Coolly, as if she had all day and there weren’t a dozen specially trained men tearing through the building across the street, Cleena MacKenna popped the car’s passenger door open. She pulled the baton up under Dawson’s throat, into a chokehold, and forced him into the passenger seat. She knelt beside the driver for just a moment, then plucked the car keys from his pocket without hesitation. That she knew which pocket the man had kept the keys in told Dawson that she had been watching them get out of the car.
The whole meeting was a set up.
Dawson thought he’d been outfoxing her and he had only put himself into a box. He tried to flex his hands, tried to move, but it only doubled the pain and nearly made him pass out. He was helpless.
Cleena slid into the driver seat, started the engine, and buckled up. She looked at him and there was no emotion in her eyes.
‘If you try anything, if you lie to me, I’m going to kill you. I already owe you that for hurting my sister.’
Dawson cleared his throat with effort as she pulled out into traffic. ‘But I didn’t-’
She backhanded him in the mouth without looking. His lips split and his mouth filled with the taste of salt.
‘Don’t,’ she snarled. She grabbed his numbed right hand and held it up to him. ‘See this bruising?’
Dawson did, and he remembered his trip to Boston.
‘That tells me you hit someone not long ago. If you try to sell me that the someone you hit wasn’t my sister, you’re going to be wasting breath. And I meant what I said. Killing you isn’t going to get me into any more trouble than I’m already in.’
Believing her, Dawson sat back in his seat and hoped he passed out. She was good. But stealing the car was a mistake. She was going to find that out. Soon.
And then Dawson fully intended to kill her.
22
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.’