Trifariam, The Lost Codex (2012) (44 page)

The assassin looked as if he knew nothing about the plan. He was just behind James, watching him without listening to the woman’s words. He even seemed surprised.

“You put it there?” he asked again.

“Yes,” she replied. “And it was much easier than we thought it would be. When you told me in Florence about how you had to solve the puzzle to get the book, I realized what a serious error we had made when making the chest, but thankfully it escaped you.”

“What?”

Mary smiled. She found it funny how the professor was suddenly displaying such ignorance. “The planetary puzzle that we designed along with the chest wouldn’t have fit with the era in which the events in the monastery occurred. It was a heliocentric system, all the planets orbiting the sun. You should know that the first to study that theory was Nicolas Copernicus over half a century after the massacre. Plus, Copernicus only took into account the first six planets and the Moon, and not the eight planets in our design.” James shook his head with rage, he couldn’t believe he had missed all this. “When you went to visit Michelangelo’s David, we planted a fake group of tourists in the museum. When you were relatively close and you could hear the conversation perfectly well, the guide told a couple of fictitious stories which burned into your brain. It was only a matter of time before you found the symbols in the house and tied up all the loose ends.”

“But… those two tried to kill us right there and in the station.”

Mary smiled, although James’ battered face didn’t even twitch. “Their role was only to terrify us, make us believe they were going to kill us and eventually let us escape thinking we had achieved some impossible miracle. The human brain works better when it is in danger, you should know that by now. To be honest with you, they did know there was an impostor in the group but they didn’t know who it was, so we used a password to identify each other when needed: MAJORITY.”

“You’ve used us all this time!”

“Your role was actually just to find us a good paleographer who could understand the text, then we would kill you. But you really surprised us when you worked out the precise location of the church and the puzzle on the dollar bill, so we decided to keep you on the search until the very end, keeping us on edge. I have to admit that it was the right decision, judging by how you solved the rest of the riddles.”

James let his mind wander for a few seconds, taking himself away from what was happening on top of the Pyramid of the Moon. He had not trusted his friend and he had put them in a very dangerous position, handing them over to the enemy. Hundreds of questions ran through his mind. Who was the group that was after them? Why were they chasing them? What happened to Richard? Had they killed him? And most important of all… if Richard hadn’t been part of all this… who the hell had he been talking to the other day and what was the meaning of the e-mails he had received in his inbox?

“W
hat have you done with Richard?”

James was desperate.

Mary looked at the assassin who was still standing behind the professor.

“We haven’t been able to dispose of him. When you left the Pyramid of the Sun, a military group went inside the monument and removed his body. He’s still unconscious.”

James took a deep breath, relieved yet still completely overwrought. At least Richard was still alive.

Mary started to speak again. “A few days ago, when I was talking to my father, I didn’t take the appropriate precautions. Richard was making his way to his room at the time and when he heard my voice, which was louder than normal, he must have thought we were arguing. He hovered in the corridor for a few minutes trying to hear something, until I ended the conversation and left the room. I found him just in front of the door. His face was white, like when you catch a child doing something they shouldn’t. He kept his distance for the next few days and tried not to say anything in my presence - he distrusted me.”

“From what I can tell, he was right,” said James.

“Well, of course! It was me who constantly kept them updated of our whereabouts - I even had to dream up some way of making you think that they were following us through global positioning transmitters. I was surprised, however, when you heard Richard speaking to somebody else. They were telling him to be wary of me! Obviously he suspected something. But the situation planted a bigger seed of doubt: Maybe Richard was working with somebody? And if he was, who? The first thing we did was to discredit him in your eyes; we needed you on our side.”

James was again starting to feel nauseous and like he wanted to vomit. They had used him terribly and he hadn’t even realized. To make matters worse, the venom was doing its job and he could barely feel his right arm, which had blackened completely. “Who was he working for?” he asked louder.

“The world is a small place,” laughed the woman. “Thanks to you, we accessed his personal computer and discovered his e-mail address. Our computer experts were able to hack it without any kind of problems, discovering two emails. Richard was working for the Pentagon.”

Suddenly James’ legs began to shake and he whispered a string of obscenities under his breath. She had fucked him over even more than he thought. He wanted them to kill him right there and then so as to put an end to his suffering. At least that way he would get out of the civil responsibilities involved in handing over such an important object to a dangerous organization. “But… in the e-mail, Richard was urging the assassins to kill us.”

He started to regret saying that sentence before he had even finished. He knew the answer.

“The e-mails were false, we created them. When we gained complete access to his inbox, it was easy to send several e-mails from his account to ours. After we’d shown them to you, we deleted them so Richard wouldn’t suspect a thing.”

“But who the hell are you? What do you want?” James no longer feared for his life. “Kill me once and for all, you bastards!”

This time the assassin took offense to the professor’s arrogance and kicked him again in the same knee. It twisted sharply and there was a crack similar to the snapping of a ligament as he fell to the ground. The pain was excruciating.

Mary tried to continue with her explanation between his moans. “Our order has been pursuing the
Trifariam
for many years.” Mary looked up expecting to see a look of fascination on James’ face, but he just flashed her look of anger which revealed a psychological rather than physical pain. “Five hundred years ago, somebody came very close to doing it, but some idiot ended the Grand Master’s life. He was punished as an example to the others, thank God. ‘Mistakes are not permissible and will be severely punished’ is one of our mottos.”

“Who are you?”

At last there was a flash of indecision deep inside the penetrating and unsettling stare of the woman. Since she was a girl, she had been brought up to follow the values of the order and now she could identify with them fully, more than ever before. She wanted to share her thoughts with him, tell him how proud she was to belong to such an ancestral and marvelous clan, as well as her magnificent contributions and the important role she had played. However, she controlled her urges at the last minute and just talked about the
Trifariam
. At the end of the day, what difference would it make if he knew about its usefulness, seeing as he wasn’t going to make it off the summit alive?

“The
Trifariam
is an enormous source of power. Whoever has it in their possession will have available a generator which supplies unlimited energy, powerful enough to provide for all the cities in the world for hundreds of years. Until today, energy multinationals across the world have made profits from people’s naivety. People have become used to living with energy and they can no longer do without it, even though they know that the price they pay is much more than the cost of production.”

James was starting to pay a little more attention. He seemed to understand her. “You intend to produce vast quantities of energy?”

Mary smiled. “According to our ancestors, the
Trifariam
holds the key to a technology which is incredibly advanced for our age, and even for the next thousand years.” This time James did seem astonished by what the woman had to say. “We believe that our engineers can channel the energy that it produces, store it and distribute it for a ridiculous cost, making us the main provider worldwide. Think about oil companies. They sell oil at an exorbitant price, taking refuge in their claims that there is a world shortage of crude oil, when that is completely untrue. They are going to get what they deserve,” she said.

“You’re also going to deceive people. You have no idea how to produce energy, or how to store it. What will you do when the
Trifariam
stops working? People will have to go back to fossil fuels!”

His words did not seem to please Mary at all. “From our calculations, we have a hundred years to study it and completely understand how it works. In fact, we think that in a few years we will be able to create our own replicas.”

“You’re lying!” he cried in a show of bravery. “According to the texts translated by Richard, the
Trifariam
was created to save the world from a catastrophe that would wipe out practically all forms of life on the planet. It is a powerful weapon that you will use for your own benefit.”

Just then a gentle breeze ruffled Mary’s shiny locks while she slowly walked over to James’ dying body. “To be honest,” she said, unable to believe what she was about to reveal, “that was the plan of our ancestors. It certainly could be used as a powerful weapon which would destroy any living thing that got in our way, but that isn’t what we want right now. We want to rule the world, but a free world, or one which appears to be free. A world where our order occupies the echelons of power that are rightfully ours. But that’s enough nonsense - I can’t waste more time on you.”

Although he knew what was coming, he didn’t feel afraid. He knew that he would die in a few seconds, but a question had been going round in his head for the last few minutes. Before Mary could give the order, he asked it. “Who are you?”

Mary frowned, caught by surprise. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve often mentioned that you belong to an order. Which one is it? I have a right to know before I die.”

Mary looked at him dubiously. She licked her lips, giving the impression that she was going to answer him, but at the last minute her eyes met those of the assassin who was carefully surveying the scene. “That won’t matter where you’re going. I’m sorry. You were a good man.”

The woman spun round, picked up her backpack and after putting it on her shoulders she went to the steps which led down the southern face of the pyramid. James knew that the moment was coming and fast. The assassin tightened his huge arms around his neck once more, and James didn’t even try to stop him. He would die, but he wouldn’t give him the pleasure of his agony. His eyes began to slowly close; the light was fading away. Death was finally waiting for him.

S
uddenly, the wind picked up until it became a kind of gale. The assassin could feel with his own hands how his life was ebbing away little by little, but something was worrying him. While he finished off strangling his prey, he kept his eyes on the sky with a strange and worried expression. It was practically clear, the clouds just visible in the distance. Such a strong wind wasn’t normal.

Meanwhile, Mary was trying to get to the steps which took tourists to the foot of the pyramid, but her attempts were in vain. The gusts of wind were so violent that it was impossible for her to go any further; for every step she took, she wobbled in the air and took another back. In fact, the current of air which was blowing against James’ face combined with the difficulty the assassin had in ending his life, gave him a slight energy boost which prolonged his agony.

The loud noise they could hear above their heads made them both look up at the sky. The lack of oxygen meant that James hadn’t even heard it.

A helicopter came out of nowhere and quickly descended onto the top of the pyramid. It was a UH-60 Black Hawk, similar to the one used by the United States Army, over sixty-five feet long and sixteen feet high. It touched down on the summit with unimaginable grace for such a model, given that one of its weak points was that its landing gear hadn’t been built for emergency landings.

The wind made by the four-blade rotor was so intense that the assassin had to let go of James’ neck to be able to remain standing up.

“Let’s go! Run!” shouted the pilot inside the craft as he gestured wildly with his hands. “An AH-64 Apache is after us!”

The engine produced such a din that Mary had to read his lips to understand what he said. However, when he removed his headphones and his face was uncovered, Mary saw an expression of tremendous worry which she would come to understand later.

James, who was lying dying on the ground, looked up at the magnificent helicopter just in front of him. His eyes looked over the entire fuselage, over to the two well-built men who were at the controls. He continued to squint at the helicopter until something made his heart stop. His eyes were calm, still, looking at the two small side wings from which hung four powerful machine guns which were pointing right at his head. They were M134 Miniguns, capable of firing thousands of bullets every minute. One shot would be enough to rip his body to shreds.

“Kill him now!” yelled Mary as she made her way to the back of the helicopter. Her right arm was in the air, shielding her eyes with the palm of her hand so that she would not be blinded by the wind.

The assassin quickly took out the pistol from his waist. With one swift movement, he loaded it and aimed it directly at his head. James didn’t even want to look him in the eyes. He was face down and just when the assassin was ready to take his life, a hail of bullets hit the summit of the pyramid, forming a straight line which sped towards the assassin until two of them violently collided with his body; one went through his right arm and the other his left thigh, in both cases leaving a clean wound. Mary had thrown herself onto the ground, praying that none would hit her.