The Betrayed Series: Ultimate Omnibus Collection Part 40

"Look on grid C-7."

The private frowned. "In the club district?"

"Okay, maybe D-7."

Brandt tried to focus on the slick paper, but his eyes blurred. Even Davidson seemed to have trouble making heads or tails of Lopez's excitement. "That's in the middle of the Sea of Marmara."

"Exactly! Look at the small chain of islands in the middle."

"The Prince Islands," Davidson read. "The Sultans used to banish naughty princes there."

"But..." was all Brandt could get out before his lips refused to obey.

Distantly he heard Lopez shout, "He's falling overboard! Grab him!"

CHAPTER 26.

Island in the Sea of Marmara The knife blade whined shrilly as it was drawn across the whetstone, yet again. Rebecca inwardly cringed but tried not to reveal what effect Tok's not-so-subtle show of force had on her. Didn't he realize she couldn't be more of a wreck? His constant reminder that torture was but a hairsbreadth away threatened to dissolve her into tears.

But Lochum barely seemed to notice that their lives were in immediate jeopardy as he poured over the Damascus Papyrus. When the initial scan of the bones revealed no clues, he had retreated to Flavian's historical account of the fall of Jerusalem. Engrossed, the professor didn't seem to notice Tok's eyes study his bent form, a.s.sessing, deciding his worth.

As the dark-skinned man's shoulders drew up, firming his stance, Rebecca knew his patience grew thin. The force with which he ground the blade against the stone became more and more firm. Soon he might tire of sharpening it and decide to actually use it.

Trying to refocus, Rebecca bent over a shattered bone fragment from Magdalene's skeleton. Under any other circ.u.mstance, she would have been ecstatic to study the scripture that transformed one of history's most maligned figures into a woman deeply moved by her savior and integral to the events leading to the Crucifixion.

However, Rebecca was once again struck by the glaring omission of any account of the Crucifixion itself. The years, months, days, and even hours up to the cruel punishment were painstakingly detailed, yet the bones were devoid of the actual suffering itself.

She had taken precious time to review the other bones, but came to the same conclusion. The Crucifixion was absent. There wasn't a single account of the act. Not a one. Rebecca could only a.s.sume the Knot had saved that honor for Christ's bones alone. Which wasn't too helpful as she pieced together a millennia-old mystery with a knife to her throat, literally.

Almost to prove her point, a blade whistled past her ear, cutting off a lock of hair before it sank into the wall. Rattled, Rebecca turned to find Tok balancing another knife on his fingertip.

A silent warning to find clues and find them fast.

But spread out all around her were three skeletons with a wealth of information that would take even dozens of scholars weeks to sort through. Didn't Tok realize the impossible task he had set for them? Of course the b.a.s.t.a.r.d did. He just didn't care. Which made him all the more dangerous.

What a minute. Why did they bring John's bones back here if they had tried to blow them up in Paris? "If these skeletons are so precious, why did you bomb the Tower's ossuary?"

Instantly she regretted her question as Tok's dark eyes surveyed her lips. He signed slowly enough so that she could read his fingers. Petir had disappeared up the darkened stairs well over an hour ago.

"The Knot is but a tangling of threads, not without their frayed ends."

Rebecca squinted. Was he implying that the Knot was nothing more than a collection of sects? And that some of these sects were beyond the Knot's control? If that were true, than Tok and his compatriots were not as all seeing as he had led them to believe. No wonder they needed her and Lochum's help.

The dark-haired man must have sensed the shift in her mood for he began spinning the dreaded whetstone again. "Perhaps you should concern yourself more with your own precarious hold than the Knot's politics."

As he went back to sharpening his blade, Rebecca turned to Magdalene's relic, but with a more heightened sense of purpose. She might be his prisoner, but she was his Oracle. He needed her, but she certainly did not need him.

Quickly, Rebecca allowed the bone's topography to help her add punctuation to the ancient Greek letters. Her brain on autopilot, she smoothly correlated the tiny fissures into punctuation marks, a.s.similating the Greek into individual words, then transcribing it into English, so it took her a few moments to recognize what she had just scribbled down. It was a list.

Mary, James, John the Baptist, Magdalene, Ruth, John the Beloved...

It wasn't just any list, but the list. The ident.i.ties of the thirty.

They were the original conspirators. The threads that made up the Knot.

Most of the names she recognized, but a few she didn't. Ameil and t.i.tus, for instance. She noticed that Judas wasn't mentioned which seemed odd, given all the other references to him on the relics. But no matter, what she held in her hands was the definitive roster of those who sought to hide Christ from the world. A list of sects that carried down the ages, much like the Knot.

"Lochum, look," she called to the other side of the room, but his eyes were locked in study of the Damascus Papyrus. "It's important," she added, but he seemed oblivious.

Rebecca brought the metatarsal bone along with her translation over to him and set them down right on top of the Papyrus.

"What do you think you are doing?" he asked, startled.

Good. At least she had roused him from his obsession. "Trying to get you to look at the list of all those involved. The thirty."

Finally intrigued, Lochum scanned the doc.u.ment once, then again, but ultimately shoved the tiny bone away. "It is immaterial."

"Are you crazy?"

"It tells us the 'who,' not the 'where.'"

Rebecca tried to keep the frustration from her voice. She could not speak plainly, not with Tok so close. "But isn't that knowledge just as important? If we can figure out which one is the 'man without contempt,' we might be able to divine where he took them."

But her logic was wasted, as the professor pressed his nose against the magnifying gla.s.s only a few inches above the Papyrus.

After decades of insisting that the Damascus doc.u.ment held all the answers to Christ, the professor seemed determined to prove himself right. His study of the doc.u.ment seemed more a reunion between two long-lost lovers than professional interest.

Glancing over, Rebecca found Tok scrutinizing Lochum as intently as the professor was studying the Papyrus. So even though she knew Magdalene's remains were important, Rebecca pulled up a stool next to her old professor.

"So what've you got?"

As Lochum began describing his discoveries, Rebecca made sure to carefully fold the list and slip it inside her pocket. If there was one thing she had learned throughout this ordeal, it was to trust her instincts.

Tok watched the two doctors. They were distinct ent.i.ties, yet when combined, they became something altogether different. Lochum brought the drive and the scope, whereas Monroe contributed restraint and focus. When separated they had floundered. But now united, they sparked as flint to stone. His plan was proven a singular success.

Studying Monroe over this journey, Tok realized the doctor functioned best when put under strain. Hers was a lazy intellect only brought to its full potential when death lingered. So he had carefully and meticulously kept the woman on edge, providing just enough stimulation to maintain her forward momentum. And by keeping Monroe edgy, Tok fueled the professor as well.

"No, no, no!" Lochum bellowed.

But Monroe stood toe-to-toe with the older man. "Archibald! Can't you make room that there can be another interpretation?"

"Why should I? Listen to Flavian! In his recollections of Jerusalem's fall he states, 'All those before had not the right of it. Not even the Magyars, etc. etc... They besmirched such hallowing and did not know of the contempt during the flight and did not witness the mask of horror descend upon Jerusalem.'"

The woman shook her head. "d.a.m.n it, read the entire pa.s.sage." Pushing him aside, she picked up the Papyrus. "'Not even the Magyars such, nor the Thracian, nor yet the Gallians. For all the glory of the Etruscans they besmirched...'"

Monroe stopped, clearly thinking she had made her point, yet it was obvious that Lochum could not follow her logic. Frustrated at his lack of understanding, she indicated to each name in turn. "The Magyars? Come on, we've been to Magyar-land."

The professor's features pinched. "Budapest. The pool found under the brothers' deer."

The legend of the G.o.dlike stag along with the pa.s.sage from John's bone leapt to Tok's mind. Is that how they found James? A new respect for the doctors took hold. Would he have been able to divine such?

"Want to take a stab at Thracian?"

Lochum's face hardened. "They are the people of ancient Turkey."

Especially the region straddling the Bosphorus, Tok thought, but did not articulate. Flavian was clearly referring to Istanbul.

"And the Gallians arose in the area of France, in particular Paris," Lochum added quickly, before Monroe could taunt him again.

The doctor turned to Tok. "Paris, Budapest, Istanbul. I believe that's a list of the Knot's greatest hits. Isn't it?"

Tok did not respond. He could not respond and not because Petir was upstairs arranging transportation. No, even with his mentor, he would not have been able to convey his thoughts. Instead, Tok stood fixed in his position. So rigid he could not even nod.

Not waiting for confirmation, Monroe continued, "Which means the last on the list, the Etruscans, must be pretty important."

In the throes of realization, Lochum sat down hard on his stool. Tok felt his own knees weaken as well. Could it be true? Could the Knot have known the Savior's location all this time?

Seemingly dazed, Lochum spoke the words softly. "Etruscans. They were inhabitants of ancient Italy."

"All roads lead to Rome," Monroe whispered into the silence.

A flume of powder set Brandt's mind afire as his head bounced off of the convertible's headrest. The bitter dust went straight to his brain, bolting him upright. The world went suddenly, painfully alive. His senses keened into overdrive, with his mind trying to play catch-up.

It was night. The stars shone above, twinkling. They were in a car, driving up a mountainside way, way, way too fast, yet it all seemed in slow motion. Moonlight cast an almost metallic glow upon the rolling, pastoral landscape they pa.s.sed. In the distance, sheep dotted a hillside. The breeze carried the strong scent of pine and the delicate fragrance of lilac. Even above the roar of the engine, they could hear the crashing of waves upon the cliffs. They were on an island.

"Did it work?" Lopez asked as he gunned the convertible way too fast up the mountain road.

"h.e.l.l, yeah," Davidson answered. "I'm telling you, at night, that Spice Market is a DEA agent's wet dream."

Brandt couldn't ask what the private meant since he was too busy trying to keep his heart from exploding out his chest. Next, Davidson blew the mystery powder into Svengurd's nose.

The tall man jerked awake, nearly coming up and out of the convertible's backseat.

"Whoa there, big guy," Davidson soothed as he kept Svengurd down.

Lopez glanced over his shoulder. "You better check his pulse and-" The corporal had to lay on the brake, skidding them around a hairpin turn.

"Dude, I'd better check mine," the private added.

Brandt finally found his voice. "Where are we?"

"Heybeliada, the second of the Prince Islands," Lopez answered as he shifted into fourth gear.

They were climbing quickly. To where, Brandt was still unclear.

"Why?" he croaked out.

Davidson brought a bottle of water to the sergeant's lips as he answered, "Once we figured out that Walker pointed us toward the Prince Islands, it was really no biggie to figure out which one."

"We? We figured it out?" Lopez challenged. "For a guy who was practically eating out of Monroe's lap, you didn't pick up much."

"Hey!" Davidson protested. "I figured out that we were looking for the earliest form of Christianity, Greek Orthodox."

"Yeah, and left me to-"

"How many churches?" Brandt interrupted his men's constant brotherly rivalry.

"Dozens, but no worries," Davidson said. "There's one in particular that caught our eye."

"Our eye? Seriously, you're taking credit for that too?"

But Svengurd cut off Davidson's retort. "Why this church?" The corporal then blanched and had to put his head between his legs, retching so hard that his wrist banged against the door handle, nearly prying his watch off.

"Seriously, you need to check his pulse," Lopez urged, and then had to turn back to the road since they were driving without headlights.

Clearing his throat, the sergeant spoke before Davidson could continue. "Give us the thumbnail version."

"It's the Ayia Trias monastery. Or Holy Trinity. Get it? Like the door."

Brandt clearly remembered the silver door with the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim symbols. Still it didn't seem enough to risk all their lives in a mad dash up a steep mountain. "Anything else to recommend it?"

"Well, you mean, besides the fact that it's deep within the grounds of a Turkish naval base?"

Trying to shake off both the sloth of the poison and the buzz of the antidote, Brandt asked, "What do you mean?"

"We mean that the church is protected by three miles of barbed wire fencing, two dozen sentries, and a s.h.i.tload of motion detectors."

"Yeah, you can't visit the place without special permission from the Turkish government. Seriously, how much protection do a bunch of cloistered monks need?" Davidson enthusiastically added.

The sergeant tried to correlate everything he'd just been told.

"Talk me through the pros and cons," Brandt said as a wave of nausea hit like an RPG. Maybe Svengurd had it right after all.

Leaning over, the sergeant resisted the urge to hurl as Davidson explained. "Pros. If this group really arose from the Crucifixion, we're looking for something old and something in the Greek Orthodox realm. Second, it is well guarded, which usually means there is something of immense value inside. Third, well, you'll see the third in just a minute."

"The cons?" Brandt said as he gulped hard. Lopez's manic driving wasn't helping his stomach.