At that moment, the scar-faced man reached the top of the stairs at the other end of the hallway. He locked eyes with Cleena. She cursed and reached for the doorknob only to find it locked.
‘There’s an organization,’ Olympia told Lourds, ‘a society pledged to secrecy, that protects these documents. That book that you stole from those men in the catacombs was part of those documents.’
‘But Qayin and his people aren’t part of this protective organization?’
‘No.’ Olympia shook her head emphatically. ‘Qayin and his followers are something else. They want the Joy Scroll for their own purposes.’
‘What purposes?’
‘They want the power represented by the Joy Scroll.’
‘What power would that be?’
‘We don’t know for sure. John of Patmos was in ill health when he saw the visions. He was already an old man. Seeing those visions, and dictating what he had seen to the acolytes, exhausted him. He never again climbed from his bed.’
‘So this protective group, I assume, came from the acolytes?’
Olympia nodded. ‘They call themselves the Brotherhood of the Last Scroll of John.’
‘I suppose they had to call themselves something, but that’s not going to fit easily on stationery.’
‘This isn’t humorous. There’s a lot riding on it.’
‘The fate of the world,’ Lourds said, and couldn’t help feeling completely ridiculous when he said it.
‘I asked for permission to bring you here,’ Olympia said softly. ‘There was a lot of resistance to my suggestion, but after you found Atlantis, the Elders were more open to the idea.’
‘If there was a translation involved, I should’ve been your first choice. In fact, you should have told me about this years ago.’
‘The choice was not mine to make. If it weren’t for my brother, they wouldn’t have listened to me at all.’
‘Your brother? Joachim?’ Lourds had never met Olympia’s younger brother. She rarely talked of him and he thought some kind of family rift had existed.
‘Yes.’
‘From the way you’ve never talked about him, I didn’t think the two of you were close.’
‘I couldn’t talk about him.’
‘Because what he was doing was a secret.’
‘This isn’t a joke, Thomas.’
Lourds looked back at the image of the snarling dragon on the computer monitor. For the moment, he struggled to set aside his doubts. After all, he hadn’t been certain about Atlantis either.
‘You choose to believe that books from the Library of Alexandria still exist.’ Olympia gazed into his eyes. ‘I’ve never said anything to dissuade you from your hope of finding those books. But that’s all you have: hope. I have these documents. And you have whatever you found out from that book.’
‘All right. But if all this is so secret and the Brotherhood is so tight-lipped, how did Qayin and his people find out about the Joy Scroll?’
‘Just as there are those who worship God, there are also those who worship Satan.’
‘That’s going too far.’
‘Is it? Think about the name of the man who kidnapped you.’
‘Qayin?’
‘Yes. Did you stop to think where that name came from?’
‘I suspected a mother and father.’ Lourds’ sarcasm deserted him when he realized what she was getting at. ‘Qayin is different in other languages.’
Olympia nodded. ‘In English it can be translated into Cain.’
‘As in, “And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him”? That Cain?’
‘Yes.’
‘You believe that the descendants of Cain are pursuing the Joy Scroll?’ Lourds couldn’t hold back his incredulity.
‘God banished Cain after he murdered his brother,’ Olympia said. ‘And he marked him. Perhaps Cain’s descendants feared the legacy of that mark and chose to follow a path other than one of righteousness because they were already doomed.’
‘Different religions disagree about that mark. Judaism speaks of the mark as one of mercy. God let it be known that anyone who harmed Cain would be punished seven times as much as Cain was. That can be viewed as a preventative measure.’
‘Either way, we believe that name was deliberately chosen.’
‘Why?’
‘Because as long as the Brotherhood has existed, there has also been a Qayin.’
‘Surely you don’t believe it’s been the same individual.’ Although Lourds couldn’t bring himself to believe that might be true, the thought still chilled him.
‘It doesn’t matter. What matters is that we get the Joy Scroll translated.’
‘Why now? What has made now any different to, say, a few years ago when you and I first met?’
‘Because the Brotherhood doesn’t trust anyone outside its own ranks,’ Olympia told him. ‘It has taken years to persuade them that you are the right person for this. Even then they didn’t want to listen to me. If you hadn’t been abducted by Qayin, if you hadn’t got hold of that book – and been able to translate it – you would’ve been tested.’
‘And if I’d failed?’
‘You would never have learnt about the Joy Scroll, much less been offered a chance to translate it.’
‘What if, after being abducted and shot at, I decided I wanted no part of translating that scroll?’
Olympia grinned at him. ‘I know you enjoy my companionship, but no matter how good we are together, I don’t flatter myself into thinking that I’m the reason you stayed in Istanbul. If you could have found a way to take that book with you out of the country, I think you would have left. If you had felt you could’ve learned enough from a copy of it, you would have copied it and then taken the first jet out of here.’
Lourds knew she had him.
‘All your protests aside? I knew all I had to do was mention I had a manuscript no one else could read. Your vanity alone would have hooked you.’
Lourds resettled his hat on his head. ‘I refuse to believe I’m that predictable.’
‘When it comes to translation conundrums, everyone can predict how you will act.’
‘Surely I’m not that transparent.’
‘Yes, you are. It’s just one of the reasons I care for you so much, and one of the reasons I know better than to try to hang on to you.’
Lourds fixed his gaze on the image of the dragon. ‘I’ll want to see the original documents.’
‘Once you prove to the Brotherhood that you translated that book, that won’t be a problem.’
‘What about the Joy Scroll?’
Olympia frowned. ‘That’s a bit more problematic, but I promise it will depend on your abilities more than our decision.’
Before Lourds could ask her how that was problematic, the frosted-glass door pane shattered and fell into the room. The redhead from the airport stood on the other side of the door with a pistol her hand.
16
Istanbul University
Beyazit Square
Istanbul, Turkey
19 March 2010
‘Get up.’ The redhead waved her pistol at Lourds.
Calmly, Lourds stood and blocked Olympia from Cleena’s field of fire. The move wasn’t out of bravery as much as it was feeling responsible for endangering Olympia. Obviously she’s still intent on collecting her bounty, Lourds thought sourly.
As clearly and calmly as he could, hoping his voice didn’t crack and she wouldn’t shoot him, he said, ‘Olympia, phone the police. Tell them what’s going on.’
‘Thomas, who is this woman?’ Olympia demanded.
Lourds couldn’t believe it. A woman had shown up in the office with a weapon, and Olympia wanted to know who she was in a tone that suggested jealousy.
‘This is the woman who kidnapped me from the airport. Call the police.’
Cleena glanced down the hallway. ‘We don’t have time for the police. They’re coming.’
‘Who?’ Lourds asked automatically. ‘The police?’
‘Not the police. If I knew who these people were, I’d have given you names. They’re big, scary guys. And they have guns.’