He couldn’t believe it was already lights-out. He checked his laptop to make sure. Thu 10:00 pm. That made it midafternoon in Europe – 3 pm – and Christmas Eve morning in the United States. Time had flown – Jax had been under his blanket for almost five hours. He now had just five hours until the first of the four deposits would be made if the next attack was in Europe and only eleven hours until the deposits were made if the terror cell was in America.

Think. Think. Think.

He went back to Google and searched.

Eventually he found the hit he wanted. He clicked on the link and was then looking at a list of every terror attack in history. He scanned it carefully. Then he opened Excel, checked the list was in chronological order and numbered them all accordingly.

1. The Gunpowder Plot, England, 1605.

He stopped reading the list when he got to: 114. The 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing, USA, 1963.

Next he narrowed the list down to only the recently attacked churches.

10. Salisbury Cathedral, England, 1884

13. Milan Cathedral, Italy, 1889

15. Church on Spilled Blood, Russia, 1891

19. Church of San Felipe Neri, Mexico, 1895

28. St Nedelya Church, Bulgaria, 1902

29. Church of Saint Étienne, France, 1903

114. 16th Street Baptist Church, USA, 1963

He then studied the numbers: 10, 13, 15, 19, 28, 29, 114. Not so much the numbers but their relationships to each other. He looked for patterns. More specifically, sequences. Using algebraic rules, he first looked for an arithmetic sequence. There wasn’t one. Then a geometric sequence. Nothing. Then a Fibonaccian sequence. No. Then a triangular sequence. No again. Then a prime sequence. No, no, no. And finally, a factorial sequence. Nope.

He then listed the churches in the order of the recent attacks.

29. Church of Saint Étienne, France, 1903

15. Church on Spilled Blood, Russia, 1891

13. Milan Cathedral, Italy, 1889

114. 16th Street Baptist Church, USA, 1963

28. St Nedelya Church, Bulgaria, 1902

19. Church of San Felipe Neri, Mexico, 1895

10. Salisbury Cathedral, England, 1884

Jax studied the new numbers: 29, 15, 13, 114, 28, 19, 10. Again, he attempted to find a pattern using every sequence used in modern mathematics. Again, he came up with nothing. But he wouldn’t quit. He couldn’t quit.

Going back to the master file of all terror attacks, he made another list, consisting of only churches that had been attacked, the first of which was Salisbury Cathedral.

1. Salisbury Cathedral, England, 1884

2. Milan Cathedral, Italy, 1889

3. Church on Spilled Blood, Russia, 1891

4. Cologne Cathedral, Germany, 1893

5. Church of San Felipe Neri, Mexico, 1895

6. Church of Saint Séverin, France, 1897

7. Ávila Cathedral, Spain, 1899

8. St Nedelya Church, Bulgaria, 1902

9. Church of Saint Étienne, France, 1903

10. Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, Istanbul, Turkey, 1905

. . .

41. 16th Street Baptist Church, USA, 1963

. . .

He then deleted the churches that had not been attacked this year.

1. Salisbury Cathedral, England, 1884

2. Milan Cathedral, Italy, 1889

3. Church on Spilled Blood, Russia, 1891

5. Church of San Felipe Neri, Mexico, 1895

8. St Nedelya Church, Bulgaria, 1902

9. Church of Saint Étienne, France, 1903

41. 16th Street Baptist Church, USA, 1963