The Tower: Part Four

The chapel had been built in the old cellars, making good use of the existing vaulted brickwork and stone floors. It was small with three rows of wooden pews either side of a narrow aisle leading to a lectern which stood before a large stained-glass window that was artificially lit from behind so God’s light could permanently shine through it. Cooper occasionally recorded segments of his shows down here, but he also used it for meetings because it was quiet and out of the way and there was another door hidden behind the altar, a requirement of the fire department regulations that also allowed people to enter the chapel without anyone in the main part of the building knowing they were there.

Eli and Carrie were kneeling at the altar, their backs to him, their heads bowed. Eli jumped as the door banged shut – still fighting his demons. Carrie reached out to him with a gentle, calming hand that had killed eighteen people to Cooper’s sure knowledge. He caught her profile as she turned; the slightly upturned nose that made her seem younger than she actually was and inclined people to underestimate her, just as they did with him, only with her it was often the last mistake they ever made.

‘Praise God for watching over you and delivering you safely,’ Cooper said, smiling down at them as they turned round. He beckoned them over to the tech desk set up at the back of the room, which they used when they recorded down here. He turned on the monitor and heard the scuff of Eli’s steps approaching, but he didn’t hear Carrie’s. She was the only person he knew who could walk up the two-hundred-year-old main wooden staircase inside the house without making a single sound.

They were showing a re-run of the morning show. After a few minutes the picture cut to a recorded section and Cooper pointed at the two men in suits sitting on the sofa opposite him. ‘Are these the people you saw in Dr Kinderman’s house?’

‘Yes,’ Carrie confirmed.

‘They came here asking about all kinds of things but left with nothing. I trust you were careful in your observations of the good doctor’s house?’

‘No one saw us,’ Eli said, his voice flat and empty as always. ‘I guarantee it.’

‘Good. That’s very good.’

Carrie and Eli exchanged a look. ‘We seen it on the news,’ she said, ‘about the telescopes. We was thinking, now that the mission you set for us is over, now that those telescopes are no longer –’

‘We want to get married,’ Eli said. ‘We want you to marry us. Right now.’

Cooper turned and smiled at them. ‘And so I shall,’ he said. ‘So I shall.’ He moved past them, walking back up the aisle towards the fake sunshine streaming in through the window. He stopped in front of the lectern and stared up at the cross. ‘We’ve come a long way, the three of us, from that hell in the desert – a long, long way. And our journey is nearly over. But it is not over yet.’

‘But the towers have fallen,’ Carrie said, her voice small and unsure. ‘The telescopes …’

Cooper turned to face them. ‘They may have been destroyed but the wrath of the Lord is still evident for all to see, is it not? He is still greatly angered by the audacity and insult of those that built them. Destroying them was only part of His plan. The architects of the heresy must also be made examples of. For if I destroy the temple of mine enemy yet suffer the priest to live, will not he go forth and build a temple anew?

‘The sacred mission I gave to you both will not end until those who fashioned this great sin are made to atone for their actions. Only by making an example of them can we warn others of the dangers of sin.

‘Now I know you two love each other with a passion that is strong and pure: and I would not seek to stand between something as beautiful as that. But God sent you to me for a purpose, just as surely as He spoke and told me in that still small voice the service He would have you do in His name.

‘Remember how I found you in the desert, broken by the sins you had been made to perform. Now I want you to remember what I said to you back in that field hospital in Iraq, I want you to recall for me the piece of Scripture I gave you to speak of your higher purpose and remind you of who you are.’

Carrie answered in her tiny voice. ‘Therefore, take up the full armour of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.’

Cooper nodded. ‘Ephesians, chapter six, verse thirteen. And you see now how the evil day that was prophesied is upon us, and that now is the time to stand firm. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness He prevailed by keeping His mind on His calling, on His mission on Earth, and saying, “Get thee behind me Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him alone shalt thou serve.”’

He reached out and took their hands and held them in his. ‘“Him alone shalt thou serve.” Believe me I would like nothing better, nothing better in this world than to unite you two warriors of God in the blessed union of marriage.’ He let go of their hands and took a step back. ‘But His work is not yet done. And only when it is completed will we be free to pursue our own desires.’ He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the envelope Miss Boerman had given him. ‘But never forget that you are not alone in your service of the Lord. You will see from this information that there are many others engaged in the good fight, many others who are part of the same brother and sisterhood who would also see His will be done. Our reach is long for He sees all.’

Carrie took the envelope and opened the flap with the stiletto of her finger. Inside was a printout showing a section of map with a town in the centre called Cherokee. There was also a time, an alphanumeric number, a compass heading and a note saying: approximate distance to target, four miles.

‘Some people sympathetic to our cause did me the courtesy of installing LoJack devices to the cars of Dr Kinderman and Professor Douglas. I figured it might be useful to know where they were in case they managed to evade us. Dr Kinderman’s car has been in the long-term parking lot of Dulles International airport since early yesterday evening. I think it’s safe to surmise that he is no longer in the country but we have others looking into where he may have gone. The signal from Professor Douglas’s car, however, was picked up by a State Trooper in Swain County, North Carolina about a half an hour ago.’ He pointed at the piece of paper. ‘That gives you a rough idea of where he is. It’s about a five-hour drive from here on good roads, so it will probably take you a little longer today, the weather being the way it is. If you head off now you should get there before dark.’

He closed his eyes and looked up, one hand on his heart, the other raised in front of him like a benediction. ‘I pray you, God, watch over these, your servants, along the righteous path so they may do your work, and bring these foul sinners to swift and rightful atonement so that their souls may finally be freed from the burden thou hast given them, Amen.’

He opened his eyes and smiled at them both, as though something wonderful had just happened. ‘You should make a start. Daylight is burning. If you leave the way you came in, Miss Boerman will give you everything you need. We will have more accurate information by the time you get to Cherokee. Remember, we need to send a message to anyone else who would dare to stare upon the face of God. I’m counting on you to send that message, loud and clear. And if anyone tries to stop you in this sacred mission, anyone at all, be they civilian or officer of the law, then they must also be sacrificed in the name of the greater glory.’

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Shepherd burst from the interview room and headed across the almost empty office with Franklin following close behind. ‘It was during summer break at the end of the first year of my master’s,’ he said, bundling the laptop back in its case as he walked. ‘I was at Marshall working as a lab monkey in data analysis, cataloguing all the new stuff that was pouring in from Hubble. James Webb had just been green lit and Professor Douglas was in charge, though he hadn’t put his team together yet. It was really hot that year and everyone else seemed to be on holiday. Me and a couple of other research students were the only ones doing any work.’

They pushed through a set of double doors out to the main stairway and started heading back down to the reception area. ‘One Friday a few weeks into our placement Professor Douglas popped his head round the door and told us all to go back to the dorm we were staying in and pack for a two-day trip. We had no idea what he had planned but he was the boss so we did as we were told.

‘He picked us up in his old jeep and we headed east. We thought maybe he was taking us to one of the other launch areas but we drove right past them and kept on going. He said it was good to go back to basics every once in a while, remind yourself what it was all about, and that was what we were going to do: no hi-tech, no computers, just a simple reflector telescope, a few beers and a clear sky.

‘We wound up late in the afternoon heading up into the Smoky Mountains just north of Cherokee, North Carolina. He had this log cabin there, way up on a ridge. It looked like it was straight out of a Western: three rooms, potbelly stove, fresh water you had to pump out of a well. It even had a porch with a rocking chair on it. I guess it was just far enough away from anywhere so that the sweep of the modern world kind of passed it by. And because it was miles from anywhere it got so dark that the whole sky lit up at night. You could see more stars there with your naked eye than you could with a good telescope in a light-drenched town or a city. He had a telescope set up near the cabin in a hunter’s hide built on a rocky ledge and we spent two days up there, tracking the planets, looking at the stars, talking about Galileo and Copernicus and Kepler, where it all came from and where we thought it was all going. He was fired up about James Webb even then. Talked about how it was going to see right to the edge of the universe, right back to the beginning of time.’

They reached the bottom of the stairs and the desk sergeant looked up wearily.

‘We need a car,’ Franklin said.

‘Sure, no problem,’ the walrus replied, wearily picking up his phone and punching a button. ‘I trust your stay with us has been a pleasant one. Please let me know if you used anything from the mini-bar. I’ll let you know when your cab is here.’

‘I don’t mean a cab. We need to borrow a car. One that’s going to be able to cope with the weather out there.’

Shepherd frowned. ‘Why do we need a car? I mean, much as I hate to say it, but wouldn’t flying be quicker?’

‘I doubt anything will be taking off in this,’ Franklin said, pointing outside at the thickening snow. ‘We might get lucky and make it to Charlotte, always assuming they haven’t got worse weather there. But then it’s still about a three-to-four-hour drive to Cherokee on mostly mountain roads. It’s maybe five hours from here but mostly on dead-straight, flat plain roads. Trust me, I know this area pretty well. We’ll be better off driving.’

Franklin steered Shepherd away from the main desk and over to the row of seats by the wall. ‘Tell me why you think Douglas is there.’

‘There was something special about the place. The Professor had history there, real history, why else would he drive all that way when there are plenty of mountains much closer to Huntsville? It had all these photographs of people in frames tacked to the walls, some going way back, including one of the Professor as a kid standing on the porch and squinting into the sunlight as he held a model plane over his head. He must have been about five or six but you could still see the man he would become.’

Franklin looked over at the desk sergeant who was now resolutely ignoring the constantly ringing phone. ‘How we doing with that ride?’ he shouted over.

The sergeant looked at them over the top of his reading glasses. ‘We’re just having a Caddy waxed and polished for you now.’

Franklin turned back to Shepherd. ‘Funny guy. He should be on Comedy Central.’

Shepherd glanced outside at the swirling white. ‘What about the roads – the traffic’s all snarled up already, we saw it coming in.’

‘Exactly. We saw it coming in to town. The roads heading out will be pretty clear. So long as we get a decent car, driving’s going to be our best option. Trust me.’

Shepherd nodded, but for the first time he wasn’t sure whether he did.

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Liv sat in the kitchen eating dried fruit and salt crackers she’d found in one of the food lockers. Kyle pulled a stool from beneath a stainless-steel counter top and sat down wearily opposite. ‘You should drink some of this,’ he said, pulling a bottle of water from a thermal box on the floor. ‘It might taste a bit funny because it’s got rehydration salts in it.’ He poured half of the bottle into a glass and slid it over to her. ‘I made up a batch for your friends. Don’t worry, it’s clean. In fact all the water’s clean. I’ve been running tests every hour and the ground water’s flowing pure again. The pressure must have blown away the contaminants, though I’ll still keep checking it. Go ahead – drink.’

Liv drank, forcing herself not to gulp it all down in one, savouring the saltiness on her tongue. ‘So tell me how you ended up here,’ she said, as Kyle poured the rest of the water into a second glass.

‘We were all working way down in the south in Dhi Qar Province as part of a project run by an international aid organization.’

‘Ortus,’ Liv said.

‘That’s right. How did you –’

‘– I recognized the logo on the side of your jeep. I know one of the people who runs it, Gabriel Mann.’

Kyle smiled in a way that suggested he both knew and liked him. ‘You know Gabriel?’