‘So you’re saying you are willing to co-operate with the Covenant?’
‘I said might. But that’s a pretty small might. Tiny.’
‘You may surprise yourself, Dr Wilde. But to answer your question, the Covenant, in its current form, has existed since the 1950s. But a similar secret organisation has existed within the Church for over a hundred years, since the first discovery of the Veteres.’
‘So Judaism and Islam weren’t always part of it?’
‘No, though they had their own equivalents.’
‘It must have been something big to unite them. I mean, Christianity, Judaism and Islam aren’t exactly noted for their mutual co-operation.’
‘There have been examples,’ said di Bonaventura. ‘Have you heard of the Declaration of Alexandria?’ Nina shook her head. ‘It was an agreement between the faiths signed in 2002, to end their mutual hostilities in an attempt to bring peace to the Holy Land.’
‘Wow, it’s been a roaring success so far, huh?’
For the first time, di Bonaventura betrayed a hint of defensiveness. ‘You may mock, Dr Wilde, but the intentions of its signatories were sincere. They were all men of God, working for a common goal. Just like the Covenant.’
‘The Covenant - men of God?’ Nina cried. ‘After all the people you’ve killed, you’ve got the nerve to say you’re doing it in God’s name? Yet you daren’t even tell your own leader that the Covenant exists? That certainly makes you a hypocrite.’
‘It does,’ he admitted, his face revealing a long-held shame. ‘And when the time comes, we will all be judged. Perhaps we will even be damned. But for now, protecting the faith seems the right path to follow.’
‘Protecting the faith? Or protecting the Church?’ Nina fixed him with her green eyes, a look as intense as the one he had earlier given her. ‘Is that what this is about? You’re afraid that what I’ve discovered will destroy the Church? And not just yours, but the Jewish and Islamic ones too?’
‘You over-estimate yourself,’ he replied. ‘The Church has survived Copernicus, Galileo and Darwin. It will survive Nina Wilde as well. As will the other faiths. If anything, your discovery of Eden will strengthen them, by turning the story of Genesis from an allegory to historical fact.’
‘My discovery?’ said Nina, feeling an odd spark of triumph. ‘So the Covenant didn’t actually know for sure?’
‘We . . . suspected,’ said Vogler. ‘Finds at other sites, Ribbsley’s translations, they were leading in that direction. But it wasn’t until you found the audio recording in Antarctica that we had proof of its existence.’
‘But you don’t know where it is,’ she said. ‘And Eddie and Sophia do. And they’re probably already on their way there - I mean, I haven’t heard anyone saying they’re dead.’ A glance at Vogler. ‘Gonna set me straight?’
He shook his head. ‘They seem to have escaped Antarctica.’
‘Good for them. Well, good for Eddie. I don’t really care what happens to Sophia.’
‘Perhaps you should,’ said di Bonaventura. ‘Do you really want her to find the Garden of Eden? A murderer, a terrorist, a blackmailer . . . yes, I know why your president is so afraid of her,’ he went on, seeing Nina’s surprised look. ‘It is my job to know such things.’
‘To protect the Church, I guess.’
‘Yes. We rarely use such influence directly, but because of Gabriel Ribbsley’s lust we were forced to make a . . . request to President Dalton, to give him what he wanted in return for helping us.’
‘Release Sophia or we end your presidency with the scandal of the decade?’
‘Something like that. But Gabriel was already greedy, and this has proved he can no longer be relied upon. So we need someone else to uncover the secrets of the Veteres.’ His intense gaze returned. ‘Perhaps you.’
‘Me?’ Nina gasped. ‘What, are you nuts? First you try to kill me, and now you’re offering me a job?’
‘Not a job, exactly. An arrangement.’
‘Find Eden for you and not get killed, right?’ He nodded. ‘And if I turn down your generous offer?’
Di Bonaventura gazed into the fire. ‘Now that we know it exists, we must find Eden. One way or another, we will know what you know. You can tell us willingly . . . or we can give you to Mr Callum.’ He turned back to Nina, eyes hard. ‘There is an empty cell at Guantánamo Bay, formerly occupied by Sophia Blackwood. He could see that it becomes occupied again.’
Nina’s mouth went dry at the threat, but she tried not to let her apprehension show. ‘But by the time I talked, Eddie might already have found Eden.’
‘Which is why I would prefer your co-operation. Dr Wilde, I have made my decision, which both the surviving members of the Triumvirate have agreed to accept. I believe it is in the current interests of the Covenant for you to . . .’ He paused. ‘Live.’
‘Great,’ said Nina, understandably relieved. ‘Pity Zamal wasn’t here to hear that. I’d have loved to have seen his face.’
‘I would not be so smug,’ said Vogler. ‘Zamal may find some other reason to end your life. And perhaps next time, I will agree with him.’
Di Bonaventura waved him down. ‘I think she understands the threat. I hope she also understands the opportunity she is being given.’ He stood to address Nina. ‘Agree to help us find Eden, and you will go too. You will be the one to discover Eden. Imagine it, Dr Wilde - it would be the single greatest archaeological discovery in history. Not even Atlantis compares.’
‘You might be right,’ she replied. ‘But discovering Eden isn’t much use to me if I’m dead five minutes later.’
‘There may be no need to kill you. If you find Eden, and if it contains what we suspect, then you may understand why the Covenant was created. You may even agree with its purpose.’
‘Somehow I doubt that. But why don’t you just tell me what the big secret is, right now?’
The cardinal smiled. ‘Because then you would have no incentive to find out for yourself. I know what kind of person you are, Dr Wilde. I understand you. You are driven by the need to know, to discover that which is hidden. You have an urge to expand the boundaries of your knowledge - of all knowledge. I understand you, because I am the same.’
‘We are not the same,’ Nina insisted vehemently. ‘I’m a scientist, I deal in fact - the tangible, the provable, things I can hold in my hand and show to the world. You’re doing the opposite, you’re trying to suppress knowledge. To protect your faith.’
‘My faith is strong enough not to need protection.’
‘Then why are you trying to destroy all trace of the Veteres?’
‘Because not everyone’s faith is as strong as mine.’ As Nina took in the implications of that, he continued, ‘Dr Wilde, science and faith are not mutually exclusive. The Church is not opposed to science, far from it. Astronomy, cosmology, genetics, evolutionary biology . . . the Church has embraced them all.’
‘After long battles,’ Nina pointed out.
‘Sometimes, yes. Controversial theories cannot become accepted overnight. But in the end, only a fool denies the undeniable. And that is when science and faith come together. They are two sides of the same coin - the search for truth. Through science, you can answer the question: what is this? And then through faith, you can answer the other: what does this mean? Only when you know both answers can you find the ultimate truth.’
‘The ultimate truth being . . .’
‘The purpose of the Covenant. The secret of the Veteres. And the hope . . .’ he looked away, at the ceiling - or something beyond it, ‘the hope that one day, we will understand how it fits into God’s plan.’
‘Cardinale,’ said Vogler - and this time there was a warning tone to his voice. The balance of power in the room had subtly shifted from the Covenant’s former leader to his protégé. Had di Bonaventura said too much - or was he expressing another long-withheld regret over his actions?
His words at least confirmed to Nina that whatever the secret of the long-d
ead civilisation might be, it did indeed conflict strongly with the words of Genesis - so much so that the Covenant was afraid of the damage it could cause to all three Abrahamic religions. But what could that secret be?
One thing was clear. For now, her only chance of survival was to accept di Bonaventura’s offer - and hope she could string out the meagre amount of information she could remember from the destroyed map long enough to escape.
And there was something else. What if . . . what if she actually did discover the Garden of Eden? The cardinal was right - it would be the greatest discovery of all time. And if she were the one to make it . . .
‘All right,’ she said, standing. ‘Cardinal? I accept your offer.’ She held out her right hand.
For a moment he seemed almost surprised. But then he took her hand, shaking it. ‘Very well. Killian,’ he said, turning to Vogler, ‘it was good to see you again, and I hope I was of one last service to the Covenant.’
Vogler bowed his head. ‘You were, cardinale. Thank you. Though I suspect Zamal will not be pleased with your decision.’
‘Zamal will see the wisdom of it. In time. He always does.’
‘Yes, he does. In time.’ The two men shared the smile of a private joke, then shook hands. ‘Cardinale,’ Vogler said again; then he led Nina to the door.
‘Dr Wilde?’ di Bonaventura said as they reached it.
‘Yes?’
‘Good luck.’
Her surprise at his apparent sincerity was such that all she could think to say was, ‘Thank you.’
As Vogler had predicted, Zamal was less than pleased about the cardinal’s decision.
‘He is wrong!’ he bellowed, slamming a fist down on the table. The group had left the Vatican and gone to a large house in Rome, the dome of St Peter’s still visible in the distance through its windows. ‘I knew he would side with you!’
‘You agreed to abide by his decision,’ said Vogler. ‘And now the deadlock has been broken, we have a new objective. Dr Wilde will guide us to Eden.’
Ribbsley snorted. ‘I doubt that very much. Even if she knows its location, which is unlikely, she’ll just try to delay us to give Chase a chance to get there first.’
‘She knows the risks of wasting our time,’ said Vogler, looking to where Nina was sitting apart from the others, her face stony. ‘And surely,’ he continued, turning to Callum, ‘the intelligence resources of the United States have been able to track down Chase and Blackwood by now?’
The white-haired man sat up stiffly, bristling at the challenge - but unable to respond to it. ‘Unfortunately, not yet.’
‘Not yet?’ echoed Zamal. ‘Satellites, computers, spies, trillions of dollars - and you have nothing?’
‘No, not nothing,’ Callum said through tight lips. ‘The Southern Sun arrived at the French ice station of Dumont d’Urville about five hours ago. The surviving members of the UNARA expedition are going to be flown back to Australia from there. But Chase and Blackwood weren’t aboard - and the ship’s tilt-rotor was missing. It wouldn’t be able to reach land from off the Antarctic coast, so either the ship headed north to the limits of its range and then turned back to Dumont, or they stripped out the plane and turned it into a flying gas can. Even so, the only place it could have reached is Tasmania - but so far it hasn’t been found.’
‘Maybe they crashed in the sea,’ muttered Zamal.
‘I doubt we are that lucky,’ Vogler said. ‘But there’s been no trace of them? Nothing at all?’
Callum shook his head. ‘Either they’re still in Australia, or they’ve used false IDs to get out of the country.’ He glowered at Nina. ‘I don’t suppose you’d know anything about that.’
Nina leaned back and put her hands behind her head. ‘Lawabidin’ citizen here.’
Zamal banged his fists on the table. ‘I can make her tell us.’
‘It’s not important,’ said Vogler. ‘We have far more resources - we can still beat them.’
‘If she co-operates,’ Callum said.
‘I believe she will.’
‘You have a great deal of faith,’ rumbled Zamal.
‘Isn’t that the reason we are here?’
‘It’s not the reason I’m here,’ said Ribbsley, going to a window to gaze out at Rome. ‘And if you think I’m going to trek across the bloody deserts of Sudan, you can think again. Khartoum’s a backwater hellhole, but at least the hotels have air conditioning and room service, even if you can’t get a drink. I’ll fly myself to the site once she finds it.’ He turned, giving Nina a suspicious sneer. ‘If she can find it.’
‘I’ll find it,’ she snapped back, partly to maintain the fiction that she had both memorised and translated the map, but also out of affronted professional pride. ‘I’ve been doing better than you so far, haven’t I?’ He huffed and turned away. ‘Hah!’
‘In which case,’ said Vogler, ‘it is time you gave us a starting point. Sudan, you said, but you will need to be more specific. Since it is the largest country in Africa.’ He slid a map across the table to her. ‘So. Shall we begin, Dr Wilde?’
31
Sudan
‘So, do you actually know where you’re going?’ asked Tamara Defendé, ‘TD’ to her friends, as she guided her battered Piper Twin Comanche to a landing on the dusty runway.
‘More or less,’ said Chase, taking in the landscape. The desert surrounding El Obeid in central Sudan looked as desolate as the surface of Mars. ‘Okay, maybe less than more.’
The plane touched down, wheels squawking. Chase jolted forward in his seat. ‘Sorry,’ said TD, braking. ‘I’m not exactly thrilled to be here. Hardcore fundamentalist Islamic state on one hand, independent African businesswoman on the other - not the best mix.’
‘Do you have a problem with the Sudanese?’ Sophia asked from the Piper’s second row of seats.
‘Yes, if they’re paying the Janjaweed to rape and murder African women,’ TD said with angry sarcasm. ‘Maybe you hadn’t heard in your cell, but there have been some problems here. A little place called Darfur.’
‘We’re not going to Darfur,’ Chase said, trying to head off any further conflict between the two women. TD was an old friend, who at first had been happy to fly to meet him at Nairobi in Kenya - but she became less keen when she learned his intended destination, and outright appalled on discovering the identity of his travelling companion. He got the feeling that TD disliked Sophia more for betraying him personally than for any of her crimes.
‘Close enough. That part of the desert you showed me on the map, it might look empty, but it’s still Janjaweed territory.’ She mimed spitting. ‘You should stay well away.’
‘We don’t have a choice, unfortunately.’ TD turned off the main runway. Several planes were parked on the dirt, white-painted trucks and Land Rovers lined up nearby. ‘Those are UN trucks. What’s all this?’
‘Relief effort,’ TD told him. ‘It’s supposed to be going to Darfur. But quelle surprise, it has stopped here.’ Her attractive face took on an uncharacteristic hardness. ‘I hate this country.’
‘Just another African basket-case,’ Sophia said dismissively. ‘The entire continent was much better off in the colonial days.’ TD gave her a look suggesting that had she not been occupied with the controls, she would have reached back and hit her.
‘Soph, shut up,’ Chase said, tired. The last few days of travelling on false passports using bogus credit cards had been long, and tense, the possibility that they might be identified and captured - or killed - constantly hanging over them. And with Sudan being run by Islamic fundamentalists, there was a danger that the Covenant, at least Zamal’s branch of it, had influence. He patted TD’s shoulder. ‘Thanks for doing this for us.’
‘I’m doing it for you, Eddie,’ she replied pointedly. ‘And Nina. I hope she’s okay.’
He put on a stoic front. ‘So do I. But they took her prisoner when they could have just killed her, so hopefully she’s stringing them along about the map. The further aw
ay she tells them Eden is, the longer we’ll have to find it.’
‘You really believe that?’ TD asked. ‘The Garden of Eden, the actual one from the Bible? Here, in Sudan?’
‘That’s what Nina thought, so yeah. No idea what we’re going to find, though. If there’s some magical oasis out in the desert, I’m pretty sure it’d have showed up on Google Earth by now.’
‘There are only two things you can be sure of finding out there,’ said TD, bringing the plane to a stop. ‘Sand, and death.’
‘I can cope with the first one, even if it’s a pain when it gets in my arse crack,’ said Chase, the deliberate crassness of the comment producing a hint of a smile from his pilot. ‘Second one, though, I’d rather be the one causing it. Will your mate be able to sort something out?’
TD switched off the engines, the silence unsettling after the continuous buzz of the flight. ‘I spoke to him before I met you in Nairobi. He’s got you a jeep, and some guns. I don’t know what state they’ll be in, though.’
‘So long as the wheels turn and bullets come out when I pull the trigger, they’ll do. Thanks.’ He kissed her cheek. ‘What’re you going to do now?’
‘Personally, I’d like to fuel up and get as far from here as possible. But . . .’ she tipped back the bill of her baseball cap, ‘I might stay around for a couple of days. Just in case you need me.’
Chase grinned. ‘Appreciate it.’
‘Try not to get killed, Eddie. I hope you find what you’re looking for. And Nina.’
They climbed out and headed for the rundown terminal building.
A hundred and fifty miles to the north, a convoy of five Humvees pulled off a rough dirt road and came to a stop. Painted black rather than in camouflage colours, the oversized 4x4s appeared to be civilian vehicles. But beneath the paint, its gloss dulled by dust following the westward drive from the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, they were ex-military M1114 models, armoured and powerful.