The Gods' Gambit by David Lee Marriner

fit in with any theory you may have?”
    “The four-point positioning may be connected to the symbolic
protection of the ritual site,” said James.
    “We’re dealing with complete nutcases,” said the
superintendent. Repugnance could be detected in his voice.
    “The organization of the gang was very professional. Apart
from the traces in Costov’s apartment and that mistake…” McClain pointed to the
frozen still of the woman.
    “Amateur lapses in a very well-organized and professionally
implemented murder. I hope we’ll soon find some further evidence,” said the
superintendent.
    * * *
    On the desk in the office that the superintendent had had
prepared for him, James found the report about the Sumerian note. He read it
carefully and then sat back in his chair thinking.
    This is how the superintendent found him more than half an
hour later. He walked in holding a file and a copy of the report that James had
open on his desk. “I’ve just finished reading that report too,” he said. “Do
you mind if we talk about it, if you’ve finished reading it?”
    “Sure, I’ve read it,” replied James.
    The superintendent sat on the edge of James’ desk. 
“According to the experts, the shape and style of the writing used in this note
resembles that used just before the middle of the third millennium BC. The
translation of the note reads: ‘The Deprived of Light is a Gift for the Wisdom
Keeper’. That, in my opinion, strengthens your hypothesis. The Wisdom Keeper
could be another name for Ningishzida.”
    James nodded in agreement. “There is one thing that could be
useful for you to know. I’m certain now that the note was not part of the set
ritual.”
    “So, it might have been a whim thought up by one of the
killers? Or could it have been meant for us?” asked the superintendent.
    “I think it’s some sort of boasting. Something like: ‘We
know how to achieve our goal and we can do it.”
    “Yes. It fits. Fanatics think they have monopoly of the
truth. That’s how they justify their actions.” The superintendent took a
magnified photo of a spot from the crime scene and a piece of paper out of the
file. He placed them on the desk and said, “Here’s the report about those two
symbols, as you requested. The experts can’t connect them to any known
pictogram or ideogram.
    They’re considered to be non-identifiable. Do you think
they’re of some special importance?”
    “I wanted a second opinion on two symbols in particular, as
they are the most unclear,” James explained.
    “Maybe the drawings were bungled.”
    “I thought about that. The sign on the left looks like a
stick figure of a humble man offering something. Some kind of gift, probably.
He’s facing the group of signs that symbolize Ningishzida, so the gift is being
given to the god.”
    The superintendent smiled. “You’ve got a sharp eye. The gift
to the god might be the light they mentioned in the note. That’s to say, the
life of Costov is the light,” he elaborated.
    “That interpretation does seem to match the message on the
note,” James pointed out.
    “You’re right. It’s improbable that the killers would plant
the same message twice in the crime scene.” The superintendent paused for
thought.
    “The giving man most probably symbolizes the world as they
feel it should be: a world of order and hierarchy in which people worship the
old gods. This interrelates with the V sign on the right. It depicts the world
as it is: a world of separations and individualism,” explained James.
    “That sounds about right to me. That description definitely
matches the characteristics the cult has demonstrated so far. The note in the
mouth of the corpse is the only thing which stands apart.
    “That’s because the note wasn’t part of the ritual.”
    “An act of vanity, perhaps.”
    “It could be.”
    The superintendent drew nearer to the picture on the desk
and peered at it. “If this is a Sumerian cult why did they draw