In truth this explanation made a lot more sense than the vision Harker had been grappling with, and it would certainly account for his cloudy thought processes ever since. Yet it had all seemed so real at the time. ‘You’re saying it was purely drug-induced!’
‘Clever, isn’t it?’ Davies replied, clearly enjoying Harker’s confusion. ‘Henri injected you with some of it back at our little temple underneath the Eiffel Tower, which you should know is one of our modern Mithras Temples but with a change of décor. He then led you through the trance step by step, and in the end you never remembered a thing except the trip itself, did you? You never realised how much time had passed either.’
‘What time?’ Harker demanded, feeling furious at having been tricked so easily.
‘You were out for over an hour until the effects wore off, but you never even questioned the time discrepancy afterwards because you were instructed not to and like anyone else under this drug’s spell you did exactly as you were told. I’ve got footage of it all if you want to see. It’s quite amusing seeing you laid out on the floor, stoned out of your mind.’
Harker had the urge to punch the living hell out of him right there and then, but Davies was already wagging his finger. ‘Don’t get silly now or that creature will be back in here to tear you to shreds before you know it. Besides, we used a similar drug on poor Federar, which Stefani injected him with much like you were. But don’t worry, the archbishop will have woken up with no recollection at all of what happened.’
He then let out a deep laugh. ‘It’s all only smoke and mirrors, I’m afraid, just as were the murder of that mother and boy, along with the cryptic message written in blood.’
‘They’re alive? I thought you said they were dead?’
‘No, they did die horribly but,’ Davies flicked of his hand uncaringly, ‘I certainly wasn’t possessed.’
‘Why?’ Harker rubbed his forehead, thinking back to the grisly image of the mutilated son and mother. ‘What was the point any of this? The prophecy, the candles, why?’
Davies now looked distinctly haughty. ‘To create a narrative that that would ultimately get you into the Vatican’s secret archives and get hold of what I knew was there but never could have stolen myself without getting caught.’
Harker felt a sudden nausea in his throat as he thought back to when he had been fighting for his life against Archbishop Federar and it suddenly occurred to him how long it had taken for Stefani to come to his aid. Clearly she’d had other things to attend to. There they were in a room containing some of the most toxic items that the Church wished didn’t exist, and he had managed to get Stefani in there with him. ‘What did she take?’
With a smile Davies reached into a pocket of his robe and produced a small leather-backed book which he dangled in front of him. ‘A written diary from the first pope ever elected outlaying everything pilfered from Mithraism and incorporated into the early Catholic Church. We’ve been aware of that secret little vault of theirs for decades and the rumours surrounding it, so when the powers that be saw fit to upgrade its security, I made sure it was one of my associates who undertook the job. I will admit my operative only managed to steal a glance at this diary,’ Davies announced, waving the journal at Harker teasingly, ‘but, more importantly, he did catch a good look of the three days of Darkness Prophecy. Of course it was only the side facing upwards, but the line ‘You are I and I am you. When he is myth and we are reality. This grand deception will be repaid in blood.’ proved crucial in convincing Archbishop Federar that my holy vision was genuine. And gullibly he allowed me to inspect it and thus, as a result, I managed to get a good look at this.’
Davies brought his hand down onto the diary with a firm slap and then slowly shook his head from side to side. ‘I have always found using people’s own faith against them particularly delicious, and in a sentence, this is proof of all that was stolen from us, and by the time I’m finished the whole world is going to know it.’
‘I don’t believe you.’ Harker shook his head. ‘Maybe there were certain similarities in the early religions, and that’s always been a matter of speculation, but it still wouldn’t have any bearing on the truth and on the story of Jesus Christ.’
Davies was now looking extremely devious and he popped the book back into his pocket. ‘There is no smoke without fire and even the smallest doubt can be magnified tenfold in people’s minds. By the time I’ve divulged what lies within these pages, then believe me it will be another nail in the coffin of a religion that’s been haemorrhaging followers year on year for decades. Like I said, Alex, time is now our greatest ally and if you destroy enough bricks from the foundations of a house, eventually it will crumble and fall.’
Harker felt all the energy evaporate from his body as he realised how, unknowingly, he had been instrumental in helping the Mithras cult attain their goal. And he felt sickened by it. He had not only been played from the beginning, but he couldn’t have done a better job of it himself if he’d tried.
‘I can’t let you do this,’ he protested.
Davies looked unfazed. ‘My dear nephew, I know this stings right now, but I promise you that, in the fullness of time, you will realise that what you have done – and what we will do together – is not only the right thing to do, but the decent thing.’
‘And if I don’t?’
‘If you don’t, then I’m afraid all this effort and my faith in you will have been for nothing. And I will consider it nothing short of a betrayal of your own family, and the greatest disloyalty you could be guilty of.’
That same image of Michael Donitz’s swollen features flashed through Harker’s mind and, as he stood there deflated and at a total loss for words, Davies slipped past him towards a large pair of double doors over to his right and with both hands flung them open.
Harker looked over to see a large dining room in stark contrast to the Romanesque style of the room he was in. Thick tapestries hung on all the walls and at a long, mahogany table stretching most of the room’s length, the now familiar faces of the Mithras group were seated around it. On the table itself had been placed an outsized silver platter with a cover over five feet in length and equipped with multiple handles, and Davies now gestured Harker to enter as Stefani and three of the Mithras followers stood up and reached for the handles.
‘Now come, Alex, and take the last step of initiation. Join our ranks and fulfil your destiny along with your brothers and sisters.’
Harker’s instinct was to run but he knew not where, so he slowly took a few steps into the dining hall before coming to a stop behind a large wooden chair at the head of the table, as Davies meanwhile closed the doors behind them and made his way halfway along the room.
‘Welcome, Alex, for with this banquet we shall let you join our brotherhood. And just as Christian followers of Christ eat his body at every communion… so we eat that of our enemies.’
The huge silver cover was now lifted up, and instantly Harker’s eyes began to glaze and his stomach started to tighten – as he looked in horror at the course about to be served.
The dull-grey cooked eyes of Marco Lombardi gazed up towards the ceiling, as he lay there outstretched and his skin brown after hours of cooking. His head had been shaved and his hands and feet removed, his limbs now tied at its ends with thick brown string.
‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ Davies began with a pleased smile, ‘welcome here your brother, for he who was lost us has now been found.’
Chapter 34
‘You’re cannibals!’ Harker yelled before almost retching at the sight of Lombardi’s crisp exterior.
‘Of course not,’ Davies replied calmly, as Dr Marceau stood up holding a long sharp knife and began to slice away a thin sliver of thigh muscle, ‘This ritual has been carried out ever since Mithras’s inception and is another rite stolen from us by the Catholic Church.’
Harker looked down at his plate and suppressed the bile rising in his throat. He was wrong: these people weren’t insane,
they were the devil incarnate. And as he began to breathe deeply and the smell of the baked offering wafted past his nostrils, Davies continued to lecture him.
‘Alex, this practice may seem unusual to you,’ he said, taking his seat at the other end of the table, ‘but it is practised by many of the older cultures all over the world.’
‘Maybe hundreds of years ago but not in the twenty-first century,’ Harker managed to argue, now focusing his line of vision on Davies at the far end rather than the human shish kebab lying stiff on its oversized serving dish.
‘I understand this may be unsettling if you’ve never experienced it before, so please don’t feel obliged to participate if you don’t wish to.’
There was not a cat in hell’s chance Harker was going to do so but it was still a relief to hear these words. Meanwhile the smell of baked Lombardi continued to permeate the air, and even worse, it actually smelt rather like chicken!
‘Gives a whole new meaning to the term having someone over for dinner,’ Harker remarked bitterly. ‘So what did the evening’s entrée do to deserve this?’
‘He’s the reason you’ve had so much trouble with Avi Legrundy,’ Anastas replied as a plate of man meat was placed in front of him. ‘He disagreed with Father’s decision to invite you into the family. The idiot couldn’t stand the idea of you usurping his position and one day taking your rightful place instead of him.’
Stefani now intervened, ‘He tried to convince her to kill you, Alex, and sealed his fate in the process.’ she stated flatly and then took a first bite of her prepared meal, which had Harker close to throwing up. He couldn’t believe he had found the woman attractive. ‘Of course, she told Father soon after but we detained Marco here, and let him believe he had managed in his deception, just to see how far he might go.’ A drizzle of Lombardi juice began running down her cheek, which she dabbed at with a white linen serviette. ‘He would have had me killed, too, given half a chance.’
This was the most disgusting and surreal situation Harker had ever seen: an entire group of people digging into another human being and yet chatting as though it were over a Sunday roast. Suddenly a thought occurred to him. How could a group of people become so detached from reality as to carry out such a depraved act with little or no emotion?
‘You lot are the same children who went missing back at the orphanage all those years ago? And the fifteen swastikas I keep seeing represent all of you.’
‘We were lucky,’ Detective Russo responded with a nod and sitting to the left of Harker. ‘Father offered us a life full of meaning and wealth instead of ending up on the shit heap along with all the other disenfranchised children of this world.’
‘Extremely lucky,’ Dr Marceau concurred. ‘With his guidance and financial help we have all proved successful in our chosen fields and been inspired with the goal of returning the true God to his rightful place.’
‘He wasn’t so lucky,’ Harker replied, gesturing to the oven-baked corpse whose right thigh was now cut away, right down to the femur.
Listening at the other end of the table, Davies swallowed his last bite and flapped a hand in the air. ‘With the help of my children here I have continued to build the foundations for the hierarchy of the next generation. And they aren’t the only ones, for the people you see here are only the inner circle of but one chapter of the Mithras. We have devoted associates all over the world and with our resources, and the Magi now gone, we can begin to go forth and reclaim our destiny.’
‘Ah, yes, the destruction of the Catholic Church would be quite an accomplishment, if you can achieve it,’ Harker said bitterly. ‘And do your other associates know about your dining habits?’
Harker’s sarcasm provoked a look of ambivalence from each of them and Davies’s eyes moved around the table warily before settling back on him.
‘This banquet is for only our most trusted and, yes, that noble goal is most definitely our long-term aim. But we have another more pressing issue to resolve and it is yet another reason as to why you find yourself here tonight.’
The others eyed each other furtively as Davies pushed his plate forward and stood up. ‘There’s a good reason why I never got in contact with you after I first heard of your whereabouts.’ He stood up and moved slowly past the other guests, lightly touching each one on the shoulder affectionately. ‘When the Templars foolishly attempted to eradicate the Mithras all those years ago, it was due to nothing other than their own selfish conviction that they were somehow pure whilst we constituted an affront to their high sense of self-regard. They considered themselves better than us, and so they used their perceived power to make us suffer.’
Davies finally reached Harker’s seat and he put his hands together as if to look noble. ‘Avi Legrundy and myself obviously escaped their wrath and then, with no more use for him, they killed your father.’
‘Ahh, yes. Where is Miss Legrundy tonight?’ Harker asked with a look of distaste and still not buying the tale of Templar murder.
‘She’s having her face looked at; they were nasty burns.’ Dr Marceau informed him and sounding slightly miffed at that fact, ‘your overly heroic escape plan almost got me killed too.’
Davies now remained silent and Harker now sensed the unease which his actions had caused. ‘Well, she was trying to kill me at the time.’
‘It was only an act, Alex,’ Marceau persisted, ‘I almost choked on the blood pack, and after tossing that pigs tongue in your lap she was supposed to drag me out leaving you to break your own chair, which I had already weakened, so you could escape after us. I almost didn’t make it to the back entrance in time. My throat is still raw from the fumes.’
Harker could see this was a real bone of contention for all of them and, as they stared at him menacingly, he realised that his new ‘family’ could turn from pleasant to vicious at the drop of a hat. ‘I apologise, Gérald, but I was under the assumption she had just murdered you, and I was extremely angry about it.’
The hardened stares now began to soften as Davies took that moment to intervene. ‘I understand Alex, we all do, and I’m sure you can apologise to Miss Legrundy when she arrives. I think you’ll find her most forgiving, given the situation.
Harker offered a grateful nod, and everyone settled back into their seats, as Davies continued with his pitch.
‘As I was saying. We watched as years of designed strife broke out between them and the Magi, which cut down their numbers until recently, when they had managed to do to the Magi exactly what they believed had happened to us, and the time seemed ripe for exacting some well-deserved revenge. But it was most impressive that you, one of our own, played such a pivotal part in their demise. It is with that same fervour that we wish you now to help us.’
It was irksome to Harker to keep being mentioned thus as one of theirs, but he gave a nod. ‘And what would that be?’
Davies glanced around at his brood and then quickly back at Harker, with a maniacal look on his face. ‘I want you to help us destroy those people who killed your father. I want you to help me destroy the Templars once and for all. And I want Sebastian Brulet dead and in doing so we can finally bring this game of ours to a close.
A low muttering now rippled around the table. ‘All debts must be repaid.’
Harker looked around briefly at all the faces focusing on him keenly. ‘And how would I do that?’
This reply appeared to encourage Davies who now bent down on one knee, within inches of Harker’s face, with the smell of human flesh on his breath. ‘You know the hierarchy, you know how they operate and therefore you can get close to them. With you on our side we can put an end to all this, so we now ask for your help.’
Harker stared back into the eyes of his ‘uncle’, and it just appalled him to think how deluded this man had become. It made sense that his ‘children’ here had been indoctrinated at an early age, and thus raised to believe in Mithras and their cause unequivocally, but Davies himself? Had the loss of his loved ones and his wish for reveng
e clouded his judgment so much that he actually believed Harker would participate in such an insane crusade purely because they were related?
As Harker continued to stare at him, he came to the conclusion that he had. And now he sat there silently, as if mulling over the offer, as Davies continued with his wishes.
‘Take your proper place with us, Alex, and I promise you a life of wealth and of never wanting for anything, which of course extends to your wife-to-be, Chloe.’
The mere reference to her had his blood boiling, but he managed to retain an expression of composure until, after almost a full thirty seconds of silence, he finally nodded his head. ‘I can’t deny that I have indeed missed a sense of family over the years, and if the Templars did murder my father, then that changes things. If I do help you though, I need you to make three assurances?’
‘Of course,’ Davies replied, looking very pleased with himself, his smile a bit overstated. ‘Just name them.’
‘I want proof that they really did kill my father, and I want it before I agree to do anything.’
‘And you shall have it,’ Davies replied with a nod.
‘Secondly, Mithraism is alien to me, to say the least, so you must allow me to gain experience of it at my own pace.’
‘More than reasonable,’ Davies replied once again glancing around at those present, who all seemed to find the request acceptable. ‘And the third?’
The Dark Temple Page 29