The Guardian (13 page)

Larry sat in the passenger seat fidgeting with his 9mm. He didn’t know exactly what Jonathan had in mind, but he was ready for anything. Jonathan did tell him that if he gave the word, Larry was to get out of the car shooting. There was no way they were to let the priest and the girl get away if they had the scroll.

Jonathan watched as the city slowly began to wake. More and more people were out on the streets moving about, doing their daily business. He hoped that he could get this done without causing a scene. He was afraid, however, that wasn’t going to be the case.

He had already talked to Wickham this morning and assured him that he was close to obtaining the scroll. He told him that he and Larry were, at that very moment, watching the priest and the girl go into an old, historic cathedral. He was sure that they were in there retrieving the scroll as they spoke. Wickham had just grunted and said to get it at any cost. If Jonathan had to guess, it sounded like Louis was trying to get rid of a hangover. He knew that the cardinal had spent the evening at Mad Jack’s. He was a friend of one of the bartenders. The bartender had called him last night to let him know that Wickham was there, as per their agreement. He liked to keep tabs on the cardinal. One never knew when information like that would come in handy. Jonathan liked to keep his bases covered.

Jonathan was about to send Larry out for some coffee when the doors to the church burst open and twenty or so little children came running out. There was a man standing in the doorway, definitely not a priest. He was waving bye to all of the children as they left. Some kind of early morning class. He looked at his watch and saw that it was twenty minutes before the hour. Kind of a strange time for class to let out, he thought. Catholics always did things at weird times.

The man—who must be the teacher—waited until the last child had gone, looked both ways, as if to see if he was being watched, and then headed back inside. He couldn’t have looked more suspicious. Something was going on in there. Jonathan placed his hand in his lap and grabbed the silenced pistol he had resting on his leg.

Larry saw Jonathan reach for his gun and sat up straight. “Are we going in?”

“Not yet. Let’s wait and see what they come out with. I have a feeling this is about to be our lucky day.”

A
nna moved the latch with her thumbs and opened the old wooden box. The hinges made a creaking noise as the lid raised. Father Vin stood over her shoulder, holding the small flashlight.

Inside the box were several scattered papers and small notebooks. Anna pulled them out, inspecting each one as she went. The papers were drawings of buildings, inside and out. Neither Anna, nor Father Vin, recognized any of them. The notebooks seemed to be journals of some sort. Many were written in foreign languages. Father Vin told Anna that the languages varied from Hebrew to ancient Greek. Those that were written in the foreign languages were tied, with a small piece of string, to another one that had been translated into English. Father Vin recognized the writing as Thomas’s. He explained to Anna that her grandfather must have translated them, or more likely, had them translated.

There were several maps, ranging from topography maps to street maps, of Jerusalem, Cairo, southern Iraq, and the Persian Gulf. If Anna was confused before, she had no idea what to think now.

One by one, she removed each document and placed them on the floor beside her. She lifted the last sheet of loose paper. It was a handwritten note from her grandfather.

Anna finished reading the letter and handed it to Father Vin. He took it and, even though Anna had read it out loud, read it again. He finished and laid it on top of the rest of the pile of papers and notebooks.

Anna reached her hand inside the box for the last time and pulled out a bundle of red velvet cloth. It was about the size of a marble bag. She unraveled the cloth, revealing a tiny scroll about the length of an ink pen and about as round. Anna unraveled the scroll. The paper was a thick, almost leathery type of paper that Anna hadn’t seen before. The most amazing thing was that it looked brand-new. Both she and Father Vin knew that couldn’t be the case. If the story was true, this scroll was almost two thousand years old. And yet it looked as if it had just been made.

“This is amazing,” Anna said.

“It’s beautiful,” Father Vin agreed.

Anna rubbed her hand over the scroll. “Feel it, Vin. It feels like leather.” She handed the scroll over to him. Father Vin took it and again agreed.

He handed it back to her. As Anna held the outstretched scroll, Father Vin scanned his little flashlight over it. “My goodness! It’s beautiful!” he repeated.

“What language is that, Vin?”

“That, my dear, is Greek.”

“I don’t read Greek, Vin,” she said matter-of-factly. “Good thing I do, huh?” Vin said smiling. “Well then …,” she said.

Father Vin cleared his throat and said, “Oh right, yes … sorry.” He moved his finger along the characters and read out loud.

They were both silent for what seemed like minutes. A hushed sense of the sacred fell over them. Anna felt small and scared.

She had to break the silence. “Well, that just about sums it up, doesn’t it?” Her words were sharp with sarcasm, and she winced at the sound of them bouncing off the ancient stones.

“You’ll figure it out.” Father Vin patted her on the shoulder. “Like your grandfather said, he’s left you all of his notes. And he said that he was close to deciphering it. You’ll just have to do a little work.”

“Vin, I’m going to need your help.”

“I don’t think that would be wise, Anna.”

“Why not? You’re supposed to be here to help me. Right?”

“I’m supposed to protect you. Not help you figure out some riddle sent by God two thousand years ago.”

“Please, Vin. There’s so much I don’t even know about. Who’s going to tell me all of the biblical stuff I need to know?”

“Anna, we can argue about all of this later. Right now we should pack all of this up and go before someone comes down here and wants to know what’s going on.”

“You’re right. Let’s get out of here.”

Anna quickly rolled up the scroll, wrapped it back in the cloth, and placed it back in the box. She and Father Vin carefully stacked the papers and notebooks and placed them on top of the scroll. Once they had everything back inside, Anna closed the lid and latched it. She picked the box up and tucked it under her arm.

Anna let Father Vin go in front of her, and she flipped off the light switch. He was already a few steps in front of her on the rickety staircase. She kept her head down to see each step as she ascended. She didn’t want to take the chance of stumbling in the dim light. When she had almost reached the top, she felt her head bump into something. It was Father Vin. He had stopped at the top of the staircase. She leaned around him to see what was the holdup.

At the top of the stairs stood a man with his arms crossed. He had a determined look on his face, and he definitely didn’t appear to be happy that he’d found them here.

Anna stepped up one stair to be able to see the man better. Father Vin started to speak, but the man cut him off.

“Who are you people?” the man demanded. “And what are you doing here?”

H
ale maneuvered the little car along the winding roads as fast as it would go. That was one thing he absolutely missed about America: bigger cars and faster engines. He pushed down the accelerator and heard the tires squeal as he rounded a big curve. Almost there.

Despite the car’s little engine and lack of horsepower, he had made good time. What normally was a forty-minute drive, he turned into just over twenty-five. He rounded the big bend and saw the sign that told him Oloron-Sainte-Marie was only a few kilometers ahead. He let off the gas and slowed down. The last thing he needed right now was to be stopped by the police. This close to town, you could almost guarantee the local constables would be out and about.

He knew where Anna and Father Vin were. He was sure that whoever was on that second plane was there also. He just didn’t know who they were or what they looked like. The good news was, more than likely, they weren’t expecting him.

Hale had been a Navy SEAL and knew how to “recon” an area and not be seen. He figured that’s exactly what he would have to do. He checked the pistol inside the shoulder holster again.

As he made his way into town, he saw the signs that would lead him up the side of the hill to the cathedral. He found a place to park and got out of the car. It was a good walk up the hill, but he couldn’t risk driving the car up there. What if there wasn’t a through road? Then he would have to turn around and come back down. That would look suspicious to anyone watching. He would blow his cover.

He couldn’t really walk up the road, either. If someone stopped to talk to him, he could be distracted and lose valuable time. He decided on taking a path up the hillside. The small shrubs and trees would give him some cover. He just hoped that his counterparts hadn’t thought of the same thing. He could stumble over them and walk right into a bad situation.

Quietly he made his way up the rocky terrain. When he got to the top of the hill, he could see the small parking area in front of the church. There weren’t many cars, and the ones that were there were unoccupied, except one.

Two men sat in the front seat of the last car in the last row, nearly two hundred feet away from him. Hale didn’t recognize either of them.

Quickly he weighed his options. Just by looking at the two adversaries, he knew he could take them out without even breaking a sweat. Unless they were armed, which they most certainly would be. That could cause an unwanted scene.

He could, however, make his way around to the other side of the church and look for a rear entrance. Obviously Anna and Father Vin were still inside. The problem with that was, what if, when he made his way around the building, Anna and Father Vin came out the front door? That would be bad. No, he decided, he would opt for taking out the two goons.

He crouched down as low as he could go and started to make his way over to the car. He could use the few cars in between to give him cover. He pulled the pistol out of the holster and made his move. He should be on top of them in just another minute. Two at the most.

The two men in the car suddenly opened their doors and stepped outside the car. Hale could see, from his angle, that they definitely were armed. They had their pistols out and their arms hanging at their sides. They both had their fingers on the triggers. Just as quickly as they got out of the car, they started walking toward the cathedral.

The front doors to the church were opening. Hale could see a young man, with his back to him. Behind him, Anna and Father Vin stood in the doorway.

“I asked you a question. Who are you? What are you doing here?” the man at the top of the stairs repeated himself.

Anna stared at the man she had seen in the classroom earlier. His eyes were ice blue, and he had a look of business on his face. She didn’t know what to say. Was she supposed to tell this guy that she had just stopped by to pick up a box sent by God? No, that probably wouldn’t go over so well. She honestly couldn’t think of anything to say.

She was about to just give it a shot when Father Vin stepped in. He politely moved her out of the way and stepped to the top of the stairs so that he was standing eye to eye with the young man. He reached into his back pocket and produced the same identification card that Anna had seen him show the custodian.

“I’m Father Vincent Marcello,” he said. “I am a special investigator for the Holy Roman Church. I work directly for the pope.” He handed the young man the ID. “This is Anna. She is one of my associates.”

“Hey,” Anna smiled and gave a short wave.

The man took the little card and studied it closely. “What’s that?” He pointed to the box under Anna’s arm. “Did you steal that? You can’t just take anything you want around here. I don’t care if you are from the Vatican.”

“Look, my son, can you tell me who is the priest of this parish?”

“Father De Lorme,” the man said matter-of-factly. “But he’s not here. I’m in charge. And unless you two tell me who you are and why you’re holding that box, I’m calling the cops.”

This wasn’t going all that well. Since Father Vin wasn’t getting anywhere, she might as well try. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small photograph. She had taken it from the plane. It was a picture of her grandfather standing with his arm around Father Vin. She held the photo out for the man to see and said, “I’m sorry. Can we start over? My name is Anna Riley. And you are?”

“Jason. Jason Lang,” came the reply. “I teach English to the local children.”

“Do you recognize this man?” She tapped her finger over the image of her grandfather.