The Lucifer Code

by Charles Brokaw

  ‘That wasn’t necessary.’

  Lourds rummaged in his backpack for a digital camera. ‘Of course it was. Empirical evidence is always important. Especially when you’re saving the world.’

  ‘You still don’t believe.’

  ‘Have you stopped to think that maybe I’m able to read that language because I’m not a believer? I’m not looking for the same things you are. I don’t have preconceived notions about what we’re supposed to find and how we’re supposed to find it. I’ve got a more open mind about what we’re looking for.’

  Joachim didn’t say anything.

  ‘One thing I do believe is that I’m going to get you the answers that you haven’t had in over eight hundred years. Now hold that flashlight on this stone for me.’

  ‘More empirical evidence?’

  ‘No,’ Olympia said with a knowing grin, ‘Thomas likes his souvenirs.’

  Finished with the camera, Lourds replaced it in the backpack. ‘Now I’m going to need you to use some of that faith you so readily claim to have.’ He took a small pry bar from an outside pocket of the backpack.

  ‘What are you going to do?’ Joachim demanded.

  Lourds pointed with the pry bar. ‘I’m going to take that stone out of the wall.’ Hardly had the words left his mouth than Joachim hit him in the face with a balled fist. Pain exploded in Lourds’ face as he sailed backward.

  Deep in the passageway now, Colonel Anthony Eckart stood still and studied the terrain through the night-vision goggles he wore. So far there was still no sign of Lourds or the others. Eckart’s gut clenched and ached in anticipation. He couldn’t wait to meet the redheaded woman close up and personal. The men he had lost at the university had been good men, in no way friends, but good soldiers were hard to come by.

  ‘Mayfield, do you have a reading on our position?’ Eckart asked.

  ‘Affirmative, sir. I’ve rerouted the overland support teams to you. They’re almost directly overhead.’

  ‘Near the church?’

  ‘That’s affirmative. I’m reading your position under the church now.’

  Eckart gazed at the blank walls. ‘What’s under here?’

  ‘Tunnels. Lots and lots of tunnels. From the maps I’ve been able to download from the geological survey services in the city, it looks like a regular rat’s warren down there.’

  ‘It is. Do you have any idea where our target is headed?’

  ‘Negative. Like I said, there are a lot of tunnels down there. On multiple levels as well. Some of them cross over or under without touching any other tunnels.’

  Eckart thought about that. Back in the early days of war, tunnels had been important defensive and offensive measures. Tunnels enabled large groups of warriors to either vanish or appear somewhere else on a battlefield. Sappers were specially trained troops that dug under castle walls and other fortifications to tunnel in or bring down the walls. Ammo and supply routes ran underground as well, as did paths for retreating.

  ‘It’s got to be something to do with the church,’ Mayfield said. ‘That church has had treasures in the past. Maybe there’s something like that hidden down there.’

  ‘All right,’ Eckart said, ‘the GPS reads us five by five?’

  ‘Affirmative. And I’m keeping an eye on your back door.’

  Eckart sent his point man back into motion. The group moved out like a well-oiled machine.

  Only a few minutes later, they came to a fork in the tunnel. Eckart waved one of his men forward. The man used a latent thermographic scanner to pick up the heat signature left by the people they followed. The body temperature of the group had soaked into the rock enough to leave a ghost trail that was just strong enough. If they got too far behind, and the trail was allowed to cool, they would lose them.

  A short distance further on, they came to another fork. This time the scanner didn’t pick up the trail.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Eckart asked as the soldier turned and checked the readings again.

  ‘I’m not getting the readings any more, sir.’

  ‘You said we were practically on top of them.’

  ‘Yes, sir. We were. Actually, we still are.’ The soldier looked at the wall next to them. ‘The readings show that they walked right into this wall.’

  ‘Or through it.’ Eckart pushed on the wall, but it felt solid. ‘Mayfield.’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘Do you still have our position?’

  ‘Affirmative.’

  ‘Do you see a tunnel along the north wall?’

  Only the popping crackle of the stressed signal sounded for a moment. ‘No, sir. According to the maps I’m looking at, nothing is there.’

  ‘Well, the maps are evidently wrong because these people didn’t just vanish into thin air.’ Eckart shone his light on the floor.

  There were no scrapes or scuff marks on the floor, nothing to indicate the presence of a door that opened outward.

  If not outward, then inward, he reasoned. He reached into his chest pack med kit and took out a pair of aspirin. He crushed the tablets between his fingers and dropped the fine white powder into his other palm. Lying on the floor, he dusted the area in front of the wall, then gently blew the powder toward it.

  Some of the white powder slid gracefully through a carefully mortised crack that hadn’t been visible to his naked eye. In bright sunlight he might have seen it, but not in the eternal darkness of the passageway. He studied the wall again. There was nothing there to indicate the presence of the hidden door.

  He got to his feet and called for his demolitions expert. Maybe Eckart didn’t know all the tricks or the secret word to get through the door, but there was always another way to make an entrance.

  ‘Joachim! What are you doing?’

  Stunned and hurt, Lourds watched Olympia grab hold of her brother’s arm and haul him backwards before he could strike again.

  ‘I’m protecting this place,’ Joachim snarled, his angry features looming out of the darkness, ‘as I promised our father I would do.’

  ‘You can’t just hit him like that!’ Olympia protested.

  Actually, Lourds thought that Joachim could hit him like that any time he chose to. Lourds wasn’t eager to repeat the encounter. He sat up gingerly and worked his jaw. He tasted blood.

  ‘I guess you’re not very big on the trust part,’ Lourds said.

  Olympia wheeled on Lourds. ‘And you! What did you think you were doing telling him you were going to pry that stone out of the wall?’

  ‘Well,’ Lourds replied, ‘with all of us crammed in here like sardines, it didn’t seem very likely that I was going to be able to get the stone out of the wall without him seeing me do it. I thought it would be better to tell him what I was going to do.’

  ‘Why would you want to take the stone out of the wall?’

  ‘This can’t be allowed,’ Joachim protested. ‘This is the crypt of the Elders. This is where those men gave their lives to protect the secret that John of Patmos entrusted to our order.’

  ‘To ensure the safety of the world,’ Lourds said in a bored tone. Joachim took a step towards him. Lourds took a step back and bounced off the wall behind him.

  ‘Non-believer!’ Joachim accused.

  ‘You’re the one with belief problems, not me. I believe the answer to the location of the Joy Scroll is behind that rock.’

  Silence filled the chamber.

  For the first time, Lourds noticed that Cleena had moved towards him. Her hand rested on her hip, but he knew it was only inches away from the pistol she carried.

  ‘Joachim,’ one of the other monks said, ‘perhaps we should listen to the professor. After all, he was able to decipher the text when we could not.’

  ‘It could all be a trick,’ Joachim said. ‘Don’t you see? We don’t know that anything he is telling us is true.’

  His pride stung, Lourds responded, ‘I read about the Joy Scroll. I deciphered that language.’

  ‘Qayin knows about the Joy Sc
roll as well. For all we know, Qayin told you about it when he had you captive.’

  ‘That didn’t happen,’ Cleena said. ‘I was there with him every minute. Qayin didn’t mention the Joy Scroll.’

  ‘You were also his kidnapper,’ Joachim said angrily.

  Cleena shrugged without concern. ‘I was just one of many that day. And, as I recall, you were awfully quick to reach us after Qayin had us.’

  ‘This room should remain undefiled,’ Joachim said. ‘Those Elders need to have their final resting places respected.’

  ‘Their final resting places?’ Lourds repeated.

  Joachim pointed to the floor. For the first time, Lourds noticed the nine rectangles made of different coloured stone set into the floor.

  ‘After their deaths,’ Joachim said, ‘when it was once more safe to return to this place, the Brotherhood returned and buried the Elders.’

  ‘In the floor?’

  ‘Yes. Saints are buried in churches. This is hallowed ground.’

  ‘Where were the other monks buried?’

  ‘In cemeteries. But these men were special. Their passing could not go unmarked.’

  Lourds blotted his bloody lips on a shirt sleeve. ‘I’m not going to defile this room. I’m going to simply remove that stone and look behind it. When I’m done, I’ll put the stone back.’

  ‘You said nothing about removing the stone earlier.’

  Nodding, Lourds agreed. ‘I didn’t. Because I thought you would have this kind of reaction.’ He touched his bruised face gingerly.

  ‘Why do you think there’s something behind that stone?’ the other monk asked.

  ‘According to all of you, the Elders were the only ones who knew where the Joy Scroll was kept,’ Lourds said.

  The monk nodded.

  ‘During the sack of Constantinople in 1204, the monks knew they could be found out and their secret stolen,’ Lourds said. ‘They were aware no one else knew where the Joy Scroll was. So they had to leave behind a message. In this room.’

  ‘The stone,’ Olympia said.

  ‘Exactly.’ Lourds wiped more blood from his mouth. ‘One of the monks inscribed that stone with the message you couldn’t read while they were in here slowly dying.’

  ‘Your translation was, “A stranger shall be required to read the message we have left behind”,’ Olympia said.

  ‘That’s right. Now what do you make of that?’ Lourds stared at them.

  ‘It doesn’t make any sense, just as I told you,’ Joachim said.

  ‘That’s because you don’t have any faith,’ Lourds replied. He hurried on before Joachim took umbrage over his accusation. ‘Why a stranger? Why someone outside the Brotherhood? Why did they write the message in a language they created instead of one that would be easily understood?’

  ‘The last thing we seem to need is a lot more questions,’ Cleena said.

  Despite the pain in his mouth, Lourds couldn’t help grinning. ‘It’s a logic problem. Not a faith problem. This place is hidden.’ He waved his arms to take in the room. ‘Strangers don’t come here. Strangers aren’t allowed.’ He paused. ‘So why bring a stranger here?’

  ‘To see something someone familiar with the place wouldn’t see,’ Olympia said.

  ‘Close,’ Lourds told her, ‘but you’re already off on a tangent.’

  ‘Make sense,’ Joachim ordered impatiently.

  ‘Sure, but it seems as plain as the nose on your face.’ Lourds looked at them. ‘What do you have to fear from strangers?’

  No one answered.

  ‘That a stranger won’t revere those things you hold precious.’ Lourds pointed at the wall. ‘Like that stone. You see a precious relic that ties to a very sad, very terrible story. Maybe even to the nine men who gave their lives to protect it. But do you know what I see?’

  Only silence greeted his question.

  ‘What I see,’ Lourds said in a dramatic voice, ‘is merely the first message. Or maybe the second. It depends on whether you believe the artificial language was the first or second message the Elders left.’

  ‘You’re saying that you believe the Elders took that stone from the wall and put the Joy Scroll behind it?’ Cleena asked.

  ‘No, I’m not.’

  Exasperation tightened Olympia’s face. She wrapped her arms around herself and stared at him. ‘Thomas, I’m lost.’

  ‘Once more for the slow kids,’ Lourds said. He ticked off points on his fingers. ‘One, the Elders had to work with what was inside this room and they needed something that would be left alone but hopefully noticed. They had to leave a message indicating where the Joy Scroll could be found. So they chose the stone. The message about the stranger was because none of you would dare desecrate this place.’

  ‘That makes sense,’ the other monk said.

  ‘Two, the artificial language probably ties into the Joy Scroll. Maybe the whole thing is written in an artificial language that John of Patmos created or caused to be created. Possibly, the writing on that stone is a Rosetta of some sort. A key to help with the translation.’

  ‘It’s a stretch,’ Olympia said.

  ‘Remember, they were desperate, and they could only work with what they had in this room. They left two clues wrapped in one, and both of those were to lead to the third.’

  ‘Thomas is right, Joachim,’ Olympia said quietly. ‘None of you would have touched that stone. Without him, or someone else, that stone would never be removed.’

  ‘Why wouldn’t they use another stone?’ Joachim asked. ‘What makes you so sure that your foolishness won’t have us dismantling this whole room?’

  ‘Because they wouldn’t have wanted to dismantle this room either,’ Lourds answered. ‘And they didn’t want to have the clue too far removed from the Brotherhood. I’m sure they didn’t intend for the Joy Scroll to be lost for so long.’

  Joachim gazed at the stone and the wall and tapped the pry bar against his thigh. Finally, he handed the tool over to Lourds.

  ‘When this is over, after you have discovered the error you have made, you will put the stone back.’

  Lourds met the other man’s gaze full measure. ‘When this is over, and you discover I am right, I will put stone back and it will be as good as new.’

  Joachim stepped across the room and jammed his hands into his pockets. He looked like the next man in line to visit the headsman’s axe.

  Showing as much confidence as he dared, Lourds focused on the stone in the wall. He knelt and set the edge of the pry bar against the mortar.

  Cleena watched with growing interest as Lourds managed to break up the mortar around the inscribed stone. Piles of chips gathered steadily on the floor in front of the professor.

  ‘Can you talk?’ Sevki whispered in her ear.

  Masking her mouth with her hand, Cleena whispered, ‘No.’

  ‘I’ve been picking up the conversation through your earwig. I wish I had a video link to you. This is really cool stuff.’

  If you like old things and dark places, Cleena mused. She was barely keeping the claustrophobic feeling at bay. Every nerve in her body screamed at her to get out of the room.

  ‘Did you know about any of this?’ Sevki asked.

  ‘No.’

  One of the nearby monks must have heard her talking, because the man turned to look to her. Cleena coughed delicately and patted her chest.

  ‘Dust,’ she said.

  The monk nodded and turned away.

  ‘Ooops,’ Sevki said. ‘Sorry. I got carried away.’

  Most of the mortar lay on the floor at Lourds’ feet. A pool of light from all the flashlights played over the action. Lourds paused and reached into the gaps he’d created to seize the stone.

  ‘I don’t hear the hammer any more,’ Sevki said. ‘Is the scroll there?’

  Cleena ignored him, but she felt the same mixture of excitement and curiosity that coursed through Sevki. For the moment it gave her an edge over being in the enclosed space.

  Lourds s
trained to free the stone but it didn’t budge. He returned to work with the pry bar for a few minutes. The only sound that could be heard in the room was the sound of the bar meeting stone and Lourds’ heavy breathing. Everyone else seemed to be holding theirs. The professor put the bar against the stone above the inscribed stone and used leverage. The resulting crack sounded like a pistol shot inside the room.

  ‘You know,’ Sevki said, ‘this is the part in a horror movie where the dead rise up to defend their treasure.’

  Cleena glanced at the nine graves set under the room’s floor. Nothing moved there. Thanks for that thought, Sevki. As if being chased by flesh and blood killers isn’t threat enough.

  Lourds put the bar aside, raised one knee to brace against the wall, and grabbed the stone with both hands.

  ‘Did you get it?’ Olympia asked.

  ‘I think so. I wasn’t able to reach all the mortar at the back. The stone is longer than I’d thought.’ The muscles in Lourds’ forearms corded with effort.

  With a rasping sound the stone came away from the wall. No one spoke. Carefully, Lourds laid it aside and peered into the dark cavity.

  ‘I need a flashlight, please.’

  Olympia handed him hers.

  On his stomach, Lourds trained the beam into the hole.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Joachim asked.

  ‘Making sure the Elders didn’t leave any nasty surprises behind.’ Lourds moved the beam from side to side, up and down.

  ‘They wouldn’t do that.’

  ‘Perhaps not, but if someone beat us to the scroll, they might have. It’s better to be safe than sorry.’ Satisfied, he reached into the hole, but Cleena still saw the tension and wariness tightening his body. His arm sank into the wall much deeper than the area filled by the stone.

  ‘Did he find it?’ Sevki asked.

  Cleena watched Lourds; she didn’t respond.

  ‘I guess maybe there would be a cheer or something,’ Sevki said. The disappointment weighed his words down.

  Then, inexorably, Lourds withdrew his arm from the hole. His hand held a leather tube with a dull grey glob at one end.

  Joachim stepped forward immediately. The suddenness of the man’s movement made Cleena reach for the pistol at her back.