Then his head turned, as if to survey the crowd, in a slow, deliberate movement, like a newborn child flexing a hand. His face looked grave and the mesmerizing dark eyes seemed to address each member of the audience individually. Fleming didn't need to imagine the effect on the billions watching around the globe. His own palms were sweating and his heart was pounding in his chest.
There was a moment's silence and then Accosta's lips moved, saying the words that would for ever divide human history into two. The time before this moment. And the time after.
'I am a servant of the Lord. I have seen His power and I know His will. He has ordered me to return to you and reveal the Soul Truth.'
Another pause, and Fleming strained forward in his chair.
Accosta's deep voice was uncannily the same as the voice he had had in life. 'I have always believed in God,' he said solemnly, 'my God, who created mankind in His own image to worship Him. An all-powerful, all-knowing, compassionate God.
'When I was younger I was troubled by what the philosophers call the Problem of Evil. Given all the evil in the world, how can an all-powerful, all-knowing, merciful God exist? Either God knows about evil, cares about it, but can't do anything about it - in which case He is not all-powerful, or He cares about it, can do something about it, but doesn't know about it - in which case he is not all-knowing, or he knows about it, can do something about it, but doesn't care about it - in which case he is neither merciful nor compassionate.'
Fleming felt goosebumps on his forearms. It was if the Red Pope was speaking directly to him, directly addressing his own argument against God and religion.
'I have always squared this inconsistency,' continued the Red Pope, 'by believing that my powerful, omniscient, benign God allowed evil in the world to give us, his greatest creation, the gift of free will. To trust us with the ability and opportunity to choose between good and evil, even in the face of our harshest trials and tribulations. I now know the truth about good and evil. And now I know this truth it seems so obvious to me. After all, what God would create man simply to worship Him? What Supreme Being could be so vain, so petty?' He spat out the last word, as if it were a bitter taste in his mouth.
'There is no Problem of Evil because our Lord did not create us to worship Him. I always assumed God created a perfect ordered world - an Eden - then introduced the serpent of evil to test us. But this isn't true. Our Lord created an evil world then introduced good. The natural state in this world and the next is chaos - entropy. Evil is the normal way of the world, and good was only introduced as a capricious whim. The Lord only created us to enhance his amusement. That is the sole reason for our existence.
As a child builds a stack of bricks only to knock it down again, our Lord allows us to climb higher and higher, believing in virtue and goodness and honour, only to dash us down with random acts of evil.
'There is no heaven, only arbitrary suffering. Life beyond death is as cruel and random as life on earth - except that it is eternal. There is no escape. There is no karma. No justice. No Elysian fields where the good may find peace after a hard life. There is no divine order, just chaos. The Soul Truth, which I can reveal to you now, is that God -the God to whom I dedicated my life on earth - doesn't exist.'
Accosta's face seemed to sag, the hologram capturing with sickening accuracy the horror and despair etched in his features. 'I am a soul in torment. The Lord I have willingly served all my life, and the Lord I am now condemned to serve for all eternity, is not God. There is only one Lord and he is the Lord of chaos and darkness. He is the Devil. Satan himself.'
A gasp rose from the audience. In any other context, Accosta's words would have sounded deranged, but now they sounded anything but. Fleming could feel Amber searching for his hand and gripping it.
The Red Pope raised his arms. 'Our Lord Satan will prove there is no God by using an agent on earth to reveal four signs,' he rasped, in the tones of an Old Testament prophet. 'These four horsemen of the Apocalypse will be unleashed upon this blighted world to spread terror before them and despair in their wake. The first will ride this night. The second will follow two days hence. On the next day, the final two horsemen will appear together, riding side by side.'
Accosta paused, and his face looked more lifeless than his corpse. His very soul seemed saturated in despair. 'Forgive me. I took my journey full of hope but I have returned with none. There is no hope. There is no God. I cannot even pray for you.'
A moment of shocked silence followed.
Then Accosta's image disappeared and the world was plunged into darkness.
Stunned and frightened, Fleming blinked, searching for light in the sudden blackness.
Seconds later, a sound broke the unearthly hush but it brought Fleming no comfort.
It was the sound of wolves howling outside, in the dark.
*
PART 3
LUCIFER
Like the shadow of an eclipse moving across the globe, electricity fled from city to city as night fell, only returning with the dawn. Starting from the west coast of America, the darkness followed the setting sun west across the Pacific, hitting Honolulu in Hawaii at sundown, 6.53 p. M. local time. For the next twenty-four hours, as the earth completed its revolution around the sun, virtually every major city throughout the world experienced a power cut from sundown to sunup.
The darkness inspired an extreme range of emotions, from panic to denial to anger. A small minority joyously celebrated what was understood to be the first sign, the first horseman of the Red Pope's apocalypse. It was as if humanity had regressed to a pagan time when it worshipped the power of the sun, believing that it alone pushed back darkness and brought forth all that was good in the world.
Many cowered in their homes until the dark angel passed. Others rushed out into public places to gather together, seeking comfort in numbers.
By midnight in Australia most of Sydney was teeming with hysterical people waving candles, trying to fend off the darkness. This was echoed across Asia and Europe as the setting sun moved across the world. The international media tracked the passage of darkness, reporting on how their regional bureaux were going off the air, literally powerless, as darkness fell.
Some tried to counter the panic, arguing that this was an insignificant fluke; that the Red Pope's revelation had been staged and the darkness was coincidental. But as the extent of the phenomenon became evident, fear turned to terror and then anger. A growing majority felt the need to make someone accountable for their despair and disillusionment.
During the night of darkness, widespread looting was rife. Large areas of London's East End, Paris and New York City's Lower East Side were vandalized by roaming mobs. But the greatest violence occurred in the main centres of worship. The principal targets of the mob's anger were the robed priests, who had lied to them about heaven and God. The Churches had been their spiritual advisers, demanding that they invest in them all their faith, holding themselves up as God's sole agents. But the Red Pope's revelation had wiped out the value of faith.
And someone had to pay.
The bigger the church the greater the anger: from Hagia Sophia in Istanbul to Canterbury Cathedral in England to St Peter's in Rome to the Jewish Synagogue in Jerusalem. The denomination didn't matter. Priests sought sanctuary in their now redundant churches as torch-bearing crowds surrounded these ancient places of worship whose spires pointed confidently to a heaven that the Red Pope had exposed as a lie.
A state of emergency was called in many countries as the authorities tried to explain the darkness. The following day, when the power returned with the sun, the American president appealed for calm and logic to prevail, making a robust televised address to his nation and the world.
'There is no proof yet that this is related to the Red Pope's address, or indeed that the Red Pope's address was genuine,' he stated. 'The FBI and the coastguard have taken the rare step of boarding the Red Ark, while it is still in international waters, and a full investigation is under w
ay. More important, whatever Cardinal Accosta did or did not say is irrelevant to the laws of this land. I cannot control what does or doesn't happen in heaven or hell, but here in this world I can. Whatever anyone else chooses to believe, I believe that the law stands and it must be obeyed. I don't know who will or won't be punished in the next life but I can promise you one thing: if you break the law you will be punished in this life. If you've lost faith in everything else, have faith in that.'
Sitting alone in the conference room in the black sector, Soames stroked his wolves and watched the news bulletins. Even as the CNN and BBC anchormen both claimed that an uneasy calm had been restored, he smiled. He knew that the world was bracing itself for the real storm to come.
*
VenTec.
The next day
A storm was brewing outside VenTec. Dark snow-clouds blanketed the mountain peaks and gusting winds buffeted the helicopter flying the Truth Council back to the Foundation.
'C'mon, it ain't necessarily a disaster,' Soames said soothingly, as he stood in the lobby to greet the shell-shocked Carvelli and Knight. Carvelli appeared dazed: his handsome olive-skinned face was pale, and his usually immaculate hair dishevelled. Virginia Knight looked worse: the horror of what she had witnessed aboard the Red Ark was written across her face. She seemed on the verge of collapse.
After we left the Ark was crawling with FBI agents,' Carvelli said. 'Must have been monitoring it ever since we announced the Day of the Soul Truth, and when the first sign threw the world into panic they boarded us. If we'd waited any longer we'd be answering difficult questions now.'
'You're safe here,' Soames said, laying a reassuring hand on Knight's forearm. 'We've just got to reconvene and think through what this means.'
He looked across at Tripp and Bukowski, who were following the two members of the Truth Council into the Foundation. Their faces were expressionless as they brushed snow off the shoulders of their Arctic jackets and turned towards Soames. Catching his eye, they both nodded understandingly and hurried purposefully to the lift that connected with the red sector.
'Where's Monsignor Diageo?' Soames asked. 'I thought he might come back here with you for the . . .' he searched for the appropriate phrase '. . . post-mortem.'
Virginia Knight shook her head, unable to speak. Her fair hair seemed more streaked with grey than when she had last been there, a few days ago.
'He's dead,' Carvelli said slowly. 'Threw himself off the Red Ark's highest deck.'
'Even though he knew he would find no escape in death,' Knight said.
'He panicked,' Soames stated, 'and we must avoid doing the same.'
He led them to the black sector. The corridors of the Foundation were deserted. VenTec was self-sufficient with its own generator and utilities, and a sterile environment that required minimum maintenance. Except for a skeleton crew, he had evacuated almost everyone on the day before the Red Pope's revelation.
The broken glass had been cleared from the conference room in the black sector but the mirrored wall hadn't yet been replaced. The echoing blue-white space of the adjoining laboratory changed the acoustics of the enlarged room and made it feel colder. The wolves sat motionless as Knight and Carvelli took their seats at the table.
Soames poured them some coffee from the flask beside him and took a sip from his can of Coke.
Knight put her head in her hands. 'Everything we did was in vain - all the killings, all the time we spent. There was no justification for any of our crimes.'
Soames smiled. 'It hardly matters now, does it?'
Knight turned to him, appalled. 'We were used by Satan to do what we thought was God's work. We did evil, believing it was good. Of course it matters.'
Soames's smile grew broader. 'Why? Okay, God turned out to be Satan - but so what? In fact it's good news. If there's no God, you won't be punished for your sins.'
'How can you say that, Bradley? You were a believer too. How can you be so unaffected by this?'
'Let's just say I'm not unduly surprised.' He pointed to his scarred face. 'You aren't born like this and immediately think that God's a good guy. I've always suspected the bastard was a sadist, so to have Him unmasked as the Devil comes as something of a relief. It sure explains a few things and cuts through all the contorted bullshit the Churches have been churning out, trying to make sense of how their all-knowing, all-powerful God could allow so much misery into the world.'
He smiled at Knight, who was sitting open-mouthed. 'If you think about it, what the Red Pope's soul revealed was a refreshing, liberating truth. That's why it doesn't matter. After all, nothing's changed.'
'Of course it has,' Knight said angrily. 'Everything's changed.'
Soames laughed. 'No, it hasn't. The only thing to change is what you believed in. Stop being so melodramatic, Virginia. It's not like God's suddenly packed His bags and gone. He was never there - you just didn't know it. Now, at least, you know life's basically a crap game with the dice loaded against you, so you can stop whining and get on with it.'
Virginia sat very still, staring at Soames, eyes narrow with hatred and disgust. 'You never believed in God, did you?'
Soames said nothing. For a moment, however, he almost told her everything. The need to make her understand the secret knowledge he had kept locked in his heart was so strong. But he had to be patient. His long wait was almost over.
'Hey, hey,' Carvelli interjected. His broad smile was forced, but his smooth confidence was returning. 'C'mon, guys, let's not turn on each other. This has been a setback, a major disappointment, but we've got to be practical. Virginia, Bradley's right. Perhaps we should accept the new way of things and try to adjust accordingly.'
Knight let out a long sigh.
Soames leant towards her. 'Virginia, we've got to make the best of this. And, as you so clearly pointed out, we have transgressed - not necessarily in the eyes of our new Lord and Master, but we have broken the law.'
Carvelli looked alarmed. 'Will the FBI find anything on the Red Ark to implicate us in the killings and . . . ?'
'Don't worry about the Red Ark. The authorities have got their hands full trying to explain the first sign and preparing for the next ones. However, perhaps we should be concerned about the witnesses to our over-enthusiastic and, on reflection, misguided acts of murder and abduction.'
The horror on Knight's face deepened. 'What are you saying?'
Amber Grant and Miles Fleming are serious liabilities.'
'But the Red Pope said we shouldn't harm them,' Knight said automatically. 'He said the violence-'
Soames guffawed. 'But he was wrong, wasn't he? You still haven't grasped it yet, have you, Virginia? The Red Pope was a self-deluding arrogant fool who knew nothing.' He looked directly at Carvelli, then Knight. 'Look, it's simple. Fleming and Grant have to be silenced permanently so that we can put this sorry episode to rest and get on with the rest of our lives. And, Virginia, stop looking so horrified. Your conscience is redundant now that there's no longer a God to give you credit for doing good.'
'Damn God,' Virginia shouted. 'What about our humanity? What about our human belief in what's right or wrong?'
Soames spoke in a contemptuous whisper. 'What about it, Virginia? What about this precious humanity you've suddenly discovered? Is it the same humanity that allowed you to collaborate in the deaths of a hundred terminally ill patients just because you thought you were serving God?'
*
Black sector secure accommodation.
Two hours later
In the secure suite two doors down from Fleming's, Amber was sleeping. After her mother's death she had been too traumatized to rest, but after the Red Pope's Day of the Soul Truth and the subsequent chaos a strange calm had descended upon her. She had fallen into a deep sleep unlike any she had experienced before. It seeped through her bones, relaxing her muscles and dissipating the stress and anxiety.
She entered the dream state with calm serenity; she didn't struggle or exhibit signs of di
squiet. Instead she lay still and although her eyeballs exhibited the classic signs of movement when she entered REM the lids remained closed and her breathing regular.
Then, as it had so often before, her mind took the journey to death.
The darkness envelops her in a velvet cocoon and a numbing calm possesses her. No harm can come to her here. Even when she sees the now familiar pinprick of light and experiences the rush through the black vortex towards it she remains untroubled. This time she is not alone on her journey. A presence is with her, leading her. It's as if she and Ariel have never been apart as they approach the cone of light. They fuse and become as one, and Amber knows all that Ariel knows.
Racing through the darkness she understands that Ariel has been waiting for her in the no man's land between life and death. Her sister's patience only ran out on the day that Bradley Soames first detected the human soul in his early experiments on terminal patients. That day, the wave particle duality of soul and body collapsed, which so warped the universal membrane connecting life and death that its disturbance affected Ariel and caused Amber, her entangled twin, to feel phantom pain.
Lucifer (aka the Lucifer Code) (2001) Page 21