Stone Goose Apartments
Zeytinburnu District
Istanbul, Turkey
7 April 2010
Sevki sat at his computers and watched the monitors. One of them was dedicated to the news coverage coming out of Saudi Arabia. American and British news anchors and reporters focused on the massing of ships and military hardware. Reports continued to stream in from Vice-President Webster. The man didn’t miss a photo op.
‘Are you there?’
Cleena’s voice drew Sevki back to the communications links he’d set up.
‘Yes.’ Sevki’s hands flew over the keyboards as his various snooper programs sought to break in through the Saudi Arabian cybernetic defences. ‘Where are you?’
‘Closing in on the coastline.’
Sevki triangulated her transponder signal and tracked it back to the Saudi Arabian coast north of King Abdullah Economic City. ‘I see you.’
‘Let’s hope you’re the only one.’
Tension knotted Sevki’s guts. He felt certain several things – several lives – hung in the balance in Saudi Arabia at that moment even though he didn’t comprehend everything that was going on. One of those lives belonged to Cleena. She’d trusted him to help the ship she’d hired steer clear of Saudi Arabian and American protection.
‘I am.’ Sevki scanned the surrounding terrain. ‘All the action is south of you.’ He stretched his fingers to relax and rejuvenate them. ‘For the moment, you’re safe. But I don’t understand how you hope to get around inside the city.’
‘Once you’re in-country, getting around is easier.’
Sevki stared at the images of the battles filtering across the news presentations. ‘It looks like a war zone over there.’
‘It is a war zone.’
The calm acceptance in her voice surprised him. Then he thought about the fact that her sister had been taken. Sevki knew the people responsible would have hell to pay.
Cleena’s voice drew him back into focus. ‘Do you know where Lourds is?’
Turning his attention back to the computers, Sevki tapped the keyboard. A map of King Abdullah Economic City filled one of the monitors. A blue light pulsed on the screen.
‘He’s still an hour or so out of the city.’ Sevki ran a GPS route and confirmed his estimate. ‘As long as Eckart stays with Lourds, we’ll have him. If they separate, I can’t guarantee anything.’
‘They won’t separate. Eckart’s one of Webster’s top people.’
Webster. Sevki still couldn’t get over the fact that the United States vice-president was behind the current unrest in the Middle East. Growing up in Turkey, where the American military had maintained a presence for so long, he’d become used to American politics and thinking. He’d never agreed with most of it, but he’d always believed the United States government was behind everything that went on.
Not one man.
‘Our best guess is that Eckart is one of Webster’s best men.’
‘I trust us.’
And there’s nothing else we have at this time, is there? Even as he thought that, Sevki felt guilty. He knew he should have faith. That was what this was all about, wasn’t it? He pushed away the immensity of the task, limiting it to the part he had to play with the computers.
‘We also have to hope that the GPS locator Eckart was tagged with wasn’t given to someone else to lay down a false trail.’
‘So far that tracer is heading in the right direction. Let’s play this one out.’
‘All right.’ Sevki judged the distance again. ‘You’ve got maybe fifty minutes before Professor Lourds lands there.’
‘Then we’ll have to make the most of it, won’t we?’
Silently, Sevki watched the pulsing blip slowly cross the computer monitor.
Central Business District
King Abdullah Economic City
Saudi Arabia,
7 April 2010
Webster stared at the screens depicting the street to street violence breaking out throughout the city. More battles erupted along the borders; the bloodshed was mounting.
‘My, my, it does look like your war is getting off to a grand start, Mr Vice-President.’ Vicky joined Webster. Her eyes burned with intensity. Her headset ran along her jaw line and she made notes one-handed on a PDA.
‘Not big enough.’ Webster paced the floor and felt the excitement roaring within him. He had waited for a long time for this. ‘Not yet. But soon. How long will it be before your people are ready to go live with a broadcast?’
‘Eighty or ninety minutes.’
‘You’re certain I can get the broadcast attention I want?’
Vicky smiled at him and patted his cheek. ‘You are the man of the hour, Mr Vice-President. Stuck here in enemy territory, the world hovering on the brink of disaster. Everyone wants to talk to you. The hardest part of this is deciding who will be allowed their fifteen seconds of fame with you.’
‘Only fifteen seconds.’ Webster was firm about that. This was his show, his play, and he was going to run things.
‘Of course, Mr Vice-President. You will be the man with all the answers. We’re lining up the celebrity news and religious leaders now.’
‘Limiting the number of politicians?’
‘No politicians. You’re going to be talking to people the public of any country can recognize. Academy Award-winning actors. Several televangelists.’
‘All people who know how to work the limelight.’
Vicky smiled. ‘Of course. And all people who support the view that the Middle East is a hotbed of danger.’ She looked at him. ‘You’re certain when you deliver your plea for help that we will get out of here? If Prince Khalid hasn’t thought of holding us hostage before then, he will at that time.’
‘I’m counting on our young prince doing exactly that.’ Webster paused to watch a Saudi Arabian tank run over a mass of people. ‘That’s why I asked you to have a live camera crew ready to film our “escape”. And that’s why Eckart will be taking care of us at that time.’
‘Where is Eckart?’
Webster consulted his watch. ‘His plane should be touching down momentarily. He’ll call me as soon as he’s on the ground.’
‘And he’ll have Professor Lourds?’
‘Yes.’ Webster couldn’t wait. Once the Joy Scroll was in his hands, there would be no turning back. Everything would be his to control.
‘You’ve never said what part the professor will play in this?’
Webster smiled. ‘A small one at best. And one that’s very tragic.’
‘Will he be in the escape?’
Webster shook his head. ‘No. I’m afraid Professor Lourds will have outlived any potential interest he might have in things before we get that far.’ In fact, the vice-president was going to make certain of that.
After he took possession of that cursed scroll.
Lourds rode in the cargo area of the big Chinook helicopter and tried to keep his thoughts ordered. He sat under guard, watched over by a half-dozen armed men, including Eckart. All of them looked positively fearsome. Lourds didn’t believe he could have taken the weakest among them in a fair fight. Having six of them watch over him was merely adding insult to injury. Even worse, they’d handcuffed him in the disposable plastic cuffs he’d seen in the movies. At least they’d had the mercy to tie them in front of him, rather than behind his back. He could scratch his nose, which was itching furiously. He swayed and jerked to the Chinook’s gallop as they approached the city.
Anti-aircraft missiles exploded hot and bright against the night sky. Lourds drew his extremities in, as if being sprawled out too far might incite the anti-aircraft gunners to aim better.
‘Isn’t there a chance we could get shot down?’ Lourds asked nervously.
‘Maybe,’ Eckart replied. ‘But this baby is armoured up pretty good. Anything less than a direct hit isn’t even gonna leave a scratch.’
Lourds wished he had the man’s simple faith, but Eckart knew his tools best. Lourds just gritted his teeth and prayed that he survived.
Several minutes later, the Chinook’s approach altered. It heeled over at an angle and started descending. More anti-aircraft bursts filled the air round them. A couple seemed to bounce off the helicopter.
‘They’re getting better, sir,’ one of the other soldiers said.
Eckart grinned. ‘For all the good it will do them. Wait until they’re face to face with American special ops guys. You ask me, I wouldn’t care for the locals’ chances.’
The men laughed, and the harsh barking noise sounded alien to Lourds’ ears. Not for the first time, he wondered if his decision to accede to Webster’s demands had been his wisest course of action.
Don’t worry, Cleena had told him as he made his preparations to meet Webster. I’ll be there. Lourds hadn’t asked how. He hadn’t wanted to know because he’d been afraid all he would do was pick apart any plan she and Joachim presented. Joachim and the other monks were coming with her in a small strike force.
The Chinook landed with a harsh bounce. More anti-aircraft fire lit up the sky overhead. Lourds squirmed in his seat and tried to free the restraining belt.
‘Hurry up,’ Eckart said. ‘We’re sitting ducks up here.’ He reached across and flicked Lourds’ belt free.
‘Thanks,’ Lourds said automatically, forgetting just for an instant that he was a prisoner and not a guest.
‘Don’t mention it,’ Eckart said. Then he grabbed Lourds by the shoulder and propelled him through the cargo doors. ‘Get him into the building.’
One of the soldiers held Lourds by the handcuffs and hauled him across the rooftop. The man moved so quickly Lourds almost fell. He envisioned himself getting dragged bodily across the roof.
‘Incoming!’ someone yelled.
The soldier pulling at Lourds whirled suddenly and clapped a big hand on top of Lourds’ head. He shoved Lourds face first onto the rooftop. Lourds hit the ground hard and his breath exploded from his lungs. As he tried to recover, he spotted the Chinook rising into the air like a fat goose. A Saudi helicopter gunship settled into the airspace. It opened fire with some kind of weapon. In an instant, the Chinook turned into a whirling mass of fireballs and broken debris. Razor-sharp pieces of metal sliced down around Lourds but thankfully none of it touched him. Sour bile erupted against the back of his throat.
‘I’m hit! I’m hit!’ someone yelled.
‘Get up!’
The soldier accompanying Lourds got to his feet and yanked roughly on the plastic cuffs. The hard material sliced into Lourds’ hands. A slight trickle of blood flowed as he forced himself to his feet and followed the soldier.
Eckart and his men turned their weapons on the offending helicopter. Bullets chopped into its body and Plexiglas nose. The pilot tried to get away, but he reacted too late. Out of control, the helicopter veered away and slammed into a nearby building. For a moment it looked like a bug crushed against a windshield. Only bugs didn’t explode into thousands of fiery pieces.
The soldier guided Lourds to an access door and they went in to the building.
Cleena stared through her binoculars as the Chinook exploded. The flare of the explosion made it look like the whole roof had caught fire. Half a dozen men scattered across the building with fire extinguishers and fought the dozens of fires that spread out from the destroyed helicopter.
‘Lourds?’ Joachim stood at Cleena’s side. His voice was quiet and controlled, but there was no mistaking the anxiety in his words.
‘He’s all right.’ Cleena watched Lourds as he was hustled across the rooftop and shoved into the building’s access hatch. Eckart trailed them and she let out a sigh of relief. ‘Sevki, do you mark the location?’
‘Yes. The building that currently houses the vice-president.’
‘Webster’s still there?’ Cleena and Joachim had been cut off from the news services while they’d made their way across the city. Thankfully they’d managed to arrive at their destination with only a few skirmishes that left them bloody but without losing anyone.
‘Yes. He’s overdue for a response, though. Some of the news show anchors are starting to get fidgety.’
‘He’s building the anticipation like a circus ringmaster.’ Joachim’s disapproval was thick and angry.
Cleena silently agreed. ‘But he’s not counting on us being here.’ However, she would have felt better if Lourds had been able to translate the scroll. Without it, they wouldn’t have a chance against their enemy.
Lourds tried to catch his breath as the soldiers forced him along an immaculate passageway. He couldn’t take notice of the details around him. They passed the elevator by, which he couldn’t believe given how far they evidently had to travel to reach ground level, and hurtled down six flights of stairs. Just when he thought he was going to collapse or throw up for certain, the soldier pulled Lourds through a doorway instead of down another flight of stairs. They negotiated a maze of corridors and ended up at a suite of rooms.
Guards in black suits stood watch over the doors. They acknowledged Eckart and his men, then opened the doors and allowed them entrance.
United States Vice-President Elliott Webster stood on the other side of the door. Other people, some of them with faces Lourds thought he recognized from the news, stood inside the room as well.
Webster smiled disingenuously. ‘Welcome, Professor Lourds. It’s a pleasure to see you.’
Cold dread filled Lourds. He wasn’t sure if the feeling was a normal one on meeting Webster or if it was caused by the knowledge of who he was. For a moment, Lourds stood frozen.
The nearest soldier tripped Lourds and sent him sprawling. Hands bound in front of him, he landed in a heap before Webster, unable to keep his face from thudding into the floor. Groaning in pain, Lourds pushed himself to his knees before his enemy.
‘I trust your trip wasn’t too much of a hardship,’ Webster said, but his casual tone indicated that he didn’t care.
‘Not as bad as the last week or so has been,’ Lourds admitted. He was surprised that he spoke so casually.
‘I would guess not. All those places and all those treasures. It must have been exciting.’
‘Under better circumstances,’ Lourds said, ‘and if we’d had more time, I would have considered the time spent pleasant.’
Webster smiled. ‘You haven’t lost your sense of humour.’
Lourds didn’t respond.
‘That’s one of your traits I really admire,’ Webster said. ‘I enjoyed your books immensely. Especially Bedroom Pursuits. Although it was a little tame for my taste.’
‘Glad I was able to provide a little diversion.’
‘You know, since your capture, I’ve even toyed with the idea of having you as my chronicler.’
‘Chronicler?’
‘Of course. Once I begin my ascent into power, I’m going to be famous. People would love to read about me, and you’ve already got quite a legion of literary admirers.’ Webster paused and shrugged. ‘Admittedly, I’m already famous, but what happens here – and in the rest of the world shortly thereafter – will make me even more famous.’ He locked eyes with Lourds. ‘And you’re going to be part of it.’
‘Anything I can do to help.’ Lourds looked at the men round him, wondering why they didn’t react to what Webster was saying.
‘They don’t hear exactly what I’m saying to you,’ Webster said. ‘That’s just one of my abilities. When I speak, I can make the listener hear whatever I want them to.’
‘Must have been a great trick back in junior high school.’
‘You have no idea. Truly.’ Webster held a hand out and gazed at it. ‘When I first decided on this route for my return to this world, the idea gave me pause. The idea of allowing myself to be born into a mortal body, to deal with the frailties and hardships of the flesh – not all of them, mind you – was an anathema to me. But now I’m quite used to it. The serpent’s body was more elegant, more sure, but the pleasures are enhanced dramatically in this form.’
Lourds remained on his knees. He gazed around the room and spotted a woman and three men. One of them sat at a laptop and occasionally hit the keyboard.
‘My brains trust,’ Webster said. ‘Without their networks and resources, I couldn’t have come this far.’
‘It’s good to have friends,’ Lourds said. ‘Especially when you’re planning on taking over the world.’
‘It’s a big job.’
‘One supposes.’
‘Indeed. You wouldn’t have got this far without your friends. Then again, the Joy Scroll might have been left lingering out there as well. So we both succeeded in our pursuits.’
‘Too bad they weren’t mutually exclusive and mutually beneficial.’
‘You’ll have to take that up with God,’ Webster said. ‘I’m not the one who plays by the rules. If it were me, I wouldn’t have created a weapon that my enemy could have used against me.’
‘And maybe he was a little too understanding when it came to letting his greatest enemy live.’
Webster grinned. ‘Oh, he didn’t have a choice about that after he’d created the light and the dark. You simply can’t have one without the other. And he did try to keep you humans from knowing such things as good and evil existed.’
Lourds’ stomach turned and threatened to empty. Even though he knew who he was talking to, part of him wanted to deny that was what was really going on.
‘Exactly.’ Webster walked over to Lourds and invaded his personal space. ‘You can see me, hear me, know who I am, and your first impulse is to deny my identity. You people grasp at a God you can’t touch and struggle to believe in, but you deny me.’ He smiled. ‘Of course, that doesn’t stop you from blaming me and my influence for everything that goes wrong in your lives.’
‘I think most people blame God for that.’
Webster backhanded Lourds without warning, so fast that Lourds didn’t register the blow until his head had popped back and pain filled his right cheek and temple. He worked his jaw, not certain at first if it hadn’t been broken.
None of the people in the room reacted to the blow.
‘Your insolence won’t be tolerated,’ Webster stated in a low, dangerous voice. ‘Neither will your continued existence if you insist on being unpleasant.’
Lourds hoped that Cleena and Joachim had found an entrance to the building. Their plan had been desperate, but there’d been no other way that allowed Lourds to get close to Webster. Things would have been better if he’d already had the scroll translated. Stubbornly, though, the manuscript’s secrets continued to elude him. But he felt certain it was right there. Symbols swam through his head. All he needed was the key to how they fitted together.
‘You people need me,’ Webster said. ‘The God you revere has left a void in your lives. He doesn’t touch you every day. I will.’
‘Control, you mean?’
‘Guide.’
‘Slavery by another name.’
Webster exhaled. ‘Do you know how many people are lost out there? How many that are uncertain how they’re supposed to proceed in their daily lives?’
Lourds didn’t reply.
‘All of them,’ Webster said. He closed a fist in front of Lourds’ face. ‘They want a god that will be in their daily lives. One that will provide meaning and establish goals. One that will validate them in immediate response. That’s why people will turn to me.’
‘I’m not turning to you.’ The words were out of Lourds’ mouth before he realized it. ‘Not all of them will.’
‘Then the ones who don’t will die. I will crush them and leave their rotting corpses in the street.’
‘You may be gifted, but that doesn’t mean everyone will follow you. There are others who know you for who you truly are.’
Webster shook his head. ‘They are the walking dead. They’ve already ceased living and don’t know it yet.’
‘That’s the whole problem of free will,’ Lourds said softly. ‘Such a small, seemingly insignificant thing. Yet so powerful.’
‘A fascinating thing. Mankind’s greatest freedom and its greatest servitude all rolled up into one package. If you ask me, I’m offering a much better deal.’
‘Doesn’t matter. In the end, you’re going to be defeated.’
‘Bah. Only if you believe the rhetoric.’
‘John of Patmos didn’t see it as rhetoric.’
‘John of Patmos was a senile old man. Even the Roman Catholic Church agrees with me there.’
‘He foretold your coming.’
‘Of course he did. I’ve only been here since what? The beginning of the human race?’
‘And you haven’t managed to take over the human race yet.’ Lourds shook his head. ‘That must be very frustrating.’
‘Subjugate. Destroy.’ Webster shrugged. ‘It’s all the same to me. I’ve already made a lasting mark in this world. People have talked about me, feared me, since time began.’ He smiled. ‘I can live with that.’
Lourds felt the increased chill from the evil that clung to the man. It was like nothing Lourds had ever experienced before. It left him terrified and shaking.
Webster checked his watch. ‘I don’t have a lot of time left.’ He waved at the room next door. ‘I’ve got a television crew waiting to hear my impassioned plea for help from the president. I promise, it’s going to be a barnburner. Then, of course, there’s going to be the whole “escape from Saudi Arabia and the evil Prince Khalid” thing I’ve got planned.’
‘A barnburner? I knew there’d be fire involved.’
Webster chuckled. ‘It would be amusing to keep you around, Professor Lourds. But you’re much too dangerous to me. After the Brotherhood of the Scroll didn’t use John of Patmos’s final document, especially after it was broken apart and hidden away-’
‘You knew about that?’
‘Of course I did. Who do you think engineered the whole affair?’
Lourds thought about that and couldn’t believe it. But yet, it made sense.
‘I persecuted those people,’ Webster bragged. ‘And, occasionally, I found a weak one and exploited him. Over the years, fewer and fewer of them knew what the scroll was or how to read it.’ He paused. ‘I thought it had actually been lost for ever during the Fourth Crusade when I managed to split the Church.’
‘You did that?’
Webster performed a small bow. ‘Of course. Playing to my strengths. Put any two people together, anywhere in the world, and I’ll be there. I am the paranoia that chases after free will. I am the lingering doubt and malice over betrayal.’ He paused. ‘Now let’s see the scroll.’
Eckart stepped forward and handed Webster the wooden cylinder. The vice-president uncapped it and gently prised out the contents into his waiting hand. The scroll inside slid free and he caught it deftly. For just a moment, he held it, then he cast it aside with an obscenity and stared at Lourds.
‘I did warn you about playing games. Where is the Joy Scroll, Professor Lourds?’
Holding her silenced pistol before her, Cleena half ran through the underground passage that led to the building where Lourds had been taken. The corridor was longer than she’d expected.
‘You’re sure this is the way?’
‘Yes.’ Sevki didn’t hesitate. ‘Getting the blueprints of those buildings was a major undertaking. I can’t begin to express how much you owe me.’
‘After I help save the world, maybe we can discuss how large that debt is.’
‘Yeah. That.’
Sevki didn’t sound as if he believed everything that was going on. Cleena didn’t blame him. Even after everything she’d seen, she had trouble believing it herself. That’s one of Webster’s strengths, she reminded herself. Joachim and the Brotherhood had warned them.
Abruptly the corridor ended in a foyer containing a number of elevators.
‘Here.’ Joachim went to the right and found the door to a stairs. He started to pull it open.
‘No,’ Sevki interrupted. ‘The door is alarmed.’
Joachim drew his hand back.
‘Can you bypass the alarm from there?’ Cleena stepped closer and looked at the alarm system.
‘No. I tried. If I hack in, I might set it off. Then you guys are screwed.’
Cleena put her pistol away and pulled her toolkit from inside her jacket. She wore body armour, as did the monks. Tension filled her body as she concentrated on the lock.
‘Is there anything I can do?’ Joachim stood nearby.
‘I’ll get it.’ Perspiration dripped through Cleena’s eyebrows. ‘Sevki, do you have access to the building’s security cameras?’
He sounded distant when he replied. ‘I will. Possibly before you’re through that lock. They’ve got someone inside who has enhanced the cyber security already in place on site.’ He paused, then sounded pleased. ‘This guy is good.’
‘Are you through?’ Cleena popped the first round of locks and went after the second.
‘I’ve never failed you yet.’
‘Maybe we could hold the self-congratulations until the post-mortem.’ As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Cleena realized how unfortunate the term was.
‘Let’s refer to that as a debrief, shall we?’
Cleena ignored him as the last of the electronic locks gave way. Holding her breath, she put her hand on the door and pulled. It opened and she led the way inside with her pistol at the ready. She went up the steps rapidly.
Fear rattled through Lourds as he realized the full extent of the danger he was in. He hadn’t known for certain if Webster would know the difference between the scrolls, but evidently something tied them together.
‘I will not be trifled with,’ Webster roared. ‘I will have that girl killed.’ He took his phone from his pocket.
‘All right.’ Lourds took his hat off with his cuffed hands and reached inside it. He removed the protective plastic bag containing the Joy Scroll from behind the liner. It had amazed him that a document supposed to be powerful enough to save the world could fit behind his hatband.
Webster approached and reached for the package. Something, Lourds wasn’t sure what, stayed his hand. He gestured at Eckart. ‘Seize that scroll.’
Eckart plucked the scroll from Lourds’ zip-tied hands. ‘Do you want to check it?’
‘No.’ Webster wiped his hands on his pants. ‘No. That’s the scroll. I’m convinced of that. Just keep it with you.’
Eckart tucked the document inside his jacket.
‘Now, Professor Lourds,’ Webster said, ‘welcome to the end of the world as you know it. Within the next few minutes, the course of human events will drastically change.’ He looked at Eckart. ‘Bring him along.’ Then he turned and headed for the next room.
With Eckart’s rough hand gripping his neck, Lourds followed Webster.
The next room looked like a view of perdition. Blood smeared the walls and bullet holes had chopped into the fine panelling. A half-dozen dead bodies littered the floor.
Webster waved theatrically. ‘Does it appear convincing enough to you?’ He jostled one of the corpses with a foot. ‘There are a lot of bodies out in the streets waiting to be claimed.’
Not believing what he was seeing, Lourds glanced at the rest of the people in the room. No one seemed surprised or appalled. Lourds didn’t know if it was because of Lucifer’s powers or because the others had invested so heavily in the outcome of Webster’s machinations that they didn’t care.
Reaching down, Webster dabbled his fingers in the fresh blood from one of the dead men, then carefully streaked his face with it. He grinned like a child at Halloween. ‘Effective, yes? Everyone will believe this is my blood.’
Lourds didn’t say anything.
‘Come now, Professor. In your profession, with all the lectures and the attention, you must have developed a sense of the theatrical.’
‘Not this,’ Lourds said. ‘I’ll never develop anything for this except revulsion.’
Webster chuckled and applied blood to the back of one of his hands. ‘The devil is in the details, Professor. Haven’t you ever heard that?’
Lourds remained silent.
‘Now, I’ve got a plea to make. One that will bring American military forces into this country in a way that has never before been seen, and one that will not be tolerated by Prince Khalid or the rest of the Middle East.’ Webster nodded at a woman. ‘Let’s do this.’
A camera crew walked in front of Webster and the lights came on.
Silently, Lourds watched and hoped that Cleena and Joachim were somewhere near.
‘I’m in.’
Cleena stood outside the stairwell door and gazed down the corridors. Guards stood at posts. ‘Good. Now find Lourds for me.’ She held her pistol in both hands.
‘Got him. Two rooms over. Hey, the television news stations just broke for a special news bulletin coming live from Vice-President Webster.’
That, Cleena thought, can’t be good.
She went through the door, raising the pistol and shooting the first man in the face as he tried to bring up his rifle. Joachim and the monks followed.
‘My fellow Americans.’ Webster spoke into the microphone. ‘I come to you in a moment of dire straits. As you know, I came to Saudi Arabia on a peacekeeping mission. Unfortunately, things have gone badly awry here and I haven’t been as successful as I’d hoped.’
Lourds gritted his teeth and bit back a scathing retort that he felt certain wouldn’t be well received.
‘Now I find myself in as much danger as I’d hoped to save you from,’ Webster continued. ‘I’ve attempted – several times – to negotiate some kind of ceasefire, but I believe I’ve reached an impasse.’ He waved his hands to include the dead bodies around him. ‘As you can see, several of the support crews here have given their lives trying to help me.’
As Lourds gazed around the room, he was surprised to see that a few of the television crew were openly weeping. He was certain they’d known none of the dead people.
‘At this point,’ Webster said, ‘I feel I have no recourse other than to ask the president to issue orders that-’
The door burst open as Cleena, Joachim, and the monks filled the room. Automatic gunfire filled the room. Lourds threw himself to the floor and noticed that Eckart did the same. A trio of bullets thudded into Webster’s chest. Surprised, he glanced down and saw blood seeping into his shirt.
Then the room became hell on earth as bullets tore through the air and the monks threw flash-bang grenades into the room. Several of the television cameras became instant casualties of live rounds. The camera crews scrambled for safety.
‘Get Lourds!’ Webster yelled. He was lost somewhere in the haze of smoke and bright lights from the flash-bangs. ‘Get Lourds now!’
Eckart grabbed Lourds and yanked him to his feet. As Webster ran for a door on the other side of the room, Eckart dragged Lourds after him.
More shots rang out.
Desperate, not wanting the scroll to be lost, Lourds dropped and tangled Eckart’s legs in his. Eckart stumbled and fell, falling on top of Lourds in a loose-limbed sprawl. Adrenaline raced through Lourds’ body as he kicked Eckart in the face. Eckart fought back, but one of Lourds’ kicks caught him in the temple and knocked him out cold. Overcoming his surprise, Lourds grappled with the unconscious man and found a combat knife secured to his equipment vest. Holding the knife to cut the plastic cuffs was difficult, but Lourds managed.
Webster saw what was happening and rushed back toward Lourds. ‘No!’ He sounded desperate and near-hysterical.
Lourds took out the Joy Scroll and prayed. As he surveyed the symbols, his mind chugged through the final permutations to the solution of the puzzle. The rings hadn’t all revolved in a stack after all. They had fitted together on an axis forming a cross. Now he’d realized that, the translation – though still incredibly difficult – was at least doable. As he read, the characters on the scroll turned ice blue and the parchment felt freezing.
‘I name you Lucifer,’ Lourds said. ‘I name you defiler and destroyer.’
With an inarticulate cry of rage, Webster burst through the rolling scarlet fog from the flash-bangs and rushed at Lourds. Instinctively, Lourds took a step back, but before the vice-president could close on him, a shimmering force field appeared and held him back. Screaming and frothing at the mouth, Webster battered at the invisible wall.
‘Stop!’ he roared. ‘Stop!’
Lourds ignored him and continued. ‘I name you false and usurper. I name you deceiver and lord of lies. I name you tempter and vain pride.’
‘Would you like to know where the lost library of Alexandria is?’ Webster pleaded. His eyes looked hollow and yellow, like those of a rabid animal.
Lourds hesitated.
‘I can get you your heart’s desire,’ Webster promised. ‘All these years you’ve searched for the library. I can fix it so you can find those books. Everything you’ve ever wanted. It’s yours just for the asking.’
For a moment Lourds imagined what it might be like to walk the halls of that great library. He’d had a taste of something similar when he’d found lost Atlantis. He’d even saved a few books from that event. Some of them he hadn’t yet translated.
‘I can give Alexandria to you,’ Webster said in a crazed voice.
It was the most temptation Lourds had ever faced. He felt his resolve weakening, then he pushed his desires away. He didn’t want someone to simply hand him the lost library of Alexandria. After all this time of searching for it, he wanted to find it himself. That was what the dream was all about: the search.
‘I name you,’ Lourds continued, focusing on the task at hand, drawn by the solution he’d worked out, ‘so that others may know your falseness, too. Let each man whom you have befriended recognize you as no friend from this moment on. Let those who think they know your love recognize only the manipulation you offer. In the name of Almighty God, I banish you from this disguise you have woven for yourself.’
When he stopped reading, Lourds didn’t know what to expect. Webster still stood before him, but the man looked hammered, totally defeated. Slackness drained the anger and fear from his face. The smoke from the grenades swirled up around Webster and obscured him. Fearful, heart hammering in his chest, Lourds waited for him to come at him through the smoke. Then the scarlet haze cleared, and when it did – Webster had disappeared with it.
‘Don’t just stand there,’ Cleena said as she joined Lourds. ‘You’re going to get shot.’
Holding onto the scroll, Lourds took cover behind a desk. Most of the gunfire had died away.
‘Where is Webster?’ Cleena reloaded her weapon.
‘I don’t know.’
‘Did he leave?’
‘I read the scroll to him.’
Cleena glanced at him. ‘You translated it?’
‘I did.’
‘And Webster?’
Lourds shook his head. ‘Disappeared.’
Cleena shot a guard who closed on them, then she and Lourds headed back to the door she’d come through.
Slowly at first, afraid the men who hadn’t gone down from Cleena’s sharp-shooting skills would keep on shooting, Lourds crept from the room. Joachim and the monks – all of them amazingly still alive and convinced that it had been an act of God – joined them. They were dazed and unsure of what had happened. No one else had seen Webster disappear.
In minutes Lourds and the others reached the downstairs lobby. Together, they made their way out of the building.
No one followed and the American forces were put on standby.