Book of Names by Slater David Michael

Author:Slater, David Michael
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CBAY Books
Published: 2014-03-09T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

an omen

Dex scrambled down the ladder as quickly as he dared in the dark. The floor was considerably lower than he thought possible, but soon enough his foot felt solid ground, concrete ground. As he stepped off the ladder, he could hear Nora panicking as she climbed down, but she reached him a few moments later.

Once off the ladder, she hissed, “My father! And someone else! There’s no way out!”

“Maybe they won’t come down,” Dex whispered.

A light clicked on. Nora had the flashlight, an old battered metal one. Dex looked around the room they were in.

Books.

Everywhere, books. Up and down the walls. It was like a bunker of books. The trapdoor had to be twenty feet up.

It creaked.

Nora snapped off the light and pulled Dexter, dragged him, to the far end of the underground library. The trapdoor opened, letting in light from the kitchen, but it only illuminated a third of the space.

Crouched down against some low shelves, Dex willed the dark to keep them hidden if someone came down. He could see now that the room was as large as the house itself and made entirely of concrete. All four walls had simple metal shelves bolted to them, floor to roof. There were gaps between the shelves where other ladders ran up and down the walls, giving access to the books at any location. There had to be thousands of books down there. More!

Great, Dex thought, and we don’t even know what we’re looking for.

“I apologize for the state you find me in,” Jons said, his voice falling through the trapdoor from above.

Nora clutched Dexter, cowering against the books behind her.

“To receive an emissary from the Pope himself! I—I am humbled and honored.”

“As you know, Pastor Jons,” a man replied, “the Church has never shared your—certainty about the depth or breadth of Masonic conspiracies, fashionable as they may sometimes be. But rest assured your vigilance has not gone unnoticed nor unappreciated these many years.”

Dex’s muscles clenched at the sound of this voice. It was the Secret Keeper of the Church. The man who had them shot in cold blood. The man who’d sent who knew how many killers to finish the job.

“The Holy Father has many things to worry about,” the Secret Keeper continued. “No offense was meant in ignoring you and your important work. Though I’m quite certain that a dedicated man of God like you knows well that proper recognition will be yours, along with all the thanks that count, when Judgment—”

“But they have my daughter!” Jons cried. “Please, we waste time here. Help me find that boy, that Wax boy, who has lured her away from me. I will wring his neck for you myself!”

Nora gasped at this, but then covered her mouth. It wasn’t exactly pleasant for Dexter either.

“We have ceased efforts on that front,” the Secret Keeper replied, “as they have proved futile. Our best assassins were dispatched to eliminate the twins. These are men with no peers in their profession. Do you understand me? They are all missing.

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