‘You’re cannibals!’ Harker yelled before almost retching at the sight of Lombardi’s crisp exterior.
‘Of course not,’ Davies replied calmly, as Dr Marceau stood up holding a long sharp knife and began to slice away a thin sliver of thigh muscle, ‘This ritual has been carried out ever since Mithras’s inception and is another rite stolen from us by the Catholic Church.’
Harker looked down at his plate and suppressed the bile rising in his throat. He was wrong: these people weren’t insane, they were the devil incarnate. And as he began to breathe deeply and the smell of the baked offering wafted past his nostrils, Davies continued to lecture him.
‘Alex, this practice may seem unusual to you,’ he said, taking his seat at the other end of the table, ‘but it is practised by many of the older cultures all over the world.’
‘Maybe hundreds of years ago but not in the twenty-first century,’ Harker managed to argue, now focusing his line of vision on Davies at the far end rather than the human shish kebab lying stiff on its oversized serving dish.
‘I understand this may be unsettling if you’ve never experienced it before, so please don’t feel obliged to participate if you don’t wish to.’
There was not a cat in hell’s chance Harker was going to do so but it was still a relief to hear these words. Meanwhile the smell of baked Lombardi continued to permeate the air, and even worse, it actually smelt rather like chicken!
‘Gives a whole new meaning to the term having someone over for dinner,’ Harker remarked bitterly. ‘So what did the evening’s entrée do to deserve this?’
‘He’s the reason you’ve had so much trouble with Avi Legrundy,’ Anastas replied as a plate of man meat was placed in front of him. ‘He disagreed with Father’s decision to invite you into the family. The idiot couldn’t stand the idea of you usurping his position and one day taking your rightful place instead of him.’
Stefani now intervened, ‘He tried to convince her to kill you, Alex, and sealed his fate in the process.’ she stated flatly and then took a first bite of her prepared meal, which had Harker close to throwing up. He couldn’t believe he had found the woman attractive. ‘Of course, she told Father soon after but we detained Marco here, and let him believe he had managed in his deception, just to see how far he might go.’ A drizzle of Lombardi juice began running down her cheek, which she dabbed at with a white linen serviette. ‘He would have had me killed, too, given half a chance.’
This was the most disgusting and surreal situation Harker had ever seen: an entire group of people digging into another human being and yet chatting as though it were over a Sunday roast. Suddenly a thought occurred to him. How could a group of people become so detached from reality as to carry out such a depraved act with little or no emotion?
‘You lot are the same children who went missing back at the orphanage all those years ago? And the fifteen swastikas I keep seeing represent all of you.’
‘We were lucky,’ Detective Russo responded with a nod and sitting to the left of Harker. ‘Father offered us a life full of meaning and wealth instead of ending up on the shit heap along with all the other disenfranchised children of this world.’
‘Extremely lucky,’ Dr Marceau concurred. ‘With his guidance and financial help we have all proved successful in our chosen fields and been inspired with the goal of returning the true God to his rightful place.’
‘He wasn’t so lucky,’ Harker replied, gesturing to the oven-baked corpse whose right thigh was now cut away, right down to the femur.
Listening at the other end of the table, Davies swallowed his last bite and flapped a hand in the air. ‘With the help of my children here I have continued to build the foundations for the hierarchy of the next generation. And they aren’t the only ones, for the people you see here are only the inner circle of but one chapter of the Mithras. We have devoted associates all over the world and with our resources, and the Magi now gone, we can begin to go forth and reclaim our destiny.’
‘Ah, yes, the destruction of the Catholic Church would be quite an accomplishment, if you can achieve it,’ Harker said bitterly. ‘And do your other associates know about your dining habits?’
Harker’s sarcasm provoked a look of ambivalence from each of them and Davies’s eyes moved around the table warily before settling back on him.
‘This banquet is for only our most trusted and, yes, that noble goal is most definitely our long-term aim. But we have another more pressing issue to resolve and it is yet another reason as to why you find yourself here tonight.’
The others eyed each other furtively as Davies pushed his plate forward and stood up. ‘There’s a good reason why I never got in contact with you after I first heard of your whereabouts.’ He stood up and moved slowly past the other guests, lightly touching each one on the shoulder affectionately. ‘When the Templars foolishly attempted to eradicate the Mithras all those years ago, it was due to nothing other than their own selfish conviction that they were somehow pure whilst we constituted an affront to their high sense of self-regard. They considered themselves better than us, and so they used their perceived power to make us suffer.’
Davies finally reached Harker’s seat and he put his hands together as if to look noble. ‘Avi Legrundy and myself obviously escaped their wrath and then, with no more use for him, they killed your father.’
‘Ahh, yes. Where is Miss Legrundy tonight?’ Harker asked with a look of distaste and still not buying the tale of Templar murder.
‘She’s having her face looked at; they were nasty burns.’ Dr Marceau informed him and sounding slightly miffed at that fact, ‘your overly heroic escape plan almost got me killed too.’
Davies now remained silent and Harker now sensed the unease which his actions had caused. ‘Well, she was trying to kill me at the time.’
‘It was only an act, Alex,’ Marceau persisted, ‘I almost choked on the blood pack, and after tossing that pigs tongue in your lap she was supposed to drag me out leaving you to break your own chair, which I had already weakened, so you could escape after us. I almost didn’t make it to the back entrance in time. My throat is still raw from the fumes.’
Harker could see this was a real bone of contention for all of them and, as they stared at him menacingly, he realised that his new ‘family’ could turn from pleasant to vicious at the drop of a hat. ‘I apologise, Gérald, but I was under the assumption she had just murdered you, and I was extremely angry about it.’
The hardened stares now began to soften as Davies took that moment to intervene. ‘I understand Alex, we all do, and I’m sure you can apologise to Miss Legrundy when she arrives. I think you’ll find her most forgiving, given the situation.
Harker offered a grateful nod, and everyone settled back into their seats, as Davies continued with his pitch.
‘As I was saying. We watched as years of designed strife broke out between them and the Magi, which cut down their numbers until recently, when they had managed to do to the Magi exactly what they believed had happened to us, and the time seemed ripe for exacting some well-deserved revenge. But it was most impressive that you, one of our own, played such a pivotal part in their demise. It is with that same fervour that we wish you now to help us.’
It was irksome to Harker to keep being mentioned thus as one of theirs, but he gave a nod. ‘And what would that be?’
Davies glanced around at his brood and then quickly back at Harker, with a maniacal look on his face. ‘I want you to help us destroy those people who killed your father. I want you to help me destroy the Templars once and for all. And I want Sebastian Brulet dead and in doing so we can finally bring this game of ours to a close.
A low muttering now rippled around the table. ‘All debts must be repaid.’
Harker looked around briefly at all the faces focusing on him keenly. ‘And how would I do that?’
This reply appeared to encourage Davies who now bent down on one knee, within inches of Harker’s face, with the smell of human flesh on his breath. ‘You know the hierarchy, you know how they operate and therefore you can get close to them. With you on our side we can put an end to all this, so we now ask for your help.’
Harker stared back into the eyes of his ‘uncle’, and it just appalled him to think how deluded this man had become. It made sense that his ‘children’ here had been indoctrinated at an early age, and thus raised to believe in Mithras and their cause unequivocally, but Davies himself? Had the loss of his loved ones and his wish for revenge clouded his judgment so much that he actually believed Harker would participate in such an insane crusade purely because they were related?
As Harker continued to stare at him, he came to the conclusion that he had. And now he sat there silently, as if mulling over the offer, as Davies continued with his wishes.
‘Take your proper place with us, Alex, and I promise you a life of wealth and of never wanting for anything, which of course extends to your wife-to-be, Chloe.’
The mere reference to her had his blood boiling, but he managed to retain an expression of composure until, after almost a full thirty seconds of silence, he finally nodded his head. ‘I can’t deny that I have indeed missed a sense of family over the years, and if the Templars did murder my father, then that changes things. If I do help you though, I need you to make three assurances?’
‘Of course,’ Davies replied, looking very pleased with himself, his smile a bit overstated. ‘Just name them.’
‘I want proof that they really did kill my father, and I want it before I agree to do anything.’
‘And you shall have it,’ Davies replied with a nod.
‘Secondly, Mithraism is alien to me, to say the least, so you must allow me to gain experience of it at my own pace.’
‘More than reasonable,’ Davies replied once again glancing around at those present, who all seemed to find the request acceptable. ‘And the third?’
‘I will help you in any way I can, but I don’t want to be the one whose hand plunges the dagger.’
Davies pondered his nephew’s wish, then nodded his head in agreement. ‘You help us get to him and I will plunge it myself.’
‘Very well,’ Harker sat back in his chair and smiled. ‘Then if this banquet is not my final initiation, what is it?’ Let’s get it over with and allow me to get to know my family once again.’
Davies clasped a hand on Harker’s shoulder and, after beckoning all the others to congratulate their new kinsman, he walked off and disappeared through the double doors.
Detective Russo got to him first, pulled him to his feet and gave him a huge hug.
‘Are you even really a Detective?’ Harker asked.
‘Of course, I am. We’ve all of us chosen a career in which we can best serve the goals of Mithras.’
‘How about your brother-in-law?’
‘Oh, that’s real, on my wife’s side, though. She died a while back, I fear.’
‘I’ll bet she did,’ Harker murmured and as he moved from one hug to the next he couldn’t quite come to terms with what a bizarre experience this was. A group of orphans united in a deadly and awful sect with only blood and murder on their minds, yet all of them living normal lives outside it. It was like the Italian mafia where one’s family was something to be treasured during the day yet at night those same fathers became homicidal killers and psychopaths. The contrast was frankly unbelievable and yet, as Stefani pushed her way forward to embrace him tightly, he found the whole concept not only terrifying but tragic.
‘I knew you’d join us. Father has never been wrong, and family is after all the most important thing in the world. You have to meet the others as and I know you’ll love Sofia… she is a sweetheart.’
‘I know, but give me time, Stefani. I need some space to get my head around all this.’
She pulled back and nodded in understanding. ‘It’s a lot to take in,’ she agreed just as Harker smelt the stench of something god-awful. He turned around to see Davies reappear in the open doorway tugging a leather strap. It was wrapped around the neck of the hulking man-child plodding in behind him.
Although intimidating in size, the poor boy looked absolutely petrified, and the others present now began slapping him mercilessly about the head, mocking him viciously.
‘Down on your knees, beast,’ Davies commanded and the man-child complied immediately. The others now retook their seats with looks of scorn and contempt towards the giant simpleton. ‘This creature, this misfortune of nature, represents all that is wrong with the world we inhabit, which the world now holds up as something to be protected, when instead it should simply be taken out and destroyed. The sick Church of today only offers its flock weakness and pity and we must take pride in the knowledge that our own beliefs are pure.’
As Harker watched the Mithras leader reel off his venomous, rhetorical nonsense he looked around to see everyone present applauding and cheering and his heart sank even lower, if that were possible.
‘Alex,’ Davies called out to him, slapping the dog lead against his open palm. ‘This creature has been raised like cattle for only one purpose: to be slaughtered as an offering to Mithras by one who is true of heart, and as a show of dedication to that which is to be.’
Davies produced the same hunting knife that Harker had been tossed earlier on entering the dungeon maze, and it was now pressed firmly into his hand. ‘In the name of Mithras, shed its blood and destroy what it has and always will stand for. I refer to Jesus Christ, the most treacherous betrayer of the human race ever to have existed.’
As the others cheered on with degrading chants, Harker felt his entire throat tighten with anger and he steadied his breathing. They were monsters all right.
‘Take your place with us,’ Davies encouraged triumphantly as the din subsided and all Mithras’s children looked on in excitement, eager for the sick spectacle to begin, ‘put this beast out of its misery, for its life now belongs to you and you alone.’
Harker’s hands trembled slightly, but not from fear or disgust but rather wholehearted, unadulterated rage. He placed his hand on the man-child’s shoulder and addressed him. ‘Stand up now,’ he ordered loudly and the giant, with fearful tears in his eyes, pulled himself to his feet whereupon Harker untied the dog lead from around his neck. Then, holding the knife up to the boy’s throat ‘I own you,’ he growled. ‘And you belong to me.’
Davies looked thrilled at the sudden show of strength Harker was displaying. He even clapped his hands joyfully as Harker leant close to the man-child’s face, which was quivering with fear. ‘Destroy them!’ Harker bellowed, and in that instant the giant stopped shivering. He now only looked confused as Harker bellowed again, ‘Destroy them all, that’s an order.’
Davies had only just realised what was going on and managed the single word, ‘What!’ as a huge fist slammed down hard into his cheekbone with a crack, sending him flying against the wall opposite, where he crumbled to the floor in a heap and like a jackpot machine paying out the prized leather backed journal he had been shown earlier, along with his confiscated iPhone fell from Davies’s robed pocket and out onto the floor.
The others sat shocked and motionless in their seats as the man-child now, with one hefty movement, flipped the entire table over and began ploughing mercilessly into them with his fists, swinging them left and right and sending anyone they touched sailing off in the opposite direction, like skittles in a bowling alley.
With the cumbersome robes they were all wearing, it meant easy pickings. Harker grabbed his phone and the leather book firstly, jamming it into his pocket and then he snatched up one of the smaller silver platters from off the floor and smashed it hard onto Russo’s head. The detective had managed to avoid the man-child’s onslaught, but this unexpected assault knocked him out cold.
Harker next turned his attention to Marceau who had initially taken a fist blow to the head but was now staggering to his feet – only to be sent back to the floor with the help of the now dented platter.
‘No please…’ he heard someone cry out before another hard blow from the giant sent them flying against the wall. Seeing how the youth was making short work of the lot of them, Harker ran back into the other room to grab the brass tongs next to the fireplace and pulled out a burning log, which he hurled up against the wooden rafters of the maze whose doors were still ajar having been opened in order to bring in the human sacrifice.
To the sound of cries and moans of those guests getting pummelled, Harker hurled another burning log and then another, and by the time he returned to the dining room the timbers were already lighting up and starting to burn ferociously.
‘Enough. Follow me,’ he yelled and the giant ceased his rampage and thundered over to join him.
The scene was chaos and, although none of the Mithras cult looked dead, there were writhing bodies everywhere. To one side he caught sight of Stefani, who bore a big red punch mark on one cheek and was busy screaming obscenities at him.
‘You wanted hell,’ Harker yelled to her, barely in control of the sheer rage still overwhelming him. ‘Well, here it is.’
As smoke began to fill the room, Harker slammed the doors of the dining room, shutting them inside. There was no lock on them which at least gave the Mithras a chance to escape because as much as he wanted to kill them all at that moment, he wasn’t a murderer.
He hurried over to the only other door and flung it open, and thankfully saw stairs leading upwards. He paused and looked back to see the giant standing staring at the billowing smoke. ‘Follow me,’ Harker urged, but the man-child merely glanced at him, then with a smile took off into the burning maze and out of sight.
There was no way Harker was leaving without him, so he rushed after him in close pursuit. All around fire was raging, as he came to a halt at the small opening he had pushed his way through earlier, realising now he had no idea where to go next. Worse still he didn’t even have a name to call out so he began calling yelling, ‘Come back here… follow me.’
After several seconds, with the heat becoming almost unbearable, the man-child appeared, looming from some side passage, then ran back over to Harker, who now realised what was going on.
The oversized puppet with button eyes hung from his forearm, clutched tightly, and with an understanding nod from Harker they both sped back into the other room and up the stairwell. It ended at a set of double doors fixed above like those on an old-fashioned air-raid shelter.
They bust out through them, both together into the warm night air and without pausing to catch his breath Harker guided them back through the brush, emerging fortunately within yards of the waiting boat he had arrived in.
Harker was first on board and looked back to find the giant looking unsure. It dawned on him that this fellow had probably never even seen a boat before. Jesus, he might never have been outside before.
His attempts at waving him on board had no effect whatsoever. ‘Get your arse in here now,’ Harker ordered, and immediately the giant jumped on board, nearly capsizing the boat in the process. ‘Now sit.’ He pointed to one of the benches, then started up the engine and began to pull away.
Above the island of Poveglia, smoke billowed up into the night sky in an ever-increasing black cloud, blotting out the stars above. It was impossible to tell if anyone else had made it out to safety, because the entire island was shrouded in darkness. And in truth, as they moved further away and towards the city lights of Venice, Harker really didn’t pay it much thought. Honestly, he couldn’t care less. Everything he had just learned, the enormity of it all, had him feeling completely numb and at a loss and he found himself gaining solace in only one thing. His position of Jarl, within the Templars. The idea that he was not worthy of the role had been grating on him but, as he looked at the burning island now in the distance, he realised that not only did it serve an imperative function but that he would do all he could to uphold the faith Brulet had placed in him.
As the giant stared up at the stars he was probably seeing for the first time, Harker pulled out his iPhone and peered at the screen. It was cracked in several places but as he pressed the On button, the screen burst into life. He let out a huge sigh of relief and then began deciding what on earth he was going to do next. Where the hell was he going to go, in the company of a gigantic man in rags, wearing hooved boots and clutching a life-sized doll, without attracting unwelcome attention?
Harker finally dialled in a number and waited for an answer.
‘David, it’s Alex. I need your help.’