‘We should load up the jeep and get going,’ he said, rising from his chair. ‘The border’s a good few hours away. We don’t have much time.’
V
And the Temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God… and no man was able to enter into the Temple,
till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.
86
Vatican City
Clementi put the phone down and tapped his password into the secure server. He had been talking to Harzan for almost an hour, learning first hand everything they had found, and though the news had made him feel elated, he had ended the conversation feeling slightly anxious. It was more urgent than ever that the thorn in his side that had been bothering him since the explosion in the Citadel must be removed. For his grand scheme to be compromised by the inopportune investigations of a few terrorists would be tragic. Pentangeli’s words kept echoing in his head:
… throw everything you have at finding these people, before they stumble on to something that could really do some damage.
During his lengthy conversation with Harzan, a new email had arrived. Clementi opened it now, eager for more good news.
It was a field report, filed by the one remaining active agent. Clementi skimmed through it. The agent confirmed what the news footage had already shown him: the girl had got away. There was no new information as to where she had gone. In the agent’s opinion, the escape effort had been coordinated by the other survivor, Gabriel Mann, and the two of them were now on the run together.
Attached to the report were several photo files showing images of items found in the girl’s luggage; her passport, the ruined Bible, and various pages from her notebook. One of the pages contained a list of place names: Ethiopia Assyria Euphrates Al-Hillah Eden????
Clementi stared at the last three names.
They were getting close, much too close for comfort. If they managed to find the compound out in the desert then…
He paused.
Then what? Two people facing down a small, private army. He smiled. Pentangeli had it the wrong way round. Clementi didn’t need to ‘throw everything he had’ at finding these people; they were clearly already on their way to find him, or the sacred spot in the desert at least.
He reached over, picked up the phone and dialled Harzan’s number from memory. There would be no need to send out a search party — all he had to do was set a trap.
87
Babil Province, Western Iraq
Hyde stared out of his window at the brightening sky. He had already been up since a couple of hours before dawn, organizing the security and construction detail for the new site out in the desert. Outside he could hear the noise of trucks and other vehicles revving up ready to move out. He’d been all set to go with them, but now Dr Harzan had dropped this in his lap.
Sometimes he felt like a raw recruit, being handed all the crappy jobs no one else wanted. At least in the army there had only been one chain of command, so you knew who was above you and therefore which way the shit flowed. He remembered what the Ghost had said when he’d brokered the exchange for the relic.
These people may come here searching for something. If they come, let me know.
At the time he’d thought hell would ice over before he’d ask the Ghost for help. But with the three wise men draining his resources out in the desert, he figured he should swallow his pride and do the pragmatic thing. He would pay the man for his help, establish a power structure of master and servant. It wasn’t his money after all.
He unlocked the lower drawer of his desk, pulled out the newspaper and dialled the number written in the margin. This time the Ghost answered.
‘You have news for me?’
Hyde shook his head, already exhausted by the day. ‘Would a simple “Hello” kill you?’
The Ghost said nothing.
Hyde pinched the space between his eyes, trying to massage away his headache. ‘OK, let’s cut the small talk then. Those people you spoke about, the ones you said would be coming to search for something in the desert? They’re on their way.’
‘How old is this news?’
‘Fresh off the press, as far as I’m aware. I’ve been asked to find them quickly and you said you could help. You remember that?’
The Ghost said nothing.
Hyde continued to work at the spot on his forehead. ‘Listen, if you’re busy-’
‘I can help you,’ the Ghost said, then the phone went dead.
88
It hadn’t taken much to convert the reading room into a makeshift infirmary. The desks had been moved aside to create space for four beds and the shelves that were normally packed with books were now crammed with boxes of syringes, sterile gloves, masks and strong sedatives. Another shelf was entirely filled with canvas straps, lying in readiness to restrain those who showed symptoms of what everyone was now calling ‘the Lamentation’.
Axel was pacing, fuelled by frustration and fear, settling on his bed only fitfully before starting his circuit of the room again. Athanasius felt sorry for him. As captain of the guards, Axel was clearly feeling the stress and indignity of this incarceration more than the rest of them. He had also seen his life’s ambition snatched away for a second time. He must have thought his elevation to Sanctus was guaranteed with the arrival back in the Citadel of Brother Dragan; then this had happened.
Father Malachi was dealing with the quarantine in a different way. He sat at one of the workstations, his face bathed in the green glow of a terminal screen, zoning everything out so he could disappear into his work. Unbeknown to the outside world, the vast majority of the millions of books and documents in the great library had been digitized and Malachi and his staff had been cataloguing and cross-referencing them for over a year. He therefore had enough to keep him busy for years to come, so long as he remained connected to his beloved library and unaffected by the disease.
