But, she realised with increasing alarm, there was older material too, recordings of her on the streets of New York. Entering and leaving her apartment building, visiting stores, her therapist — even the medical centre where her obstetrician was based. That meant Cross’s people had been watching her for some time, as her last appointment had been a month ago.
Eddie featured in some of the spy shots. The sight of her husband reignited her anger — and her fear for his safety. ‘Where’s Eddie?’ she demanded. ‘What have you done with him?’
Cross faced her. ‘I’ve had him kidnapped to force you to do what I want.’ On seeing her surprise at his blunt answer, he went on: ‘I used to work in intelligence, for the CIA. For a job that was supposedly about finding facts, there was far too much hiding of the truth behind walls of lies and evasion. And then, one day, I had… a revelation.’ A faint smile. ‘Since then, I’ve dedicated myself to truth, to clarity. Which is why I’m not going to waste time with veiled threats.’ He stepped closer, staring coldly at the redhead. ‘You’re going to help me find something. If you don’t cooperate, your husband will be tortured. Clarity, as I said.’
It took Nina a few seconds to stammer out a reply. ‘And if I do cooperate? What happens to us?’
‘That’s up to God’s judgement.’
Fury rose inside her. ‘That’s not clarity, you son of a bitch! That’s evasion—’ She broke off with a gasp as Anna seized her by the hair.
Cross raised a hand. ‘I’m not being evasive, Dr Wilde.’ Anna let go, and Nina drew away from her with a hate-filled glare. ‘You’ll see what I mean when I get what I want.’
‘What do you want?’ she growled. ‘Why do you need me — and why kidnap me and torture Eddie rather than just, y’know, asking nicely?’
‘I have my reasons. One of which is that I had to be certain you would help me.’
‘I still might not.’
His cold eyes flicked towards one particular screen. ‘You will.’
Nina followed his gaze to see a slumped Eddie sitting in — no, secured to — a chair in a darkened room, apparently unconscious. Her blood froze. Somehow she knew it was a live image.
‘What do you want?’ she asked again, this time pleading. ‘Whatever it is, just tell me, and I’ll try to find it for you.’
Cross moved to survey the wall of screens. ‘Do you believe in God, Dr Wilde?’
Being in a church, she should have been prepared for the question, but it still caught her off guard. ‘Not… no, not particularly.’
‘Then you’re an atheist?’ There was a venomous undercurrent behind the word.
‘No.’
He frowned. ‘Belief in God doesn’t work on a sliding scale. You either do, or you don’t. You’re a believer, or you’re not.’
‘Then I guess I don’t share your belief.’
‘I thought so.’ His eyes returned to the screens. ‘My people have been watching you for some time. You’ve been to a lot of places, but not one was a church. And even a cesspool of sin like New York has churches.’
Despite her fear, Nina still felt annoyance at the slur on her home town. ‘I don’t have an opinion on whether or not God exists, because it’s not an issue that comes up a great deal in my everyday life. God might be real, or not, but either way the subway still runs late.’
‘Ah, an agnostic, then,’ said Cross in a patronising tone. ‘In some ways that’s worse than an atheist, because at least they have conviction. You don’t believe in the Lord because you can’t be bothered.’
‘I suppose you’re going to tell me that sloth is a deadly sin?’
He shook his head. ‘Nowhere in the Bible says so directly. Proverbs eighteen, verse nine comes close — “He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster” — but the idea of the Seven Deadly Sins is an invention of the Catholic Church.’ His obvious disdain for that institution was almost as great as for atheists. ‘Only what’s written in the Bible itself matters. Which brings me to why you’re here.’
‘Which is?’
Cross came back to stand before her. ‘Are you familiar with the Book of Revelation, Dr Wilde?’
‘If you’re asking me if I can quote chapter and verse, then no — but yeah, of course I’m familiar with it. The last book of the New Testament, also known as the Apocalypse of John, written in exile by John of Patmos — who may or may not be John the Apostle, depending which school of thought you follow — accepted into biblical canon at the third Council of Carthage in AD 397 over considerable opposition… and argued about ever since.’
The white-robed man seemed almost impressed. ‘More familiar than I expected given that you claim you can’t be bothered to believe.’
‘I’m an archaeologist — ancient history’s kind of my thing.’
‘Then you accept the Bible as a historical document?’
‘I accept some of it as a historical document — the parts that can be corroborated with other contemporary accounts. Revelation definitely isn’t one of those parts, though.’
‘Why not?’ His gaze became challenging. ‘Have you read it?’
‘When I was a student, for historical context. It reads like something you’d hear from a crazy guy living in a dumpster.’ Cross and his two followers showed irritation at the criticism, but she pressed on: ‘Visitations by angels, stars falling from the sky, plagues, a pregnant woman being chased by a dragon, the four horsemen of the apocalypse… and the end of the world. It’s completely at odds with the rest of the New Testament. There were other equally crazy apocalyptic gospels that were rejected from canon — Paul, Ezra — so why this one got through is a mystery.’
Cross shook his head. ‘It’s not a mystery. The reason is because the Book of Revelation is true.’ He leaned closer, a new and frightening intensity in his eyes. ‘And I’ll prove it to you.’
4
Cross led Nina across the control room to a vault-like metal door, using a thumbprint scanner to unlock it. Beyond was something even more incongruous within a church: a chamber that appeared to be a laboratory. Walls, floor and ceiling were all tiled in gleaming white, a stainless-steel bench standing before a glass and metal cabinet. A laptop on the countertop was the only loose item.
Nina felt a new unease. She had been in a similar lab before, part of a Russian biological warfare centre. Whatever Cross kept in here, he considered dangerous.
He went to the cabinet. ‘Do you know what that is?’ he asked, pointing at its contents.
She peered through the toughened glass. On top of a small pedestal sat a fragment of pottery or ceramic. It seemed to have been burned, a dark charcoal smear on the surface. ‘It looks like… a piece of a statue?’
‘It is,’ said Cross, nodding. ‘But it’s also something else. I told you I’d seen an angel, Dr Wilde. There it is.’
‘You mean you saw a statue of an angel?’
‘Yes. But I believe — as firmly as I believe in the word of God and Jesus — that they’re the same thing.’ On her questioning look, he went on: ‘The Book of Revelation talks of four angels, bound by God. Chapter nine, verse thirteen: “And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, ‘Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.’” And I’ve seen one of them with my own eyes. This was it!’
Nina held back the more scathing of her immediate thoughts. ‘What do you mean?’