‘As far as we can tell, Tannanu, yes,’ Diema said. ‘Leo Tillman’s intervention in London bought us a little time, but there’s no reason at all to think that it derailed the overall plan — which is to enact all the prophecies in sequence and force God’s hand.’
The blasphemy, so bluntly spoken, sent a frisson through the ranks of the Messengers.
‘And how far has he got?’ Kuutma asked calmly.
‘That’s what we’re trying to determine,’ Nahir said. ‘I have people looking at the book now.’
‘People?’ It was Kennedy who spoke. She was sick of standing by and listening — and she didn’t even try to keep the sardonic edge out of her voice. Nahir gave her another look of dyspeptic hatred, but Kuutma laughed — long and loud, throwing his head back. The Elohim, including Diema, stared at him. Twice Nahir seemed about to speak, but hesitated, waiting for Kuutma’s huge amusement to run its course.
‘She makes a point,’ Kuutma said, still smiling, and wiping the corner of his eye. ‘What people do you have, Desh Nahir? Put the lady’s mind at rest.’
Nahir clearly didn’t get the joke and just as clearly hated having to explain himself to an outsider, a rhaka. ‘Interpreters,’ he said, his gaze glancing off Kennedy before returning to Kuutma. ‘Priests. Textual exegesists. People who might be expected to have some skill in navigating a book of prophecies. But the prophecies were deliberately written in opaque and elliptical language. They support many different interpretations, and it’s hard — impossible, even — to say which if any is correct.’
‘So you don’t know,’ Kennedy concluded. ‘You don’t have any idea how long you’ve got or which prophecy Ber Lusim has reached. Which prophecy he’ll be looking to fulfil.’
‘This pains me,’ Nahir said to Kuutma. ‘Tannanu, I was about to exclude her. Please permit me to do so. I don’t see what we gain by letting her hear our proceedings. If you want to interrogate her later, I’d be happy to provide a room and some suitable—’
‘It’s the last prophecy,’ Kennedy said.
‘—some suitable implements for—’
‘He’s reached the last prophecy. Didn’t you see what Shekolni did down there? Did he slip it past you while you weren’t looking?’
Nahir was forced to acknowledge her now. He snarled what was presumably a curse word in ancient Aramaic, then swivelled to face her. ‘You’re talking about things you don’t understand,’ he said. ‘There are mysteries that will never be revealed to you — even if you were to spend a lifetime studying them.’
And that was meant to be a killer put-down, Kennedy thought: if there hadn’t been so very much at stake, including her life, she might have laughed in Nahir’s face. He was only a year or so older than Diema, Kennedy realised now. Of course, the Elohim tended to be young. Apart from Kuutma, she was probably the oldest person in the room. ‘And that’s your problem, right there,’ she said to him, her tone of condescension matching his. ‘You’re looking for revealed mysteries. All I’m looking for is an evidence trail.’
‘And you found one?’ Kuutma asked. He was staring at her keenly, expectantly. ‘Share it with us, please.’
‘Has someone got the text?’ Kennedy demanded.
Diema had learned it by rote, and to Kennedy’s surprise she recited it. ‘And the stone shall be rolled away from the tomb, as it was the time before. Then will a voice be heard, crying “The hour, the hour is at hand” and all men will see what heretofore was hidden. The betrayer will condemn a great multitude with a single breath. On the island that was given for an island, in the presence of the son and of the spirit, he will speak the names of the thousand thousand that will be sacrificed. And from his throne in the heavens, the Lord Jesus who is our glory and our life will speak the names of the few that will be saved.’
The words were met with a faintly awed silence from the other Elohim. Kennedy just nodded. ‘Avra Shekolni used his last words to name a time. Midnight on Sunday, GMT. He was being the voice — fulfilling Toller’s prophecy. And he roped us in, too. When we blew that door, we all became part of the scenario. Rolling away the stone from the mouth of the tomb. That’s the only reason why he waited for us.’
‘That place was not a tomb,’ Nahir said angrily. ‘It had been used as a granary.’
Kennedy turned to stare at him. ‘Wow, you got me there. Unless it became a tomb when he got a whole lot of his men to cut their throats in it. What do you think?’
‘And the door was steel. Not stone.’
‘Steel filled with poured concrete. You’re going to argue semantics with a dead prophet?’
‘No,’ Nahir said. ‘With a live whore.’
Kennedy shook her head in sorrowful wonder. ‘Did you skimp on your research, sweetheart?’ she asked. ‘Or are you scared you won’t be able to say dyke without blushing?’
She returned her attention to Kuutma, but she was speaking to the room at large. ‘Shekolni was pulling a trigger,’ she said. ‘We’ll probably never know, now, whether they had it planned this way all along or whether he killed himself rather than let you take him and question him. But by dying, he lined everything up — he fulfilled the conditions that would let Ber Lusim enact the last prophecy. And wherever he went when he left here, the place he’s heading for is the island — the “island that was given for an island”. Find that, and you’ll find him.’
She paused and looked from face to face, meeting an endless gallery of hostile stares and one quizzical frown.
‘And how,’ Kuutma said, ‘are we to do that?’
‘I’d suggest doing it fast,’ Kennedy answered.
A hubbub of voices arose, with Nahir and a dozen of his Elohim all shouting out at once. Kuutma held up a hand, calm and commanding, and the voices died away.
‘Enough,’ Kuutma said coldly. ‘I need to be completely briefed on your recent actions.’ Diema began to speak, but he continued over her. ‘Desh Nahir has rank and oversight in this city, so I’ll speak with him first — and then with my special emissary, Diema Beit Evrom. Time is short. We’ll speak in your command room, Nahir, and then we’ll meet again here immediately afterwards. The rest of you will wait for us to return.’ He glanced at Kennedy. ‘Except for the rhaka, who can be placed in whatever receptacle you deem appropriate.’
‘Take her back to her cell,’ Nahir said. The two Messengers who had started to close in on Kennedy earlier, and had stopped in their tracks when Kuutma entered, took hold of her now.
They turned Kennedy around and led her to the door. Their grip on her shoulders was tighter than it needed to be: one of them also had a fist jammed against her lower back, presumably prepared to get her in a full lock if she stepped out of line. Nahir looked away, done with the whole business. So did Diema.
If I wasn’t dead before, Kennedy thought, I’m sure as hell dead now.
62
For about a quarter of an hour after he was thrown back into his cell, Rush just sat on the cot bed with his head sunk onto his raised knees. But gradually, boredom and frustration won out over fear and unease.
He whiled away some time carving obscene graffiti on the walls with the edge of a coin. Then he hammered on the door for a while, demanding something to eat and drink — until he remembered the apple that Diema had given him, and ate that. It quenched his thirst a little, but mostly just reminded him of how much he wanted a hamburger or a chicken madras.