They looked through the rooms on the ground floor. There was no sign of Al-Bayati.
"He has to be here," Selena said.
They found one more door at the end of a hall.
"The other side of that door is the only place left," Lamont said.
"Then let's go find the son of a bitch."
Nick opened the door.
CHAPTER 53
The door was heavy, thick, like a bank vault door. Beyond it, a flight of stairs descended to a passage below. Yellow light flickered from somewhere beyond.
"Kind of overkill for a house door," Lamont said. "It looks like it belongs in a bank."
"Soundproof," Selena said. "You could set off a bomb behind that and no one would hear it."
Nick rubbed his ear. "If Al-Bayati is down there, he might not know we're here. I don't think he could have heard the guns."
A stale odor hung in the air.
"What's that smell?" Selena said.
Ronnie sniffed. "Fire. Something else."
"Like someone's been barbecuing," Lamont said.
They went down the stairs without seeing anyone. The light grew brighter as they neared the bottom. A short hallway led from the last step into a large room. It took a few seconds for Nick to realize what he was looking at. When the meaning sank in he knew he would carry the sight with him for the rest of his life.
The room was lit with tall wax candles. Fire leapt from a large, round brazier of black iron mounted on a tripod. The floor of the chamber was made of polished cedar. The flames from the brazier and the candles filled the room with a fiery glow. Beyond the brazier was a fat, gilded statue depicting a standing horned god with an erect phallus. He had the body of a man and the head of a bull. The animal face was contorted with a terrible smile. The arms were held out on the other side of the flaming brazier, with the palms up and the hands slanted down.
Al-Bayati stood to the side of the flames, his back toward them. He was dressed in a floor length robe of deep blue. A shawl of the same material covered his head. His hands were raised in supplication toward the statue and he was chanting, the words like snakes slithering through dry grass. On his left hand he wore the ring of Solomon. In his right he held a bundle of herbs.
Next to Al-Bayati was the ugly man, Badr. Neither of the two had seen them. Nick would have shot them both from where he stood except that Badr held a child in his arms, a girl of about nine or ten years. Her body was limp, unconscious. Her hair hung perilously close to the flames.
Selena grasped Nick's arm. "That's Moloch. They're going to sacrifice that child to Moloch."
At the sound of her voice, Al-Bayati and Badr turned toward them. Bayati's face was strangely calm. He smiled and threw the bundle of herbs onto the brazier. A cloud of black and white smoke rose like a poisonous mushroom, releasing a thick, sweet scent.
His eyes glittered.
"He's stoned out of his mind," Lamont said.
"Carter," Al-Bayati said. "I wouldn't come any closer if I were you."
Nick gestured with his MP5. "Away from the fire. You too, big man."
"Take a step and the child dies," Al-Bayati said. "Badr."
Badr handed the girl to him. Al-Bayati moved close and held the child over the hands of the idol.
"It's simple," he said. "I put the child into the hands of the god and she slides off into the flames. The body contracts and creates the most wonderful smile as he welcomes her."
"You're sick," Nick said.
Bayati's expression changed. "I am the high priest of Moloch, as my ancestors have been before me for centuries. Even Solomon built a Temple to him when he recognized his power. Be careful how you speak in the presence of the god."
Ronnie was moving slowly to the side. Badr watched him.
"Did Solomon use that ring when he built it?" Selena asked.
She was trying to buy time. Nick couldn't see how he could get the child away from Al-Bayati before the girl went into the fire.
"You begin to understand. Yes, he invoked the jinn to help him."
"I would like to see that," Selena said, "the jinn."
"Oh, I doubt that. Besides, they seldom make themselves visible in our dimension."
"You've seen them. Tell me, what do they look like?"
For the first time, Al-Bayati seemed uncertain.
"They have not yet chosen to appear for me. After the sacrifice they will come."
"They only come if they are summoned by the ring," Selena said. "It won't work if you don't pronounce the incantations correctly."
"How would you know about these things?"
"Don't you know who I am? I'm an expert in these languages. I may be the only person alive who can speak them with the right inflection. Just now you were chanting in one of the Western Punic dialects from ancient Carthage. I could tell that it wasn't right."
Al-Bayati's eyes widened. "A guess."
"No."
"Tell your man to stop moving or the child dies."
"Ronnie, stop," Nick said.
Ronnie froze.
Badr smiled through his rotten teeth. His eyes were all pupil, black in the firelight.
He's stoned too, Nick thought.
"They'll never come unless you use the right words," Selena said.
"Then you will help me call them," Al-Bayati said. "If they appear, the child will live. If you fail, she dies. As will you and your friends."
He's lying, she thought.
"Give me your oath as the high priest of Moloch that you will keep your word."
"I swear," Al-Bayati said. "And you must swear to obey me. Do as I say or I give the girl to the god."
"I swear it."
"Selena…"
"Nick, I want to see the jinn. I'll never have another chance."
"Are you nuts?" Lamont said.
"Woman, come here. Badr, watch them."
Badr went to a carved wooden cabinet set to the side of the statue. He took out a Skorpion machine pistol and pointed it at them. Selena began walking toward the idol.
Nick didn't believe for a second that she wanted to see the jinn. What mattered was that Al-Bayati in his drugged state believed it. There would only be one chance to save the child. His ear began to itch with a fierce burning sensation.
"Where are the writings?" Selena asked.
"In a drawer on the top of the cabinet. Be careful, woman. Moloch's hands are slippery."
"If you drop her I won't help you call the jinn."
Al-Bayati watched as she opened the drawer and took out a piece of yellowed vellum covered with writing in black ink. It was in a language she had never seen. She glanced over at Nick and saw him catch the look. It was now or never.
"Begin," Al-Bayati commanded.
Selena held the parchment up as if to start reading. With a sudden motion she threw it into the fire. The vellum burst into a flare of bright yellow flame. Before Al-Bayati could react she knocked the girl out of his hands and body slammed him into the brazier. He went down on the floor as the brazier toppled over, showering him with red hot coals. He screamed as they struck his face. His robe caught fire.
Nick, Ronnie and Lamont opened fire at Badr. A dozen rounds staggered him. He crumpled to the floor.
Al-Bayati writhed on the floor, screaming, his robe burning. He struggled to his feet, enveloped in flame. He stumbled into the golden idol and fell to the floor. The screams were horrible.
Nick shot him. The screaming stopped. The room filled with the stench of burning flesh as the robe smoldered.
"I guess that's what you call poetic justice," Lamont said.
Ronnie went over to the body and took a bandanna from his pocket. He pulled Solomon's ring off Al-Bayati's dead finger, wiped it clean and wrapped the cloth around it.
"Here." He gave it to Nick.