The Moses Legacy

Chapter 100

Recognizing the encroaching danger in the professor’s approach, Audrey stood up too.

‘No, Paul,’ cried Senator Morris. ‘Not here!’

Tomlinson pushed Audrey against the wall. But he hadn’t noticed the lamp with the heavy bronze base on the side table. Even in the agony of Tomlinson’s stranglehold, Audrey had the presence of mind to grab the lamp with one hand and smash it down on the professor’s head.

She only had to do it once and her attacker fell to the ground in a lifeless heap. As the lifeblood returned to her head, her arm dropped to her side and she let the lamp slip from her hand. It landed on the floor with a thud.

Realizing what she had done – what she had been obliged to do – she turned to the senator.

‘You killed him.’

‘It was self-defence.’

‘What are you going to do?’ he asked weakly.

‘What I should have done from the beginning: tell the truth.’

‘You’re going to tell them about the New Covenant?’

‘Yes… both the police and my readers.’

‘But that’ll destroy us.’

‘I certainly hope so, Arthur. I certainly hope so.’

For a moment, she wasn’t sure she had said the right thing. Senator Morris was capable of anger himself. She had seen that in the past. But as she saw the faraway look in his eyes, she realized that his anger had spent itself.

Barely a couple of seconds later, he broke down in tears.

‘My daughter,’ he sobbed.

‘Jane? What about her?’

‘She died… of the plague.’

Finally Audrey mellowed slightly.

‘I’m sorry.’

She was tempted to remind the senator that it was he who had sent his daughter on the dig. It was he who had used her for his own means. He had told her to get a sample of Joel’s clothes and if he thought that they contained the spores then it meant he was ready to risk her life for his evil cause. Like Agamemnon sacrificing Iphigenia to get wind for the sails of his ships in the war against Troy.

There was no reason to sympathize with him. With Jane perhaps – but not with Morris.

But in an instant, all that was swept into irrelevance as the senator clutched his chest and fell to the floor, writhing in agony.