‘Did Lourds find the scroll?’ Sevki asked.
As Cleena’s fingers closed around the pistol butt, Joachim extended his hand.
‘May I?’ Joachim asked.
Lourds hesitated.
‘Of course.’ With obvious reluctance, Lourds placed the tube in Joachim’s hand. ‘Please be careful with it.’
Without a word, Joachim took a small pocket knife from his pocket and pushed the tip into the glob.
‘Carefully,’ Lourds said. ‘We don’t know how it’s packed. The scroll could actually be touching the wax seal.’
Once Joachim had cut around the wax seal, he gently pried it from its moorings. Upending the tube, Joachim poured the contents into his palm.
A single roll of what looked like paper slid into his hand. He caught it, then tucked the tube into his back pocket.
Lourds moved closer and Cleena saw by his anxious behaviour that it was everything he could do to keep his hands off the scroll. He took pictures of the scroll, and the sudden flashes from the digital camera made her eyes ache.
‘Do you recognize the seal?’ Lourds asked.
‘Yes,’ Joachim whispered. ‘The impression is from one of the signet rings that belongs to the Brotherhood of the Joy Scroll.’
‘Do you still have the ring?’
‘Yes.’
‘And this is a match?’
Joachim nodded.
‘What is the device?’ Lourds asked. ‘Four horsemen?’
‘Yes. Signifying the end of the world.’
The other members of the Brotherhood closed in and started whispering among themselves. Cleena got the impression that many of them were surprised that the scroll had actually been found, and that it was what they had expected it to be.
‘Let me get a picture of the seal.’ Lourds gestured with his camera.
Joachim presented the scroll while the professor took pictures.
Then everyone took a collective deep breath.
Gently, Joachim slid a thumbnail under the curve of the paper and sliced through the red wax drop that closed the scroll. When he was finished, he unfurled the parchment. He stared at the writing for a long time.
Stepping closer, Cleena peered at the page as well. She didn’t recognize the words, but it was handwritten in beautiful, flowing script. Nine names lined the bottom of the page.
‘What does it say?’ Olympia asked.
Reluctantly, Joachim shook his head. ‘I don’t know. I can’t read it.’ His shoulders sagged a little.
Lourds started to say something, then caught himself and stopped. He licked his lips, his eyes never leaving the scroll, and said, ‘May I?’
Joachim let out a frustrated breath. ‘Of course.’ He handed the scroll to Lourds.
Cleena moved closer to the professor, drawn by the inexorable mystery of the scroll. She wondered what everyone was going to do it if Lourds said he couldn’t read the document either.
Sevki’s voice sounded tense when he spoke. ‘You’ve got problems.’
‘What problems?’ Cleena asked.
‘I don’t think you’re down there alone anymore.’
Stone Goose Apartments
Zeytinburnu District
Istanbul, Turkey
19 March 2010
‘What do you mean, we’re not alone?’
Sevki’s adrenaline spiked as he stared at the computer monitor before him. He had hacked into the security cameras round the Hagia Sophia once he had found out that was where Cleena and the others were heading. It was a reflex move on his part. Hacking into the camera system served two purposes. One, it would give him a visual presence over the area. Two, it was possible he might catch someone else hacking into the system. Either way would provide an early warning system. On the screen, three sports utility vehicles sat along the main road. Though the cameras weren’t of top-shelf quality, they were good enough for him to see the man’s movements. Those movements were deliberate, and the man walked a grid, returning over the same area again and again.
It was obviously something he had been trained for.
‘I think the guys you ran into at the university are back,’ Sevki told her.
‘Where are they?’
‘On the grounds round the church.’
‘Then they’re not down here,’ Cleena said.
Sevki watched as light flickered from a device one of the men held.
‘I wouldn’t want to bet on that,’ he replied. ‘They’re carrying some sort of device and walking a set pattern. It appears to mean they’re tracking something.’
‘Us?’
‘Or another team that’s gone underground.’ Sevki watched the figures for a moment and the sense of unease within him grew. ‘You’ve got the scroll. If you ask me, it’s time for you guys to get out of there.’
Before Cleena could answer, the sound of a deep, powerful explosion rocketed along the earwig transmission frequency.
20
Crypt of the Elders
Hagia Sophia Underground
Istanbul, Turkey
19 March 2010
Lourds stared at the open scroll in his hands. The handwriting looked familiar, and he felt certain that it had belonged to one of the scribes who had written in the book Qayin had shown him. When working with written documents rather than inscribed, the writer’s handiwork often showed itself in stylization, size and placement on documents. Knowing that the writer might be the same was worth something. It helped place the timeline of the document. But the bottom line was that Lourds couldn’t read it. Some of the words looked familiar, but the context was wrong and he couldn’t make sense of too many of the words on the vellum. Resigning himself to defeat, Lourds looked up at the anxious faces surrounding him. Before he could say anything, Cleena freed her pistol and the monks nearest her stepped back and spread out.
Then a deafening blast crashed through the room. Immediately, a fusillade of broken rock tumbled down the corkscrew stairway, followed by a dust cloud that pooled into the room.
With the BOOOOOM of the explosives echoing around him, Eckart took a fresh grip on his pistol and the small flashlight he held. Dust coated his tongue and caked his nostrils. His breath seized at the back of his throat.
When he played his flashlight over the wall, he saw the charges had destroyed the secret door and fractured the walls on either side. Further down the exposed passage, a jumble of rock half closed the hidden entrance. Eckart peered over his gun sight but saw nothing moving. He waved to his point man and indicated the doorway. At once, the man crouched and followed the steps down. Eckart trailed behind him with his pistol gripped in both hands. The other men fell in behind him.
Only a few steps later, the debris rose enough to close the stairway. Broken rock had tumbled down and been caught to form a day against forward progress.
Eckart cursed the bad luck, then holstered his weapon and put on his gloves.
‘Form a line. We’ve got to clear debris.’
The point man slung his weapon over his shoulder and reached for the first rock. He swung round and handed it to Eckart, who handed it to the next man in line. By the time he turned back, the point man had another rock ready. He listened for noise on the other side of the barrier and wondered if his quarry had got away again, or if the blast had killed them.
When the force of the blast filled the room, Lourds grabbed Olympia and pulled her down with him into a protective embrace. She clung to him as rocks ricocheted from walls. Several of them slammed against Lourds’ back and shoulders and stung sharply.
Choking on the dust, he looked up. Grit stung his eyes and brought tears. For a moment he sat frozen and wondered what he was supposed to do. He thought about how the Elders had perished in that room all those years ago. Primitive fear screamed through his brain at the thought of being buried alive. He had to force himself to be calm. Even with his arms wrapped round Olympia, he hadn’t dropped the scroll.
‘Is everyone all right?’ Joachim asked. Blood le
aked from a shallow wound by his left eye.
The other monks answered affirmatively. Behind them, Cleena shoved herself to her feet. She still held the pistol in one hand.
A few loose rocks bounded down the staircase and bounced into the room. Scrabbling noises followed.
‘They’re still up there,’ Lourds said. More rocks tumbled into the room.
‘They’ll dig down to us as soon as they can.’ Joachim turned to Lourds and held out a hand. ‘The scroll, please, Professor.’
Reluctantly, Lourds passed him the scroll. The monk dropped the scroll into the leather tube and blocked it once more with the wax seal.
‘Quickly. We haven’t much time.’ Joachim crossed the floor to the gravesite in the corner opposite to the one that had held the scroll. ‘Professor, your pry bar, if you don’t mind.’
Lourds picked it up from the floor and joined Joachim. The monk hunkered down over the grave and took the bar in one hand.
‘What are you doing?’ Olympia asked. She stood behind her brother.
More rocks shifted in the stairway. Men’s harsh voices could be heard in the room. Occasional shafts of light from flashlight beams splintered through the debris. Lourds knew it wouldn’t take much longer for the men to break through. Then they wouldn’t have a chance.
‘Lessons were learned after the deaths of the Elders.’ Joachim shoved the bar into a gap between the stones. He leaned on it and mortar cracked. One of the polished stones lifted from the floor. ‘An escape route was added from this room when there had not been one before. No longer has the Brotherhood depended solely on secrecy.’
Thank God for that, Lourds thought.
He and two of the monks helped clear stones as Joachim freed them. They clacked and skidded across the floor. Some of them ricocheted against the loose stones clattering down the stairway. Cleena and Olympia held flashlights on the enlarging hole taking shape in the floor. In seconds they had cleared enough stones to reveal a plain wooden coffin beneath the floor. The stench of mould and mildew invaded the room and warred against the encroaching dust cloud.
‘Brother, forgive me for disturbing your rest,’ Joachim said quietly. Then he reached for a rope handle attached to the coffin. Lourds grasped another while the other two monks grabbed handles as well.
‘Together,’ Joachim said. ‘Set and lift.’
The weight surprised Lourds. He knew the body within hadn’t been preserved and probably only desiccated skin and bones remained. But his position was awkward and he wasn’t able to properly set himself. His back and shoulder muscles burned with effort. The coffin came free of the hole awkwardly and slammed against the sides on its way up. It was only a foot deep under the stone floor. Nothing marked the coffin, no name and no indication of what happened to the man within.
Once it reached the level of the floor, Joachim pulled it towards him and set it down. At his direction, they shoved the coffin against the wall. He asked Olympia for her flashlight, then shone it down into the hole.
The tunnel opening looked incredibly small. There wasn’t room to stand and Lourds wondered if there was even room to crawl.
‘That doesn’t look big enough,’ he said.
A fresh cascade of rock tumbled down the stairway and drew their attention to the threat of the men coming from above.
‘We don’t have a choice,’ Olympia said.
Joachim helped his sister down into the hole. He returned the flashlight to her. She hesitated, then lay on her stomach and slithered into the hole.
‘The tunnel wasn’t made for comfort,’ Joachim said. ‘There’s room enough but it will be tight.’
‘You do realize that the average size for a person has increased,’ Lourds said.
‘We don’t exactly have time to enlarge the tunnel,’ Cleena said.
‘Someone could get stuck.’
‘That’s why you’re going to go last.’
‘Me?’ Lourds looked round.
‘You’re the biggest person here,’ Cleena said. ‘If anyone’s going to get stuck, it’s going to be you.’
Lourds quickly realized what she said was true. He was the tallest and the broadest across. He looked to the others for support or at least sympathy. None was forthcoming.
‘Absolutely delightful,’ he muttered.
Cleena followed Olympia into the tunnel. At Joachim’s instruction, the other monks quickly dropped into place and began the journey.
‘How long is the tunnel?’ Lourds asked.
‘About five hundred yards,’ Joachim answered.
‘I don’t suppose anyone has used it in the last eight centuries?’
Joachim dropped into the grave. ‘No. We haven’t had cause to flee from this room before.’
And knowing the way is clear is too much to ask, Lourds thought sourly. ‘You realize, of course, that earthquakes could have collapsed the tunnel anywhere along the way.’
‘I certainly hope that isn’t the case.’ Joachim looked towards the staircase as more rock tumbled into the room. ‘Professor, my sister has always maintained you’re an intelligent man. If you think your chances here are greater, you may stay.’ He dropped to his stomach and crawled into the tunnel.
‘They could seal the tunnel after us,’ Lourds pointed out. ‘If it’s blocked ahead, we’ll be entombed.’
Evidently Joachim was saving his breath for crawling.
Cursing, realizing he was more afraid of losing touch with the puzzle than he was of getting trapped underground, Lourds dropped into the grave, fell to his stomach, and entered the tunnel.
Stone Goose Apartments
Zeytinburnu District
Istanbul, Turkey
19 March 2010
Sevki sat on the edge of his chair and captured images of the men waiting round the Hagia Sophia. When he had them all, he turned to another monitor and cropped the images into headshots of the individuals, choosing full frontal and profile shots where he could find them. His software was exotic, a blend of high-tech government imaging programs equipped with a special code he added. When he didn’t have a full frontal or profile shot, he resampled the image, corrected the angle and had the program fill in the blank spots. It wasn’t perfect, but he’d found over the years that it was good enough.
Employers often hired him to cover payoffs and exchanges so they wouldn’t be surprised who was there. Or to get a record of who was there so they could exact revenge if necessary.
Once he had the images in the shape he wanted, he ran them through international identification systems he had hacked into. He knew he was probably going to burn one of the back doors he’d built into the system because he was dumping eight faces in at once. Someone was going to catch him this time. He only hoped he could get in and out with the information he needed before that happened.
While the programs ran, and he surveyed the connections to know when a protective firewall discovered his false identification, he stared at the church grounds. His thoughts ran rampant.
A scroll. Buried and lost for hundreds of years. How much is something like that worth? The question buzzed inside his mind, but he already knew the answer: enough to get killed over.
The communication he had with Cleena over the earwig was intermittent; it was interrupted by the surrounding rock and the other shielded communications within the area used by the men chasing her. The rasp of her breathing and the infrequent curses and yelps of pain let Sevki know she was still alive and still running.
The first face froze on the monitor as identification was made. In neat lines of script beneath the face, Sevki learned that the man was Corliss Baker, a Marine sergeant killed in action in Iraq six years ago. Baker had been recognized for several acts of bravery. Then the second man was identified. His name was Zachary Stillson. He’d also died in Iraq six years ago. Strangely enough, he had been killed in the same engagement that had taken the life of Corliss Baker. A third man, Henry Marstars, also a Marine, had died in that same battle.
A warning i
con flashed onto the screen to let Sevki know he had alerted the gatekeepers at the other end of the hacked connection. He dumped a potpourri of foolies and false trails into the mix in case they had managed to tag him – which he considered doubtful – and fled the site.
When he settled back into his chair, he wasn’t surprised to learn he was drenched in sweat. Digging around in American military or corporate databases always left him like that. Those entities had a habit of hiring people as gifted as he was. No matter how curious or financially rewarding a cyber score could be, Sevki didn’t want to lose his home. He had worked hard to buy the building and he was happy there. But he was also a game player. A gauntlet had been thrown down by the ‘ghosts’ currently haunting the Hagia Sophia.
He continued monitoring the situation on the ground at the church, but he opened up a new window on another screen and began tracking down what he could about this military engagement in Iraq. He did love a conspiracy.
Crypt of the Elders
Hagia Sophia Underground
Istanbul, Turkey
19 March 2010
Sharp stones bit into Lourds’ knees and elbows as he crawled through the narrow tunnel. He held his hat in one hand because he couldn’t crawl while wearing it. He banged his head several times on the low roof. That chill clinging to the earth leached into his bones and tightened his muscles. He couldn’t see past the people in front of him and that worried him considerably. The tunnel wasn’t straight. Occasionally it dipped or rose, probably to avoid harder strata above or below. Scars of tools used by the men who had dug the tunnel lined the passageway.
He was certain he was bleeding from a score of small wounds but couldn’t be sure in the darkness. His strained breathing rasped in his ears and he wondered if the oxygen level was enough to sustain them all. Perhaps the efforts of so many people all at one time were charging the air with carbon dioxide and they would all suffocate before they reached the other end.
That’s the problem with being over-educated, he chided himself. You can always find something with which to scare yourself.
He kept crawling, forcing away the pain in his elbows and knees that felt like tiny teeth tearing into his flesh. He thought he heard the sounds of pursuit. The idea of the gunmen slithering through the tunnel behind him in the darkness filled him with fear that was even colder than the earth round him.
The Lucifer Code Page 27
