Black Order
Page 45
Father Piotr had watched the young man cross the bridge. He stood at the open coal door that led back into the rectory’s wine cellar. He had waited for his recent visitor to vanish down the far street, then sighed.
A nice young man, but shadows cloaked him.
Poor boy had much grief ahead of him.
But such is life’s journey.
A soft mewling drew his attention back down. A scrawny tabby brushed against his ankles, tail high, eyes looking up at him expectant. One of Father Varick’s strays. Now his charges. Piotr knelt down and balanced a tiny plate of scraps on a rock. The river cat gave him one last rub, then minced at the food.
Father Piotr crouched and stared out at the river, ablaze with the last rays of the sun. He noted a bit of feathered fluff near his heel. A brown sparrow, its neck broken. One of the many gifts his orphans left on his doorstep.
He shook his head, collected the limp bird between his palms, and raised it to his lips. He blew upon its feathers, dancing them up, raising a wing, which caught air with a surprised flutter. From his palm, the sparrow took flight, darting and dancing back up into the sky.
Piotr watched it for a breath, trying to read something in the winged path scribed through the air. Then he brushed his hands and stood with a stretch.
Life forever remained a wondrous mystery.
Even for him.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Novel writing, despite the time spent alone with the blank page, is a collaborative process. There are scores of people whose fingerprints are all over this book. First, let me especially acknowledge Penny Hill, for the long lunches, the thoughtful commentary, but mostly for her friendship. And the same goes for Carolyn McCray, who still kicks my butt to challenge me to stretch a little further. Then, of course, I’m honored to acknowledge my friends who meet every other week at Coco’s Restaurant: Steve and Judy Prey, Chris Crowe, Lee Garrett, Michael Gallowglas, Dave Murray, Dennis Grayson, Dave Meek, Jane O’Riva, Dan Needles, Zach Watkins, and Caroline Williams. They are the cabal behind this writer. And a special shout out to author Joe Konrath for his energy, support, and thoughtful debate on some of the topics in this book, and to David Sylvian for lugging a camera everywhere, even atop the highest peak in the Sierras. As to the inspiration behind this story, I must credit the books by Nick Cook and the intriguing research of Johnjoe McFadden. Finally, the four people instrumental at all levels of production: my editor, Lyssa Keusch, her colleague May Chen, and my agents, Russ Galen and Danny Baror. And as always, I must stress any and all errors of fact or detail fall squarely on my own shoulders.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JAMES ROLLINS is the bestselling author of seven previous novels: Subterranean, Excavation, Deep Fathom, Amazonia, Ice Hunt, Sandstorm, and Map of Bones. He has a doctorate in veterinary medicine and his own practice in Sacramento, California. An amateur spelunker and a certified scuba enthusiast, he can often be found either underground or underwater. www.jamesrollins.com
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AUTHOR’S NOTE:
TRUTH OR FICTION
Thanks for accompanying me on this latest journey. As usual, I thought I’d take this last moment of your time to deconstruct the novel, to reveal where research ended and imagination continued.
First on the minor side:
DARPA has indeed developed prosthetic limbs using revolutionary technology (though I don’t think they have incorporated flash charges into their plastic composites).
Similar to the book’s ukufa, Stanford University has actually produced a chimeric strain of mice whose brains contain human neural cells. Scientists are now contemplating trying to produce mice whose brains are one hundred percent human neural cells.
A German boy was born in 2004 with a mutation in the gene for myostatin, which resulted in a condition called double-muscling, resulting in increased strength and muscular tone. Is this the first natural-born Sonnekönig?
Shangri-La was discovered deep in the Himalayas in 1998, a lost oasis of free-flowing water and lush vegetation in the middle of the frozen peaks. What else might be hidden up there?
Moving on to the larger concepts:
As mentioned at the beginning of the book, the Bell itself is indeed real, proving truth is often stranger than fiction. The Nazis had constructed a strange device, fueled by an unknown compound named Xerum 525. Little is known about its true functioning, only that when it was powered up, a strange illness afflicted the scientists involved, reaching as far as neighboring villages. At the end of the war, the Bell vanished, the scientists involved were executed, and to this day, what became of the device remains a mystery. If you’d like to learn more about this strange bit of history, about the postwar race among Allied forces for Nazi technology, and about the Germans’ fascination with quantum research, I refer you to one of the research bibles for this novel: The Hunt for Zero Point by Nick Cook.
In this novel, I also spent considerable time describing Heinrich Himmler’s fascination with runes, the occult, and his search for the Aryan birthplace in the Himalayas. All of it is based on fact, including the set piece of Himmler’s Black Camelot of Wewelsburg. For more information on these topics, I suggest Christopher Hale’s Himmler’s Crusade and Peter Levenda’s Unholy Alliance.
Lastly, one book was instrumental in stimulating the core of this novel: Quantum Evolution by Johnjoe McFadden. This book offers a fascinating treatise on quantum mechanics and its possible role in mutations and evolution. It also delves into the evolution of consciousness, which is touched upon at the end of the novel. For a more comprehensive analysis on these topics, I highly recommend you pick up a copy.
Which brings up the final tenet of the book: the question of intelligent design versus evolution. I hope this novel raises as many questions as it provides answers. But ultimately, I firmly believe much of the current debate is misguided. Rather than focusing so intently on where we have come from, a larger question deserves even more fervent attention: Where are we headed?
To answer that, to follow that path, is mystery and adventure enough for anybody.
ALSO BY JAMES ROLLINS
Map of Bones
Sandstorm
Ice Hunt
Amazonia
Deep Fathom
Excavation
Subterranean
COPYRIGHT
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
BLACK ORDER. Copyright © 2006 by Jim Czajkowski.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © June 2006 ISBN 9780061792786
FIRST EDITION
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rollins, James, 1961–
Black order/James Rollins.— 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-076388-6
ISBN-10: 0-06-076388-4
I. Title.
PS3568.O5398B58 2006
813’.54—dc22 2005058367
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CREDITS
Jacket design and photograph collage by Ervin Serrano
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