Iris Johansen - Eight Days To Live

Jane frowned, puzzled. “You’re talking about the tablet?”

“No.” She set the weapon on a chair by the door. “The tablet is valuable. It’s not priceless.” She moved toward her easy chair, sat down, and flipped open the computer. “And these fanatics are already destroying each other. They’ve been killing for centuries.” She glanced up at them. “Adah Ziller became very precise, very explicit in the last section of this ledger. It wasn’t disjointed or vague like the rest of the book. I think perhaps she may have known what thin ice she was skating and instinctively wanted to make sure someone would know what had happened if she didn’t survive.”

“How explicit?” Jane asked.

Lina smiled without mirth. “She talked about the Offering. Evidently, that’s the height of betrayal. It’s strictly forbidden to speak of it. Do you want to know what it is?”

A small boy screaming as the knife descended .

“Human sacrifice,” Jane said.

“You knew?” Lina asked.

She moistened her lips. “Offering. The word is close enough in meaning.”

“Not to human sacrifice.” Caleb was gazing at Jane searchingly. “But you jumped at it.” His glance shifted to Lina. “A cult of some sort?”

“A religion.” Lina looked down at her computer screen. “They would be insulted to be called a cult. Though that’s exactly what they are. It’s very old and as powerful in its way as the Catholic Church. Not as well-known, of course. Particularly since they advocate sacrifice and have no problem with murder. It wouldn’t do to let outsiders know they exist. The faith has been passed down through the centuries from father to son and has members all over the world. No new members are accepted unless they’re connected by blood to a member. They regard themselves as the only true religion.”

“A religion that makes human sacrifices,” Jane said dryly.

“Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son,” Lina said. “The Aztecs and Mayans used sacrifices as a regular course.” She held up her hand. “I’m only saying that it’s not that unusual except in present day.”

“This is present day. And killing children isn’t-”

“Children? I didn’t mention children,” Lina said, puzzled. “According to Adah, they rarely sacrifice children these days. They used to do it in early days because they were more easily obtained. Parents were pressured to offer their children to gain status and secure their place in paradise. Adah said sacrifices were chosen from lists of candidates submitted by members.”

“Candidates?” Caleb asked.

“In the present day there’s only one offering every year, and members of the faith were urged to submit a name of a person whom they wished sacrificed. It was a mark of respect if their submission was chosen for the kill.”

“Who did they submit?”

“An enemy, a business rival, a member of the family,” Lina said. “The family member was considered the purest of all the sacrifices. It gave instant status.” She paused. “Millet submitted his mother as a candidate. Her death won him a position as Guardian of the Offering.”

Shock upon shock. A man so callous he would put his mother on that altar and take her life. “Exactly what is a Guardian?”

“He heads up a sort of guard of honor at the Offerings. He’s custodian of holy artifacts and presides at the sacrifices.” Lina’s lips twisted. “Adah admired his strength of will as well as his sexual techniques. She envied his star status in the Offerings. In short, he was her kind of man.”

“You mean she watched him kill and got off on it.”

“Power,” Lina said. “Yes, but she might have been content to obey the rules if Roland hadn’t offered her a new and golden ladder to climb.”

“You said she met him at one of these Offerings? He’s a member?”

“Oh, yes. Or he would have ended up as a sacrifice if he’d shown up there. The ceremony and religion itself are top secret.”

“And I was supposed to be scheduled to be a sacrifice at this Offering?” Jane asked.

“I don’t know,” Lina said. “Adah didn’t mention you. She was very self-absorbed and evidently you didn’t enter into any of her plans.”

“I can’t think of any other reason why Millet would want to wait until April 1 to kill me.”

“April 1?” Lina nodded. “Then you’re probably right. April 1 is the traditional day of the Offering.”

“And what is this Hadar’s Tablet? You said it was one of the holy artifacts that Millet protected?”

“Yes, Hadar was the founder of the cult. He was a scribe and an artist. The tablet supposedly describes his journey from Jerusalem and his philosophies. He’s looked upon as a great prophet.”

“ ‘Supposedly’? Don’t they know what’s in the tablet?”

She shook her head. “There are rumors about it that have been handed down over the centuries, but Hadar commanded that no one open the gold box where he’d placed the tablet. It was forbidden to see the light of day after his death. It was placed in a special cabinet of honor near the altar in the Offering room.”

Caleb gave a low whistle. “Then Millet’s letting the tablet be stolen would have been regarded as a mega sin by the members.”

“And so would Alan Roland’s involvement. Adah had them both by the throat.”

“According to Weismann, Millet thought I was guilty of blasphemy. It must have been against their great holy man.” Jane looked at Caleb. “That’s crazy. I tell you, any resemblance of anyone to my painting was purely coincidental.”

“Blasphemy?” Lina repeated. She was silent a moment, then said thoughtfully, “I don’t think that your crime was against Hadar.”

“Who else? You said he was the founder of their blasted religion. And you said his tablet was priceless.”

“No, I didn’t say the tablet is priceless. I only told you that Hadar’s Tablet is valuable and held in reverence by the members of this cult.”

Caleb shook his head. “You referred to a priceless artifact.”

“I wasn’t talking about the tablet.”

“Then what were you talking about?” Jane asked impatiently.

“I’m speaking about the rumors that have been handed down through the centuries about what was in Hadar’s tablet. He was supposed to have knowledge about a very special treasure.”

“What treasure?”

“A handful of ancient coins.”

Jane stiffened, her gaze narrowed on Lina’s face. “Go on.”

“You didn’t ask me to what deity they make their sacrifices,” Lina said. “Aren’t you curious?”

“Satan?”

“No.”

“Tell me, dammit.”

“Their religion is dedicated to the glorification and redemption of the man who they say sits at God’s side, who is beloved by all the angels of heaven.”

Jane looked at her in bewilderment. “Jesus?”

Lina shook her head. “No,” she said quietly. “Judas Iscariot.”

“JUDAS,” JANE whispered. “Incredible.”

Or perhaps it wasn’t, she thought. Why was she surprised that a religion that lauded death and murder would also worship the most treacherous betrayer the world had ever known.

“I thought you would be surprised,” Lina said. “Of course, I was not raised in your religion, but I know what Judas stands for in your culture.”

“Judas is almost a universal symbol,” Caleb said. “But Lucifer would have been my guess. A religion that worships power would more likely choose the devil than a mere traitor.”

“Not according to Hadar. Judas was not a traitor, he was a martyr.”

Jane made an impatient gesture. “Whatever. At the moment, I don’t care why he was elected to sainthood by those monsters. I need to know why Millet wants to kill me and how I can stop him.”