The Paradise Prophecy

by Robert Browne

  – LaLaurie had seen her naked.

  The feeling was irrational. Crazy. She knew that. She’d never been particularly modest. But the way LaLaurie kept looking at her now, she couldn’t help but feel violated.

  “There are a lot of expats and tourists in Thailand,” he went on, “so you’ll still find a number of churches, and several Christian hospitals in the country that-”

  “Eyes up here,” Callahan told him, touching her nose.

  “What?”

  “You’re talking to me, Professor, not my bra.”

  LaLaurie gave her a slow smile. “Are you still stuck on that? Trust me, Callahan, I’m not fourteen anymore. Although I do have to admit-”

  “Stop right there,” she said. “If you value your life, just stop.”

  The monastery was not quite what Callahan had expected. It looked like any of the wood and terra-cotta structures you’d find in the neighborhoods of Chiang Mai, only on a larger scale, with multiple stories and a stone fence surrounding it.

  When Callahan thought monastery, however, she imagined a massive compound with a church and housing for dozens of monks. But this place barely had room for a chapel and maybe twelve or so residences.

  A bit of a letdown.

  “Brother Philip is no longer here,” the monk at the front door told them. He was a Frenchman, and Callahan knew that most of the monks were not Thai natives. “He left two days ago.”

  She had been expecting this. After that e-mail from Ozan, she wouldn’t be surprised if all of the remaining guardians went into hiding.

  “Is there any way we can contact him? He’s had a death in the family and we’re trying to locate him.”

  Not strictly a lie.

  The monk gave them a quizzical look. “Family? I was not aware he had any family.”

  “His grandfather. He died suddenly and mentioned Brother Philip in his will. We know he won’t be interested in the money, so we need him to sign a document to that effect.”

  “As I told you, he isn’t here.”

  “Do you mind if we take a look at his sleeping quarters?”

  “Why?”

  “He may have left something behind that’ll lead us to him,” she said. “This really is important.”

  The monk stared at them for a long time, and Callahan wondered if he saw straight through her. But a life devoted to Christ did not necessarily make you clairvoyant.

  “We have nothing to hide,” he said and ushered them inside.

  The good news: There were no scorch marks on the floor.

  The bad news was that his room was not only small, it was also devoid of any personal belongings. Other than a chair and writing table, a neatly made twin bed, a sink and mirror and a mostly empty closet, there wasn’t anything of use here. Nothing that might tell Callahan where Brother Philip had gone.

  The only glimmer of hope was the wastebasket under the sink, which had some trash in it. Callahan had done her share of basket diving in the past, to varied success-itineraries, ticket stubs, scribbled phone numbers, boxes of hair dye. They all told a story if you took a moment to work it through.

  But all she found in the waste basket were a few used tissues-mmmm, lovely-and a discarded wrapper for a bar of Parrot Soap.

  “So much for that idea,” she muttered as she turned to LaLaurie. “You want to do your thing?”

  But LaLaurie was already at it, his palm pressed against the writing table, his eyes squeezed shut. He opened them and shook his head. “I’m not getting anything. This room is clear.”

  Callahan sighed, ready to call it a bust, when she glanced at the sink. The usual toiletries were there, along with a cup and toothbrush. But what caught her eye was the soap.

  It was a fresh bar, which wasn’t surprising, considering the wrapper in the waste can. But what she found unusual was that one corner was flattened, worn down, as if it had been rubbed against something solid.

  But what?

  She was about to dismiss it when LaLaurie pointed and said, “What’s that?”

  There was only one window in the room, but the sunlight filtering in from outside shone directly across the mirror above the sink, which was what LaLaurie was pointing at. Callahan adjusted her angle, and that’s when she saw it.

  Soap marks on the glass.

  Moving in close, she took a deep breath and huffed warm air across the surface of mirror. It took several tries, but when she was done, the message was clear, written in English:

  PROTECT HER

  She turned to LaLaurie. “We’re too late. Brother Philip is angel food.”

  LaLaurie moved over to the mirror and pressed his hand against the glass, closing his eyes again.

  “I’m still not feeling anything. I’m guessing he’s alive.” He looked at Callahan. “But there’s only one reason to leave this message, and it’s the same reason he ran.”

  “Which is?”

  No smiles now, no drifting gaze. “He knows his time is short.”

  35

  Batty liked helicopters even less than he liked small planes. But here he was, sitting in back of a black MH-6 Little Bird, trying to keep his stomach in check as the pilot worked the stick and soared above the slopes of the Loi Lar mountain range.

  After leaving Brother Philips’s living quarters, he and Callahan had questioned as many of the monks as they could find. But the rest of Philip’s brethren were just as clueless about his whereabouts as the guy who had greeted them at the front door.

  They had pretty much given up, when the cleaning lady followed them outside and told them she’d spoken to Philip the morning he left.

  “I come to work and he tell me not to clean his room.” She was a middle-aged Thai woman who couldn’t have been more than four foot five. She yanked at her collar with both hands. “He wear backpack, with food and supply. The one he always carry when he go to worship at the brothers’ retreat.”

  “Retreat?” Callahan said.

  She nodded. “They close it long time, but the brothers sometime go when they visit the hill tribe.”

  “Where? Where do we find it?”

  The cleaning lady pointed past the fence toward the lush green peaks of a nearby mountain range.

  “There,” she said. “Close to God.” Then she wished them chok dee ka and went inside.

  Callahan immediately got on her cell phone and ordered up the helicopter. As they took another tuk tuk to the designated departure point, she opened an app and logged on to a satellite feed.

  A moment later she showed Batty what looked like a large stone cross on the side of a mountain near the Doi Inthanon summit.

  “Close to God,” she said. “Let’s find out how much good it did him.”

  The pilot was a scruffy-looking expat named McNab who did contract work for the U.S. government. He flew with a seasoned hand, but that didn’t keep Batty from feeling the urge to lean out the fuselage door and heave the samurai pork burger he’d gobbled up on their way in from the airport.

  He didn’t know what samurais had to do with Thailand, but right now that sickly sweet teriyaki sauce was ripping up his insides like a freshly forged bushido blade.

  McNab goosed the controls, then rose over a high ridge. Just beyond it lay a mountainside crowded with teak trees and mountain pine. A narrow dirt trail snaked down its long slope toward the sprawling lowlands, past the terraced rice fields and the rustic villages that the Kariang and Padaung hill tribes called home.

  To the northeast lay Burma, which, along with Thailand and Laos, formed the Golden Triangle, once known for its thriving opium trade, but now home to a growing methamphetamine industry.

  Banking right, McNab flew them around a large outcropping and found what they were looking for. High on a cliff and carved into the side of the mountain was a crumbling, moss-infested stone temple, fronted by a huge granite cross.

  “Wow. That’s quite a sight,” McNab said into his headpiece.

  Batty suspected the place was a couple centuries ol
d, carefully built, stone by stone, by overzealous and severely misguided missionaries. The spread of Christianity had largely been a failure in Thailand, and the temple’s remote location would have made it attractive only to the few converted hill tribes or the true believers.

  Or to someone trying to hide.

  Callahan was sitting up front with McNab. “You think you can put us down somewhere?”

  McNab pointed to a small clearing to the right of the entrance. “No worries. There’s more than enough room.”

  Less than a minute later they touched down and Batty and Callahan climbed out, ducking low as they passed under the rotors and crossed toward the temple.

  Batty was happy to be back on solid ground. He slung his book bag over his shoulder and held it close. Now that he knew the manuscript’s power, he didn’t dare let it go.

  The temple’s massive teak doors were hanging open, nothing but darkness beyond them. Callahan moved up the crumbling steps to enter, but Batty held her back.

  “Wait,” he said. “I’m not getting a good feeling here.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  He stood very still, drinking in the temple’s aura, absorbing its long history. There was a richness of spirit to this place-both good and evil-but nothing of immediate concern. The danger he’d felt was merely the remnants from some long past incident.

  “False alarm,” he said.

  “You sure?”

  He nodded. “We’re safe. For now.”

  “Just remind me not to fall asleep,” she muttered.

  They continued up the steps until they reached the doorway, then paused at the threshold, peering cautiously inside.

  The room beyond was cavernous, with stone pillars along either side and an enormous nave ceiling. The pillars had been painted with scenes from scripture, full of cherubs and clouds and swooning maidens, but the colors were faded, the images worn away by time. The floor was made of intricately carved terra-cotta tile, but the years had been unkind and there were cracks in several places, with moss growing between them.

  In fact, as Batty looked around, he thought it was something of a miracle that the place was standing at all. A sudden cough, and it might very well come tumbling down around them.

  They stepped inside, moving toward an archway in back, neither of them saying a word. There were deep shadows beyond the pillars, but Batty wasn’t getting any unusual vibes. Still, he half expected to find the remains of Brother Philip’s toasted corpse somewhere.

  As they stepped past the last pillar, Batty heard a faint click and something cold and hard touched the side of his neck.

  “That’s about far enough,” a voice said.

  So much for his sixth sense.

  Batty and Callahan froze, and a husky guy with a shaved head, wearing a dark brown cassock, stepped from behind the pillar.

  “Repeat after me,” he said. “I accept Jesus Christ as my lord and savior.”

  Callahan stared at him. “What?”

  “Just say it or I’ll pull the trigger right now. I accept Jesus Christ as my lord and savior.”

  Batty and Callahan exchanged looks, but Batty knew what this was. He was giving them a test. If they could repeat the oath, they passed. If not, they were either dark angels, drudges or sycophants, and Brother Philip-assuming that’s who this guy was-would blow Batty’s head off.

  Batty didn’t have the heart to tell him this was probably a waste of time. He nodded to Callahan and they both repeated the oath. “I accept Jesus Christ as my lord and savior.”

  Brother Philip seemed satisfied, but said, “Okay, step two. Before we get to introductions, if either or both of you have weapons, put them on the floor right now.”

  Batty had never seen Callahan carrying a weapon-hell, the way she could punch, she didn’t need one-and he sure didn’t carry any himself, so he just raised his hands, showing them empty and hoped this would be enough to make Brother Philip happy.

  “Weapon free,” Callahan told him.

  “What about the guy flying the helicopter? Any chance he’ll come in here and start blasting away?”

  Batty and Callahan exchanged looks again.

  “I think you’re okay,” she said.

  Philip eyed them warily, a slight nervous tick in his jaw, then he finally relaxed and lowered the gun. “Okay, who are you and what are you doing here?”

  36

  With all due respect,” Callahan said, “you don’t act much like a monk.”

  They were in an adjacent room now, sitting at a long table. Philip was camping out in here, his backpack and provisions piled in a corner. A kerosene lamp glowed beside him as he set out three paper cups and started pouring tea from a thermos.

  He was full of nervous energy and it had taken them a few minutes to get him loosened up. “And what’s a monk supposed to act like?”

  Callahan shrugged. “I just expected you to be more … holy.”

  Philip nodded as if he understood. “I was pretty bowled over the first time I saw a priest smoking a cigarette and knocking back a shot of whiskey. We get these preconceived notions of what it means to be holy and when somebody doesn’t live up to the stereotype, we’re surprised.”

  “You have to admit a monk with a gun is a little unusual,” Batty said.

  Philip finished pouring and pushed their cups across the table. “Hey, what can I tell you? I grew up in Jersey and I wasn’t always with the monastery. And when your life is in danger, old habits die hard, you know what I mean? I haven’t seen anything in the handbook says I’ve gotta be a hero.”

  Callahan frowned at him. “Are you sure you’re Brother Philip?” He glared at her. “What do you want, an ID? I’m afraid I left it in my other pants.” He gestured to her cup. “You’re not gonna drink your tea?”

  Callahan eyed it suspiciously and didn’t pick it up. “Why don’t you tell us about the e-mail?”

  “E-mail?”

  “The one you sent in reply to Koray Ozan a couple weeks ago.”

  Philip had his own cup to his lips. He paused. “You know about that?”

  “Ozan wasn’t a genius when it came to computer security.”

  “Fair enough,” he said, then took a quick sip. “What else do you know?”

  “That you’re Custodes Sacri,” Batty told him. “And I’m guessing you’re wearing the medallion right now.”

  Philip stared at him a long moment, as if trying decide whether he could trust him. Then he shrugged, reached into his collar and brought out the Saint Christopher medal hanging from a thick leather strap around his neck. “I’m starting to think this thing is costing me a lot more than it’s worth.”

  “How long have you been with the order?”

  “Long enough to know I shouldn’t be talking to strangers about it.”

  “Let’s get back to the e-mail,” Callahan said. “Why was Ozan asking about the seven missing pages from the Devil’s Bible?”

  “Because he was a curious old fool. And curious fools wind up dead.”

  “Or blind,” Batty said. “Like Milton?”

  “Milton, Galileo and God knows who before them.”

  Batty was surprised. “Galileo?”

  “That’s how Milton got the bug. Galileo told him about the missing pages and he went looking for them. Or so the story goes. At this point, I’m not sure how much of it’s true. These things tend to get distorted after a while.”

  “What’s on those pages?” Callahan asked.

  “A curse; I know that much. It’s what drove both Galileo and Milton blind. But as far as I know the pages from the Codex don’t even exist anymore. When Milton realized how dangerous they were, he burned them.”

  “So how does this connect to Paradise Lost?” Batty asked. “What were Ozan and Gabriela Zuada trying so hard to find in Book Eleven?”

  Philip looked from Batty to Callahan. “You two have been doing your homework. You’d better be careful, or you’ll wind up just like Milton. Or Ozan. Although at this point it
probably doesn’t matter.”

  “Why?”

  “Have you looked outside lately? What’s happening in the world right now is enough to scare the Jesus right out of you. Everybody’s favorite demons have been very busy-manipulating the stock market, flooding cities with drugs, whispering in the ears of those on the brink of waging war. And once the fourth moon comes, they’ll finally be able to release all their slaves-a lot more than there ever were before-and that’ll be the end of us.”

  “Fourth moon?” Callahan said.

  “The fourth moon of the tetrad. It hits in two days.”

  She frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  “An eclipse,” Batty told her. “The fourth eclipse this year.”

  “Look,” Brother Philip said, “do yourself a favor, go home and be with your loved ones, because the way it’s looking, the bad guys have already won. And by this time next week, we’ll either all be dead or so close to it, we’ll wish we were.”

  “Are you talking the Apocalypse?” Callahan asked.

  Philip snorted. “The Apocalypse is a fairy tale. But it pretty much amounts to the same thing. Only none of us will be seeing the Rapture anytime soon.”

  “And you’re saying there’s no way to stop it?”

  “Not the way I see it. This train has no brakes. This is the modern age, with global communication, instant information, and opportunities to corrupt twenty-four/seven on a worldwide basis. The pump has never been this well primed before. Unless Michael can pull off some kind of miracle, we’re sunk. And if the bad guys get hold of the Telum before he does, that’s a whole new level of-”

  “Telum?” Batty said. “What’s the Telum?”

  Philip shook his head. “I’ve already told you too much.”

  “Then it won’t hurt to tell us more. What is it? A weapon of some kind?”

  Philip hesitated. Seemed torn. Then he said, “A wandering soul. A sacred traveler who’s reborn every generation in human form.”

  “The one you’re sworn to protect.”

  He nodded. “There was a time Michael thought I might be the one, and Ozan before me, and the rest of the guardians. But he was wrong.”