Sanctus

Chapter 108

Liv stared at the stylized drawing of the tree. For long moments the flickering of the TV in the corner was the only movement, the low murmur of the news broadcast the only sound. It was Kathryn who eventually broke the silence.

‘We need to get those seeds,’ she said. ‘We must get them and analyse them.’

Gabriel stood up and stretched, his lithe body preparing once again for action as his mind began calculating logistics. ‘They weren’t mentioned in the case file, so the Citadel might not know about them yet. Gives us a head start at least.’ He stalked over to the window and stared across the low-stacked crates towards the warehouse door. ‘They’ll either be in the evidence lockers or most probably the labs. That’s a bit of a problem. Security is bound to be much tighter following what happened at the morgue.’

‘I could get them,’ Liv said. ‘I could call Arkadian. Tell him I think I’ve worked out what the letters mean, but that I need to see the seeds they’re written on. Then, when I get them, I’ll drop them on the floor or distract him somehow and take one, or swap it for another.’ She looked up at Gabriel. ‘You only need one, don’t you?’

Gabriel stared at her for a moment, his face a mixture of concentration and concern. Then it softened into a smile.

‘Yes,’ Oscar answered for him. ‘We only need one. You must become our Eve and grasp the forbidden fruit. And if these seeds prove to be something extraordinary, just imagine what good we could do with them.’

Liv’s mind raced with the incredible implications of what he had just said and a worrying thought struck her. ‘But if these seeds are really from the fruit of the. .’ she could hardly bring herself to say it ‘. . from the tree of knowledge,’ she managed. ‘Then surely messing with them will be. . a really bad idea.’

Oscar continued to look at her, his widening smile refusing to die in the face of her concern. ‘Why?’

‘Well,’ she said. ‘Look what happened last time.’

‘You mean the fall of man? Original sin? Being cast out of the garden of Eden to live a life of perpetual pain and hardship?’

Liv nodded. ‘That kind of thing, yeah.’

Oscar’s smile turned into a dry chuckle.

‘And where did you read all that?’ he asked.

Liv thought it through and realized what he meant. Of course. She’d read it in the Bible, something written by the men of the mountain, a transcription of source material no one else had ever seen. What better way to stop people seeking knowledge of something than to scare them away from it? Give them an official version of divine teachings, starting with the most terrible tale where eating fruit from a forbidden tree leads mankind to damnation.

‘We know there is something in the Citadel,’ Oscar continued. ‘Something — supernatural. Something so strong that even those outside the mountain can feel its healing power. No wonder the monks have guarded it for so long. Being so close must be intoxicating. Must make them feel more like gods than men. But imagine if that pure life force could be freed from the mountain and spread throughout the world. Imagine no longer needing to pour tons of fertilizer into the dry earth,’ he said, gesturing through the office window to the stacks of crates filling the warehouse. ‘Just one seed, planted and tended, could make whole areas as fertile as the shadowy garden at the centre of the Citadel. Deserts could become gardens. Wastelands might become forests. Our slowly dying earth could be reborn.’

Liv sat stunned in her seat. This was something her brother would have staked his life on. He’d told her the last time they’d met how he thought he’d been spared for a reason. Maybe he had died just to get those five seeds to her. She owed it to him to find out if they were worth it. She slipped her hand into her pocket, searching for her mobile, then remembered where she’d left it. ‘Arkadian’s number was on my phone,’ she said, looking up at Gabriel and discovering he was still gazing at her.

He smiled a half-shrugged smile, and Liv felt the blush rising again and turned away.

‘His details are at the end of the case file,’ Kathryn said, leaning over the desk to open up the relevant document. Liv scanned the office, looking for a phone. Her eyes passed over the TV screen and she froze as she saw the picture of a smiling man hovering behind the shoulder of the newsreader. ‘Hey,’ she said, her voice a mixture of surprise and concern. ‘I know that guy.’

Then every eye turned and looked at the smiling face of Rawls Baker.