Comes a Horseman (50 page)

“A candidate comes to the attention of the Watchers usually through scouts, who recognize the fulfillment of prophecy in an individual. Some expected characteristics of Antichrist are nonnegotiable, such as his being a Gentile and a descendant of the Roman Empire. Others—left-handedness, that he will be in his forties when he comes to the world's attention—are open to interpretation. Most candidates are eliminated from consideration very early in the vetting process. On average, the Council of Watchers gets ex cited about a candidate no more than one time per century. Which means two generations could go by without seeing any serious candidates. However . . .”

Ambrosi flipped to the last written-on page.

“Wait!” Alicia said. “Go back.”

He did, until she said, “Stop.” On the page, surrounded by handwritten text, was a drawing of the sun with curving flames radiating from it and vertical lines filling the circle.

“What is that?” she asked, stabbing the drawing with her finger.

“You've seen it before?”

Brady answered, “It was branded into the murder victims.”

Ambrosi frowned at the drawing. “Every Antichrist candidate designs a symbol for his kingdom. This is Scaramuzzi's; it is his swastika. It's patterned off a medieval crest for Antichrist and embellished by Scaramuzzi. The twelve flames coming out of the sun represent the twelve Watchers. The ten lines within the sun represent the ten countries that will form Antichrist's kingdom.”

They stared at it for a moment, and then Ambrosi turned to a different page. On it appeared to be an organizational chart, with boxes and lines showing relationships and hierarchy. He tapped a rectangle labeled “Scaramuzzi.”

“Every now and then a candidate fulfills enough of the prophetic program for the transference of assets to begin. Don't ask me what ‘enough' means. That can include subjective criteria, such as charisma and intelligence. At that point, the Council votes on a candidate's probability of being the one true Antichrist. They give the candidate authority over their resources in direct proportion to the vote of confidence he receives. So a two-thirds vote of confidence theoretically means the candidate has access to two-thirds of the resources reserved for him.”

Alicia snapped her head back, flipping the hair out of her face. “Theoretically?”

“If he uses his resources unwisely, the Watchers can take them back. In the cases I've studied, the candidate has always tapped them cautiously, sparingly. Still, it represents enormous wealth and power. In 1921, when he was voted Führer of the Nazi party, Hitler had a nine-to-three vote in favor of his being Antichrist. That fluctuated over time.”

Alicia shook her head as if she had caught a whiff of strong ammonia. “Hitler? What happened to the Roman heritage?”

Ambrosi smiled at her disgust. “Hitler was born in Braunau-am-Inn, once part of the Holy Roman Empire and not far from Rome. Besides, anyone with a rudimentary understanding of Antichrist prophecy could blow holes in the cases of every serious candidate the Watchers ever considered. Usually the errors are only evident in hindsight. As is deception by the candidate. On top of that, there is the nature of prophecy itself. More times than not, it comes through dreams as symbols or allegory. How they are distilled into accepted prophetic visions is a story unto itself. Let us just say they offer a lot of wiggle room.”

Alicia shook her head. “For all that money and power,
I'd
be deceiving and wiggling.”

“You don't have the capacity to be so corrupt,” Brady said. He thought about his own recent desire to be more so. “You'd have to be willing to slaughter innocents.” He raised his eyebrows at Ambrosi. “Right?”

“Oh, I believe the candidate would have to eat children for lunch and their mothers for dinner. Psychosis is a job requirement. No, ordering deaths and bloodying his own hands would not bother Antichrist in the least. What would be bothersome, I imagine, is having the Council of Watchers over you. First, a treasure is splayed before you, but you can partake of it only sparingly. Next, a candidate with less than 100 percent of the votes is subject to the management and discipline of the Council. Like the ephori in Sparta: they had the authority to veto the king's decisions and even remove him from power.”

Alicia said, “Has anyone ever received a 100 percent vote?”

“Never. I believe to get all the votes, the candidate would have to grow horns and spit fire.”

Brady's attention went back to the organizational chart. Above the Scaramuzzi box were twelve boxes lined up next to one another. Four contained handwritten names; in three were pasted photographs the size of postage stamps. He pointed at them.

“The Council of Watchers?” he asked.

“The twelve disciples,” Ambrosi said sarcastically.

Brady ran his finger over them, reading. “Vajra Kumar, Koji Arakawa, Donato Benini, Niklas Hüber. No other names?”

“It
is
a secret organization.”

“What are these?” He pointed to pencil marks, an
x
or a check over each box. Of the four named boxes, only Niklas Hüber's bore an
x
.

“The vote, as far as I know. I believe Scaramuzzi has secured eight votes. If the votes in favor ever fall below seven, he's out.”

“Out?”

“In every case, the candidate has died or vanished.” He studied the chart as if concerned he'd forgotten something. After a minute, he said, “When, someday, the candidate does secure every vote, a great shift in power will occur. This box”—he touched
Scaramuzzi
—“will move up here.” He dragged his finger to a spot above the Council of Watchers. “Antichrist will have complete authority over the Watchers and their—now his—resources. At that point, the power can never shift back except upon the death of Antichrist.”

He covered the chart with his palm.

“Scaramuzzi has not achieved this,” he said. “It's my guess he never will. Right now, he has only two concerns in the world: first, to keep the votes he has, and second, to change the minds of the Watchers who are against him. Every single thing he does is motivated by these two objectives.”

“How can he change their minds?” asked Alicia.

“Continue to fulfill prophecy.”

“I don't understand. How can anyone do that, unless he really is the person prophesied about?”

“Essentially, there are three ways to accrue ‘prophecy points.'” Ambrosi smiled at the term. “The first is obvious: do what's expected of you. In the case of Antichrist, it's to rise to political power, which Scaramuzzi is doing. To those who see him only as a politician, he's smart and persuasive and has some very intriguing ideas about Israel and the Middle East. He appears very peace-minded. He has to. Antichrist will become a world leader by virtue of a peace program. He is almost certain to win the Nobel Peace Prize.”

“But peace is the last thing on his mind,” Brady said.

“Except as a ruse to gain power. Eventually he will rule a federation of ten kingdoms, or countries. Most of us spectators believe this federation has already been established with the European Union, though it does not yet have a centralized leader. And it may not for a hundred years, but it's there, ready for him.”

“The countries of the European Union have been independent for thousands of years,” Brady said doubtfully. “Aggressively so. I can't see them arraying under a single leader.”

“And twenty years ago, who would have predicted that they would agree to a joint economic program that required each to abandon its own currency for a shared one? At the airport, did you exchange your dollars for lira?”

“Euros,” Alicia said, pulling the wad of bills out of her pants pocket.

Ambrosi bowed his head, his point made.

“But that's different from a centralized government. Europe just hands its countries over to Antichrist?”

“All but three of them do, according to biblical prophecy. Revelation 13 and 17, Daniel 7. He murders three leaders to take control. The Watchers believe he has already claimed his first.”

“An assassination of a leader? Who?” Brady could not believe he was engaged in this conversation.

“Santo Mucci.”

“The Italian prime minister? That was, what, four years ago?”

“Five. Prophecy does not indicate that Antichrist will assassinate three leaders and immediately step into their positions. That's not the kind of person people would tolerate, let alone champion. Remember, during his rise, he is seen as a great peacemaker, a uniter, not a divider. To fulfill his destiny, his murders must eventually lead to his ability to rule the victims' countries.”

“And Mucci?”

“Scaramuzzi was a grassroots leader in Italy. Prefect of Agrigento Province. But Mucci's party did not think much of his ideas. He was too liberal. And his personal style, his ambition, rubbed the politicos the wrong way. After the assassination, Parliament held an emergency general election, and Silvio Bertoni was voted in. He was and still is an adamant supporter of Scaramuzzi's. A Southerner like Scaramuzzi, and that matters very much here. He appointed him ambassador. It is quite possible that the Watchers have connections within the current regime to help facilitate Scaramuzzi's continued ascent. Make no mistake: he will be our prime minister, and it will be because of Mucci's assassination. One down, two to go.”

“But I thought you doubted he was Antichrist.”

“So what if he is not? If he pretends to be and he convinces the right people he is, do you think he will be much less destructive than if he were actually Antichrist? Scaramuzzi's machinations may not lead to Armageddon, but they will most certainly cause untold death and destruction.”

“And he got the ball rolling by having Santo Mucci killed?”

“Oh no, not
having
it done. He himself assassinated the man. Otherwise, the murder would not have aligned with the Antichrist prophecy. Scaramuzzi would not have received credit for it.”

“Prophecy points,” Brady said.

Ambrosi nodded enthusiastically. “Lots of them. It's what took him out of the category of potential candidate and made him a serious contender. As far as I can gather, the Watchers had not voted at that point. There was only strong interest. Within three months of the assassination, as it became apparent that the wheels he set in motion would favor him politically, he garnered seven votes. He was in.”

“Wasn't Santo Mucci assassinated in Israel?”

“At the Italian Embassy building in Tel Aviv. Scaramuzzi had been setting up a base of operations in Jerusalem, where he knew eventually he would be. You see, prophecy says Antichrist will have a strong relationship with Israel, appearing to be its ally. What better way to establish those relationships than as ambassador? Not much is known about Scaramuzzi prior to this time. But I believe he was recruiting followers, workers to do all the various legwork someone with his ambitions requires. When he became the Watchers' best hope, he got access to
their
vast roster of . . . uh, craftsmen.”

“The spies, thieves, and assassins you mentioned before?” Ambrosi's tale was convoluted and densely popu lated. Brady wanted to be sure he didn't miss anything or make the wrong assumptions.

“Among others, yes. Scaramuzzi's head of security is a vicious man named Arjan Vos. Former Israeli army general. Former Mossad agent. A brutal man, as well as a highly skilled killer. I believe he trained Scaramuzzi to commit the assassination. The Asia House, in which several embassies in Tel Aviv are located, was the perfect location. Not far from Scaramuzzi's secret headquarters. And far from his public headquarters, where I'm sure he had alibis arranged should something go wrong. And Vos would have known the building well, having been once assigned to that district as a Mossad agent.”

Brady noticed the temperature had dropped since the sun's passing. He looked around and did not see any registers or radiator and wondered how the room was heated. He imagined it in winter, the old man hunched over an ancient scroll, a threadbare blanket draped over his shoulders and back, breath pluming from his mouth. Reading words a thousand years old about a man who would usher in the end of the human race, a man who at that moment could be plotting death to the strains of Vivaldi. An icy finger ran up his back.

Alicia leaned her rear back against the desk. She crossed her arms over her chest and said, “You mentioned
three
ways he could strengthen his position?”

“There is also the discovery of new prophecy—keep studying prophetic writings until you find something that resembles an event that has already occurred in your life. A near-drowning, the death of a sibling. Roll it out, let the theologians confirm it, and your credibility goes up a notch or two. The canon of Antichrist prophecy grows with every serious candidate.”

Brady shook his head. “That's ridiculous.”

The old man shrugged. He wiggled his fingers in his shirt pocket and absently kept them there as it dawned on him that he'd have to roll his next smoke. Shuffling to the crescent table and the humidor, he said, “Lastly, you could select an unfulfilled prophecy and intentionally fulfill it. There is a vigorous debate about whether prophecy fulfilled in this matter counts. No prophet has ever said that foreknowledge invalidates the vision. It is what it is. However, knowing that someone set out to fulfill prophecy just feels wrong, does it not? For this reason, candidates usually deny having foreknowledge of any recently fulfilled prophecies.”

Brady was amazed that the control of so much wealth and power could rely on the murky logic and tenuous conclusions that seemed to govern prophecy. Something about it disturbed him on a fundamental level.

Ambrosi slammed the volume closed. He caught Brady's eye, then Alicia's. He held up his hands as if holding a beach ball to his chest, which he shook as he spoke.