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.’