Chase Baker and the Seventh Seal (A Chase Baker Thriller Book 9) by Vincent Zandri

supposed to mean? Who is she, and how does he know about her? Is he talking about the Vanessa, the woman I left gagged and bound in the bathroom on the train in Austria? How in the world could he possibly know about her?
    Just to keep my mind off of the ramblings of a crazy man, I repack my bag for the morning. It doesn’t take very long, but by the time I’m finished I’m feeling exhausted. Like I’ve been injected with a sedative.
    Without bothering to undress, I lie back on my bed, eyes peeled on the ceiling. The red neon light from the electric exterior-mounted restaurant sign across the street flashes against it. It reminds me of blood. The kind that pours warm and wet and fresh from the vein. My mind fills with faces. Cross, Magda, Vanessa . . . I even picture the old man who spoke to me in riddles out in the park. Then, I think about the books. The codices.
    Are they for real? Who would have stolen them from the proprietor of the Jerusalem bookshop? Why steal them at all when they should be studied and examined by the same antiquities experts who are still studying the Dead Sea Scrolls? Maybe, unlike the scrolls, they are something that authorities, both religious and military, do not want to be found. Maybe that’s why Cross wants them so badly. Because they are entirely unattainable. For certain, that’s why Magda is going behind his back. Because if he should take possession of them, he risks destroying mankind.
    “Okay, Chase,” I whisper. “Cut the crap. As usual, your imagination is getting the best of you.”
    After a time, I feel myself drifting off and then suddenly, I’m falling into a deep sleep. A dreaming sleep.
    I see myself standing on a vast, desert plain. I’m sweating profusely, the heat so searing it’s as if I’m on fire. The earth beneath me trembling like an earthquake. But then, it’s not an earthquake. It’s something else. Something that hasn’t revealed itself yet. I see something coming toward me from out of the distance. The heat rising from the earth creates a translucent haze that distorts the vision. But within seconds, I see that it’s someone on horseback.
    The closer the person comes, the easier it is to tell that it’s a woman, her hair flowing over her shoulders. Blonde hair. The horse she’s riding is pale white, matching her hair. But her clothing is all black. I feel the urge to turn, to run. But I can’t. I’m entirely paralyzed. Suddenly, the trembling and rumbling beneath my feet reach a crescendo, and the earth opens up. Thousands of bodies emerge from their graves.
    The woman on horseback rides through the crowd of living dead until she reigns her horse in and comes to a stop just a few feet away from me. So close I can see her deep brown eyes and her sad smile. Vanessa. In her hand, she’s holding the seventh metal book. The metal seal on the book is broken.
    The sky turns black, jagged bolts of lightning strike the earth.
    “Nooooo!” I scream, but my voice is drowned out by thunder. Vanessa laughs, but her voice is no longer her own. It’s that of the old man in the park. Her face is no longer her own, either. It becomes the old man’s face. But even that old face sheds its old skin to reveal the skull beneath it.
    “Our Father,” I whisper, “who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.”
    The sky opens, and a bright, white light fills my eyes . . .
    When I wake, I’m covered in sweat. I don’t recall taking my clothes off when I passed out in the bed, but at some point, I must have woken up and shed them. What the hell is happening to me? I haven’t even left my apartment yet and already I’m being followed. Only, not by flesh and bone, but, instead, evil spirits.
    Maybe Magda is right.
    Maybe there is something to the legend of the seven metal codices after all. Maybe there’s information contained within them that is not to be found within the Dead Sea Scroll parchments. Something powerful and God-like. Satan-like. Something not of this