The Revelation Code

5

Eddie slammed painfully back to wakefulness as the frigid water hit him. He struggled to breathe, the sudden cold squeezing his chest tight — then realised he couldn’t move. His arms were pinned painfully behind his back. Still straining to draw in air, he shook and writhed, trying to get loose.

No joy. Something was biting into his wrists. Handcuffs. No way to break them, but if there was enough slack in the chain, he might be able to bring his hands in front of him…

He couldn’t. He was in a chair, a single metal pole supporting its broad back, and couldn’t spread his arms far enough apart to lift them up around it. His ankles were secured too, tied to the chair’s legs.

But he felt the whole seat flex slightly as he struggled. If he kept going, he might be able to crack a weld or strip a screw—

Movement nearby. He looked up, shaking icy water from his eyes, and knew he wouldn’t get the chance.

Three men stared stonily back at him. The same bastards who’d attacked him on the street, shooting him with a Taser and bundling him into a van to be gagged… and drugged. They’d stuck him with something to knock him out. He had no idea how long he’d been unconscious, but he was both hungry and thirsty, with a groggy headache and raw, gritty eyes.

His surroundings came into focus beyond the trio. A warehouse or factory, derelict, grey daylight leaking in through grubby windows high above. Dirty crates and unidentifiable rusting machinery glinted with cobwebs. Closer by were some metal cases, their cleanliness telling him they had been brought by his kidnappers. His leather jacket lay crumpled on the floor nearby.

He also saw a video camera mounted on a tripod, connected to a laptop on a wooden bench. The red light by the lens suggested that he had an audience—

A voice cut through his fear. ‘Eddie!’

‘Nina!’ he yelled back. ‘Nina, where are you?’

‘She’s not here,’ said the older man mockingly. ‘Prophet? He’s awake.’

‘Yes, I can see,’ came another disembodied voice from the laptop, an American man. ‘Dr Wilde, you can talk to your husband. Briefly.’

‘Eddie!’ Nina cried over the speakers. ‘Are you okay?’

‘I’ve been better,’ he replied, blowing more dripping water off his face. ‘And I’m fucking freezing. These twats just woke me up with a bucket of ice water!’

‘Watch your mouth,’ said the blond man, a plaster across his broken nose.

‘Fuck off.’

The man’s face twisted with anger. Eddie saw the punch coming, but was completely unable to resist. It hit his stomach, hard, leaving him breathless.

‘No, stop!’ Nina shouted. ‘Leave him alone!’

‘Mr Chase,’ said the man with Nina, ‘I’d advise you to watch your language. Go on, Dr Wilde.’

‘You son of a bitch,’ she muttered, before raising her voice again. ‘Are you all right, Eddie?’

‘Like I said,’ he wheezed through gritted teeth, ‘been better. Where are you?’

‘I don’t know — somewhere in the tropics, I think. They took me from the apartment and brought me here.’

Worry gripped him. ‘Is the baby okay?’

‘Yeah, as far as I can tell. They were going to drug me, but when I told them I was pregnant, they backed off.’

‘Oh, so they’re the caring kind of kidnappers. Good to know. What the hell do they want with us?’

‘They’re… they’re using you to force me to cooperate. Eddie, they say they’ll torture you if I don’t do what they want.’

A different cold ran through him as he guessed what was in the cases. ‘Why? What are they after?’

‘It’s about the Book of Revelation, they—’

Sudden silence as the call was muted. ‘Nina?’ Eddie shouted. ‘Nina! Put her back on, you fucking shithead!’

The blond man punched him again as the unknown voice returned. ‘You’ve seen that your husband is still alive, Dr Wilde. Now I want you to see what’ll happen to him if you don’t do as you’re told. Mr Irton?’

The Taser man opened one of the cases. ‘Oh, fuck,’ Eddie gasped as Irton produced a cattle prod, a black baton two feet long with a pair of stubby electrodes protruding from one end.

‘No!’ cried Nina over the speakers. ‘I’ll do what you want; you don’t have to hurt him! Please, don’t!’

But Eddie knew from the look in Irton’s eyes that nothing she said would stop the shock from coming. The thin-mouthed man wasn’t being sadistic or taking sick joy from inflicting pain on another human being — it was just business, part of the job, the professional detachment of the slaughterhouse worker. This was something he had done before, many times. He pushed a button. The electrodes crackled.

The Englishman set his jaw. ‘I’m going to kill you and all your mates,’ he growled. ‘That’s a promise.’

‘They all say that,’ Irton replied dismissively — as he activated the cattle prod and shoved it against Eddie’s soaked chest.

Nina’s scream almost drowned out her husband’s. ‘No! No, you bastard!’ She threw herself at Cross, but Simeon easily intercepted her. ‘Stop him, stop! Please! Let him go!’

She looked back at the screens as Simeon dragged her away from the cult leader. Eddie convulsed in the chair, face twisted in agony as Irton moved the sparking rod up and down his body. ‘Why are you doing this?’ she shrieked. ‘You’re insane!’

Cross spun to face her, a sudden anger behind his piercing gaze. ‘I’ve never been more sane, Dr Wilde! God Himself has set out this path for me, for His Witnesses,’ he indicated Anna and Simeon, ‘for all of us. We will follow it to the end, and you’re going to light the way.’

He turned back to the screens. ‘Enough.’

Irton retreated, the prod’s high-voltage sizzle cutting off. Eddie slumped, wisps of smoke still rising from his T-shirt. Another man, younger than Irton, checked his pulse. ‘He’s okay,’ he announced.

‘Good,’ said Cross. He tapped the touch screen, and the video wall went blank. ‘Dr Wilde, your husband’s safety is now entirely up to you. If you locate the other angels, he’ll be released.’

Nina was unable to answer at first, shaking with fear and fury. ‘I don’t… I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,’ she finally said, voice quavering. ‘I’m not a Biblical expert, it’s not my field. Why me? Why do you think I can do it?’

‘Because you have a talent for finding truth where others only see myths. Atlantis, Valhalla, the Garden of Eden. You found them. And you’ll find the angels of Revelation too.’

It took a moment for the full significance of his words to strike her, but when it did, it felt almost like a physical impact. ‘Wait — you believe I found the Garden of Eden?’

‘Yes.’

‘But the way the media spun the story, it made me look like a kook. The whole thing was deliberately done to discredit me.’ It had taken her discovery of the lost Pyramid of Osiris in Egypt to restore her reputation.

‘I know you found it. In Sudan. And I know it was destroyed by an American stealth bomber.’ Lines of disapproval formed around his eyes; he was as angered at its obliteration as Nina had been, though she imagined for very different reasons.

‘How do you know that? I never told any of that to the IHA — and I sure as hell wasn’t going to put it in my book.’

‘I have friends in the US government,’ Cross replied. ‘There are plenty who believe in the Lord and His plan as strongly as I do. And there are others whose faith is… weaker,’ he said, with another frown, ‘but who are willing to work with us. Yes, I know what you found.’

‘And you also know that what I found in Eden contradicts the Book of Genesis? That humans weren’t created in God’s image — that we weren’t even the first intelligent species on the planet?’

Nina knew that challenging his core beliefs could go badly for her — and Eddie. But while Simeon and Anna were affronted, it did not trigger Cross’s anger. ‘Yes, I know,’ he said. ‘About the Veteres — the race that walked the earth before us.’

That revelation was even more startling, as her discovery of the Veteres was something known only to a handful of people. ‘And you accept it?’ she asked. ‘But if you know that the first book of the Bible doesn’t match reality, why are you so certain about the last book?’

‘I told you, the Bible isn’t to be taken literally. It was written by men, and men are fallible. It has to be studied and interpreted to find God’s truth. It’s not easy, but it’s not supposed to be easy. Only people who’ve proven themselves worthy of God’s truth will get to see His plan.’

‘And you think you’re worthy?’

‘I know I’m worthy. God has chosen me, Dr Wilde. He led me to the angel hidden in the temple in Iraq, and it’s now my job to find the others.’

‘Seems like it’s more my job,’ Nina said, acerbic.

‘Then you should get started. Simeon, Anna, take her back to her house. You’ll have everything you need, Dr Wilde — Biblical texts, historical reference material, maps, and limited internet access. You’ll be monitored at all times,’ he added, raising a warning finger. ‘You’ll be cut off immediately if you try to contact anyone or access a site that might give away your location — such as by trying to log in to the IHA’s servers.’

‘I quit the IHA over six months ago,’ she protested. ‘Why would I have access?’

‘Because you’ve still got friends there. I know that your UN liaison, Oswald Seretse, gave you clearance even after you left. I also have friends in the intelligence services. We weren’t only observing you on the streets.’

‘You’ve been monitoring our internet too? Oh great, now you know all Eddie’s favourite websites.’

Anna’s face creased as if she had just smelled a dead animal. ‘Yes, and they’re disgusting.’ Her offence gave Nina an odd feeling of pride.

‘Enough,’ said Cross impatiently. ‘Now, Dr Wilde, it’s up to you to find where the Elders hid the other three angels. Or your husband will suffer.’

Fear returned, though this time with a sense of determination, a refusal to let Eddie’s torturers win. ‘If they really exist, I’ll find them,’ Nina told him.

‘If you’re as good as I’ve been told, I don’t doubt it.’ Cross turned away.

Anna and Simeon escorted Nina from the room. Her mind was already working, but not on the task she had been given. The foremost question was: told by whom?

An answer had not come by the time Simeon and Anna brought her back to the little house. The Mission’s residents had dispersed from the church to their own homes, a few giving her friendly greetings.

Nina ignored them. However cheery the inhabitants seemed, the fact remained that she was a prisoner, and nobody was willing to help her escape. And she was being watched every step of the way, cameras pivoting to track her. Even if she broke away from her escort, the alarm would be raised in seconds. How far could she get?

Simeon ushered her inside. ‘So housekeeping’s visited,’ she said, seeing that a number of books and a laptop computer had been placed on the desk. ‘Any chance of some room service?’

Her companions were not amused. ‘Get to work,’ said Simeon.

‘Get bent,’ Nina shot back. ‘I haven’t eaten since breakfast. Do you know how cranky pregnant women get when they’re hungry?’

The sorrowful look Anna gave Simeon made it clear to Nina that they were a couple. ‘We haven’t been blessed with a child,’ she said.

‘Maybe you don’t deserve one.’

‘Maybe you don’t.’ Simeon took a step closer to Nina, his glare ice-cold.

‘Simeon,’ Anna said. His angry scowl deepened, but he retreated. ‘There’s plenty of food. But if you want to cook, do it yourself. We’re not your personal wait staff.’

‘I’m gonna give this place such a bad review on TripAdvisor,’ Nina snarked as they left. The door closed behind them, and as she’d expected, the lock clicked. Even so, she tried to open it, with no success. ‘Shit.’

She was in no mood to cook, so made do with throwing together a salad sandwich and devouring it before moving on to a box of crackers. Munching on the dry biscuits, she looked through the cupboards again. Her captors had at least stocked her prison with a decent selection of provisions.

A small bottle amongst various packaged ingredients and condiments caught her eye. Spirit vinegar. That jogged a memory, something Eddie had once told her. She looked back through the fresh vegetables. Corn, green peppers, chilli, onions, some bulbs of garlic…

She glanced up at the camera silently watching her from the corner. An idea had come to her, but she would have to be extremely careful and patient to carry it out — if she even could. But if it worked, it might give her the chance she needed to run for the Mission’s boundary.

For now, though, she had to at least make the pretence of working on Cross’s assignment. If her watchers thought she was wasting time, Eddie would pay the price. Delaying tactics had caused Macy’s death; she couldn’t allow the same thing to happen again.

Another thought. Cross was insistent that she find the angels as soon as possible. Was he working to a deadline? And if so, why? The angels, if they existed, had been hidden for thousands of years. Why the rush?

She turned towards the desk. Sitting atop the stack of books was a copy of the Bible. The Old and New Testaments; Genesis to Revelation. Maybe the answer really was in there…

‘Let’s see what John of Patmos saw in his visions,’ she said to herself as she thumbed to its final book.