21st May
Bishop Julian Summerland sat on the ageing and lumpy mattress that was resting on a rusting bed frame in his hotel room in Sanliurfa.
He was finding it hard to formulate a plan.
He reviewed again the information that might be relevant.
Angela Rikard had revealed herself to him as being Arkangel.
As far as he knew, he and Angela Rikard were the only members of ARK who were not dead, in captivity or simply foot soldiers who undertook specific tasks with no concept of the bigger picture.
Angela Rikard had summoned him to Gobekli Tepe because of some prophesied event that was predicted to occur tomorrow.
Yesterday, at the site, she had been explaining some things to him. A short time later, she and his driver had literally disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Those who Angela Rikard had described as her bodyguards had clearly been troubled by her disappearance. None, however, had spoken English, and all had rapidly left the site before Summerland could gain any useful information from them.
Sadly, his driver had not left the keys in the Landrover, so Summerland had been forced to walk back to the adjacent town.
There had been no one he could realistically talk to about this situation, and now, he had no clear idea of what to do next.
He had resolved to simply wait. Perhaps Angela Rikard would reappear and, even if not, the prophesied event on the following day might lead to some inspiration.
A knock came upon his door. He stood up, walked to the door and opened it. A man and a woman stood outside; each was pointing a gun at him.
Summerland instinctively raised his hands. ‘Who are you,’ he said, ‘and what do you want?’
‘We’re from MI5,’ said Helen as Summerland backed away and she and Etienne walked into the room. ‘We want to talk to you about … well, loads of stuff really: ARK, Arkangel, an asteroid, Americans – and they’re just the ones that begin with A!’
There had been a brief discussion in the underground listening station about various sophisticated ways to effect a kidnap and interrogation. Etienne, however, had pointed out that, given the circumstances of the bishop and the small and disinterested population in Sanliurfa, their strategy did not require greater subtlety than parking outside the bishop’s hotel, going to his room, pointing some guns at him and being truthful.
‘Where are Arkangel and your driver?’ asked Helen when they were all seated and Etienne had poured them all some water.
‘I don’t know,’ Summerland replied. ‘I wish I did.’
Summerland went on to explain what had happened at the site, late on the previous afternoon. His explanation exactly correlated with what Etienne had heard and seen via remote surveillance. It seemed likely that Summerland was as baffled as they were.
‘What do you know about the asteroid and the control room at Meadowcote Hall?’ asked Etienne.
‘You won’t succeed,’ replied Summerland defiantly.
‘Succeed at what?’ asked Helen.
‘At preventing us from deflecting the asteroid,’ Summerland replied.
‘We’re not trying to prevent you from deflecting the asteroid,’ said Helen. ‘We want to help you.’
‘You’re undertaking the Devil’s work,’ Summerland continued dismissively. ‘We know that Morrison is the Anti-Christ and that he is controlling MI5. We know that you must all be working with WAR to bring about Judgement Day.’
Helen and Etienne looked at each other quizzically. They had decided not to challenge any beliefs about the Great Lord Morrison in case such beliefs could later be used to their advantage. Clearly, however, the belief about MI5 working with WAR was unhelpful.
‘It’s true that Mr. Morrison is working with MI5,’ said Etienne, ‘but we are trying to prevent WAR from disrupting a missile launch.’
‘Really we are,’ said Helen in a tone of voice that, rather incongruously, came out in the endearing manner of a child trying to convince someone that she was not teasing.
‘Why do you think Mr. Morrison is supporting WAR and not ARK?’ asked Etienne.
‘I know of the unspeakable horrors he perpetrated on ARK disciples at Meadowcote church. That was the behaviour of a bloodthirsty and conscienceless demon from Hell, clearly opposed to ARK.’
In the context of her previous comment, Helen briefly reflected upon a reply such as ‘No, silly, that was me!’ In preference, however, she said: ‘ARK attacked first, on that occasion. Everything that happened afterwards was self-defence. It had nothing at all to do with the asteroid.’
Etienne and Helen continued their questioning for a short while before Etienne decided to bring it to a close. ‘Frankly, Bishop,’ said Etienne, ‘I don’t think you know any more than we do. You’re wrong about us working with WAR. On the issue of the asteroid, whatever you may believe, we’re on the same side. Mind you, when the little matter of the future of life on Earth is resolved, we’ll still come after ARK for involvement in the murders.’
‘What murders?’ asked Summerland.
‘The Revered Butler, when he was about to talk to us about ARK,’ said Etienne, ‘and at least six others who were tortured and killed in the crypt at Meadowcote church.’
‘Harris, Rider, Hartnell and Butler,’ said Summerland.
‘What about them?’ enquired Etienne.
‘God will have to be their judge,’ Summerland replied. ‘They were effective at reclaiming arcane secrets that should not be revealed, but the Masters of ARK should have enquired more about their methods. I think Horatio Rycroft knew what was really going on, but the other four of us accepted his reassurances that the actions of that group conformed to modern, civilised standards.
‘Perhaps we didn’t want to know; perhaps we thought that the ends justified the means. Whatever, we will all have to answer to God for that.’
‘Do you know who they killed?’ asked Etienne.
‘I suspect,’ Summerland replied, ‘that there were seven: I never knew the names of the first three. Then there were Rupert Waterside, Amelia Cornerway, Joshua Rio and, of course, David Butler.’
‘But Butler was one of them,’ said Etienne.
‘He was,’ Summerland agreed, ‘but the others came to view him as a traitor. They discovered that David Butler had approached the police to say that he was concerned about the methods the group used. They were worried that this might damage their ability to find out about the Ark. Arkangel and the Masters were concerned that police involvement might compromise the missile deflection plan so accepted Butler’s death without further investigation.’
‘You talk about them trying to find out about ARK,’ said Helen. ‘I thought they were members of ARK.’
‘No, I didn’t say ARK, I said the Ark – the Ark of the Covenant,’ Summerfield clarified.
‘What were those three people supposed to know about the Ark of the Covenant?’ asked Etienne.
‘The Ark of the Covenant disappeared from the temple in Jerusalem when the Babylonians destroyed the city in 579 BC. Although it’s been considered as lost, it has in fact resided, until very recently, in Aksum, Ethiopia – in the Chapel of the Tablet, adjacent to St Mary of Zion Church.’
‘I’ve heard that claim,’ said Etienne. ‘But you imply that it’s not there anymore.’
‘Waterside, Cornerway and Rio stole the casket and replaced it with a duplicate. When they opened the original, they found a metallic block, attached to another block of stone.’
‘What was the significance of that?’ asked Helen.
‘There was a carving on the stone that was identical to the four-legged, lizard-like creature that is one of the most famous carvings at Gobekli Tepe. That is the same symbol that has represented ARK since the time of Henry the Eighth, although we never knew its origin.’
‘So how do you interpret the object in the Ark?’ asked Helen.
‘We guessed that it was some kind of key,’ Summerland replied. ‘It seemed strange that the carving depicted the symbol of ARK, and it was particularly odd that the metallic base of the object was made from some form of alloy that would not have existed in ancient times.’
‘What happened to the Key?’ asked Helen.
‘Harris, Rider, Hartnell and Butler eventually convinced Waterside, Cornerway and Rio to provide its location. I don’t like to think about how they did that.’
‘Where is the Key now?’ said Etienne.
‘Arkangel has it, and she has the original Ark,’ Summerland replied. ‘I’m afraid I don’t know anything more than that.’
‘We’re going to spend the day tomorrow on the site,’ said Helen, pointing towards the window in the direction of Gobekli Tepe. ‘We don’t really understand some of this, any more than you do, so we thought we’d just be there on the day on which Sam Collins predicted the arrival of the harbinger. Would you like us to pick you up at about five in the morning?’
‘Do you and Morrison really want to deflect the asteroid?’ asked Summerland.
‘I swear it,’ said Helen.
‘Whatever the truth,’ replied Summerland. ‘I’d sooner be driven to the site than walk.’