"Yes, although we've only been able to decode a small portion of it, we can tell that it's the same ancient language Satan used for his bible. Not only that, but the disk also contains a partial schematic diagram of a quantum computer. There's also a kind of map showing how other computers like it can be linked together all over the world, but unfortunately it doesn't give any definite locations."

Lev handed the disk to Zamir. "You say a partial plan for the computer?"

"Yes, but we haven't had time to look at every file yet. There's a ton of information there, and it's going to take a team effort to sift through it all. There's also a lot of very technical engineering stuff I can't even begin to explain."

For the first time in their lives, those who knew Danny Zamir saw his face turn pale. "So, what you're saying is that this computer disk is thousands of years old because it contains the same ancient language as the book you and your team discovered in the Negev Desert last year, and that it also contains descriptions of technology that doesn't even exist yet. Is that correct?"

Daniel looked nervously around the room at all the silent faces staring back at him. "Yes, sir. That's exactly what I'm saying."

For a moment no one spoke, and then, clearing his throat, Lev Wasserman stood at his end of the table. "I know a lot of this is new to many of you, but I'm afraid we're now locked in a battle with forces we can't even begin to understand. Aside from all of this talk about ancient languages and technology that supposedly doesn't exist yet, suffice it to say that we now find ourselves in the position of having to deal with an invisible enemy that rules from cyberspace and has just wiped out our computer-controlled infrastructures.

"In other words, no more smart phones, no more communication via the internet, no more GPS ... the list is endless, because we've become totally dependent on computers to run our lives. Practically every technological achievement we've worked so hard to build over the past fifty years is now down the toilet, and this quantum computer we've just discovered has apparently taken over every internet-connected piece of hardware on and off the planet, because it's also reached out into space and taken over all of the satellites circling the globe. This thing has also taken control of all of our communications networks, the power grid, refineries, our transportation systems ... even our ability to distribute food. We're even seeing it begin to jump across the air-gap into computer systems that aren't connected to the internet; probably the result of spies plugging infected thumb drives into strategic computers. Life as we know it is in the hands of a single entity that can now dictate its terms to us or throw us back to the Stone Age if we fail to cooperate. In other words, gentlemen, we are no longer in control of our own destiny, so I suggest we get down to the business of trying to figure out a way to defeat this new threat before we find ourselves slaves to an enemy we know nothing about."

"Why not just send in an air strike?" Ben asked. "We could take out that thing with a single bunker-busting bomb."

Lev carefully relit his cigar. "That might work if there was only one of them, but Daniel just said that they found plans on that disk describing how to link up similar computers all over the world. Whoever is behind this probably already has others just like it hidden in secure locations scattered around the globe. They would probably be back online with the flick of a switch. Also, the satellites that provide GPS coverage are out, so that pretty much negates your navigation and targeting computers if you try to send in an air strike."

"We can still get through using old-fashioned dead reckoning," Ben countered. "At least it would send a message that we're not just going to lie down and let them dictate terms to us."

Lev paused as the bluish smoke from his cigar drifted upward through his mop of curly grey hair. "I think we need to step back and think all of this through before we go launching attacks against someone who obviously has the technological advantage right now. Let's all take a break and meet back in this room at 0500 hours."

As the room began to clear, Lev pulled Danny Zamir aside. "I need to find a way to contact Cardinal Leo in Rome. We just uncovered some new phrases in the Bible code, and I think he needs to see them. Any ideas?"

"Normally, I would say we could keep using the burst transmission method we've been using in our submarine fleet, but with this new quantum computer I'm not so sure that's even safe anymore. Regardless, we don't have any subs in Italian waters right now that can get the message to the cardinal. We've been thinking of flying messages again."

"Flying?"

"Yes. All commercial aircraft have been grounded, but military aircraft are still flying. Of course we know we're being tracked, but whoever is behind this seems to be sitting back and watching for now."

"Can they shoot a fighter down?"

"It's possible given the fact that most air defense systems are controlled by computers. It depends on the individual country, but unless they've deactivated their weapons systems, the computers can still order their weapons to fire on any incoming aircraft. They can also interfere with the targeting and navigational capability of our aircraft, but like I said, they only seem interested in watching for now. We'll try a test flight tonight and see what happens. They might be able to monitor the flight, but they can't read a handwritten message carried by a pilot."

"Sounds like a plan," Lev said. "Can you have a plane standing by? I'll have the message driven to the base."

Zamir looked distracted as he waved his hand in the air. "Whatever you need, Professor."

Lev dropped the remainder of his cigar in an empty coffee cup as he studied his friend. Something else was obviously bothering him. "What's on your mind, my friend?"

"I just keep thinking about old man Acerbi, Lev," Zamir answered. "What if everything he told us about his son is true ... and we did nothing to help him stop it?"

CHAPTER 40.

Glancing down through the tall windows of her Madrid apartment, Evita Vargas stuffed the map Julian Wehling had given her down into her backpack as she watched a growing crowd gathering in front of the market across the street. All across town frightened-looking people were rushing to buy food from shelves that were rapidly emptying in the few stores that still remained open, and in the next few hours Evita knew that things were only going to get worse.

At the moment all she could think of was getting out of town, but first she had to contact Mendoza. All morning long she had been trying to call him, but the cell phones still weren't working. He had to be at CNI headquarters. With public transportation closed down, that meant she had to walk ten blocks through mobs of panicked people.

Looking out across the surrounding rooftops, she could see smoke rising in different parts of the city, a sure sign that rioting had already begun. Somehow she had to reach Mendoza and talk him into fleeing the city with her, because in a situation like this a city was the worst place to be trapped in. Once people realized that there was no longer any food in the stores and that their cash had become worthless, their animal natures would kick in and they would begin to turn on one another.

Tossing her long black hair over her shoulders, she took a final look around her apartment and reached for the doorknob just as someone knocked on the door. Mendoza! Always erring on the side of caution, she reached into her purse and removed the little .22 caliber Beretta as she peered through the peep hole.

Standing in the hallway outside, Javier Mendoza was looking down at his watch. Evita smiled and jerked the door open. "Javier! Thank God you came! You don't know how relieved I am to see you. I thought I was going to have to walk all the way to CNI headquarters to find you."

"I just came from there. Everyone is leaving. In a few hours the authorities are going to lose control of the situation and mobs will begin taking over the city. Come on, I have a car downstairs, but I don't know how long it will be there if someone discovers it has a full tank of gas."

"Where are you planning on going?"

"Anywhere but here. I'm not sure yet."

"I know exactly where we can go," Evita said. Pulling the map from her backpack, she handed it to Mendoza.

"What's this?"

"It's a map. Julian Wehling gave it to me."

"Who?"

"The man I asked you to do a background check on ... remember?"

"Oh yeah ... him. You must be pretty special, Evita, because he's the real deal. You were speaking to Cathar royalty."

"I know. That's why we need to follow the map he gave me. It points the way to a Cathar stronghold in the Languedoc region of southern France."

"You're kidding! How long have you known about this?"

"Since the day I asked you to check up on him. He told me we should go there when things started to collapse. It's almost as if he knew this was going to happen."

"He probably did. After all, he's one of the Perfecti." Mendoza paused as he studied the map. "I hate to say it, Evita, but guys like Wehling are kind of spooky."

"Spooky or not, that's where we're headed, Javier. Now, let's get moving, because in a few hours the roads will become too clogged for travel."

CHAPTER 41.

In the late afternoon of their second day hiding in plain sight, Pope Michael, Leo, and Eduardo Acerbi had settled into their rooms on the third floor of the Hotel Amalfi, but not all was well. Since their arrival, Eduardo had remained bed-ridden, racked by sudden fevers that came and went. The young Jesuit physician who had been summoned by Francois had pumped fluids and antibiotics into the old man, but still he lingered in a semi-conscious state, refusing to go to the hospital. Staring up into the doctor's eyes, he just kept repeating that he only wanted to remain alive long enough to make a two-day journey to Turkey before he died. But despite his pleas, the doctor was forced to tell him that he would never survive a trip of even one day.

Sitting at his bedside, Leo and Pope Michael recited a few simple prayers for a man they had come to admire. Every now and then Eduardo would stir, repeating over and over that he had to get to Turkey before it was too late.

"I wish there was some way we could contact Evita," Leo said, thumbing his rosary. "As a Cathar, she could tell us what his spiritual needs are right now."

The pope reached out and made the sign of the cross on the old man's forehead before opening a window to let some fresh air into the room. "I have heard it said that in some religions, when a person is dying, the windows must be left open so that their soul can escape its earthly bounds after they pass over." The pope smiled as he felt the breeze on his face. "Even though Eduardo's not a Catholic, I offered him the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick yesterday. He refused it of course, as I knew he would. According to his Cathar beliefs, he should be receiving the Cathar rite of consolamentum right now. They believe in the transmigration of souls, and should he die, he may be at the stage of piety where he can go into the light and never have to return to this earth again."

"You never fail to amaze me, Your Holiness," Leo said. "How is it that you seem to know so much about other religions?"

"As the spiritual leader over a billion souls, Cardinal, it is my responsibility to know all that I can about the religions of others. It is only through our understanding of one another that we will have any chance at all of achieving some kind of peace among the religions of the world."

It was no wonder this man had been chosen by the College of Cardinals to be the spiritual leader of the Church, Leo thought, for in a few simple words he had captured the very essence of his papacy.

Looking back into the room, Pope Michael saw that Eduardo was sleeping peacefully. "Let's give him some time, Leopold. Hopefully the medicine the doctor gave him will do its work."

Quietly, the two men stepped through the door and padded down the hallway to the pope's room. The summer rainstorms of the past few days had finally moved on, so they decided to venture out onto the terrace to enjoy some sunshine and wine while they silently contemplated their next move.

Leaning back in his wicker chair, Pope Michael's eyes drifted across the street to the dome of Saint Peter's Basilica. "So near ... yet so far away, eh Leopold? I wonder what's going on behind those walls right now."

"Bishop Morelli informed me this morning that Vespa is maintaining contact with Cardinal Acone. He believes the cardinal is waiting for something, but exactly what remains a mystery. Maybe now would be a good time to return, Your Holiness. Francois assures me that he and his men can protect you."

"Is that what you think, Leopold? Do you think I'm afraid to go back for fear that something may happen to me?"

"No, I've known you too long to think that, Marcus. You've never seemed afraid of anything. I was merely suggesting that we might do more good if we were back on the inside instead of sitting here sipping wine on the outside staring at the walls."

"You don't know how close I came to walking back through the gate this morning, Cardinal, but we have to be patient. I believe there's some kind of timetable to all of this, and soon Acone will be forced to show his hand. Sooner or later he's going to have to pull the trigger, and that's when I'll pay him a little surprise visit."

A knock on the door prompted Leo to set his glass down and move back into the room. Peering through the peep hole out into the hallway, he could see the distorted image of Francois Leander, his nose inches away from the door. Quickly Leo ushered him into the room and closed the door behind him. "Francois ... you look a little out of breath. What's up?"

"I just received a visitor, Cardinal ... a pilot from the Israeli Air Force." Leander handed Leo a sealed envelope. "He told me to give you this and that you should read it right away."

"Why don't you join us on the terrace," Leo said, eyeing the envelope. "Would you like a glass of wine?"

"Thank you, Cardinal. That would be most welcome."

While Francois settled into a chair next to the pope, Leo tore the envelope open and pulled out two folded sheets of paper. "It looks like Lev Wasserman's team has uncovered something new encoded in Exodus, Your Holiness. Here, have a look."

Taking the first page, the pope quickly spotted the words dark star and final transition circled in red. Below them, also circled in red, was the word Antichrist. Crowding in next to the pope, Leo and Francois began reading over his shoulder as he came to the last phrase on the page. The serpent from Asia will ascend to the throne of Saint Peter following the transition.

"The serpent from Asia?" Francois said out loud. "What does that mean, Your Holiness?"

"It's probably referring to modern day Turkey, which means that Cardinal Acone will become the next pope. What's today's date?"

Francois' voice began to break slightly as he spoke. "August the fifth, Your Holiness."

"And when was Adrian born?"

"August the sixth," Leo responded.

The pope gently laid the paper on the table and looked across the way into Vatican City as he repeated the words again. "The serpent from Asia will ascend to the throne of Saint Peter following the transition. That must be a reference to Adrian's transition into the Antichrist, and evidently Acone will become the next pope sometime following the event. The code also mentioned the dark star again, which means the transition is somehow connected to it."

The pope looked at Leo with a renewed sense of vigor. "We don't have much time, Leopold. We must find a way to observe the dark star, especially on the 6th. If I'm right, Adrian's transition will be announced tomorrow by an event in the heavens, and the dark star is the key."

"I'll get to work on it right away, Your Holiness. The Jesuits run the Vatican observatory, and Morelli and I can drive up there tonight."

"Good. We must keep our eyes on that star." The pope looked down at the second page in Leo's hands. "What's that?"

"An intelligence report from Danny Zamir. It seems the Turkish authorities are watching the hills outside Orencik in Turkey, but so far nothing has happened. Also, Team 5 apparently went on a little fact-finding mission to Iraq and discovered some kind of monster computer hidden beneath Acerbi's compound in Babylon. They're calling it a quantum computer, and according to them it's the most powerful computer in existence. Apparently, the technology used to build the thing was all just theory up until now. They also discovered something else ... a computer disk made from sapphire and platinum, and they claim it's thousands of years old."

Pope Michael sat up in his chair and let out a low whistle. "It's all beginning to fit. I believe the mystery of how the Antichrist plans to take over the world has just been solved."

A knock on the door caused everyone in the room to jump. Pulling his gun from under his coat, Francois moved to the door and peered into the hallway. "It's the innkeeper."

The pope waved his hand. "Let him in."

Entering the room with his head held low, Arnolfo wiped his reddened eyes. "Please, Your Holiness ... you must come quickly. Mr. Acerbi has just passed away."

CHAPTER 42.

Adrian Acerbi was following behind the thing that had once been his mother as they walked through the tall brown grass that covered the hills outside Orencik. Every now and then the thing would turn and look back at him with his mother's gaze before continuing over the next hill, until finally they reached the edge of the blackened crater.

All morning long Adrian had tried to think of ways to escape, but he was surrounded by troops in the middle of a barren landscape with nowhere to hide. Other than the sound of shuffling footsteps and the occasional grunts from the soldiers, the silence in the hills was absolute as they made their way down into the crater under a cloudless sky interrupted only by the occasional spinning cloud of orange-colored dust kicked up by the sudden gusts of hot wind.

Half walking and half sliding down into the crater, Adrian was prodded by a soldier who looked at the boy with a mixture of curiosity and loathing. It was obvious to him that none of these men wanted to be here, tasked with babysitting a sixteen-year-old boy and his mother, nor did they understand why they had been ordered to escort them out into the hot, dusty hills surrounding an isolated village in the Turkish countryside. All they had been told by their commander was that they were to guard the boy and his mother with their lives and await further orders once they reached their objective.

As soon as they had all descended to the bottom of the crater, the men stared up in awe at the towering stone blocks positioned on top of a raised area in the very center of the crater. Walking over jagged rocks and tufts of brown grass that poked up through the cracked dry crust beneath their feet, the men were puzzled by the existence of such an ancient structure situated in the middle of an obvious volcanic crater. Who had built it-and why?

But the question on all of their minds was the question of why they were there. What was so important about an old woman and a boy? Did they have something to do with some new archaeological find? Did they know the location of a great treasure buried beneath the ruin? Whatever the reason, the soldiers had done what they had been ordered to do. Now all they could do was wait for a call from their headquarters telling them what they should do next.

Stopping below the raised area, the commander stared at the circle of blackened stone and headed for the stairs leading to the raised floor of the structure, but as soon as his boot touched the bottom step he froze as he saw a misty red haze beginning to form over the bottom of the crater. Trained to spot and avoid traps, the commander slowly began to back away, but it was too late, for unbeknownst to him and his men, they had all just stepped onto a satanic welcome mat that had been laid out for those who had not been warned about this little piece of hell.

Even now the dark angel was watching. Like some kind of twisted celestial fireman, he had waited for thousands of years to extinguish the flame of hope that shone from within the soul of a simple boy who had been born to rule over a world of darkness. But there was still one hurdle that stood before him. Satan would need the boy's permission. Since the day when Lucifer had been cast from heaven-since that day when he had appeared as a serpent in a garden and first tempted man-the battle for souls had raged for thousands of years between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. And in this war between heaven and hell, God had dictated that, in the absence of mortal sin, a person would have to give freely of their soul before Satan could lay claim to it.

But despite his impetuous nature, Satan had learned to be patient. He knew his time was coming, and as mankind entered a state of technological wizardry in the 21st century, millions had begun to shun the idea of a soul living on after death. As mankind progressed intellectually amid wars triggered by religious extremists, many began to turn away from God in the belief that religion itself was behind all of the wars and resulting social ills that continued to plague the world.

Rather than come together in the new millennium and live alongside one another in peace, the enlightened people of the 21st century continued to drift farther apart, and mankind did what it had always done-it turned on itself. Atheism suddenly became fashionable among the intellectual elite, and just like wheat, Satan's harvest of souls increased year after year-and the coming year promised to be his largest harvest yet. The field was fertile and the day of reckoning was upon the Earth, and only those who believed knew what was coming.

In a gigantic cosmic whirlwind, the signs in the heavens were beginning to align, announcing to the world that mankind's tribulation was at hand. The time for the Antichrist's rule was fast approaching, and the Evil One knew that he would have to use all of his powers of deceit-powers he had employed time and time again against a species that flew like moths to a flame, choosing physical pleasure and material gain on Earth over eternal life in heaven. Now was the time for Satan's ultimate temptation, and failure was not an option. This was the spot where Adrian and his brother Rene had been born into the world, and it would be here that the divine spark that still burned within the physical body of Adrian Acerbi would be extinguished and replaced with something else.

Drawn to the place of his birth, Adrian now willingly allowed his mother to lead him past the soldiers and up onto the paved floor of the ruin. Reaching out, he ran his hand over one of the obsidian-like towers of rock. Through his fingertips he could feel the energy, as if the entire structure was electrified, and with a growing sense of excitement, he spun around as the reddish haze began to flow through the columns. And he heard laughter-laughter all around him. It came from all directions at once, echoing in staccato bursts with a hideous, otherworldly quality that rose in intensity until the laughter turned into a series of elongated shrieks.