The Apocalypse Codex

by Charles Stross

  “Coffee and pastries all round.” Ray dismisses his handmaid with a tired wave. He yawns, then focusses on Joe: “I reckon we’re going to be here a long while, son.”

  “Yessir.” Joe pauses. “You were right about the Hazard woman. I fed her fingerprints to our local FBI office. And her associate, the McTavish guy. They got back to me half an hour ago.” He wrings his hands together in his lap, fighting the urge to hold his face in them. “It’s not looking good.”

  “Don’t blame me!” Pastor Holt is indignant: “How was I meant to know she’s some sort of witch—”

  Schiller closes his eyes again. “Brothers. No use crying after spilled milk.” He raises a hand. “The Holy Spirit showed me what was in her mind. A black and evil faithless one, loyal to the Whore of Srebrenica—Babylon. An apostate and practicing witch. I should have warned you to hold her under guard until the communion service.” He opens his eyes and looks at Alex. “What do the FBI say?”

  Alex swallows. “The name is genuine. British citizen, naturalized a few years ago. But there’s stuff that doesn’t add up. She’s tagged as a person of interest by a, a bureau in DC that I’ve never heard of. That’s a bad sign; when I asked agents Brooks and O’Neil they’d never heard of it either, so I called Sam Erikson in Denver and he just about shat a brick. Apparently nobody’s supposed to know that this, uh, Operational Phenomenology Agency even exists. Sam says they call it the Black Chamber, and what goes in never comes back out, and he can’t protect us if we draw their attention. And this Hazard woman is of interest to them. She shouldn’t be underestimated.”

  The door opens: Roseanne slips in, followed by handmaiden Julie pushing a trolley loaded with refreshments.

  “Julie.” Schiller smiles at her; she bobs a nervous curtsey. “I believe you escorted Ms. Hazard between the lecture theatre and her abrupt departure from the communion service?”

  “Yes, Father.” She licks her lips, nervous and wide-eyed as a doe caught in headlights. Her voice is soft and hoarse. “She said she needed the restroom, so I led her there. I saw her go inside, but Pastor Dawes was paging me to find a clean surplice for communion so I had to go sort that out. When I got back she was still there and it was time for the service, so I led her straight there—” Her words come faster, until she’s nearly gabbling.

  “Be at peace, my daughter.” Ray smiles at her again and Alex tenses. The stink of blame hangs in the air, a cloud of doom floating from head to head: it has just left Julie’s vicinity and is now bumping around, looking for a victim to attach itself to like an imp from hell. His expression hardens. “Alex. The cameras.”

  Alex swallows again: his tongue is dry. This is the delicate bit. “I had Bill and Tony run the tapes. Julie had barely left when the Hazard woman came out of the toilet. She headed for one of the reception rooms, and did something to a PC. Then she went straight back to the toilet, and that’s where Julie found her. Near as I can work it out, she then went on…” He outlines the Hazard woman’s exit via the hospital ward and the car park while handmaid Julie pours Schiller a mug of coffee and passes him a pastry.

  “Hmm. And just what exactly did our black sheep get up to on the computer?” Schiller is staring at Alex again, his gaze as black and sharp as an Aztec savage’s obsidian dagger.

  “I don’t know, sir. She rebooted it right after, and didn’t leave anything attached. But in view of what happened next, I’m assuming the computers were her target all along, so I’ve taken the liberty of shutting down the entire admin network and calling in our best computer forensics dudes. They’ll be here this evening to take everything apart. They’ll be looking for keyloggers, rootkits, spyware—that’s my best guess. And when we find it, we’ll use it to feed our visitors what we want them to hear.”

  “I’m glad you’ve got it all covered. Can you keep it locked down until after Sunday’s special service? It would be especially unfortunate if the Black Chamber were to become involved before the Harrowing.”

  “We’ll work on it.” Alex licks his dry lips. “Mark and his team have a contingency plan. It comes with an increasing risk of exposure if we run it for too long, but today’s Saturday. If we activate the script tonight we can keep the whole city tight until Sunday evening, and maybe even Monday afternoon before the Feds start questioning the story they’re getting from their local offices. That should buy time for the main event at the New Life campus…”

  “Do what you will; I wash my hands of it,” Schiller says dismissively. “What of the Hazard woman and her associates?”

  “There are two angles to that. Firstly, we’re trying to establish what she knows.” Too much for comfort, that’s for sure, Alex thinks. She had to take a short cut through the Lost Lambs ward… “And we’re looking for where she went. We’ve got a warrant out for her on charges of aggravated assault and grand theft auto, thanks to the nurse she beat up—also firearms theft, because Nurse Stanhope had a pistol in her glove compartment. That’s going to get the attention of the State Patrol and every local PD in the region, and Sam Erikson is trying to get her on the TSA no-fly list.”

  Holt harrumphs. “Can you do any more? Charge her with murder or something?”

  Alex shakes his head. “Why bother? These are real felonies, they’re watertight enough to stand up in court. As long as the judge and jury and attorneys are all churched, nothing will leak; it’s always better not to lie, isn’t it? Besides, after tomorrow’s service and the Harrowing there won’t be much she can do. We’ll reel her in soon enough. What I’m more worried about are her associates, the McTavish man and her controller—”

  “Controller?” Schiller straightens in his chair. He’s taken a bite out of his pastry and some color is returning to his cheeks. “The British spy in Denver, right?”

  “I haven’t heard from Gordon and Lyons. They were supposed to bring him in four hours ago and they haven’t reported back. They’re not answering their cellphones.”

  “Really?” Schiller’s expression is unreadable. “Gordon and Lyons. Hmm. I would have considered them to be reliable…” He takes a sip of coffee. “Be patient.” He glances at Alex sharply. “And what of the other man? McTavish?”

  Alex swallows. “That’s the bad news. Stew went to take care of McTavish himself, with a posse: Benson, O’Brien, and Sergeant Yates. Stew’s called in. They tracked McTavish to a safe house. O’Brien and Benson took the front and—just vanished. McTavish exited in a hurry and got away from the deputy. Shots were exchanged. O’Brien and Benson are missing, there were no bodies—”

  Schiller puts down his coffee mug and leans forward, his expression intent. “First, the presence in the arena in London—a fellow elect. I could feel him out there, watching me. Then this sudden interest from this British agency, and now the Operational Phenomenology people in DC. And an attempt to infiltrate the Omega Course.” He clears his throat. “Do you have a picture of this McTavish?”

  “Sir…” Alex fumbles with his file for a few seconds. “This is the best I—”

  He trails off. Schiller stares at the grainy picture, his expression unreadable. “That’s him. The elder in the audience. Back row. I could feel him. I was right to bring forward Operation Multitude and order the wards of sanctuary emplaced, it would seem. We are under attack. Hmm. Unless, of course, he is drawn to the Mother Church he deserted…”

  “Sir?”

  Schiller puts his palms together before his face in a gesture of prayer. “Almighty Jesus, I beseech you, share your divine wisdom with me…” He closes his eyes, breathes slowly, then presently lowers his hands and looks at Alex. “Stewart underestimated McTavish. O’Brien is dead. Benson is unconscious. They are both some distance away, perhaps in Denver. I will tell you where they are when Benson regains awareness.

  “Meanwhile, Hazard and her employer are definitely in Denver, in a motel. I know this much by the blessing of Lord Jesus Christ. I can’t narrow it down further without the witch feeling God’s hot breath on the back of her neck, but
our Lord will lead them into our nets by and by.” He blinks heavily. “Bring McTavish to me for a visit, Alex. The others you may kill if it’s possible to do so without scaring off McTavish, but he the Lord has a use for.” Alex is already standing to leave as he hears Schiller continue: “Everyone go, except sisters Roseanne and Julie. We must pray together now…”

  * * *

  LATER, AGONIZED AND PURIFIED, SCHILLER RETREATS TO HIS private chapel to seek guidance through solitary prayer.

  The chapel is a small basement room, accessible via a bare, concrete stairwell branching from the corridor connecting his public office and his private apartments. Dominated by dark oak paneling, crumbling with age—bought from a seventeenth-century church in faraway Scotland that was being renovated—and featuring bare flagstones by way of a floor, the room is dominated by an altar and a featureless, man-sized stainless steel cross bolted to the wall behind the altar.

  There is a bible on the altar—a huge, leather-bound affair, its cover studded with clasps and padlocks—and a stone chalice.

  It is before these items that Raymond Schiller kneels, eyes closed and hands clasped in fervent prayer. He prays with his whole body, quivering and brimming with faith.

  “Lord, hear thy loyal servant.” The words leak out through clenched teeth, more of a subvocalized whimper of desire than a verbal declaration: “For though I am but a weak vessel of flesh, damned to eternal torment for my sins, my sole desire is to serve the temple of righteousness and to raise the ancient of days. Lord, hear thy loyal servant. For though it says, ‘and in those days the destitute shall go forth and carry off their children, and they shall abandon them, so that their children shall perish through them: yea, they shall abandon their children that are still sucklings, and not return to them,’ I have brought mothers to the motherless and children to the barren, to be fruitful and multiply in service to thy will.

  “Lord, hear thy loyal servant…”

  Abruptly, Raymond’s chapel isn’t so small anymore.

  The floor is still flagged with slabs of limestone as broad as a man’s arm is long, and the altar waits before him. But the walls have receded into the distance and faded to the color of time-bleached bone, and the ceiling overhead is open to the starry night. Alien constellations sparkle pitilessly against a backdrop of whorls and wisps of blue and green gas, the decaying tissues of a stellar corpse hidden from view by the horizon. Closer, a dusting of silvery specks flicker and flare as they drift across the vault of the sky—the skeletal remains of vast orbital factories, although Schiller is unaware of this.

  If Schiller were to rise and walk to the walls, he would find a doorway in the center of each one. And if he were to venture beyond one of the portals, he would find himself leaving a temple atop a step pyramid towering above a desert plateau that stretches towards the distant, parched mountains in every direction that the eye can see.

  And he would be able to see the moons, orbiting low and fast, which are blocked from his gaze by the walls.

  ***Report.***

  The words thrust themselves into his mind like knife-sharp icicles rising from the thing that feeds between his legs, as a vast, chilly awareness slams up his spine and usurps his brain’s speech center to give voice to its demands. A bystander would hear nothing, but to Schiller, the still, small voice of his god is louder than thunder.

  “I am a damned soul and a miserable sinner…”

  ***We will be your judge. But not in this time and place. Report!***

  The force of the demand drives Schiller to his hands, abasing himself before the sarcophagus-shaped altar (which has grown longer and broader, and is now of pale gray stone, embossed with intricate and disturbing knotwork elements that confuse the eye of the watcher).

  “Lord! The mission to the leadership of the British government has been an unconditional success! The introduction we seek will be forthcoming within days, and with an endorsement from the Prime Minister, the chair of News Corporation will have no alternative but to see us. Once Mr. Murdoch is one of ours, we will have full access to the largest satellite and news broadcasting organization on Earth to bring our ministry to—”

  ***There is a disturbance in Sheol. Are you responsible?***

  “Lord? I don’t understand…”

  ***Four of the hosts I placed at your disposal are missing. Three have been destroyed but another is offline. Report.***

  Schiller racks his memory, then realizes what his Lord is asking. “Ah, we have a small problem. A cell of spies dispatched by an autonomous arm of the British state has attempted to infiltrate us. We repelled their attack but three of our people were killed in the process. We are now searching for the apostates—”

  ***Three hosts are destroyed but one is offline. What befell the offline host?***

  Schiller is baffled and terrified. A wind blows through his mind, a desiccating ice storm from an arctic valley where it hasn’t rained for a million years, drying up his will and freezing his brain in mid-thought. Then it subsides, as quickly as it blew up: his Lord has satisfied himself that Schiller has no answer to give and is still, at heart, entirely a creature of faith.

  ***Two active hosts were with your minions when they went to apprehend the British spymaster. One of them is dead. The other is beyond my awareness. Searching…ah.*** The expression of surprise is a sharp intake of breath on Schiller’s part; his Lord has no lungs with which to draw air, and has in any case long since exhausted the universe’s capacity for surprises. ***It is in the hands of an enemy. Our worshipers have met this British agent before. Do not attempt to convert him; bring him alive before Us. He will be of great service in the end times ahead.***

  Schiller’s body shudders, muscles twitching spasmodically as the most distant echo of his Lord’s unhuman emotions bleeds through his amygdala, triggering a fit. Seconds pass; Schiller lies still for further minutes, recovering, before the inner voice addresses him again.

  ***What of the Task? Report.***

  “As soon as I was informed of the attention we were attracting, I ordered Operation Multitude brought forward. It’s very early, but I felt I couldn’t take the risk of waiting any longer. So we are bringing forward the ministry to the people of Colorado Springs, and have invoked the miracle of Fimbulwinter, as instructed. The airports are closing, the Great Ward is in place, and we have arranged for highway patrol checkpoints on all the roads we can reach. Tomorrow we will perform the Rite of Awakening and the Harrowing of the unbelievers for the first time before a congregation of seven thousand. If it works as expected, we’ll ramp up from there—Colorado Springs today, the whole of the continental United States by this time next month. It will take longer and entail more risks than the original plan, but we can start tomorrow—”

  ***A hundred million souls must be Saved, Raymond, in order to free my mortal husk from this tomb.***

  “Yes, my Lord. Thy will be done.”

  ***Then shall I bring about Heaven on Earth. And all shall be Saved who will accept my host into their heart.***

  “Thank you, Lord!” Schiller prays fervently.

  ***Bringing you here and protecting you from the forces of darkness that assail me saps my strength in this enfeebled state. Go now, and bring to me the pure of heart that I may take strength from the power of their faith. Go now, and detain the British spy Howard and his employees against my immanent return. Go now, and prepare the Rite of Awakening. Glory to God in the highest!***

  “Glory to”—Raymond rocks forward on his feet and finds himself once again in a small oak-paneled basement room—“God in the highest!”

  IN THE BASEMENT OF THE NEW ANNEX, DOWN A DUSTY STAIRCASE with fire doors at the top and along a corridor painted institutional beige and lit by ancient tungsten bulbs (some of which have failed), there is a green metal door. There is no room number or name plate on the door: just a keyhole, an ancient brass handle, and—above the lintel—a security warning lamp, currently switched off. Were it not for the lamp it might be a j
anitor’s closet or a power distribution board. And despite the lamp, the delicate, almost invisible runes of power traced across the surface of the door ensure that most of the people who pass along the corridor mistake it for such.

  Lockhart approaches the door with some trepidation. He pauses on the threshold, and an observer would conclude that he is nerving himself before he knocks, briskly.

  The door opens.

  “Come in,” says the room’s occupant.

  “Thank you.” Lockhart steps inside the office and sits down in the visitor’s swivel chair opposite the strange metal desk with the hulking hood like a microfilm reader. As he does so Angleton locks the door with a strange silver key which he returns to a matchbox-sized wooden case, sliding it into the breast pocket of his suit jacket.

  “What’s he done this time?” Angleton asks as he stalks back towards his chair behind the projection turret of the Memex.

  Lockhart exhales explosively. “I’m not sure,” he admits. “Possibly nothing, yet.”

  “Hmm.” Angleton glances at the elderly analog clock above the doorway. “It’s nearly twenty-one hundred hours. Not like you to be burning the midnight oil over nothing, is it? Can I ask why?”

  “I’m afraid not.” Lockhart’s mustache twitches, caught somewhere between a smile and a sneer. “But I was hoping you might be able to help me with a question of character.”

  “Character.” Angleton doesn’t seem at all put out by Lockhart’s refusal; he leans back in his chair, steepling his fingers. “There’s a word I don’t hear often enough these days. Especially coming from you.”

  “Of course not.” Lockhart is dismissive. “It’s a subjective value judgment and those don’t sit comfortably with ticky-boxes and objective performance metrics. It only comes into play when one is off the reservation.”

  “And is Bob—” Angleton catches himself. “Of course he is. Ask away, ask anything you want. I can’t promise an accurate answer in the absence of exact details of the situation, but I’ll do my best.”