The Genesis Plague

46

‘A demon?’ Flaherty said, smirking. Glancing at the naked woman portrayed in the picture on his BlackBerry, he felt like he was looking at the primitive equivalent to a centrefold model.

‘That’s right,’ Brooke said.

‘Hmm. Too bad,’ he said in jest.

She rolled her eyes. ‘I’m sure it’s a real tragedy that such a nice pair of boobs went to waste,’ she grumbled, grabbing the BlackBerry from him.

He held up his hands as if to declare his innocence. ‘What?’

She held the picture close to her eyes and squinted.

‘I can show you how to zoom in on it,’ Flaherty offered. ‘What are you trying to see?’

‘Not her boobs,’ Brooke said, to torture him a bit more. ‘There’s a symbol on her wrist …’

‘Here, let me help you.’ He wrapped his hand around hers and pulled the BlackBerry closer. Then he tapped on the display to enlarge the area she was interested in.

‘See this rosette on her wrist?’ Brooke said. ‘It’s an ancient symbol of divinity. This conical headdress she’s wearing is also a symbol of godliness.’

‘Okay. So she’s a divine demon wearing a dunce cap.’

She panned across the image to the wide-eyed bird perched on the goddess’s right hand. ‘It’s an owl.’

‘Who-o-o?’ Flaherty joked.

She ignored him. Zooming out to view the full image again, she shook her head and said, ‘God, how did I not think of this? Jason’s right. Of course this is Lilith. The serpent, the owl, the wings …’

‘And who, pray tell, is Lilith?’

‘In the pantheon of ancient Mesopotamian deities, she was the goddess of storms and pestilence. One of the demons the ancients called Lilitu.’

Just then, the jet hit a rough patch of air and jostled the cabin hard enough for Brooke to grip her armrests. Within seconds the turbulence smoothed away.

‘Careful … Lilith hears you,’ Flaherty whispered.

Brooke took a calming breath before continuing. ‘Lilith was even said to be the first woman God created alongside Adam. But because she was seductive and mischievous, God banished her from paradise. In exile, she found a new lover to satisfy her carnal desires — one of God’s fallen archangels named Samael. Better known as the Angel of Death or the Grim Reaper.’

‘You don’t say,’ Flaherty said.

‘By copulating with Samael, Lilith became immortal and acquired supernatural powers. Ancient apocryphal texts say that she morphed into a serpent and slithered back into Eden on a mission of vengeance against Adam and Eve. Using her powers of seduction, she persuaded the couple to disobey God so that they, too, lost favour with Him and were banished from Eden. It’s a common mythological theme,’ she explained. ‘Curiosity and forbidden knowledge leading to humankind’s downfall. Usually at the hand of a woman.’

‘Just like Pandora’s Box.’

She grinned tightly. ‘Funny you say that, because in the original Greek myth of Pandora, the vessel containing all the world’s evils is described as a pithos — not a box, but a large clay jar, just like the one Lilith brought into that village.’

‘So maybe Pandora was inspired by Lilith too,’ Flaherty said.

‘Maybe. And interestingly enough, Persian mythology separately developed Ishtar as the goddess of love, sex and war — the embodiment of vengeance. An image very similar to this winged figure here,’ she said, ‘is how Ishtar was depicted by the Babylonians. Anyway, I’ve given you an earful I …’ she said apologetically. ‘It’s just that this is all so incredible.’

‘You don’t believe all that hocus-pocus stuff, do you? Demons?’ he asked.

She shrugged. ‘I believe evil has always been around and in the absence of science, ancient people attributed everything bad to the wrath of gods and demons. All mythology is crammed with superstition.’

‘Let’s have a look at the other pictures Jason sent,’ he suggested, reaching out to help her open the remaining file. When it came up, he wasn’t sure what he was looking at. ‘Any idea what this is?’ He turned the BlackBerry back to her.

Brooke’s eyes went wide and she snatched the BlackBerry back from him. ‘Writing,’ she said, excited. ‘The same kind of text I deciphered in the cave’s entry tunnel.’

‘I still don’t see how that is writing?’ The shadowy edges of the tightly packed, wedged-shaped symbols appeared more ‘design’ than text.

‘The oldest writing ever recorded,’ she reminded him. She noticed Lilith’s feet and the bone pile images had been cut off along the top edge of the picture. ‘Looks like Jason found this below the etching of Lilith.’

‘What does it say?’

She shrugged. ‘I’m sure I can decipher it … looks clear enough.’ Luckily, Jason had used plenty of light to pull the shadows out from the characters. ‘But I’ll need to enlarge it.’

Flaherty glanced out the window and was surprised to see that the jet was already gliding in low over the runway at Las Vegas International. ‘No problem. I’ll transfer the file to my laptop,’ he said, patting his carry-on bag. ‘The screen is plenty big. You can read it in the car.’

‘Awesome,’ she said, beaming. ‘Tommy, we might just get Lilith’s story after all. Do you know what that means?’

She looked like a kid who’d just been told she’d have to wait to open her birthday presents. ‘Not really, but I’m sure you’ll tell me.’