The Nostradamus Scrolls

by Preston William Child

  The little biplane was where he left it, resting in a clearing. He could see the pilot he hired still inside the cockpit waiting for him. The pilot was a freelancer for hire, and Purdue knew that with enough money, he would do his job well. He was glad to see that the pilot hadn't let him down and was still waiting. He had given him half of the payment beforehand and would give him half at the end; it seemed that was enough to convince him to be loyal.

  Purdue hurried as quickly as he could through the grass, climbing up into the back seat of the plane. He made sure the totem was safe before calling up to the pilot.

  “This turned into a bit of a mess! Let's get up in the air and get the hell out of here right now, aye? There isn't a moment to spare!”

  The pilot didn't respond. He didn't move at all. Purdue pulled his body over the divider and tapped the pilot's shoulder. There was still no response. He looked closer and saw that the pilot's throat had been torn open, leaving him dead in his seat. The slit throat must have been recent since Purdue hadn't been gone for that long, and there was still some blood running down his collar.

  “Sorry, lad,” Purdue said, heaving the man out of the cockpit as best as he could. He didn't want to just leave him down on the ground, so he threw his bloody corpse into the back seat while he took control of the cockpit. It wasn't ideal, and it was a little dishonorable, but he couldn't care about that.

  Purdue had very little experience flying aircraft, but he didn't have much choice. He started flipping switches and pulling levers as the propeller started rotating, and the airplane purred, slowly coming alive. Hopefully, he wouldn't make a mistake and go up in smoke. He just had to take it one step at a time, and all that mattered at that moment was getting the hell off the ground and into the sky.

  For all he knew, the Old Lady's minion was still on the hunt for him. Those angry cartel members who he took the totem from could also still be on their way, with more bullets to send at him. A stationary plane was going to be a lot easier for them to hit than a single man running through a jungle; the plane was already going to be difficult enough to fly without bullet holes too.

  Between the two threats, it was probably the Old Lady's man that killed the pilot, probably for this specific purpose of slowing down Purdue's potential escape. If that was his plan, then it was a great success.

  Sure enough, as Purdue got the plane set up, he saw that same man coming toward him in the field. He was shouting at Purdue, but Purdue was having trouble hearing him over the sounds of the awakening plane. Maybe that was for the best. He doubted that the man was saying anything pleasant. The nameless man started running toward the plane as Purdue started its wheels moving across the field. He wanted to just focus on the take-off so he didn't die in the attempt, but he had trouble ignoring the screaming man running toward him. He started to even hear fragments of what the man was saying to him.

  “No escape! You can't escape the future! She knows it! She knows everything you are going to do! She knows everything that will happen!”

  Purdue didn't quite know what the man was talking about, but it didn't sound good. He especially didn't like hearing that the Old Lady could apparently see the future. He just needed to get away, where the Old Lady and all of her nameless assassins and spies couldn't even reach him.

  The biplane continued to roll forward. The clearing of grass wasn't exactly the ideal runway, but it would have to do. The man tried to run after him, but he couldn't catch up, so Purdue pushed him right out of his thoughts. He would hopefully be high above him and miles away in a few minutes. The biplane rattled as it left the earth, and Purdue uttered a mix of prayers and vulgarities as the plane made a shaky ascent above the trees. The people that had tried to kill him were behind. He had to fly toward what was ahead—to the future. But the Old Lady knew all about that and already knew how all of this was destined to end. If only Purdue could know that too.

  2

  THE UNCERTAIN FUTURE

  David Purdue couldn't see the future. He had no idea what the days ahead would be like, especially lately. He had learned the hard lesson that no matter how many plans someone made or even how many contingencies that someone had in place, some things were just impossible to predict or anticipate. So there might not be a point in pondering the future since what he envisioned could never come to pass.

  No, it was best to focus on the here and now. The actions in the present would mold the future into whatever shape it would eventually take. That was what was important. The past was already written in stone. The present was a sea of ever-shifting currents that needed to be navigated. The future would come in one form or another.

  “You look worried.”

  Dr. Nina Gould sat across from him. She was one to talk...since she looked worried too. He appreciated her concern, but he didn't need to be analyzed.

  “I'm fine,” Purdue said. “Got lost in thought, that's all. Nothing to worry about.”

  “What were you thinking about?”

  “That's a bit personal, eh?” Purdue said with a dry laugh. “I'm not allowed to keep that to myself?”

  “You can, but sometimes it can be healthier to vent, to get those thoughts off your chest.”

  “That's such a strange expression, isn't it? My thoughts aren't on my chest.” He tapped his forehead. “They're right up here.”

  “You're dodging my question.”

  “And maybe you're projecting, aye? You seem worried too. So what's on your mind, Nina? Don't spare any details.”

  “I asked first,” Nina countered but then smirked. “But since I'm not a nervous little five-year-old, I'll tell you. I'm thinking about the Old Lady, and I know you probably are too.”

  The Old Lady. That mysterious crone had been making her presence more and more known. She started out as a vague whisper of a new threat, a phantom that was haunting the Order of the Black Sun. The otherwise nameless Old Lady and her minions had just been tremors at first but were growing in intensity and were set to shake David Purdue's whole world.

  Recently, the Old Lady even showed her face to Nina in a bid to try to recruit her and turn her against the Order of the Black Sun. It was unsuccessful but a surprisingly bold and direct move for someone that seemed to enjoy being practically invisible. They still knew so very little about her, but she had been pulling hidden strings the entire time.

  Now the Old Lady was acting more openly, and it was impossible to tell just how dangerous that would end up being. Purdue had this weird feeling that he couldn't shake—it felt like they were at the eleventh hour, on the brink of war. The Order of the Black Sun was far from an army, and all of the members—despite their impressible talents—were far from soldiers.

  Purdue wasn't a general. He could handle a conflict that was more personal or small scale well enough. He could get into a fistfight or a chase if he had to, but he wasn't exactly equipped for some big battle.

  It would be a difficult enough fight when they still weren't quite sure what they were facing. Nina had been taken to what seemed to be the Old Lady's base of operations but wasn't able to get many details from the encounter, at least nothing that could be used to benefit their efforts.

  The mysterious Old Lady—his hidden enemy—had become something of an obsession for him in recent days. He spent far too much time holed away with Black Sun files and confidential reports, trying to learn anything that he could about what kind of threat the Old Lady posed to him and his friends. So far, he hadn't been very successful in his search; it was hard to find what you were looking for when there was nothing of use to go off of. If the Old Lady hadn't already made her threats, he would have no real reason to believe that she even existed at all. She was a ghost that was haunting his every waking moment, daring him to keep trying to find her. And like the stubborn bastard that he was, he would do everything he could to take her up on that dare and discover her.

  “Of course I'm thinking about the Old Lady,” Purdue finally said. “That whole mess is all I've been able to
think about. Hell, I've even been dreaming about it. I can't escape it no matter where I go.”

  “Aye, it's a proper pain in the ass.”

  “I know,” Nina said solemnly. “I thought all of this was going to be better once we had the Order. I thought Julian would be the last real threat we would have to deal with.”

  “So did I.”

  “What do you think is going to happen?”

  Purdue didn't want to think about that. His predictions or hopes wouldn't make any difference. The future was coming for them, and it was impossible to know it until it arrived.

  “That's a good question,” Purdue said. “But I don't know...I don't know...”

  Sam Cleave hadn't wanted to go to Mama May's by himself. Truth be told, the fortune-teller in New Orleans kind of unnerved him. It had been Purdue that had gone to her multiple times, and it should have been Purdue that went this time too. He was used to all of her vague warnings and her rituals. But no, the leader of the Order of the Black Sun was too busy now to go by himself. Instead, he had to send Sam in his place. It was times like this that made Sam miss when he felt like he wasn't being allowed to do anything for the Black Sun. He would have preferred staying back at the base and being bored to having to talk to a woman that made him feel so weird.

  There was still part of Sam that was a skeptic about Mama May's abilities, but Purdue kept assuring him that her warnings that she had previously given him had all eventually happened in one way or another. Purdue also warned Sam that getting a prophecy from her—a real one—meant shedding a little blood, so Sam wasn't too surprised when the old fortune-teller pulled out a knife and asked him to open his hand before she could see his future.

  Sam held out a trembling hand, really not looking forward to this part. Mama May slid the blade along his palm and then squeezed the wound in her grasp, letting blood seep between them to the table below. She stared at the dripping blood, and it was like she was watching pictures in a book unfold before her very eyes. She saw much more than just red liquid in the blood. She saw faces, places, and events happen within.

  “The days to come are shrouded, so unclear. So very, very unclear. I see a rocking chair. It is laughing. It's rocking back and forth. There's someone in it, but I cannot see them. It's all so blurry. The sun is in the sky, but its flames are black wild. It looks unstable, flickering like a flame on a wick, ready to go out. It's going to go out. The sun is going to burn out. You are part of that dying fire. You and all of the other flames will be gone.”

  It wasn't a warning of the future. It was a threat.

  Sam swore under his breath. Not only was he unlucky enough to have to go to Mama May's when he would have preferred being anywhere else, but now she was claiming that some sort of apocalypse was coming for him and all of his friends in the new Order of the Black Sun.

  “And what about me?” Sam asked somewhat selfishly. “What about me in particular? Before I burn out with the rest of my buddies and all of that?”

  “You will be a helper, a protector, just like you always have,” Mama May said, her eyes tightly closed. “But that will not be enough this time. That will not be enough. You will all need more, but even that might not be enough with what you are up against. I still see the rocking chair. It is still laughing. It is laughing at all of you, but I hear another laugh as well. That one may laugh last.”

  “What's that mean?” Sam asked, hoping that he was the one to get the last laugh.

  “I am not sure,” Mama May said. “I cannot see it so clearly.”

  He hated how her sight was limited to things that just might happen. There was no actual certainty to any of it. It made these visits feel like they weren't as crucial as he would have liked. He could have been back at base trying to learn more about the Old Lady besides just hearing more and more evidence that they didn't stand a chance against her.

  Sam pulled his hand out of Mama May's grasp and held the wound in the palm, trying to slow the bleeding. “Is that it? You can't tell us any more about the Old Lady?”

  Mama May looked just as frustrated with Sam for even asking that question. “I am not all-knowing, Mr. Cleave. I can only see so many things, and most of them are not elaborated on outside of my line of vision. This Old Lady of yours is elusive to me.”

  “Why?”

  The fortune-teller glanced away from him to the floor, looking somewhat tired. “I am not sure.”

  “You seem to say that a lot,” Sam said. “A little too much for someone that can see the future, don't you think?”

  “I think it is time that you leave,” Mama May said. “I am tired, and I need to rest.”

  “You barely told me anything of actual importance,” Sam said. “Like at all. You have nothing else that you can tell me?”

  “You are much ruder than your friend,” Mama May said. “He knows when it is time to leave. You clearly do not.”

  Sam wanted to continue arguing with her. He didn't owe her anything, and as far as he was concerned, she owed him his money back for being so cryptic and not forthcoming about all of the things that she saw. If she could see all of that, surely she could see more details, but she was leaving out all of that.

  He wasn't sure why Purdue had so much faith in this old psychic in particular. There were probably hundreds if not thousands of supposed psychics in New Orleans. Mama May must have said something helpful, but apparently this day wasn't going to be a time when she was useful again.

  “Safe travels, Sam Cleave,” Mama May said. “I am sorry I could not be of more help. Give David Purdue my best.”

  3

  THE STRAINS OF FRIENDSHIP

  It had been far too long since Purdue, Sam, and Nina all worked together on an expedition. It used to be how everything was handled, a dream team of colleagues gallivanting around the world in search of rarities. They had more than proven to be a well-oiled machine when they worked together and were successful far more often than they were not.

  In recent days, Purdue had focused more on working with fresh faces and new blood. He wanted to be able to get to know all of the members of his new Order of the Black Sun, but to do so often meant neglecting Nina and Sam. The divide had been tough for all of them, but Purdue expected there to be some growing pains when it came to launching the new Order of the Black Sun. It was hard to figure out who he could rely on, who he could trust, and who was trying to help him.

  It was just the way of the new world it seemed—until now, when he was looking right at his friends, ready to take on whatever was ahead together. Nina and Sam both looked to be in high spirits and shared in Purdue's enthusiasm. It was just nice to be together again. As much as Purdue enjoyed people like Elijah Dane, August Williams, and Riley Duda, it was impossible to beat the classics. No group could quite replicate the chemistry that he shared with his colleagues. This was his real team. The others in the Order of the Black Sun were just reinforcements.

  Unfortunately, it would only be the three of them for a brief period of time. He hadn't told them his plan yet, but he was sure that they wouldn't like it at all. Unknown to them, Purdue didn't plan on keeping them as a trio for this search, no matter how much he would have loved that. No, a fourth member would need to join them for this—and it wouldn't be an easy choice to stomach. Purdue was still trying to figure out how to even explain it to his friends. Usually, he could tell them anything but this...their reaction was going to be very negative, that was for certain.

  Purdue gathered his two closest colleagues together. Nina was still ridiculing him about the future while Sam was just complaining about how uneventful his meeting with Mama May had been. The two of them weren't in the best of moods, but things were about to get so much worse for them. Purdue knew that he needed to be tactful about how he presented his idea to them, although given what he was going to say, he doubted that the presentation was going to make a difference.

  “We can't beat the Old Lady on our own. We barely know a damn thing about her, and at this rate, we m
ight as well be punching at air itself. We're flailing around without a clue. Even with what Nina saw of her, it's not enough.”

  “What are you trying to say?”

  “I'm saying that we need...we a need a weapon of some kind. We need something that we haven't had before to use against her, something that she wouldn't expect.”

  “You have a nuclear bomb in your pocket that you haven't told us about?” Sam asked. “Or some sort of magical sword that is the only thing that can kill the Old Lady?”

  “Please tell me it's something that will work,” Nina said. “Believe me, the quicker we get rid of her and can pull her claws out of the world, the better.”

  “It might work,” Purdue said, trying not to sound too nervous. “Or it could blow up in our faces...but at this point, I think we need to be willing to try just about anything. If we throw enough things at the wall, maybe something will stick.”

  Nina and Sam both looked at him curiously and even with some excited anticipation about what he was going to say to them. He was a little sad to have to break that for them. They were both about to be so angry, and they didn't even realize it.

  “So, what is it?” Sam asked. “What's the weapon?”

  “It's not so much about a what...” Purdue said carefully. “...as much as it's about a who.”

  “Who then?” Nina asked. “One of the other members? You think someone within the Order is going to give us a better chance against the Old Lady? I kind of doubt it.”

  “No, they're not with the Order,” Purdue said, feeling his nervousness building inside of him. Any moment now, he would have to break it to them. “Though he was at one point.”

  Nina and Sam both glanced at one another with some confusion.