The God Complex: A Thriller (39 page)

With some help from the Sicarii, Joel was able to talk through the pain of the reignited wound. He explained to Cash that his orders had changed. They were now to deliver Cash and Rigs along with the nuclear weapons. Their death sentences had been lifted again.

“By whom?” demanded Cash.

“We can’t tell you who the clients are but you will meet them soon,” he said wincing. His eyes flared at Rigs who sat quietly by Cash’s side.

“We’ll meet them? You’re delivering us to the people who want us dead?!”

“You are not to be harmed, not now, not ever. We can never raise our arms against you ever again,” said Joel.

“What in the hell does that even mean?” asked Cash. “You can’t raise your arms against me…”

“Our order and your bloodline have travelled through many centuries. We’re at your service, protecting you when required and it is a sacred oath that our services can never be hired against you. Your bloodline is sacred.”

Cash looked at Rigs. “The pain’s made him mad,” he said, shaking his head.

“If that’s the case, give me a weapon to defend ourselves,” demanded Cash.

Joel looked up at
Daniel and motioned for him to give Cash a weapon. Daniel handed him an MP5 and some magazines.

“And for Rigs?”

Joel shook his head. Cash handed his MP5 to Rigs. Joel instructed Daniel to give another one to Cash.

Cash
looked at the two weapons and the seven Sicarii who made no attempt to defend themselves. He placed the MP5 down. “There is some seriously weird shit going on here. Are these nukes leaking?” he asked, getting a laugh from everyone, even Joel.

An hour later, they landed at Cairo
Airport. Nobody moved.

“We wait, they’re not due for an hour or so,” said Joel.

“And you’re just going to give them the four nukes?”

“Of course, they are the reason we exist, if not for them there’d be no Jewish state for us to call home.”

Cash watched the double decker aircraft land, its livery somehow unsurprising. Deep down, he had known something was off.

“Figures,
” said Rigs, spotting the logo.

“You guessed?”

“It’s always the rich, powerful family. Why do you think they’re always shrouded in conspiracy?” he whispered.

“Your family’s rich and powerful
…”

“And I keep well clear
of them.”

“But you said I was one of them
, Joel?” said Cash. “I’m not a Noble!”

“I
simply follow orders. My orders were very specific - you’re one of them, you’re untouchable to us.”

The Sicarii
transferred their cargo to the larger jet’s hold while Cash and Rigs walked across to the steps that were being placed against the larger plane. Anya Noble appeared in the doorway as it opened. She walked down the steps and kissed Cash on the cheek.

“My son,” she said
warmly and took him in her arms.

Cash pushed her off. “Your what?”

“My son,” she said, staring fondly into his face.

Even Rigs broke out of his reserved shell, mimicking Cash. “Your
what
?”

“We have work to do,” she said. “Come, we’ll talk as we work.”

Cash remained motionless. “I’m going nowhere, until I know what’s going on.”

“After we’re done here, I’m going to take you back to Geneva. We’ll meet up with the lovely Sophie and Kyle and we’ll talk
, but we really must get moving,” she said, checking her watch. “We have a lot to cover and little time.”

Rigs registered the same hint of a threat that Cash had.
She had Sophie and Kyle. He prodded the numbed Cash to follow her, boarding one of the two helicopters that were awaiting her arrival. The Secret Service were back. Two immaculately dressed security men accompanied her, Cash and Rigs. Four Sicarii were told to follow in the other chopper.

“They’re amazing buildings, aren’t they?” she said.

Cash nodded, hardly looking at the pyramids. He was still trying to compute what was happening.

“Our ancestors built them. They’ve caused a lot of speculation over the years. Of course, it helps when the rest of the bits are in place.”

Cash looked but couldn’t see anything. The Great Pyramid was shrouded in scaffolding and sheeting.

Rigs pointed to the very top of the pyramid that could just be seen as they flew in over its top. It had a bright silver capstone.

“I see you noticed the capstone, the largest single piece of silver in the world. It weighs ten tons and, fittingly, is a perfect pyramid to crown the perfect pyramid. The best conductor money can buy.”

The helicopter landed and they were shown to the entrance, the real one that hadn’t been discovered. A ramp took them up thirty feet on the opposite side to where they had entered previously. A section opened to reveal a grand entrance way more fitting of the pyramid. A gallery similar to the grand gallery led them up and into the King’s Chamber, somewhere they had not visited before
, and the equipment that filled the room hadn’t been there either. Anya walked straight through and along to the Grand Gallery where Cash had fought with Joel. He had noticed the slots at the back of the ledge when he had been there before. Just empty slots. Each now had a perfectly fitting long silver spike that spiraled out of each of the holes to the ceiling high above and looped back down to the corresponding hole in the opposite wall, creating twenty-seven silver archways

Anya continued on and rather than crouching down to the tunnel Cash and Rigs had crawled through, pushed the wall to reveal a staircase down
to the Queen’s Chamber below.

“It’s a bit easier when you know where things are and how to use them.” Like above
, the Queen’s Chamber was transformed. Equipment filled the room, not new but not old, just different looking.

“I’ll explain it all later. I need to insert the fuel cell that will power this up for when we need it.

“Anya withdrew a small cylindrical tube from her bag, about the size a large plastic coke bottle and slotted it home into a piece of machinery that sat in the heart of the chamber. She checked it was in correctly and flicked a switch on its side. An amber light shone.

“All done
,” she said.

Cash couldn’t see the tunnel they had entered from before. “Where’s the other entrance?”

“Closed. It would affect the power generation,” she said, leading them out and closing the door behind them. She placed her ring against the wall next to the doorway which resulted in the sound of a lock sliding into place.

They walked back out of the pyramid and headed over to her helicopter. “I’m afraid Rigs won’t be coming to Switzerland with us,” she announced as they boarded her chopper. Her two security men
blocked his entry.

“I’m not going anywhere without him
,” Cash insisted.

“What you are about to see and hear is not for anyone but you. After we’re done, if you choose to share, that will be your decision. In the meantime, these men will not harm him, I promise you
that.”

“Sophie and Kyle,” said Rigs into Cash’s ear. “Go!”

With a heavy heart, Cash boarded the plane. He told himself he had no choice. He told himself that, over and over again.

The four Sicarii were true to Anya’s word. They did not harm a hair on Rigs’ head as they led him back to the
pyramid and with him in it, sealed up the entrance that no one knew was even there. The normal tourist entrance had already been sealed. When the energy in the pyramid built up, it was imperative the building be sealed, such was the power that was generated within it. Why else did it need to weigh six million tons, other than to stop itself from exploding from the pressure that would crush any living thing within it?

Cash was furious at himself. He had left a man behind. He understood why, as did Rigs. Sophie and Kyle couldn’t look after themselves, but Rigs could. Although it didn’t mean it was right.

Anya tried to engage with him as they flew back to Geneva, but he refused. She kept promising he would understand when they got there. He really couldn’t see how.

“Where are Sophie and Kyle?” he asked when they arrived at what appeared to be the deserted village of Anieres. Other than security guards guarding the actual village, no one was around. They walked into Antoine Noble’s chateau and Anya wasted no time in taking him directly to the library.

“Where are Sophie and Kyle?” he asked
again, beginning to lose his temper. It was the only way she had gotten him to leave Rigs behind.

“Cash, I’m your mother, will you please trust me?”

“Trust you?” he exploded. “You say you’re my mother, which in itself is twisted, and even if you are, you made me believe you died during childbirth, that I had lived and you had died. Even more twisted! Where are Sophie and Kyle? I won’t ask again.” The threat in his voice brought out the security guards who were waiting in the library. Anya ushered them back out.

She pulled herself together. None of it had gone as she had imagined or dreamed about over the years.

“We should have had this talk fourteen years ago,” she said.

“Where are they?!!!” shouted Cash, wanting an answer.

Anya jumped back, shocked at the hatred in his face. “I promise you’ll see them very soon, they’re perfectly safe. Please, this is hard for me too.”

“Are the woman you love and your son being held against their will by a crazy woman?”

“I’m your mother!” she cried.

“Well act like one! Show me Sophie and Kyle and I’ll listen to your speech
.”

Anya had wanted the Alex moment that Antoine had
recently had. She wanted the moment she had shared with her father, when she found out the truth. She wanted to share that with Cash. But he wanted his woman and his son. He just wanted to check they were safe, check that his own mother hadn’t harmed her grandson.

“Fine,” she said. She walked across to the library windows and looked down to the garden below, where the marquee
that was there before had been removed without leaving a trace on the pristine lawn.

“There they are,” she said pointing to Sophie and Kyle below, standing beside a limousine.

“Thank you,” said Cash, calming down. He tried to open the doors but they were as strong as a safe. The glass was thick and bullet proof. He battered it. Sophie heard and looked up. She waved. They were fine. Kyle was fine. She mouthed something to him and then pointed to the sky, something about a planet, another planet. He didn’t understand. They were shown very courteously into the car.

“
Happy now?” Anya asked, her tone not quite matching her words. “I was hoping you’d trust me. But I do understand.”

“Thank you, I’ve been frantic,” said Cash sincerely. He was aware that she still held his family. “With everything else that’s been going, you’ve got to appreciate
—”

“I’m sorry. Of course I understand,” she said. “It’s just that this is a very special moment that we Nobles share.”

“Forgive me, I’ve not been one very long.” Cash smiled, straining to make it look as real as possible.

“So where were we?
Oh, yes… normally we’d have this chat on your twenty-first birthday and to be honest, until a few days ago, I thought we’d never be having this chat,” she said.

Because your family was trying to kill me
, thought Cash, forcing another smile.

“Let me take you down to the archives, it’s easier there.”

Anya opened the library wall, pressed her ring into the steel door, and stood back to allow Cash to enter the elevator. “We’re going down to the history of the world, the world we created,” she said proudly.

They stepped into the archives and Anya began to talk, explaining each time period as they walked through the massive vault that stretched off into the distance. They walked back in time, as Antoine had done with his son Alex. However, Cash hadn’t had the upbringing the Nobles had had. They felt special, superior
, from birth. They looked down on the world. They lived in a world separated by wealth and power, removed from the reality of life, with no comprehension of what real life was all about. Where Alex Noble’s journey through the history of the family had been reaffirmed in his superiority, Cash was sickened by it to his core. The Nobles, throughout history, had intervened, incited, controlled, profited.

As they walked back into the birth of the religions, Cash listened
while Anya spoke, barely believing what he was hearing. His subconscious constantly reminded him that his family was still under her control, so he kept his thoughts to himself.

H
is subconscious was struggling to stop him from commenting after what Anya had just said.

“Our ancestors realized the power of belief and faith, the hope it gave the people and how it controlled the masses in a way that governments and rulers could
not. It transcended borders, oceans.”

“So they took control of religions?”

“Took control?” Anya chuckled. “We
created
them! The Vatican holds one of our largest property portfolios. Its wealth is unimaginable and all thanks to faith - work ethic, moral code, belief. They all helped us sculpt the planet.”

“Wars, unrest, millions upon millions of dead as a result of religious conflict?” countered Cash.

“How else could we manage to control the people, seven billion now? Just fifty years ago, it was half that. In 1 AD, it was around one hundred million. We needed a new world and we needed to control those we created to make it.”

“But who are you to say they should be controlled?”

“We,” corrected Anya, not understanding the despair in Cash’s comments.

“Wait a minute,
created
?” asked Cash, realizing what she had said.

“We’ll come to that,”
Anya said.

“No,” said Cash. “I think we should skip to that!”

“We can come back to the time the ancestors built the sites you were visiting.” Anya walked towards the tubes that Alex had been shown two weeks earlier.

Cash walked down
the length of them, barely able to hold his bottom jaw from hitting the floor.
Who are these people?
he asked himself.

Anya led him to the last two tubes. “The final candidates,” she said.

Cash looked at her. “What?”

“Neanderthal or Homo Sapiens. They could have played about with the Neanderthals a little more, made them more like us but they were too strong and far more intelligent than had been planned.”

“So what…?” asked Cash

“We took action. We culled them in favor of the Homo Sapiens, they were a much better fit. They were like us, but their brain function and traits restricted just enough for us to exert the control we needed.”

Cash rubbed at his face, his eyes, trying to understand whether what he was hearing was seriously what Anya was saying. “You
culled
the Neanderthals? What, just wiped them out? How?”

“The same toxin we used in Papua New Guinea
a few weeks ago. It alters the genetic code, the code that we designed.”

“Who are ‘we’?” asked Cash, beginning to lose it when she
casually admitted the genocide of almost half a million people.

Anya was unperturbed. She was confident that Cash would soon understand.
She opened the vault and led him into a corridor where papers lined the wall.

“In our ancestors’ own words,” she said.

Cash read the first paper:

Deep Space Mission  –  New Hope

Log entry 1

Mission Commander

It is with great sadness that I look back on the fading speck in the distance that we have called home since birth. We have said goodbye to parents and loved ones that many, or all of us, will never see again. Our only hope of seeing them again would be the failure of our mission, which would condemn our population to a certain death. Our planet is dying and with it our future.

“So the world is dying…but wait, you said ancestors, not family?” He stopped. “Oh my God,” said Cash. “We were able to do things in the past and lost…”

“Yes
, but the fuel was the problem. It ran out very quickly once they landed here and there was no way to remake it. The technology didn’t exist.”

“Wh
-what do you mean
landed
here?” asked Cash.

“It’s our world that’s dying, not this one,”
Anya said. “Our world, it’s our population that we have worked tirelessly to save.”

“The planet that’s dying isn’t
Earth?”

“No
, it’s our home,
our
world that’s dying.”

“This
is
our home,” said Cash.

“It will be very soon. The transports will start soon. Our population will be coming to their new home, their new world. The world that we, the Noble family, were sent out to make for them.”

“What about the people here?” asked Cash.

Anya ignored his question. “We were entrusted with a great honor. The King himself chose our family to protect the future of our population. We have eighty years to transfer them here. Our world will be unlivable by the next cycle.”

“In 2,160 years,” mumbled Cash.

“Yes,” she smiled.

“But what about the population here?” he asked again.

“They were only created by us to make this world livable for our people. Without us, they wouldn’t even have been here.”

“But they are here, living breathing, beautiful people like Sophie and Kyle.”

“Kyle is one of us,” she said. “He has Noble genes.”

“He’s only twenty-five percent Noble,” said Cash bitterly.

“It doesn’t matter,”
Anya said.

“If it doesn’t matter, why didn’t you want anything to do with me until now?”

“It was forbidden, but Blake made us aware of how the Noble gene overrides all others.”

“Blake, the old man who tried to kill his own family?”

“It’s in the archives,” she said. “It’s irrelevant, a hundred percent of me is in you.”

“And the other fifty percent of me is simple Homo Sapien, like my father, who was murdered.”

“He was a wonderful man,” Anya said.

“But was only here to save the population of a distant world that doesn’t need him anymore.”

Anya suddenly realized the time. “We need to go,” she said. “Wait here.”

She rushed to the end of the corridor and opened another vault door, returning shortly afterward with a large wheeled crate with a number of the coke bottle sized tubes.

“But what about the population here?” Cash asked yet again.

“We face a famine if we don’t take action,”
Anya said defensively.

Cash could see he was getting somewhere. Where there had been no doubt, some existed. He didn’t want to push it too far, too quickly.

“So when does it start?”

“In approximately twenty hours,” she said, rushing towards the door. “We have a long flight ahead of us.”

“We?’ said Cash.

“
All of us, Sophie and Kyle as well. You’re going to see the first transports lift off to our old world. And if we’re lucky, we may even, depending on the timing, welcome some transports to us.”

“So you’re sending empty spaceships out there?”

“Yes, we’ve got five here from when our ancestors first came. They can each carry thousands at a time.”

“Where are they?” asked Cash.

“You’ll see,” said Anya. “We’re going to see them rise back into the sky for the first time in a very long time.”

“How long?” asked Cash. He didn’t want to show interest. What they were doing was despicable
. He had just discovered that aliens were real, that he was half alien, and that the world was about to be invaded after being created by those same aliens thousands of years earlier.

Anya stopped rushing. “Let me think…the first mission was 200,000 years ago, then 70,000, 30,000, 10,000
, and the last mission, during the last cycle, about two thousand years ago.”

“200,000 years and you think it’ll still fly?” said Cash.

“Of course, it was probably five times older than that when it left,” she said without a hint of sarcasm.

“How old are your people?” asked Cash, taking the crate from her and trying not to look at the archives as they rushed past them. How was he going to stop them? She had his family and they were about to be stuck on a flight for countless hours. He had to hope that Rigs was
okay and had reached Travis Davies. He was their only hope. Cash was helpless while she had his family. Life had been far easier when he had only himself to worry about.
And Rigs
, he thought, although he could look after himself.