The First Face of Janus

by Valentine, Phil

  “Yeah, our team investigated the scene with the local sheriff’s department. There was nothing left behind. Like the Grinch who stole Christmas. Everything they brought in was taken with them, down to the last detail. They even swept the footprints in the place and replaced the dust like nobody’d set foot in there for years. Scrubbed the tire tracks. Everything. Quite professional.”

  “And Jean-Claude Delacroix? Faked, too?”

  “No, I’m afraid Monsieur Delacroix is very much dead. We heard you set up the meeting with Kyle O’Hara at the National Archives. I approached O’Hara posing as an artifacts dealer with a fake Lincoln signature just so we could plant a bug inside his office. We heard him recommend Delacroix. Naturally, I couldn’t book the same flight to Paris. That would be too obvious. I caught the next plane, which was several hours later. The museum was closed when I arrived. I went back the next morning to interview Delacroix about your meeting. By the time I got there, it was too late. Tortured. Throat slit from ear to ear. Not a pleasant sight.”

  “Who did it?” Crow asked.

  “The Custos Verbi.”

  “Rather unnecessarily gruesome, isn’t it?”

  “It’s meant as a message to the rest of the First Facers. They don’t often use it. Only when they feel it’s necessary to break up a ring.”

  “Delacroix was part of a First Facers ring?”

  “Well, that’s the thing. We didn’t have any reason to believe that, but he was helping you, and the CV’s reaction told us they knew you were part of the plot to fulfill the prophecy. When Philippe Babineaux entered the scene, we realized they thought you were a First Facer agent.”

  “And what did you think my part in this whole thing was?”

  “Honestly?” Morello said. “We weren’t sure at first, but once we saw they staged the Grumbling murder in Virginia, it became clear you were just being used. How you were being used was the question.”

  “I’m assuming Babineaux had Delacroix killed,” Crow said.

  “Actually, we think a man who goes by the name of Otto made that call.”

  “Otto,” Crow said under his breath.

  “You’re familiar with him?”

  “Talked to him on my way to Figueres. His people tried to kill me before I could get there. He’s Custos Verbi?”

  Morello nodded. “Oh, yeah. Big league CV. Otto’s not his real name, of course. Takes his name from Otto the Great. He was an emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. That Otto fashioned himself as the successor of Charlemagne. Our Otto has been running operations for some time. We have no idea where this guy’s operating from or who he really is. Otto’s people got your location at the farmhouse after torturing Delacroix. Their plan was to eliminate you. Didn’t work out that way.”

  “They were going to kill me just because I had come into contact with the First Facer ring?”

  “Well, because they knew you were either a First Facer yourself our being used by them to fulfill the prophecy. Either way, you’re a marked man. You have to be eliminated. That’s standard operating procedure. If you’re Custos Verbi and you find a First Facer, you kill him. And vice versa.”

  “But Babineaux was helping me,” Crow said. “I wouldn’t have ended up at Valencia Cathedral were it not for him.”

  “OK, that’s the interesting part. Apparently Otto had dispatched someone to take care of Father Simonin, then you showed up. At that point their plan changed. My guess is they were going to kill you at the farmhouse and just take the quatrains. Your meeting with Simonin probably indicated to them you were in deeper than just someone being used. They hoped you might lead them to the Unriddled Manuscript.”

  “Hold on a second. Are you suggesting Simonin was a First Facer?”

  “Yes.”

  “But he was a Catholic priest.”

  “You still don’t understand the gravity of this organization, do you?”

  Crow said nothing.

  “They’ve had half a millennium to perfect this. Generations and generations have been born into this organization.” Morello shifted and crossed his legs. “You ever heard stories where the Soviets plucked kids out of orphanages to be groomed so they could grow up and infiltrate American society?”

  “Yeah,” Crow said.

  “Rank amateurs compared to these people. There are First Facers inside practically every segment of society on earth. Hiding in plain sight. After you survived the drone attack at the farmhouse, Babineaux was tasked with getting the quatrains from you. Babineaux apparently convinced Otto that you had knowledge of where the Unriddled Manuscript was. They were anxious for you to lead them to it before the next prophecy so they could stop not only that one but any future prophecies.”

  “And I just volunteered the quatrains to Babineaux.”

  “And once he saw them he was convinced they were from the Unriddled Manuscript and even more hopeful that you just might lead them to it. But the urgency of the prophecy was closing in on them.”

  “I was trying to stop the prophecy.”

  “And you convinced Babineaux of that,” Morello said. “They were using you just like the First Facers were using you. You don’t understand how much they want to get their hands on that book, but their prime objective is to stop the prophecies. If you were going to stop it for them, all the better.”

  “If the Custos Verbi is more secular than religious, why worry about the prophecies?”

  “Who told you they weren’t religious?”

  “The little guy at Valencia Cathedral.”

  “Oh, I see,” Morello said, taking a sip from his cup. “Not surprising. Catholics who know about the Custos Verbi, which are few, will deny them, but the CV very much see themselves as Catholics. In fact, they believe they’re the true Catholics. The Medici family has always been extremely religious. It’s an internal power struggle. They feel they’re the rightful heirs of the Catholic legacy. Sure, they’re brutal and they’re rich, but their wealth is a means to an end. It’s all about controlling the Church. They want the power that comes with Nostradamus’ prophecies. Time was when the lines between the CV and the Church were blurred. Early on, they managed to get a few of their popes elected. The Church has changed over the centuries. Now they forbid membership in secret societies, especially the CV. As far as we know, the Custos Verbi has not been able to penetrate the Vatican since Pope Pius IV in 1565. It’s much like these radical Muslim groups. Most peaceful Muslims will tell you ISIS isn’t really Muslim, but they are most definitely Muslim. They’re just not mainstream Muslim. It’s like a parallel society within the Church with a life of its own. You’re familiar with the antipopes of Avignon.”

  “I am now,” Crow said.

  “Well, it’s like that. The Custos Verbi is probably the most powerful religious group in the world that nobody’s ever heard of.”

  “And Babineaux? He didn’t strike me as an observant Catholic.”

  “Babineaux was a hired hand. He was just what he appeared to be: an antiquities expert who specialized in Nostradamus. Otto hired him for his expertise in Nostradamus and the Unriddled Manuscript. They needed somebody who could positively determine that the quatrains you were carrying were from the Unriddled Manuscript. They assumed that if you had access to the Unriddled Manuscript, then you knew where it was. After Babineaux determined you had gotten the quatrains from the Unriddled Manuscript, he tried to pump Rosenfeld for information. When he got nowhere, he resorted to more desperate measures.”

  “And our guardian angel at the warehouse?” Crow asked. “You?”

  Morello gave a slight chuckle. “I’d love to tell you that my suit jacket hides my wings, but it wasn’t me.”

  “Who then?”

  “A First Facer would be my guess, protecting one of their assets. I arrived late to that party, just in time to hear the shot. Scared the crap out of me, too. Right above where I was standing. Didn’t see anybody come or go except you two.”

  “You were watching me the entire time?”


  “Most of the time,” Morello admitted. “Whenever you decided to turn your phone back on. That’s how we tracked you.”

  “Answer me this,” Crow said. “If they were content to let me go to Figueres and stop the prophecy, why did Otto send his goons to try and kill me before I got there?”

  “Interesting question. This is just speculation, but we’re assuming when they figured out where the wedding was, they also figured out who was going to be there.”

  “Let me guess. It had something to do with Daniel Mercer.”

  “Very good,” Morello said. “Why do you think that is?”

  “Because Nostradamus only made predictions of major consequence, and Lady Grace and her daughters aren’t a major consequence. No offense to them. Not even the earl or the prince or the King of Spain.”

  “True. So, what’s so important about Mercer?” Morello asked.

  “He’s a major player in the World Bank, although I’m not real clear on why he’s so important.”

  “Well, let me tell you. The Custos Verbi have their man in position to take over as president of the World Bank. This is a fulfillment of a goal dating back to the Medici family to control the world’s banks. Daniel Mercer was the only person standing in their way. They were convinced, as you were, that the prophecy was a wedding where everyone but the bride was murdered. Once they realized Mercer was on that wedding list, they had to let him die. In order for him to die, they had to stop you.”

  “But they didn’t, thank God. I stopped the prophecy and everyone lived.”

  Morello drank his coffee. “Did you?”

  “Did I what?”

  “Stop the prophecy.”

  “Of course I did. What are you talking about?”

  Morello smiled. “You stopped the prophecy only if you were working from the right quatrain.”

  Chapter Forty-Four

  “What do you mean the right quatrain? We had the right quatrain,” Crow said.

  “Read to me the verses the man in Montreal gave you,” Officer Morello said.

  “By now, I know it by heart. ‘In the century of four / His age is seventy-one / His first face sees / When the clock strikes twelve / Add the note of C twice / And take away the score / Count on good stock / Rich in grace.’”

  “You were working under the assumption that it was Century 4, Quatrain 71, as were we, but if you add the note of C twice what do you get?”

  “That’s the part we could never figure out.”

  “Well, we couldn’t either. We only did after the fact by knowing what event to search for in the quatrains. When we looked for an earthquake instead of a wedding, we found it. Logically, when it says ‘add the note of C twice’ you would think it was something musical, but what is a C-note?”

  Crow sighed and leaned back in his seat. “A one-hundred dollar bill.”

  “And twice?”

  He was exasperated with himself for missing it. “Two hundred.”

  “You add two hundred you get—”

  “Century 6 instead of Century 4,” Crow said.

  “Take away the score. How much is a score?” Morello asked. “And it’s not a musical score.”

  Crow was stumped again. “Well, it depends on the sport.”

  “They’re not talking about a sport. They’re talking about—”

  “Twenty years! Damn! Why didn’t I see that?”

  “That gives you Century 6, Quatrain 51.”

  “Which says?”

  Morello pulled out a piece of paper. “Which says, ‘People assembled to see a new spectacle / Princes and Kings amongst many bystanders / Pillars walls to fall: but as by a miracle / The King saved and thirty of the ones present.’”

  “The King of Spain and the British prince were there,” Crow said.

  “The prophecy says the king and thirty of the ones present. Thirty-one total. If you count the bishop and the wedding party, how many do you think were there?”

  “Thirty-one,” Crow said with an ironic smile in his voice.

  “And you were their miracle. You didn’t stop the prophecy,” Morello said with a smile. “You fulfilled it.”

  Crow was in shock. He looked off into the distance contemplating the whole elaborate scheme. “I was a patsy,” he said softly, remembering Grumbling’s words about Oswald.

  “Yep,” Morello said.

  “But, wait a minute,” Crow said. “I’m confused. I found the wedding site without the help of the First Facers.”

  “Or so you thought,” Morello said. “You got the clue from Alejandro, the little guy from the cathedral in Valencia.”

  “Which actually came from the First Facers,” Crow remembered.

  “Right. And who deciphered it for you?”

  His puzzled look turned to dejection. “Sidney,” Crow said with disappointment in his voice. “She saw the news story on TV that Alejandro had been killed and she knew he hadn’t sent me that message.”

  “Right. She knew if he didn’t send it, the First Facers had to have sent it,” Morello said. “She didn’t tell you because if you’d seen that news story yourself, you’d put two and two together, figure out he was dead before he sent you the text, and discount the whole thing. So she had to go ahead with the Dalí revelation and—”

  “Put the last piece of cheese in the trap,” Crow finished. “Damn, I’m so frickin’ gullible. They played me.”

  “Don’t feel bad. You sure aren’t the first. And you won’t be the last.”

  “But she bolted just before we got to the church. Held me at gunpoint. She thought I’d killed all those people, including Alejandro. She accused me of being Custos Verbi.”

  Morello laughed. “She put you on the defensive. She made you think she thought you were behind the murders so you wouldn’t think of anything else. She had to have an exit strategy. She couldn’t show up at the church with you. First Facers aren’t allowed to meddle directly in the prophecies.”

  “So she stomps off knowing I would continue on to the church and do exactly what they’d set me up to do.”

  Morello shrugged his shoulders, smiled, and swallowed the last of his coffee.

  “Then she disconnects her phone,” Crow continued, “they bug out of the office here—”

  “And never leave a trace,” Morello said.

  “And Babineaux had convinced Otto that the quatrains I was carrying came from the Unriddled Manuscript.”

  “And they didn’t,” Morello said.

  “How do you know?”

  “C-note? That term didn’t come about until the 1920s, long after Nostradamus was dead. Had Babineaux been smart enough to figure that out, who knows what would’ve happened?”

  “But you said Father Simonin was a First Facer. I told him I was going to stop the prophecy and he still tried to help me. Why would he do that if they’re all about fulfilling the prophecy?”

  “You say he tried to help you. Tried to help you do what?” Morello raised an eyebrow.

  “Tried to help me find Alejandro who got me the clue that took me to Figueres and…” his voice trailed off.

  “Now you’re gettin’ it.”

  “OK, what about Alejandro?” Crow asked.

  “What about him?”

  “I suppose he was part of the scheme?”

  “Unfortunately for him, he was just a good little Catholic with too much time on his hands and an unhealthy interest in conspiracy theories,” Morello said. “Delacroix and Simonin were playing him. Easy to do with Simonin being a priest. They planted the First Facers in his buddy’s cafe, fed him the clues, and he fed them to you.”

  “And the First Facers eliminated him to erase their tracks,” Crow said.

  “Not the First Facers. The Custos Verbi. Remember, they unraveled the First Facer ring. Little Alejandro was an unwitting link in that chain. Babineaux was the one who pointed you to Valencia Cathedral, remember? The CV killed Alejandro before he could send you the text, so the First Facers picked up the ball and ran with it. They
’re very good at improvising.”

  Crow was dejected. “I got him killed.”

  “You didn’t get anybody killed. They were going to kill him anyway. They thought he was part of Delacroix’s ring. They knew whatever he was trying to tell you would only lead them deeper inside the society. They were trying to follow the roach back to the nest. That’s what they do. Both sides are masters of manipulation. The Custos Verbi uses people to try and stop the prophecies. The First Facers use people any way they can to make these prophecies come true. I know. We’ve been tracking the First Facers for a long time.”

  “How long?”

  “Well, since the CIA was the OSS during World War II. That’s when the agency first got wind of the First Face of Janus. Orchestrating a world war? I mean, come on. Who would believe such a thing? But it’s true. Our intelligence indicated that Hitler’s rise was orchestrated. Hell, World War II was orchestrated. That’s when we set up a special division dedicated to just this. The Janus Division. We’ve followed them through the Kennedy assassination, 9/11, the death of Princess Diana, you name it. If we could find the Unriddled Manuscript, then we’d be able to get out in front of them. As it is, all we can do is chase them.”

  “Speaking of chases, why the hell were you chasing me in Avignon?” Crow asked.

  “I was trying to save your ass, and you wouldn’t stop. First Delacroix in Salon then Father Simonin in Avignon. We were fine with watching this thing unfold and letting them use you, but you’re one of us, an American. We have an obligation to keep you from getting killed if we can. We weren’t sure you were in danger after Delacroix was killed, but when they eliminated Simonin, it was obvious they were killing everybody you came into contact with. We put a detail on your boy O’Hara back in D.C. just in case. I found the note in your room with Sánchez Muñoz on it. I knew you were on to something. I was trying to find out what you knew before they got to you. I tried to warn you in Avignon then again in Valencia.”

  “Why didn’t you just call me? You had my number,” Crow said.

  “You kept cutting your damn phone off for starters. But would you have believed me if I did call?”