The Templar Conspiracy (6 page)

“No problem,” said Holliday. “I’ve got a perfect plan.”

“Famous last words again,” answered Peggy.

8

“Are you sure you really know how to drive one of these?” Peggy asked, obviously nervous and clutching the nylon rope handholds on either side of the inflatable. The boat was a twenty-one-foot Zodiac powered by a fifty-horsepower Evinrude outboard engine, and it was skipping easily over the calm waters offshore from Cable Beach, sending up a salt-tanged burst of spray every few seconds.

To their left the long line of hotels and an unbroken strip of pure white sand stretched into the distance along the curve of Delaport Bay. It was getting close to sunset and the western horizon was on fire in a spectacular pyrotechnic display of yellow, red and orange.

Driving out of Nassau past the fish-fry shacks with Mary Breau, Holliday had seen a sign that read ARAWAK CAY BOAT RENTALS with an arrow pointing down a packed-earth road, but at the time he’d thought nothing of it. After spending a couple of hours with the real estate agent for the sake of appearances, they had her drop them off at the hotel. A few minutes later they were in their rental driving back along West Bay Street to the dirt road.

The road led to a roughly made combination seawall and causeway, which led onto Arawak Cay, a messy, industrial wasteland with the Conch fleet of fishing boats in the protected, shallow harbor of the inner bay and larger ships, including the barges shipping the big casks of bottled water from the mainland, since Nassau had no fresh water of its own. Conch, the familiar, large pink shellfish, was protected in most parts of the world, but here the stony beaches of Arawak Cay were littered with literally thousands of them, tossed aside after their meat had been removed. Conch—pronounced “konk” by the natives—was used for almost everything: conch salad, conch chowder, deep-fried conch, breaded conch, grilled conch, conch burgers, barbecued conch, even smoked conch. There weren’t many restaurants along the Cable Beach strip that didn’t have it on the menu somewhere. One of the more successful conch fishermen, a big Sumo wrestler type who went by the nickname Big Bambu, had branched out into renting Zodiacs and selling conch burgers as well as Kalik and Red Stripe beer to people who wanted to have a picnic and explore.

No experience was necessary to pilot the boat, just the name of your hotel and your passport left behind for security. After listening to Big Bambu giving Holliday firm instructions about bringing the inflatable back before dark they set out for Lyford Cay, this time approaching from the sea. The only equipment they carried with them was the jack from their rental.

“Yes,” said Holliday, “I really know how to drive this thing.”

Peggy didn’t look convinced, but Brennan was thoroughly enjoying himself, sitting happily in the bow, the spray hitting him squarely in the face, and reveling in the sensation. Holliday suddenly had a brief, compassionate vision of a young, unhappy Irish boy with very little childhood, raised by stern Jesuit priests who frowned on simple pleasures like boat rides.

“How about in the dark?” Peggy asked sourly. “Because no matter what you told that Big Bambu character, there’s no way were getting back before nightfall.”

Holliday smiled. “I’ve had a little experience in Zodiacs at night,” he said, remembering making landfall on the wide beaches of Mogadishu in Somalia for a little surgical payback after the Black Hawk Down incident. Twenty-two miles from the carrier USS
Abraham Lincoln
to landfall, and all done in darkness as black as tar.

By the time they reached the old breakwater marking Tritt’s unpretentious little house, the sun had almost disappeared, leaving nothing but a streak of crimson bleeding over the glimmering sea. Holliday cut the engine to a soft putter and scanned the area. The neighboring cottages were hidden by jungle foliage, and what could be seen was much closer to the road than Tritt’s. Somehow Holliday got the feeling they were used more as vacation homes than as full-time residences.

As the sun set completely Holliday guided the Zodiac to shore, keeping his course straight, aiming for the almost luminescent strip of beach at the foot of the assassin’s property. The boat slid up onto the beach, sand grinding under the hull, and Brennan jumped out, mooring rope in hand. He held the rope while the other two got out of the Zodiac, and all three of them dragged the inflatable well up the beach. Holliday carried the jack.

He checked his watch. “Fifteen minutes, in and out,” he said. “That’s probably the response time for the cops. It’s a pretty small force.”

They went up the slightly sloping lawn to the back door. Holliday took the jack, positioned it across the doorframe horizontally and began to crank. After a few moments the ends of the jack were tight against the wood. He kept cranking. Slowly but surely the wood of the doorframe began to bow out left and right; then finally the bolt on the lock mechanism popped and the door came open.

“I’m impressed,” said Brennan, lifting an eyebrow. “A scholar with the skills of a burglar.”

“Fifteen minutes,” reminded Holliday.

They ducked under the jack and stepped into the cottage. They found themselves in a kitchen-dining area simply furnished with a teak dining table, four chairs and a buffet containing silverware and table linens. The furniture was neither new nor antique and had probably been sold to Tritt along with the rest of the house.

There were two small bedrooms at the end of a short hallway as well as two bathrooms, one a powder room or WC and the other a full en suite bathroom leading to the third and largest of the bedrooms. The master bedroom was as anonymous as the kitchen-dining area. There was a queen-sized bed, end tables, a chest of drawers and a walk-in closet full of folded shirts, a variety of sportswear and shoes, plus a row of suits still in dry cleaning bags. The bags read
New Oriental Laundry and Cleaners Ltd: Looking Good Is Our Pride and Joy.
The suits were all expensive, mainly Brioni and Zegna. There was a single painting on the bedroom wall above the bed, depicting a pot of flowers on a windowsill with palm trees and a Caribbean beach done in shades of blue and white and pink. Without a word, Peggy and Brennan split up and began searching the spare bedrooms and the bathrooms. Holliday went down the hallway to a pair of pocket doors and slid them back.

The front room of the cottage was a living room, though it was outfitted as an office rather than a place to relax at the end of a busy day. There was a desk in front of a brick-lined fireplace that looked as though it hadn’t been used for a very long time. The floors were hardwood, possibly cherry, and looked freshly waxed and polished. There wasn’t a spot of dust anywhere.

On one corner of the desk was a black, high-intensity Tensor lamp; in the other corner a complicated-looking desk phone. There was a Wi-Fi box connected to a cable outlet, but no computer visible. Tritt was no fool when it came to security. The reason there was no alarm system was there was nothing to hide and no incriminating evidence of any kind.

Facing the desk on the opposite wall was a flat-screen TV. There was a high-backed leather swivel chair behind the desk and an upholstered chair with a pole lamp beside it next to the front window. Holliday crossed the room in the gloomy half-light of dusk and pulled the drapes closed. He went back to the desk and switched on the Tensor light.

The desk was utilitarian and made of dark blond oak. It was a pedestal style, probably bought a long time ago as government surplus. There were three drawers in each pedestal and one drawer in the middle. There was nothing in any of the drawers except the center one, which contained some loose drawing paper, a few Rapidograph drafting pens, a CD-ROM in a clear plastic case with no label and a neat stack of bills held together by a big paper clip.

Without even pausing Holliday slipped the CD case into his pocket, took out the bills and removed the paper clip. There was nothing very interesting. A Cable Bahamas receipt for both his Internet and television service, another receipt from Vonage but no actual bill listing calls, and a receipt for home delivery of Chelsea’s Choice drinking water.

He rechecked the other drawers and again found nothing inside. Why have a desk with six useless drawers? Was it simply that the desk had been here when he bought the house, or was there another reason the drawers were empty? He thought about it for a moment. The desk hadn’t been in this room when he bought it—it wasn’t the kind of furniture you wanted in your living room, which meant Tritt had placed it here, either bringing it from another room or perhaps even farther afield.

But why lug a big desk around when all you really needed was a simple, modern desk from somewhere like Ikea? It wasn’t logical, and if there was one thing he knew about Tritt and the place he lived in, it was that plain, clear logic prevailed. He started taking the empty drawers out and examining their outer surfaces, sides, backs and bottoms. He found what he was looking for on the back of the second drawer down on the right. Three phone numbers, the top two in faded pencil and the bottom one inked neatly with one of the Rapidograph pens, the sevens crossed in the European manner.

He sat up straight in the chair, the drawer upright in his lap. He let out a shrill whistle, then took one of the pens and a sheet of paper from the middle drawer. A moment later, Peggy and Father Brennan appeared in the doorway.

“It’s rude to whistle, even if you’re Lauren Bacall,” said Peggy, referring to the old Bogart movie based on a Hemingway book.

“What country code is four-one?” Holliday asked.

“No idea,” said Peggy.

“Switzerland,” said Brennan.

“You’re sure?” Holliday said.

“Positive.”

“What city code is two-two?”

“Geneva,” answered Brennan.

“I found three phone numbers on the back of one of the drawers,” said Holliday. “One of them has the Geneva city code, one is in France, I think, and the last one is in Switzerland, too.” He looked at Brennan. “Any ideas?”

“Call the last one,” said the priest.

“It’s two in the morning over there,” warned Peggy.

“Maybe you’ll get a message.” Brennan shrugged.

Holliday reached for the phone.

Peggy stopped him. “Wait,” she said abruptly. She crossed to the desk. “This phone has a redial function.” She hit the speaker button, pressed REDIAL and watched as the numbers scrolled out onto the caller ID screen. Geneva again. The phone double buzzed for four rings before a sleepy voice came over the little speaker, rising and falling in the particular way associated with satellite calls.

“Mandarin Oriental, Jean-Pierre speaking.”

“You’re a hotel?”

“And have been for quite some time, monsieur. I am the night manager. Would you like a reservation?”

Holliday gently cradled the phone receiver.

“There’s a Delta flight to New York via Atlanta in an hour and a half. . . . If we hurry we can just catch it.”

By the time they reached New York it was all over the news. Senator Richard Pierce Sinclair stood on the broad steps of the Capitol and made his announcement.

“It has come to my attention that the various intelligence agencies in this great country of ours have been withholding information that is fundamental to the safety of our citizens, and those citizens have a right to know where the danger lurks, believe you me.” Here the senator paused and gave the cameras one of his patented scowls.

“According to my sources the people responsible for the assassination of the Holy Father in Rome are yet another organization of fundamentalist fanatics hell-bent on destroying the very fabric of our democratic society and the moral standards set by the founding fathers. The name of this group is Jihad al-Salibiyya
,
the ‘Enemies of the Cross,’ and I have it on good authority that this group of madmen intends to strike here, at the heart of America—and soon.”

“Cat’s out of the bag,” said Holliday, staring at the monitor in the Avion Airport bar. “We don’t have much time.”

9

General Angus Scott Matoon sat across from Kate Sinclair in the baronial living room of her immense vineyard estate at Chateau Royale des Pins just outside the town of Aigle, Switzerland. Instead of the red wine bottled at the vineyard, the general sipped from his favorite Wood-ford Reserve Bourbon, a case of which the elder Sinclair always kept on hand especially for him. Matoon was supposedly attending a NATO conference in Brussels, but Belgium was less than an hour away by private jet and Chateau Royale des Pins had its own landing strip. He could have his meeting with the crazy old bitch and be back in Brussels before the evening session began.

The general wasn’t at all sure that Kate Sinclair’s hare-brained scheme was going to work, but both her connections and her money were good, and he would need them in the near future. The defense industry was going down the toilet with the present wishy-washy administration in power, and there weren’t many prime jobs left for an aging and not particularly noteworthy member of the Joint Chiefs. Sinclair had already paid him well for his cooperation and promised him a top security job if things went as planned.

“The name of the terrorist group has been leaked, just as you requested,” said the general.

“Excellent,” said Sinclair. “The stage is set; now the public has an identifiable bogeyman.”

“You really think Holliday will come out of the woodwork?”

“Certainly,” said Sinclair. “Despite the foolishness in Washington, at the very least the name al-Salibiyya will let him know the Templars are involved.”

The general took a healthy belt of the smoke-and-honey-flavored Bourbon and put the glass down on the coffee table between them. “Look, I don’t like this guy any more than you do,” said Matoon. “But isn’t it sort of like poking a rattlesnake with a stick? Maybe it’d be smarter for us just to whack the guy before he can cause us more trouble.”

Sinclair’s eyes narrowed. “He was responsible for my daughter’s death,” the old woman said, her voice full of barely contained fury. “Because of him she felt she’d failed our sacred cause. Because of him our plans for the future were shattered. I do this for her as much as I do it for our great country. Holliday must be found and brought to me before this ends.”

The general nodded. He’d heard this rant before. He’d also met Sinclair’s daughter, the late Sister Margaret Emily. The redheaded nun had always seemed a few bricks short of a load, and she’d had that faraway look in her eyes he’d seen on guys who’d spent
way
too much time in a combat zone. The fiasco at the Rex Deus conclave had put her over the edge. He wasn’t surprised when she drank herself into a stupor and drove one of the family cars into a brick wall.

“There is also the question of the notebook,” said Kate Sinclair, her fury tightly controlled now. The general smiled. Trust Kate Sinclair to reel it in and get back to the practical side of things—namely money.

“The one the monk supposedly gave him?”

“The monk’s name was Brother Helder Rodrigues, and the notebook is not
supposed
, it is very real; that much is fact. It holds the ancient secret of the Templar Knights, the key to their fortune, a fortune that rightfully belongs to the inheritors of the true bloodline of Christ, to Rex Deus, not some half-baked history teacher who stumbled on the secret.”

“Your security people found this out?”

“They tracked down a man Holliday talked to in France.”

“And?” General Matoon asked, already knowing the answer.

“Let’s just say that enhanced interrogation techniques only begin with waterboarding.”

“And you think Holliday has it?”

“Or at least knows where it is.” The old woman leaned closer. Matoon could see the madness boiling in her eyes. Not for the first time he found himself having second thoughts about his decision to ally himself with the Sinclair cause. It was starting to look like he’d made a deal with the devil, and the devil, it seemed, was right out of her mind.

“So what are you going to do about it?” asked Matoon.

“Breau, our contact in the Bahamas, said they’re on their way. They’ve been through Tritt’s place. I think they may be expecting to beard the lion in its den.”

“What are you talking about?” General Matoon said warily.

“I have no doubt they’ll wind up on our doorstep sooner or later.”

“You’ll hit them here?”

“Don’t be silly, General. As my father always told me, don’t piss where you eat.” The old woman shook her head, eyes glinting wildly. “I have other plans for our little school teacher.”