The Lucifer Code (2010)

by Charles Brokaw

  Cleena backed through the door and glanced over her shoulder to make sure no one was behind her. The next room was as big as the last and just as empty.

  ‘Do you know where we are?’ Lourds whispered.

  ‘They weren’t handing out maps when they brought

  ‘So you’re just as lost now as you were a few minutes ago? Only in a bigger room. And these catacombs go on for miles beneath the city.’

  Catacombs were one of the most necessary engineering feats for thriving ancient cities. In centuries past, they’d served to store water, food and house the dead. The thought of graves lodged somewhere in the dark walls left Cleena chilled.

  ‘You are very irritating. And, for your information, stating the problem doesn’t solve it.’

  ‘Recognizing the problem provides focus.’

  ‘Do you have to have an answer for everything?’

  ‘I’m a professor. It’s my job.’

  ‘Professor,’ Qayin called.

  ‘He’s closer,’ Lourds whispered.

  ‘I can hear that. I’m just lost, not deaf. And now that we’re out of that room, they’ll creep up to the doorway.’ It was what Cleena would do in their situation.

  ‘Professor, are you listening?’ Qayin called.

  ‘I’m listening.’

  ‘Don’t listen to him,’ Cleena snapped.

  ‘I’m buying us time,’ Lourds said.

  ‘Leave the book,’ Qayin urged. ‘Leave the book and we’ll let you go free. Unharmed.’

  ‘I don’t believe him,’ Lourds whispered. ‘Do you?’

  ‘No.’ Cleena kept backing up, dividing her attention between the doorway, the professor and the area behind them.

  ‘Right,’ Lourds whispered. ‘As if they haven’t already been trying. I bet I’ve been the only one they’ve found.’

  ‘Kind of high on yourself, aren’t you? You seemed to be struggling with that translation.’

  ‘I read part of it. In twenty minutes, I might add. Under pressure. And without my resource material.’

  ‘You’re really modest, too.’

  ‘I’m good at what I do.’

  ‘They’ll put that on your tombstone,’ Cleena whispered.

  ‘I thought the objective was to get out of here alive.’

  ‘Ah, so you are listening.’

  Lourds cursed.

  ‘Professor?’ Qayin called. ‘Do we have an agreement?’

  Cleena thought desperately, then seized on an idea. She glanced at Lourds and the Zippo he held in his hand. The lighter had to be getting hot.

  ‘Set fire to the book,’ she said.

  Lourds baulked and looked startled. ‘What?’

  ‘Set fire to the book. If they care about it as much as they seem to, they’ll be more interested in saving it than in pursuing us.’

  Lourds wrapped his arm tightly around the book and held it to his chest. ‘I’m not going to burn this book.’

  ‘It’s not your book.’

  their book.’

  A fresh wave of irritation swept through Cleena. ‘You don’t know if that book is even a real artefact. It could be a fake.’

  ‘I don’t think someone went to all the trouble to fake an artificial language based on outdated Greek for an April fool’s joke. We don’t know what we have here.’

  ‘Is that book worth our lives?’ Cleena asked.

  ‘I don’t know. Maybe.’

  Qayin spoke again. ‘Professor, if I’m prepared to try to have another linguist decipher that book, then you have to know that I’m also prepared to shoot you and the woman at this point. I’ll take my chances with finding another translator, but I won’t lose that book.’

  ‘Set fire to the book,’ Cleena commanded again.

  ‘No. I have a responsibility as a scientist to protect it.’

  ‘So you can get your name on an article in some dusty science magazine?’

  ‘That’s not what this is about.’

  Cleena cursed. ‘Are you really this stupid?’

  Lourds suddenly yelped in pain and dropped the Zippo. The lighter hit the ground and the flame went out. Darkness immediately surrounded them.

  ‘Oops.’

  Unbelievably, Lourds bent down as if to search for the dropped lighter. Cleena jerked on his shirt collar to get him moving.

  Lourds staggered and almost fell. He gagged as she kept hold of his shirt collar and guided him towards the door she’d seen on the other side of the room.

  ‘I can’t see,’ Lourds protested, and struggled to slow their headlong pace.

  ‘Neither can they. Keep moving.’

  ‘We’re going to hit a wall.’

  Qayin and his men opened fire behind them. Bullets ricocheted from the stone walls, trailing sparks in their wake.

  ‘Okay. I see your point.’ Lourds stepped up his pace so he was dragging her after him.

  Behind them, Qayin’s followers retrieved their lanterns. Streams of fluorescent lights bounced over the wall ahead of them in time for them to correct their direction before they smashed into stone. Cleena and Lourds sprinted into the next room and took advantage of the partial lighting from the lanterns of their pursuers.

  The gunshots echoed inside the chamber and the sound was enough to let Cleena know that the area was immense. Several stone pillars stood out in the darkness ahead of them and created a maze of obstacles. She pulled on Lourds’ collar to slow his breakneck pace.

  ‘To the left,’ she ordered.

  Immediately, Lourds veered to the left. He rounded a thick pillar and halted when she pulled him against

  ‘What are you doing?’ Lourds asked. ‘Shouldn’t we be running?’

  Cleena peered round the pillar and took a two-handed grip on her pistol. ‘Running sounds fantastic to me. Do you know where to run?’

  ‘Haven’t you been here before?’

  ‘This is my first time.’

  ‘At least you were conscious when you were brought in.’

  ‘I was somewhat distracted getting to know all my new friends and trying to work out if they were going to double-cross me. Which they did.’

  ‘You obviously stink at measuring character …’

  Cleena lost the rest of what he was saying when one of Qayin’s followers exploded through the doorway. The swinging lantern he carried made him a perfect target. She aimed for the centre of the man’s body and squeezed the trigger three times in quick succession.

  At least two of the bullets caught him and pushed him backwards. He sat down hard and his lantern rolled away. Thankfully, the light played over the doorway so Cleena could see if anyone else approached. Just as she realized the light was going to play in her favour, Qayin or one of his followers realized the same thing. A burst of gunfire shattered the lantern. Cleena waited a moment and fired at where she

  ‘Well, that’s narrowed the odds to four to two,’ Lourds whispered. ‘Those odds are a lot better.’

  ‘Really?’ Cleena responded. ‘Which two did you want to take?’

  The professor sighed. ‘Okay, four to one.’

  ‘Now be quiet. I’ve got to listen. I’d suggest that you do the same before they creep up on us in the dark.’

  ‘They’re going to be just as hampered by the darkness as we are.’

  ‘Not if you keep talking. Shut up!’ Cleena turned slightly away from the direction of the door to better use her peripheral vision. She held the pistol ready in her hands and tried not to think of Brigid alone in the world.

  Beside her, Lourds suddenly started.

  Angry with him even though that noise was not enough to alert Qayin and his followers to their position, Cleena said, ‘Be still.’

  Before she could say anything else, someone clapped a rough, calloused hand over her mouth. She twisted and tried to bring the pistol up, but even as she did someone grabbed her wrists. Instinctively, she fired at the shadow that stood out in the darkness round her.

  Catacombs

  Yesilkoy District
>
  Istanbul, Turkey

  17 March 2010

  ‘Please, Professor Lourds, don’t be afraid.’

  After what he had been through since arriving in Istanbul, Lourds couldn’t believe anyone would actually say that. The echo of Cleena’s shot still rang through the large chamber. Now his imagination was in overdrive as he confronted the cowled man.

  Many of the documents Lourds had translated over the years involved myths and legends of monsters in places like the catacombs under Istanbul. In fact, some of the work he had done involved stories of horrors during the Ottoman invasion and the fall of Constantinople.

  Lourds was prepared to fight for his life, but then something happened that he didn’t expect. The man holding him spoke the same plea – except this time he spoke in Ancient Greek. The dialect was a little off, but it was easy to distinguish the root.

  ‘What did you say?’ Lourds asked in that same language.

  ‘Who are you?’

  ‘For now all that I can tell you is that we’re friends. We’re here to get you out of this place. Please instruct the woman to stop fighting.’

  Lourds was suddenly aware that Cleena was still battling against at least one and possibly two men. He turned to her but could not see her in the darkness.

  ‘Stop shooting,’ he said. ‘These are friends.’

  She stopped fighting and leaned into him. Tension tightened her body like a bow string.

  ‘How do you know they’re friends?’ she demanded.

  ‘One of them just told me so.’

  Derision dripped from her. ‘How have you managed to stay alive for so long?’

  ‘I happen to believe him,’ Lourds said defensively. ‘He spoke to me in Ancient Greek.’

  ‘Now there’s a reason to trust someone.’

  ‘He says he and his friends can get us out of here. Interested now?’

  ‘We’re doing fine on our own.’

  ‘Qayin has reinforcements coming,’ the man beside Lourds said.

  ‘You’re just saying that.’

  ‘Actually, we followed them in here.’

  ‘Then where are they? You could be making that up.’

  Acting quickly, Lourds dropped to the ground. Cleena did the same. They were face to face in the darkness, their features intermittently lit by muzzle flashes as bullets crunched against the pillar overhead.

  ‘Convinced?’ Lourds asked dryly.

  She made no reply.

  ‘Professor Lourds?’ the robed man asked Lourds.

  ‘We’re coming, but they have us boxed at both ends.’

  ‘There is another way out. Follow me.’

  Running footsteps echoed through the catacombs. Cleena rose briefly to her knees, held her pistol, and fired. Lourds didn’t wait to see the results of her handiwork. He had seen how devastating she could be with her weapon. The mortal screams behind him let him know she had been just as accurate again.

  Rising to his feet, Lourds remained crouched as he followed the robed man through the darkness. Several of their opponents turned their lanterns in their direction. The bright lights spilled across Lourds just as he saw a narrow opening in the wall ahead of him.

  He followed the man through the opening and into a tunnel. Cleena was on their heels, closely trailed by two more men in robes. Once they were inside, one of the men shoved a recessed section of the wall into

  ‘It’s safe in here, Professor Lourds,’ one of them said. He was young, no older than his late twenties surely. A carefully trimmed goatee framed his chin. His eyes were lost in the shadows of his cowl.

  Cleena reloaded her pistol. ‘Can they get through that door?’

  The man shook his head. ‘Not now. We’ve locked them out.’

  Satisfied with her weapon’s readiness, she studied them. ‘Who are you?’

  ‘As I have stated, we are friends.’ The young man spoke patiently.

  Lourds noticed that she had turned so her pistol hand was kept clear of the five men. She could quickly bring it into play. It seemed a habit as ingrained as breathing.

  ‘I know all my friends,’ she insisted.

  ‘Perhaps I should have said we are friends of the professor,’ the young man amended.

  ‘That true, Professor?’ she asked without taking her eyes off the strangers. ‘Do you know them?’

  ‘Not yet,’ Lourds said. ‘But I’m always open to meeting new friends.’ He looked at her. ‘Especially ones that don’t kidnap me when they first see me. That’s a first impression that’s hard to recover from.’

  ‘Actually, they don’t know all the secrets of these catacombs. We know more about them than they do,’ the young man assured her.

  ‘That’s terrific,’ she said sarcastically. ‘You win. But I’d still prefer to be elsewhere.’

  ‘Of course.’ The young man nodded to his companion with the flashlight who immediately headed down the dark throat of the tunnel. Lourds followed the light.

  Lourds guessed that several minutes passed as they made their way along the passage. He thought he detected an upward grade, but wasn’t sure. It was too dark to tell and he was more interested in listening for sounds of pursuit.

  ‘I see you’re carrying Qayin’s book,’ the young man said.

  ‘I had the impression that this book didn’t actually belong to Qayin,’ Lourds replied. ‘He couldn’t read it anyway.’

  ‘My bad,’ the man said, sounding for a moment like one of Lourds’ Harvard students. ‘I didn’t mean to infer that the book belonged to Qayin. It doesn’t.’

  Unable to control his curiosity, Lourds asked, ‘Whose book is it?’

  ‘Well, isn’t that delightfully mysterious,’ Cleena said.

  ‘Were you so curious about the people who hired you to kidnap Professor Lourds?’ the man countered.

  She didn’t say anything, though Lourds couldn’t tell whether that was because of shame or anger.

  ‘What makes this book so special?’ Lourds asked.

  ‘Were you able to read it?’ the man asked.

  ‘I had barely started, but, yes, I believe I can read it. Given time.’

  Behind him, Cleena cursed softly. Lourds suddenly realized that the admission might endanger him with their newfound friends.

  ‘Watch your head here.’ The young man reached up to touch a low-hanging section of the passageway ceiling.

  Lourds ducked and followed the man through it. The passageway came to a T only a short distance farther on. They bore to the left.

  ‘What did you find out from reading the book?’ the young man asked.

  ‘Not enough,’ Lourds responded.

  ‘But you think you can decipher it?’

  Lourds hesitated only a moment. If I say I can, are you going to take me captive? Or if I say I can’t, are you going to kill me? Neither of those options appealed to him. He had a mystery on his hands, a true enigma of the sort that he loved to unravel. He wasn’t prepared to let this go without a fight.

  ‘Yes,’ he answered.

  ‘Do you know what the book is about?’ Lourds asked.

  The young man looked at Lourds with deep sincerity. ‘Something has been lost, Professor Lourds. Something very valuable and very important. This thing must be found. Much depends on that.’

  ‘What has been lost?’

  Sadly, the young man shook his head. ‘That isn’t for me to say. I apologize. I know you’ve had a difficult day. But anything I may tell you could interfere with your translation. The impressions you form regarding the material you’ll find there must be your own. Many people over the years have tried to decipher the book. If you fail, it must be your own unique failure.’

  Up ahead, a section of the passageway wall opened up to reveal a small high space. Iron rungs were attached to one wall. The young man with the light shone the flashlight up into the vertical passageway.

  ‘All clear,’ he said.

  Lourds was third in line and grabbed one of the rusting iron rungs above his head. He
settled his backpack, with the book inside, across his shoulders and hoisted himself up. The corroded metal bit into his palms and flaked off as he climbed. A brief glance revealed that the vertical passageway went up some distance. He couldn’t keep watching because rust flakes spilled into his eyes. As he climbed, he felt the

  But the mystery of the book chafed at his mind as surely as the rotten iron dug into his hands.

  Just when Lourds was about to let the others know he couldn’t go any further, the lead man called a halt to the procession. Metal rasped overhead, then sunlight poured down into the shaft.

  Morning? Lourds couldn’t believe what he was seeing. But he had no frame of reference for how long he had been rendered unconscious by the drugs he had been given.

  The first man climbed slowly and peered around for a moment, then climbed out of the tunnel. The young man who had done all the talking followed him. Then in short order, Lourds and the girl followed, then the other three men. Lourds stood in a narrow alley that could have been a twin of the one where the helicopter had crashed.

  Cleena stood with her pistol in her fist. Somehow she’d made the long climb with the weapon in her hand. The five men watched her uneasily.

  ‘So how do we handle this?’ she asked.

  ‘We’re escorting Professor Lourds to his hotel,’ the young man with a goatee said.

  ‘What about me?’

  ‘You’re free to go.’

  She looked at the five men suspiciously and took a fresh grip on her weapon. ‘What? Just like that?’

  She smiled. ‘And if I preferred to take the professor with me?’

  ‘That wouldn’t be acceptable.’

  ‘I’ve always been told the person with the gun makes the rules.’

  Uneasily, Lourds shifted and took a step back from her.

  The young man spoke calmly. ‘I assure you, you’re not the only one with a weapon here. You were allowed to come with us because we don’t like to kill, nor would we allow Qayin and his followers to murder you. But our people have fought and died for centuries for the secrets contained within that book.’