was the same. But it was not her experience she was remembering.
She looked back down at the notebook and read the rest of the translation: The one true cross will appear on earth All will see it in a single moment — all will wonder The cross will fall The cross will rise To unlock the Sacrament And bring forth a new age Through its merciful death
It was the prophecy that Gabriel had explained to her. And now she could see how it had all come true. Her brother had made the sign of the Tau — the one true cross — before he had fallen, and she had risen in his place, flesh of his flesh. She was the cross. She had unlocked the Sacrament.
More memories came. The knife in her hand, the spilt blood, hers and… Eve’s, mingling on the floor. Their spirits joining as their blood flowed. She looked up at the mirror and stared at her eyes. Green eyes — hers, but not hers — like someone else was staring back. She reached out to touch her reflection but the sharp sound of a doorbell made her head whip round. Adrenalin flooded through her. Who could be there this early in the morning? It rang again and she realized her mistake. It was just Ski’s mobile ringing on the bed. She lunged for it, fearful it might stop and jabbed the button to answer it.
‘Hello?’
There was the briefest of pauses — satellite delay — then he spoke.
‘Liv. It’s me. It’s Gabriel.’
Never had she experienced such relief at the sound of somebody’s voice. Liv felt the smile start somewhere deep inside her and radiate upwards like heat. So much had happened — so much to say. ‘Hi,’ she managed, her smile lighting up the word as though it was written in neon.
‘Hi,’ he said. He was smiling too. She could hear it in his voice. ‘Where are you?’
‘I’m…’ She was about to say ‘home’, but the word stuck in her throat. ‘I’m back in New Jersey in a hotel a friend sorted out for me.’ She caught sight of the TV and remembered the news she had seen on it. ‘How about you? I saw the news.’
‘I’m OK,’ he said, shutting down her question, the smile suddenly absent from his voice. ‘We can talk about it later. Right now we need to get you safe before the Citadel finds you again. Have you got your laptop and access to the Internet?’
‘Yes.’
‘Have you ever used Skype before?’
‘Of course.’ Skype was every journalist’s friend. Wherever there was Wi-Fi it could be used instead of a phone to make free calls. It also worked as a videophone and was increasingly being used to file news reports from difficult foreign locations. Liv opened up the application and copied Gabriel’s Skype address. Then she clicked on ‘new contact’ to make the call.
57
The receptionist looked up at the man in the crumpled suit lumbering towards her and clipped on her corporate smile.
‘How can I help you today, sir?’
‘Well, you could have a word with my boss and tell him these early-morning flights are killing me.’ He dropped his holdall to the floor and leaned heavily on the reception counter, glancing down at the computer screen.
‘Do you have a reservation with us, sir?’
Dick took a deep breath and let it out slowly in a pantomime of weariness. ‘No, I’m afraid I don’t. What I do have is a court appearance later this morning and, after getting exactly zero sleep on the overnight from London, I need somewhere to rest my weary head for an hour or two, otherwise I’m not going to be much use to my client. I guess they don’t call it the red-eye for nothing.’
He handed over a passport and a dummy credit card in the same fake name.
‘Let’s see what we can do for you, sir,’ she said, taking the documents and pecking away at the keyboard.
‘I don’t need anything special,’ he said, rubbing his eyes with the heel of his hand. ‘Just a basic room where I won’t get woken by the noise of the traffic or the morning crowd heading down to breakfast.’ Her fingers continued to tap. He leaned in conspiratorially, the counter creaking under his weight. ‘In fact, a lawyer friend of mine says they sometimes use this hotel to put up jurors and witnesses in key cases. I bet those rooms are nice and out of the way. One of those would be perfect.’
Her fingers finished tapping. She hit the return key, extracted a plastic card from a coding machine and slipped it into a cardboard wallet. ‘Room 722,’ she said, writing the number on the front of the card. ‘Take the elevator to the seventh floor and it’s at the end of the corridor to your right. Do you need a hand with any luggage?’
Dick took the keycard along with his passport and credit card and winked at her. ‘No thanks,’ he said, picking up his holdall and heading away across the lobby. ‘You’ve been more than enough help already.’
58
The rapid beeps of a number being dialled fed through the stereo speakers of Liv’s laptop. She was still in shock from the flood of memories the translated text had brought back. For all her scepticism and rationality what she had read there made a sort of sense. It explained why she could understand an ancient language she had never heard of or learned. It explained why she felt the sting of needles every time the whispering rose up. But it didn’t explain what ‘The Key’ was, or what it had to do with her. The dialling tone switched to a ringing one. Liv cleared her throat and pushed herself up in the chair, suddenly nervous about seeing Gabriel again.
On screen the feed from Liv’s webcam popped up, revealing a low-res version of herself, amplifying how tired and dishevelled she was looking. She fussed with her hair and rubbed at the dark circles under her eyes as if it was dirt that could be wiped away. She considered cutting the connection and splashing more water on her face first to try to make herself more presentable, but a click cut off the ringing sound and the main window expanded to display the incoming feed.
Gabriel’s voice materialized first, much richer than it had sounded on the phone and just as deep as she remembered.
‘Liv? Can you hear me?’ Then there he was, gazing at her, his brow knitted with concern, his blue eyes burning from the screen. She reached out involuntarily to touch his face. ‘Hey,’ she said.
A smile softened his face and he reached out for her. It was the first time they had seen each other since the Turkish police had taken him away and he had told her to go somewhere safe, promising he would find her. And now he had made good that promise, though it was not quite the reunion either of them had envisaged.
‘I need to show you something,’ Liv said, reaching for the piece of paper she had found in the envelope. ‘The monk who helped us escape from the mountain gave it to me. Let me know if you can’t read it — turns out, I can!’ She held it up to the screen and four thousand miles away in Ruin the symbols came into focus. She held it long enough for him to translate it. When she lowered it again Dr Anata had joined Gabriel on the screen. From the looks on both their faces she could tell that they’d both read it.
‘Of course,’ Anata said. ‘What else would the Sacrament be but something of the original divine. It’s the only thing old enough or powerful enough to make sense. The Sacrament is the earth goddess, trapped in darkness by envious men, and you have set her free. The prophecy has been fulfilled.’
Liv shook her head and let out a long breath. ‘I have to tell you I’m having a lot of difficulty with all of this. A couple of weeks ago I would have laughed in your face if you had told me half the things I’m now taking seriously. Let’s, for argument’s sake, say that all of this is true, then why do I feel like crap? If some divine spirit has entered into me, shouldn’t I be feeling fantastic? And why am I getting whispered messages that don’t make sense? And how come those maniacs in the Citadel are still killing everyone? Doesn’t feel like very much has been fulfilled to me.’
Gabriel and Anata exchanged glances.
