第 47 页

But he couldn’t. He needed to do something to help Lourds and Leslie. And he’d grown up on hero-driven fiction and video games. He had always wanted to be a man of action. Kill the bad guy, get the girl, and all that. He’d learned over the last few weeks, though, that being heroic wasn’t that easy. Heroes were more likely to bleed to death than to throw victory parties.

But that wouldn’t stop him.

He followed Natasha to one of the temporary buildings in front of the cave mouth and slipped inside. Racks of coveralls like those most of the construction crew wore against the chill of the caves were stacked near the cave mouth.

“Get dressed,” Natasha ordered quietly in the darkness. She threw him a pair of work boots. “Put those on as well.”

“They’re kind of clunky,” Gary objected.

“Too bad. We have to fit in. Criminals often get caught because they don’t change their footwear.” Natasha shrugged into her coverall and pulled it over the twin pistols she carried. “Supervisors probably check for work boots and hard hats. If you’re not wearing them, you’re going to get noticed.” She thrust a hard hat at him as well. “I don’t want that to happen.”

“Neither do I.” Gary put the hard hat on and kicked his shoes off. “The boots are still clunky.”

Natasha ignored him, put her hair up, slapped the hat on top of it, and headed back out the door. Gary had to hurry to catch up. He fell in beside her as she strode into the cave.

“One question,” Gary said quietly. “Do you have a plan?”

“I do,” Natasha said. “We find Lourds and Leslie. We get whatever it is everybody is after. We get out. During that time, we stay alive.” She looked at him. “Is that clear?”

“Crystal,” Gary replied. “Especially the part about us staying alive.”

“Good. Don’t make me kick your ass for getting killed.”

Gary couldn’t think of a heroic reply, so he followed along silently.

“The man who had the Book of Knowledge founded the island that became known in legend as Atlantis. With the power he expected to get from the Book, he knew the other men in the world would try to take it from him.”

Lourds came to a stop beside Father Sebastian. The priest’s flashlight beam illuminated the stone in front of him alone for a moment, but the beams of the others quickly joined them.

The image showed a king seated on a throne overlooking a vast empire.

Drawn by the words, Lourds began reading again. “ ‘Stripped of Eden, Adam’s children began making their lives in the outer world. One of those children, Caleb, founded the island kingdom of—’ ” He couldn’t make out the word. He turned his attention to Sebastian.

“I see it as Heaven,” Sebastian whispered, “but that can’t be what this place was. The founder chose to name this place that.”

“ ‘Caleb continued his work to read the Book of Knowledge. Years passed and he gave the task to his children. They passed it on to their children. They didn’t forget about God’s power. They lusted after the power. Instead, they chose to forget about God.’ ”

The next image showed a ziggurat under construction. Hundreds of men labored to haul rock and build the edifice that was supposed to reach the heavens.

“ ‘Under the Priest-King, Caleb’s son, a great tower was built. The people intended to live in Heaven and become gods themselves. They believed all they had to do was climb into the sky to reach God’s paradise.’ ”

The next stone showed the tower’s destruction. Bodies littered the ground.

“ ‘God saw the evil, selfish ways of the people and rained down His vengeance—’ ”

“ ‘Wrath,’ ” Sebastian interrupted.

“ ‘—and rained down His wrath,’ ” Lourds amended, “ ‘upon the people and destroyed their tower. He also destroyed that which bound all men together when He took away their language. Even the language they had carried with them from the Garden of Eden was lost.’ ”

Lourds tried to imagine what that had been like. All the men who had shared so many things suddenly couldn’t talk to each other. Even the core language, which he had to assume this was, had been taken.

“ ‘In time, they spoke to each other again, in a multitude of tongues. In time, the language in the Book of Knowledge was decoded,’ ” Lourds said. “ ‘The priest-kings began to read the Book. God called the sea up and destroyed the island.’ ”

The next image showed a huge wave crashing against the island’s coastline. People stood in horror as they watched the approach of their impending doom.

“ ‘Only those who took shelter in the caves—’ ”

“ ‘Catacombs,’ ” Sebastian said.

“ ‘—catacombs,’ ” Lourds made the adjustment automatically. The words drew him as he chased them with his flashlight, “ ‘survived the flood. Afterwards, when the sea rolled back, the survivors locked the Book of Knowledge away in the—home of—’ ” He stopped, unable to go on.

“ ‘In the Chamber of Chords,’ ” Sebastian said. “That’s where we are now.”

Lourds shone his flashlight over the stone wall. Robed men stood in the cave in front of pictographs that he recognized as the carvings he faced now.

“The Book of Knowledge is here?” Murani asked.

“I don’t know,” Lourds said.

Leslie yelped in surprise and pain.

When Lourds turned to face her, he saw that Murani had grabbed her by the hair and forced her down to her knees. He took a pistol from one of the Swiss Guards.

“What are you doing?” Lourds demanded. He stepped toward her.

Murani slammed the pistol into Lourds’s temple.

Pain exploded in Lourds’s head. Dizziness swept over him, and he dropped to all fours. He barely kept his face off the stone.

“Where is the Book?” Murani yelled.

Lourds barely kept from throwing up. Bile bit into the back of his throat. “I don’t know. It doesn’t say. That was written thousands of years ago. For all we know, someone already got the Book. The stories you heard could have been lying.”

Murani turned to Sebastian. “Tell me where the Book is.”

“No,” Sebastian said. “I’m not going to help you, Murani. You have disgraced yourself, your Church, and your God. I’ll be no part of this.”

Murani pointed the pistol at him. “Then you’ll be dead.”

For a moment Lourds thought Murani was going to shoot the old priest.

Sebastian held his rosary and prayed in a voice that cracked only a little.

Murani pointed the pistol at Leslie. “I’ll kill her. I swear to you, I’ll kill her.”

Sebastian opened his eyes and looked at Leslie. “I’m sorry.”

Furious, Murani turned his attention back to Lourds. “Keep reading. Find that Book. If you don’t, I’m going to kill this woman. You have ten minutes.”

Weakly, Lourds pushed himself to his feet and stood swaying. Then he picked up his dropped flashlight and staggered back to the wall of images. He moved down to an image of the five musical instruments.

Lourds blinked his eyes and tried to clear his double vision. “ ‘The survivors lived in fear of God. They locked the Book of Knowledge away in the . . . Chamber of Chords. The key was divided among five . . . instruments.’ I’m guessing, but it fits.”

“Keep going,” Murani ordered.

Lourds wiped sweat from his eyes. He moved to the next pictograph. “ ‘The secret was hidden within. The five instruments were given to five men who were called . . . Keepers.’ ” He plucked that term from what Adebayo, Blackfox, and Vang had used to refer to themselves. “ ‘The Keepers were chosen from among those who now spoke different languages. They were given the parts of the key and sent out into the world. They were never to be together again until God called them together.’ ”

When he moved on to the next wall section, Lourds found that it was blank. He played the flashlight around, then turned back to Murani.

“There’s nothing more,” Lourds said in a thin, quiet voice. He fully expected Murani to shoot him out of frustration.

“The secret’s in the musical instruments,” Murani said. “Find it.”

At Murani’s gesture, Gallardo and his men brought the music cases forward and deposited them on the ground.

Lourds hesitated. The challenge was difficult, and the conditions were impossible. But he wanted to save Leslie. He wanted to be the hero. He wanted to rise to the occasion.

“Don’t do this.”

Lourds swiveled his head in Father Sebastian’s direction. The old man stood there with his rosary in hand.

“The Book of Knowledge was hidden away,” Sebastian said. “God had it hidden for a reason. It destroyed this world.”

Lourds thought about the images of destruction captured on the stone walls. They only scratched the surface of the true horror that had overtaken the island kingdom.

“You’re not supposed to do this,” Sebastian said.

“Shut him up,” Murani snarled.

Gallardo punched Sebastian in the throat. The priest collapsed to one knee as he coughed and gagged. Without mercy, Gallardo kicked the old man in the side and knocked him over.

One of the Swiss Guards, the one with the scar, made a small sound of protest. Gallardo turned and stared him down. But he backed away from the old priest.

Murani pulled the gun from Leslie’s head and crossed to stand in Lourds’s face.

Lourds wanted to step back. The threat emanating from the cardinal was a palpable force. Sickness twisted in Lourds’s stomach.

“You are supposed to do this,” Murani said in a low, fierce voice. “You didn’t even know about any of this. Yet here you are. Do you believe in God’s will, Professor Lourds?”

Lourds tried to answer but couldn’t force his voice through his fear-constricted throat.

“I think,” Murani said, “that you’re here by God’s will. I believe that he wanted you here. To serve in this fashion.”

“Don’t do it, Thomas,” Leslie entreated.

“Think about the knowledge.” Murani said. “Could you go to the grave without knowing this?” His dark eyes searched Lourds’s. “You are so close. Think about it. There’s every chance that I won’t be able to read what’s written in the Book of Knowledge. I’ll need you for that as well. You find the Book, you get to live.”

Lourds wanted to say no. Everything good and decent within him did not want to cooperate with the crazed zealot before him. But an insistent voice in the back of his mind wouldn’t shut up. He wanted to read that Book. He wanted to know what had been written there.

“How can you walk away now?” Murani asked.

“Don’t let him sway you,” Sebastian croaked. “Don’t let him tempt you.”

But the temptation was too great. This was the best and finest thing Lourds had ever been part of finding.

And it wasn’t found yet.

Without a word, he turned his attention to the musical instruments.

During the time after she’d arrived early at Cádiz, Natasha had familiarized herself with the dig site as much as possible. She’d read newspapers and magazines that had been scattered around the media camp. Gary had helped her gather them. They’d also watched some of the news video that journalists had broadcast. The dig had been heavily in the rotation on the news channels.

According to everything she’d learned, the cave where the mysterious door featured in all the video was located was two miles in from the entrance.

She walked to the motor pool inside the first cave where the heavy equipment was kept. She spotted a small pickup sitting by itself in the darkness beyond the reach of the security lights.

The truck was locked up tight. Natasha supposed it was more habit on the part of the driver rather than to prevent theft. Who would make it over the fence to cause trouble with the equipment?

“Locked, huh?” Gary said. “Maybe there’s another—”

Natasha opened the toolbox in the truck bed, took out a small crowbar, and smashed the driver’s side window. Cubes of safety glass cascaded to the stone floor.

“Bloody hell.” Gary glanced around nervously. “Do you think maybe a more subtle approach would be better?”

“Subtlety takes time.” Natasha unlocked and opened the door. “We don’t have time. It could be too late even now.”

“I think someone’s on to us.” Gary nodded.

When she glanced over her shoulder, Natasha spotted three construction workers approaching them. She slid in behind the steering wheel and unlocked the passenger door.

One of the men called out, but Natasha didn’t understand the language. She slipped her lock-back knife from her pocket and scraped the ignition wires. Then she used the small crowbar to tear away the steering wheel casing and the locking mechanism to free the wheel.

“Do you understand what he’s saying?” Gary asked.

“Probably wants to know what we’re doing.” Natasha touched two wires together, and the truck’s engine rumbled to life.

“What if he’s saying something more along the lines of, ‘Get away from the truck or I’ll open fire’?” Gary asked.

“We’ll know in a minute.” Natasha shifted the transmission and put her foot on the accelerator.

The three men broke into a run as they yelled and waved their arms.

Gary ducked down in the seat, obviously anticipating the worst. “You know, a problem occurs to me.”

Natasha swerved through the maze of heavy equipment and roared toward the lighted arch that led more deeply into the cave system. “Only one problem?”

Evidently tension robbed Gary of his appreciation for sarcasm. “Some of these security guys are good guys. They’re just here to do a job. They’re not hooked up with the bad guys. How are you going to tell the good guys and bad guys apart?”

“They’re going to have to choose sides.” The truck bounced over the harsh terrain. “If they get in my way, they are bad guys. And the only good guys down here might just be us.”

“Great.”

When she checked the rearview mirror, Natasha saw that at least two other vehicles had taken up pursuit.

“So much for the stealth factor,” Gary said dismally.

Then a bullet speared through the back window and smashed out the front.

“Bloody hell!” Gary ducked down and cradled his head in his hands.

Natasha concentrated on driving. She had a loose map of the cave system in her head, but the darkness was complete except for the security lights that barely marked the way. Her headlights pierced the darkness only a short distance at a time. The cave walls seemed to come up faster and faster as she drove. Once her bumper grazed the wall and spewed out a torrent of sparks.

She hoped that Chernovsky had placed the call to the Spanish authorities. She hoped that half the Spanish police force was on its way here. And maybe half the army, too. And she hoped she didn’t smash this truck into a cave wall. Somewhere in there, she also hoped that they arrived in time to save Lourds and Leslie.

Lourds studied the instruments spread out before him. He gave serious thought to smashing them. It would be easy enough to do. But he didn’t know if that would prevent Murani from finding the Book of Knowledge.

And it felt like sacrilege.

“If you try to destroy the instruments, I promise you that you’ll be begging to die before I kill you.” Murani knelt opposite Lourds. The cardinal held a pistol in one hand.