Charles Brokaw - The Lucifer Code

‘Not like this one.’ Cleena described the book and what Lourds had explained about the Greek language code.

Sevki folded his hands together and cracked his knuckles. ‘Ah, now that is something I can work with.’

Cleena took his empty soup bowl and put it with hers. She returned to the kitchen and placed them in the sink.

‘I’ve got to get going,’ she said.

‘Why?’

‘I’ve got to catch up with Lourds. I’ve already stayed here longer than I should have.’

Sevki shrugged. ‘At the moment, Lourds is not going anywhere. The police have him.’

‘They could let him go at any time.’

‘They don’t appear to be in any hurry to do that.’ Sevki performed a short rhythm of keystrokes. A moment later, two screens changed images and showed a picture of Lourds seated inside a sterile room and another scene of a hallway.

‘Is this coming from inside the police station?’ Cleena whispered.

‘Of course.’ Sevki grinned. ‘I am very good at what I do. I am not the only one who does this, but I am one of the few who hasn’t been caught spying on the police. This is very expensive. Very expensive. But I pass those expenses on to others. And I find it good to know things the police don’t know I know.’

‘They haven’t found you out?’

Sevki shrugged. ‘Every now and again, yes. But I cover my tracks most carefully. When I get discovered, I wait a few months, then I hack into their systems again. They are not as impregnable as the police would have you think. For now, I am undiscovered once again. The addition Cisco Systems made of the Mobile Electronic Systems Integration has tied together a lot of information from all over the city. The infrastructure is complicated, but I like a challenge.’

‘This is pretty unbelievable.’

‘Not so much. I am webmaster of some of the porn sites here in Istanbul.’ Sevki smiled. ‘I make sure some of the police get free pass codes to the sites. When they log on at work, I creep in. It’s a very good system.’ He paused. ‘I often get a look inside government buildings that way as well. But you have to be very good at this.’

Cleena stared at Lourds. His head lay on his crossed arms on the table and he looked like he was asleep. Despite the time that had passed, she felt she had fared better. At least she’d had a change of clothes.

‘Do you know what I think you should do?’ Sevki asked.

‘What?’

‘You should rest. I can keep watch over your Professor Lourds.’

‘He’s not my-’

Sevki held his hands up defensively. ‘I will watch him. You should try to get some sleep. Hanging around the police station will only get you spotted by the police or someone else watching the professor.’

Cleena thought about it. What he said made sense.

‘All right,’ she acquiesced. ‘But only if I can borrow your shower first.’

Istanbul Emniyet Mudurlugu

Vatan Cad./Fatih

Istanbul, Turkey

17 March 2010

Someone gently shook Lourds by the shoulder. With great regret, he climbed out of the dream he was having of the young skin diver who had shown him the reefs around Haiti. Her skin had been the colour of warm chocolate and her kisses as sweet as-

‘Professor Lourds,’ a stern voice called.

This time the shake was not so gentle. Irritated as well as tired, Lourds swung an elbow to bat the offending hand back. Someone caught his elbow and pushed it back down to his side.

‘Are you awake, Professor Lourds?’

Reluctantly, Lourds raised his head from the table and rubbed at his eyes. ‘I am now. How awake remains to be seen.’

‘It’s all right. We’re almost finished here.’

Lourds smiled a little. ‘I can’t say that I haven’t been waiting for you to tell me that.’

Ersoz returned the smile as he took a seat across the conference table from Lourds. He emptied packets of sugar into the thick Turkish coffee he’d brought in with him. The strong aroma of the brew tantalized Lourds’ and made his stomach growl.

‘There is still coffee if you’d like,’ the detective offered.

‘No, thank you. When I leave this place, I’m going to the hotel…’ Lourds looked at Ersoz. ‘I am going to the hotel, right?’

‘You are.’

‘Thank God.’ Lourds ran a hand through his hair. ‘When I get there, I’m going to sleep for a week.’ He stretched in the chair.

‘We went to the catacombs where you said you had your confrontation with Qayin and his men.’

Lourds nodded. He’d provided a close approximation of where he and Cleena had come up on street level. His memory gave him the twists and turns they’d taken.

‘We didn’t find any corpses,’ Ersoz said.

‘I’m certain she killed them. At least some of them. Although I’ve never wanted to be, I’ve been involved in enough of these things to know when someone is dead.’

‘I understand this. I was surprised to discover how factual your Atlantis book was.’

There was a lot left out of that, too, Lourds couldn’t help thinking. Not every part of that story had been something he could tell. The Catholic Church took care of their own, and the hidden book of the first flood had been locked away, physically by them and for ever in Lourds’ memory. But there had been a lot of death and killing along the way.

‘Are you certain you found the right place?’ Lourds asked.

‘We did find the area where you said the encounter took place,’ the detective went on. ‘There was a lot of blood. The crime scene people say it is human blood. And some tissue, also human, has been recovered. All of it is fresh.’

‘But no bodies?’

‘None.’

‘Then they took them with them,’ Lourds said. ‘That’s easy to explain.’

‘Is it?’ Ersoz leaned back in his chair.

During several hours of questioning by the Ersoz and his partner, Lourds had learned that Ersoz was intelligent and good at his job.

‘Do you know of another way six or seven dead men could have gone missing?’ Lourds asked. ‘Outside of a stage magician’s routine?’

‘No. Of course not.’

‘Then they carried them away.’

Ersoz nodded. ‘The crime scene techs assured me they found much evidence of this. Footprints in the blood. Drag marks. Many things.’

‘Then what is the problem?’

‘My superior is very uncomfortable with the idea of a group of people that would go to such lengths to keep from being identified.’

‘Me, too,’ Lourds confessed. ‘And let me assure you – and your superior – that it’s even more uncomfortable knowing that group of people is looking for me.’

‘I imagine it would be.’ Ersoz paused. ‘Even more mysterious, we’ve not been able to identify the two men found in the wreckage of the vehicle you were transported in.’

‘In a city this size, you’d have to expect that,’ Lourds said.

‘But the kind of men who kidnap people off the street in broad daylight? Who kill other people with no compunction?’ Ersoz shook his head. ‘No, those kinds of men aren’t often without records of some kind, not even in Istanbul.’

A tingle of dread shot through Lourds as he contemplated that.

‘Have you given any thought to leaving Istanbul, Professor?’ Ersoz asked.

‘I have.’ The only problem was the manuscript. If he left, maybe he couldn’t take it with him.

‘And will you?’

Lourds hesitated. ‘I don’t think so.’

‘Why?’

‘I don’t understand.’ But Lourds was afraid he was starting to.

‘A rational man,’ Ersoz explained patiently, as if to a child, ‘would already be throwing himself at the mercy of his embassy to get out of this country after such an ordeal. At the very least he would seek asylum there. Yet, you have done neither of these things.’