Book of Souls

They also had a group of letters from the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries that purported to explain the origin of the books and place them in some historical context. The article made reference to a mysterious order of monk savants on the Isle of Wight but stressed the lack of corroborating proof. Future Post articles would talk about the influence of the Library on famous historical figures such as John Calvin and Nostradamus.

Finally, there was the matter of 2027. In a fourteenth-century letter, there was a notation about some kind of apocalyptic end-of-days event, but the only certainty was that the books did not have entries beyond February 9, 2027.

Piper had been a target of violence that had claimed the lives of his in-laws, and he had been wounded in an action against covert government agents. His whereabouts were unknown, but his condition was reported to be stable.

On Sunday morning, the White House, the Pentagon, and the State Department all issued official no comments, but senior sources close to the administration, namely the White House Chief of Staff and the Vice President, without attribution, told the paper they had no idea what the Post reporter was talking about-and in retrospect they were, in fact, telling the truth. They hadn’t been in the Area 51 loop.

By Monday, the official Washington language was shifting by degrees from “no comment” to “stand by for an announcement from the White House,” to “the President will address the nation at 9:00 P.M. EST.”

The newspaper story sparked a fire that spread across the globe at the speed of electrons. The revelations hijacked nearly every conversation on the planet. By that first evening virtually all sentient adults in the world had heard about the Library and had an opinion. People were consumed by curiosity and gripped by apprehension.

All across America, constituents called their elected representatives, and congressmen and senators called the White House.

Across the globe, worshippers flocked to their priests, rabbis, imams, and ministers, who worriedly tried to match official dogma to the supposed reality.

Heads of state and ambassadors of virtually every nation barraged the State Department with demands for information.

TV, cable, and radio airwaves devoted themselves to wall-to-wall coverage. The problem became quite apparent several hours into the news cycle that there was no one to interview. No one had heard of the Post’s Greg Davis, and the paper wasn’t making him available to the media.

Will Piper was nowhere to be found. The Post’s Publisher made the rounds, standing by the story, but could do no more than repeat the facts as they had been reported. The paper was refusing to make any of the data public, referring the matter to the Post’s attorney at Skadden Arps, who issued a statement that matters of ownership and privacy were under study.

So, for the moment, pundits could only interview each other, and they were whipping each other into a lather while their media bookers hotly pursued philosophers and theologians, people whose phones were normally quiet on weekends.

Finally at 6:00 P.M. EST on Monday, CBS News issued an urgent press release that 60 Minutes

would present a special live televised interview with Will Piper, the source of the story. The world had only two hours to wait.

The White House was outraged that the President was being preempted, and the White House Chief of Staff called the president of CBS News to inform him that issues of national security were at stake and remind him that the man they were going to put on camera had not been interviewed by the appropriate authorities. He hinted that there could be serious charges forthcoming against Piper and that he was a potentially unreliable rogue source. The network executive politely told the White House to go pound sand and sat back to wait for a federal court to issue an injunction.

At 7:45, Will was sitting up in his hospital bed, wearing a nice blue sweater. He was bathed in TV lights. Considering what he’d been through, he looked handsome and relaxed. Nancy was there, holding his hand, whispering encouragement out of earshot of the camera crew and producers.

The network’s general counsel bounded off the elevator at Will’s floor, waving the faxed injunction. The network president was huddling with the show’s executive producer and Jim Zeckendorf, who was there advising Will as a friend and lawyer. The network president had just finished talking to Will and was still visibly moved.

He took the injunction, folded it, and put it in his coat pocket. He told his lawyer, “This is the biggest story in history about the biggest cover-up in history. I don’t care if I spend the rest of my goddamn life in jail. We’re going live in fifteen minutes.”