Dark Tidings

Chapter 37 - The Message

Michael drummed his fingers on his desk and stared at the computer screen. Nothing was happening. His software had been probing the IIBE defences for hours now but he'd yet to detect any response. Surely they must have spotted it by now? Had he missed something vital?

He trawled though the bank's hacked email files. There was nothing out of the ordinary; nothing which suggested they'd discovered the attacks. Maybe they weren't as efficient as he thought or maybe they were so confident in their firewall and network security that they were happy to leave the probes probing.

A return to the encrypted email to the chairman took his mind off his worries, The Noviru analyser had been analysing it for hours and still seemed no nearer to cracking the code. As a last resort, he switched in the hardware simulator module. He didn't have high expectations for this. It only helped with the highest levels of encryption, the type used by the most secretive and advanced national security agencies. There was no way the chairman would need anything like that. Was there? He wouldn't have that level of sophisticated hardware in his possession. Would he?

His fingers drummed harder and faster as the software crunched though its analysis. He was about to give up when the words 'decryption complete' flashed up in front of him. He started to read the translated message. What the hell? A particular paragraph grabbed his attention. He leaned closer to the screen.

'Magic which is outside our control has been used on at least twelve different occasions. Our research has concluded that the time-travellers have arrived with the Scroll.'

His mouth dropped open as he stared at the message. Why would the chairman of a financial organisation be getting emails about magic? He skipped back to the start of the email.

'After solemn and due consideration the European Executive of the Occultus Populous has deemed it appropriate and necessary to convene a meeting of the full Grand Council. This decision has been ratified by the Great Grand Master.'

What the hell was the Occultus Populous? He typed it into Google. His query brought back loads of entries for Populous. He tried again with double quotations... "Occultus Populous". It offered him pages of answers for "Occultist Populous" but no entries for his specific search.

"Madrick, can you come here?" he shouted in a voice which sounded a couple of octaves higher than usual. That only happened when he was upset... or scared.

Madrick wandered over to the PC corner. "Another funny video?" Michael loved showing him funny videos.

"Have you ever heard of the Occultus Populous?"

"Nope."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. Mind you, the words Occultus Populous could be Salatin which, for your enlightenment, was the language which evolved into Latin."

"Skip the history lesson, I think we're a lot more to worry about than history. What do the words mean?"

"Translation from the ancient language is never precise but they mean something like Special People. What's the problem? What's going on?"

"Read this," said Michael as he pointed at the screen.

As Madrick read the message, his face turned as white as a flag of truce.

"Someone knows about us? Some secret organisation knows about us? Who are those people? What do they want?"

"I don't know. That's why I'm asking you. Listen, first things first, don't panic. They may know about you but they don't know where you are... yet," said Michael. "And they don't know that we know that they know about you."