‘I see…’

‘These cultists share many myths about the Garden of Eden. But even to the cultists, what happened at Gobekli is just a vague, frightening memory, of some sneering, birdlike angels that demanded worship. But the hazy folk-memory is potent. This is why the Yezidi, in particular, don’t outmarry. They have a mythic fear that they might taint their own bloodline with the traits of the violence and sacrifice they see in wider humanity. In the rest of us. The peoples who carry the Gobekli gene.’

Kiribali was silent, taking this in.

Rob continued. ‘The cursed Yezidi also bear a terrible burden. A mortification. They may claim to be pure, but deep down they sense the truth: that some of their forefathers interbred with the evil Northmen, allowing the Northmen to spread the Gobekli gene, and so the ills of the world are essentially their fault. Hence their inhibition, their secrecy, the Yezidis’ peculiar sense of shame. Hence also the fact they have not spread far from the temple whence they come. They need to protect it. They still fear that if the truth is ever properly uncovered, and their deeds revealed to the world, they will be exterminated by the rest of humanity, in anger. Their forefathers failed to protect humanity from the Northmen. Their women lay with the Northern demons. Like the horizontal collaborators of occupied France.’

‘And this,’ Kiribali said, ‘would explain their god. The peacock angel.’

‘Yes. The Yezidis’ knowledge of the truth makes it impossible for them to worship the normal gods. Which is why they worship the Devil, Melek Taus-the Moloch of the child-burnings. A symbolic reworking of the evil supermen, with their birdlike eyes. And for many thousands of years this strange faith and credo was a hidden mystery. The Gobekli gene spread around the world, it had already spread across the Bering Straits into America. But the actual Yezidi secret, the Genesis Secret, was perfectly safe. As long as Gobekli Tepe remained undisturbed.’

‘And who was the other source? You said that there were two…wellsprings of knowledge?’

‘The secret societies of Europe that arose in the sixteenth century. The Freemasons, and so forth. People intrigued by rumours and traditions, traditions which told of evidence, even documents, which existed in the Near East, and which threatened the historical and theological basis of Christianity, and of religion in general.’

The stars were high now; high and glittering.

‘The loucher members of the anti-clerical English aristocracy,’ Rob explained, ‘were especially intrigued by these rumours. One of them, Francis Dashwood, travelled across Anatolia. What he learned there convinced him that Christianity was a charade. He then established the Hellfire Club, along with other likeminded intellectuals, artists and writers, whose raison d’être was contempt and derision of established faith.’ Rob gazed at the largest of the megaliths, then added, ‘But the Hellfires still had no conclusive proof that religion was false or “wrong”. It was only when Jerusalem Whaley, of the Irish Hellfires, returned from his trip to Israel that the true story of Gobekli became known. In Jerusalem he was given the so-called Black Book, by a Yezidic priest. We do not know why. We do know the book was actually a box: the box you have now, containing the bizarre skull, and a map. The skull was not human. It was a hybrid. The map showed a graveyard near Gobekli Tepe, the graveyard of the evil gods: the Valley of the Slaughter. The priest explained to Whaley the significance of each.’

Kiribali frowned. ‘And this significance was?’

‘Jerusalem Whaley had, therefore, learned the truth about the descent of Man, and the genesis of religion. He had proved that religion was a charade, a folk memory, a relived nightmare. But he had also discovered something else: that an evil trait has infiltrated itself into the human bloodline, and that this trait gifts its carriers with great talent, intelligence and charisma. It makes them leaders. Yet leaders tend to sadism and cruelty because of this same gene cluster. Jerusalem Whaley only had to look at his own bloodline for proof, especially his brutal father, descended in turn from Oliver Cromwell. In other words, Whaley had discovered an appalling fact: that the fate of man is to be led by the cruel, because sadism and cruelty are linked to the genes that make men intelligent and charismatic leaders. The genes of the Northmen.’

Kiribali went to speak; but Rob stalled him with a gesture; he had nearly finished. ‘Shattered by this revelation, Jerusalem Whaley hid the evidence: the skull and the map; the Black Book that Christine and I found in Ireland. And then he retired to the Isle of Man, broken and frightened. He was convinced that the world could not bear the truth-not just that all the Abrahamic religions were based on a falsity, an amalgam of remembered terrors and sacrificial urges-but that all political systems, aristocratic, feudal, oligarchic or even democratic, are bound to produce leaders predisposed to violence. Men who like to kill and to sacrifice. Men who will send thousands over a trench. Men who will fly a plane into a tower of innocents. Men who will clusterbomb a helpless desert village.’

Kiribali regarded him, grimly.

‘And so the Hellfires disbanded, and the matter was suppressed. But one family preserved the terrible truth discovered by Jerusalem Whaley.’

‘The Cloncurrys.’

‘Exactly. The descendants of Jerusalem and Burnchapel Whaley. Rich, privileged and blood-thirsty, the Cloncurrys carried the Gobekli gene. They also passed down the knowledge once given to them by Tom Whaley. This knowledge was the deepest family secret, never to be revealed. If the knowledge was ever broadcast, elites across the world would be overthrown, and Islam and Judaism and Christianity likewise destroyed. It would be apocalyptic. The end of everything. The Cloncurrys’ job, as they saw it, was therefore to ensure that this hideous truth remained suppressed.’

‘And then poor Breitner came along.’

‘Quite. After centuries of silence, the Cloncurrys learned that Gobekli was finally being dug up, by Franz Breitner. This was ominous. If the skull and the map were also found, and someone placed the pieces together, the truth would come out. The youngest scion of the family, Jamie Cloncurry, therefore recruited some rich kids, his acolytes, into a cultic gang with just this aim. To find and destroy the Black Book.

‘But Jamie Cloncurry suffered another dynastic curse: he carried an intense version of the Gobekli gene cluster. Handsome and charismatic, a gifted leader, he was also psychotic. He believed it was his right to kill at will. Whenever he was thwarted in his quest for the skull and the map, the Gobekli gene revealed itself.’

There was a long, long silence.

At last Kiribali stood up. He shot the cuffs of his shirt, and adjusted his tie. ‘Very good. I do so like stories.’ He gazed directly at Rob. ‘The best bits of the Bible and the Koran-those are the best stories. Don’t you think? I have always believed that.’

Rob smiled.

Kiribali walked a few yards towards the megaliths, the polished toecaps of his shoes gleaming in the moonlight. He looked back. ‘There is an interesting coda, Robert…to all of this.’

‘Yes.’

‘Yes…’ The detective’s voice was sibilant in the quietness. ‘I was talking to Detective Forrester.’

‘The DCI.’

‘Correct. And he told me something curious, about you and Cloncurry. You see, I rather pressed him for information.’ The detective shrugged, in an unembarrassed way. ‘You know how I am. And after some interrogation, Forrester admitted to me what he had found, in his research. On the internet.’

Rob gazed at Kiribali.

‘Robert Luttrell. It’s a fairly unusual name. Distinct. Is that not right?’

‘It’s Scotch-Irish, I think.’