by John Lyman
“Gentlemen, please. Don’t look so shocked. Join me in some tea. You have my solemn promise that no harm will come to you from me on this night.”
Lev was the first of the three who was finally able to speak. “As much as I’d like to believe you, Mr. Acerbi, your presence here is a little disturbing, to say the least.”
“No one else in the outside world knows I’m even alive, Professor. If anyone is in danger, it is I.”
Lev and Alon traded looks before sliding their guns back into their waistbands. Eduardo had made his point. They both knew that if he had wanted them dead, they wouldn’t be listening to the sound of his voice right now.
“Come, Gentlemen ... please, sit.”
The three men scanned the room once more before walking over to an intricately carved wooden table that dated back to the Middle Ages. Taking a seat, Leo noticed that Acerbi had laid out four place settings, indicating that somehow he had known beforehand that three guests would be joining him instead of two.
The old man smiled. “I don’t receive many visitors here, so this is a special treat. I’m sure the first question on your minds is my connection with my son. Despite what you may have heard, Rene and I are two completely separate entities. Although we may share the Acerbi surname, our views on the world do not fall under the umbrella of the same god.”
“Your son has committed the unspeakable, Mr. Acerbi,” Leo said. “I seriously doubt his actions are covered by an umbrella held by any god.”
“I guess that depends on which god you follow, Cardinal Amodeo.”
Leo raised an eyebrow. “The theology of the Cathars has always been a little cloudy to me, Mr. Acerbi. I’ve always considered them more like Christians, who clearly believe in only one god.”
Acerbi stood to pour some freshly brewed Earl Grey tea. He then opened a plain white bakery box and laid some buttery croissants out on their plates. “Cathars are Christians, Cardinal, which begs the question of how much you really know about our faith.”
“I’ve studied enough about the subject to know that yours is a religion of peace, and that many of your beliefs seem to be in harmony with the world around you. I also know that your people were persecuted hundreds of years ago by evil men who called themselves Catholics.”
“Actually, our near extinction was condoned by a Catholic pope, but those were different times, Cardinal. Most people in the Middle Ages were still barbarians. People who romanticize about that period in history usually have no true knowledge of the times. I can’t help but chuckle to myself when I read some of the fictional drivel written about the chivalrous knights of old in their shining armor. They’re usually portrayed as morally incorruptible men who come charging to the rescue on white horses, willing to sacrifice their lives in defense of the downtrodden. However, men who study history ... men like yourself ... know that nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, they had no code of honor. They were filthy, crude, vicious men whose morals more closely resemble those of modern-day motorcycle gangs. In short, they were thugs, plain and simple. The one exception was the Knights Templar. For the most part, the Templars were educated men who actually had a code of honor, but sadly they were exterminated by the French around the same time as the followers of my faith.”
Acerbi paused to cough into his napkin before continuing. “But I don’t have to tell you all of this, Cardinal. You were once a professor of history and theology at Boston College. I’ve read some of your papers on ancient Christianity ... papers written after your discovery of several long-forgotten texts that had been misplaced in the old Vatican library. You and I are kindred spirits in a sense.”
“I’m pleased to hear you’re a fan of my work, Mr. Acerbi, but I’m still puzzled about your question as to which god I believe in. I would think my response to that would be obvious.”
The old man’s eyes crinkled around the edges. “As you probably already know, Cardinal, the Cathar view of Satan differs quite a bit from that of mainstream Christianity. We don’t see the devil as some sort of fallen angel, cast from heaven by God. Ours is a dualist theology that embraces the belief of two equal gods of comparable power and status ... one benevolent and one evil. The god that we worship is a god of love ... a spirit of pure light, completely untainted by all things physical. Unfortunately for us, the god of the physical world, the world we now exist in, is an evil god. He is the god of all things base and material. We call him Rex Mundi ... you call him Satan.”
“So you’re saying you believe in both a good god and a bad god,” Alon said, reaching for a croissant.
“It’s a little more complicated than that, Mr. Lavi, but yes, we believe in the existence of two god-like entities that are on par with one another in power, but we worship only one.”
“I don’t want to appear rude, sir,” Lev said, “but our time here is short. What’s all of this got to do with the virus your son has unleashed on the world ... and how do you fit into the picture? I mean, for over forty years the world has believed you were dead.”
Eduardo continued to smile as he shifted his gaze back and forth between each of the men at the table. “To put it bluntly, Gentlemen, my son is insane. He is ruled by a dark force that has hovered over our family for almost seven-hundred years. Some have called it a curse ... a curse that has doomed my son to the worship of all things material. What Rene wants, in all seriousness, is to be the king of the world.”
Leo and Lev eyed the old man suspiciously. There was no way to be certain that this mysterious and apparently isolated man wasn’t some kind of wolf in sheep’s clothing, a malevolent representation of a kindly elder sent by the Acerbi family to lead them further into the trap. Rene Acerbi had already proven that he was a very calculating opponent, and the man sitting in front of them was his father. Either way, one thing was crystal clear—Eduardo Acerbi was obviously highly intelligent, and his knowledge about them seemed limitless.
Lev continued to study the man’s eyes. Knowledge in the wrong hands could be just as dangerous as any lethal weapon. “If, as you say, your family has been ruled for all these years by some dark force, then why hasn’t it influenced you? Acerbi blood courses through your veins, yet somehow you have managed to escape this so-called curse, while your son has not.”
Eduardo paused as he looked down at the table and ran a wrinkled hand over its polished surface. “That which once dominated my every waking moment no longer has any power over me.”
The three men watched the old man with a growing sense of fascination.
“What happened to you, Mr. Acerbi?” Leo finally asked.
“The love of a good woman, Cardinal ... the love of a good woman is what happened to me.”
The men waited for him to continue, but it was obvious from the way his vacant eyes stared at the table that his mind had drifted off into the past. When finally he looked up, they could see tears running down his face. Whatever mental journey he had just taken had affected him deeply.
The old man cleared his throat and wiped his eyes. “I’ve been an admirer of your work with the Bible code for some time now, Professor Wasserman ... but you’re not the only one who enjoys breaking codes.”
“I’m afraid you have me at a loss, Mr. Acerbi.”
“Please, call me Eduardo. I can see the caution in your eyes, Professor. Let me repeat the fact that you have nothing to fear from me. As I said, I have been an admirer of your work for some time now, because I too have uncovered hidden codes in ancient texts ... three to be exact.”
Lev stiffened in his seat. “You say three texts?”
“Yes, three ... and the Bible is not one of them. Allow me to explain. The year before I disappeared, the Acerbi Corporation purchased a medieval house in the town of Carcassonne. The house was an ancestral treasure. It had once belonged to the sister of Marie Acerbi ... the woman from whom all modern day Acerbis are descended. This important link to our past had been allowed to fall into a sad state of ruin, so I decided to have the property pro
fessionally renovated with some help from a team of historians and archaeologists. They did a beautiful job of taking the house back to its historical roots, but during the renovation the archaeologists discovered a small wooden box behind one of the crumbling walls. Estimates are that it had been there since the crusades against the Cathars sometime in the 13th century. Inside, we found three parchment scrolls, but the writing on them was ancient. The archaeologists had no idea what the symbols inside meant, so they sent me to a scholar who was familiar with long-forgotten languages ... a woman here in the town of Foix.
Our first meeting was rather difficult. She refused to let me into her house until I opened the box and showed her the scrolls. Her demeanor totally changed and she invited me in. Her hands were shaking when she lifted the scrolls from the box and laid them out on the table. After examining them for less than a minute, she looked up at me and began to weep uncontrollably. I didn’t know what to think or what to do. I thought perhaps she was just overly emotional or maybe even unbalanced, but when she was finally able to compose herself, she informed me that I had just handed her the long-lost scrolls of the Cathars.”
“But how did she know what they were?” Leo asked.
“Because she was a Cathar, Gentlemen ... a Cathar who, as a scholar of medieval history, had made the study of the scrolls the focal point of her entire professional life. Like every other Cathar, she had heard the story of how the scrolls had disappeared shortly before Marie’s daughter, Catherine Acerbi, had been burned at the stake for being a heretic, and for the past seven hundred years, the legend of the scrolls had been passed down from one Cathar generation to the next.”
“What was in them?” Leo asked. “I mean, what did they say?”
“Ah, I see the fire of a scholar’s curiosity blazing in those green eyes of yours, Cardinal. I told you we are kindred spirits.”
Leo was beginning to feel an admiration for this man, but even more, he was beginning to trust him.
“Just like your Old Testament, Cardinal, they told the story of our faith. Those scrolls were our Bible, and they changed my life forever.”
“What happened to them?”
“I didn’t dare take them home, so I left them with the Cathar woman. Every few weeks, I would drive alone to Foix, where I would spend the weekend with her in her small house. There, in her living room, we would sit in front of the fireplace, and she would read to me from the scrolls by the light of the fire. Over time, I began to realize what had been lost to my family. The scope of the loss was almost unbearable. Instead of being guided by the Cathar message of love, our family had been shielded from the light by a dark force that flowed from an unseen presence. Without the scrolls to guide us, the Acerbi clan had been turned from the light down a path of hate and revenge by Catherine Acerbi’s son, a cruel man by the name of Guillaume Acerbi. His mind had become twisted from seeing his mother burned at the stake when he was only a child. As the flames burned the flesh from her body, she had called out to Rex Mundi, and Guillaume had heard every word. From that day forward, Guillaume made sure that the Acerbi clan would no longer follow the faith of their ancestors. Instead of praying to the God of Light, they prayed to Rex Mundi, who filled them with a burning desire to accumulate wealth ... wealth that would one day give them the power to spread his message of hate around the world.”
Leo was transfixed by the old man’s story. “But what about the remaining Cathars ... the ones who escaped? Didn’t they have copies of the original scrolls?”
“Of course, but therein lies the problem, Cardinal. They were just copies. For hundreds of years, our people had assumed that the originals had been lost to history. The Cathars who survived the brutal medieval crusade against them fled here to Foix and brought the story of the scrolls with them, but over time, the story began to take on the quality of a myth. Many began to doubt their existence and even compared the tale of the scrolls to a fairy tale. That’s why the discovery of the originals was so important.”
“And your family ... the Acerbis?”
“They remained behind in Carcassonne and grew rich and powerful, eventually branching out into the rest of France. They had no idea that the original scrolls lay hidden within the walls of a house that had belonged to one of their ancestors.”
“Didn’t they have any contact with other Cathars?”
“Several years after Catherine Acerbi’s death, some of the Cathars who had been close to her discovered that Guillaume had made a fortune as a ruthless mercenary by offering his services to the French nobility in the north ... the same men who had killed his own mother. It was said that he even burned Cathars at the stake when he discovered them in hiding. Thinking to save his soul, the Cathars here in Foix sent an emissary to find him and give him a copy of the scrolls, but when the emissary failed to return, they found his body floating in the Aude River with Guillaume’s name carved into his chest. After that, the Cathars hiding here in Foix dared not show themselves again to the outside world. It continues to be this way today.”
“But times have changed,” Leo said. “Why remain in hiding?”
“To a modern Cathar, finding the original Cathar scrolls can be compared to finding the Ark of the Covenant. Like the Ark, the scrolls hold great power. To hold the very scrolls that were said to have been delivered from the hand of God into this world of sin was a transcendent experience, and it changed me forever. The material world no longer held any meaning for me, and I began to hunger for the spiritual life. In time, I converted to the true Cathar religion of my ancestors in a secret ceremony right here in Foix. Afterward, I wanted to shout out my newfound faith to the other members of my family so that they too could see the light, but I was cautioned by my new Cathar friends not to disclose my conversion, lest I reveal their presence to the outside world and expose them to its influences. Cathars live in this world, Cardinal, but they are not of this world. I soon discovered that the dark force that had ruled over my family for the past seven hundred years was reaching out to me, and from that point on, I realized that my life, and the lives of the Cathars living here in Foix, would be in danger if I revealed to outsiders what I had become.”
The old man exhaled before he stood and walked to the window. The sun was just beginning to rise over the mountains in the east, its orange glow infusing the room with the sleepy light of morning as the old man watched the shadows being erased from the crevices in the side of a nearby mountain.
Leo poured some more tea into his cup, wishing instead that it was coffee. “So you chose to leave your family over a matter of faith?”
“There were other reasons. You’ve probably guessed by now that I had grown very close to the woman who translated the scrolls for me. Her name was Colette, and to put it simply, we fell in love. It was a very hard time for me, because despite the fact that I was married and the head of a vast multi-national corporation, I had undergone a spiritual transformation that made it impossible for me continue leading the type of life I had been born into. I felt the tendrils of Rex Mundi trying to tear me away from the God of Light, and there was no way I was going back to my previous existence again.”
“So you just walked away?” Leo asked.
“Not exactly ... I had a plan. Over the years, the Acerbi family had made many powerful friends, friends who were not only powerful, but ruthless as well. They were capable of great evil, and if they had ever learned about my newfound faith, they would have killed not only me, but also my family. It was an easy decision, actually. I decided to simply disappear, leaving everything to my wife and child.”
“Why not take your family with you?”
Eduardo cast an understanding smile at Leo. “It was more complicated than just picking up in the middle of the night and running away. You probably don’t know this, Cardinal, but marriages in the Acerbi clan are always arranged to prevent outsiders from infiltrating our inner circle. My relationship with my wife had never been a passionate love affair, but even so, I had grown to love a
nd respect her for the person she was, and I honestly believe she felt the same about me. I agonized for months about telling her the truth, but in the end, I realized that she would never give up her life as the pampered wife of one of the richest and most powerful men in the world. She would have shouted from the rooftops that I was insane, and my Cathar friends would have been exposed to the outside world ... something I couldn’t allow. Finally, Colette and I concocted a plan. When it came to faith, she was the stronger of the two of us. We decided that I would leave ... disappear and never return, while she would move into my chateau and become the nanny to my son. In this way, I would have someone I trusted watching over Rene, while at the same time, Colette and I would be kept apart, thus ensuring that I would not break my marriage vows ... a huge sin in the Cathar religion.”
“You never saw Colette again?” Lev asked.
“My wife remarried and was later killed in a car accident with her new husband. After she died, Colette and I were secretly married here in this very house, but she continued to live at my chateau in the Loire Valley in order to keep an eye on Rene and ensure that he was being raised properly. We rarely saw each other until Rene turned twenty-one and Colette moved back here to the valley. It was because of her love that I am here today, Gentlemen. She died ten years ago, and I have remained here in Foix all of this time, awaiting the day when we will be together again.”
Silence descended over the room as Lev pulled a cigar from his pocket. “Do you mind if I smoke?”
“Make yourself at home, Professor. I love the smell of a good cigar.”
Shaking out the fire at the end of the match, Lev’s eyes narrowed as he glanced through the swirling blue smoke. “We don’t mean to rush you, Mr. Acerbi, but we’ve been led to believe that you still have contacts inside the Acerbi clan and that you have some sort of plan to stop your son. We’d like to hear it.”
The old man’s eyes took on the focused look of a warrior. “We will stop him through his greatest point of weakness ... his religion.”
