Oceanview Offices
Eminonu District
Istanbul, Turkey
24 March 2010
Lourds nursed a beer as he sat on the balcony and stared out at the green-blue sea that filled the harbour and tried to order his thoughts. Though his body was at rest, his mind spun like a dervish, bouncing off the various tangents he’d had to consider. He had the scroll deciphered. He even felt certain he had the hiding place for the Joy Scroll worked out. What he found immensely distracting was the purpose of the scroll.
After finding Atlantis, Lourds hadn’t thought anything would ever shock or surprise him again. He was both disturbed and relieved to find that was not the case. However, the potential cost of that joy of discovery – could be devastating.
The fate of the world, he mused. That used to have a much more dramatic sound to it, and it wasn’t all that frightening.
That was no longer true. Lourds was frightened. At least when he didn’t force himself to disbelieve totally the story he had translated.
His beer finished and his intestinal fortitude screwed up as tightly as possible, he picked up the bottle, stood and re-entered the office.
Joachim and Olympia sat in the kitchen area, talking over cups of tea. Although both of them tried to look as though they were at ease, Lourds spotted the tension in both. They looked at him expectantly.
Olympia’s eyes gleamed. ‘You solved it.’ Her voice was quiet. ‘I know that look.’
‘Yes,’ Lourds replied. ‘I broke the language.’
‘You know where the Joy Scroll is?’ Joachim asked.
‘I believe I do.’
Olympia searched Lourds’ face, then shook her head and looked troubled. ‘You didn’t break it just now, Thomas. You’ve had it broken for some time, haven’t you?’
Lourds opened the refrigerator and took out another bottle of beer. He leaned a hip against the counter and cracked the beer open, then took a sip.
‘I finished the translation almost an hour ago,’ he said.
Joachim’s face darkened in anger. ‘Why have you waited till now to tell us?’
‘I wanted some time to think about things. Alone. Without preconceptions.’
‘Qayin and his followers might have-’
‘Do you really think they can find the Joy Scroll?’ Lourds interrupted. ‘Do you think they’re any better informed than you are? And you certainly haven’t found it.’
Joachim restrained himself from making further comment and the effort turned his lips white.
‘We can’t get the scroll now anyway,’ Lourds said. ‘We’re going to have to wait till tonight.’
‘Why?’
‘Where it’s at will be filled with too many people during the day. Going at night will be risky enough.’
‘Where is it?’ Joachim’s voice was so hard that the question might as well have been a demand.
‘We’ll get to that in a moment.’ Lourds was ready to move. He didn’t think Joachim would attack him, but there was a lot on the line. ‘For now, we need to talk about a couple of other things.’
The fate of the world.
‘Do you know what the Joy Scroll is supposed to do?’ Lourds asked Olympia. ‘Besides save the world, I mean?’
Olympia shook her head.
‘For you, it was just that something that old, an historic artefact of incredible importance existed. You loved the idea of it. Something written by someone two thousand years ago. The fact that it was reportedly written by a disciple of Jesus was just a bonus.’
‘Yes.’
Lourds locked eyes on Joachim. ‘But you know what the scroll’s true purpose is, don’t you?’
Joachim said nothing.
‘Someone,’ Olympia said in a tight voice, ‘had better tell me something. My life has been put on the line, and I know that police officers will have plenty of questions as well. They’re going to need answers. I need answers.’
‘Not to mention the international incident that I’ll have to deal with.’ Lourds fixed his gaze on Joachim. ‘And for what? Childish fear of the dark?’
‘Is that what you think this is about, Professor Lourds?’ Joachim spoke softly, but there was an undercurrent of aggression. ‘Childish fear of a nonexistent threat? I assure you, the threat the Joy Scroll speaks of is very real. And it’s here among us.’
‘For God’s sake, man.’ Lourds voiced some of the frustration he now felt. He had been shot at, nearly killed, was in more trouble than he’d ever previously been in, and had spent days working on a scroll that had only proved to be an exercise in futility. ‘At best, that scroll and the Joy Scroll are ineffectual but well-meaning humbug. At worst, both are just superstitious strikes at shadows.’
‘You’re not a believer, are you?’ Joachim challenged.
‘A believer in what?’
‘Of God and his works.’
Lourds thought back to his hunt for Atlantis and his discovery of the Tree of Knowledge and the First Son. He remembered the story of the First Flood and the Words that would remake the world. Did he believe in God? Yes. Whether or not God was still taking an active part in the world was a different matter.
‘The Joy Scroll isn’t about God,’ Lourds said.
‘Everything is about God,’ Joachim corrected.
‘Not this document. This is about Lucifer.’
‘Yes.’ Joachim nodded. ‘It is about Lucifer, or any of the other names he’s known by. But Lucifer, before and after his fall, was created by God.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Olympia asked.
‘This document,’ Lourds said, turning to face her, ‘if it exists and isn’t just a glorified goose chase, is supposed to rid the world of the Devil, by all of his names.’
‘Not get rid of Lucifer,’ Joachim corrected. ‘John of Patmos knew that Lucifer was loose in the world. He knew from Jesus’ own blessed lips how the Devil had heaped temptation upon Jesus while he wandered in the wilderness. Since Lucifer was cast down from the heavens and Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden of Eden by God’s angels, the Devil has been loose in the world. For thousands of years he has gathered his strength in hopes of conquering this world and tilting the odds in his coming war with God. The Joy Scroll was written to break the hold John of Patmos had envisioned Lucifer would one day have on the world. That time is now.’
‘That’s insane,’ Lourds said.
‘Believing in Lucifer?’
‘Yes.’
‘But you said you believe in God.’
‘God’s existence doesn’t depend on Lucifer’s. Just because you have a Great Saviour doesn’t mean that a Great Enemy also exists.’
‘No,’ Joachim agreed. ‘God never planned on one of his angels falling from grace. Nor the other angels that fell after the first, all of them drawn by fascination to God’s greatest creation: man. But it happened. And the Joy Scroll will correct some of the evil loose in the world.’
‘You’re saying if we find this scroll it has the power to create world peace.’ Lourds tried to keep the sarcasm from his voice but he was certain he failed.
‘Again, no. All the Joy Scroll is supposed to do is drive Lucifer from his fortress and the power he has built in this world. These are perilous times for us all. Wars threaten globally. The economy is in disarray. Many people feel we’re only one short step from the end of the world.’
‘And Lucifer is to blame for all of this?’
‘No. That has always been man’s choice. But Lucifer has taken advantage of the confusion and fear that’s going on. That’s always been the Great Deceiver’s greatest strength.’
‘You talk like Lucifer is real, a person. Not a fallen angel.’
‘He is real.’
‘As a divine force, you mean.’
‘No. He has manifested himself in this world as Jesus did. At this point, he is flesh and blood.’
‘Just showed up one day?’
‘He was born to a mortal woman and took his place among men.’
Lourds made himself calm down. His head spun with the implications, but he couldn’t bring himself to believe. It was all too incredible. ‘Do you know who Lucifer is?’
‘In his present mortal guise?’ Joachim shook his head. ‘Doesn’t the scroll you translated mention something about Lucifer revealing himself at the time the Joy Scroll is found?’
‘Yes. But it didn’t say how.’
‘Think about it, Professor Lourds. Since you first arrived, since you began searching for the Joy Scroll – even though you didn’t know that’s what you were doing – you’ve been beset by opposing forces.’
‘Coincidence.’ Even as he said it, Lourds realized how weak the answer sounded.
Joachim smiled. ‘Do you really think so? After all these years, my sister tells me of you. You met her some time ago, but I hadn’t yet told her my secrets. Then when I did, she suggested you could help. You are asked to come here. Suddenly, a search for the Joy Scroll is escalated by everyone, including the United States CIA and a military force we haven’t yet identified and weren’t known to be involved. And you are the only person who has managed to translate a scroll that even its protectors could not translate for the last eight hundred years.’
As incredible as it all sounded, Lourds knew he didn’t have an answer or a rebuttal. The only true break in the link would have been if he had failed to translate the language. But he hadn’t failed. And now he knew what Joachim and his predecessors had been trying to learn for the last eight centuries. Still, even with everything he had found out, Lourds didn’t know what the eventual prize would be. The Joy Scroll had to be more than just some kind of document to ward off the Devil. If nothing else, he knew his own curiosity would be much too strong to resist.
Taking a deep breath, Lourds took the beer bottle from the counter and rubbed the chill, frosted side across his forehead. The coolness felt welcome to the throbbing headache that was just beginning.
‘You do realize what you’re saying, don’t you?’ Lourds asked after a bit. ‘If we get caught by any of the law enforcement agencies looking for us, our only excuse for doing everything we have done is simply: the Devil made us do it.’
‘Maybe we should plan on not getting caught,’ Joachim suggested.
‘Given where we have to go, what we have to do, as well as who’s looking for us, that’s not very bloody likely, now is it?’ Lourds snorted in frustration, took another beer from the refrigerator, and returned to the balcony.
Cleena trapped her pistol between her thigh and the car seat as she sped through traffic. ‘If you do anything stupid,’ she advised the man she’d taken prisoner, ‘I’ll kill you.’
He said nothing but continued trying to work some feeling back into his numbed hands by squeezing them into fists. His gaze was hot and defiant, but fear lurked there as well.
‘You’re going to have to lose the car,’ Sevki advised. ‘They’ll have a GPS locater on it. That’s standard operating procedure.’
Cleena hadn’t thought about that, but she hadn’t planned to stay with the car for long anyway. ‘What is your name?’
‘Kidnapping me is going to get you a life without a parole sentence,’ he told her viciously. ‘I guarantee that.’
She glanced at him. ‘Then shooting you isn’t going to make my situation any worse.’ Lifting her pistol, she shot him through the meaty part of his left thigh. Trapped inside the car, the harsh crack of the pistol rolled like thunder. Dawson howled in pain and surprise and gripped his wounded leg. Blood spread through his fingers but there was no arterial bleeding.
‘I left you the use of your leg,’ Cleena said. ‘The next shot will require reconstructive surgery on your knee. Maybe you’ll be a cripple.’
He cursed her.
‘Any signs of pursuit?’ Cleena asked Sevki.
‘Yes.’
Her stomach clenched and she smelled the hot, fresh iron of the man’s blood.
‘Ten blocks back and closing fast,’ Sevki advised.
Cleena estimated that with traffic conditions she had at best a couple of minutes before her pursuers caught up to her. She swerved into the first alley she came to and felt the seatbelt squeeze into her flesh as she bumped over the curb.
She parked the car in the middle of the alley, got out, then walked to the passenger side of the car and yanked her prisoner out. He feigned helplessness that wasn’t entirely faked.
‘Walk,’ Cleena said, ‘or I’ll make sure you never can again.’
Dawson started to walk favouring his wounded leg. He left a blood trail on the cracked stone.
At the end of the alley, when the pursuers were still two blocks away, Cleena turned right and walked into a parking lot. A young attendant came out of the kiosk to greet them.
‘May I help you?’ he asked.
Cleena pointed to the nearest sedan. ‘I want the keys to that car.’
‘Do you have your ticket?’
She showed him the pistol. His eyes widened and he reached inside the kiosk to retrieve the keys. Cleena reached inside as well and yanked the phone cord from the wall.
‘There will be men after me,’ Cleena said. ‘American. They’ll be hard men and you won’t want to talk to them because they’re not going to be friendly. Understand?’
The young man nodded and looked panicked. ‘Sometimes my English isn’t so good.’
‘They’ll probably beat good English into you if they have the chance.’ Cleena indicated the blood trail her prisoner had left. ‘Maybe they won’t follow me here, but I think they will.’
She opened the sedan’s passenger door and shoved her captive inside. Dawson groaned and slumped into the seat. Cleena walked around the car and slid behind the steering wheel. The engine caught immediately. She backed out of the parking space, then headed back out into the alley and drove away from the vehicle she’d left behind. In her rear-view mirror, she saw a car arrive and stop behind the abandoned vehicle. Before she cleared the alley mouth, a second car had arrived.
‘They’re going to find you,’ Dawson said weakly. He’d gone pale.
Cleena was worried that he would go into shock and pass out. ‘It’ll be too late to help you.’
‘You don’t know who you’re messing with.’
‘The CIA. How’s that for starters?’
The man tried to control the surprise on his face.
Cleena drove smoothly, keeping in the flow of the traffic. ‘Now, give me your name or I’m going to do the knee.’ She kept her voice cold and distant, as though this was an everyday conversation.
Shifting slightly, Dawson leaned against the door.
Cleena pointed the pistol at his knee. ‘Go on. Jump out of the car. And when you do, I’m going to back over you.’
He wilted, obviously resigned to his fate. ‘Trust me. You do not want to hurt me any more.’
‘Actually, I do. But right now that’s negotiable.’
Stubbornly, he failed to respond.
‘Three, two-’
‘Dawson,’ the man said. ‘James Dawson.’
‘And you’re with the CIA?’
‘Yes.’
‘What are you doing in Istanbul?’
‘Investigating a possible terrorist cell.’
That, she knew, was a lie, but she led it ride. ‘Why is Thomas Lourds involved in your investigation?’
‘Our information leads us to believe that Lourds is designing an artificial language for terrorists.’
‘That’s a load of crap,’ Sevki said over the earwig connection. ‘He thinks he’s dealing with idiots. It would actually be a great plan if used, but terrorist cells are set up to function independently. There is no communication between terrorist cells. That’s part of why they’re so dangerous.’
Cleena knew that as well.
‘That isn’t what Lourds is doing,’ she said.
‘I leaned on you and your sister, to get information concerning Lourds’ whereabouts,’ the man said. ‘We had to have it.’
Cleena stopped the car at a red light in a busy intersection. ‘One last question, and you get to walk.’
Dawson started to say something, then thought better of it and didn’t.
‘Who are you working for?’
‘The CIA. You know that.’
‘The scroll Lourds is looking for isn’t something the CIA would be interested in.’
‘The artificial language-’
‘No,’ Cleena said. She levelled the pistol at his knee. ‘Who sent you after Lourds?’ She glanced up at the traffic light. ‘You have until the light changes colour.’
‘Webster,’ Dawson whispered.
‘Webster?’
‘I was here under orders from Vice-President Webster.’
The light changed to green and the car behind Cleena honked impatiently.
‘The American vice-president?’ Sevki sounded in total disbelief.
Cleena knew how he felt. Another honk sounded from the car behind her. She gestured to Dawson.
‘Get out of the car,’ she said. ‘And whatever you do, don’t ever come near my sister or me again.’
‘Don’t worry about that. You won’t see me next time. By the time you realize I’m there, it will already be too late.’ Dawson closed the door and stood at the open window as he pulled his courage together. ‘The only question will be whether I kill your sister before or after I kill you.’
Sevki cursed.
Dawson turned began to walk away.
‘Agent Dawson,’ she said.
He turned to face her, a confident smile twitching his lips. He started to open his mouth to say something, then he saw Cleena point the pistol at him. She squeezed the trigger smoothly and felt the pistol buck in her fist. The bullet caught Dawson below his left eye next to his nostril. Several people near the car recognized the sound of the shot and dived for cover.
‘Oh my God,’ Sevki said. ‘Did you just shoot him?’
‘Yes.’ Cleena dropped her foot on the accelerator and sped through the intersection as Dawson sprawled into the street. ‘I couldn’t let him live. He would’ve done what he said he would do.’
‘Lourds is the target. You should have just stayed low and got out of this. They couldn’t come after you and the professor.’
Cleena made a right turn. Paranoia still thrummed within her as she checked for pursuit. ‘Do you think I can just run?’
‘You can. I can create false identities for you and your sister.’
‘To live where?’
‘Here, for starters.’
Tears burned at the back of Cleena’s eyes as she realized everything that was now at stake. ‘I can’t do that to my sister,’ she whispered. ‘You don’t realize what she’s been through. The home she has now in college? That’s the only home she’s truly known. I can’t take her away from that. Not when she’s so close to starting her life her way.’
‘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.’