The Relic Keeper (31 page)

It had been a strange day, mused Deon as he absently played with the red pills in his hand. Aaron had found him a lamp to replace the faulty bulb in the room that he was using and he could at least now see his surroundings better. The paint was peeling from the wall and the room smelt of the damp that was climbing the exposed parts of the brickwork. Deon fiddled with the c-pac he still had, unable to understand the malfunction that it had developed while he checking on Caroline for Philip. He hoped that the journalist had been able to get to Mathew before Warwick had. Deon had made a bad error of judgement trusting the doctor. Somehow he had always felt that some people could be instantly trustworthy because of their positions, and doctors came into this group. But he’d been wrong. And that meant, he supposed, that he could be wrong about some of the other people he’d trusted. Yet he’d always been suspicious of the stories he’d heard broadcast from the news groups, and now he’d come across a journalist who appeared to be telling the truth when no one else would do. Caroline had often told the congregation at Unit not to trust reporters, and to have no dealing with them at all if possible; but that made little sense now. He looked down at the yellow capsules on the table beside him. They seemed very small to be so potentially destructive.

“Shut up!” he snapped at the voice that called him. They seemed to be getting more intrusive, and he wondered where they came from. They always had the same message for him, and that must mean something, he figured. Maybe it was linked into the conversation that he’d had with Caroline earlier.

That afternoon Aaron had found him outside the building screaming.

“Deon, what are you doing? You’re drawing attention to us. We need to remain clandestine.”

“I don’t care,” he yelled. “I don’t care about anything. Everything’s fucked up.”

“Deon, come inside and tell me what this is about.” Aaron took Deon’s arm and led him into the building and away from the curious eyes of the onlookers that had started to gather around him. Inside he could hardly tell where he was headed. His eyes filled with tears and his head ached, and all the time he could hear the voices yelling at him through the fog. And they were right. He had betrayed Mathew, even if he hadn’t meant to, and he was useless, and yes he probably did deserve to die. He had endangered the life of the man sent back from God. How would history portray him, except as an evil fiend who valued the cash he’d received above his conscience? What paths were open for him to take now? What outcome could there be? Where, if anywhere, could redemption lie?

“It’s not good, Deon, to attract so much attention,” Aaron said, holding him tightly by the arm and steering him along the corridors. “Too much attention will jeopardise the entire operation, you know. We have work to do here, Deon. Deon, are you listening to me? Do you realise the importance of secrecy here?”

Deon shook his head. None of it mattered. Here he was, part of Caroline’s scheme to help save the Christian faith, and he’d wiped out the future of the Church with one action. For over 2,000 years people had waited for the next time the word of God could be delivered via a direct link to Him, and he’d managed to destroy the whole plan in one action. He could tell from Philip’s voice that he may as well have told Lucifer himself where Mathew was. He looked into the lights that hung from the ceiling as they paraded down the corridor. He’d been brought to the saviour because of who Mathew was, and now he had destroyed both Mathew and himself. There was nothing he could do.

“Useless cunt. Fucking pathetic wanker. You know you need to die. Deon, you need to die. The only rest you’ll get is when you kill yourself.”

“Shut up! Just shut the fuck up!” he screamed at the taunting voices.

“Deon, stop screaming and walk with me,” demanded Aaron, as he escorted his shabby companion, while he appeared to be flailing at invisible assailants. He brought him into a small room and pushed him onto an uncomfortable wooden chair.

“Deon, just sit there,” Aaron shouted. Deon yelled again and threw his hands across his face. Aaron, leaned out of the doorway and called out for assistant, and two young men abruptly arrived. “Hold him down,” he ordered. While the two held him, Aaron pulled a box from a drawer, inserted a capsule into the hypodermic, and injected Deon with a small dosage, which quietened him, although not yet to the point of unconsciousness.

The two men released their grip.

“One of you, go get Caroline,” Aaron instructed.

Deon was still crying and shaking as he sat waiting for whatever fate may bring to him, which was how he remained for the next five minutes until Caroline arrived.

“I’ve sedated him, so he may sleep for a while because if it,” Aaron explained. “I can’t make out what’s the matter with him though. He seems really anxious about something.”

“Well we need to talk to him before he goes under. Ok, leave him to me. Deon? Can you hear me? It’s Caroline. What’s wrong?”

Deon groaned and shook his head. “It’s all my fault,” he mumbled. “It’s all going to go wrong and it’s because of me.”

“What’s gone wrong Deon? What have you done?”

“I’ve done what you said not to. I’ve helped the enemies of God.”

“How have you done that Deon?”

He shook his head and mumbled something incomprehensible through the sedative-induced drowsiness.

“What have you done, Deon?”

“I’ve let them know where to go,” he muttered. “I’m sorry, I’ve let them know. I’m sorry, Reiko.”

“Have you given our location away? Deon, have you told people where we are?”

“I didn’t mean to Reiko. I thought I was helping, but now they’ll come for you, Reiko.”

Caroline turned to Aaron. “He’s given away the location of the base to someone. If he’s named us there may be people coming.” Deon slumped into unconsciousness. “We won’t get any more out of him for now. How much sedative did you give him?”

“He was going berserk; I had to calm him down.”

“Well, that’s brilliant. Only he knows what he’s done, and now we can’t get anything out of him at all.”

“What was he saying? It sounded like rayco. What does that mean?”

“I don’t know. Are you sure it was rayco? I thought he said Waco.”

“What’s Waco?”

“I don’t know. Let me look it up.”

Aaron checked through the c-pac details and archive.

“Here!” he said. “Waco was the site of a cult in the 1990s. The authorities stormed it in ’93 and killed everyone.”

“Would Deon know about that?”

“He’s just spent most of the last month in the company of a man from the 1990s. I’d guess that he knows an awful lot about their history. I think that Deon may feel that something along those lines will happen here.”

“Do you think that’s going to happen here? What do you want to do?”

“Prepare to get everyone out. I want the files and databases taken, and the armaments, obviously. How long will he be out for?”

“Not long, maybe an hour; two at the most. He might be a bit confused when he wakes.”

“That’s fine, we can use that. Let me know as soon as he’s awake, I have a mission for Deon. He’s obviously feeling guilty about what he’s done. He wants forgiveness and redemption, and I can arrange a penance for him that will achieve that and remove any problems that he may cause us; however good his intentions. How long will it take to get ready to leave?”

“About six hours.”

“Ok. Let’s hope we have that long.”

Deon awoke with a start. The world swam into focus and he looked about at the drab décor of the room he was in. He wasn’t sure where he was or what had happened, but he did remember letting Mathew down by informing Warwick where he was, and he also recalled that Philip was angry with him for it. Deon knew that it wasn’t really his fault; Warwick had lied so convincingly about his motives that he had genuinely thought that he wanted to help. He would have to find a way to make amends, if not with Mathew, then at least with his conscience, and then ultimately, with God.

He heard a voice behind him ask how he felt, and for a second he thought that the voices that taunted him had decided to be benign for a change, and then he saw Caroline walk around him.

“How are you feeling, Deon? We were very concerned for a while.” She smiled kindly at him, and her voice was soothing. She handed him a glass of water and he felt her sweet breath on his face as she moved near him. He remembered how he’d thought he could see a halo around her, and realised how angelic she was.

“I think I did a bad thing, Caroline.” He concentrated hard. He had thought that he’d told Rei what he’d done, but he couldn’t have, could he? No, he was wrong about that, he’d told Philip and then let Caroline know. Why did he get so confused about people sometimes?

“The enemies of God are everywhere, Deon and they have many tricks and deceptions that they can use. You may have led our enemies to where they want to be, but we can still fight them.”

“How can we do that?”

“As I said before, this is a holy war. They have deceit and malevolence, but we have truth and the Lord with us, so we can not fail, as long as we have our faith, Deon. It is important to know your enemy and to use their weakness against them. Everyone has something that they respond to, and something that they are afraid of, and fear is a powerful emotion. It is important that we use our actions to make people hear what we want them to. This is the time that we must place our trust in God, and do as he decrees, whatever that is, because His will is always the right thing to do.”

“I try to do that Caroline. But sometimes I’m not sure what it is that God wants me to do. I feel that I have a mission to perform, but I don’t always understand what it is.”

“That’s ok Deon. We don’t always understand what the Lord wishes for us. Sometimes He gives us duties to perform and they seem to make no sense at the time, but ultimately what He asks of us helps to create a better world for everyone who has faith. And that is the key, Deon: faith. If you have faith in your actions then God will always guide you.”

“But I don’t know what He wants from me now. I think I need to leave and put right what I’ve done.”

“Yes, that’s right, Deon. And I can help you.”

“Can you? How can you help? What should I do?”

“People today do not have enough faith, Deon. But have you seen recently that there is a resurgence of the Christian faith. People are again looking to God for guidance.”

“Since the explosions?”

“Yes. They have made people look to the Lord for protection from, atheism heresy and false religion.”

“And we need to fight the people responsible for the bombings?”

“Yes. Because it is the followers of the false religions who are responsible, and when they are destroyed the true faith can flourish. But first we need more believers to swell our ranks and help the fight.”

“It’s quite strange really,” Deon thought out loud. “Because the more our enemies attack, the stronger we grow.”

“Exactly, Deon. That is exactly what is happening. People do not need to know exactly who the enemy is, only that there is one, and then they will unite, and unity is our power. The attacks on us have ultimately aided our cause. They have given us strength, yet also have destroyed some of the hierarchy and corruption that plagues Christianity. We need one true faith. We must break the hold that the Protestants, Jehovah Witnesses, and all of these groups have, to return Britain to a one Church under God, and then united we can banish the heathens and Jews, the atheists, the Muslims, the Hindus, all of them. We can live a true Christian life without their disease infecting us. And this is happening, Deon. We are achieving this. This is not some plan for the future. It is happening now.”

Deon listened intently. “How can I help?”

Caroline took two small bags of pills from her pocket, and handed them to Deon.

“Take these, but be careful with them, and don’t ever mix the red pills with yellow capsules. The red pill is to be taken up to an hour before you need to perform your task. The casing will break down in your stomach, and is completely harmless on its own. When you are ready and positioned to show the ultimate act of faith and love of God, bite the yellow capsule and swallow the liquid it contains. When it mixes with residue of the pill in your stomach it acts as a catalyst, activating the incendiary agent within the pill.”

“They explode?”

“Yes Deon. They will simultaneously destroy our heretic enemies and take them to damnation, while the glory of your work means that you shall walk with Christ in paradise.”

Deon looked at the bags in his hands. “How many do I take?”

“Five red pills and one of the yellow capsules was all that was required for St Martin-in-the-Fields.”

“Is this the best way I can serve the Lord?”

“Deon, you need to redeem yourself, because you have made a great error of judgement. And now the police are looking for you, so you can not hope to stay free. Our enemies are everywhere. What I’m offering you now is your only chance to make something good of this situation.

“Where am I to take the capsule?”

“There is to be a debate amongst the leaders of every religious community concerning the ethics of cryonic resuscitation. There have been several of them recently; perhaps you saw the one broadcast on the ethervision? It is to happen in a building less than two kilometres from here tonight. We have a pass that will allow you into the audience, close enough to cause the maximum impact.”

“Will innocent people die?”

“No, there are no innocent people, Deon, only those who are with us, and they will join you in glorious resurrection. With so many of their leaders gone our enemies will be lost and easily confused and defeated, and people will see the glory of joining us. This action, Deon, will secure our future. You said that you thought God had a mission for you. Well He has, and this is it. That is why He has led you here. You decide what you wish to do and prepare yourself. I’ll be back in hour.”

As Caroline left, Deon wondered what he was to do. He sat in the room and looked at the innocuous looking bags of pills in his hand. Everything she had said made such perfect sense, and it could be his best shot of redemption. He decided to make a note of the reasons that he should do this thing, and pulled out the c-pac he still had secretly located on him. It had finished whatever last task he had set it for, and he looked at the results that his hacking had achieved. He couldn’t remember doing it, but obviously at some point he had checked alternative identities for Caroline. Yes, Philip had asked him to, because he thought he knew her, but there was a problem. The machine or the database it accessed must have been faulty, because the results made no sense. He needed some divine guidance more than ever now. And as he sat in contemplation he stared at the wall and the voices came again.