An Aegean Prophecy (30 page)

Andreas had never heard such passionate anger from Maggie. He was stunned into silence.

‘Andreas, did you hear me?’

He nodded into the phone. ‘How can I threaten her like that?’

‘You’re right. You can’t. I’ll do it for you.’

‘Maggie—’

‘Don’t worry, I’ve done it before. Besides, it will be better coming from me - up close and personal.’

Consciously, Andreas knew he should object, say no, not under any circumstances, but his gut said say nothing, let her do it her way, she knows best. He struggled with what to say next. ‘I can’t tell you how much better you’ve made me feel. Thanks.’

‘You’re welcome. That’s what friends are for. I’ll get to her as soon as she returns to Athens.’

Andreas drew in and let out a deep breath. ‘I better head home.’ He looked at his watch. ‘And let you get to church.’

‘Don’t worry about church. Helping friends in need is the true work of God.’

‘You’re an amazing person, literally godliness on earth.’

‘Let’s not get carried away here, but thank you.’

‘Do you mind if I ask?’

‘Ask what?’

‘What ever happened to the one who … uh—’

‘He didn’t take my advice.’ Maggie’s tone was hard, the words said quickly.

‘And?’

‘He died. Suddenly, unexpectedly. As the random victim of a street mugging turned violent.
Kalo Paska,
bye.’

The phone went dead before Andreas could speak. Perhaps because there was nothing left to say.

The service was about to begin. For him, it was the holiest moment of the year, a time for personal rejoicing, embracing the very source of his faith. He needed the energy, the renewing power of this night, for difficult times were at hand. He prayed it was not
the time
; that his old friend was
wrong. But he feared the worst. That was why he’d made the decision, the practical one now tormenting him. He saw it as the only path, but would God accept that what must be done in His name on earth could not always be as it is in Heaven? He only prayed no more innocents died at the hands of the evil one in their midst. He shut his eyes and bowed his head. ‘May you strike me down this very night if I have made a dreadful mistake in your name.’

It was as genuine a prayer as the Protos ever uttered.

The e-mail hit Yakov’s computer screen just as he was about to leave for home. His wife would give him holy hell if they were late for midnight services. But the message was from his ex-director back in the days when Yakov was new to the foreign intelligence game. Anatoly had plucked him from the crowd and made him chief espionage analyst for southern Europe and the Balkans, better known then as Section V. He at least must take a quick look at it, if only for old times’ sake.

Yakov began quickly scrolling through the message. The pace of his reading slowed, then slowed even more. He picked up the phone, pressed a speed dial button, and waited until the man now in charge of his old Section V duties in Russia’s new foreign intelligence service answered. ‘Artur, come to my office immediately.’

Yakov was reading the attachments when a man entered his office. ‘What is it, Director?’

‘Artur, do you remember about a decade or so ago, the man we called “the Balkan Butcher”?’

‘How could I forget him. But didn’t he die?’

‘So we thought. I’m not sure anymore. This just came in.’ Yakov pointed to the screen. ‘Read it.’

Yakov kept talking as Artur read. ‘Even if this monk, Zacharias, is the Butcher, if all he’s doing is running around creating political angst for the Greek Church, I’m not sure his past matters anymore. After all, we do believe in redemption, do we not?’ He smiled.

Artur did not answer, just kept reading.

Yakov didn’t mind, he was used to asking rhetorical questions and never expected them to be answered. ‘As for the symbolism of the photographs, I think it’s an intriguing intellectual exercise, but I’m not sure of what interest it is to us. One could argue from the placement of the carpet and the superimposed face of Satan in the photograph that it was the Protos the murdered monk was linking to Satan. But let us assume this Zacharias is Satan’s beast or even Satan himself, as I said before, does it matter? Yes, undoubtedly, the Butcher in his day qualified as the devil incarnate, but that was a long time ago. Now he’s someone else’s problem, and I see no reason to make him ours. And so what if this Zacharias is behind all of the bad publicity coming out of Greece? Would it not be better for us to bribe those same journalists to write retractions than risk being exposed as the eliminator of the source?’

‘I’m not so sure about that, Director.’

An actual answer to one of his questions caught Yakov off guard. ‘“Not so sure” of what?’

Artur kept reading through the attachments as he spoke. ‘We’ve received reports of someone attempting to locate the source of the dioxin used on the Ukrainian. At first we thought it was a journalist trying to wring yet another story out of the incident. Maybe even Yushchenko himself trying to find some way to revive his political fortunes with more emotional tales from the past.

‘But then we learned that someone actually was trying to buy dioxin from that same source, and not just any dioxin, but the exact formulation found in Yushchenko. At that point we inserted our operatives into the transaction. We wanted to know who was so interested.’ Artur turned to face Yakov.

‘We do not know who the buyers are. There have been no face-to-face communications, but we do know two things. One,’ he raised his right hand and popped out his index finger. ‘The language used by the buyers was Serbian, and two,’ out came the middle finger. ‘Delivery is to take place in Greece. In Ouranoupolis.’

Yakov’s pulse was racing but his voice was flat. ‘The gateway to Mount Athos. This changes everything.’ He drummed his forehead with the fingers of his left hand. ‘Forget about looking for signs of the devil. This intrigue is a sign of the Butcher. Calculating, ruthless, deadly. Any idea of the target?’

Artur shook his head. ‘None.’

‘If Zacharias is the Butcher, whatever is planned will
strike directly at our heart. We cannot permit that. When is delivery to take place?’

‘There’s no exact time, a messenger with the package is to wait by a taverna in the port for contact to be made.’ He looked at his watch. ‘Between twelve and eighteen hours from now.’

Yakov picked up the phone and dialed his wife. He and a lot of other people would be missing church tonight.

It was almost midnight. Saint Dionysios on Skoufa Street in Kolinaki was packed. Andreas hadn’t been to this church before, or for that matter, to any church, in a very long time. He’d gone with Lila to a wedding in a small church on Stisichorou Street behind her apartment, and managed to miss a couple of baptisms there, but this was the first time he’d been to her parents’ church. They had insisted the ‘entire family’ be together tonight, and that included Andreas’ mother and his sister’s family.

Andreas wondered if they could tell if his sin showed. He was lucky they weren’t the kind to talk in church. He feared he might confess despite Maggie’s warning. He was holding Lila’s hand and looking at his mother sitting next to him on his left. She was beaming. He knew what she was thinking: my family, all together in church, and my son happy at last with the right woman, his … his friend. Yes, that was what she insisted on calling Lila. Andreas had told his mother she could call Lila his wife, that Lila wouldn’t mind. ‘But I would,’ was his mother’s response. Not until they were married in church would she call Lila her son’s wife, no matter how much she wished it were so.

Andreas felt Lila squeeze his hand and he turned to face her.

She was smiling at him and patting her belly. ‘Baby’s happy, too.’

If he confessed, he’d destroy the lives of the two people he loved most in the world. He could never do that. He’d have to live with what he’d done, accept it, and try to become better for it. He felt no guilt at his decision. Quite the contrary: for the first time in a very long time Andreas was at peace.

The chanting and prayer had hit its peak, bells were ringing, rejoice,
Christos Anesti
.

But Zacharias saw no joy about him, only mindless, rote prayer without purpose. He needed to escape this. Next year would be different. He would move on. It was not unheard of to switch monasteries. He needed a more civilized base for his plans, somewhere he could flourish and never be incommunicado again. There was too much at stake, too many in need of his guidance. His flock was prey to wolves without its shepherd. No, this year he would move on. There were many monasteries here that would accept him with joy. All he needed was the consent of his abbot. No problem, if the old tyrant were fool enough to refuse, it would be he who moved on.

Yes, the time to emerge from these depths was at hand. He was certain of it.

Now was the fun part of Easter in Greece, at least for those skipping out of church at midnight, carrying candles lit by
fire from the Holy Flame of Christ’s nativity cave in Jerusalem into their homes or favorite restaurants. Andreas and the family chose the latter, a fairytale place in the National Gardens next to the breathtaking nineteenth century Zappeion Megaron, the first building constructed specifically for the purpose of reviving the Modern Olympic Games.

They had challenged each other with the customary smacking of dyed-red eggs for good luck to the winner, devoured the traditional
mayiritsa
soup to break the fast, left very little of the salads, and very little of the wine, leaving Lila the only fully sober one at the table, and not by choice.

‘The baby’s on the wagon,’ was Lila’s excuse to every wellwisher passing by their table and offering a toast.

It was two thirty in the morning and Lila was text messaging furiously. Reading, writing, reading, writing.

‘What’s going on?’ Andreas asked.

‘It’s Barbara. You can’t believe what she’s telling me.’

His heart stopped. Deny, deny, deny. No, not this time. He thought to beat her to the punch. ‘Lila—’

She burst out laughing. ‘I don’t believe her. She’s one of a kind.’ Lila turned to Andreas, all smiles. ‘First of all, she said to send you her love and that you gave a “tremendous performance.”’

I wonder if Maggie has talked to her yet, Andreas thought.

‘I had invited her to join us for dinner, she should have been here hours ago.’

Maggie better have, but if she had she’d have told me.

‘But she can’t make it.’

Thank God.

‘Because she’s in Moscow.’

You’ve got to be kidding me!

‘She was at the airport waiting to catch the last plane back to Athens, and guess who she ran into?’

Good thing she didn’t know more than that I needed an escort.

‘Your Russian from last night. He convinced her it would be a lot more fun to celebrate Easter in Moscow than Athens. She said to tell you she decided to go. “So it wouldn’t be a total loss.” What does that mean?’

‘Got me. She’s a bit wacky.’

‘I’ll say.’ Lila laughed again. ‘Barbara, Barbara, you never fail to amaze me.’

I’ll say.

‘Thanks for inviting me. You were right, Easter dinner alone on Mykonos would have been a downer.’

Tassos patted Kouros on the arm. ‘Hey, you’re family. Besides, I didn’t have to cook. He did.’ Kouros pointed to a man hurrying toward them with plates stacked along his left arm from fingertips to elbow. He was the vision of a Greek leprechaun with a round, rosy-cheeked face, twinkling eyes, and a Greek fisherman’s moustache.

‘Steline,’ the leprechaun shouted, ‘hurry with the rest of the plates before this old bastard from Syros arrests me.’

‘I see he knows you.’

Tassos smiled and nodded. ‘Yeah, we’ve spent many a night together here behind city hall, closing up his place and exchanging lies. It started out as a locals’ place, now
it’s the most famous taverna on the island. Everybody comes here.’

Kouros looked over Tassos’ shoulder at someone aimed straight for their table. ‘Oh, boy. Were you ever right.’

‘What are you talking—’

‘You miserable fucking piece of shit!’ And thus began a thirty-second string of expletives delivered at disco club volume. Tourist heads jerked around to see who was about to be murdered. Locals just shrugged and continued on with Easter dinner; it was only Katerina doing her warpath thing.