by R D Shah
‘So why wait until now to tell me all this?’
‘Because you have been very high-profile in recent months and if the Magi had wanted to, they could have abducted you very easily, and after a few days of torture you would have told them anything they cared to know. I don’t mean to that to sound like a slight but under torture everyone cracks… eventually. The Templars have been searching for Claire ever since her disappearance, and we were always hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. If getting the child back had meant Claire being reconfirmed as someone the Magi could trust, then your knowing about it could have got her killed.’
‘She was killed,’ Harker said with renewed sadness in his voice.
‘I know that now, but up until you arrived here a few minutes ago, I had hoped she was still alive and safe.’
Harker exhaled a long deep breath before sliding into the seat facing Brulet. He didn’t have any guilt about his previous feelings of hatred towards Claire, since she had appeared to betray him back at the Vatican – and how could he have known she was actually working with him – but he did feel a profound sense of sadness at the loss of his erstwhile friend. Part of him was actually relieved to learn that she hadn’t become the treacherous and disloyal person he had come to believe she was, but knowing how she died – and that it was in such a terrible way – made his anger boil, the focus of it now solely aimed at Wilcox and at the Magi organisation that wrecked anything it touched.
‘I’m not happy about this, Sebastian … but I do understand your reasons.’
Brulet reached over and placed his pale white hand on Harker’s forearm with an understanding look on his face. ‘I am so sorry it happened like this, Alex,’ he offered, ‘but I warned you once that we operate in a dark world where we are rarely allowed to act the way we wish to but instead the way we have to.’
This sentiment did little to alleviate any of the despondency Harker was dealing with, but it did spur him on to reveal in full what had transpired back in Pripyat, in the hope that something good might still come out of it. ‘The Skoptsy had created a settlement directly underneath the town. Talk about a great hiding place from the world. There must have been thirty or forty of them living there, practising their twisted version of Christianity. We found Claire confined in a cell.’ Harker paused as the bruising image of her mutilated body burned once again into his thoughts. ‘She had been subjected to one of their rituals … They had performed a double mastectomy on her and cauterised the wounds with what looked like a heated poker.’
‘Why would they do that?’ Chloe gasped, looking sickened by the thought, as next to her, Brulet shook his head in disgust.
‘As I said, it was some kind of ritual to cleanse her body and spirit… or some ridiculous nonsense like that,’ Harker declared bitterly. ‘She died in my arms. The pain for her must have been unbearable. That’s when she told me she was a Templar. And, even though she must have been suffering so much pain, her thoughts were only that we save the child.’
‘But the child wasn’t there.’ Shroder interrupted, realising that Harker was still somewhat traumatised by the whole experience. ‘The Skoptsy were expecting him to be hand-delivered to them by Donald McCray, but the only thing he and his cronies gave them was a quick and nasty death. Not a pretty sight.’
‘That’s right,’ Harker continued. ‘McCray gave them this speech about how they had helped him and that they were all preparing for the end of the world and that the child would be their salvation, etc. They were all pretty excited about it until the Magi gunned the lot of them down in cold blood.’
‘And the child?’ Brulet asked and expecting the worst.
‘Nowhere to be seen, but then McCray spotted me and he gave this big song-and-dance about how the end of days really is upon us, and that he thinks the child will basically put him in God’s good books when he returns to earth, and therefore name him as his right-hand man.’ Harker was already shaking his head. ‘He sounded totally crazy but he also suggested that he now is in control of the Magi. And then the entire place started to fall apart so we got the hell out of there and headed back here. One thing I feel for sure is that he really does believe that this stuff is happening and, judging by the confidence he was displaying, he definitely has possession of the child.’
‘McCray’s taken over the Magi?’ Brulet gasped.
‘I know, it sounds implausible doesn’t it but that’s exactly what he said,’ Harker replied.
‘Actually it doesn’t sound as far-fetched as you might think. There was a recent news report that the body of John Wilcox, the ex-Pope, was found along with three others in a burnt-out villa in Tuscany, but that has not been confirmed by the authorities.’ Brulet now fell into deep thought. ‘Perhaps there has been a coup d’état within their ranks.’
‘Did McCray escape?’ Chloe asked and still shocked by the idea of so many people being gunned down in such a cavalier fashion, even if the Skoptsy had deserved it.
‘I think so,’ Shroder interjected. ‘We saw a helicopter flying past us before the entire area disappeared into the earth.’ The MI6 agent turned his attention to Brulet, who was now silent as if just absorbing it all. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it, Sebastian. The whole town just sank into the ground leaving behind nothing more than a gaping hole. Now you know I’m not overly religious but, after what I saw well… it’s enough to make a rational man think twice.’
The agent’s reaction to the situation received a wide-eyed expression from Brulet. ‘You’re not the only one,’ he replied before picking up a small remote sitting on the table next to him. ‘There’s something you need to see.’
Brulet pressed a button and a section of panelling on the far side of the cabin raised itself upwards to reveal a flat-screen TV, which promptly flashed into life. A Sky News report began to play, showing an aerial view over Jerusalem and the fires which Harker and Chloe had witnessed first-hand. The banner headline at the bottom read: Anarchy in Jerusalem.
‘They are saying that the death toll could amount to hundreds or even thousands,’ Brulet declared, as more pictures of burnt-out shops and cars rolled across the screen, interspersed with images of members of the Israeli defence forces in their olive-green uniforms, firing tear gas into crowds of people.
‘We were there, Sebastian,’ Harker remarked, gesturing towards Chloe who was standing next to him. ‘We saw this with our own eyes.’
‘I know but it’s what happened afterwards that you are probably not aware of,’ Brulet said and pointing at the images of Israeli soldiers, each of them wearing a protective face-masks, throwing bodies on to a burning pyre. ‘About an hour after the initial outbreak, everyone affected simply dropped dead.’
‘All at the same time?’ Chloe inquired with a tone of disbelief.
‘No one is sure of that,’ Brulet answered, ‘but not one of those raving lunatics has been found alive since … only corpses. The Israelis are treating this as a viral outbreak and there are so many bodies they have begun burning them on mass pyres.’
‘Weird,’ Shroder commented, straining to get a closer view of the screen as behind him Captain Jones looked equally concerned.
‘Weird indeed,’ Brulet agreed. ‘I managed to get a recording of this coverage before the story dropped off the networks.
‘Dropped off the networks, how?’ Harker was astonished by Brulet’s comment. ‘What happened in Jerusalem must surely be the lead story on every news channel in the world.’
‘It was,’ Brulet replied, ‘but it has since had competition.’
Harker and Shroder both looked confused. ‘What’s happened?’
‘A lot,’ Brulet offered solemnly, turning the channel to a live CNN broadcast. ‘Take a look at this.’
On the screen a news reporter was frantically attempting to hold his ground against crowds of screaming people surging past him. The journalist was saying something unintelligible into the microphone while pointing off camera in the opposite direction of the f
leeing crowds.
‘What’s he saying?’ Harker asked, but Brulet was already shaking his head.
‘Doesn’t matter … just watch.’
The reporter lowered his hands as the crowd began to thin out, then something enormous and black leapt into view and landed right on top of him. Then the camera began zipping from side to side as evidently the cameraman attempted to steady himself and regain the focus of his shot. Harker watched the blurred image come into clear view and a series of screeching howls could be heard over the screams of the reporter until finally the picture refocused and then paused on a still frame of something that caused everyone in the cabin to recoil with gasps of shock. That is except for Brulet, who didn’t even flinch.
The grainy image showed a creature with thick dark black fur standing on all fours and snarling directly at the camera with twin rows of razor-sharp teeth stained with the blood. Its snout was wolf-like, but abnormally long, and with two reptilian-like slits for nasal passages running the length of either side of its nose. As unsettling as the image was, it was the creature’s eyes that really gripped Harker. They were cat-like with yellow pupils, and the eye-sockets were sunk deep into the animal’s head.
‘What the hell is that thing?’ Harker gagged, as Chloe raised her hand to her mouth in bewilderment.
‘Short answer is they don’t know.’ Brulet replied, unable to tear his gaze from the terrifying image.
‘What’s the long answer then?’ Chloe managed from behind her still raised hand.
‘There has been widespread speculation, as you would expect. Everything from a new and undiscovered species of animal to aliens, but the main news networks have settled on something far more disturbing.’ Brulet turned to face the flabbergasted expressions infront of him. ‘They’re referring to it as a demon and, given events recently at the Vatican and everything else that is happening around the world, it’s a concept that is rapidly growing in support.’
Harker was already rubbing his face with both hands. Demons! This whole conversation, like everything else today, was becoming far too surreal for him. ‘Have they caught one of them yet?’ he asked.
‘No,’ Brulet replied flatly. ‘That’s because, shortly after they appeared, the entire area disappeared into a hole in the ground. Almost like a sinkhole, in fact, and from the sound of it not to dissimilar too what you witnessed at Pripyat.’
As Harker and Chloe were still reeling from this fantastical explanation, Brulet hit them with another incredible disclosure.
‘And it didn’t just happen in Spain,’ he continued. ‘The same thing has happened in three other towns – in Brazil, Africa and India.’
‘Were they the same … demons?’ Harker asked, almost having to force the ridiculous word from his mouth.
‘Yes, they were, but I was unable to get any visual recordings before the networks all went down.’
‘Which networks are we talking about here?’ Harker felt a sensation of dread creeping into his chest.
‘Literally all of them. TV, the internet and the mobile networks stopped working just shortly after reports of these animals started appearing on the news,’ Brulet answered gravely. ‘The only lines of communication still working are the radio, some of the landlines, and the military satellites.’
‘That’s impossible,’ Harker protested finding the enormity of what he as being told difficult to comprehend. ‘The entire satellite network would have needed to be put out of commission.’
‘Apparently not,’ Brulet was already shaking his head almost in despair. ‘I am not even sure we can make it anywhere safely in this jet because presumably air-traffic control is down as well, but Captain Jones has some ideas for resolving that problem.’
Jones took a step forward as all eyes turned to him. ‘We can still fly, though our inflight mapping system is down, so it’s not ideal and it does present some dangers, but I can still do so the old way with maps and with directional frequencies which haven’t been affected so far.’
‘Thank you, Captain. I know we can count on you,’ Brulet said approvingly, and then he used the remote to turn off the TV. ‘Well, then,’ he continued drily, and sitting back in his seat with arms folded, ‘regrettably it seems that our journey is at an end.’
The Grand Master’s unusually defeatist comment had Harker frowning. ‘What! You’re just giving up just like that?’
‘In case you hadn’t noticed, Alex, the whole world is going to hell … literally,’ Brulet replied grimly. ‘What exactly would you have me do?’
‘Anything you can,’ Harker urged in a frustrated tone that had Brulet shaking his head in exasperation.
‘Alex, what is going on around the world right now is far bigger than anything the Templars – or any government, for that matter – can have any control over. This isn’t some kind of mystery to be solved or a puzzle to be deciphered.’ Brulet pointed towards the oval window right next to him with the fading light outside. ‘What is happening out there is out of our hands … it’s out of anybody’s hands.’
The look of disbelief on Harker’s face at Brulet’s apparent lack of resolve had the Grand Master stammering as he continued to justify what he was saying. ‘All over the world, destruction is occurring at a rate that seems to be gaining in momentum with every passing hour, and now these hellish creatures keep appearing all over the place.’ He let out a frustrated sigh. ‘And meanwhile, that odious little shit McCray has apparently got in his possession the one individual with any chance of thwarting the prophecy that has been set in motion. And McCray could be anywhere on the planet, so far as we know. So you tell me, what should I … what can I do about it?’
Brulet’s total lack of a game plan left Harker feeling immensely troubled. In all the time he had known the Templar’s Grand Master, he had never witnessed the man so much at a loss. Sebastian Brulet was a man who always had options, no matter what the circumstances, and yet here he seemed almost unwilling to even try to look for any kind of solution to the problems at hand.
Harker stared blankly at Brulet and, with each passing second an increasingly uncomfortable wedge of silence began to form between them, until eventually it was Chloe who intervened.
‘So what do we do now?’
Brulet turned his attention to her. ‘There is a place where all Templars are directed to go in the event of a catastrophe befalling the organisation. This is not the kind of catastrophe I envisaged when I commissioned it to be built, but it is nevertheless a safe place to go.’ The questioning expression on Harker’s face pushed him to explain further. ‘We had it built back in the Fifties, when a nuclear war seemed highly possible. It contains the resources necessary for anyone needing to stay below ground for a prolonged period of time, and it is there that any Templar will now retreat to … those of them who can make it. Anyone else we find along the way who is in need of sanctuary will of course be allowed to join us. I suggest we go there and … wait this out.’
‘Wait what out, Sebastian?’ Harker demanded aggressively. ‘This is the end of the world!’
Brulet offered him a conciliatory nod. ‘Maybe and, when we are needed, the Templars will be there ready to fight the battle to end all battles at the right hand of God against the forces of hell, but that day is not today.’
Harker put his head in his hands and massaged his forehead as he was suddenly overcome with a terrible sense of foreboding. Here it was in his lifetime, a day that all religious scriptures had been warning of since the dawn of religious enlightenment, and he had to meet it head-on as an ex-priest who had hung up his dog collar and lost his faith. Un-Fucking-Believable.
He was still pondering that fact when something else occurred to him. ‘Sebastian, you said that all other Templars know of this meeting point, didn’t you?’
‘Yes, I did,’ Brulet replied. ‘All Templars are given the location of the sanctuary upon their initiation.’
‘All?’ Harker questioned.
‘I am aware I never disclosed it to you,
Alex, but honestly I never thought you would need it,’ Brulet replied sympathetically. ‘But, yes, all Templars are made aware of it.’
‘Then isn’t it possible that the Magi have a similar procedure?’
‘It’s possible,’ Brulet replied, unsure of what Harker was leading up to. ‘It’s very likely in fact and, considering the Magi elite have done a vanishing act in recent weeks, I would guess they are either there already, or, on their way their way even as we speak, including McCray and the child.’
‘So any of the Magi would likely know of the location of their sanctuary or convening place, right?’
‘Sorry, Alex, but I’m not following you. What?’
‘But they would, though?’ Harker interrupted eagerly.
‘Yes … maybe,’ Brulet conceded, ‘but only Magi members, and maybe some of the organisation’s high level associates. Why?’
‘Then let’s find one of the Magi and get them to disclose that location.’
Harker’s suggestion was greeted all round with looks of bewilderment, except from Shroder who began rubbing his hands together thoughtfully. ‘There’s Lusic Bekhit – we could try him.’
‘What!’ Harker gasped ‘I didn’t think anyone knew where he was?’
‘He only resurfaced a few days ago, around the time this all started,’ Shroder explained. ‘Sebastian asked me to keep my ears to the ground, so I put in a terrorist check with the NSA and, when they picked up his name on a phone call, I was alerted and traced the landline.’
Brulet was already holding his hands up defensively as Harker glared at him mistrustfully once again. ‘I only found out a few hours ago, when I contacted Michael for help with the trip to Chernobyl, but I doubt he knows anything.’
‘Why?’ Harker asked, encouraged by a potential lead.
‘Because it is highly likely the Magi want him silenced just as much as we do, given his failed service to them. The Magi are not of the forgiving type, as you know.’