hungry smile.
“My esteemed brother the King of Fear has the resources to bring this program to fruition. With his vast network of contacts, and with the tactical genius of Rafael Santoro, I believe we can get
There was a moment of stunned silence, followed by questions from everyone at once.
Toys used the commotion to lock eyes with the King of Fear. The American looked briefly furious, but he covered it by slapping on another hearty smile. However, he must have felt Toys’ eyes upon him, because he turned and gave him a very brief but definite wink.
“And now, my brothers,” said Sebastian Gault, “here is how we will do it.”
Chapter Forty-one
In Flight
December 19, 9:03 A.M. EST
I called Church. “You’re gonna love this, Boss,” I said, and told him about the plagues, including the almost certain connection to the Locust bomber.
He said, “It’s a short list of people who knew about that project. I’ll talk to the President. Is there anything else?”
“Yes. I’d like you to make a video.”
“Is this going to be one of your attempts at humor?”
“No. This is serious, and it might help us head another Kings event off at the pass.”
“Tell me.”
I did. He listened and then disconnected without comment. It’s always a Hallmark moment with him. You always feel like your call is the centerpiece of his day.
As I tucked my phone away, Circe said, “You think there will be more Kings attacks?”
“Don’t you?”
“Sadly, yes. But it may not be in what could be called an ‘ordinary way.’”
“Meaning?”
“Apart from the calls to violence, a lot of the Goddess posts are hints that her cult is part of an ancient belief system that is only now revealing itself. By incorporating references to other goddesses, she’s essentially borrowing their history. Hijacking it and claiming it as part of her legacy. If the Goddess is part of the Seven Kings organization, and I think we both agree on that, then the Kings might not actually have to commit seven more acts of terrorism. They can find some that have already happened and retroactively claim that they were responsible. I mean, it wouldn’t take much to suggest that 9/11 was the rain of fire and ash plague.”
“Maybe. Time frame is off.”
“Maybe not. Take the Plague of Frogs. Unless the Kings already have a target in mind that has a frog connotation, like the Locust thing with the bomber, they could claim that the frog extinction is their doing.”
“Wait! What? When did frogs become extinct?”
“What planet are you living on?” she said with exasperation. “Toads and frogs are dying out in huge numbers. It’s well documented. There have been TV specials. Of course, the science tells us that it’s because of pressure from the expansion of agriculture, forestry, pollution, disease, and climate change.”
“How would that have major PR punch for the Kings? I mean, I don’t want to see Kermit take a dirt nap, but … these are just some frogs, right? How’s that work in a biblical way?”
She muttered something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like “
“Okay,” I said, “I see it. From a propaganda point of view it only matters that the Kings take credit. Anyone who says they aren’t involved has the job of trying to prove a negative, which is self-defeating. I mean, what could the Al-Qaeda do to dispute it? Have a TV debate? Besides, the DMS has already taken out Seven Kings cells that had Al-Qaeda ties. Your 9/11 hypothesis might even be real.”
“God,” she whispered, and her dark eyes went wide.
“At the risk of sounding terribly macho, Doc, I want to find them and shoot them. A lot.”
She nodded. “I’ll load the gun.”
Then something occurred to me. “Hey, didn’t you say that you gave a copy of your Goddess report to Grace?”
“Yes.”
“It’s funny, because she never mentioned it to me, and neither did Church. When did you give it to her?”
“At the end of August.” Circe looked down at her hands. “I tried to call her the next day, but she was already involved in something. I never found out what it was. Then a couple of days later I heard that she died.”
Damn. Bull’s-eye, right in the heart.
I closed my eyes. The whole mess with the Dragon Factory and the Jakobys started on the twenty-eighth. Grace died on August 31. Because of her the world didn’t die on September 1. The ache in my chest was so fresh, so raw, that I wanted to scream. I could see every line, every curve, of Grace’s beautiful face. I could smell the scent of her, taste her lips, feel the solid, lithe warmth of her in my arms.
I felt something warm on my forearm and for a single crazy moment I thought that somehow Grace had reached out of those shadows to reassure me. But when I opened my eyes I saw that it was Circe O’Tree’s hand on my arm.
“I’m sorry, Joe,” she said.
I took a breath and shook my head. Circe moved her hand away, a little embarrassed.
“I don’t think your report was ignored,” I said, my voice a bit thick. “I don’t think Grace ever had a chance to pass it along.”
Circe looked depressed. “God, I would hate to think that we could have somehow prevented this. The Hospital and the rest.”
“Let’s not Monday-morning quarterback it. We’re doing good work here. We’ll get this stuff into MindReader and who knows? We might actually be somewhere.”
Circe nodded but didn’t comment.
I snapped my fingers. “Wait … you said there were
All the blood drained from her face. “The last one is the worst of all. It’s the one that finally broke Pharaoh’s resolve and made him free the captive Israelites.”
“What was it?” I asked, but I thought I already knew, and the knowledge scared the shit out of me.
She recited the passage in a hollow voice. “This is what the Lord says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again.’”
She paused and watched my face as the horror sank in.
“The tenth plague is the death of the firstborn children of the entire country.”
Interlude Thirty
Crown Island
