Glenn Cooper - Library of the Dead

Nancy came into his office and saw him frozen like marble at his screen.

She drew close until he could feel her breath against his neck. "What's wrong?"

"I know him."

"What do you mean, you know him?"

"It's my college roommate." The image of the scripts on Shackleton's neat white desk rushed back in, his insistent words, I don't think you're going to catch the guy, his palpable unease at his spontaneous visit and-one more detail! "The fucking pens."

"Sorry?"

Will was shaking his head in lamentation. "He had black ultrafine Pentels on his desk. It was all there."

"How can it be your roommate? This doesn't make any sense, Will!"

"Jesus," he moaned. "I think Doomsday was aimed at me."

Will's fingers danced over his keyboard as he feverishly hopped from one federal and state database to another. As he hunted, he repeatedly thought, Who are you, Mark? Who are you really?

Information started hitting his screen-Shackleton's DOB, his social, some old parking tickets in California-but there were maddening gaps and shrouds of obscurity. His photo was blacked-out on his Nevada driver's license record, there weren't any credit reports, mortgages, educational or employment records. There were no criminal or civil proceedings. No property tax records. He wasn't in the IRS database!

"He's completely off the fucking grid," Will told Nancy. "Protected species. I've seen this once or twice but it's rare as hell."

"What's our move?" she asked.

"We're getting on a plane this afternoon." She'd never heard him sound as agitated. "We're going to make this bust ourselves. Go start the paperwork with Sue, right away. We'll need a federal arrest warrant from the U.S. Attorney in Nevada."

She brushed her fingers against the back fringe of his hair. "I'll make the arrangements."

A couple of hours later a car was waiting to take them to the airport. Will finished packing his briefcase. He checked his watch and wondered why Nancy was late. Even under his subversive watch, she had retained the virtue of punctuality.

Then he heard those clicking high-heeled steps of Sue Sanchez approaching fast and his stomach tightened in a Pavlovian way.

He looked up and saw her taut, strained face at his door, her eyes off-the-chart wild. She had something to say but the words weren't coming out fast enough for him.

"Susan. What? I've got a plane to catch."

"No you don't."

"Sorry?"

"Benjamin just got a call from Washington. You're off the case. Lipinski too."

"What!"

"Permanently. Permanently off." She was almost hyper-ventilating.

"And why the fuck is that, Susan?"

"I have no idea." He could see she was telling the truth. She was borderline hysterical, fighting to stay professional.

"What about the arrest?"

"I don't know anything and Ronald told me not to ask any questions. This is way above my pay grade. Something huge is going on."

"This is bullshit. We've got the killer!"

"I don't know what to say."

"Where's Nancy?"

"I sent her home. They don't want you two partnering up anymore."

"And why is that?"

"I don't know, Will! Orders!"

"And what am I supposed to do now?"

She was mournfully apologetic, the official face of something she didn't understand.

"Nothing. They want you to stand down and do nothing. As far as you're concerned, it's over."

W hen the baby was born, Mary refused to name it. She did not feel it was hers. Octavus had crudely placed it inside her and she could only watch her body grow heavy as its time neared and endure the pain of its birth just as she had endured the act of its procreation.

She suckled it because her breasts were full and she was required to do so, but would not look at its indifferent lips as it fed nor stroke its hair the way most mothers did when an infant was sucking at her teat.

After her violation, she was moved from the Sister's Dormitory to the Hospicium. There, she was segregated from the prying eyes and gossip of the novices and sisters and would gestate in the relative anonymity of the guesthouse, where visitors to the abbey were unaware of her shame. She was well-fed and permitted to take walks and work in a vegetable garden until the fullness of her term made her waddle and puff. However, all who knew her were saddened by the change in her disposition, the loss of her sparkle and humor, the dullness that prevailed. Even Prioress Magdalena secretly lamented the alterations to her temperament and the loss of youthful color from her formerly ruddy cheeks. The lass could never be admitted to the order now. How could she? Nor could she return to her village on the far side of the island-her kin would have nothing to do with her, a debased woman. She was in limbo, like an unbaptized child, neither evil nor graced.

When the baby was born and they all saw its bright ginger hair, its milky skin, and its apathetic countenance, the abbot and Paulinus deduced that Mary was a vessel, perhaps a divine one, who was owed nurturing and protection in much the same way the way the child had to be nurtured and protected.

This was no virgin birth, but the mother's name was Mary and the child was special.

A week after the baby was born, Magdalena visited Mary and found her lying in bed, staring vacantly into the air. The baby was still, in its cradle on the floor.

"Well, have you a name for him yet?" the prioress asked.

"No, Sister."

"Do you intend to name the child?"

"I do not know," she answered listlessly.

"Every child must have a name," Magdalena declared sternly. "I shall name it then. He will be Primus, the first child of Octavus."

Primus was now in his fourth year. Lost in his own world, he wandered the Hospicium and its environs, pale as cream, never straying far, never interested in objects or people. Like Octavus, he was mute and expressionless, with small green eyes. Every so often Paulinus would come, take him by the hand and lead him to the Scriptorium, where they would descend the stairs to his father's chamber. Paulinus would watch them as he might study heavenly bodies, looking for signs, but they were indifferent to one another. Octavus would continue to furiously write, the boy would move dreamily around the room, not bumping into anything but not seeing either. The quills did not interest him, nor the ink, the parchment, and the scribbles that emanated from Octavus's hand.

Paulinus would report back to Josephus, "The boy has shown no inclinations," and the two old men would shrug at each other and shuffle off for prayer.

It was a crisp autumn afternoon with a snap to the air. The waning sun was the color of marigold petals. Josephus was gingerly walking the abbey grounds, deep in meditation, silently praying for God's love and salvation.

Salvation was much on his mind. For weeks he had noticed that his urine first turned brown and now cherry red and his hearty appetite had vanished. His skin was becoming slack and tawny and the whites of his eyes were muddy. When he rose from kneeling prayer he felt like he was floating on waves and had to hold on for balance. He did not need to consult with the barber surgeon nor Paulinus. He knew he was dying.

Oswyn never saw the completion of the abbey reconstruction, nor would he, he reckoned, but the church, the Scriptorium, and the Chapter House were done and work was progressing on the dormitories. But more important, Octavus's library was on his mind. He could never truly fathom its purpose and he'd stopped trying to make sense of it. He simply knew these things:

It existed.

It was divine.

One day Christ would reveal its purpose.

It must be protected.

It must be allowed to grow.

Yet, as he watched the blood drain slowly from him with every passage of his water, he feared for the mission. Who would guard and defend his library when he was gone?