The Revelation Code (Wilde/Chase 11)

  ‘God!’ He strained to force out the words. ‘Our leader, the Prophet – he needs her to find the angels from the Book of Revelation.’

  ‘What do you mean, angels? The guys with wings and trumpets?’

  ‘No, they’re . . . they’re statues, hidden away. The Prophet found one of them, and he’s trying to find the other three. The clues are in the Book of Revelation. He knows what to look for, but he needs an archaeologist to tell him where to look.’

  Eddie frowned. ‘Why Nina? He could have just paid someone to do that. Why kidnap her?’

  ‘I don’t know. I don’t!’ Irton protested as the Englishman raised the hammer. ‘The Prophet chose your wife for a reason, but he didn’t share it with us.’

  ‘He’ll share it with me if I get my fucking hands on him. Where is he?’

  ‘At the Mission.’

  ‘And where’s that?’

  Irton took another breath, eyes turning defiant once more. He was willing to endure more pain rather than give up the location. Eddie hefted the hammer again—

  A bang from the entrance. Eddie spun. Raddick was back, arms laden with bags of takeaway food. ‘Okay, I got your—’

  He froze as he took in the scene. ‘Shit!’ he gasped, throwing down the food and fumbling inside his coat for a gun—

  Eddie hurled the hammer.

  Raddick had just got the gun clear of its holster when the steel claws smacked into his forehead with a sickening crack. He fell backwards, the tool embedded in his skull.

  Eddie whirled back towards Irton – as the American leapt up and shoulder-barged him, sending him stumbling into one of the lamps and falling painfully on to his side. He scrambled upright, readying himself for an attack, but instead saw Irton run into the darkness of the empty building.

  ‘Shit!’ He hurried after him. The American was limping from the kick to his knee, but after more than a day tied to a chair, Eddie was little faster, muscles stiff and aching.

  But he had to catch him. With both Berman and Raddick dead, Irton was his only link to Nina.

  He followed the noise of the American’s footsteps. Dim light appeared ahead through grimy windows high on the walls. A new sound reached him, a frantic clatter. Irton was climbing a metal staircase. Eddie made out the structure rising diagonally across the back wall and hurried to it, vaulting up the steps two at a time.

  His quarry reached the top. A door was kicked open. Eddie saw Irton briefly outlined by the stark pinkish-orange glow of industrial sodium lights before he ducked out of sight.

  He got to the door a few seconds later. Would Irton attack him as he came through? A split-second judgement: no, he was fleeing – flight, not fight. He booted the door and rushed outside.

  Cold wind hit him as he emerged on a rooftop. Grim industrial blocks rose ahead. Where was Irton?

  Off to the left, hobbling for the roof’s nearest edge. Eddie raced after him. There was an electrical substation below, the dull hum of transformers growing louder. He had to be heading for a fire escape . . .

  Shock as Eddie realised that he wasn’t. There was nothing but a sheer fifty-foot drop. Irton wasn’t just willing to suffer to protect his boss; he would make the ultimate sacrifice.

  ‘No you bloody don’t!’ gasped Eddie, fighting through his own pain to run faster. Irton was twenty feet from the edge, ten . . .

  He reached it just as Eddie dived at him.

  The Englishman landed hard at the very lip of the roof, grabbing at Irton, but only managing to catch his left arm as he fell towards the substation. The torturer’s sleeve slithered through his fingers—

  One hand locked around Irton’s wrist.

  The American shrieked as smashed bones ground together, crushing nerves. Eddie tried to get a hold with his other hand, but Irton’s weight was dragging him over the edge. He had no choice but to use it instead to brace himself . . . and the thrashing man started to slip through his grip.

  ‘Where is she?’ he yelled. Irton looked back at him, fear in his eyes behind the pain. Another nauseating crunch, and Eddie felt his opponent’s mutilated hand slipping further through his own. He squeezed harder, but knew it was a losing battle. ‘Tell me where Nina is, and I’ll help you—’

  Snap!

  Bone broke, skin tearing with a hot gush of blood – and Eddie found himself holding nothing but a severed finger.

  Irton plunged, screaming, to be impaled on the prongs of a transformer below. Sparks exploded from it, searing electrical discharges lancing out as the high-voltage current set his body aflame. Eddie jerked back as something overloaded and blew apart with a detonation that shook the building. The substation’s lights flickered, then died, along with those of all the other nearby buildings.

  ‘He went out with a bang,’ Eddie muttered, furious as much with himself for not maintaining his hold as with Irton for taking Nina’s whereabouts to the grave. Still clutching the finger, he stood and turned back towards the door . . . and for the first time saw where he was.

  The skyscrapers of Manhattan glittered like cubic galaxies across the dark waters of the East River. His guess that he was in Brooklyn had been right. A bridge loomed to his left behind buildings; he had lived in New York City long enough to recognise it immediately as the Manhattan Bridge. That put him somewhere in Brooklyn’s Vinegar Hill district.

  He looked to the right along the river. The lights of the Williamsburg Bridge spanned the waters about a mile away. A moment of surprise at an unexpected yet impressive sight closer by: the massive airship that he had seen from Harvey Zampelli’s helicopter was coming in to land for the night. Its temporary home was the nearby Brooklyn Navy Yard, the decommissioned military facility that was now an industrial park and movie studio. Advertising slogans flashed across its bulbous side, their very mundanity giving him a bizarre sense of relief. Whatever was going on, he had survived it, and returned to the real world.

  The feeling lasted barely a moment. He was free, but the mysterious Prophet still had Nina – and he had absolutely no idea where. Somewhere in the tropics was all she had been able to tell him. That didn’t really narrow it down.

  Another retort from the substation. He had to get away from what would very soon become a crime scene; the explosion would bring first the fire department, then the cops. Whatever Irton and the others were doing, they had given the definite impression that it was on the clock. He couldn’t afford to waste time being arrested and interrogated by the NYPD.

  Fortunately, he had friends in the police.

  ‘Eddie?’

  ‘Down here,’ he said, cautiously stepping out from behind a dumpster to greet the woman. ‘Hi, Amy.’

  Detective Amy Martin of the New York Police Department brought up her flashlight to regard him with shock. ‘Jesus, Eddie! What the hell happened to you?’

  He had retrieved his leather jacket and other belongings including his phone from the abandoned warehouse, but the garment couldn’t disguise that he was covered in blood. ‘Don’t worry, it’s not mine. Most of it.’

  ‘That’s what I’m scared of!’ The dark-haired young cop came down the alley for a better look at him. ‘Are you okay? What’s going on?’

  ‘I’m not sure myself. But you know there was an explosion a couple of blocks from here?’

  ‘Yeah, I heard about it over the radio just after you phoned—’ She broke off in dismay. ‘Oh man. Don’t tell me that was you.’

  ‘Not . . . directly.’

  ‘’Cause they found a body.’

  ‘Yeah, and they’ll find another two in the factory next to it.’

  Amy shook her head and sighed. ‘God. What is it with you? What happened?’

  ‘Short version: I was kidnapped, but got away. But Nina was kidnapped too, and they’ve still got her.’

  Her eyes went wide. ‘Kidnapped?’

  ‘Off the street outside our apartment. I was tied up in a warehouse being tortured until about half an hour ago.’ He pulled up his shirt to reveal lurid bruis
es. ‘I need your help, Amy. I’ve got to find Nina, but I can’t do that if the cops take me in for questioning. I need you to cover for me.’

  ‘Cover for you! People have died, Eddie – it’s kinda hard to sweep that under the rug.’ She eyed him. ‘Did you kill them?’

  ‘Yeah, but in self-defence. And the third one, I was trying to save him – he jumped off the roof rather than give up where they’d taken Nina.’ He saw that she was still struggling to process his first admission. ‘Come on, Amy! You know me. And you know the kind of stuff I keep getting dragged into.’

  ‘But you don’t even work for the IHA any more!’

  ‘I bloody know! But whoever these arseholes were, it won’t be long before their boss realises his torture team isn’t answering his calls any more. Soon as he knows I’ve escaped . . .’

  ‘They might hurt Nina,’ she finished for him.

  ‘Yeah. She’s pregnant, Amy – I’m not going to let them do anything to her or our baby.’

  Her eyes widened. ‘She’s pregnant?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Congratulations! And thanks for telling me when I saw you last,’ she added with considerable sarcasm.

  ‘I was busy chasing a Nazi!’ he protested. ‘Anyway, look – I promise you that as soon as Nina’s safe, I’ll tell the NYPD everything that happened.’ He glanced down the alley as an emergency vehicle swept past, lights strobing. ‘But right now, I need you to run interference.’

  ‘Interference!’ she hooted. ‘This is going to turn into a murder investigation. If I interfere, I could do more than lose my job – I could go to jail!’

  ‘Amy, please!’ He fixed his eyes on hers. ‘You trust me, don’t you?’

  ‘Oh, please, don’t pull that card, Eddie,’ she cried. ‘You know I do! You saved the whole damn city.’ It had taken his drastic physical intervention to prevent a nuclear device from being detonated at the end of Wall Street, his arm still scarred as a result. ‘Everyone in New York owes you, and . . . and I just talked myself into helping you, didn’t I?’ She tipped her head back and let out a groan to the sky.

  He grinned. ‘Thanks.’

  ‘Don’t thank me yet. There’s only so much I can do, even as a detective – and,’ she warned, ‘only so much I’m willing to do. I’m not going to lie for you.’

  ‘I’m not asking you to.’ They started back down the alley towards her car. ‘For now, just get me to the UN – no, wait, take me home first. I want to check the apartment. And see if there’s been anything reported about Nina or me being kidnapped. If someone saw me get Tasered and dragged into a van, that should be enough to tell the cops I was the victim. And if there isn’t a report on Nina’s kidnapping, start one!’

  They reached the car. More flashing lights were visible down the street outside the derelict building. ‘Okay, get in,’ Amy said unhappily. He climbed inside as she took the wheel. ‘These kidnappers – do you have any idea who they are?’

  ‘No, but you can check if their prints are on file.’

  A confused look. ‘How?’

  Eddie held up the severed digit. ‘I’ll give you the finger.’

  9

  A trip to the Upper East Side confirmed Eddie’s fears. The apartment was empty, Nina’s laptop still open in her study. She always closed it if leaving the room for more than brief periods. He hurriedly washed and changed his clothes, returning to Amy’s car to learn that there had indeed been reports of an incident on the street. ‘What, nobody recognised me?’ he complained. ‘Bloody snobby neighbourhood.’

  ‘This helps you, though,’ Amy pointed out. ‘One of the witness statements said that someone was Tasered and taken away. That confirms you as the victim.’ She gave him a rueful look. ‘I’m still not sure how it’ll balance against you killing all three of them, though.’

  ‘Worry about that when I have to,’ Eddie replied. ‘Okay, we need to get to the UN.’ As Amy started the car, he took out his phone and dialled a number – one that he had hoped never to need again.

  By the time they arrived at the United Nations, the man Eddie had called was waiting for him at the security gate, his long overcoat flapping in the cold wind. ‘Eddie,’ said Oswald Seretse, the Gambian official pointedly rubbing his hands together for warmth before shaking the Englishman’s. ‘This is quite a surprise.’

  ‘Yeah, for me too. Thanks, Amy.’ He waved her off, then went with Seretse through the checkpoint. ‘Glad I caught you. I didn’t know if you’d still be working this late.’

  ‘The world’s leaders are meeting at the General Assembly soon,’ Seretse replied, gesturing at a stack of crowd-control barriers piled ready for deployment nearby. ‘That means long hours for everybody involved. Especially long-suffering departmental liaisons like myself – all the more so when working two jobs at once.’

  ‘You’re still the IHA’s acting boss?’

  ‘After Bill Schofield was killed, the other candidate for the director’s position withdrew. It has gained a reputation as a remarkably dangerous post.’

  ‘Tell me about it.’ Eddie gave him a small smile, then looked up at the glass tower of the Secretariat Building as they approached the entrance. ‘God, back here again. I can’t seem to bloody escape it.’

  ‘Yes, for someone who no longer works for the United Nations, you certainly seem to visit us quite frequently.’ There was amusement in the diplomat’s rich Cambridge-educated tones. ‘So, what can I do for you this time?’

  ‘Nina’s been kidnapped.’

  Seretse halted, the humour instantly evaporating. ‘I see.’

  ‘You don’t sound too shocked.’

  He sighed. ‘I am long past the point where I can be surprised by anything that involves you or Nina. But why come to me rather than the police?’

  Eddie decided to spare him the gruesome details of his recent captivity. ‘Because whatever the people who’ve taken Nina want her for, it’s something to do with her work at the IHA.’

  ‘But Nina left the IHA at the same time as you.’

  ‘I don’t think they care. I know what they’re after, but I’ve got no idea what it means or why they need Nina to find it. Which is why I came to you.’

  Seretse nodded. ‘Come inside.’

  They entered the Secretariat Building, Seretse vouching for Eddie at another security check, and took an elevator up to the tall diplomat’s office. The Englishman gazed out of the window overlooking the East River as his host sat at his desk. ‘I couldn’t help but notice,’ said Seretse, ‘that you appear to have been in the wars.’

  Eddie turned towards him, showing off the cuts and bruises on his face. ‘Nina wasn’t the only one who was kidnapped. They took me to force her to find what they’re after.’

  ‘Which is what?’

  ‘Angels.’

  The African’s eyebrows rose. ‘Angels?’

  ‘Yeah. I told you, I don’t know what that means. They let Nina talk to me, and before they cut her off, she managed to tell me what they were after; turns out these angels are from the Book of Revelations.’ The eyebrows went higher still. ‘Some kind of statues. One of the guys who kidnapped me said that the clues to finding them are hidden in the Bible, and his boss needs an archaeologist to help decode them.’

  ‘Why Nina? There must be other archaeologists who could do that. Why risk kidnapping her?’

  ‘That’s what I want to know.’ He looked back out of the window. In the distance downriver, beyond the Williamsburg Bridge, the giant spotlit eggshell of the now-moored airship marked the Navy Yard; he had been held prisoner not far from them. ‘But she’s not even in the country now – she said she was in the tropics. Some place called the Mission, apparently.’

  Seretse typed on his laptop, then shook his head. ‘I just searched for “tropics” and “Mission”, but there are almost a million results.’

  ‘I’m pretty sure if you Google “angels” and “Book of Revelations”, you’ll get even more,’ Eddie said glumly. ‘We’re not going to
find these statues that way. That’s why I want to get the IHA involved.’

  ‘You want to find the angels?’ said Seretse, surprised. ‘Not Nina?’

  Eddie faced him again. ‘Course I bloody want to find Nina. But I’ve got nothing to go on, and as long as they’re holding her I’ve got no leverage either. But if I can get these angels before they do . . .’

  ‘It gives you bargaining power. Nina for the angels.’

  ‘Exactly. Whoever’s behind this – some nut calling himself the Prophet – seems to want to find them as soon as possible, so there’s probably a deadline, something that’ll make him more desperate the closer it gets. If I reach ’em first, then he’ll have to let Nina go if he wants them.’

  ‘If he truly is desperate, that might put Nina in more danger,’ Seretse warned.

  Eddie regarded him grimly. ‘Yeah, I know. But it’s all I’ve got right now.’ He sat facing Seretse. ‘So I need another archaeologist to help me. Someone who’s as good as Nina, and who knows about the Bible.’ A small frown. ‘Bible stuff isn’t even Nina’s speciality. I mean, she knows way too much about pretty much bloody everything to do with archaeology, but there must be people who’ve spent their entire careers on it. Why’d they need her?’

  ‘I can’t answer that,’ said Seretse, typing again, ‘but I can tell you who is currently working for the IHA and their areas of expertise.’ He scanned the list on his screen. ‘Dr Ari Ornstein is a specialist in ancient Hebrew civilisation . . .’

  ‘Wrong half of the Bible,’ Eddie said. ‘Even I know that Revelations is New Testament, not Old.’

  ‘Indeed.’ He resumed his search. ‘Colette Seigner’s doctoral thesis was about the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity. Perhaps she might be able to help?’

  ‘I know Colette, but . . . I dunno. Christianity didn’t really take off with the Romans until a few centuries after Jesus died, did it?’ A huff of frustration. ‘I don’t know when the Book of Revelations was written, but I don’t think it was that late.’

  ‘The first century AD, I believe. And no, the Roman Empire did not adopt Christianity as its official religion until AD 380, under the Edict of Thessalonica.’