginning to enjoy tormenting people. But it is not too late. There is still time to stop.’

Dracul moved to the side of the bed. He picked up a remnant of his sister’s clothing and tied it across his eyes, so that he was entirely unable to see.

‘Why are you hiding your eyes? Why are you doing this?’

‘Because I do not wish to see your shame.’ Dracul swung the knout down onto Antanasia’s back.

She screamed.

Then he began to strike her in earnest. Because of his blindness, half his blows missed their target, but the other half struck home. He knouted Antanasia across the entirety of her body – her back, her head, her buttocks, her legs. Nothing she said moved him. He was entirely deaf to her screams. It was as if he had detached himself from his own humanity and had become the engine of his sister’s ruination. With each blow of the knout he would leap into the air, as if he were stepping on hot coals, or negotiating an asphalted road, in summer, in bare feet.