They were healed.
He closed his eyes.
The treatments were working.
And with a jolt he realized that he hadn’t had a coughing fit all day.
Hugo Vox smiled. If Father Belloq had been there to see that smile, the Sabbatarian would have screamed and grabbed for a hammer and a stake.
Chapter Seventy-One
The Hangar
Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn
June 15, 10:25 a.m. EST
Church’s phone rang and he saw that it was Lilith again. He answered.
“Have you had a chance to look at the contents of the flash drive?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Your opinion?”
“It’s contrived.”
“That was Circe’s take.”
Lilith paused. “How is Circe?”
“She’s well,” said Church coldly, “but she is not a topic of conversation.”
“You are a difficult person to like,” she said.
“Many have said the same about you.”
Neither of them spoke for a few seconds, and in that silence much was said.
Eventually Lilith returned to Church’s original question. “Rasouli is feeding the Red Order to you.”
“So it seems,” agreed Church, “though I still don’t know what the Red Order is. Not in full. I suspect you do.”
“Actually,” she said, “I don’t. I know how they operate, I know some of the players, but there is something called the Holy Agreement, and I would give a lot to know what’s in it. We believe that the Agreement was drafted and signed by Sir Guy LaRoque, the first Scriptor of the Red Order, and his counterpart, Ibrahim al-Asiri, who was, in turn, the first Murshid.”
“Surely you have a guess about its content.”
“Guesses are useless in the absence of verifiable information. We have a thousand theories, and some of them may be correct, but there’s no meter that will let us know. It’s fair to say that Rasouli’s information does more harm than good to our speculations, because we can’t factor nukes into any of our scenarios.”
“We’re building some theories along the lines of a doomsday cult. Does that make any sense based on your understanding of this matter?”
“Doomsday? No.”
“What about a faction rising within the Order or the Tariqa with a bent toward mutually destructive tactics? Suicide bombers and big-ticket destruction are not unknown in these circles,” he said.
“Maybe, but in their own way, both sides of the Agreement have tended more toward moderation than extremist acts.”
“You view blowing up mosques and murdering nuns to be indicative of balance?”
“Yes,” she said. “No other view makes much sense, not when you consider how long this has been going on.”
“Interesting,” he said thoughtfully, then changed the subject. “We are trying to make sense of Rasouli’s mention of the Book of Shadows. My people are trying to decode the fragments of the book included on the drive.”
“Good luck. We’ve been trying to decode that damned thing for-” She suddenly stopped and there was a heavy silence at the other end.
“Lilith?” prodded Church. “How exactly have you been trying to decode the pages? Is there something you would like to tell me? Did you provide those pages to Rasouli? Is that what you started to say?”
“God, no. But…” Lilith cleared her throat. “We, um… we actually have a complete copy of the Book of Shadows. We’ve had it for some time.”
“Have you?” Church said mildly. “And were you planning on telling me about it before or after the nukes detonated?”
Lilith said nothing.
“How long have you had the Book?”
“Well… give or take… seven years.”
Church sighed. “This kind of obfuscation is exactly why counterterrorism is a bureaucratic nightmare.”
“Wait a damn minute,” snapped Lilith. “You speak as if you had a right to it. Some of our people died to obtain this copy.”
“So lay some flowers on their grave and move on from the dramatics,” he fired back. “I’ve made my resources available to the Mothers and to Arklight on a number of occasions.”
“Sure, but you never let us have access to MindReader. You keep that to yourself.”
“Hardly the same thing.”
“Well, it’s water under the bridge, isn’t it?” she fired back. “We have a copy of the Book of Shadows, and if you stop being such a prick I’ll consider e-mailing you a high-res scan.”
“Have you translated any of it?”
“No.”
“In seven years?”
“Perhaps we may have accomplished something if we had MindReader.”
“Point taken. Send me the e-mail now and I will make sure that it is fed through MindReader. I further promise that I will share the results of that scan. All of it, unreservedly.”
After a moment she said, “Thank you.” And hung up. Forcefully.
Chapter Seventy-Two
Over Kuwaiti Airspace
June 15, 10:28 a.m. EST
Church pressed the intercom.
“Bug, I’m sending through a file. It’s a complete scan of the Book of Shadows. The book is four hundred and thirty one pages of densely written and coded text. Run it through MindReader. Pattern recognition, decryption, the deciphering software, all of it. If you get anything, no matter how small it seems, contact me at once.”
“You got it.”
“Also, tell Circe and Dr. Sanchez that we have this. Let them have full access. Circe may want to compare it to the Voynich manuscript.”
“Sure.”
Chapter Seventy-Three
Mustapha’s Daily Goods
Tehran, Iran
June 15, 6:54 p.m.
