The Lucifer Code

by Charles Brokaw

Webster consulted his watch. ‘His plane should be touching down momentarily. He’ll call me as soon as he’s on the ground.’

  ‘And he’ll have Professor Lourds?’

  ‘Yes.’ Webster couldn’t wait. Once the Joy Scroll was in his hands, there would be no turning back. Everything would be his to control.

  ‘You’ve never said what part the professor will play in this?’

  Webster smiled. ‘A small one at best. And one that’s very tragic.’

  ‘Will he be in the escape?’

  Webster shook his head. ‘No. I’m afraid Professor Lourds will have outlived any potential interest he might have in things before we get that far.’ In fact, the vice-president was going to make certain of that.

  After he took possession of that cursed scroll.

  Lourds rode in the cargo area of the big Chinook helicopter and tried to keep his thoughts ordered. He sat under guard, watched over by a half-dozen armed men, including Eckart. All of them looked positively fearsome. Lourds didn’t believe he could have taken the weakest among them in a fair fight. Having six of them watch over him was merely adding insult to injury. Even worse, they’d handcuffed him in the disposable plastic cuffs he’d seen in the movies. At least they’d had the mercy to tie them in front of him, rather than behind his back. He could scratch his nose, which was itching furiously. He swayed and jerked to the Chinook’s gallop as they approached the city.

  Anti-aircraft missiles exploded hot and bright against the night sky. Lourds drew his extremities in, as if being sprawled out too far might incite the anti-aircraft gunners to aim better.

  ‘Isn’t there a chance we could get shot down?’ Lourds asked nervously.

  ‘Maybe,’ Eckart replied. ‘But this baby is armoured up pretty good. Anything less than a direct hit isn’t even gonna leave a scratch.’

  Lourds wished he had the man’s simple faith, but Eckart knew his tools best. Lourds just gritted his teeth and prayed that he survived.

  Several minutes later, the Chinook’s approach altered. It heeled over at an angle and started descending. More anti-aircraft bursts filled the air round them. A couple seemed to bounce off the helicopter.

  ‘They’re getting better, sir,’ one of the other soldiers said.

  Eckart grinned. ‘For all the good it will do them. Wait until they’re face to face with American special ops guys. You ask me, I wouldn’t care for the locals’ chances.’

  The men laughed, and the harsh barking noise sounded alien to Lourds’ ears. Not for the first time, he wondered if his decision to accede to Webster’s demands had been his wisest course of action.

  Don’t worry, Cleena had told him as he made his preparations to meet Webster. I’ll be there. Lourds hadn’t asked how. He hadn’t wanted to know because he’d been afraid all he would do was pick apart any plan she and Joachim presented. Joachim and the other monks were coming with her in a small strike force.

  The Chinook landed with a harsh bounce. More anti-aircraft fire lit up the sky overhead. Lourds squirmed in his seat and tried to free the restraining belt.

  ‘Hurry up,’ Eckart said. ‘We’re sitting ducks up here.’ He reached across and flicked Lourds’ belt free.

  ‘Thanks,’ Lourds said automatically, forgetting just for an instant that he was a prisoner and not a guest.

  ‘Don’t mention it,’ Eckart said. Then he grabbed Lourds by the shoulder and propelled him through the cargo doors. ‘Get him into the building.’

  One of the soldiers held Lourds by the handcuffs and hauled him across the rooftop. The man moved so quickly Lourds almost fell. He envisioned himself getting dragged bodily across the roof.

  ‘Incoming!’ someone yelled.

  The soldier pulling at Lourds whirled suddenly and clapped a big hand on top of Lourds’ head. He shoved Lourds face first onto the rooftop. Lourds hit the ground hard and his breath exploded from his lungs. As he tried to recover, he spotted the Chinook rising into the air like a fat goose. A Saudi helicopter gunship settled into the airspace. It opened fire with some kind of weapon. In an instant, the Chinook turned into a whirling mass of fireballs and broken debris. Razor-sharp pieces of metal sliced down around Lourds but thankfully none of it touched him. Sour bile erupted against the back of his throat.

  ‘I’m hit! I’m hit!’ someone yelled.

  ‘Get up!’

  The soldier accompanying Lourds got to his feet and yanked roughly on the plastic cuffs. The hard material sliced into Lourds’ hands. A slight trickle of blood flowed as he forced himself to his feet and followed the soldier.

  Eckart and his men turned their weapons on the offending helicopter. Bullets chopped into its body and Plexiglas nose. The pilot tried to get away, but he reacted too late. Out of control, the helicopter veered away and slammed into a nearby building. For a moment it looked like a bug crushed against a windshield. Only bugs didn’t explode into thousands of fiery pieces.

  The soldier guided Lourds to an access door and they went in to the building.

  Cleena stared through her binoculars as the Chinook exploded. The flare of the explosion made it look like the whole roof had caught fire. Half a dozen men scattered across the building with fire extinguishers and fought the dozens of fires that spread out from the destroyed helicopter.

  ‘Lourds?’ Joachim stood at Cleena’s side. His voice was quiet and controlled, but there was no mistaking the anxiety in his words.

  ‘He’s all right.’ Cleena watched Lourds as he was hustled across the rooftop and shoved into the building’s access hatch. Eckart trailed them and she let out a sigh of relief. ‘Sevki, do you mark the location?’

  ‘Yes. The building that currently houses the vice-president.’

  ‘Webster’s still there?’ Cleena and Joachim had been cut off from the news services while they’d made their way across the city. Thankfully they’d managed to arrive at their destination with only a few skirmishes that left them bloody but without losing anyone.

  ‘Yes. He’s overdue for a response, though. Some of the news show anchors are starting to get fidgety.’

  ‘He’s building the anticipation like a circus ringmaster.’ Joachim’s disapproval was thick and angry.

  Cleena silently agreed. ‘But he’s not counting on us being here.’ However, she would have felt better if Lourds had been able to translate the scroll. Without it, they wouldn’t have a chance against their enemy.

  Lourds tried to catch his breath as the soldiers forced him along an immaculate passageway. He couldn’t take notice of the details around him. They passed the elevator by, which he couldn’t believe given how far they evidently had to travel to reach ground level, and hurtled down six flights of stairs. Just when he thought he was going to collapse or throw up for certain, the soldier pulled Lourds through a doorway instead of down another flight of stairs. They negotiated a maze of corridors and ended up at a suite of rooms.

  Guards in black suits stood watch over the doors. They acknowledged Eckart and his men, then opened the doors and allowed them entrance.

  United States Vice-President Elliott Webster stood on the other side of the door. Other people, some of them with faces Lourds thought he recognized from the news, stood inside the room as well.

  Webster smiled disingenuously. ‘Welcome, Professor Lourds. It’s a pleasure to see you.’

  Cold dread filled Lourds. He wasn’t sure if the feeling was a normal one on meeting Webster or if it was caused by the knowledge of who he was. For a moment, Lourds stood frozen.

  The nearest soldier tripped Lourds and sent him sprawling. Hands bound in front of him, he landed in a heap before Webster, unable to keep his face from thudding into the floor. Groaning in pain, Lourds pushed himself to his knees before his enemy.

  ‘I trust your trip wasn’t too much of a hardship,’ Webster said, but his casual tone indicated that he didn’t care.

  ‘Not as bad as the last week or so has been,’ Lourds admitted. He was surprised that he spoke so casually.
r />   ‘I would guess not. All those places and all those treasures. It must have been exciting.’

  ‘Under better circumstances,’ Lourds said, ‘and if we’d had more time, I would have considered the time spent pleasant.’

  Webster smiled. ‘You haven’t lost your sense of humour.’

  Lourds didn’t respond.

  ‘That’s one of your traits I really admire,’ Webster said. ‘I enjoyed your books immensely. Especially Bedroom Pursuits. Although it was a little tame for my taste.’

  ‘Glad I was able to provide a little diversion.’

  ‘You know, since your capture, I’ve even toyed with the idea of having you as my chronicler.’

  ‘Chronicler?’

  ‘Of course. Once I begin my ascent into power, I’m going to be famous. People would love to read about me, and you’ve already got quite a legion of literary admirers.’ Webster paused and shrugged. ‘Admittedly, I’m already famous, but what happens here – and in the rest of the world shortly thereafter – will make me even more famous.’ He locked eyes with Lourds. ‘And you’re going to be part of it.’

  ‘Anything I can do to help.’ Lourds looked at the men round him, wondering why they didn’t react to what Webster was saying.

  ‘They don’t hear exactly what I’m saying to you,’ Webster said. ‘That’s just one of my abilities. When I speak, I can make the listener hear whatever I want them to.’

  ‘Must have been a great trick back in junior high school.’

  ‘You have no idea. Truly.’ Webster held a hand out and gazed at it. ‘When I first decided on this route for my return to this world, the idea gave me pause. The idea of allowing myself to be born into a mortal body, to deal with the frailties and hardships of the flesh – not all of them, mind you – was an anathema to me. But now I’m quite used to it. The serpent’s body was more elegant, more sure, but the pleasures are enhanced dramatically in this form.’

  Lourds remained on his knees. He gazed around the room and spotted a woman and three men. One of them sat at a laptop and occasionally hit the keyboard.

  ‘My brains trust,’ Webster said. ‘Without their networks and resources, I couldn’t have come this far.’

  ‘It’s good to have friends,’ Lourds said. ‘Especially when you’re planning on taking over the world.’

  ‘It’s a big job.’

  ‘One supposes.’

  ‘Indeed. You wouldn’t have got this far without your friends. Then again, the Joy Scroll might have been left lingering out there as well. So we both succeeded in our pursuits.’

  ‘Too bad they weren’t mutually exclusive and mutually beneficial.’

  ‘You’ll have to take that up with God,’ Webster said. ‘I’m not the one who plays by the rules. If it were me, I wouldn’t have created a weapon that my enemy could have used against me.’

  ‘And maybe he was a little too understanding when it came to letting his greatest enemy live.’

  Webster grinned. ‘Oh, he didn’t have a choice about that after he’d created the light and the dark. You simply can’t have one without the other. And he did try to keep you humans from knowing such things as good and evil existed.’

  Lourds’ stomach turned and threatened to empty. Even though he knew who he was talking to, part of him wanted to deny that was what was really going on.

  ‘Exactly.’ Webster walked over to Lourds and invaded his personal space. ‘You can see me, hear me, know who I am, and your first impulse is to deny my identity. You people grasp at a God you can’t touch and struggle to believe in, but you deny me.’ He smiled. ‘Of course, that doesn’t stop you from blaming me and my influence for everything that goes wrong in your lives.’

  ‘I think most people blame God for that.’

  Webster backhanded Lourds without warning, so fast that Lourds didn’t register the blow until his head had popped back and pain filled his right cheek and temple. He worked his jaw, not certain at first if it hadn’t been broken.

  None of the people in the room reacted to the blow.

  ‘Your insolence won’t be tolerated,’ Webster stated in a low, dangerous voice. ‘Neither will your continued existence if you insist on being unpleasant.’

  Lourds hoped that Cleena and Joachim had found an entrance to the building. Their plan had been desperate, but there’d been no other way that allowed Lourds to get close to Webster. Things would have been better if he’d already had the scroll translated. Stubbornly, though, the manuscript’s secrets continued to elude him. But he felt certain it was right there. Symbols swam through his head. All he needed was the key to how they fitted together.

  ‘You people need me,’ Webster said. ‘The God you revere has left a void in your lives. He doesn’t touch you every day. I will.’

  ‘Control, you mean?’

  ‘Guide.’

  ‘Slavery by another name.’

  Webster exhaled. ‘Do you know how many people are lost out there? How many that are uncertain how they’re supposed to proceed in their daily lives?’

  Lourds didn’t reply.

  ‘All of them,’ Webster said. He closed a fist in front of Lourds’ face. ‘They want a god that will be in their daily lives. One that will provide meaning and establish goals. One that will validate them in immediate response. That’s why people will turn to me.’

  ‘I’m not turning to you.’ The words were out of Lourds’ mouth before he realized it. ‘Not all of them will.’

  ‘Then the ones who don’t will die. I will crush them and leave their rotting corpses in the street.’

  ‘You may be gifted, but that doesn’t mean everyone will follow you. There are others who know you for who you truly are.’

  Webster shook his head. ‘They are the walking dead. They’ve already ceased living and don’t know it yet.’

  ‘That’s the whole problem of free will,’ Lourds said softly. ‘Such a small, seemingly insignificant thing. Yet so powerful.’

  ‘A fascinating thing. Mankind’s greatest freedom and its greatest servitude all rolled up into one package. If you ask me, I’m offering a much better deal.’

  ‘Doesn’t matter. In the end, you’re going to be defeated.’

  ‘Bah. Only if you believe the rhetoric.’

  ‘John of Patmos didn’t see it as rhetoric.’

  ‘John of Patmos was a senile old man. Even the Roman Catholic Church agrees with me there.’

  ‘He foretold your coming.’

  ‘Of course he did. I’ve only been here since what? The beginning of the human race?’

  ‘And you haven’t managed to take over the human race yet.’ Lourds shook his head. ‘That must be very frustrating.’

  ‘Subjugate. Destroy.’ Webster shrugged. ‘It’s all the same to me. I’ve already made a lasting mark in this world. People have talked about me, feared me, since time began.’ He smiled. ‘I can live with that.’

  Lourds felt the increased chill from the evil that clung to the man. It was like nothing Lourds had ever experienced before. It left him terrified and shaking.

  Webster checked his watch. ‘I don’t have a lot of time left.’ He waved at the room next door. ‘I’ve got a television crew waiting to hear my impassioned plea for help from the president. I promise, it’s going to be a barnburner. Then, of course, there’s going to be the whole “escape from Saudi Arabia and the evil Prince Khalid” thing I’ve got planned.’

  ‘A barnburner? I knew there’d be fire involved.’

  Webster chuckled. ‘It would be amusing to keep you around, Professor Lourds. But you’re much too dangerous to me. After the Brotherhood of the Scroll didn’t use John of Patmos’s final document, especially after it was broken apart and hidden away-’

  ‘You knew about that?’

  ‘Of course I did. Who do you think engineered the whole affair?’

  Lourds thought about that and couldn’t believe it. But yet, it made sense.

  ‘I persecuted those people,’ Webster bragged.
‘And, occasionally, I found a weak one and exploited him. Over the years, fewer and fewer of them knew what the scroll was or how to read it.’ He paused. ‘I thought it had actually been lost for ever during the Fourth Crusade when I managed to split the Church.’

  ‘You did that?’

  Webster performed a small bow. ‘Of course. Playing to my strengths. Put any two people together, anywhere in the world, and I’ll be there. I am the paranoia that chases after free will. I am the lingering doubt and malice over betrayal.’ He paused. ‘Now let’s see the scroll.’

  Eckart stepped forward and handed Webster the wooden cylinder. The vice-president uncapped it and gently prised out the contents into his waiting hand. The scroll inside slid free and he caught it deftly. For just a moment, he held it, then he cast it aside with an obscenity and stared at Lourds.

  ‘I did warn you about playing games. Where is the Joy Scroll, Professor Lourds?’

  Holding her silenced pistol before her, Cleena half ran through the underground passage that led to the building where Lourds had been taken. The corridor was longer than she’d expected.

  ‘You’re sure this is the way?’

  ‘Yes.’ Sevki didn’t hesitate. ‘Getting the blueprints of those buildings was a major undertaking. I can’t begin to express how much you owe me.’

  ‘After I help save the world, maybe we can discuss how large that debt is.’

  ‘Yeah. That.’

  Sevki didn’t sound as if he believed everything that was going on. Cleena didn’t blame him. Even after everything she’d seen, she had trouble believing it herself. That’s one of Webster’s strengths, she reminded herself. Joachim and the Brotherhood had warned them.

  Abruptly the corridor ended in a foyer containing a number of elevators.

  ‘Here.’ Joachim went to the right and found the door to a stairs. He started to pull it open.

  ‘No,’ Sevki interrupted. ‘The door is alarmed.’

  Joachim drew his hand back.

  ‘Can you bypass the alarm from there?’ Cleena stepped closer and looked at the alarm system.

  ‘No. I tried. If I hack in, I might set it off. Then you guys are screwed.’

  Cleena put her pistol away and pulled her toolkit from inside her jacket. She wore body armour, as did the monks. Tension filled her body as she concentrated on the lock.