“Really?” Roodt replied with brute sarcasm. “I did not think she’d be much use to anyone anymore. She is lucky to be drawing breath, poor thing. You do know that she is one of our bargaining chips to keep you loyal. If we gave her to you, for whatever time, we risk your flight, you understand.”
“I do. But I think it would be absolutely idiotic to flee from the position of power you and the council have presented me with, not to mention surviving Final Solution 2. If you do not trust me yet, you never will. Have I not served your agenda well thus far, Jaap? Come now,” Purdue’s mouth curled in a smirk.
Roodt looked at his puppet. Dave Purdue was the most powerful double agent in the Black Sun organization, utilizing the power of brain capacity, the knowledge of technology, and just enough subversion to make him mutable. Depending on what he offered Purdue, the genius billionaire would oblige. Especially since he was Renatus of the Order of the Black Sun now, even by the design of Jaap Roodt to overthrow his own brethren and make the democracy an autocracy, Purdue would not hesitate to fulfill Roodt’s wishes. They had a nice, cushy mutual understanding.
“All right, I’ll arrange for her to be brought to you. But you have two weeks to find the library, Purdue, or else I turn her into a permanent fixture of Venice’s channels,” Roodt threatened.
“No need for threats, Mr. Roodt. You’ll get what you fish for, and I’ll get my work done sooner. When can I expect her?” Purdue asked.
“Within the day, Purdue. Just out of curiosity, what is it exactly you need from the Library of Forbidden Books?” he asked, stuffing his mouth with the last chunk of sweet bread. “Provided it contains what you need, how would it benefit your work on the Longinus and the ARK?”
Purdue did not want to disclose too much, but he would need to tell at least half-truths, just in case his tracks were trailed and found to be deceitful. He had to share information with Roodt, but only as much as needed for him to be able to claim no knowledge if the rest of the details came to light. In other words, Purdue needed to be able to play dumb should his agenda be discovered.
“The so-called heretics of the past two or three centuries had written secret books that would be burned, banned, or worse done to the authors, if the contents would ever be discovered by the church,” Purdue related, taking great care to make it all sound less potent than it really was.
“Why? We all know the earth is round — we’ve known now for some time,” Roodt shrugged.
“Oh, yes, but that was not the kind of heresy these books contained. They spoke of old gods, superior beings, who used to rule the Earth — godless cruel creatures of unsurpassed intelligence who would challenge the concept of God as the Vatican portrays him at every end,” Purdue explained. “But that aside, these beings were reputed to have taught humankind things we were not supposed to know.”
“Like what?” Roodt frowned, but his face was riddled with eager intrigue. He shifted in his place to better hear Purdue’s account in the annoying rush of the wind on the open expanse of the piazza.
“Um, I don’t know. Let me see,” Purdue feigned contemplation to win time enough to sift his facts before delivery. “Scientific knowledge and alchemy, I suppose. Things the church deemed sacrilegious as the undermining of God’s work and so on.”
Jaap Roodt nodded in thought and agreement. He did not utter a word. It did make him awfully curious what these books held other than things previously forbidden. Had they not held more ludicrous or arcane things than mere science, would they not have been released to the world yet? After all, what was miracle was now science, what was alchemy was now metallurgy and its mutable properties, and demonic possession was now psychology. What more could this chaotic, super-informed world still conjure that was not already knowledge in some form by some cultures already?
Finally he sighed and patted a steady old hand on Purdue’s knee, “I must get some rest. I suggest you do the same, Purdue. I shall send her to you by tonight, but I expect some clear progress from the Black Sun’s scientists within the next two weeks. Don’t force the council to depose you, eh, Purdue?” He smiled as if in jest, but Purdue knew there was no mistake that Roodt would do just that. And Purdue knew that for him to be deposed would mean certain death, not mere dismissal, and that alone was incentive for him to hasten.
“I will. I’m over the shock now. Time to carry on with my work,” he told Roodt plainly.
“Ja. That is the spirit. Good man,” Jaap Roodt nodded and rose to leave. “I will be at ARK tonight to oversee the progress there and then,” he sighed laboriously, “it is back to Rotterdam until the implementation of Final Solution 2. Make me proud.”
With a youthful cadence in his stride, the old council member walked off toward St Mark’s Campanile. The gigantic square tower of dark tan brick and spires above its bell tower lurched overhead, silently standing guard over the grave secrets of Lady Venice and her people. Purdue looked up at the steeples of the Basilica, the Campanile, and the Doge Palace, calculating with eyes narrowed in concentration. They formed a pattern of markers he mentally mapped. From his pocket he took his little black tablet and began to connect the dots, feeding it into the small hard drive to be deciphered once he had returned to the old barracks the Order of the Black Sun had converted into luxurious chambers for prestige members.
And all he was waiting for was her.
Chapter 21
It was raining profusely in Venice, such that the tourists feared a flood of the city’s canals. The locals knew better, but they kept silent and only smiled when they heard visitors frantically scatter to find out if there was “higher ground” somewhere. Purdue had come to the Hotel Cassatia’s bar for a drink or two before embarking on his imperative architectural treasure hunt to locate the sinister library that had always been nothing more than legend. Usually in the ranks of the Black Sun organization, things of legend and myth were addressed as if they were perfectly mundane objects and places, so it was not a huge surprise for Purdue to learn that the Library of Forbidden Books actually existed.
Not only that, but he also knew how to look for it, courtesy of a smitten university tenure from Tokyo who was only too zealous to assist the wealthy bachelor with abstruse information. She had special clearance where she had interned and now held some position of authority — the Institute of Paranormal Studies in a remote part of the city’s outskirts.
He ordered another single malt, but the waiter insisted on a crisp glass of Soave white wine, as opposed to the home brew of alcohol Purdue tended to keep to out of habit. After some persuasion and Purdue’s anticipation of the meeting to come, he elected to have his whisky and a glass of the famous wine the waiter suggested. It was not as if he intended to stay sober for much longer. In the low light of the merriment he smelled the ocean air and the fresh spray of rain that emanated throughout the vast eatery’s half-ajar windows, dressed only by quaint chiffon drapes that breathed gently.
In his mind, thoughts of Nina blended with Sam’s betrayal, the misadventures in search of Atlantis, the offer Jaap Roodt had made him if he facilitated Final Solution 2 and his Renatus status. How did it all happen? How did he go from a carefree, skirt-hounding, exuberant spender and explorer to the king of some dark Nazi afterbirth? He chugged back the whisky, leering at the impotent glass of wine that would hardly do anything to dampen his misery. Purdue lifted his hand at the waiter, ordering another tumbler and then looked at his watch.
I can still tell the time. I’m not even close to intoxicated enough for this, he pondered, planning to remedy the situation duly. By his fifth whisky and half a serving of Soave, he was ravenous, but food would only exacerbate his physical condition, therefore rendering him unable to decide on cuisine. Mostly seafood made its way around the Venetian pub and Purdue knew that oysters and whisky released hell in his digestive tract. Even in his rapidly approaching drunkenness Dave Purdue was of meager conscientious mind. He opted for garlic bread instead and quickly wolfed it down before a cup of espresso washed down the lot.