‘Understood,’ Simeon replied. The other team members all responded in kind.
‘You’ll get a hell of a lot of false alarms,’ Nina pointed out.
‘Better that than missing the real thing.’ The metal detectors were adjusted, then everyone set off again, moving at a quicker pace.
Nina soon heard an electronic squeal. Someone called Ellison swept his flashlight around the tunnel before zeroing in on the source of the signal. It turned out to be nothing more than a rusted nail.
‘Warned you,’ she reminded Cross as she took off her headphones. ‘You might wanna send out for snacks.’
It took all his restraint not to react to her barb. ‘Keep searching,’ he said instead, frustration evident.
Time trudged by. Hardly a couple of minutes passed without one of the searchers picking up a trace of metal, but each time it turned out to be junk. Nina walked around the room, under Norvin’s watchful eye, to relieve the stiffness in her legs, while Cross remained fixated on the screens. She glanced into the church to see that day had turned to night outside. Returning to her seat, she saw on the laptop that barely a quarter of the tunnel network had been searched. The Fishers and their companions had been scouring the catacombs for over two hours and still come up with nothing.
‘Do you actually need me here for this?’ she said acerbically as she sat. ‘I’m four months pregnant, remember. I need sleep, I need food — and I need to pee. Seriously, you have no idea how often I need to pee.’
Cross said something under his breath. Nina didn’t catch it, but was fairly sure the second word was ‘woman’, and doubted the one preceding it was complimentary. ‘Jerkoff,’ she muttered. She was about to get up and leave whether he granted permission or not when he sat bolt upright, staring intently at one particular monitor. ‘There! Anna, get closer,’ he barked.
Anna’s screen showed a painted menorah pinned in her flashlight beam — and from her discarded headphones, Nina heard an insistent whine. She donned them again. ‘Strong reading… very strong,’ Anna announced.
‘Dr Wilde, look at this,’ Cross said with urgency, and anticipation. ‘Do you see it?’ He tapped his touch pad, and Anna’s viewpoint expanded to fill the entire video wall.
Her metal detector rose into frame. The whine became a screech each time it passed in front of the menorah. ‘There’s definitely something behind it,’ said Nina.
‘It’s the angel.’ Cross spoke with total conviction. ‘Anna! Show me that marking above it.’
Anna moved closer, the painting swelling to fill the screens. ‘Can you see it?’ she asked.
‘Yes. Can you, Dr Wilde?’
‘Yeah, I can…’ Nina replied quietly, almost unwilling to accept the evidence of her own eyes. Above the menorah were symbols — ones she had seen before.
The Akkadian and Hebrew that had also been present above the menorah in the sunken temple in Iraq.
She faced Cross. ‘Is it the same?’
‘Yes. It is.’
Nina was so astonished by the possibility that there could actually be some truth behind what she had dismissed as the insane theories of a religious crank that she didn’t fully register the orders Cross was giving — until the point of a pickaxe slammed into the wall beside the painted menorah. A sharp crack of stone in her earphones made her flinch. ‘No! What are you doing?’
‘I have to see,’ Cross replied. ‘We’ve got to get it out of there.’
‘But you’re destroying the site!’
‘I don’t care.’ He watched as the attack on the wall continued. ‘The only thing that matters— There!’ he cried. ‘There it is!’
Simeon levered away a crumbling slab to reveal an opening concealed behind the surface. Metal glinted within. ‘Careful, careful!’ said Cross as the niche was fully exposed. ‘Let me see it!’
Anna brought her light nearer. The beam shone over a statue: a humanoid figure that Nina estimated to be a foot tall. Sheets of thin dimpled metal were wrapped around its body. But it was the head that caught her attention — not human, but animal, an ox.
‘The second beast…’ Cross announced in awe. ‘The four beasts, the “living creatures” from God’s temple — they’re the four angels bound at the Euphrates. I knew it — I was right. I found the code hidden in Revelation, and it was true!’
The statue was carefully lifted from its resting place. From Simeon’s muted grunt of effort, it was heavier than it looked. He blew off dust, then turned it in Anna’s light. Nina got a clearer view of the effigy. She was forced to admit that it did indeed resemble the description given in Revelation. But that wasn’t enough to make her imagine — to believe, as Cross did — that they were one and the same. ‘So you’ve got it,’ she said. ‘Now what?’
‘Now we get it back here. Trant,’ he said, ‘Simeon and Anna have found the angel. You’ve got the case — get to their location. Everyone else, return to the entrance. Move out as soon as the angel’s secured.’
Trant began to traverse the labyrinth to meet the Fishers. In the meantime, Nina watched as Cross gave instructions to Simeon so he could view the angel by proxy. The statue was turned to show every aspect to the camera. Three sets of wings, as he had said, the dimpling in the metal giving it the impression of eyes all around…
Something caught her eye. Not on the angel, but in the empty recess behind it. ‘Whoa, whoa!’ she said. ‘There’s something in the niche — written on the wall.’
Cross saw it. ‘Anna! Show me the back of the opening!’
The green haze of the night-vision camera rendered the scene flat and lacking in contrast, but it was still clear enough for Nina to make out the text carved into the stone. ‘It’s ancient Hebrew,’ she told Cross, ‘but I don’t know the language well enough to translate it.’
‘You don’t need to,’ he replied, working the touch screens. The footage on the video wall froze. A square box was superimposed over the image, which he manipulated to close in around the lettering. ‘This is a translation program.’
‘Yeah, I’ve used them before,’ she said, watching as the application identified the Hebrew letters, then ran the words they formed through a database to come up with an English equivalent. It did not take long, though as she’d learned to expect from such software, the end result was awkwardly phrased. Even so, it gave her a faint chill. ‘Okay, that’s a little bit ominous…’
For the first time, Cross’s expression revealed a degree of trepidation. ‘“It is three times spoken”,’ he read. ‘“The dragon number is of man. Have this wisdom to enter the temple of God.” The dragon…’
‘The dragon?’ Nina echoed, remembering her recent research. ‘You mean the Beast — Satan?’ Several sections of Revelation were dedicated to the final battles between the forces of God and His enemies, led by the fallen angel.
Cross nodded, quoting another Bible verse. ‘“The dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan…”’ He rounded on her with an air of triumph. ‘This is more proof that I’m right. Don’t you see? The Elders wrote that inscription when they hid the angel in the catacombs — and John read it in the Library of Pergamon. It’s all in the Book of Revelation!’
She was still far from convinced, but could tell that nothing she said would dissuade him. Instead she mulled over what she had seen as Cross put his team’s cameras back on the monitors. The others gathered at the entrance and removed their breath masks as Trant reached the Fishers. He was carrying a rectangular case, opening it to reveal a lining of impact-cushioning foam rubber. Simeon laid the angel carefully inside and shut the lid.
‘Okay,’ Cross said as Trant picked up the container. ‘Get back to the entrance.’