But would he go hunting again on West Hargett Street? And furthermore, where would he display his next victim if the FBI didn’t stop him in time? That was the question.
It was Dr. Underhill who offered the best answer.
“The military connection makes a lot of sense,” he said at the end of the teleconference. “But in addition to checking out the patient records, you may want to look at specific units that identify themselves with lions or other big cats, perhaps even winged creatures like eagles and hawks. After all, Nergal was not only the god of war—the ultimate soldier, if you will—but also a lion with wings.”
“Do you think we should narrow down our suspect pool further by focusing on servicemen whose birthdays fall under the sign of Leo?” Markham asked. “Identification with a destiny written in the stars?”
“Couldn’t hurt,” Underhill replied. “But maybe our boy is mapping out his own sign, his own identity on the ground. Given the nature of the sacrifices, the theory of a servant, a sort of Leo Minor helping to resurrect the god makes the most sense to me. And if that is in fact the case, maybe the Starlight Theater visual was the starting point for a picture on the ground that mimics his military insignia—a creature or something with which he identifies. Just a hunch.”
Markham climbed onto the plane and said hello to the flight attendant. No FBI plane today, but there were only a handful of passengers making the trip with him on the charter flight to Connecticut. He found a seat over the wing, stowed his carry-on, and sat down by the window. The flight attendant closed the hatch and came by to make sure he’d fastened his seat belt. He hadn’t, and she smiled and pointed to remind him.
Waiting.
More than anything else about his job Sam Markham hated the waiting. And as he stared past the flight attendant into the open cockpit, he imagined the days ahead of him tumbling out in a series of big black numbers.
The news conference had gone well, he thought. That was a plus. The FBI would now be able to work quietly behind the scenes while the media chewed on the phony Vlad angle. And it would only be a matter of time before Geraldo and Nancy Grace and all the others would start throwing around the gay-bashing theories, too. But that wouldn’t bother the Impaler. No, Markham thought, the Impaler wouldn’t give two shits about what the public thought as long as Nergal was happy.
The plane started to move and he punched open his e-mail on his BlackBerry. Alan Gates had already gotten the ball rolling with the three soldiers who’d been brought up on smuggling charges at the beginning of Iraq War. Markham had received the e-mail on the way to the airport. He read it again.
I got their names. Two are presently serving their third tours in Iraq, while the other has been confirmed to be living in Seattle. I got a man with him now. None of them are our boy, but they may know something. Good work today.—AG
PS: The preliminary autopsy report just came back on Canning. Looks like our boy kept him alive for a couple of weeks before he skewered him.
Markham felt his stomach turn. Did the Impaler hold Canning hostage so he could tattoo him? Was that why he abducted him in the first place? If so, that meant there were more leads to follow: the thefts or purchases of tattoo equipment in the—
This was true. Schaap had already come back with a working list of military units and ranked them according to their assignments in Iraq, as well as by their associated in-signias and mascots. There were plenty of lions, of course, but a bunch of hybrid animals, too: the winged soaring black panther of the 82nd Airborne’s 3rd Combat Brigade out of Fort Bragg, the fishtailed lion of the 8th Marines Regiment out of Camp Lejeune, the Screaming Eagle of Fort Campbell’s 101st Airborne. So many that Markham had never heard of; so many that his head felt as if it was spinning when he left the Resident Agency.
The flight attendant motioned for him to turn off his BlackBerry. He did and closed his eyes. Perhaps it was good that he was getting away. There was nothing he could do now but wait. No one else for him to question until all the data came back and he could get some boots on the ground. Besides, he needed to sleep; needed to clear his mind and come back fresh with a new perspective.
The plane stopped again and Markham opened his eyes, slipped his hand under the seat in front of him and removed some papers from his briefcase. He read them.
An examination of how the god Nergal transitioned over the centuries from a solar deity to the lord of the Underworld (as well as his association with the planet Mars) cannot be explained without an examination of his relationship to Ereshkigal, the Babylonian goddess of the Underworld.
The love story of Nergal and Ereshkigal is unique in that it takes place in Irkalla, the Mesopotamian Land of the Dead. Two different versions of the myth exist—the first discovered in Tel El-Amarna, Egypt, dates from around the fifteenth century BCE and contains roughly 90 lines of text; the second, much longer version (approx. 750 lines) dates from seventh century BCE and was found on the site of the ancient Assyrian city of Sultantepe.
In the first version, Nergal descends to the Underworld with an army of demons, rapes Ereshkigal and seizes her throne, then remains there to rule as king. In the later tradition, Nergal seems to make two trips to the Underworld, and instead of an army of demons, he takes down a special throne that will protect him from being seized by ghosts. Ereshkigal then seduces Ner-gal by showing him a glimpse of her body while taking a bath, and the two then fall into a passionate love affair. Otherwise, the basic story lines are the same.
In both versions, the celestial gods hold a banquet, and since Ereshkigal is the queen of the Underworld, cosmic law dictates that she cannot journey to the heavens to join them. She sends an envoy to fetch her portion, and Nergal, god of war and pestilence, is rude to him. The other gods deem that Nergal must be punished by Ereshkigal for the insult. Nergal descends to the Underworld, overpowers Ereshkigal, and the two fall in love. Thus, the chief difference between the two versions is that in the first, Nergal comes to the throne by violence. In the second, the conflict leads to a love affair.
A significant portion of the Nergal and Ereshkigal myth is missing from both the Tel El-Amarna and the Sultantepe versions. However, as mentioned earlier, not only do we have what appears to be the mythological record of how the god Nergal went from becoming a solar deity to the lord of the Underworld, we also have a cultural record that expresses views about human sexuality, as well as Neo-Babylonian and Late Assyrian relationships between men and women.
Let’s examine the …
The plane started down the runway; and by the time it lifted off, Markham’s eyelids had grown heavy—the urge to sleep overpowering him as the plane climbed higher and higher.
The thoughts, the images that flickered before his eyes were of the lion-headed god Nergal—but the lion god
