House of Acerbi

Lev drained his cup while he stared at the screen. “It appears as if our friend is preparing to release the dogs of war on some of his fellow conspirators.”

“It’s brilliant,” Evita said, shaking her head. “He’s getting ready to give up some of his so-called friends in order to divert suspicion away from himself, and I think it’s safe to say that his list will contain only the names of people he’s already decided to eliminate for one reason or another. By revealing his own plan, he’s just discarded some unwanted baggage while making himself look like the savior of the world. Now, if any of his buddies try to expose him for what he really is, everyone will think they’re just trying to save their own hides. This guy is home free, while some of his friends are no doubt running for their private jets to escape the mobs that will soon be coming after them.”

Leo stood and reached for Wilson’s bottle. After pouring two fingers in a short glass, he downed it all in one gulp.

“You have to hand it to the man for his ability to stay two steps ahead of everyone else. I’d be willing to bet that every government that doesn’t disappear within the next forty-eight hours is already under his control. There’s no telling how many countries have accepted his terms and now look to him as their de-facto leader. Rene Acerbi has just become the twenty-first century version of Napoleon Bonaparte. He’s going to rule the world, and he’s done it without firing a single shot.”

“I can’t believe this is happening,” John said. Everyone looked behind them to see that he and Ariella had just entered the trailer. “We can’t let this guy get away with this. He still has the capability to take out the entire human race, and we’ll be the only ones left to stop him if the rest of the world buys his story.”

Lev pulled a cigar from his shirt pocket and ran it under his nose. “Evita just made an interesting observation. She said that Acerbi just revealed his own plan. I think she hit the nail right on the head. This whole thing is coming directly from him. It’s like he has a giant blueprint in his head of how all the pieces will come together, and that’s what makes it so tough to pin him down. It’s probably a fair assumption that even his closest allies don’t have a true picture of what he’s really up too. The only way we’re going to stop him is to find out what his real plan is. His true plan is his Achilles heel and …”

Lev stopped in mid-sentence to answer his ringing cell phone. His face remained stone-like as he listened to the caller. He mumbled a quick “thank you” before he clicked off and turned to face the others.

“That was Eduardo Acerbi. He wanted us to know that Rene knows who and where we are and that he’s laid a trap for us in Mexico. He thinks we should pack up and fly back to Israel as quickly as possible.” Lev paused to light his cigar. “Anyone want to put it to a vote?”

“Wasn’t it Eduardo who sent us here in the first place?” Leo said. “Now he’s telling us we should leave. To be honest, I’m starting to have some doubts about him. I mean, as far as we know, he’s the only one outside our circle who knows where we are.”

“You’re forgetting Acerbi’s connections,” Lev said. “Plus the fact that he intercepted two of our people and had a chance to examine the truck they were in. That vehicle was full of evidence that linked those men to us.”

The others in the room nodded as Ben Zamir stood against a wall, clinching his fists and gritting his teeth. “We don’t need to take a vote. This is non-negotiable. As long as two of my men have their heads impaled on spikes in front of Acerbi’s ranch, my team is staying. He’s a dead man.”

Lev looked over at Colonel Wilson. “Did you make the call?”

“Yes. The President won’t authorize the use of nukes.”

“Why not?”

“Mainly, he’s against using them for any reason, but right now people all over the world think Acerbi is a hero.” Wilson bent his tall frame forward. “I’m afraid I have more bad news. We’ve just been ordered to pull out, and the Pentagon wants you guys out of here tonight.”

“What?” Ben practically screamed. “Never … we’re going in … with you or without you!”

Wilson cast a sympathetic look at the seething young warrior. “I’m sorry, Ben. My men were itching to go after this guy. We were ready to give him some serious payback for what he did to your people, but I’m career military, and orders are orders.”

“We can’t do it without your choppers, Colonel,” Lev said. “If you leave, it will make our job even harder, if not impossible, and this is the best chance we’ve had so far to get this guy before he takes out half the world.”

Wilson winked. “I suppose I could leave a few choppers behind for mechanical reasons, but that’s about the extent of what I can do at this point unless you guys want to visit me in Leavenworth Prison for the next twenty years.”

“Unbelievable!” Ben smashed his fist against a wall and walked outside.

“We’ll take the choppers, Colonel,” Lev said quietly. “Thank you.”

“I wish I could do more.”

Leo leaned back in his chair and stared out the window just as the red light on the satellite phone began to flash. It was a call from the villa in Israel. “Now what?”

Lev reached for the phone and hit the on button.

“Hello … Professor?”

“Daniel?”

“I meant to call sooner, but I fell asleep in front of my computer again … sorry. We’ve just decoded some new phrases in the Bible.”

Lev felt the hair on his arms begin to rise. “And?”

“I’m sending everything now by secure fax.”

“Good. There’s a lot going on here now, and it’s not looking good. How’s Sarah?”

“She’s fine. I think I have some good news for a change.”

“The pathogen?”

“Yes. There may be a reason why she didn’t die from the virus.”

“Are you saying she had some sort of immunity?”

“It’s possible we all do. Just read the fax, and call me back if you have any questions.” Daniel hung up and hit the send button on the fax machine.

Lev grabbed the first page as the others crowded around and began to read over his shoulder. Right away they could tell that it was a page from Genesis written in Hebrew. Across the top, they saw the first of several phrases circled in red. The name, Eduardo Acerbi was crossed diagonally by a second phrase-Father of the Evil One. Below that, they saw the one word they all hoped they would never see again-Antichrist. Everyone stopped reading. There it was. Eduardo Acerbi was the father of the Antichrist, and that could only mean one person-Rene Acerbi.

The eyes of everyone present met with the unspoken knowledge that Rene Acerbi was evil incarnate. His was not the mindless evil of a disease, nor was it the evil of a megalomaniacal villain who wanted to emulate countless others who had sought to rule the world throughout history. This was a biblical kind of evil, an evil revealed to mankind in the Book of Revelation, an evil foretold by God Himself. It was evil that was here now. Ariella gasped as she pointed to another phrase.

At the bottom of the page they saw two words-dark star. These two words were crossed by another puzzling phrase that stumped them all-it will appear in the child’s sixteenth year.

A second fax began printing out. This time it was a page from Leviticus, the third book of the Pentateuch. In the middle of the page, the word virus jumped out at them, and to the left of it, running side by side horizontally down the page, were two phrases-God’s chosen and safe from the plague.

“So that’s what Daniel meant when he said we were all immune to the virus,” Ariella said. “He was talking about us, the Bible Code Team. God’s chosen are safe from the virus.”

No one spoke as Lev looked from his daughter over to Leo. “Cardinal, would you please be so kind as to lead us all in a little prayer?”