She sat down on her chair and waited for someone to say something and when nobody volunteered a word, she picked up the staff from the table and returned it behind the chair, signalling the end of the meeting. The others slowly removed the necklaces around their necks and rose to their feet.
Carol hurried over to Cathy and went on her knees, she kissed the ring, then got up and headed for the door. She glared at Abubakar as she passed and the big African chuckled. The German punched him playfully on the shoulder. Carol grumbled as she left the room and headed downstairs. She shouted at some teenagers who rushed up to her for an autograph sending them running back for cover. Still fuming, she got into her white Lincoln stretch limousine and gave the driver orders to get her to her hotel.
“Oh I hate them!” she screamed when she was alone at the rear of the car. “That bitch and that bloody African, oh how I hate them! She's gonna pay for this and him too! Oh they're really gonna pay!”
Sometimes she hated herself for not warning Karl Finch about the plot to kill him. Maybe his plan may have worked and she would become as he had promised, a goddess. Now she'll just have to suffer embarrassment from the other council members and even from some junior members of the brotherhood for her foolishness.
Zhu Hang kissed the ring and with a nod to the others, left the room. The moment he got into his SUV he picked up a Motorola mobile phone he had purchased for his brief stay and punched in some numbers with the keypad. The person at the other end picked at the second ring. Zhu Hang could hear the scrambler come on at the other end.
“You know who is speaking.” He said in Japanese.
“Yes,” replied the voice at the other end.
“Find out all you can about that book you talked about,” Zhu Hang said. “If it exists, try and find it and get it for me.”
“Yes.”
Zhu Hang cut the connection. He brought the powerful engine to life and steered the vehicle into the busy road heading for his apartment from whence he intended to leave for China as soon as possible.
If such book really did exist, he wanted to be in possession of it before the agents of the Warlock, whoever they were got hold of it and awaken the worse nightmare on all creation. He knew where he would end up after his sojourn on earth. He had long ago made that decision but that end would be nothing compared to what life and even death would be for all of them if Karl Finch ever managed to claw his way back to the land of the living.
The duo of Abubakar and Mesut were the next to leave together, then the Arab, and finally Ruud. The Arab fully intended to get to the root of the book Zhu Hang had mentioned. He had learnt never to give anything to chance and also knew that there was usually some element of truth in every legend. He started making calls to his agents the moment he was within the confines of his vehicle.
If Zhu Hang was right and such book did exist, then it better not fall in the wrong hands. He knew just who to give this task of finding the book and bringing it to him.
Soon Cathy was left alone in the suite. The meeting had gone quite successfully, she mused, as she sat there alone. She felt some satisfaction assigning Carol Pike with the duty of going to check the grave. The bitch deserved it and even more.
She had heard about the book the Chinese had talked about from Robert Devore years ago, but then their former leader wasn't really sure of its existence. She had never thought about it until when the Chinese had brought it up at the meeting. If such a book really existed, then the chance of Karl Finch returning to the land of the living was very possible. The man had been very resourceful and had a secret helper among the ranks of angels or demons; at least that was what Lucifer suspected, though his secret accomplice had managed to evade detection by both Heaven and Hell for so long.
She was going to get to the root of it as soon as she was granted personal audience with the King of Darkness, but that would have to wait for later.
She produced her phone from her purse and speed-dialled Daniel Fisher's cell. Dan picked almost immediately.
“Been thinking of you, boss,” he said immediately.
“And I've been thinking of you,” she replied. “Come over to my suite at the Waldorf right now.”
“Already on my way.”
She pushed the end button and rose to her feet. She leisurely walked over to the dresser and, staring at the mirror, she started removing her clothes. She could really start getting used to this new arrangement.
Back at her hotel, Carol Pike brushed past the hotel staff without giving them her usual smiles or tips neither did she acknowledge the numerous fans reaching out for her autograph. She locked herself inside her suite banishing all her domestic staff as she drowned her sorrows with a bottle of vodka.
Over the years there have been visits to that cemetery but she was never called upon to go there all by herself. She had always been in the company of one of the stronger members. It wasn't fair. She dreaded that place so much and couldn't wait to get away from it each time they visited to carry out containment rituals over that cursed grave.
She woke some hours later with a severe headache. She cleaned herself up and got on the phone with her travels agent to make arrangements for her trip to London.
Other members of the Brotherhood have left for their different destinations but were all troubled as they all awaited the outcome of Carol Pike's visit to the old church.
The walls were very high shielding the outside from what happened within this very vast compound. There was a big building within those walls but nobody knew what happened inside there. Trucks with markings of a beverage firm would come and go once in a while giving the impression that the place was some sort of beverage factory.
The building housed a very secret security organization with specialties in so many areas and used by many international security and intelligence organizations who wanted a job done without their names written all over it. They also worked for the rich and famous, anybody who could foot their bill and Amie was such a person who could afford their services as he had done countless times before.
Amie's call was routed to the leader of this clandestine organization, a Russian simply known as Ivan. He was a very big bull of a man and always wore the Russian GRU Spetsnaz fatigues complete with the markings as did every other person in the compound whenever they were within the confines of the walls. The Venezuelan government knew best to let them be as on several occasions, this shady organization had rendered community service to the government in areas of taking care of an itch before it spread into a rash.
What Amie told Ivan on the phone might have sounded strange and ridiculous to some other security expert but not Ivan. The Russian made it his job to know about his clients and knew everything he needed to know about Amie and the brotherhood. Sometimes, his people were even called upon to pay visits to an abandoned cemetery in a small English village. He understood what lay on the other side and did not laugh when Amie told him about a book that could break out a soul from Hell and the need to locate that book before it ended up in the wrong hands. He listened as Amie spoke, making some notes then hung up afterwards.
He punched at the button on the intercom on the large wooden desk and barked out some words in Russian to whoever was listening at the other end of the connection. Minutes later and the door to the office opened ushering into the room four men all dressed in dark overcoats. They were from different nationalities, there was the Indian, the Ghanaian, the Chinese and their team leader, the one-eyed white haired German. They were a very special unit, used for very special tasks just as the one Amie had called for.
"We have a new job."
The men stood there and listened as Ivan told them as much as he knew. The men walked out from the room a few minutes later. Ivan was confident of hearing some good news soon. These men hardly ever failed.
In a little known room up in the Vatican, a bright light appeared before a small group of priests kneeling in prayers before a small alter covered with candles and flowers.
The most senior priest dared to look up at the bright light while the others chanted prayers and for a few minutes, he remained transfixed as a silent conversation transpired between him and the light.
The man's face turned pale as the light gradually faded away. He slowly turned around to the other priests who have now stopped their chanting and waited to hear what he would say. The look on his face already told them he bore bad news.
"The great evil," he said. "The worst of all evil is coming. He is coming again. He will bring death and destruction. We must pray, we must fast, we must seek God's face for guidance at this time of tribulation."
This small group of priests were members of a secret prayer and intersession order in the church whose existence and the existence of their prayer room was known to very few but the work they did was invaluable to the church and all mankind.
Their duties included communicating with God and the angels in times of trouble as well as appealing for God's mercies on mankind when God's temper was provoked by the evil ways of men. Through them, God usually sent a messenger to communicate with the church leaders and warn them of God's wishes on certain matters.
Lately, God have been distant from them as evil and sin started creeping even into the church. The corruption of the world have also reached into the church corrupting the men of the cloth and using them to spread the corruption to their congregation.
This secret order was one of the few last lines of defence for mankind that have managed to keep God's wrath against man at bay. Their prayers and supplications have gone a long way to keep away many pestilence on all mankind but as the corruption gradually overcomes even the heads of churches worldwide, the weaker their efforts become.
Today, God had revealed to them what the near future would look like and as always, they set out to intercede on behalf of all mankind.
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