A little smile formed on Pau's lips.
Katherina could see that was exactly what was going to happen. According to the documents from the school, almost all the people who had flown in were already activated. The whole staging of this gathering in this place seemed to point to something larger than a ritual ceremony of no practical significance. She held her breath. If a reactivation could enhance a Lector's powers, then what would happen to Jon? He was already off the scale and deadly dangerous when he was out of control. She could see that the others were thinking along the same lines.
'How much stronger can all of you get?' asked Henning at last.
'Enough to power a bicycle light,' said Pau, then smiled secretively.
'Then it's too bad you're not going to experience it,' said Katherina. She nodded towards the ropes. 'It's going to be hard to go to the reactivation when you're tied up like this.'
Pau looked at her. A hint of uncertainty had stolen across his face. 'They're coming to pick me up,' he said. 'They'll be here any minute.'
Mehmet looked at his watch.
'In half an hour, at the earliest,' he said. 'Plenty of time to get you out of here.'
Pau laughed nervously.
'We have friends in town,' Mehmet went on. 'How else do you think we found you? People who are good at finding things and also good at making things disappear.'
Pau shifted his gaze from one to the other, without finding even an ounce of support. Finally he gave Katherina a pleading look.
'You have to let me go, Kat,' he said desperately. 'I need this. It's my reward.'
'For what?' she asked.
'For Libri di Luca,' he replied, sounding annoyed.
'Didyou murder Luca?'
'No, no,' said Pau, shaking his head. 'It's my reward for infiltrating you.' His eyes took on a suffering expression. 'Come on, Kat. I promise not to say anything about you being here. Just let me go, so I can get my boost.'
'When is it going to happen?' asked Katherina.
Pau turned his head so he could avoid looking them in the eyes. He was silent for a long time before he answered.
'Tonight, like I said.'
'How?'
'Like an ordinary activation,' said Pau. 'But Jon is going to act as some sort of medium. I don't know exactly how it works. It has something to do with the library's energy and Jon's powers. When they're put together… ka-boom! Then we'll all get a boost up the scale.'
'And Jon?'
Pau shook his head. 'Nobody knows. Maybe nothing will happen, maybe he'll get a kick too, or maybe he'll croak.'
Katherina fought back a desire to grab Pau and shake the indifference out of him. They were wasting time while the Shadow Organization was getting ready to sacrifice Jon.
'How do all of you get in?' asked Mehmet.
Pau nodded at the robe.
'We have to wear that, and the necklace.'
'How many are going to be there?'
'Lots. They're coming from all over the world.'
'What about the language?' asked Henning. 'Jon can't very well reactivate people in all the different languages, can he?'
'I don't know! I think it has something to do with the electrical discharges. They'll strike everyone, regardless.'
'And what about afterwards?'
'Afterwards nobody'll be able to stop us.' Pau smiled.
Mehmet nodded to Henning and Katherina and then drew them away from Pau so he wouldn't hear what they said.
'What do you think?' asked Mehmet in a low voice.
'I believe him,' replied Henning with a sigh.
Katherina cast a glance over at Pau, who was sitting there with a satisfied smile on his face.
'I do too,' she whispered. 'Unfortunately. It doesn't look good. This is worse than I had imagined. We're going to have to stop it.'
'But how? There are three of us, and we don't know how many hundreds of them.'
'But there's only one Jon,' Mehmet pointed out.
'What do you mean?' asked Katherina.
'We have to stop him from taking part in the celebration,' said Mehmet bluntly. 'No Jon. No party.'
Katherina didn't really want to know what lengths they would have to go to in order to stop Jon, but she knew Mehmet was right. Jon was the key to the whole thing, and as long as he was on the side of the Shadow Organization – as he seemed now to be – he was dangerous.
'And how are we going to stop him?' asked Henning.
'We have to go to the party,' said Mehmet. He nodded towards Pau. 'One of us will have a free ticket to get in.'
'That will be me,' said Katherina quickly.
The other two looked at her.
'I know him best,' she stubbornly pointed out. 'We've trained together, so I know what he's capable of doing.'
Mehmet nodded. 'Okay. You take the amulet. Henning and I will find another way in.'
Henning agreed with a nod.
'Hey,' shouted Pau behind them. 'I think it's about time for you to set me free.'
The three exchanged knowing smiles before they turned to face their captive.
38
In a few hours it would be done.
Jon could hardly comprehend it. For most of his life he had been held back from following his destiny, and until only moments ago people had been trying to lead him astray, but now he would finally have the opportunity to take his rightful place. There had been countless obstacles along the way, and they had caused extraordinary delays. He wished that he'd had more time to prepare. After all, it was only a couple of days ago that he'd been initiated into the true nature of the Order. It annoyed him not to feel entirely ready, even though Remer had said he was. Of course he could see it was important for the Order to launch the activation. The longer they waited, the more chance of losing their influence, but he still felt uncertain. His encounter with Katherina just a few hours ago had shaken him, and if it hadn't been for Remer's intervention, things could have gone terribly wrong.
That couldn't be allowed to happen again.
So it was a focused and silent Jon who sat on the back seat of the Land Rover, together with Patrick Vedel, on their way to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. In his hands he held the book from which he was supposed to read. It bore neither a title nor the name of the author, and the black leather had no visible markings to reveal the contents. This was the book used for all activations in the Order, specially written for the occasion and charged with so much energy that Jon almost dropped it the first time he held it in his hands. The pulsing from the book made his fingers tingle, but in a pleasant, reassuring way, which helped him to concentrate instead of distracting him. The contents were equally surprising. When Jon had had the opportunity to read some of the pages, he discovered that the descriptions and the images they evoked were strangely compelling. There was no question of any sort of coherent storyline. The book had been written for the purpose of supporting the powers in the best possible way, and it was full of scenes that could be interpreted and charged by the transmitter to great effect. Remer had explained that Jon's copy was only one of a large set of identical books that would be used at the reactivation. All of them had become charged during countless rituals.
Outside the car the weather changed as they travelled from the country house to the city. The wind picked up, and dark clouds drifted in across the evening sky. When they reached Al-Corniche, the beach promenade, they could see the water pounding against the bulwark, the beaten foam tossed over the roadway in great white clumps.
Even though they had driven past the library earlier in the day, it made a different and much more spectacular impression against the backdrop of the sombre sky. The disc of the library roof was illuminated by spotlights, the entire glass surface gleaming an unnatural white. The spherical building on the plaza in front, which housed the planetarium, was girdled by glittering blue bands. Beyond the library was the pyramid-shaped library school; in the darkness it shone green in the glow from powerful searchlights. The illuminated buildings were an incredible sight, and from the sea they must have seemed a worthy replacement for the lighthouse of antiquity.