The Judas Strain - James Rollins [46]
“Only one. What the hell is going on?”
Her left eyebrow lifted. A strangely familiar gesture, a reminder of their shared past. “To answer that, we have to start there.” She nodded to the obelisk. “If you’ll set it on the instrument table…”
Needing answers, Gray obeyed, balancing the broken piece atop the base.
“The lamp…” she said.
A moment later, with the overhead lights off, Gray bent over and studied the rows of illuminated letters glowing upon the black stone, across all four surfaces.
He did not recognize the lettering as any hieroglyphs or runes he’d ever seen. He glanced across at her. The whites of Seichan’s eyes glowed in the ultraviolet backwash.
“What you’re looking at is angelic script,” she said. “The language of the archangels.”
Gray’s brow crinkled with his disbelief.
“I know,” she said. “Insane. The script’s origin traces back to both early Christianity and ancient Hebrew mysticism. If you want to know more—”
“Skip it. I’d rather find out what you meant when you said that the obelisk could save the world.”
She leaned back, glancing away—then her eyes flicked to him. “Gray, I need your help. I have to stop them, but I can’t do it alone.”
“Do what alone?”
“Go against the Guild. What they are attempting…” Again there was that flash of fear from her.
Gray frowned. When he’d first run into Seichan, she had been attempting to explode weaponized anthrax over Fort Detrick. Considering such callousness, what would scare her now?
“I helped you in the past,” she said, trying the guilt card.
“To defeat a mutual enemy,” he countered. “And to save your own skin.”
“And that’s all I’m looking for here again. Cooperation to defeat a mutual enemy. And it’s not just my life in jeopardy this time. Hundreds of millions are threatened. And it’s already started. The seeds are planted.”
She nodded to the obelisk’s glowing writing. “All that is stopping the Guild is locked in this riddle. If we could solve it first, there would be some hope. But I’ve gone as far as I can alone. I need fresh eyes, someone with more knowledge.”
“And you expect the two of us to be able to solve what thwarts the Guild with its vast resources. If we brought all of Sigma into the picture—”
“You’d be handing the Guild their victory. There is a mole in Sigma. Whatever Sigma learns, the Guild will know.”
She was right. It was worrisome, to say the least.
“So you propose we go it alone. Just the two of us.”
“And one other…if he’ll cooperate.”
“Who?”
“When it comes to dealing with angels and archaeology, there is only one other person I respect.”
Gray knew immediately to whom she was referring. “Vigor.”
She nodded. “I left Monsignor Verona a calling card, a mystery to begin solving on his own. If you cooperate, we’ll continue on.” She touched the obelisk, wobbling the broken half. “To the next step on the angelic path.”
“And where is that?”
Another shake of her head. She certainly was not going to make this easy. “I will tell you when we are away. As it is, we must get moving. The longer we sit in one place, the greater risk of our exposure.”
She reached for the obelisk.
Gray beat her to it. He snatched up the larger half of the broken obelisk and raised it over his head. He’d had enough.
“Destroy it if you want,” Seichan warned. “I still won’t tell you anything more. Not until we’re safely away and you agree to help.”
Gray ignored her. “I assume you already made copies of the script here, probably even photos.”
“Several in fact,” she said.
“Good.”
He brought his arm down and smashed the obelisk against the floor. It shattered into several pieces, skittering across the linoleum. A small gasp of surprise escaped Seichan, indicating she had no clue anything was hidden inside the statue.
“What…what have you done?”
Gray bent down and picked through the pieces to retrieve the chunk of silver from the debris. He straightened. In his fingers, he held what was hidden inside the stone. He was momentarily stunned silent.