Draco interrupts his calculations, leans in close, his warm, sour breath in Gideon’s face. ‘Listen to me. I am going to teach you how to respond to the Master during the initiation ritual. Don’t shame yourself or me by getting any of it wrong. And remember, many agonies will visit your mind and body. If you are truly devoted to the Sacreds, then you will survive.’ He smiles. ‘If not, you will perish.’
112
Lillian Cooper’s pager bleeps on her hip. The haematology consultant unhooks it and curses the message from her secretary: ‘DI BAKER HERE TO SEE YOU.’
A long day just got longer. The bath and the glass of chilled white will have to wait. She starts the walk along a zig-zag of hospital corridors back to her office and thinks. Detectives don’t turn up announced. Not unless there’s trouble. And trouble is what might well be there. She’s already behaved unethically, breached internal guidelines and contravened countless clauses of the Data Protection Act by giving the DI confidential information.
‘Megan Baker. Apologies for coming over unannounced,’ The police woman rises brightly from a chair outside the small office and proffers a hand.
‘Not a problem,’ says Cooper. ‘Please come in. What can I do for you?’ She can feel her heart drumming.
Megan takes one side of a desk and opens a cappuccino leather Padovano handbag that Adam bought her in Italy three years back. ‘It’s about when we last spoke. About Gideon Chase.’
She produces a small sheet of paper and passes it over.
Cooper picks it up and looks at it. ‘I don’t understand. Who are these people?’
Megan produces her friendliest smile. ‘I need your help. Just once more. I want you to access the health records of all the people on that list and tell me what you find. Their hospital and GP surgery records.’
The professor is aghast. She leans away from the paper as though it’s white hot. ‘Inspector, I shouldn’t have helped you the first time. I’m certainly not going to repeat the mistake another half a dozen times.’
‘It’s not half a dozen.’ Megan is steely-eyed. ‘It’s four people. And it would be a bigger mistake not to help.’ She sits forward on the edge of her chair. ‘The first name on that list, Nathaniel Chase, is the father of the man you looked at for me. We have reason to believe Sean Grabb, David Smithsen and Matt Utley may be connected to Nathaniel’s death and to another matter we are investigating. Grabb is currently missing from work and a warrant for his arrest has been issued. All I need to know about him, and about the others, is whether they have, or have had in the past, a major medical problem. That’s all.’
‘Inspector, I really—’
Megan can see she’s softening. ‘Just tell me if they have ever been signed off work by their doctors. And if so what for.’ She opens her hands in a gesture of simplicity and finality. ‘It’s not much to ask.’
Cooper looks worried. She shakes her head. ‘It would be traceable. Any search I do like that is electronically logged. It comes back to the computer. Even if I use a different workstation, I still have to log in. I could lose my job just for getting you the information.’
Megan scratches her head. She’d been expecting this. It wasn’t how she wanted the conversation to go, but it was what she anticipated. ‘Doctor, you know from our mutual friend what kind of person I am. Any assistance you give me is solely for the public good. I assure you of that.’
‘That’s not the point. It’s just not right.’
Megan is going to have to play dirty. ‘Lillian, you are married and you are having a long-term affair with a married police officer. How right is that?’
The woman gasps. ‘I can’t believe that you bring my private life up like this.’
‘Believe it.’ Her face hardens. A look toughened in the tempering heat of countless interview rooms. ‘Please don’t preach to me about right and wrong and don’t judge me. I’m trying to solve a serious crime and save people’s lives. I am prepared to do almost anything I have to in order to do that, and right now I need your cooperation.’ She grabs the list of names from the desk and holds it up in front of the medic. ‘Now Professor, will you please help me? Or do I have to call my friend at the Gazette and Herald?’
113
The main passageway of the Sanctuary is lit only by the smoky, orange flames of an endless line of wall-mounted torches. Long black scorch marks taper up the stone walls like vaporised ghosts.
The passage curves relentlessly downwards and inwards. It’s just like his father described. St Paul’s beneath the earth. A vast cathedral-like area with magnificent chambers and crypts. Gideon is trying to blot out what’s happening to him — what is about to happen to him. Under different circumstances, he’d be overjoyed to be here, professionally elated at the prospect of opening up the tombs beneath his feet, carbon dating and forensically piecing together the lives of the people buried beneath him.
Four hooded Bearers guide him into an opening so narrow he barely sees it. The top of his head brushes the underside of the thick lintel as he passes through. Another twenty steps and they take a similar squeezed turning into a smaller chamber. A moon face with sagging jowls rises and speaks from beneath a sackcloth hood. ‘You must disrobe and shower. Then we will dress you for the initiation.’
They guide him into a separate area where he hands over his clothes and steps into a dark stone trench. There is nothing to wash himself with. No shampoo. No soap. He stands naked and alone. A torrent of water bursts out of the blackness above him. Hits him so hard it whiplashes his neck and drops him to his knees. Gideon shuts his eyes and covers his face with his hands. The flow last minutes and then stops as unexpectedly as it started. He is given a towel and led naked down the corridors to the Great Room.
The sight of the chamber takes his breath away. A life-size replica of Stonehenge fills it. As complete as the first moment it had been finished. His father had declared this to be the true tabernacle of the ancient gods. Their original resting place, while the monument in the fields near Amesbury was built.
A loud guttural rumbling turns Gideon’s head. The Great Room is being sealed. A sinister brown tide of hooded devotees swells around him. A surge of bearers edge him to the circumference of a fiery ring of tall, thick candles. Beyond the flames stands the Henge Master, in his hands the ceremonial hammer and chisel. Instruments that may take Gideon’s life. Fear wakes inside him. He feels it coursing through his body like a poison.
The initiation has begun.
‘Behold the embodiment of the Sacreds.’ The Master raises his hands and turns slowly. ‘The divinities rested here centuries ago, when our forefathers built this cosmic circle and this Sanctuary. In here, you are in their presence. Out of respect, once initiated, you will ensure your head is always covered and your eyes always lowered. Do you understand?’
Gideon responds as Draco instructed him. ‘Yes, Master.’
‘You are brought before us because you are deemed fit by members of our Craft to become a lifelong Follower. Is that your will?’
‘Yes, Master.’
‘Are you ready to pledge your life, your soul and your loyalty to the Sacreds and to those who protect them?’
‘Yes, Master.’
‘The Sacreds renew us only as long as we renew them. We honour them with our flesh and blood and in return they protect and renew our flesh and blood. Do you pledge your flesh and blood to their immortal holiness?’