The Tower (28 page)

‘God damn,’ Franklin said, ‘another observatory.’

The site contains 20 round structures that were deliberately buried sometime in the 8th century BCE. Four have so far been excavated. Each has a diameter of between 10 and 30 meters (30 and 100 ft) and is made up of massive limestone pillars arranged in the exact shape of certain constellations.

Shepherd clicked on the
Images
option and a selection of thumbnails cascaded down the screen. Most showed an especially large stone monolith capped by a smaller one to form the unmistakable shape of an elongated letter T.

The T

Shepherd checked back through the notes and there it was again on the first list CARBON had found on Kinderman’s drive. He returned to the Google search and clicked one of the images, opening it up large so the carvings on the main column were now visible. There was a snake, a scorpion, and a bull on the side of it – constellation signs – but it was the caption beneath that caught Shepherd’s eye.

The main pillar, or Home Stone, is the largest monolith and also the only one that does not correspond to an existing star.

Home

Shepherd stared at the screen, his eyes flicking between the various open windows – the Home Stone, Cooper silently preaching from the live feed and gesturing out of the window at the flotilla of ships in the harbour, Smith’s last message with the word “Home” highlighted.

‘Home,’ Shepherd said. He sat up in his chair as the idea took hold. ‘That guy who picked us up from the airfield said the sailors were all saying the same thing – that they just needed to get home. So if there is some extraordinary event happening out there in space, some kind of game changer, maybe Dr Kinderman and Professor Douglas felt it too.’

‘But we checked Kinderman and Douglas’s homes already.’

‘Did we though? If I say “home” what does it mean to you?’

‘Where my family is, I guess.’

‘Exactly. Only Kinderman doesn’t have any family and neither does Douglas. So home for them must mean something else. Probably the place where they were born.’ Shepherd sat bolt upright in his chair.

‘I think I know where Professor Douglas is,’ he said.

Sergeant Beddoes drummed his gloved fingers on the wheel of the cruiser. He was parked behind a billboard on the verge of the main road into town, waiting for speeding cars, not that he expected any today.

The snow had taken everyone by surprise. They were used to it up here in the mountains, but not like this and not without warning. It had come down so fast that he hadn’t had time to put the snow chains on his car and twice now he’d nearly slid off the road. On top of that the world had gone crazy overnight. He’d been called out to a near riot at the Wal-Mart on the edge of town after people started panic-buying everything in the store. He’d gone in to help break it up and seen people who’d known each other all their lives, fighting over bottled water and canned food. He’d had to pull his gun at one point, but at least he hadn’t had to use it. He’d heard stories of full-scale riots in some of the bigger cities, police firing on civilians, law and order breaking down as the gas pumps ran dry and the stores ran out of food because the delivery trucks had stopped rolling. It had made him wonder if Reverend Parkes had been right and that judgement day was just around the corner.

For the last few months the Reverend had preached nothing else, telling his small, devoted congregation how a new Tower of Babel had brought it all about and that demons were already walking the earth in the shape of men to cause chaos and inspire sin that they might be damned and claimed by Satan when the time came. He had told them to stockpile food, batteries and water – and he had been right. He had also talked to him in private, telling about the secret army that was in place, Christian soldiers drawn from every walk of life ready to fight the forces of evil when they came.

‘We can all fight for the Lord,’ the Reverend had said, ‘each of us in our own small way.’ And he had told Beddoes how he could help, using his position as a police officer to watch out for the signs and report them to those who would know their significance. Beddoes had nodded and agreed to do whatever the Reverend thought he should, though he didn’t quite understand how he could be of much use.

Beddoes reached up and held the crucifix he kept on a chain round his neck along with the St Christopher his mother had given him when he first qualified as a patrolman. ‘To keep you safe and bring you home,’ she had said. He’d been thinking about home a lot lately, though home wasn’t the same now she had gone. The church filled some of the gap left by her passing, but not all of it. Nothing ever could.

A
ping
sounded on the dashboard. He looked up to find the LoJack receiver had activated but there was nothing on the road. There was a stolen car in the area, heading north by the looks of it. He grabbed his radio to call the dispatcher then paused. He pulled his glove off with his teeth and fumbled in his pocket for the prayer book the Reverend had given him to keep close by, a weapon in the coming war, and flipped to the back. There was an alphanumeric code next to a cell phone number. He compared it to the one on the display and felt his mouth go dry.

They were the same.

He took out his own personal phone and dialled the number written in the prayer book.

Demons in human form
– he thought, just as the line connected.

‘OK, we’re off the air.’

The Reverend Fulton Cooper held his final gesture of prayer for a few beats then opened his eyes, dropped his hands to his sides and smiled. ‘Good show, everyone,’ he said, casting smiles around the room. The bright studio lights cut out and across the room he saw the pale moon face of Miss Boerman framed by her severe haircut and suit. She was standing by the door, looking straight at him. She nodded when she saw she had caught his attention then turned and slipped back outside.

‘Take a break but don’t go far,’ he announced to the room as he moved towards the exit. ‘The Lord has much work for us yet to do. We’re live again in an hour.’

He passed through the door and felt the relative cool of the outside air on his skin.

‘They’re in the chapel,’ Miss Boerman said, the thin scar on her cheek puckering when she spoke. The mark of his hand from earlier was no longer visible. She handed him a small plain envelope. He opened it and studied the contents.

‘This up to date?’ he asked, slipping the note back in the envelope and tucking it into his jacket.

‘As of five minutes ago.’

‘Everything else set up?’

‘Gassed and ready to go.’

‘Anyone needs me, tell them I’m at private prayer and not to be disturbed.’ He moved past her and headed down the stairs, the leather of his Italian shoes clacking first against the wooden steps, then against flagstones as he arrived in the basement and passed through a solid wooden door in the shape of an arch.

The chapel had been built in the old cellars, making good use of the existing vaulted brickwork and stone floors. It was small with three rows of wooden pews either side of a narrow aisle leading to a lectern which stood before a large stained-glass window that was artificially lit from behind so God’s light could permanently shine through it. Cooper occasionally recorded segments of his shows down here, but he also used it for meetings because it was quiet and out of the way and there was another door hidden behind the altar, a requirement of the fire department regulations that also allowed people to enter the chapel without anyone in the main part of the building knowing they were there.

Eli and Carrie were kneeling at the altar, their backs to him, their heads bowed. Eli jumped as the door banged shut – still fighting his demons. Carrie reached out to him with a gentle, calming hand that had killed eighteen people to Cooper’s sure knowledge. He caught her profile as she turned; the slightly upturned nose that made her seem younger than she actually was and inclined people to underestimate her, just as they did with him, only with her it was often the last mistake they ever made.

‘Praise God for watching over you and delivering you safely,’ Cooper said, smiling down at them as they turned round. He beckoned them over to the tech desk set up at the back of the room, which they used when they recorded down here. He turned on the monitor and heard the scuff of Eli’s steps approaching, but he didn’t hear Carrie’s. She was the only person he knew who could walk up the two-hundred-year-old main wooden staircase inside the house without making a single sound.

They were showing a re-run of the morning show. After a few minutes the picture cut to a recorded section and Cooper pointed at the two men in suits sitting on the sofa opposite him. ‘Are these the people you saw in Dr Kinderman’s house?’

‘Yes,’ Carrie confirmed.

‘They came here asking about all kinds of things but left with nothing. I trust you were careful in your observations of the good doctor’s house?’

‘No one saw us,’ Eli said, his voice flat and empty as always. ‘I guarantee it.’

‘Good. That’s very good.’

Carrie and Eli exchanged a look. ‘We seen it on the news,’ she said, ‘about the telescopes. We was thinking, now that the mission you set for us is over, now that those telescopes are no longer –’

‘We want to get married,’ Eli said. ‘We want you to marry us. Right now.’

Cooper turned and smiled at them. ‘And so I shall,’ he said. ‘So I shall.’ He moved past them, walking back up the aisle towards the fake sunshine streaming in through the window. He stopped in front of the lectern and stared up at the cross. ‘We’ve come a long way, the three of us, from that hell in the desert – a long, long way. And our journey is nearly over. But it is not over yet.’

‘But the towers have fallen,’ Carrie said, her voice small and unsure. ‘The telescopes …’

Cooper turned to face them. ‘They may have been destroyed but the wrath of the Lord is still evident for all to see, is it not? He is still greatly angered by the audacity and insult of those that built them. Destroying them was only part of His plan. The architects of the heresy must also be made examples of. For if I destroy the temple of mine enemy yet suffer the priest to live, will not he go forth and build a temple anew?

‘The sacred mission I gave to you both will not end until those who fashioned this great sin are made to atone for their actions. Only by making an example of them can we warn others of the dangers of sin.

‘Now I know you two love each other with a passion that is strong and pure: and I would not seek to stand between something as beautiful as that. But God sent you to me for a purpose, just as surely as He spoke and told me in that still small voice the service He would have you do in His name.

‘Remember how I found you in the desert, broken by the sins you had been made to perform. Now I want you to remember what I said to you back in that field hospital in Iraq, I want you to recall for me the piece of Scripture I gave you to speak of your higher purpose and remind you of who you are.’

Carrie answered in her tiny voice. ‘Therefore, take up the full armour of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.’

Cooper nodded. ‘Ephesians, chapter six, verse thirteen. And you see now how the evil day that was prophesied is upon us, and that now is the time to stand firm. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness He prevailed by keeping His mind on His calling, on His mission on Earth, and saying,
“Get thee behind me Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him alone shalt thou serve.”
’

He reached out and took their hands and held them in his. ‘“Him alone shalt thou serve.” Believe me I would like nothing better, nothing better in this world than to unite you two warriors of God in the blessed union of marriage.’ He let go of their hands and took a step back. ‘But His work is not yet done. And only when it is completed will we be free to pursue our own desires.’ He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the envelope Miss Boerman had given him. ‘But never forget that you are not alone in your service of the Lord. You will see from this information that there are many others engaged in the good fight, many others who are part of the same brother and sisterhood who would also see His will be done. Our reach is long for He sees all.’

Carrie took the envelope and opened the flap with the stiletto of her finger. Inside was a printout showing a section of map with a town in the centre called Cherokee. There was also a time, an alphanumeric number, a compass heading and a note saying:
approximate distance to target, four miles.

‘Some people sympathetic to our cause did me the courtesy of installing LoJack devices to the cars of Dr Kinderman and Professor Douglas. I figured it might be useful to know where they were in case they managed to evade us. Dr Kinderman’s car has been in the long-term parking lot of Dulles International airport since early yesterday evening. I think it’s safe to surmise that he is no longer in the country but we have others looking into where he may have gone. The signal from Professor Douglas’s car, however, was picked up by a State Trooper in Swain County, North Carolina about a half an hour ago.’ He pointed at the piece of paper. ‘That gives you a rough idea of where he is. It’s about a five-hour drive from here on good roads, so it will probably take you a little longer today, the weather being the way it is. If you head off now you should get there before dark.’

He closed his eyes and looked up, one hand on his heart, the other raised in front of him like a benediction. ‘I pray you, God, watch over these, your servants, along the righteous path so they may do your work, and bring these foul sinners to swift and rightful atonement so that their souls may finally be freed from the burden thou hast given them, Amen.’

He opened his eyes and smiled at them both, as though something wonderful had just happened. ‘You should make a start. Daylight is burning. If you leave the way you came in, Miss Boerman will give you everything you need. We will have more accurate information by the time you get to Cherokee. Remember, we need to send a message to anyone else who would dare to stare upon the face of God. I’m counting on you to send that message, loud and clear. And if anyone tries to stop you in this sacred mission, anyone at all, be they civilian or officer of the law, then they must also be sacrificed in the name of the greater glory.’