The Armageddon Conspiracy (41 page)

‘
So, who
did
discover
America?’

‘
The Knights Templar,
Lucy.
The Templar Fleet that sailed off in 1307 to escape the
Catholic Church’s persecution had no choice but to find a new land,
beyond the reach of the papacy.
Once they discovered America, they
kept it a closely guarded secret.
They made sure no word got back
to Europe, knowing that if anything leaked out, the Pope would send
an armada against them to conquer them and seize their new
country.

‘
It wasn’t until the
end of the fifteenth century that they changed their strategy.
They
had lost many men in wars against the Native Americans, and the
knights were unhappy about having to take squaws as wives.
Their
settlements were failing.
They needed an influx of Europeans to
make America viable.
The Templar they chose for their most vital
mission was one of the most famous men in history –
Christopher Columbus
.

‘
Columbus knew exactly
where the New World was for the simple reason that he already lived
there.
That’s why no one is quite sure whether he was Italian,
Spanish, Catalonian or Portuguese.
In fact, he was
American
.
Isn’t it the
ultimate irony?
The so-called discoverer of the Americas was an
American all along.

‘
When the ships
Santa Maria
,
Niña
and
Pinta
embarked from Spain
in 1492, they changed their sails as soon as they were out of sight
of the land, and raised new sails emblazoned with the red Cross
pattée of the Knights Templar.
A Scottish Templar called Sir John
Drummond was the man who drew up the maps and charts they used on
the voyage.

‘
The history of America
is largely the history of persecuted religious minorities, and the
very first were the Templars.
America is the country of the Knights
Templar – a Gnostic country, Freemasonic.
It’s the new Atlantis,
the cherished home of the Illuminati, their bulwark against the
power of the Vatican.’

Lucy had never heard anything like it.
This was amazing.

At last Morson intervened.
His comment
startled Lucy.

‘
And it’s where my
colleagues and I come from.’
He had the weirdest smile.
‘If you
look at the night sky, you’ll see that
Merica
is shining more brightly than
ever.’

50

T
he
world’s last hope
.
Vernon stared at the
nearest plasma screen.
It was impossible, but the words were right
there, being broadcast to everyone who still had a working TV.
Lucy
truly was special.
He assumed the Vatican had taken the decision to
give publicity to her to offer some hope to the world…to let people
know there was still a chance.
Even so, he felt it was a desperate
act.

The plasma screens
showed a succession of pictures from across the globe.
They focused
on huge screens set up in St Peter’s Square, Times Square,
Trafalgar Square, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Prague, Tokyo, Beijing,
Moscow, Jerusalem, Cairo – everywhere on earth that could still
broadcast pictures.
In some of the places, huge crowds were
thronging around the screens; in others there were only a handful
of soldiers; in others no one at all.
Every big screen displayed
exactly the same image:
Lucy
.

A flustered young reporter appeared in
the centre of St Peter’s Square, as hundreds of thousands of Romans
knelt to pray.

‘
I’ve never known
anything like this,’ the reporter said.
‘I’m hearing that every TV
set on earth is simultaneously broadcasting this unknown woman’s
picture.
If the Vatican is correct, the lives of all of us lie in
her hands.
The great artist Raphael apparently knew this moment was
coming five hundred years ago.
I really don’t know what to say.
Can
it be true?
I’m sure there’s not one of us who wouldn’t give
anything to believe that, against all the odds, someone might be
able to save us.
But a mental patient?’

Vernon and Kruger stared at each
other.

‘
Why did the Vatican do
it?’
Vernon asked.
‘It’s mad to publicise this.’

‘
Everyone needs hope,’
Kruger replied.
‘Lucy is the
only
hope.’
He turned round and called to his
men.

As they walked back towards the ship,
they found hordes of rats scurrying in and out of deserted houses.
In a stairwell, an old-fashioned automaton in a harlequin costume
was lying on its back, clashing cymbals together, its small legs
futilely kicking into the air.

Vernon gazed at the crazy spectacle.
The automaton’s arms moved more and more slowly, its batteries
running out.
After a few seconds, it stopped completely, its
cymbals failing to clash one last time.
Was that what was happening
to the world?
Everything running down.

‘
Come on, let’s get out
of here,’ Kruger said.

Back at the ship, they got underway as
quickly as they could.
In the distance, columns of dense black
smoke rose into the sky – several districts of Bristol were in
flames.
Unless it rained, the city would burn to the ground.

They manoeuvred into the central
harbour and docked.
The water was choked with bloated corpses, many
with stab wounds and gunshot injuries.

‘
Look at the bodies,’
Kruger said.
‘Their eyes have been removed.’

Vernon gazed down at the mass of dead
flesh.
‘They must have gone crazy,’ he said.

They disembarked.
In the dock was an
impressive yacht, the sort a billionaire might buy.
Painted glossy
black, it had a towering golden cross on its prow.
It was sitting
at an awkward angle and Vernon realised it was holed beneath the
waterline.
If it were in deep water, it would have sunk.

‘
Shall we check it
out?’
he asked Kruger.

The sergeant nodded.
He ordered his
soldiers and the handful of SAS men to wait while he and Vernon
went onboard.

As soon as Vernon stepped onto the
ship, he had a bad feeling.
The vessel had a ghostly quality, as if
it were the sister ship of Dracula’s ship that ran aground with a
dead crew.

Pistols in hand, they
went below.
It looked like there had been a frantic firefight
onboard.
Several dead men in sailors’ uniforms were lying around.
They had no eyes.
The word
Repent
was scrawled on one wall.

When they reached the
flooded hold, Vernon and Kruger stopped.
Hundreds of eyes were
bobbing up and down in the water.
On the far wall, written in what
looked like blood, was a quote from the Bible:
If thine eye offends thee, pluck it out
.

‘
Madness,’ Vernon
mumbled.
He retraced his steps as fast as he could, with Kruger
close behind.
The people had turned into savages, going on
religious-inspired killing sprees.
If Bristol had gone this way,
what were things like in London?

Kruger hurried over to a fenced-off
compound at the edge of the harbour.
He took out a key and unlocked
a padlock, then pushed open the gate.
Inside was a large storage
facility.
The sergeant heaved open the door and Vernon followed him
in.

‘
Help me with these.’
Kruger stood beside black tarpaulin sheets covering several
vehicles.
They turned out to be olive-green United Nations military
Humvees: the closest a car could get to a tank.

‘
Where did you get
these?’

‘
Let’s just say the
Vatican was owed a few favours.’

Kruger ordered the wounded Swiss Guard
to be placed in the lead Humvee, with the two injured SAS men.
‘We’ll drop these men off at an army base.
They can get proper
medical treatment.’

‘
Where are the rest of
us going?’
Vernon asked.

‘
That’s up to you.
Have
you remembered where the battle of Camlann was fought?’

Vernon shook his head.

‘
In that case, we’re
going to Glastonbury.’

Vernon was furious with
himself for forgetting.
He stared at the ground and noticed a
discarded wrapper from his favourite chocolate bar –
Cadbury Whole Nut
.
He
started laughing.
‘It’s OK,’ he said.
‘I know exactly where Lucy
is.’

51

S
ergeant Morson
and Gresnick had left the room, leaving Lucy alone.
She stared
around the plain room, then at the painting of Longinus with his
famous spear.
Was it really possible that the spear contained the
power people claimed for it?
In the painting, it was just an
ordinary Roman horseman’s lance but, according to some people, it
was a Hebrew spear, as old as the human race.
How could a spear
contain mystical power?
One theory claimed that one of the nails
used to hammer Jesus to the cross was embedded in it.
Was that
enough to turn it into a magic spear?

Morson came back in and drew up a chair
next to Lucy.

‘
We’re
your friends, Lucy.
That fool of a cardinal back
there could never help you.
As for Gresnick, he’s a soldier.
He
knows his duty.
Believe me, if he gets the chance, he’ll kill you
without hesitation.’

‘
Everyone
says they’re my friends.
I think you all want to
kill me.’

‘
We could never harm
one of our own.
Deep down, you know who you really are.
I mean,
below the surface.’

‘
What are you talking
about?’

‘
You
see
things, don’t you?
Sometimes, you have strange feelings.
Maybe, at times, you don’t
think you’re here at all.
Your sense of identity is weak:
practically non-existent at times.’

Lucy squirmed.
It was true.
Sometimes
she thought she was in the wrong skin.
The world was out of kilter,
or she was.

‘
Life nauseates you at
times, doesn’t it, Lucy?
That’s why you ended up in an asylum.
You
know this world is
wrong
.’

‘
I don’t understand
what you mean.’

‘
You understand all
right.
You just can’t come to terms with it.
For most of us, we
never get into the situation where we start
remembering
.
Only the most special
amongst us can contact the past.’

‘
I’m not getting
you.’

‘
We questioned the
cardinal.
We wanted to know exactly why he was so interested in
you.’

‘
It was the
mural.’