The 4th Secret

by The 4th Secret (retail) (epub)

  ‘Outside,’ he replied, and speedily made for the exit. ‘I need to see something.’ Harker swung open the door and stepped out into the courtyard and the cool evening air outside. What he saw there was something right out of his nightmares, as his worst fears were realised.

  All across the city, numerous fires could be seen burning, their flames rising high and licking at the skyline. And the air was filled with screams and shouting, even from far off in the distance: hundreds if not thousands of voices all overlapping in a dreadful harmony of pain and anguish. Just across the way, the famous garden of olives was engulfed in an inferno of swirling gases, illuminating dark clouds above, and the sight of this made Harker’s heart sink in despair.

  It looked like hell … Hell on earth.

  Chapter 22

  ‘Look out!’ Chloe shrieked as Harker careered the white taxi cab past a small group of pedestrians who were fighting off a frenzied-looking man stripped to the waist and displaying the same manic expression worn by Avi back at the Temple Mount. Navigating the narrow Jerusalem streets was difficult enough during the day but in near darkness, with clusters of people all fleeing for their lives, it was close to impossible.

  The short dash to the parked taxi from the Temple Mount courtyard had offered little challenge but upon reaching it the entire electrical grid of Jerusalem had cut out, plunging the whole city into pitch darkness. If it had not been for the flickering orange glow of fires burning everywhere, Harker doubted he could have made his way through them without ploughing down scores of people.

  Whatever had happened following Avi’s reading of the third Secret was quickly spreading throughout the entire city and, even though Harker had felt like a bastard for leaving innocent people to be violently assaulted by crazed assailants out on the streets, it would have been lunacy for him to stop the car and attempt to help. Those affected were now completely void of reasoning, and mercilessly attacked anyone they could catch with the brutality of wild animals in the throes of bloodlust. A mile back they had witnessed a pack of five crazed individuals literally tearing apart an old man, as another victim had her face ground into the pavement until it was a bloody mess of flesh and sinew. Just as the third Secret had alluded, it was a vision of hell – although that word alone did not do the reality of it justice.

  ‘Have you got any idea where you’re going?’ Chloe demanded, gripping the dashboard tightly.

  ‘Atarot airport.’ Harker yelled to be heard over the wails and screams of people fleeing all around them. ‘Rabin said there would be a jet waiting for us.’

  His response drew a look of wide-eyed disbelief from Chloe even as a bump in the road threw her back in her seat. ‘And you believed him?’

  It was a fair question considering the way his colleague Avi had turned on them, but in Harker’s mind the Magi operative had been the only rogue element in their midst, and besides their options were now limited. After all, who knew how fast and far this thing was spreading. ‘We’ll find out soon enough,’ he replied hesitantly, just missing a police car hurtling past them with its lights blazing red and blue. ‘But anywhere is better than here.’

  After a few more minutes of dangerous driving, the roads began to free up as they left the claustrophobic and chaotic streets of the old city. As they turned on to the main 417 Highway leading out of the city, the air began to grow thick with a smoke like a heavy fog.

  ‘Look at that.’ Harker called out and directing Chloe’s attention to a nearby hillside which was on fire, its trees and bushes consumed by intense flames that sent sparks and bright red embers spiralling high up into dark sky above.

  ‘What is it?’ Chloe leant over towards Harker’s window, peering out at the inferno.

  ‘It’s the Mount of Olives we saw earlier from the Temple Mount,’ Harker replied softly, with a genuine sadness in his voice. ‘It’s where Jesus Christ was meant to have ascended to heaven, and where the Jews believe the messiah will first appear on his return.’

  Chloe shook her head, her eyes still focused on the fire ravaged hilltop. ‘Not today, he won’t.’

  The comment brought a defeated smile to Harker’s lips. ‘No,’ he replied, ‘not today.’

  Harker was returning his gaze to that same burning glow of destruction when something struck the passenger-side window with such force that a jagged crack appeared down its length. He slammed down the brake, bringing the car to screeching halt, and they both swivelled around to see a man pick himself up off the road and stare back at them through a pair of blood-red eyes, with a deep gash on his forehead where it had struck the glass. The apparition snarled at them, revealing a set of abnormally long teeth. In fact, the teeth themselves were normal but the gums had receded massively making them appear longer than they were. As this freak began racing towards the taxi, his distorted fangs gnashing at the empty air, Harker threw his weight on to the accelerator and left the pursuer to disappear in the rear-view mirror, within a swirl of thick white smoke.

  ‘What the hell was that?’ Chloe yelled, ‘did you see his teeth?’

  ‘I saw them,’ Harker managed, his sole focus now on the smoggy road ahead.

  ‘What the hell is going on?’ she yelled again, but louder this time.

  ‘I don’t know,’ – he bit his lip reflectively – ‘and now is not the time to find out.’

  ‘Could all this be real, Alex? The Secrets and the prophecies, I mean?’

  ‘I don’t know that either,’ Harker replied. ‘Let’s just focus now on getting to the airport in one piece shall we?’

  He said it with such firmness that Chloe did not persist. Instead she turned her attention to the nearby hills and the gloom cast by the power outage over the surrounding countryside. Events were becoming too strange to apply any reasonable logic to them, and they both knew it. After Notre Dame, Harker had actually found solace in Brulet’s belief that such terrible events were part of a global terrorist attack but, ever since the earthquake at Vatican City and now seeing Jerusalem burst into this unearthly wave of violence and chaos… well frankly he was struggling not to be convinced that some higher power was at work. He found himself pondering upon the same thought that Chloe had voiced moments earlier. Was this for real?

  The rest of the twenty-minute journey to Atarot airport passed in silence. Even as they continued to drive by further scenes of chaos – abandoned police cars and people scurrying to find refuge from the ever-growing numbers of red-eyed abominations – neither of them spoke a word. They just watched and took it all in and by the time they had reached Atarot, they were both feeling pretty numb.

  The main entrance to the airport consisted of nothing more than a steel-gated wire fence, and the shrubbery leading up to it was just as unimpressive, giving it less a deserted and more a dilapidated feel. Harker came to stop within metres of the gate and, after a few moments spent scanning the area for any signs of anything that might want to rip them to shreds, he climbed out of the taxi and headed over to the fence. He had passed this way a few times over the years, and recalled that it always had at least one Israeli security jeep parked outside, but as far as he could see there was not a vehicle in sight. He pushed against the gate, gave it a nudge and to his surprise it slowly swung open. Once again, he cautiously surveyed the surroundings to see if their arrival had drawn any undue attention but everything remained eerily still, and exactly what one would expect from any deserted facility.

  The airport here had been closed to the public since 2001, after the second intifada which was an escalation of the Arab-Israeli conflict when Palestinian forces had once again challenged Israeli occupation. It had initially been designated as the Palestinian international airport some years earlier, but after continuing outbreaks of violence, which mainly consisted of rocks being hurled onto the runway, it was closed and placed under the direct authority of the Israeli defence force. This had seemed to many as an overreaction on behalf of the Israelis but when the other side won’t even acknowledge your right to exist, the
n molehills can very quickly become mountains – and this was one such instance.

  He headed back to the taxi and made one last scan of the immediate area for any sign of an Israeli jeep hidden somewhere, but there was still nothing. It was odd to see the place unguarded but, given the chaos that was unfolding in Jerusalem itself, it was becoming difficult to define anything as odd. He jumped back in the vehicle and drove through the open entrance in the direction of the main runway.

  ‘I thought you said this place had round-the-clock security?’ Chloe chided, plainly unsettled by the lack of a police presence.

  ‘It usually does.’

  ‘Maybe they were recalled because of what’s going on?’ she reasoned.

  ‘May be,’ Harker replied, half expecting the intruding taxi to be bathed in a dazzling bright security spotlight the moment they entered. ‘It does seem empty, though.’

  They continued on past a series of small reception buildings and down a side road leading to a security area, whose gates lay unlocked and wide open. Then out on to the main tarmac, arriving just short of the actual runway. The whole place looked totally abandoned and he was about to turn around and head back towards the main buildings, in hope of finding their contact, when the shadowy silhouette of a jet parked up at the far end of the runway caught his attention.

  ‘That must be it,’ he whispered. ‘Let’s go.’

  It took less than a minute to pull up beside the aircraft which, without any lights, on fit in well to its deserted surroundings.

  ‘Stay here while I take a look,’ he said and, with a confirming nod from Chloe, he stepped out of the taxi and made his way cautiously towards the aircraft’s side door.

  This white Gulfstream G450 was capable of holding up to sixteen passengers, which to Harker’s mind seemed a bit excessive considering it was here to pick up only two. He reached up and knocked twice on the foot of the door, and almost immediately heard the familiar click of an unlocking mechanism. He then stood back as the door slowly lowered to reveal a series of steps leading up into the pitch black interior.

  ‘Hello,’ he called out, but the only answer he got was having the barrel of a snub-nosed Glock handgun poked towards him from the shadowy interior.

  ‘Professor Harker?’ The voice had a thick Texan accent.

  ‘That’s me,’ Harker replied with scarcely a shred of nervousness evident in his tone. He was now getting used to guns being pointed at him.

  ‘I wasn’t sure you’d make it,’ came the reply, whereupon the interior cabin lights were switched on to reveal a bald man in his forties, wearing a white pilot’s uniform adorned with navy and gold lapels. ‘Glad you did, though, but I was told there would be only one of you.’ The man gestured towards Chloe, who was still sat in taxi.

  ‘Change of plan, I’m afraid,’ Harker replied ‘And you are?’

  The pilot immediately lowered his gun and emerged with hand stretched out. ‘Captain Harry Jones and I’m your ticket outta here.’ He raised a hand in greeting to Chloe who had already slid out of the passenger side and was making her way over to join them. ‘And, judging by the radio chatter, you most definitely need it. You got any idea what’s going on out there?’

  ‘I’ll explain once were on board,’ Harker replied, already nudging Chloe towards the jet’s doorway, ‘but suffice to say your help is extremely welcome.’

  ‘Mr Brulet gave me strict instructions to take you wherever you need to go. So just give me the destination.’

  The simple mentioning of Brulet’s name caused Harker to freeze because it was rare for the Grand Master of the Knights Templar not go by an alias, and Captain Jones immediately picked up on this.

  ‘Don’t worry, Professor Harker,’ he assured him, ‘we’re all friends here. Now, are you ready to leave?’

  The response was good enough for Harker, and he couldn’t nod his head quick enough. ‘The sooner the better.’

  Jones gave another smile and then waited for Chloe to make her way up and into the cabin, before signalling for Harker to do likewise.

  ‘Captain,’ Harker paused, ‘do you know what happened to airport security here? Usually there’s a military unit posted at the front gate.’

  ‘There was one up until twenty minutes ago, when they just up and left in a blistering hurry. Can’t say I blame them, considering the news reports I’ve been picking up on the airwaves. I asked them to leave the gates open for you.’

  ‘It pays to have friends,’ Harker murmured thankfully.

  ‘Ain’t that the truth?’ Jones replied, urgently beckoning him inside.

  Harker was already halfway up the steps when the sound of footsteps on the tarmac nearby made him look back, and the familiar sounds of growling quickly turned into a series of wailing shrieks. At first the light shining from inside the cabin obscured his vision, but within seconds he could make out a number of silhouettes no more than thirty feet away, and moving fast in their direction.

  ‘Time to go.’ Jones shouted, hauling Harker through the entrance before pulling the door closed and locking it securely. Jones then rushed past them to the cockpit and began starting up the engines, as the pounding of fists against the jet’s metal frame began to vibrate throughout the cabin.

  Harker slid into a seat and stared out of the oval window just as the aircraft’s landing lights flickered into life and lit up the surrounding tarmac, to reveal a crowd of attackers clawing at the fuselage. They were screaming intensely, mouths contorted in furious anger, and each one had those red blood-soaked eyes that looked black when not directly facing the light.

  ‘Strap yourselves in,’ Jones yelled over the deep rumbling of the engines as he throttled up. ‘It’s gonna be a bumpy take-off.’

  To Harker this warning suggested that there might be a problem with the runway but, as the aircraft lurched forward, he felt a series of thumps against the floor beneath them and he realised Captain Jones had been referring to the poor souls being run over and not the state of the tarmac.

  Harker turned back to the window in time to see one of the crazed maniacs get blasted directly in the face by the blue plume of flame coming from the jet’s engine, as Jones throttled up to full power. The force of it sent the unlucky recipient hurtling back into the darkness, consumed in a ball of fire and smoke as the Gulf Stream began to gather speed until, with an almighty roar, it lifted up into the air. As the aircraft began turning, Chloe let out a loud thankful sigh and slumped back into her seat but her sense of relief evaded Harker who was still glued to the window. The sight of glimmering fires infecting the landscape down below was captivating, and reminded him of images he had seen during the bombing of Baghdad prior to the invasion of Iraq: unsettling yet riveting, but it was the shape they created that was even more intriguing. The fires ran in a straight line, running southwards all the way to Jerusalem, and then joining up with the scattering of larger fires throughout the city.

  Harker remained glued to this sight until they veered off and turned northwards, when his view was impeded. He rested back in his seat and gazed down at his lap lethargically, the images still vivid in his mind.

  My God, he thought to himself. It was like something straight out of the Bible.

  Chapter 23

  ‘I would like to make a one-time offer of amnesty to anyone who wishes to come clean right now,’ Wilcox announced, as he stared over at the three members of the Magi council. ‘You then have my solemn promise that, even though there will be consequences, your life will be spared.’

  The three men took a moment to scrutinise one another and, satisfied that none of them was about to make any startling admission, they all turned back to face Wilcox with a collective defiance.

  ‘I think it would be appropriate for you to explain exactly what these allegations are,’ Davidson said sternly, with a remarkable air of authority considering the armed guards watching over them.

  ‘Someone has been working with McCray,’ Wilcox snapped.

  ‘McCray!’ Alonzo blurte
d out. ‘That’s impossible. That mad dog was disposed of years ago.’

  Wilcox clicked his fingers and another guard appeared in the doorway, holding a Sony laptop. The man strode over to the table and placed it in front of Wilcox, then flipped open the lid before disappearing back the way he came. Wilcox tapped at the screen and it flashed into life, then slowly turned the laptop around to reveal an image of McCray. ‘Apparently not,’ Wilcox replied with a sneer. ‘This photograph was taken late last night at Blackwater Asylum in the UK and, as you can see, he is very much alive.’

  The other men studied the image for a few moments and then began to glance at one another, each looking mystified, as Wilcox continued to reveal what he knew: ‘And I have also unearthed information that the child that was meant to be ‘in your possession’ is in fact in his.’

  It was the first time since the meeting began that the subject of the child had been brought up, and the mere mention of the Magi’s failure to acquire him drew a look of unease from all three, but especially from Alonzo. ‘Yes, as you know, that operation did not go as planned but it will be rectified,’ Alonzo declared, still endeavouring to appear in charge. ‘But to say that McCray is back from the dead, and in possession of the child, is simply ludicrous.’

  ‘Is it? Then perhaps we should ask the one person here who was responsible for his demise …’ Wilcox now turned his attention to Dietrich, whose beady little eyes appeared to shrink even further into their sockets. ‘So then, Dietrich, why don’t you regale us with that story you were once so proud to share with us and which, I might add, propelled you to the headship of your family.’

  Dietrich licked his lips apprehensively, then he straightened up in his chair with an air of defiance. ‘My men had him removed, in accordance with the Council’s decision, and I have no reason to believe otherwise.’

  ‘Do you, now?’ Wilcox replied challengingly and tapped at the computer screen with his finger. ‘Then let me tell you what I think. I believe that you have been in collusion with McCray ever since he was banished from the Magi, and together both of you have the child somewhere in your custody.’