Charles Brokaw - The Lucifer Code

‘Have you eaten, Professor Lourds?’ Joachim asked politely.

‘Not since breakfast with your sister,’ Lourds answered. ‘I had planned to take her to dinner before we were interrupted at the university.’ He put his backpack on the floor next to one of the chairs at the conference table.

‘The gunmen,’ Joachim said.

‘That would be the reason.’ Lourds sat at the table and took out the book from his backpack.

Joachim sat across from Lourds. ‘Olympia said you had no idea who the men were.’

Lourds shook his head. ‘No.’

‘Nor for whom they might be working?’

‘They were Americans. Is there any reason why the American government would be interested in this manuscript?’

‘If they knew what it represented, perhaps. If someone there ascribed to the same beliefs you and Olympia have.’ When no further explanation was forthcoming, Lourds said, ‘Because the fate of the world depends on what’s in these pages.’ He raked the ball of his thumb along the book’s pages.

Olympia sat across the table next to her brother. She frowned a little. ‘Thomas is having a little trouble believing that.’

Cleena sat with a chair between herself and Lourds. She sipped from a bottle of water, remaining quiet and watchful.

Joachim rubbed his hands together, and for the first time Lourds realized how heavily calloused they were. ‘Let me assure you, Professor, you don’t need to be a believer to help us. If you can translate that manuscript that’s all the assistance we need.’

‘You expect this to tell you where the Joy Scroll is?’

‘It will.’ Joachim’s voice carried conviction. ‘You will see.’ He took a minute to ask one of the men to prepare a meal, then turned back to Lourds. ‘We can’t very well work on empty stomachs.’

Within minutes, the smell of spices and cooking lamb filled the rooms. Lourds’ stomach growled in anticipation. He nursed a cold beer as the conversation continued.

Joachim was attentive, like a student preparing for a final.

‘You can’t read this?’ Lourds asked.

‘No,’ Joachim answered.

‘Can any of your people decipher it?’

Polite impatience flickered across Joachim’s face. ‘I assure you, if anyone among us could read that book, Olympia would not have involved you in this matter.’

‘How long has the knowledge in the book been lost?’

‘Since the time of Constantine.’

‘How did it become lost?’

‘You’re familiar with the history of this city.’

Lourds nodded.

‘In addition to the wars that have been fought over and throughout Istanbul, there have also been many natural disasters. Earthquakes. Fires. Even the passage of time has served to hide the scroll as the city fell and was raised up again and again by succeeding generations.’

‘If the scroll was written on Patmos-’

‘It was. Our histories are very clear about that.’

‘Then how did the scroll come to be here?’

‘During Constantine’s reign, he sent out many search parties to locate and take into custody relics of Jesus Christ’s life as well as early Christianity. As you know, the Roman Empire tried to suppress our religion during its infancy. They failed, but many precious things were scattered or destroyed or lost to us.’

‘Those were turbulent times,’ Lourds agreed. ‘Emperor Constantine wanted to safeguard Christianity.’

‘One of the people searching for Christian artefacts was Helena, Constantine’s mother,’ Joachim said. ‘She also had a strong belief and a strong desire to protect holy things. During her travels, she discovered the Brotherhood of the Scroll and went to the island of Patmos to negotiate on behalf of her son. Constantine only wanted the documents protected.’

‘As strong as his rule looked, and as deeply entrenched as he was in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, it would’ve made sense.’ Lourds constructed a timeline on a page of his personal journal. ‘So the Joy Scroll remained on the Island of Patmos for almost four hundred years after it was authored.’

Joachim nodded.

Helena had been a powerful figure in Emperor Constantine I’s courts. Historians attributed the discovery of the relics of the True Cross to her and her efforts to find them. The Chapel of Saint Helen, constructed to identify the Burning Bush of Sinai, had been erected on her orders. During a dig under the temple to Venus built near Calvary over the site of Jesus Christ’s tomb, her people had found three crosses. One of them was supposed to be the cross Jesus was crucified on, while the others held the thieves. According to the stories, Helena had taken a diseased woman from Jerusalem to touch the crosses. Upon touching the third cross, the woman had recovered from her ailment. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre had been built on the site, and more churches on holy sites followed thereafter. Legend had it that Helena had discovered the nails from the cross as well. Back home, she had got a blacksmith to put one in Constantine’s helmet, and another in his horse’s bridle.

‘How did Helena persuade the Brotherhood to give up the scroll?’ Lourds asked.

‘Her presence there told them the scroll was no longer safe. In those days, the Brotherhood was trained only in the ways of peace. If they had tried to defend the scroll, they would have died.’

Lourds glanced at Joachim’s calloused hands. ‘Now the Brotherhood is different?’

Sadness flickered across the other man’s face. ‘Over the years, the Brotherhood has become forced to become more than it was ever intended to be. We hang onto our peaceful nature, but we’re unafraid of violence.’

‘So you’re killers?’ Cleena asked. ‘That doesn’t make you sound much better than Qayin and his people.’

‘No!’ Joachim slapped the tabletop with his open palm hard enough to jar their drinks. ‘We do not kill. The Brotherhood has never taken a human life.’

Lourds noticed the modifier but decided not to ask.

‘If you don’t kill,’ Cleena pointed out, ‘it’s going to be hard to put up a fight.’

Joachim looked at her. ‘An incapacitated foe can’t fight any better than a dead one. We have trained ourselves to incapacitate those who threaten the scroll. We don’t have to kill to achieve our goals.’

‘Altruism aside,’ Cleena said, ‘not killing the people who are after us is going to put you at a decided disadvantage.’

‘Don’t you mean “put us”?’ Olympia asked.

‘No, I don’t.’ Cleena’s voice was perfectly neutral, but the threat was naked in her words.

Lourds sought safer conversational ground. ‘Helena convinced the Brotherhood to move the scroll?’

‘It looked like a win-win situation for the Brotherhood and Constantine,’ Olympia stated. ‘At the time of the scroll’s arrival, along with the Brotherhood, Constantine was building the Megale Ekklesia.’

‘What’s that?’ Cleena asked.

‘The literal translation is Great Church,’ Lourds answered. ‘Constantine started building it during the fourth century. He didn’t live long enough to see it completed.’

‘But he did live long enough to hide the scroll,’ Joachim said.

‘In the church?’ Distress filled Lourds. ‘The original church was destroyed a little over forty years later.’

‘Forty-four years. The church was built in 360 AD and destroyed in 404 AD.’

Lourds waved a hand in acknowledgement. If he had known where he was supposed to be looking, he would have known the dates too. Scholars didn’t have to know everything. All they had to know was where to find everything.

‘John Chrysostom was appointed archbishop of the Church of the Holy Wisdom, as the Great Church was named in those days by Constantine-’