House of Acerbi

The images of wheat and man painted on the chapel wall now made complete sense to Leo. In a way, a separate species of man was being created-one with immunity to the pathogen and one without, and the one without was doomed to extinction. Just like the variety of ancient wheat that had slowly been erased from existence by human manipulation, so too was a large percentage of the human population about to be manipulated out of existence, replaced instead with a new and different variety … wheat like man!

It was quickly becoming evident that the truth was much worse than he had first imagined. Acerbi was a monster, but what kind of monster? Did he truly believe his actions were justified for the good of all mankind? Sometimes the utopian monsters, those cloaked in veils of righteousness, could be far worse than the egomaniacal leaders who lusted after power for its own sake. Acerbi personified the short man syndrome run amuck-another Napoleon bursting forth onto the world stage in the new millennium.

But whatever kind of monsters Acerbi and his people were, it was obvious they now held the fate of every human being on the planet in their hands. This was a worldwide conspiracy of immense magnitude, and there was no telling who or how many people around the globe had already sworn their allegiance to this madman.

Lev and Mendoza grabbed for the folder at the same time. Mendoza politely deferred to Lev, who read the first page slowly with a mathematician’s organized eye to detail before passing it on. Running his hands through his hair, Lev collapsed back into his chair. Those who knew the professor well could tell by the look on his face that he had just noticed something everyone else had missed.

“What book?”

“What did you say?” Leo asked.

“What book?” Lev repeated. “That memo references a book he calls their master’s book … a book that lives on through its words.”

Evita saw the color drain from Leo’s face. It was as if he had just seen a ghost. “It can’t be! It was destroyed last year!”

The cardinal’s loud words echoed off the ancient castle walls, catching everyone by surprise. The mention of some kind of book had touched a nerve in a man famous for being calm under pressure.

“What if there’s another copy, Cardinal?” John asked.

“Impossible. We all saw it go up in flames in the chapel under the Vatican. According to the code in the Bible, that was the only physical copy of the book in existence.”

A stunned silence descended on those who had been to the barren Negev Desert the year before. Tired of being left out of the loop, Dr. Mendoza finally spoke up. “Could someone please let us in on what’s going on?”

Leo reached for the nearest bottle of wine and refilled his glass. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask Martha and Fredrick to excuse us for a moment.” Leo offered no explanation as he stood and began pacing back and forth, lost in thought. Whatever he was about to say, he had just made it obvious that it was not intended for the ears of outsiders.

“We were heading off to bed anyway,” Martha said. “We’ve had kind of a busy day.”

Sarah leaned over and put her arms around the woman who had risked everything to help her. “You guys saved my life. I hate to think what those people might have done to me if you hadn’t stuck your necks out to help me.”

“That’s the problem with the world today, honey. Not enough people want to stick their necks out.” Martha winked. “Good luck to all of you in whatever it is you have to do. Let’s go, Fredrick. We need to leave these good people alone for a while.”

After they left, Lev pulled up a chair next to Mendoza and poured some wine into the scientist’s glass. “Here, Javier, you might need this before you hear what I’m about to say. A year ago, we were all on an archaeological expedition in the Negev Desert. We had been led there by information we received from the code in the Bible.”

“What?” Mendoza glanced sideways at Evita and Dr. Diaz. “We never heard anything about an archaeological expedition by you in the Negev Desert.”

As an anthropologist who coexisted within the two separate worlds of academia and intelligence, Mendoza liked to be kept informed of the progress of any archaeological expeditions taking place in and around the Mediterranean, but he had heard nothing about Lev Wasserman’s expedition the year before.

“Our expedition was never made public, Javier. Do you remember hearing about the recent discovery of oil in Israel?”

“Of course … the entire world has heard about it. That area of the Negev desert was also flooded with water at the same time. Are you saying you had something to do with that?”

“Yes. It’s a long story, but when we were using the code to look for words and phrases in the Bible, we discovered coordinates that pointed to a specific area in the Negev Desert. Naturally, we decided to mount an expedition to see what was out there, but before we left, we found something even more disturbing … an especially frightening passage encoded in the book of Genesis.”

Lev cleared his throat. “You might want to take a sip of that wine now, Javier, because that passage stated that the coordinates we discovered pinpointed an area reserved for Satan here on Earth.”

“Satan!” Mendoza’s face broke into a nervous smile as he reached for his glass. “You’ve got to be kidding me, Professor.”

“I wish I were, but it’s a fact, and we can prove it. We also found an encoded reference to a mysterious book. We had no idea what any of this meant until we arrived at the coordinates and discovered a huge underground cavern. That’s where we encountered the demonic entities.”

“What?” This was getting stranger by the minute. Mendoza swiveled around to see if anyone was laughing, but no one was. Evita and Dr. Diaz were frozen in place, staring at Lev in disbelief.

“Are you trying to tell us that all of you have seen an actual demon?” Mendoza was beginning to wonder if these people were for real. Although he had never discussed his religious beliefs with Lev and the others, he believed in God and the Devil, but all of this talk of Satan and demons was bordering on bad pulp fiction.

The original eight members of the team traded looks but remained silent as they waited patiently for the Spanish members of the team to absorb what Lev had just told them. There was more to come, and they knew it would sound even more bizarre to anyone who hadn’t witnessed it for themselves.

“We didn’t encounter just one demon, Javier … we encountered five.”

Mendoza almost dropped his glass.

“Beneath our camp, we discovered an immense underground cavern that contained a huge dome-like structure that towered at least six stories above our heads. It was actually very beautiful, with brilliant, light- emitting crystals representing the constellations embedded in the pale blue walls. However, we quickly discovered that they had been placed in a reversed pattern, as if someone was looking at the earth from the heavens far away. In the center of this enormous space was a raised area made from large blocks of angled white stone, and beneath that, was a clear black floor that extended down into the earth as far as the eye could see. We were standing over a crystal abyss. That’s where we found the book. It was red, and it appeared to be floating there right under our feet, encased in the transparent crystal floor.”

“But this is fantastic!” Javier exclaimed. “We must see this place! You must take us there! An archaeological site like that, in that area, could pre-date the pyramids. Were you able to date its construction?”

“Since the beginning of time, Javier. Since the celestial battle between heaven and hell, when Lucifer was banished from the sight of God. We had found Satan’s cathedral here on Earth, created by him for the sole purpose of having a secure location to hide a book … his book … the Devil’s Bible.”

Mendoza and Diaz sat there blinking, as one does in the first stages of disbelief, while Evita clasped her hands over her stomach and let out a quiet gasp.

“We learned the book itself was like an unholy relic. Some of our own Christian relics are able to perform miracles in God’s name. The Devil’s relic, if that’s what we can call it, had the power to cause great evil in the world. That was the most likely reason it was hidden here on earth. Apparently, Satan’s timetable and God’s timetable for the end of days don’t agree. We also learned that the Devil’s Bible had been out in the world before and was sealed back up to await the end of days. It had the power to jumpstart the reign of the Antichrist before the rapture, leaving millions of Christians here on Earth to suffer until God could gather them up. From the code, we learned that God wanted Satan’s book destroyed by a specific group of people … chosen ones.”

“Let me guess,” Mendoza said. “They were your names … all of you on the Bible Code Team.”

“To be honest we were all shocked. I mean, can you imagine how you would feel to see your own name