Mikhail turned to follow Dikembe out who was about to get into an armored car.
Sam grabbed him by the shoulder. “Where are you going?”
“I’ve decided to offer my assistance to Dikembe. In whatever capacity I can. I don’t think you really appreciate what he’s about to do for the region.”
“No you’re not.”
Mikhail asked, “Why not?”
Sam said, “You’re coming with us. The future’s now, and you’re going to be a father.”
Mikhail stared at him. “Zara’s pregnant?”
Chapter One Hundred and Twelve
Sam, Tom and Mikhail boarded the Jet Ranger. Sam hadn’t finished closing the side door before Genevieve took off again, over Lake Tumba. She was eager to get off the ground and far out of the reach of stray bullets. The distant sound of gunfire, reminding everyone that they were now in the middle of a dangerous warzone, and that the rebellion had started, even if it was only still in its infancy. Sam watched with pleasure as Zara’s face lit up with joy as she saw Mikhail climb in.
Genevieve flew back to the Bangui International Airport. Inside the helicopter, a silence formed, as all of them quietly took in the events of the previous six hours. A lot had changed. They had all aided a rebel force to take the lead, and no-one, including Nostradamus could be certain that it had been the right choice. Sam, like any good leader, knew that many lives had been changed today as a result of his actions. Thousands would die. While he hoped he’d been instrumental in saving many more, he knew that only time would prove the wisdom of his decision.
The Jet Ranger touched the ground and Genevieve switched the engines off. At approximately the same time, the pilot on board the Legacy 450 luxury jet completed his final pre-flight checks. The small party switched aircraft, and the Legacy was once again back in the air.
The time was 0455.
Sam sat down across from Zara, who was sitting silently, holding Mikhail’s hand. Sam said, “You knew about Adebowale, didn’t you?”
Zara smiled. “I had my suspicions.”
“But you said nothing?”
“No. I didn’t know for certain until we got into the Nostradamus Equation. It was the 84th quatrain that convinced me.”
She recited the quatrain from memory.
An ocean above and a maze below
Where the two meet over a baled woe,
The twin of a king shall die and the sun will set,
With a new ruler, and a kingdom shall grow without threat
Sam asked, “How?”
Zara said, “The second line in the quatrain. Where the two meet over a baled woe. It means somewhere between the ocean above and the maze below, the two worlds shall meet over a baled woe.”
“So?”
“A baled woe is old English, meaning to help a friend in need. But it’s also an anagram for, Adebowale.”
“But we thought Adebowale was an only child!”
She shook her head. “That’s what I thought at the time, but then I looked up his name.”
Sam stared at her incredulously, and said, “His name?”
“Yes. Do you know what the Swahili name, Adebowale means?”
“No. What?”
“Second born son of royal blood.”
Sam grinned. “Adebowale was a twin! Of course, he was second in line to the throne.”
He then got up and walked to the back of the chartered jet, to where Tom had already claimed two leather chairs for a makeshift bed. Sam opened the satellite phone secured to the side of the jet and dialed a number.
Elise answered on the first ring. Her voice was sharp, and she sounded out of breath, quite different from her normal, calm and collected self. She spoke first. “Sam, you’re alive! Did you work out Adebowale wasn’t on our side?”
“Adebowale’s dead,” Sam said, flatly. “And how the hell is it that everyone worked out that Adebowale was tricking us, before me?”
“The Secretary of Defense sent me a message after you’d left. Adebowale and Ngige had spent time in the mines as children. Their lives took vastly different directions, but Adebowale had always maintained loyalty to the man. Last night, after you’d left, I received information that General Ngige had died.”
“He’s dead?” Sam asked. “How did that happen, before the coup?”
Elise said, “Infection. He had an operation after his eye was burned, and he got an infection. It traveled to his brain, and killed him before the doctors knew what was going on.”
Sam shook his head in silence, staring at the darkness outside the aircraft’s window, and becoming lost in thought as he wondered what Nostradamus would think about any of this.
Elise reminded him that he called for a reason. “What do you need, boss?”
Sam paused for a moment. The sound of the Legacy 450’s twin Rolls Royce engines humming in perfect harmony filled his world. He took in a deep breath and said, “I need you to patch me through on a secure link to John Wallis.”
“Understood,” Elise said, returning to her natural composure. “By the way Sam. Congratulations. I’m glad you and Tom are all right.”
“Thanks, Elise,” he said. “I just hope we all made the right decision and chose the right side for humanity.”
“You did. We all saw the signs. It needed to be done.”
Sam waited until the sat phone started making new sounds, as it was redirected through a series of proxy servers and privately owned satellites.
Sam recognized John Wallis’s voice on the other end of the line. “What news do you have for me?”
Sam said, “It’s been done, John.”
“Very good, Mr. Reilly,” John said, refusing to address him informally. “I suppose you’re calling, because you want to know?”
“Yes. Did I just risk my team’s life for a reason?”
John said, “It worked, didn’t it?”
“But did I change the future?”
Sam heard the sound of old pages being carefully turned, read and then turned over again.
John said, “Yes and no.”
“Yes and no?” Sam repeated the words, shaking his head. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Nostradamus saw things the others did not. The timeline has been changed. The extinction of mankind will no longer happen this year.”
“But it will still happen?”
“That we don’t know for certain.” John spoke slowly and tentatively, as though he was unsure of himself, and more importantly, that he was unsure how much to reveal to Sam Reilly. “I’ve studied the new event lines. The one attached to you is the only one that shows any sign of the human race surviving.”
“What does that mean?” Sam said. “Am I supposed to do something?”
“I don’t know. The future’s a very determined thing. It took a mastermind like Nostradamus to outmaneuver it. All I know so far is that at some stage in the future, somewhere along the strings of events that are connected with you, one of them will have two separate outcomes. The first will be that you fail, and humanity becomes extinct. The second, you succeed, and humanity gets to continue on its current course.”
Sam asked, “How long?”
John said, “Until this event occurs?”
“Yeah.”
“It could be a day, a week, or a year. It might happen on your deathbed. I’ll keep monitoring the events as they come in. If I see a sign that the event is nearing, I’ll let you know.”
“Like a code to extinction?”