Zuhdi had shown him his destiny and Mahmud had confirmed it, Martin wrote. He was Allah’s soldier, put on this earth to unite all people under the one and only Allah. He would destroy the Al-Masih ad-Dajjal (the anti-Christ), which he and Mahmud had decided was the most powerful figure in Christendom, the Pope. Corruption, false testimony, sacrilege – they were a disgrace to the man they had put up on the cross. The Mahdi would show Christians the truth by bringing Him back. Jesus was the only one who could tear up the Christian scriptures, that self-serving propaganda the Church said was indestructible – even though every Pope in history had claimed the authority to change the Holy Missal.

One vitriolic diary entry alluded to Martin being ‘stood down’.

‘He was defrocked?’ Jax asked.

‘Yes,’ Sami said. ‘There were allegations of paedophilia, which were of course covered up by the Church, which was why he was able to work in the prison system as an unpaid chaplain. He continued to wear the clerical collar in defiance of the decision.’

Jax went back to the diary, which detailed Martin’s meetings with Mahmud. He had told Martin that only his shahids, or martyrs, could know his true identity. Mahmud promised there would be plenty of shahids, and that he would do the recruiting. Prison was fertile ground.

In return, all Martin had to do was find the cash to fund their holy war, which Mahmud already knew he had – Martin had told him about his inheritance, the $17 million, sitting in a bank account, earning interest and still untouched.

He shall rise. Increasingly, the diary was punctuated by this proclamation – the one Jax had found on the Serpent’s wall.

‘So, what was the Serpent’s role?’ Jax asked as he placed the diary back inside the plastic ziplock bag.

Sami shrugged. ‘It’s unclear. We can’t get anything out of that madman, but we suspect he helped Martin find the targets and work out the sequencing. There is a certain genius in all this that we can’t ascribe to the chaplain. What we do know for sure is that the Serpent tipped him off about you.’

Sami detailed the rest of the evidence gathered by the joint ASIO/CIA operation since the foiled attack. Jax found the payments Father Martin had been making to the guard called ‘Dodge’ particularly interesting.

THE SATELLITE phone in the centre of the table began to ring.

‘Right on time,’ Sami said before picking up.

‘Hello,’ Sami said. ‘Yes, sir. I will put him on.’

Sami was wearing a big, cheeky smile as he passed Jax the phone.

Jax would have assumed it was Clarke had it not been for Sami’s ‘This does not concern him’ comment earlier.

‘Hello,’ Jax said into the receiver, still puzzled.

‘Am I speaking with Riley Jax?’ asked the man on the other end of the line. An American. A Texan, by the sound of it.