The Last Enemy(54)

Jake hesitated, then grabbed the dead body of the soldier by the ankles and dragged it over to a small table near the door.

‘Put his gun with him,’ ordered Guy. He pointed to a roll of tarpaulin. ‘Then cover him with that tarp.’

Jake did as he was ordered, snatching a glance at his watch. 17:05. Twenty-five minutes to go.

Guy saw him look at his watch and chuckled.

‘Yes, indeed, Jake. Time is passing. So, let’s find this book. Where do we start?’

‘I don’t know,’ admitted Jake helplessly. ‘I’ve never been in here before.’

‘Then think, Jake. It’s worked for you so far. That’s what’s got us here.’

‘Well, the boxes seem to be in alphabetical order,’ said Jake.

‘Good.’ Guy nodded. ‘So, we’re looking for The Index. Under I, do you reckon?’

‘No,’ said Jake, shaking his head. ‘M for Malichea. If it’s here, that’s where it’ll be.’

‘It had better be here,’ said Guy menacingly. ‘You know what’s at risk if it isn’t.’

‘It’ll be here,’ Jake reassured him desperately.

Jake hurried to the aisle of shelves with a big ‘M’ above it, and began to work his way along the row, scanning, looking particularly for anything with the familiar black leather covering with the letter ‘M’ and the symbol of the Order embossed on it. There were plenty of labels beginning with ‘Ma . . .’, but nothing that looked like anything Jake could connect with the Order of Malichea.

There has to be something here, he thought. There should be at least one of the books, and more! But there was nothing. The files labelled ‘Ma . . .’ became files and packets marked ‘Mb . . .’.

Jake turned on Guy, who glared at him grimly.

‘Well?’ demanded Guy, his voice like ice.

‘I don’t know!’ said Jake helplessly. ‘There should be something here! I know for sure that Gareth and his people have found some of the hidden books, so they should be here!’

‘But they’re not,’ snapped Guy. He pulled the gun from his pocket. ‘It looks like you tried to con me, Jake. I warned you what would happen if you did that . . .’

‘No!’ burst out Jake, as a sudden realisation hit him. ‘Sigma!’

‘What?’ queried Guy, puzzled.

‘I’ve just remembered, that’s one of the code words they used for stuff like the hidden books. We’re in the wrong place! We should be where the S files are!’

Guy scowled.

‘I get the definite feeling you’re just playing for time,’ he grated. ‘Well, your time has run out!’

And he levelled the gun at Jake.

‘Wait!’ appealed Jake. ‘Follow me!’

And he hurried off towards the aisle with a big ‘S’ above it, all the time expecting to get a bullet in the back. Instead, he heard Guy’s footsteps hurry after him. As Jake ran, he looked again at his watch. Ten past. Twenty minutes.

Jake reached the aisle marked ‘S’ and rushed down it, scanning the shelves hurriedly, aware that if there was nothing here he had no choice but to try and throw himself at Guy and attempt to wrestle the gun off him.

He ran down the aisle, his eye running over the labels as he did, and suddenly he saw them. The familiar leather-wrapped objects, with the Malichea symbol. There were about twenty of them, all different sizes.

‘There!’ he said triumphantly.

Guy joined him.

‘Which one is The Index?’ he asked.

‘I don’t know,’ admitted Jake. ‘My guess is it would look like the Journal, that sort of size.’

‘So what are these?’ demanded Guy.

‘Some of them will be the books that have been found and brought here,’ said Jake.

‘OK, start opening them,’ said Guy.

Jake shook his head.

‘That’s too dangerous. Some of the books contain traps to protect the information that’s in them. The only answer is to take all of them with us and find out which one is The Index later.’

Guy looked at the packets suspiciously.

‘Say none of them are The Index?’ he queried. ‘Say these are just books with weird sciences in them?’

‘They’ll still be worth a fortune,’ urged Jake. ‘Each book will contain secrets that could be patented.’

‘I don’t want just a few of the books!’ growled Guy. ‘I want The Index. I want to know where all of them are! You promised me The Index, Jake!’ He shook his head. ‘I’ll take these, but that wasn’t our bargain!’

Once again he levelled the gun at Jake, and all Jake could think of was that it had all been in vain. He was going to die. Lauren was going to die.