The Eden Prophecy by Graham Brown Read Free Book Online

long.
    He glanced toward the edge of the platform. Out beyond lay the void of open sky.
    He could not save himself now. He could not save those he wished to save, but he knew what these men would do with the secret contained in the tablet. He could not allow that to occur.
    He ran his hand over the smooth surface and the carved markings. He studied the symbol at the center. Acircle with four notches in it, within which lay a square and a smaller rectangle.
    Bashir had called it the Mark of Eden. And he’d been right, but it would do neither of them any good. For if there was no God, as Ranga thought, then his existence was about to end brutally with nothing to show for it but misery. And if there was one, damnation surely awaited for what he had done.
    He inched toward the edge.
    “Give up, Ranga!” Marko shouted.
    “So that you can use me to kill and destroy?”
    “Your work will die alongside you,” Marko shouted. “Is that what you want?”
    Ranga slid a few more inches. “Better than the hell on earth you want to see.”
    “We do only what is necessary,” Marko said. “What you suggested so long ago.”
    The thought sickened Ranga. It had come full circle, the arrogance he’d always been accused of, the indictment of his profession. Geneticists playing God. And now …
    What had he done?
    Despite a decade of effort, he saw the truth plainly. His work must die. He must die with it.
    He inched closer to the edge. He whispered to himself, “I’m sorry, Nadia. I tried.”
    He turned, fired his last shots blindly, and then lunged for the edge without hesitation.
    He made one full step before the crack of a gunshot cut him down.
    Ranga’s back arched as blistering pain racked his body. He slumped to his knees, one hand on the railing. The tablet fell from his hand, landing on the deck, the Mark of Eden staring back up at him.
    He tried to stand but lacked the strength. He reached for the tablet, felt its smooth surface in his hand once more, and then heaved it.
    He watched it fall. It spun and tumbled, dropping silently through the air for what seemed like an eternity. Farther and farther down. And then it hit. Shattering into a thousand fragments on the concrete below.
    Collapsing facedown, Ranga drifted toward darkness, expecting a bullet to find his skull. But instead of a finishing shot, he felt rough hands yank him up.
    “Take him with us,” he heard Marko say. “Take them both.”
    “What about the tablet?”
    The second voice sounded nervous, fearful. Ranga understood that, too. The Master would be furious.
    Marko was less afraid. “We will find the others, once we have the scroll.”
    Marko grabbed Ranga by the hair and shook him awake. “And we will force the truth from your lips before you die. I promise you that.”
    Ranga heard these words through a fog. He saw Marko’s unforgiving eyes and felt the hatred in his soul. He knew it was not a lie.
    He had failed. He would die in horrendous pain. His dream would be twisted into an endless, living nightmare and hell would come to the earth after all.

CHAPTER 6
    D anielle Laidlaw sat in the passenger cabin of a Citation X business jet as it idled on the ramp at an airport forty miles south of Dubrovnik. The main door stood open, the stairs down and locked. Activity was at a standstill.
    This jet would be Hawker’s method of extraction, a departure in a style appropriate to the people he was supposed to represent. If anyone was watching, all they’d see was Hawker boarding a jet owned by a mysterious corporation chartered out of Malta and known to be involved in international weapons sales.
    The only possible link to the United States would be Danielle herself. For that reason she stayed inside, window shades down, restricted to watching the ramp via a closed-circuit camera feed that displayed on a flat-screen monitor at the front of the cabin.
    Hawker was late, twenty minutes so far. Not an overly concerning amount, but enough to stir a small