The Armageddon Conspiracy (38 page)

‘
The Cathars supposedly
had a great treasure that they wished to prevent falling into the
hands of the Crusaders at all costs.
The treasure, whatever it was,
was somehow essential for the vernal equinox ceremony and had to be
kept inside the fortress until that date, despite the risk that it
might fall into enemy hands.
With the ceremony over, the elite
Cathar mountaineers were able to take the treasure away hours
before the official surrender.
The Crusaders found no trace of the
treasure, and none of the garrison divulged a word about it despite
being tortured.

‘
To this day, there are
all sorts of bizarre suggestions about what the mysterious treasure
was.
Some claim it was a miraculous elixir that extended life and
had special healing properties, a bit like the Philosopher’s Stone,
except this was literal rather than metaphorical.
But, as a Gnostic
sect, the Cathars hated the material world, so they would scarcely
be looking for something that prolonged their stay in this hell.
By
the same token, they wouldn’t wish to be cured of any
life-threatening illness.
Their ambition was to achieve Gnosis and
die as soon as possible so they could go straight to paradise.
That’s why so many of them went willingly to the stake, even though
they might easily have lived.

‘
Others claimed that
the Cathars had the skeleton of Jesus Christ in their possession,
thus proving that he didn’t die on the cross and was never
resurrected.
Allegedly, the Catholic Church was so afraid of this
secret being revealed that they went to all the trouble of wiping
out the Cathars.
This version of events is preposterous on every
level.
How could anyone in those days hope to prove that a skeleton
belonged to Jesus?
More to the point, it was one of the central
beliefs of the Cathars that Jesus Christ didn’t have a physical
body, so how could they have his skeleton?
You can see how easy it
is for the Cathars to be misrepresented.

‘
Many people have said
that the Cathar treasure was the Holy Grail itself, but why would
anti-materialists place any value on a material object?
It’s
ridiculous.
Nor would their treasure consist of gold, precious
stones, or any other type of material wealth.’

‘
So, do you know what
the treasure was?’
Gresnick asked.

‘
Of course I
do.’

‘
What then?’

‘
On 30 April, you’ll
see for yourself.’

‘
What made the
mercenaries convert to Catharism?’
Lucy asked.
‘I’ve heard that
story before and it’s always baffled me.
I mean, by doing that they
sentenced themselves to death.’

‘
Isn’t it obvious?
They
were given incontestable proof of the truth of
Catharism.’

‘
But only some
converted,’ Lucy objected.
‘Others didn’t.
Why not?’

‘
Again, you’ll have to
wait for the answer but, I guarantee, you’ll get it
soon.’

‘
You seemed to imply
there was some doubt about when the Cathars held their special
ceremony,’ Gresnick said.

‘
The vernal equinox
wasn’t the date of the Cathars’ ceremony,’ Morson said.
‘The
Catholic Church invented it because they hoped to wipe out all
trace of the truth of the date most sacred to the
Cathars.’

‘
What was the real
date?’

‘
April 30.’

‘
The day Hitler
committed suicide,’ Gresnick said.
‘The day of the supposed end of
the world.’

Morson nodded.
‘Why do you think Hitler
made the defenders of Berlin fight so ferociously for so long
against impossible odds?
Just like the Cathars at Montségur, he was
trying to buy time to allow a special ceremony to take place.’

‘
Why are you guys all
white?’
Gresnick asked.
‘Is that one of the qualifications for
taking part in this special ceremony you keep talking about?
An
Aryan Race thing?’

‘
Let’s just say you’ll
never be one of us, colonel.’

‘
I’d never want to
be.’

‘
Many have said that.
Our own grandfathers said the same thing when the Nazis they were
interrogating told them what I’ve just told you.’

‘
What changed their
minds?’

‘
On 30 April 1945, the
Nazis in Nuremberg were able to re-enact part of the ceremony
performed by the Cathars.’

‘
So, you’re saying your
grandfathers had no Nazi sympathies before they questioned those
officials?’

‘
They detested Nazism.
That’s why they were chosen.
But when your enemy provides you with
irrefutable proof of your error, what do you do?
Keep pretending
you’re right when you know for certain you’re not?
Or do the
unthinkable and join the enemy?’

‘
You’re confirming the
Nazis were modern-day Cathars?’

‘
The Nazis were
Gnostics, and so were the Cathars.
The roots of Nazism go as far
back as you can imagine.’

‘
Back to
Cain?’

Morson seemed startled
for a moment, then he smiled.
‘You’ve seen
The Cainite Destiny
, haven’t you?
But
there’s no way you could accurately interpret it.
It defied
everyone, even the great professor Reinhardt Weiss.
He spent his
life trying to understand it.
He never did any serious academic
work ever again as he ran down ever more bizarre speculations about
the Nazis.
But the truth is the most bizarre thing of
all.’

‘
Professor Weiss was my
grandfather,’ Gresnick said.

Morson visibly blanched.
‘So, you’re
Jewish as well as black?’

‘
I’m a Baptist,
actually.
My grandfather was Jewish, but he married a Gentile.
As
you know, Jewishness passes down the mother’s line.’

‘
Nevertheless, you have
Jewish blood.
If I were you, I’d start saying Kaddish.
That’s what
your sort calls the prayer for the dead, isn’t it?’

‘
My sort?
You’re a real
Nazi, aren’t you?’

‘
You know nothing about
the Nazis.’

‘
I know they were
deranged, genocidal psychopaths.’

‘
They’re so far beyond
your comprehension, you could never begin to guess their true
nature.
Your grandfather had many theories, but they were all
wrong.
He had no evidence, and nor do you.’

‘
Are you afraid of the
truth, sergeant?
Afraid of what my family discovered?’

‘
I could never be
afraid of you, Gresnick.
Tell me what you think you know then I’ll
tell you how wrong you are.’

‘
Well, I know all about
the occult roots of Nazism.
The senior Nazis thought Cain was the
father of the Aryan Race.
Cain, they believed, was blue-eyed,
blond, with pale skin, while his brother Abel was a classic Semite
– brown-eyed, dark-haired with sallow skin.

‘
The Nazi leadership,
for obvious reasons, didn’t openly divulge that they were Gnostics.
Only senior Nazis knew they had inherited the mantle of the Cathars
and the Knights Templar.
They hated the Jews because the Jews were
the self-proclaimed Chosen People of Jehovah – Satan, as the Nazis
saw him.
After they dealt with the Jews, they would have turned
their attention to the two other peoples of “the Book” – the
Muslims and the Christians; Satan worshippers as far as the Nazis
were concerned.
They weren’t fighting a political war; it was a
Gnostic Holy War.

‘
Their ultimate mission
was to assemble all of the Grail Hallows and the Ark of the
Covenant because they believed that with these they could somehow
correct the mistake made by their alleged ancestors – the people of
Atlantis – when they accidentally destroyed their own island.
That’s why the Nazis carried out excavations at sites of religious
significance all over the world and why they were always interested
in rare religious artefacts.’

‘
What went wrong for
the Nazis?’
Lucy asked.

‘
My grandfather
believed the Nazis failed because they were unable to identify the
true Grail Hallows and the real Ark of the Covenant.
Many
high-quality fakes existed and it was impossible for the Nazis to
verify which ones were genuine.
Their plan depended on having the
authentic objects.
Only those possessed true occult
power.’

‘
What were they
planning to do with them?’
Lucy asked.

‘
Morson has all the
answers, don’t you sergeant?’

Morson smirked.
‘OK, colonel, you’re on
the right track.
And within thirty-six hours, you’ll know exactly
what our plans are.’

‘
I also know who the
Nazis believed Cain’s real father was,’ Gresnick said.
His tone,
Lucy thought, was deliberately provocative.

Morson’s eyes flickered.
‘And who might
that be?’

Gresnick’s reply couldn’t have been
more shocking.

‘
Lucifer
.’

48

V
ernon stood at
the prow of the ship trying to see through the fog.
Everything had
become still, quiet.
Only the engines made any sound.
His whole
life, he felt, was vanishing into a fog like this, one somehow
originating from Lucy.
From what Harrington said, it was as though
her whole life was predetermined, even her breakdown.
But that
meant he was part of the script too: a puppet in the Lucy Show.
Each string was being cut and he was just one snip away from
falling down and never getting up again.

Nothing that happened lately had truly
sunk in.
How could it?
It was as though the world, reality itself,
were turning inside out.
The reflections were stepping out of the
mirrors.

It was over an hour before the fog
lifted, revealing a world bathed in red, the water picking up the
sky’s colour.
A new Red Sea.
The light gave Vernon a headache.
His
eyes couldn’t adjust to this new red world.

He assumed they were a long way up the
Bristol Channel now, probably deep into the Severn Estuary.
Kruger
said they would be going past the Bristol Docks, up the River Avon
and into the centre of Bristol.
He wondered what they’d find
upriver.
A calm city?
Bedlam?
If Bristol were anything like London,
it was probably a ghost town by now.

It disturbed him how rapidly London had
changed from a thriving, world-famous city to a deserted shell.
What happened to the famous spirit of the Blitz?
People had got on
with their lives back then.
Nowadays they cowered in their
semi-detached homes with their families, watching the TV and hoping
for someone to come along and make everything better.

Kruger joined him as they navigated
past the docks.

‘
Completely deserted,’
Kruger said.
‘It’s creepy, don’t you think?’

The red sky was almost scarlet now.
Vernon had never seen anything so ominous.
Did God weep tears of
blood?
Nature, God – how ever you wished to say it – was repulsed
by humankind.
Time to end it all?