The Lucifer Code

by Charles Brokaw

  ‘I need everything you can find out about the professor, and what he’s doing here. Beyond what you see in the news.’

  ‘So I’m supposed to be a mind reader?’

  ‘Think outside the box on this one, Sevki. I need you to use those brilliant instincts of yours.’

  Sevki smiled. ‘Now you seek to play on my ego.’ He nodded and tapped his forehead. ‘Very good strategy. You must really be in trouble.’

  ‘Yes.’ Cleena’s appetite nearly soured at that thought, but she forced herself to keep eating. That was one of the things her father had drilled into her from the beginning: when she was tired, she slept, and when there was time, she ate. Someone malnourished and overly tired couldn’t function in survival mode. And she was certainly there.

  ‘I’m not the only one in trouble,’ Cleena said. ‘I have a younger sister. Last night someone got to her and threatened her. The professor isn’t my job. He’s someone else’s.’

  Sevki remained still, taking in everything she said and showing no emotion.

  For the briefest instant, Cleena wished she could take it all back. But she couldn’t. Brigid needed Sevki at his best, and Sevki needed to know what he was up against.

  ‘This guy who threatened my sister, Sevki, he’s not a commonplace thug. He’s connected somehow. A major player on the international scene.’ Cleena told him about the phone call she’d had and the visit Brigid had received to her work.

  ‘You think he belongs to an espionage agency,’ Sevki asked when she’d finished the summation.

  Cleena nodded.

  ‘Not my government?’

  ‘If it had been the Turkish government, why travel all the way to the United States to threaten my sister?’

  ‘What do they want you to do with Professor Lourds?’

  ‘Just to watch him,’ Cleena answered.

  ‘Why? What is he supposed to do?’

  ‘That’s why I came to you. I want you to dig around and see what you can find out.’

  ‘Without bumping into these American spies that are threatening you.’

  ‘They may not be spies. They could be corporate interests. Someone like Blackwater. The espionage threats aren’t just political these days. Economies are uncertain, and religious fervour ignites everywhere.’

  Sevki nodded. ‘I know. The Middle East has been increasingly restless of late. The disruption of the balance of power, of the uprising in Iran and of the Americans’ insistence that the Shia followers outnumbered the Sunni followers in Iraq, still hasn’t settled. I’ve been tracking that.’

  Cleena hadn’t. She didn’t care for politics. Her father had been swayed by them, and been murdered because of a man who’d waved the flag of the Irish Republic under Ryan MacKenna’s nose. Her father would have never tried to make that weapons deal if he hadn’t been chasing politics. He’d known how Cleena felt about it. That was why he hadn’t taken her with him that morning.

  ‘I’m telling you this because you need to be careful,’ she said. ‘For yourself. And for my sister.’

  He nodded.

  ‘And if you choose to back away from this thing, I’ll understand.’

  ‘But you will still do it.’

  ‘I have no choice.’

  Sevki licked his spoon thoughtfully. ‘What you’re asking… this is a very dangerous thing, Cleena.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘But it’s for family. I understand family.’

  Before she knew it, tears trickled down Cleena’s face. She wiped them away.

  ‘I will do this thing for you. Carefully, as you say. But only so far. I myself have family.’

  ‘Thank you. Do you know about the kidnapping at Ataturk International Airport?’

  ‘Of course. It was in the news. I keep up with the news.’

  ‘Three of those men there were killed or wounded. I need to know who they are, or at least who they worked for. If possible.’

  Sevki tapped on the keyboard for a moment. Pages of archives flashed up on the screens, then one of those on the right suddenly showed the airport.

  He grinned. ‘Isn’t technology marvellous?’

  A chill ghosted through Cleena as she watched the scene again. She’d known she and Lourds had been close to death, but she hadn’t known the eye of the storm had been so near.

  ‘The camera work is sloppy,’ Sevki said. ‘Taken by a tourist.’ He froze a screen that showed her and Lourds together. ‘If I’d been looking, I might have identified you.’

  Cleena stared at her own red hair and thought a change might be in order.

  ‘If you do anything to your hair, make sure it’s temporary,’ Sevki told her.

  Cleena looked at him. ‘Maybe you do read minds.’

  ‘That one was easy. But if you are caught, if you are questioned, dying your hair with something permanent might be suspicious. If you punk it out…’ Sevki halted and made spraying motions with his hands.

  ‘Highlight it with effects.’

  Sevki snapped his fingers. ‘Yes. No one would look for a redhead wearing outrageous hair. And you seem young enough to look like you’re going for that kind of style.’

  ‘I am young enough.’

  ‘Pardon me.’ Sevki pulled out a flat device and drew on it with a computer pencil. On the screen, bright yellow circles appeared around the three men. ‘These men, yes?’

  ‘Yes. There are also men who were killed in a car accident only minutes later.’

  ‘And the exploding helicopter? That was you?’ Sevki looked surprised.

  ‘I didn’t shoot the helicopter.’

  Sevki cursed and turned his attention to his computer. ‘There are bodies all over the city.’

  ‘There are also some in the catacombs beneath it,’ Cleena said. ‘They’ll be connected to the men in the car accident.’

  ‘But not with the men at the airport?’

  Cleena took a deep breath. ‘I hope not. If they are, this is getting too twisted to follow.’

  ‘And this is just getting started.’

  ‘Oh, one other thing. These other people, the ones in the catacombs, they gave Lourds a book.’

  ‘A book?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Finding bodies, I can do. But do you know how many books there are?’

  ‘Not like this one.’ Cleena described the book and what Lourds had explained about the Greek language code.

  Sevki folded his hands together and cracked his knuckles. ‘Ah, now that is something I can work with.’

  Cleena took his empty soup bowl and put it with hers. She returned to the kitchen and placed them in the sink.

  ‘I’ve got to get going,’ she said.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I’ve got to catch up with Lourds. I’ve already stayed here longer than I should have.’

  Sevki shrugged. ‘At the moment, Lourds is not going anywhere. The police have him.’

  ‘They could let him go at any time.’

  ‘They don’t appear to be in any hurry to do that.’ Sevki performed a short rhythm of keystrokes. A moment later, two screens changed images and showed a picture of Lourds seated inside a sterile room and another scene of a hallway.

  ‘Is this coming from inside the police station?’ Cleena whispered.

  ‘Of course.’ Sevki grinned. ‘I am very good at what I do. I am not the only one who does this, but I am one of the few who hasn’t been caught spying on the police. This is very expensive. Very expensive. But I pass those expenses on to others. And I find it good to know things the police don’t know I know.’

  ‘They haven’t found you out?’

  Sevki shrugged. ‘Every now and again, yes. But I cover my tracks most carefully. When I get discovered, I wait a few months, then I hack into their systems again. They are not as impregnable as the police would have you think. For now, I am undiscovered once again. The addition Cisco Systems made of the Mobile Electronic Systems Integration has tied together a lot of information from all over the city. The inf
rastructure is complicated, but I like a challenge.’

  ‘This is pretty unbelievable.’

  ‘Not so much. I am webmaster of some of the porn sites here in Istanbul.’ Sevki smiled. ‘I make sure some of the police get free pass codes to the sites. When they log on at work, I creep in. It’s a very good system.’ He paused. ‘I often get a look inside government buildings that way as well. But you have to be very good at this.’

  Cleena stared at Lourds. His head lay on his crossed arms on the table and he looked like he was asleep. Despite the time that had passed, she felt she had fared better. At least she’d had a change of clothes.

  ‘Do you know what I think you should do?’ Sevki asked.

  ‘What?’

  ‘You should rest. I can keep watch over your Professor Lourds.’

  ‘He’s not my-’

  Sevki held his hands up defensively. ‘I will watch him. You should try to get some sleep. Hanging around the police station will only get you spotted by the police or someone else watching the professor.’

  Cleena thought about it. What he said made sense.

  ‘All right,’ she acquiesced. ‘But only if I can borrow your shower first.’

  Istanbul Emniyet Mudurlugu

  Vatan Cad./Fatih

  Istanbul, Turkey

  17 March 2010

  Someone gently shook Lourds by the shoulder. With great regret, he climbed out of the dream he was having of the young skin diver who had shown him the reefs around Haiti. Her skin had been the colour of warm chocolate and her kisses as sweet as-

  ‘Professor Lourds,’ a stern voice called.

  This time the shake was not so gentle. Irritated as well as tired, Lourds swung an elbow to bat the offending hand back. Someone caught his elbow and pushed it back down to his side.

  ‘Are you awake, Professor Lourds?’

  Reluctantly, Lourds raised his head from the table and rubbed at his eyes. ‘I am now. How awake remains to be seen.’

  ‘It’s all right. We’re almost finished here.’

  Lourds smiled a little. ‘I can’t say that I haven’t been waiting for you to tell me that.’

  Ersoz returned the smile as he took a seat across the conference table from Lourds. He emptied packets of sugar into the thick Turkish coffee he’d brought in with him. The strong aroma of the brew tantalized Lourds’ and made his stomach growl.

  ‘There is still coffee if you’d like,’ the detective offered.

  ‘No, thank you. When I leave this place, I’m going to the hotel…’ Lourds looked at Ersoz. ‘I am going to the hotel, right?’

  ‘You are.’

  ‘Thank God.’ Lourds ran a hand through his hair. ‘When I get there, I’m going to sleep for a week.’ He stretched in the chair.

  ‘We went to the catacombs where you said you had your confrontation with Qayin and his men.’

  Lourds nodded. He’d provided a close approximation of where he and Cleena had come up on street level. His memory gave him the twists and turns they’d taken.

  ‘We didn’t find any corpses,’ Ersoz said.

  ‘I’m certain she killed them. At least some of them. Although I’ve never wanted to be, I’ve been involved in enough of these things to know when someone is dead.’

  ‘I understand this. I was surprised to discover how factual your Atlantis book was.’

  There was a lot left out of that, too, Lourds couldn’t help thinking. Not every part of that story had been something he could tell. The Catholic Church took care of their own, and the hidden book of the first flood had been locked away, physically by them and for ever in Lourds’ memory. But there had been a lot of death and killing along the way.

  ‘Are you certain you found the right place?’ Lourds asked.

  ‘We did find the area where you said the encounter took place,’ the detective went on. ‘There was a lot of blood. The crime scene people say it is human blood. And some tissue, also human, has been recovered. All of it is fresh.’

  ‘But no bodies?’

  ‘None.’

  ‘Then they took them with them,’ Lourds said. ‘That’s easy to explain.’

  ‘Is it?’ Ersoz leaned back in his chair.

  During several hours of questioning by the Ersoz and his partner, Lourds had learned that Ersoz was intelligent and good at his job.

  ‘Do you know of another way six or seven dead men could have gone missing?’ Lourds asked. ‘Outside of a stage magician’s routine?’

  ‘No. Of course not.’

  ‘Then they carried them away.’

  Ersoz nodded. ‘The crime scene techs assured me they found much evidence of this. Footprints in the blood. Drag marks. Many things.’

  ‘Then what is the problem?’

  ‘My superior is very uncomfortable with the idea of a group of people that would go to such lengths to keep from being identified.’

  ‘Me, too,’ Lourds confessed. ‘And let me assure you – and your superior – that it’s even more uncomfortable knowing that group of people is looking for me.’

  ‘I imagine it would be.’ Ersoz paused. ‘Even more mysterious, we’ve not been able to identify the two men found in the wreckage of the vehicle you were transported in.’

  ‘In a city this size, you’d have to expect that,’ Lourds said.

  ‘But the kind of men who kidnap people off the street in broad daylight? Who kill other people with no compunction?’ Ersoz shook his head. ‘No, those kinds of men aren’t often without records of some kind, not even in Istanbul.’

  A tingle of dread shot through Lourds as he contemplated that.

  ‘Have you given any thought to leaving Istanbul, Professor?’ Ersoz asked.

  ‘I have.’ The only problem was the manuscript. If he left, maybe he couldn’t take it with him.

  ‘And will you?’

  Lourds hesitated. ‘I don’t think so.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I don’t understand.’ But Lourds was afraid he was starting to.

  ‘A rational man,’ Ersoz explained patiently, as if to a child, ‘would already be throwing himself at the mercy of his embassy to get out of this country after such an ordeal. At the very least he would seek asylum there. Yet, you have done neither of these things.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Why?’

  Lourds thought quickly. He wasn’t going to tell them about the manuscript. He’d already made his mind up about that. If he told them about it, he might as well surrender it and reconcile himself to the fact he’d never see it again.

  ‘What’s to say I’d be safer anywhere else?’ Lourds said finally.

  ‘I’ve reviewed your records, at my superior’s insistence,’ Ersoz said. ‘When there was trouble in Jerusalem, you decided to forego your trip. When the team you were part of in Iran was attacked, you also chose discretion as the better part of valour. In all your endeavours, Professor, you’ve always chosen the path of the wise and careful man.’

  It pained Lourds to hear a note of contempt in Ersoz’s voice.

  In those instances, nothing important had been at stake. In none of them had he any real reason to stay and fight. This felt different. The book felt different…

  It felt like history in the making. And he had it in his control.

  ‘In this instance,’ Ersoz said, ‘you choose to foolishly risk your neck. I don’t understand your decision.’

  ‘Is there any reason to think those men would come after me again?’ Lourds’ pulse beat at his throat and temples. If he had been in Ersoz’s shoes, he would have been suspicious, too. The last thing he needed was eyes upon him while he was trying to be secretive. Stealth wasn’t his greatest skill.

  ‘I don’t know, Professor. Is there any reason to think these men continue to have an interest in you?’

  Lourds didn’t say anything.

  Ersoz crossed his legs and his eyes bored into Lourds with a steady gaze. ‘Those men had you for some time, Professor. It’s hard to believe they didn’t
talk about what they hoped to gain from taking you captive.’

  ‘As I told you, I was unconscious most of that time. They drugged me. I thought they were going to kill me.’ Thankfully, that was the truth.

  ‘At some point, though, you became conscious enough to run for your life.’

  Lourds nodded and his throat became dry as he felt the detective closing in on him. He wondered how many people were on the other side of the one-way glass watching him answer Ersoz’s questions.

  ‘I don’t think you have to be very conscious to know to run for your life when you’re being held against your will by people who might kill you,’ Lourds objected.

  ‘Yet they didn’t kill you, did they? In fact, they went to great lengths to keep you alive. Killing you would have been much easier.’

  Lourds couldn’t argue that point.

  ‘They must have wanted something from you,’ Ersoz insisted softly.

  ‘I would agree.’

  ‘But you never found out what it was.’

  Lourds tried to keep his face neutral. He didn’t want to be caught lying to the Turkish police, but he didn’t want to tell them the truth. He hated it when his life got this difficult.

  ‘The woman interfered with whatever plans they had,’ Lourds said. ‘I told you that.’

  Ersoz nodded. ‘You did. But that’s even more troublesome. Why was she there?’

  ‘She was working with them.’

  ‘And then she wasn’t.’

  ‘So I said. But she got into an argument with them over money.’

  ‘Her fee. Yes. You said they weren’t going to pay her the rest of the agreed amount. They were going to kill her.’

  ‘Yes. They admitted this.’ Lourds nodded. ‘These people didn’t bother to hide that fact.’

  ‘She was foolish to work for them.’

  ‘I would think so.’

  ‘But not so foolish as to get herself killed.’

  ‘She was lucky.’

  ‘It wasn’t luck that made her take you as a bargaining point. She knew those men wouldn’t risk killing you.’

  Too late, Lourds saw the box he’d put himself in.

  ‘My question to you is, how did this woman – whose identity you don’t know and whom you say you’ve never seen before – know those men wouldn’t kill you both?’