‘You do know where we’re going, don’t you?’ Cleena asked. ‘Your girlfriend did tell you, didn’t she?’
‘Somewhere safe,’ Lourds replied. ‘I’m also quite sure that Professor Adnan wouldn’t appreciate being referred to as my girlfriend.’
‘I think main squeeze would be less appreciated, don’t you?’ Cleena smiled sweetly.
Lourds chose not to respond.
‘This place we’re heading, is it somewhere you think is safe? Or somewhere she thinks is safe?’ Cleena asked.
Lourds was certain that no matter what he answered, it was going to lead to an argument.
At that moment, six men gathered round a cart of melons turned towards the trio. Lourds caught sight of them from the corner of his eye. Cleena spotted the men as well and reached under the lightweight shirt she had hanging outside her jeans.
‘Don’t!’ Olympia ordered. She walked back towards Lourds and Cleena.
Adrenaline cascaded through Lourds’ bloodstream at the men’s approach. He sought the quickest avenue of escape, but the street was packed.
Cleena had her pistol in hand out of sight beside her thigh.
‘They’re friends.’ Olympia stepped between the men and Cleena.
Personally, Lourds thought that an extremely foolish move. Cleena probably wouldn’t hesitate to shoot Olympia first. Before he could stop himself, Lourds stepped between Olympia and Cleena. Now this – this is stupid.
‘Perhaps,’ he suggested while mentally chastising himself, ‘you could introduce us to your friends…’ His voice trailed off as he recognized one of the young men in front of them from the catacombs. It was the man who had been dressed in monk’s robes and who had led him to safety. Today there was no robe. Instead, he wore khaki cargo pants, white and navy Chuck Taylors and a Coldplay concert T-shirt.
‘Thomas,’ Olympia said almost brightly, ‘I suppose you’ve already met Joachim.’
‘Not formally, no.’ Lourds didn’t know whether to extend a hand in greeting or take a step back. Only that would have made him an even bigger target for Cleena.
Joachim kept his face sombre and nodded. ‘Good afternoon, Professor Lourds. You have been highly spoken of.’
‘Thank you. I wish I could say the same of you.’
Olympia took the young man by the arm and smiled. For a brief instant, something close to jealousy flared through Lourds.
‘I know you’ve never met,’ Olympia said. ‘But I’m glad the two of you do have this chance. I just wish it had been under better circumstances.’
‘What does he have to do with this?’ Lourds asked.
‘Joachim is going to help us,’ Olympia explained.
‘How do you know that you can trust him?’ Cleena asked.
‘Because Joachim is my brother.’
Now that he was given more time and wasn’t as stressed out, Lourds could see the family resemblance between Olympia and Joachim. Her brother was younger than she was, although older than Lourds had first thought in the catacombs, but surely no more than late thirties.
After meeting them in the street, Joachim had guided them to an apartment building. He had rooms set up on the third floor. In addition to sleeping quarters for Lourds, Olympia, Cleena and the men, there was a sizeable kitchen and dining room, as well as a large room equipped with a conference table and computer hardware, including a satellite uplink.
‘Have you eaten, Professor Lourds?’ Joachim asked politely.
‘Not since breakfast with your sister,’ Lourds answered. ‘I had planned to take her to dinner before we were interrupted at the university.’ He put his backpack on the floor next to one of the chairs at the conference table.
‘The gunmen,’ Joachim said.
‘That would be the reason.’ Lourds sat at the table and took out the book from his backpack.
Joachim sat across from Lourds. ‘Olympia said you had no idea who the men were.’
Lourds shook his head. ‘No.’
‘Nor for whom they might be working?’
‘They were Americans. Is there any reason why the American government would be interested in this manuscript?’
‘If they knew what it represented, perhaps. If someone there ascribed to the same beliefs you and Olympia have.’ When no further explanation was forthcoming, Lourds said, ‘Because the fate of the world depends on what’s in these pages.’ He raked the ball of his thumb along the book’s pages.
Olympia sat across the table next to her brother. She frowned a little. ‘Thomas is having a little trouble believing that.’
Cleena sat with a chair between herself and Lourds. She sipped from a bottle of water, remaining quiet and watchful.
Joachim rubbed his hands together, and for the first time Lourds realized how heavily calloused they were. ‘Let me assure you, Professor, you don’t need to be a believer to help us. If you can translate that manuscript that’s all the assistance we need.’
‘You expect this to tell you where the Joy Scroll is?’
‘It will.’ Joachim’s voice carried conviction. ‘You will see.’ He took a minute to ask one of the men to prepare a meal, then turned back to Lourds. ‘We can’t very well work on empty stomachs.’
Within minutes, the smell of spices and cooking lamb filled the rooms. Lourds’ stomach growled in anticipation. He nursed a cold beer as the conversation continued.
Joachim was attentive, like a student preparing for a final.
‘You can’t read this?’ Lourds asked.
‘No,’ Joachim answered.
‘Can any of your people decipher it?’
Polite impatience flickered across Joachim’s face. ‘I assure you, if anyone among us could read that book, Olympia would not have involved you in this matter.’
‘How long has the knowledge in the book been lost?’
‘Since the time of Constantine.’
‘How did it become lost?’
‘You’re familiar with the history of this city.’
Lourds nodded.
‘In addition to the wars that have been fought over and throughout Istanbul, there have also been many natural disasters. Earthquakes. Fires. Even the passage of time has served to hide the scroll as the city fell and was raised up again and again by succeeding generations.’
‘If the scroll was written on Patmos-’
‘It was. Our histories are very clear about that.’
‘Then how did the scroll come to be here?’
‘During Constantine’s reign, he sent out many search parties to locate and take into custody relics of Jesus Christ’s life as well as early Christianity. As you know, the Roman Empire tried to suppress our religion during its infancy. They failed, but many precious things were scattered or destroyed or lost to us.’
‘Those were turbulent times,’ Lourds agreed. ‘Emperor Constantine wanted to safeguard Christianity.’
‘One of the people searching for Christian artefacts was Helena, Constantine’s mother,’ Joachim said. ‘She also had a strong belief and a strong desire to protect holy things. During her travels, she discovered the Brotherhood of the Scroll and went to the island of Patmos to negotiate on behalf of her son. Constantine only wanted the documents protected.’
‘As strong as his rule looked, and as deeply entrenched as he was in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, it would’ve made sense.’ Lourds constructed a timeline on a page of his personal journal. ‘So the Joy Scroll remained on the Island of Patmos for almost four hundred years after it was authored.’
Joachim nodded.
Helena had been a powerful figure in Emperor Constantine I’s courts. Historians attributed the discovery of the relics of the True Cross to her and her efforts to find them. The Chapel of Saint Helen, constructed to identify the Burning Bush of Sinai, had been erected on her orders. During a dig under the temple to Venus built near Calvary over the site of Jesus Christ’s tomb, her people had found three crosses. One of them was supposed to be the cross Jesus was crucified on
, while the others held the thieves. According to the stories, Helena had taken a diseased woman from Jerusalem to touch the crosses. Upon touching the third cross, the woman had recovered from her ailment. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre had been built on the site, and more churches on holy sites followed thereafter. Legend had it that Helena had discovered the nails from the cross as well. Back home, she had got a blacksmith to put one in Constantine’s helmet, and another in his horse’s bridle.
‘How did Helena persuade the Brotherhood to give up the scroll?’ Lourds asked.
‘Her presence there told them the scroll was no longer safe. In those days, the Brotherhood was trained only in the ways of peace. If they had tried to defend the scroll, they would have died.’
Lourds glanced at Joachim’s calloused hands. ‘Now the Brotherhood is different?’
Sadness flickered across the other man’s face. ‘Over the years, the Brotherhood has become forced to become more than it was ever intended to be. We hang onto our peaceful nature, but we’re unafraid of violence.’
‘So you’re killers?’ Cleena asked. ‘That doesn’t make you sound much better than Qayin and his people.’
‘No!’ Joachim slapped the tabletop with his open palm hard enough to jar their drinks. ‘We do not kill. The Brotherhood has never taken a human life.’
Lourds noticed the modifier but decided not to ask.
‘If you don’t kill,’ Cleena pointed out, ‘it’s going to be hard to put up a fight.’
Joachim looked at her. ‘An incapacitated foe can’t fight any better than a dead one. We have trained ourselves to incapacitate those who threaten the scroll. We don’t have to kill to achieve our goals.’
‘Altruism aside,’ Cleena said, ‘not killing the people who are after us is going to put you at a decided disadvantage.’
‘Don’t you mean “put us”?’ Olympia asked.
‘No, I don’t.’ Cleena’s voice was perfectly neutral, but the threat was naked in her words.
Lourds sought safer conversational ground. ‘Helena convinced the Brotherhood to move the scroll?’
‘It looked like a win-win situation for the Brotherhood and Constantine,’ Olympia stated. ‘At the time of the scroll’s arrival, along with the Brotherhood, Constantine was building the Megale Ekklesia.’
‘What’s that?’ Cleena asked.
‘The literal translation is Great Church,’ Lourds answered. ‘Constantine started building it during the fourth century. He didn’t live long enough to see it completed.’
‘But he did live long enough to hide the scroll,’ Joachim said.
‘In the church?’ Distress filled Lourds. ‘The original church was destroyed a little over forty years later.’
‘Forty-four years. The church was built in 360 AD and destroyed in 404 AD.’
Lourds waved a hand in acknowledgement. If he had known where he was supposed to be looking, he would have known the dates too. Scholars didn’t have to know everything. All they had to know was where to find everything.
‘John Chrysostom was appointed archbishop of the Church of the Holy Wisdom, as the Great Church was named in those days by Constantine-’
‘In 398 AD,’ Joachim interrupted.
Lourds sipped his beer. ‘I suppose there’s a lot of rote work in the Brotherhood.’
Joachim smiled.
‘While holding his office,’ Lourds went on, ‘John Chrysostom ran foul of Theophilus, who was Patriarch of Alexandria at the time, and Emperor Arcadius’s wife-’
‘Aelia Eudoxia,’ Joachim supplied.
‘Thank you. With the patriarch, John Chrysostom refused to bow down, and with the empress, John Chrysostom took to task women who chose to flaunt their wealth in clothing. The patriarch and the empress arranged the Synod of the Oak in 403 AD and banished John Chrysostom. The people became enraged and demanded that he be returned to his position.’
‘There was more to it than that,’ Joachim said. ‘On the very night that John Chrysostom was arrested, an earthquake occurred. Many people, including the empress, believed it was a sign from God.’
Lourds thought he remembered something like that, but wasn’t certain. ‘During that confrontation, the first Church of the Holy Wisdom was destroyed.’ He studied Joachim. ‘How are you sure that the Joy Scroll wasn’t incinerated in the fire that claimed the church?’
‘Because the Joy Scroll was hidden in the maze of tunnels beneath the church.’
‘Beneath the church?’ Lourds rubbed at the stubble that covered his jaw. ‘Not in the church?’
‘Exactly.’
‘Then why haven’t you found the Joy Scroll before now? Your Brotherhood has had sixteen hundred years to accomplish that.’
‘Because for many years we weren’t supposed to find it. Emperor Constantine and a few members of the Brotherhood knew the hiding place where the scroll was kept. Despite being in a land where everyone felt the scroll was protected, the emperor and the elder brothers knew that many enemies remained outside the city walls. The choice was made to keep the number of people who knew where the scroll was to a handful. Each generation in turn handed down the knowledge of the scroll to only a few people. That number was cut further after the Nika Riots.’
‘The war between the Blue and the Green,’ Lourds said.
‘Yes.’
‘What is the War between the Blue and the Green?’ Cleena asked.
‘During this time, the early 530s, I believe,’ Lourds said.
‘532,’ Joachim supplied, then smiled. ‘It is as you say. A lot of rote work.’
‘There were a lot of social associations called demes. They supported the different teams that competed in chariot racing and other contests.’
‘You mean like bookies?’ Cleena asked.
‘Nothing so small,’ Olympia said. ‘Think of the demes like long lines of political parties and street gangs. It wasn’t just about the sporting events. They actively pursued social issues of the times and fought against those they didn’t like. Battles often broke out in the streets between the different groups and the emperor’s soldiers.’
‘To make matters worse,’ Lourds said, ‘many of those demes were patronized by Roman aristocrats. Several of them believed they deserved the throne more than Emperor Justinian, who currently held the throne. There was a riot in 531 that resulted in murder. Members of the Blues and Greens were arrested and held accountable. Most of them were hanged. However, early in 532…’ He looked at Joachim.
‘On the tenth of January, to be exact,’ Joachim said.
‘One of the Blues and one of the Greens managed to thwart their guards and flee into the crowd that had already formed to protest against the hangings. Already stretched thin between internal strife and negotiations with Persia, Justinian elected to rescind the death sentences and give the men life sentences.’
‘I assume they didn’t take it,’ Cleena said.
‘No,’ Lourds agreed. ‘The chariot races took place at the Hippodrome next to the palace and the Church of the Holy Wisdom. During the course of the day, violence broke out and swelled into a riot that lasted five days and left the second church burned to the ground.’
‘And still the Joy Scroll remained hidden,’ Joachim said.
‘Hidden or lost?’ Lourds countered.
‘Hidden only. But, as I said, the Brotherhood decided to limit the number of people who knew the Joy Scroll’s hiding place.’
‘Why?’
‘Because the city seemed to be in chaos. There were enemies outside the gates and unrest throughout the streets. It was feared that if anyone knew the power of the scroll and its whereabouts, there would be no stopping those who came after it. The Elders locked themselves away in the underground tunnels. Those that were chosen never again saw the light of day.’
‘That’s insane,’ Cleena whispered.
Lourds didn’t disagree, but he knew that the practice wasn’t unique.
‘Ultimately that proved their undoing, didn’
t it?’ Lourds asked. ‘Too few people with the knowledge, and all of them grouped in one place.’
‘They did the best they were able,’ Joachim said. ‘They thought what they were doing was the best and safest thing to do.’
‘The Brotherhood just hadn’t counted on the Fourth Crusade,’ Lourds said.
‘Maybe I’m misunderstanding here,’ Cleena said, ‘but weren’t the Crusades fought between the Muslims and the Christians?’
‘Yes,’ Lourds said, ‘and no. At the outset, the Fourth Crusade was supposed to be an invasion of Muslim Jerusalem by way of Egypt. Instead, The Roman Catholic Church chose to invade and sack Constantinople. The siege and battles lasted five years. At the end of that time, much of Constantinople lay in ruins. Thousands of citizens were dead in the street or displaced from their homes. Everything of value that the crusaders could find was taken.’
‘But they didn’t get the scroll,’ Joachim said quietly.
Lourds looked at the man. ‘You’re sure about that?’
‘The world still stands and spins in her orbit, Professor Lourds. That’s how I know. Once that scroll reaches the wrong hands, all we know will be lost. I promise you that.’
‘What happened to the Elder brothers?’
‘They stayed in the tunnels below the church. Their guards were slain, but they managed to lock themselves into a small sanctuary. They starved or thirsted to death before anyone could reach them. Much treasure was found, or I should say lost in those tunnels where the king’s soldiers tried to hide it, but the Joy Scroll remains.’
For a moment, Lourds thought about everything Joachim had revealed. Then he tapped the book in front of him with a forefinger.
‘Where’d you get this?’ he asked.
‘Most of the documents in that book were written after the Elders were known to be dead. Some of the papers were copied from notes they had managed to write and leave in a crack in the ceiling of the room where they died.’
Images of the abandoned monks filled Lourds’ mind. What must it have been like to be closed up in a tomb while thirsting and starving to death?
And all you had to do to be free was share one secret.
The Lucifer Code Page 23