Decker sprinted past a forklift, through the revolving crowd, and stopped just short of the cavernous entrance to the container. It was already half empty. Wooden crates were stacked up in the back, but the whole front end had been unloaded.
“It was here,” said the large black man. He had the thick accent of the African.
For the first time, Johnson noticed Decker and Warhaftig. He nodded curtly at them and replied, “Just where exactly?”
“Right there,” said the African, pointing at the bare container wall. “I tell you, that Ali Hammel was a crafty one. He told me he was smuggling opium, that he would offer me the hoof if I cooperated.”
“Yeah, yeah, you said that,” Johnson moaned. “The hoof.” He began to stare at something over Decker’s shoulder. “Not now,” he added with frustration.
Decker followed his gaze. A pair of men dressed in white body suits with helmets approached the container carrying some kind of metal instruments. They looked like astronauts in their insulated gear. He couldn’t even see their eyes through the reflective glass.
Johnson took the African by the arm. “Thank you, Mr. Marong. You’ve been very helpful.” He began to usher him away. “Special Agent Warhaftig here will take down your particulars. I’m sure the Mayor’s Office will want to contact you. I hear there’s a sizeable reward, assuming we recover all the drugs.”
The African perked up. Warhaftig snagged him by the elbow and began to lead him toward the warehouse door. “I knew he was a bad man from the very start,” Momodou continued. “You could tell. You could just feel it.”
The African hadn’t even made it to the door when the men in the insulated body suits began to sweep the walls and floor of the container. Their instruments began to chirp, to click and stutter, and Decker knew immediately that they were carrying Geiger counters. One of the men began to nod. “It’s hot,” his helmet crackled. His voice sounded metallic, as if he were a robot, or some alien creature from another world. The entire landscape seemed surreal to Decker, as though he were on some movie set instead of at the Brooklyn docks, and he began to move away, backing up at first, and then turned to follow Warhaftig. The African was staring back at the container. He was following the actions of the two men wearing body suits.
“What are they doing?” he asked Decker.
“Checking for drugs,” Warhaftig said. He pushed the African out the door.
Decker swept in from behind. The dock was crowded now with other agents and policemen. It was a sea of blue. He looked up beyond the lilting freighters. Despite the clouds, the New York skyline shimmered in the distance, just across the Hudson River. The buildings glimmered as if glazed with ice. To the north, he saw the Empire State Building. It rose above the rest, a marvelous apparition, iconic and yet real, a symbol of the pulsing hearts of millions of New Yorkers. Decker turned away and wondered, even as he drowned the thought, if this would be the last time he would see it.
Chapter 34
As soon as Warhaftig had unburdened himself of the Gambian, he and Decker headed back across the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan. Traffic had eased slightly by this time. They were more than halfway across the bridge when Decker’s phone began to vibrate in his pocket. He plucked it out. It was Hassan. The Professor started to say something but the signal kept breaking up, and Decker had a hard time hearing him. He was obviously excited.
“I thought you said we shouldn’t use the phone,” said Decker. “It’s not secure. What? What did you say?” He could barely make him out when, suddenly, the signal cleared.
“Forget about that. There’s no time,” Hassan said. “I’ve identified the quote from the fourth wallpaper. It’s from Al-Rahman. It says, ‘He has put the two oceans in motion; they will meet. Just now there is a barrier between them; they cannot encourage one upon the other. Pearls and coral are taken out of both. His are the vessels with lofty sails raised high on the ocean like mountains. All that is on the earth will perish and only that will survive which is under the care of the Lord, Master of Glory and Honor… You will be afflicted with smokeless fire, and with smoke without flame, and you will not be able to help yourselves. When the heaven is rent asunder, and assumes a rosy hue like red leather… When the earth is shaken violently, and the mountains are crumbled into dust and become like motes floating in the air.’”
Decker felt cold fingers grab his balls. He looked up at the Empire State Building. The top was still hidden by clouds. “What do you think it means, Jusef?” he asked, almost afraid to know the answer.
Hassan said, “It’s another prophecy, like the one from Al-Takwir, the first wallpaper you showed me. And just like in that Sura, some people say the ‘vessels with lofty sails raised high’ refer to future means of transportation, and the ‘oceans meeting’ to canals. You know: the Suez and the Panama. That sort of thing. The darker passages refer to Armageddon, the Qur’anic equivalent of the Apocrypha. The Kahf Sura describes it thus: ‘When that day comes We shall let some of them surge against the others like waves of the ocean, and the trumpet will be blown, and We shall gather them all together. On that day We shall present hell, face to face, to the disbelievers whose eyes were veiled against My Reminder.’ There’s a similar reference in the Ta Ha. ‘On that day We shall gather the sinful ones together, blue-eyed. They will commiserate with each other in low tones.’ That’s it. John? John, are you there?”
“Yeah, I’m here,” said Decker. “Look, I’ll have to call you later. And Jusef?”
“What?”
“If I were you, I’d grab your wife and kids and take a trip somewhere. Today. Somewhere out west. Just in case.” He hung up and swiveled toward Warhaftig. “It’s not here,” he said. “Pull over.”
Warhaftig looked horrified. “Excuse me?”
“I said pull over, dammit!”
They had just descended the ramp into Manhattan. Warhaftig swung over to the side of the road and parked. “What’s going on?” he asked.
Decker informed him what Hassan had told him.
“I don’t get it,” said Warhaftig
“What do you mean, you don’t get it? The earth will shake and the mountains will crumble into dust, and become like motes floating in the air… The heavens will assume a rosy hue. That’s the bomb and subsequent eruption, the volcanic ash. Lofty sails on the ocean like mountains. The mega-tsunami. All will perish… And the two oceans will meet. What do you think will happen when that mega-tsunami hits the Panama Canal? Those dykes and locks won’t mean a thing. The Atlantic and Pacific will unite.”
“You don’t seriously believe some thousand-year-old Qur’anic prophecy is actually going to come true?”
“Get out,” said Decker.
“What?”
“I said, get out.” Decker leaned across and opened the driver’s side door. “Now!”
“What are you talking about? We’ve got to go to the Empire State.”
“I don’t have time to argue with you,” Decker said. “Look, this is my decision. Not yours. I’m going to the airport.”
“The airport! Are you nuts? You saw what happened at the dock. That jukebox is here, somewhere in the city, probably on its way to the ESB as we speak. And it’s radioactive.”
“I don’t care,” Decker said. “I’m telling you. It’s just another ruse. Just like those bombs in Israel. It’s El Aqrab’s way of throwing us off the scent. I know it now. I’m sure.”