The Expected One (25 page)

Derek elaborated with a brief history of Leonardo — that the artist was abandoned by his natural mother and had a confusing childhood with a difficult stepmother. In fact, all of Leonardo’s documented relationships with women were negative or otherwise traumatic. His aversion to women had been well researched by historians who also reported that the artist had been arrested and jailed for sodomy. But the most damning stain on his reputation came when Leonardo adopted a ten-year-old boy as his apprentice and kept him as his companion for many years. While Leonardo’s personal life was often scandalous, he kept himself out of trouble with authorities through painting for the Church and relying on other wealthy patrons who called in favors on his behalf.

“Anytime he was forced to paint a woman, like Mona Lisa, he turned it into some kind of a joke, mostly to amuse himself. That’s how he dealt with being forced to paint subjects that didn’t appeal to him.”

Derek turned back to the
Madonna of the Rocks.
“The only female we know he respected was Elisabeth, the perfect woman and mother. The real madonna. See, here she is with her arm around this child — her child. It’s clearly John.”

Tammy nodded. The infant sheltered in the woman’s arms was undoubtedly John the Baptist.

“Now look at Elisabeth’s left hand. She is pushing the Christ child away, showing that he is lower than her child. Leonardo has even placed Jesus physically below John to show you his inferiority. And finally, look at the angel Uriel’s eyes. Who is he looking at with adoration? See in the first painting? He is pointing at John, but he is also making our ‘Remember John’ symbol.

“The Immaculate Conception crowd were unhappy with the original painting and its obvious Johannite message. They made Leo do a second one, insisting that this time Mary and Jesus have haloes and that the angel not point at John. So look over here and you will see that they got what they asked for, sort of. Mary and Jesus have a halo, but so does John. He also gave John a baptismal staff, to make it even more clear just who he is and to give him more authority. In both paintings, Jesus is bestowing his blessing on John. So, looking at these now, who do you think Leonardo revered as the true messiah and prophet?”

Tammy answered honestly. “John the Baptist. Clearly.”

“Of course. The archangel Uriel is affirming the Baptist’s superiority, and so is John’s mother. In our tradition, we worship Elisabeth in the same way that deluded Christians worship the mother of Jesus. Our girls are raised in Elisabeth’s image, to be Daughters of Righteousness.”

Tammy raised an eyebrow. “What exactly does that mean?”

Derek smiled slyly at her and moved closer. “That women should know their place, and their place is to be obedient and subservient to the men in their lives. But you know, it’s not as bad as it sounds. Once they become the mother of a son, they earn the title of ‘An Elisabeth’ and are treated like queens. You should see the diamonds my mother was given for each one of us. Believe me, if you saw what her overprivileged life was like you would not feel any sympathy for her.”

“And you support this idea of women as subservient?” Tammy held her ground, not showing her increasing nervousness.

“As I said, I was raised with it. Works for me.” He shrugged.

Tammy shook her head, then started to laugh, half with irony and half with increasing nerves.

“What?” Derek asked.

“I was just thinking about this room, with all of the da Vinci heresy, as opposed to Sinclair’s room, with all of the Botticelli heresy. It’s like ‘Renaissance Death Match. Leonardo versus Sandro.’ ”

Derek didn’t laugh. “It would be funny if it wasn’t so damn serious. The rivalry between John’s descendants and Jesus’ descendants has caused a lot of bloodshed. It’s still causing a lot of trouble now, more than you’d ever believe.”

Tammy looked at Derek with feigned confusion. She knew exactly what he was getting at but couldn’t allow him to know that. She asked innocently, “John’s descendants?”

Derek looked taken aback. “Of course. Don’t tell me you didn’t know that?”

Tammy kept up the front, shaking her head. “No, I didn’t.” Her expression implored him to continue.

“Come on, you didn’t know that John had a son? That’s how the Guild was founded, by the descendants of John. Well, it’s a long story because half of them eventually sold out to the papists and the Christ followers, like the Medicis.” He made a distasteful face at the mention of Italy’s historic first family.

“Even Leonardo ended up in the service of the enemy at the end of his life, although we think he was held captive in France against his will. But the others, the hard core, formed our Guild. In fact, you’re looking at a great-grandson, about two thousand years removed, of John the Baptist.”

Tammy dreaded the inevitable — that she would end up in Derek’s hotel room, and worse. But there was no getting around it. She had to get her hands on this so-called
True Book of the Holy Grail
and find out just what these John boys were all about. She had the opportunity to be the first person outside the Guild to obtain this rare information, and she wasn’t going to blow it. This went so much deeper than any of them had imagined, and there was no way she was leaving without that book. She would do it for her future film, she would do it for her friends in Blue Apples, and most of all she would do it for Roland. Of course, Roland could never know to what lengths Tammy went to obtain the documents. She would have to devise a credible version of events for his ears. She was thankful that the chauffeur from the Château des Pommes Bleues was picking her up later in the afternoon, so she would have time on the drive back to Arques to consider her story.

Tammy insisted on lunch before they returned to Derek’s hotel, and proceeded to order copious amounts of ruby-colored Pays d’Oc wine. She had watched him throw back a handful of prescription drugs in deference to his hangover, and she had the smallest glimmer of hope that the mixture of the pills and the wine might buy her a more docile Derek, if not an unconscious one.

Derek confessed over the meal that he was telling Tammy secrets of the Guild because he wanted her to expose them in print and on film. While he could never go on record — he had an agenda, but he wasn’t crazy — he wanted someone to reveal the truth about the Guild.

“But why?” Tammy had asked. It didn’t make sense to her. Derek was immersed in the Guild and obviously deeply influenced by its teachings. The Guild was partially responsible for the wealth his family had accumulated. Why would Derek turn on them?

“Listen, Tammy,” he leaned across the table and whispered to her, “I’m willing to tell you a lot of stuff — things that deal with serious crimes. Even murder. But you can’t ever let anyone know that it was me or I’m dead.”

“I still don’t understand,” Tammy replied. “Why are you turning your coat here on an organization that is so important to you and your family?”

“The new Teacher of Righteousness,” Derek spat. “Cromwell. He’s a crazy bastard and he will take us all down with him. I’m actually being loyal, not disloyal. The only hope we have to save the Guild is to see him taken out before he does permanent damage. I want you to expose
him,
not the Guild. Make him look like a loose cannon, a crazy fanatic.”

“Why are you trusting me with this?” Tammy was becoming increasingly uncomfortable. This was far bigger than she had anticipated, and far murkier than she desired.

Derek looked smug as he ran his fingers up one of her arms. “Because you’re ambitious and you’ll love having the exclusive on this information for a book and a film. And because my trust fund is equal to the gross national product of several independent nations and you know I’ll write you whatever checks you need for funding. Am I right?”

Tammy smiled at him sweetly and placed her hand over his, trying not to be sick. She had to play this out, she simply had to. “But of course.”

What Derek hadn’t revealed in this conversation was that the American delegation was planning a coup within the Guild. First, they needed to tidy up some loose ends in Europe by eliminating the power players there. His father, Eli Wainwright, was poised to become the next Teacher of Righteousness — with Derek as his eventual successor — if they could neutralize the European power structure.

Derek Wainwright smiled then, the cunning expression of a predator. He had been using Tammy for this purpose all along. If she thought she had duped him into spilling Guild secrets by using her feminine wiles, then she was just a stupid tramp who deserved to be used in exactly the way he intended. Still, it would be a pleasant enough way to end the afternoon. And hadn’t the little slut teased him quite long enough?

Tammy tried not to wake Derek as she gathered her belongings. She needed to get the hell out of there, couldn’t wait to get back to the safety of the château to take a very long shower. Tammy wondered briefly how long it would take to scrub the stench of these Guild fanatics from her skin.

She was grateful that the worst possible outcome had been avoided. She had calculated accurately — Derek’s consumption of prescription drugs, combined with the wine and his exhaustion, had caused him to pass out when they got back to the hotel room.

It had been dodgy at first. Derek was all hands when they got to his room, but Tammy rerouted him skillfully toward his obvious obsession: bringing down his rival, John Simon Cromwell. She emphasized that she needed as much information as possible if she was going to be his partner in such a dangerous game. Derek delivered on what he promised and more — documents, secrets, and the shockingly graphic description of a particularly brutal murder in Marseille a few years earlier.

It had taken every ounce of control that Tammy possessed not to be sick at Derek’s account of the execution of the Languedoc man. He had been decapitated and mutilated, his right index finger severed as a symbol of the Guild’s revenge. The knowledge of such an act would have been abhorrent to Tammy under any circumstances. But the dead man was known to her; he was the former Grand Master of the Society of Blue Apples. She could not allow Derek to see that she recognized the crime as he described it. She had been very careful to keep her face as expressionless as possible.

Tammy was scrambling to find everything and make her way out of Derek’s room when she knocked over a table lamp with a loud
thud.
She heard Derek stir at this and cursed to herself.

“Hey,” he grumbled, groggy, “where ya goin’?”

“Sinclair’s car is here to take me back to Arques. I have to get back for a dinner there tonight with Maureen.”

He tried to sit up, grabbed his head, and groaned. He collapsed on his back again but said as he did, “Oh, Maureen. Damn, I almost forgot to tell you.”

Tammy froze. “What?”

“She may be in trouble today.”

“How?”

“She’s out with Jean-Claude de la Motte today, right?”

Tammy nodded, thinking as fast as she could, trying to figure it out. Derek rolled over and stretched languidly.

“Wake up, girl. Jean-Claude is one of us. Or maybe I should say one of
them.
He’s the right arm of that nutcase Teacher of Righteousness and the head of our French chapter. Has been since he was a kid. His real name isn’t even Jean-Claude, it’s Jean-Baptiste.” He paused to laugh at this little joke before continuing. “But he probably won’t hurt her. Yet. They have too much interest in whether or not she can find the so-called treasure while she’s here. And we both know there’s a time limit on that possibility.”

Tammy’s head was spinning. She couldn’t process Jean-Claude’s treachery, not this quickly. He had been a friend of Sinclair and Roland’s for years and they trusted him implicitly. How long had this infiltration been going on? But something else was bothering her, and she had to know. She prayed she didn’t look as shaken as she was, and asked her question with a calm she didn’t feel.

“Historically, The Expected One was eliminated before the treasure could be uncovered. Why would this be any different? If Jean…Baptiste and your leader believe Maureen is the prophesied one, why wouldn’t they just get rid of her before she can fulfill that role? Like they did with Joan and Germaine?”