God's Lions - The Dark Ruin (35 page)

“Yes. His name is Abbas Sadik, and he contacted us using the Turkish intelligence agency’s tried and true method of sending messages overland in beat-up old cars ... like we did in the old days. Remember, Danny?”

“Yeah. It looks like the old days are coming back. What did he have to say?”

“It seems that a UN force has arrived in the town of Orencik with Acerbi’s wife and son.”

“A UN force! What in the world is a UN force doing transporting Acerbi’s son to Orencik?”

“Your guess is as good as mine, but if I were you I’d let the old man in on it, because he seems to be the key behind all of this.”

Zamir frowned. “He’s not telling us everything, and probably for good reason. He’s going to flip out when we tell him his son is in Turkey. He believes the boy is about to be taken to some old ruin where he’ll be transformed into the Antichrist or something, and the pope seems to agree with him.”

“You’ve got to be kidding! The Antichrist?”

“Yeah, I know it sounds farfetched, Misha, but a lot of what the old man says makes sense.”

“Like which part, boss?”

“Like the part about how someone is beginning to take over all of the world’s computers, and we’re seeing the beginnings of that right now in Israel. But what really scares me is the fact that Acerbi seems to know what’s about to happen before it happens. I don’t know how the old man knows the things he does, but it’s freaky scary, Misha.”

“Listen, Danny. You and I both know that this assault on our communications infrastructure has to be some kind of state-sponsored cyber attack. I mean, think about it ... the Antichrist ... really?”

“We’re talking about a man who probably saved the world last year. He warned us then and he’s warning us again now. You should have been with us in Gibraltar, Misha. The old guy was pretty convincing.”

Bagrov rubbed his chin in silent thought. “Maybe we’ll know more when Team 5 reports back in from Babylon. Until then, I think we owe it to Mr. Acerbi to let him know that his wife and son are now in Turkey courtesy of the UN.”

Zamir frowned. “What else did the Muslim say in his message?”

“Just that we should hurry before they take the boy into the hills ... whatever that means.”

“It means you have to take me to Turkey.” The two men spun around to see Eduardo Acerbi standing behind them in the doorway.

Exchanging a quick glance with Zamir, Bagrov cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, Mr. Acerbi, but we have orders not to stop until we reach Israel.”

“Then I’d like to talk to the captain.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Zamir replied. “As the head of the Mossad, this particular naval mission is under my command. But even if we changed course right now it would take us almost forty-eight hours to reach the Turkish coast.”

Acerbi leaned against the hatchway and closed his eyes. “Then we will be too late. My son has already been delivered to the place of his transition, and there is nothing we can do to stop it.”

Zamir looked on as Eduardo Acerbi leaned against the wall, his frail figure looking even more fragile against the sub’s cold steel bulkhead. “Would you care to sit, Mr. Acerbi?”

“Yes, thank you.” Acerbi collapsed into a cushioned seat as the two men studied his eyes.

“What I’m about to tell you is highly classified, Mr. Acerbi,” Zamir continued. “After you told us about the computer activity at your house in Babylon, our cyber warfare section traced the origin of the worm back to that location. In response, Team 5 has been dispatched to scout the area and attempt to locate the source computer. They were also tasked with a secondary mission. They were ordered to locate your son and bring him back to Israel so that he could be reunited with you. Unfortunately, we have no way to contact our men right now without giving their position away, so we’re unable to let them know your son is no longer there. As far as their primary mission is concerned, we’ll just have to wait until they are out of Iraq to learn if your suspicions about the computer were validated.”

Zamir paused as he pressed his face close to Acerbi. “Now, Mr. Acerbi, I want you to look me right in the eye and tell me that you had no knowledge of a cyber attack being launched from your compound in Babylon.”

“You have my word, Mr. Zamir. As soon as I saw that thing on the security monitor, I knew something big was going on right under my nose without my knowledge or permission. I had nothing to do with it ... but someone close to me did.”

The old man’s eyes took on a hollow, vacant stare. “Something about my wife had changed. There was a coldness to her personality. Instead of looking at me, she seemed to be looking right through me, and she stiffened at my touch. I don’t know what she is, but she’s no longer the woman I’ve been living with for the past forty years.”

Zamir traded looks with Bagrov. “Are we talking about mental illness ... depression perhaps?”

“I mean just what I said, Mr. Zamir. She wasn’t my wife ... she’s no longer Colette. I first began to notice the change after we traveled to the ruins in Turkey. She never seemed to sleep after our visit, and, please forgive me for what I’m about to say because it sounds totally insane, but the day I collapsed at the palace in Babylon I saw a flash of what can only be described as something you would see in a nightmare. For a split second I saw a hideous, demonic-looking form that wavered right in front of my eyes before Colette’s face came back into focus. I’ve dreaded mentioning this to anyone because I realized I would be receiving the same kinds of looks I’m receiving right now from the two of you, but you have to believe me ... I saw it ... she changed right in front of my eyes, and I’m not insane.”

Zamir breathed in deeply and exhaled as he tried to ignore Bagrov’s rolling eyes. “This entire episode is insane, Mr. Acerbi. I want to believe you ... I really do, but you’re describing an event with supernatural overtones, and we’re military men. We know that you believe your son is about to become the Antichrist, but even if that were true there is nothing available to mortal man that can stop a supernatural event from happening. It may not be evident by listening to me, but I too am a deeply religious man, and if there is such a thing as an Antichrist, then the matter should be left up to God.”

Acerbi winced in the glare of doubt. “I understand what you’re saying, Mr. Zamir, but all through history God has worked through man, and right now ... at this very minute, the way is being paved for the Antichrist to make his appearance on the world stage, and if there’s anything we can do to prevent that from happening we should at least try.”

Zamir threw up his hands. “What would you have us do, Eduardo ... nuke the site in Turkey on a supposition that the Antichrist is about to appear? I’m afraid the best we can do at this point is to have the Turkish authorities look into the matter. Turkey is a sovereign country ... one we happen to be on friendly terms with, and we can’t just go charging into their territory on a hunch that some kind of supernatural event is about to occur in the hills outside one of their villages.”

“What about just dropping me off along the coast of Turkey somewhere?” Eduardo countered.

“Even if we could get you there in time, you’d be all alone,” Zamir said, “and you’re hardly in any condition to go traipsing around the countryside by yourself right now.”

Zamir’s stoic façade began to break when he saw the look of pain on Acerbi’s face. “Look, Mr. Acerbi, I’d like to help you, but this is out of our hands. The Turks have some very competent people in their intelligence service. We’ll contact them and have them send some people up into the hills around that village you described. They can get there a lot quicker, and if they see anything strange they can deal with it right then.”

“Don’t bother. They wouldn’t stand a chance against what’s out there.” Acerbi’s breathing became more labored. “I think by now my motives are obvious. I want to save my son. But the implications of an Antichrist turned loose on the world will soon become even more obvious. We are rapidly approaching the climactic end to thousands of years of preparation by a liar and deceiver who has tormented mankind for as long as we have existed on this earth, and things are about to get much worse. The final act in this celestial war between heaven and hell will be the transition of my son into the one who has been prophesized in Revelation. The dark star has risen, gentlemen, and may God have mercy on our souls.”

Zamir hunched his thick shoulders and breathed a sigh of resignation. “After we contact the Turkish military, we can take you to a spot off the coast of Italy, Mr. Acerbi, but I’m afraid that is the best we can do for now. The world situation is spinning out of control and we’ve been ordered to return to Israel as soon as possible.” Looking up at Bagrov, the Mossad chief turned and walked right into Leo and Pope Michael.

“Might as well drop us off too, Danny,” Leo said. “The pope wants to return to Rome.”

Moving through the immense space, Ben and Daniel were unable to take their eyes off the colossal sphere rising above their heads. Below them, down in the steaming, hissing pit filled with miles of fiber optic cable, they could feel the heat being generated inside the monstrous computer, making it feel uncomfortably warm for anyone who stood too close to its silvery-black composite shell.

Tapping Ben on the arm, Daniel pointed to a computer terminal built into the wall behind them. After waiting for a technician to pass, he moved closer, and right away he spotted several USB ports and a row of slots below the screen. While Ben kept watch, Daniel quickly removed a flash drive from his pocket and plugged it into one of the ports. Immediately the screen came to life and requested a password.

I should have known better!
Daniel stared at the flashing screen in horror. If he didn’t enter a password soon the computer would trigger a security alert that would most likely prompt someone to check the camera monitoring this terminal. He quickly unplugged the flash drive, but just before he walked away he decided to hit the eject button next to the top slot. To his amazement, a metallic-looking blue disk slid out. Peering defiantly at the camera above his head, he pulled it out and shoved it into his pocket.

Walking away from the terminal, Daniel saw Ben unzip the top of his clean suit and remove a pair of heavy-framed glasses from his shirt pocket. Looking up at the sphere, he slid them on and pressed a tiny button located along the inside of the earpiece, triggering a miniature camera embedded within the frame.

Panicked about his encounter with the computer, Daniel moved next to Ben. “We’ve probably got less than a minute before they notice I just triggered a computer security alert, and they have me on camera.”

“Yeah, I think we’ve seen enough. Lets ... Ben suddenly stopped talking and his eyes widened as he looked over Daniel’s shoulder. Standing right behind him was the bearded man they had seen driving the yellow Lamborghini.

“What are you doing?” the man asked in a thick Russian accent. It was Ilia Sokolov.

Ben could feel the hair rise up on the back of his neck as he glanced sideways at Daniel.

“Why are you looking at him?” Sokolov’s face reddened. “I asked you a question. What are you doing down here?”

Before Daniel had time to weigh his options he pulled the crystal from his pocket. “We found this crystal in the back of the truck. We thought you might be looking for it, so we brought it down here.”

Sokolov’s face melted with a look of relief as he reached out and took the crystal from Daniel’s hand. It was like watching a father hold his newborn baby for the first time. “Do you realize what you have done?”

Ben instinctively moved his hand to the zipper of his clean suit so he could reach the pistol hidden in his waistband.

“You’ve just saved us from a disastrous delay!” Sokolov smiled as he held up the crystal.

“We would have brought it down here sooner, but we weren’t sure what it was,” Daniel continued. “What is that thing anyway?”

Sokolov’s eyes narrowed to thin slits. “A strange question coming from an elite guard. You should know better than to ask questions like that.” He paused as he studied the two Israelis. “I don’t believe I recognize your accents. Where are you from?”

“Canada, sir.” Ben said quickly as a drop of sweat dripped from his hairline.

“I thought all our recruits came from Europe.”

“I was living in Europe when I was recruited, sir.” Ben’s interrogation training was kicking into overdrive. Like everyone else in Team 5, he had been taught to think on his feet in case he was captured or questioned during a mission.

“Where were you recruited?”

“Paris, sir. I was in the Legion.”

“Ah, a Legionnaire. We were watching you in Iraq.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“My unit was on the ground in Iraq during the first Gulf War to observe the tactics of your so-called coalition army.”

“KGB?”

“Another probing question from this inquisitive Canadian.” Sokolov paused as he studied the two men. “Actually, I was attached to military intelligence as a computer specialist. An old GRU instructor at the academy once told me that the Legionnaires would have made formidable adversaries if we had ever been forced to deal with them on the field of battle, but as observers we never got the chance to find out. Too bad, really ... I always wanted to find out what it was like to shoot someone. I suppose I have a penchant for destroying things.” Sokolov broke into a high-pitched laugh that echoed around the concrete walls, but as soon as the laughter faded his eyes took on the unwavering gaze of a predator.

As Sokolov looked up at the sphere, Ben and Daniel stood frozen and watched as ion-charged particles of dust floated up around his face before being vented outside through one of the many exhaust ducts. It was like standing in the room with a wild animal that could sense your fear, for it was quickly becoming evident to the two Israelis that they were dealing with a very dangerous and unpredictable psychopath.

Looking away from the sphere, Sokolov re-focused his attention back on the two men standing before him. “You may go. But next time call me before you go wandering around down in secure areas. Is that understood?”