Peter could see that. He slowed his run to a walk and stretched out his hands.
»Just give me the amulet.«
Maria shook her head, not saying a word.
»Have it your way,« he said, approaching her again.
It was at this moment that Maria looked past Peter and saw the car turning into the street. The driver put the pedal to the metal and the tires screeched. Peter turned around and took a step to the side. For a split second, he seemed irritated, as the car headed straight for him. In an attempt to get out of harm’s way, he jumped backwards but the side mirror of the car hit his hip. Maria heard a pounding sound and saw Peter fly through the air before landing on the pavement. The car kept driving and bounced back into the street, now heading straight for Maria. Maria started running again. She tried to get to safety but the car cut her off and came to a screeching halt right in front of her. Maria crawled over the car’s engine hood. The driver’s door flew open. A man bolted out of the car and ran after Maria, grabbing her arm.
»What the heck, Maria, wait!«
Maria stared at the man, flabbergasted. Without putting up any resistance, she allowed him to pull her back to the car.
»Get in there. Move. We have to get out of here.«
The man pushed Maria into the passenger seat, slammed the door shut, and walked around the car before sitting behind the wheel. He looked at her.
»Is everything alright with you?«
She shook her head, silently. The man smiled at her. Then he looked over his shoulder at Peter, who was struggling to his feet, and started the engine.
»Put your seat belt on.«
She nodded. »Yes, Dad.«
LX
May 15, 2011, Ile de Cuivre, Mediterranean Sea
Little rabbit in the hole, sat and slept, sat and slept… Little rabbit, are you ill, why can’t you jump up the hill?
»You’re running out of time, Micama. He is on his way. Wearily Electors. He is already here. Kill me and I will show you the way off this island.«
»I cannot do that.«
»You have to, Peter. If you ever want to leave this island alive. Oanio yore vohima. And it is not just you who will die. Many people will die. The world will end unless you save it.«
»I cannot do it.«
»Oh yes, you can. Deep inside, you actually want to do it, Micama. You have always been dreaming about it. Uirequo ope copehanu. Just look at me! It is so easy to kill me.«
Kelly came closer and closer. Peter backed away from him and took a good look at the emaciated maniac who was smeared with his own feces. For the last year he had been wishing nothing more than to see him dead but now, all he could feel for him was disgust. Kelly was already dead.
»Tell me where this escape route is and I will get us both out of here.«
»Niiso, Peter Adam! Od vabezodire cameliaxa, fair little flower. The reaper whets his knife so that it will cut much better. That’s how it works. You have to kill me.«
Kelly was gasping and making smacking noises with his mouth. Peter thought for a while. He cast his mind back to that day in Kunduz and saw the dead body of the man he had shot. On that day, many years ago, he had vowed never to kill again. The itch returned. The itch that had tormented him since he had awoken on this island. It was worse than ever before and he understood that the itching was a sign.
That Kelly was right.
»Okay,« Peter finally said. »I will kill you. So, where is this escape route?«
»Swear it to me, Micama!«
»That is not necessary. I will kill you, Kelly.«
»Swear it to me!«
»Okay then, I swear.«
Kelly seemed relieved. Almost euphoric. He was so happy that he jumped to his feet and started hopping grotesquely through the cell. Peter grabbed him and held him tightly.
»And now you will tell me how I can get out of here.«
Kelly made a loud smacking sound, as if he were testing his memory in his mouth. Then he moved very close to Peter and whispered into Peter’s ear.
»There is an ancient sewage tunnel. It is located tolahame caosago homida. Under the hall with the Sigillum Dei. Very old shaft. Nobody knows about it. Just me and the Ooaona.« He giggled. »I am an Ooaona. I crawl around the Tabula Santa. I sniff the salt in the air. I find the shaft. Very old Darisapa, very narrow, very deep.«
»Where does it lead?«
»Into the depths, Peter! Berinu orocahe. Into the great darkness. Into the ocean. Into the big, big ocean, Peter!«
Peter got nauseous. Narrowness, darkness, water. The demons of his nightmares. The three things he feared more than anything else in this world. He could feel the panic rise in his chest.
»Are you absolutely sure, Kelly, that this is the only way out? Is there no alternative?«
»No, Peter, this is the way. The path you have to take. This is the cup from which you have to drink. Hoathahe Saitan!«
Kelly giggled again, hoarsely. »So kill me now. You swore it to me.«
»No, Kelly, before I kill you I want to see this shaft. When I am sure that you did not lie to me, I will kill you.«
Kelly uttered a furious and whimpering cry and began to squirm and writhe on the floor. »You are a crook and a cheat,« he hissed. »Nonuci dasontif Babaje! You shall be damned.«
Peter grabbed Kelly again and hit him in the face. Kelly howled like a beaten dog.
»Why are you doing this, Micama?«
»Stop playing insane, Kelly. I will kill you but before I do, there are a few things you need to tell me.«
»But I am insane, Peter. Completely dooainu!«
Kelly wanted to wiggle his way out of Peter’s grip but Peter held him in an iron grasp.
»Who are these ›light-bearers‹? What do they want? Answer my questions, Kelly, or I will forget what I swore to you.«
Kelly kept twisting and turning and spat into Peter’s face. »You will not do that! Casaremanu hoel-qo!«
»Oh yes I will, Kelly. I will just leave you here and they will continue to do with you what they have been doing with you the whole time. It will never end. You will not be allowed to die.«
Kelly let out a scream. But then he calmed down again and knelt on the floor in front of Peter, looking into his eyes. In spite of the darkness in the cell, Peter saw Kelly’s eyes brighten.
»Hoathahe Saitan! Perhaps I underestimated you, Peter.« Suddenly his voice sounded completely normal. »You want to know who the Bearers of the Light are? But you know it already, Peter. You’ve known it for a long time. You just forgot. Like so many other things. You also forgot that you are a murderer. You murdered Ellen and many other people.«
Peter punched him again. Harder than before. Once. Twice. He punched Kelly in the face and yelled at him.
»That is not true! That is not true, you lousy jerk.«
»Yes, kill me, Micama, kill me now!« Kelly fell back into babbling insanities. »Hoathahe Saitan!«
Peter let go of Kelly. Grim images rose before him, images of Ellen’s dead body and of a man and a woman standing in a long corridor, calling something out to him. They told him to hurry up.
»You are ilasa, Peter. Cursed. Hoathahe Saitan! You will die if you don’t flee.«
»Shut your trap!« Peter moaned, as he pressed his hands against his temples.
Sat and slept, sat and slept…
And then, another thought hit him, as clearly as a light in the night.
You are losing your mind, provided you haven’t lost it already. Accept it. You. Are. Losing. Your. Mind. Now.
»No!« Peter screamed to shake off the nightmarish images. He gasped for air as he looked over to Kelly, who was gazing at him with a compassionate look on his face while kneading the scar of his mutilated ear.
»How does it feel, Peter?« Kelly asked in an interested tone, seemingly lucid again. »When you get your migraine attacks and see these things that look so familiar to you, as if you had seen them before? When you hear a foreign language and can
suddenly understand it? Do you really believe that these are just regular déjà vu experiences?« Kelly laughed. »They are memories, Peter. Don’t shut them down.«
»What do you know about me?« Peter gasped.
»I know so much, Peter. Don’t forget that I can talk to angels. Hoathahe Saitan! Ask your parents, Peter.«
»My parents are dead!«
»Oh, that’s right, of course. Forgive me for being so impious.«
»Who are these Bearers of the Light?«
»A powerful brotherhood. Zodi od Zodameranu. They are searching for the Big Secret. They are already very close.«
»Which secret? The Treasure of the Templars?«
»Oh, the Treasure of the Templars! Yes, exactly, that is what I am talking about. But what is the treasure? The treasure, the treasure, the treasure. Everybody is searching for it, but nobody knows what it is. Nobody has it. Hoathahe Saitan! The number shows the way. 306, the number of the Apocalypse. After the inquiry into the Order of the Temple, the Templars scattered to the four winds and took with them the Big Secret. But it took them only a few years to regroup. They did it clandestinely and split into two groups. The Avignon group continued to pursue in secret the original goals of the Knights Templar. The other group, however, that called itself the Light-Bearers and convened on a cursed island in the Venetian Lagoon, where plague victims had been taken during the epidemic, this group was seeking revenge. They wanted to take revenge for the destruction of their order. Revenge on the world and on the Church that had betrayed them. They also call themselves the Sons of Seth, who was the son of Adam. Or the Egyptian deity of destruction; whatever you prefer. In any case, whoever was their leader over the past centuries bore this name: Seth. And 306 is his number. 306, you know what this number means in the Kabbalah, don’t you?«
Kelly wrote a Hebrew word into the dirt of the floor.
»This means Heress!« he hissed. »Destruction. Hoathahe Saitan! Because the Bearers of the Light believe in the Gospel of the Egyptians and in the Apocalypse of Adam. But the 306 also has another meaning.«
Kelly scratched another Hebrew word into the dirt.
»This means Dwasch – honey. Do you see it now, Micama? Do you recognize the truth? It is both: bitterness and sweetness. Hell and paradise. Pain and lust. The beginning and the end.«
»Kelly, that sounds totally insane. This so-called Apocalypse of Adam is an esoteric fairy tale.«
»Believe what you want, Peter, or don’t believe. In any case, the Templars were now two separate groups. Both orders became very powerful. And over the centuries, they engaged in an acrimonious war over the Big Secret. Because this secret was lost during the destruction of the Knights Templar. Only one thing is known…«
Kelly drew a symbol into the dirt on the floor. A symbol which consisted of multiple crossing lines, small circles, and small diamonds that had become all too familiar to Peter:
»The cursed symbol,« Kelly said, spitting on the floor. »The symbol is the key. Don’t forget that, Peter: the symbol is the key. Three zero six equals nine. There are nine keys in this world. Nine keys scattered to the four winds together with the Templars. But the key with this symbol holds them all together. This is the key that the Light-Bearers are searching for. And the angels in Hell have shown me where they can find it. That you have it, Peter. You and your little girlfriend.«
»So that is what you do downstairs in the hall; you talk to angels?«
»Oh yes, I do. Even though the term ›angels‹ might be misleading. The creatures with whom I am making contact are… how can I put this… more on the unfriendly side. Despite the fact that the Sigillum Dei is protecting me, the encounters are always extremely torturous. Endlessly agonizing. Oh, this horrible, horrible language! Ohyo! ohyo! noibe Ohyo! I wish I had never discovered it. Let me die, Peter! Give me the gift of death.«
The language!
»Which language is it, Kelly?«
»Don’t play the fool, Peter. I have long seen that you remember the language. Hoathahe Saitan! Do you remember? Enochian? The language of angels and demons.«
He is right, and you know it! Sat and slept…
Peter tried to collect his thoughts. With bare feet, he stepped into the splinters of his memories and all he could feel was pain. The pain of being torn from something he loved. The pain of no longer being complete. He could not deny that this Enochian language seemed kind of familiar to him. Strangely enough, he could even understand parts of it.
But why? When did you learn this language?
»Tell me the truth, Kelly! Who killed Ellen?«
Kelly wiped the blood from the corners of his mouth. »The truth?« he said. »How can you expect to see the truth if you are not even willing to remember? The Bearers of the Light are frantically searching for the nine seals to create a new world order. That is the truth.«
Peter began to shake Kelly violently. »Enough, Kelly, enough! I want the truth!«
»So you think what I am saying is absurd? Why is that? You know better, Peter. You saw it in your vision, didn’t you? The Light-Bearers will get their revenge by destroying the Vatican and the Catholic Church. And this will happen soon. During the next solar eclipse. During the conclave. It has already begun, Peter. New Zealand, Japan, Libya, the ISS; these were all precursors. Malachy’s Prophecy of the Pope will be fulfilled. The next Pope will call himself Peter. And this will only be the beginning of the end. The Apocalypse starts three days from now.«
LXI
May 15, 2011, Vatican City
Lieutenant Colonel Res Steiner found that his commander was uncommonly quiet and even more withdrawn than usual when he returned that night to the Swiss Guards’ barracks. Not a single word of explanation as to how he had spent the last two days. Bühler greeted them in passing and then he locked himself into his office. The guards in the sala operativa exchanged puzzled looks with each other and shrugged. It was unusual enough that the Colonel had left the barracks just as they were planning one of their most important operations, but that he returned without convening a briefing or giving any explanations was downright disconcerting. So much so that Res Steiner waited only a few minutes before knocking at his commander’s door. No answer.
»Colonel Commandant?«
Bühler did not respond. Steiner became nervous. He did not know that Bühler was sitting on the other side of the door, pressing the barrel of his SIG P220 against his temple, but he knew enough about his commander to regard this silence as a warning signal.
»Colonel Commandant, please open the door, Sir!«
Steiner waved two of the guards over. But at the same moment, the door opened and Bühler let him enter the room. For a split second, it seemed to Steiner as if his commander had been crying.
»Is everything alright, Colonel?«
»Yes. What’s the status?«
»No special incidents, Colonel. The cardinals who are eligible to vote have all arrived and tomorrow they will gather in the Sistine Chapel for a pre-conclave safety instruction demonstration.«
»Very good. Thank you.« Bühler looked at his Lieutenant Colonel. »Anything else, Steiner?«
Steiner was feeling uncomfortable. The change in his commander’s demeanor was too obvious. Not to mention the gun on his desk. However, he did not dare to ask him any questions.
»What about this Venice lead? Did you find anything out?«
»No,« Bühler answered succinctly. »It was a dead end. And that sucks.«
Steiner could see that Bühler was desperately trying to hold back his tears. »If there is anything that I can do for you, Colonel Commandant…«
»GET YOUR ASS OUT OF HERE!« Bühler yelled into his face. »And close the fucking door behind you.«
He needed a few minutes to regain his composure. To come to grips with the fact that he could not run away from his responsibilities towards his sister and his oath, as irreconcilable as they appeared. In comparison, his own life seemed completely insignificant. And neither his death nor his
voluntary resignation could change this. He could not take anyone into his confidence, neither Steiner, whom he almost regarded as a friend, nor Menendez or anybody else. Bühler was convinced that the people who were holding his sister captive were keeping him under constant surveillance. He could not trust anyone any more.
Except, perhaps, one person. But he was not even sure about that.
»Steiner, I apologize,« Bühler said, as he came out of his office. »Won’t happen again. I’m just so pissed about these two days that I wasted.«
Steiner nodded. This settled the matter for him.
Bühler glanced at the surveillance monitors on the wall and looked for the screen that showed the former gardener’s house.
»What about the surveillance of the Padre?«
»No special incidents, Colonel Commandant.«
»Okay, but keep going. Briefing in ten minutes in the conference room.«
The briefing was shorter than usual and Bühler listened only with half an ear. Afterwards he informed the office of Cardinal Menendez that he was on his way to meet with the Cardinal. Menendez greeted the head of the Swiss Guards with a barrage of reproaches.
»For the love of God, Colonel, where have you been? This is outrageous behavior. The Vatican is faced with the greatest threat in over two hundred years and the Commander of the Swiss Guards enjoys a two-day getaway to the Venice Lido!«
»With all due respect, Your Eminence, this was an investigation. It was an urgent matter.«
»Well, then tell me all about it, Colonel.«
»It is still too early for a conclusive assessment. But according to my information, the threat has increased.«
Apocalypsis I Page 34
