Read The Lazarus Prophecy for Free Online

saying that the Antichrist is coming?’
    â€˜No. He isn’t. That would only be repeating what various sects and prophets and preachers have been threatening for the last two thousand years. He’s saying that the Antichristis here. He’s saying that what was done to Julie Longmuir is his achievement. He’s saying that the next one will be a cause of great grief and torment.’
    â€˜And he’s saying all this in language someone from Nazareth at the time of Jesus would have used.’
    Prior gestured at the fourth translation. He said, ‘According to Dom Carter, yes he is.’
    She’d briefed him on the specifics of the Longmuir murder before showing him the translated texts. She’d spared him crime scene pictures, because she needed his clarity of thought rather than his shocked revulsion. He seemed eager enough to help. He also seemed to have time on his hands. He’d come straight from his Lambeth flat to Victoria. If he worked, he worked from home. She remembered that he’d seen her at that morning’s press conference on the midday news. It was now just after 2.30 in the afternoon.
    â€˜How is it you’re on first name terms with Professor Carter?’
    â€˜I’ve helped with some of his research. Religious belief and its spread through the written word was a significant influence on the development of ancient languages.’
    â€˜I’m sure it was. That’s what you do, research?’
    â€˜It’s how I earn a living.’
    â€˜Is it much of a living?’
    â€˜Not really.’
    â€˜I’m guessing a failed vocation,’ she said. ‘You were training to be a priest. You had a crisis of faith. But faith still fascinates you, thus theology.’
    â€˜If you’re in possession of a telepathic gift, why don’t you use it to catch your killer?’
    â€˜All I’m in possession of is intuition,’ she said. ‘With the Scholar, it’s not helping.’
    He obviously found her questions and assumptions intrusive. They hadn’t vetted him yet. They would, but she thought it a formality. She wanted information and she wanted it faster than the bureaucratic protocols generally allowed.
    â€˜Would you describe his knowledge of early Christianity as comprehensive?’
    â€˜The most recent message is different from the others. In the others he quotes from Revelations and some of the Gospels and he hints darkly about the End of Days. In the Longmuir message he’s very specific about the Antichrist. And he quotes his sources as thoughthey were people known personally to him. He’s not so much expert on the subject as intimate with it.’
    Jane shivered. The notion of the Scholar being intimate with anything was a repulsive one. She said, ‘What do you think it signifies, this change in tone from the messages left at the earlier crime scenes?’
    â€˜I’m sure you have psychological profilers to tell you that sort of thing.’
    â€˜We have an abundance of profilers Mr. Prior. But I’m asking you.’
    Prior didn’t say anything. He finally picked up his coffee, which had by now to be cold, and sipped at it tentatively. Traffic buzzed below on the busy street outside. There was the fading persistence of a siren a couple of blocks away. Sunlight leaked dustily into the room through the chinks of her window blind.
    â€˜Do you think he’s gaining in confidence?’
    â€˜I’d put it stronger than that,’ Prior said. ‘It’s almost as though he’s remembered who he is.’
    â€˜So you think he’s delusional?’
    â€˜If he is, that will make him easier to catch, won’t it? Delusional people are quite conspicuous, aren’t they?’
    â€˜You’d think so,’ she said. But she didn’t really buy the argument. Lots of people in her own chain of command struck her as quite seriously delusional but their jobs and