The Unforgiven Sin

by R. Twine

  ‘It’s impossible to do,’ Walter answered, ‘…without risking your life.’

  ‘Then it means that there’s someone who takes out people who become dangerous for them,’ I concluded.

  Walter pretended not to have heard my remark and went on. ‘Phil entered the satanic society to find out the dark side of these powerful people. Not one of them could even think that Phil had been gathering information on all of them from day one. Many of the members of the sect entered it under false names. Phil’s job was difficult and dangerous. And then at some point in time the secret service suspended its cooperation with him. Phil sensed Agella had a hand in it, too. He was unable to find out who the informer was, so he left the secret service and went on working totally on his own.

  ‘I hope, Phil never went under his real name,’ Michael said.

  ‘He had a lot of names, but only a handful of people knew him personally,’ Walter replied. ‘When he started working individually, his situation became far more complicated. On the one hand, he was spied on by The Star of Baphomet, on the other hand the secret services continued to keep him under their constant surveillance. But neither of them resorted to drastic measures… Phil stopped supplying them with the information.’

  ‘Because if he did, he would be exposed,’ I guessed.

  ‘Michael,’ said Walter quietly, ‘nobody but me knew about that secret bunker. I was that very trustee! You guessed right!’

  ‘I knew it right from the start,’ Michael said.

  Michael was confused, and I sensed how nervous he was. Unlike him, Walter kept enviably calm.

  ‘Phil was at a complete loss – just like you are now – when he found out that he’d actually become the wealthiest man in the world. What’s the use of having all these treasures if you’re unable to use them? Besides, his secret information gathering activity had become a threat to his life. I’m sure Phil’s death was a well-planned murder. But who precisely executed it? Was it The Star of Baphomet – when its members found out he’d been working for the secret service, or the secret services themselves who decided to get rid of their agent?’ said Walter perplexedly.

  ‘Suppose his death happened from natural causes?’ I asked.

  ‘Then all this is nothing more than an unfortunate coincidence. And neither The Star nor the secret services have anything to do with it,’ Walter replied.

  ‘The weird thing is that Phil died after we two met,’ I explained. ‘Michael’s wife died shortly afterwards, then my best friend passed away… Is this an unfortunate coincidence, too?’

  Walter looked at me expressively, but gave no other reaction to my words. He took a small sip of whiskey and went on.

  ‘Phil left the material in the bunker. That was the only place I could get the updated information without risking my life. Trying to disclose these machinations and the name of the perpetrators amounted to committing suicide! I always told Phil to leave everything as it had been. Still, I tend to believe that The Star of Baphomet found out about Phil’s cooperation with the secret service and this was why they quickly took him out. This explains the death of your wife, Michael, and the pressure you’re undergoing. Well, there’s one more thing…’ Walter stumbled for a second, groping for words. ‘Phil used to tell me that there was someone nobody knew personally who styled himself as the Prince of Darkness. This self-styled prince subjugated many members of The Star of Baphomet. He comes to all the rituals invariably dressed in a black cloak and a mask. He instills fear in everyone! There’s one thought that’s nagging at me… Could it be that this very man wanted to get rid of Phil in order to take control of the sect, all of its members and its entire capital?’

  ‘If so, then the next victim is Michael,’ I said, frightened.

  ‘It’s difficult to tell. These people are very dangerous, take my word for it, Michael,’ Walter said thoughtfully. ‘Phil had an idea of how the world of demons functions; he knew who Satan’s people were and what they were engaged in. Phil spoke with a kind of fatality in his voice during the last years of his life; he used to tell me he’d got ensnared and he knew his days were numbered. He didn’t believe any more in the potency of the compromising material he’d managed to amass. All that’s happening is just a game. And this means there are winners and losers,’ Walter said, citing Phil. ‘When he came to France, Phil often wanted to see you, but, unfortunately, this proved impossible…’

  Walter went silent, looking thoughtfully at the ice melting in his glass. I tried to compartmentalize everything I had come to know during the long day. I had a feeling of getting very close to something important but unable to see clearly what or who it was. One thing was clear to me: Samuel, Michael, I and all the members of this despicable society were somehow interconnected.

  ‘Phil had a companion,’ Walter resumed talking. ‘Only two persons knew about him: me and one more man. As far as I can judge, he succeeded in unearthing and handing some extremely important information to Phil. Unfortunately, I failed to find out what it was about. The companion was found dead on the very same day in his own bathroom.’

  ‘Where did Phil usually meet with his companion? And where did this man live?’ Michael asked.

  ‘They used to meet at the bank. Phil’s companion lived in Paris,’ Walter replied.

  ‘Do you have any idea what kind of information it was?’ I asked Walter.

  ‘No idea, but I guess it was something extremely important, something which resulted in Phil facing his problems totally on his own. He spent many years thoroughly searching for something,’ Walter replied. ‘He might have taken this secret to his grave. I was reluctant to poke my nose into something he wouldn’t want me to be familiar with.’

  ‘Walter, you surely know about my half-brother Samuel, don’t you?’ Michael started talking again.

  ‘Of course, I know about him,’ Walter confirmed. ‘And I couldn’t see Phil’s point. Why had he been hiding from you the fact of Samuel being your brother? This is all the more puzzling, because Sam himself knew about it.’

  ‘This is precisely the question we have to find the answer to,’ I jumped in again. ‘And no one but Samuel will help us best in doing this.’

  ‘Take care, Miriam,’ Walter warned me. ‘He’s Agella’s son, after all. And Agella is a very dangerous woman!’

  ‘Well, it is yet to be seen,’ said Michael incredulously.

  ‘Michael, they took Phil out, they may as well take you out. Here’s my advice: put the frighteners on them, and they are likely to leave you alone. Don’t make trouble! If you succeed in removing some figures, they’ll be quickly replaced by others. And the ones who will come to replace those who had been removed may turn out to be far worse than their predecessors! Colossal sums of money are behind them! And money means power and influence!’ said Walter, his face red after drinking whiskey.

  ‘You might have forgotten that I’m rich, too,’ Michael said pompously.

  ‘Michael, however rich you might be, you are all alone while there are thousands of them! Wake up to this fact, for Christ’s sake!’

  ‘Do you mean to tell me they are wealthier than me?’ Michael insisted obstinately.

  ‘You have one bunker, while all the rest belong to them! That is something to think about seriously, isn’t it?’ said Walter, trying to bring Michael to his senses.

  ‘Indeed, the banker told us about other bunkers. Do you think they belong to them?’ I asked.

  ‘I’m absolutely sure, Miriam,’ Walter replied. ‘Phil would tell me that everything belonged to the Master but I’m not inclined to believe it. I guess it was just a get-away. I don’t believe in the existence of a Master; I consider him to be nomore than a myth!’

  ‘But what if he really exists?’ I surmised. ‘And what if this Master is precisely the person you call a self-appointed king whom no one knows personally?’

  ‘I need a computer,’ Michael said suddenly, clearly bored with the talk.

  ‘Michael,’ I said, turning to him. ‘Wh
at’s your take on this?’

  ‘My take is that we’ll never succeed in finding out anything about this stranger,’ he replied. ‘So we’d better try and scare off those who are after us instead of searching for a man who has absolutely nothing to do with us.’

  ‘Right you are, Michael,’ said Walter approvingly, taking the list out of Michael’s hands. ‘Well, many names mean nothing at all to me. I’m sure they are false ones. It will be simply impossible to identify some of these people.’

  ‘Walter, have you ever heard of The Book of Shadows? To whom might it belong?’ I asked.

  ‘Sure enough, I’ve heard of it,’ he replied. ‘A lot of the most incredible stories are connected with it; everybody’s eager to know where it is and who its legendary owner is.’

  ‘Do you really think nobody knows his name? And that nobody knows where this book is?’ I enquired.

  ‘No doubt. Nobody knows either the name of the owner or the place where this book is kept,’ Walter replied. ‘Legend has it that the first Book isn’t the duplicate, but the very original written by Satanail personally.’ I froze: this was something Agella had told me before.

  ‘Satanail wanted this Book to be owned by the human being he loved. By coming into the hands of its earthly owner, it’s capable of causing changes not only in the owner’s life but in the life of the entire planet, too, because this Book interconnects as many as three worlds simultaneously: the Light World, the Dark World and the earthly one. But I’m not quite sure this legend is true.’

  ‘There can be an iota of truth in any legend,’ I remarked.

  ‘By the way, they say Satanail had personally inscribed on this Book the name of the person to whom it must belong,’ Walter added.

  ‘Which changes are to take place?’ asked Michael, turning away from the computer.

  ‘I think, nobody knows that,’ Walter replied.

  ‘Walter, do you personally believe in the existence of the Black Angel?’ I asked.

  ‘I’ve never seen him – if that’s what you want to know. But I trusted Phil and therefore I believe that Satan does exist. Phil used to tell me how abominable demons made people act against their will,’ Walter imparted reluctantly. ‘He also used to tell me that a man has to keep away from these monsters, while the people who serve them are as monstrous as the monsters themselves.’

  ‘Naturally, Phil didn’t consider himself to be a monster, and neither did you. Isn’t it so, Walter?’ Michael remarked with feigned casualness.

  ‘Yes, it is, Michael. I didn’t consider him to be a monster. Phil had been studying Evil without being evil himself.’

  Michael just smirked in reply and focused on the computer again.

  ‘It’s quite easy for a man to get lost in satanic tenets,’ Walter went on. ‘There are people who can be even worse than all the demons put together though it’s up to a man himself to make his own choices and act accordingly, right? But everything is so complicated now! Everything has got tangled up and it’s nearly impossible to find out who the perpetrators are and who precisely has a hand in these heinous crimes.’ Finally, Walter began talking in riddles.

  I walked over to Michael. He had already succeeded in entering a part of the information into a file system. The monitor showed the list of the sect’s members complete with the numbers of their bank accounts and a description of the main activities they were engaged in. There were also some photographs. I wondered how and when Michael had managed to take pictures of the documents in the bunker. But I didn’t have time to think this fact over: Michael opened another file, and I saw on the screen the profile of George Charlie, whose name Michael marked with a question mark.

  ‘This George Charlie again!’ I exclaimed, feeling a strong dislike for this man. ‘He looks like a real thug! Are you acquainted with him, Walter?’

  ‘He’s dangerous.’ That was all Walter said.

  ‘They are all dangerous,’ Michael added. ‘I don’t think they are just going to play hide-and-seek with us. They are not the kind of people to do this.’

  ‘Nobody will have the nerve to get rid of you right now, Michael,’ Walter said confidently. ‘You’re the owner of the third Book, though you don’t take any interest in the secret it hides. Nobody knows what kind of power you possess.’ Walter’s speech was interrupted by a fit of harsh coughing. ‘The book that belongs to Agella – the second duplicate of The Book of Shadows – will not reveal the secrets that concern you. Agella didn’t know much about Phil either, because the Book of Shadows won’t disclose to its owner any information about the other owners of its duplicates. These people must have killed your wife to intimidate you and thus make it clear that you must occupy the vacant place Phil had left you.’

  ‘Can Samuel take this throne?’ I asked.

  ‘Yes, he can,’ Walter replied reluctantly.

  ‘Satanail protects you, Michael,’ I said confidently. ‘And that is something that wards these people off. If Agella comes to understand that the Prince of Darkness no longer needs you, she’ll seal your fate right away. When I was at that reception, Agella aka Tilda was sitting pompously in the hostess’ chair while the host’s chair remained vacant. It might belong either to you, Michael, or to her son Samuel. Perhaps, that was why she was so displeased when I began enquiring about it. And what do you think of that arrogant Samuel! The only thing he’s been doing all this time was cheating on me!’

  ‘As for me, I will never occupy that chair. I’ll only be happy if Samuel does this,’ said Michael angrily. ‘Walter, do you happen to know anything about my newly-discovered brother?’

  ‘Phil learned about him many years ago and this news came as a big surprise for him. He used to tell me that Agella had never forgotten about her son and had always cleared his life path, warding off potential problems,’ Walter said.

  ‘Do you think Samuel knew about this?’ I asked.

  ‘It took him quite a long time to find out that she’s been behind his successful career. He was already famous by that time. As far as I know, they’ve been acquainted with each other for only a few years,’ Walter explained.

  ‘Oh, my God, how naïve I have been!’ I exclaimed bitterly.

  ‘Samuel has engineered all this deliberately. He did everything he could to obtain my blood! He’s the son of Satan and Agella! Well, I should think so! Now I know why I was selected to play Liz’s role!’ I felt so offended that I nearly broke out crying.

  ‘Miriam, we don’t know yet the extent of Samuel’s guilt. He can be manipulated – just like you are,’ said Walter, trying to console me.

  ‘The boy will come to this world through the agency of Satanail’s female servant in human disguise (this could be Agella) and with the help of a man through whom the devil’s seed shall pass – it could be Sean.’ I remembered the pictures which showed the birth of a diabolic baby. ‘The birth will happen in secret, and this child’s patron will be Satanail in person. Later on, it is through this very man that the devil’s seed may be channeled into the foremother’s womb where it will be mixed up with her primal blood. This will become the cornerstone of a new civilization.’

  ‘This boy might not have been born yet!’ Walter said, interrupting me. ‘This can be any of Satan’s children and there are hosts of them! It may well be that we mistakenly think this must be Michael or Samuel, or someone else… This baby could be born of an earthly woman in the future!’

  ‘Do you think this child hasn’t been born yet?’ I specified.

  ‘This is only a presumption,’ Walter replied, waving me off.

  ‘The ruby ring which Samuel gave me is a symbol of incest! When I saw Samuel and Agella close to each other I noticed how much they resembled each other. Now I know that he’d arranged everything and played his role – he really is an excellent actor!’ I said.

  ‘This ring, Agella got from Satan. And it had to return to you, Miriam,’ Walter explained.

  I looked at him with suspicion: how did he know all this?

 
; ‘Samuel and Agella already consider you a member of their family,’ Michael said.

  ‘Michael, it was you who prevented me from taking this step,’ I said, looking at him gratefully, and then turned to Walter. ‘Whatever is going to happen next? Will Samuel get Phil’s inheritance documents or not?’

  ‘He will, but only after Michael’s death,’ Walter said. ‘However, if Michael has a son, then everything will go to him.’

  ‘What is to be, will be,’ Michael snapped back. ‘He’s my brother, and I’ll be very happy to see him again… Interestingly, how is he going to explain all this to us?’

  ‘I’ve been underestimating him all this time,’ I said with a sigh.

  ‘Major changes are going to come through an earthly woman,’ Walter said in a detached voice. ‘I don’t know whether it is somehow connected with the birth of the child or something else. The human civilization may be in for huge upheavals which will cause drastic changes in the entire Universe. We’ve come to the crucial point where the countdown is to begin until the so-called End Times. Human beings will be gradually dying out, making room for another civilization. Science has already reached the heights that the forces of light and darkness are going to make use of! Children coming out of a test-tube are already a common thing today. And make no mistake about it: everything is going to die. Only a handful of people will survive. And they will be precisely the ones who are going to hold these test-tubes. By mixing up their contents, they’ll be able to create "the creatures of the future"! But here’s the question: what will these creatures look like? No one knows yet. For the time being, the vials only have a symbolic value because nobody knows what the result of these mixtures will be!’

  ‘Indeed, human embryos can be easily stored at a certain temperature for many centuries! These vials are just a distraction! They are trying to mislead and divert us from their real goal. I’m quite positive that Satanail and his servants have enough embryos in case our civilization disappears. They are stored somewhere high in the mountains in a place accessible only to those who are directly in charge of accomplishing this mission. Then the following question arises: what’s the use, for Satanail, of creating new people right after he’s just managed to get rid of them?’ I asked and looked at Michael and Walter inquisitively.