A woman in one of the berths opened the door slightly and slammed it, locking the door.
“Let her go!” Marcus said, holding his hands out. “The drive, computer and spear are in the suite.”
Smoke drifted from the room into the hall, dimming the lights. A silhouette, a man wearing a fedora, appeared at the end of the hall. He said, “Drop the gun, Andy.”
Nathan Levy appeared through the smoke. He held a pistol pointed directly at Jenkins. “You betrayed me, you betrayed Israel, and you betrayed America. Was it always about the money?”
“Take another step, Nathan, and I’ll put one through the girl’s brain.”
A smoke alarm in the hall blared. Jenkins pushed Alicia and fired at Levy. The bullet hit Levy in the gut. He returned fire, connecting a single shot to Jenkins throat, snapping his spinal cord in the back on his neck. He fell onto the floor, blood pumping from his mouth. He stared at Levy through the haze of smoke, his eyes dimming.
Levy held his stomach, blood seeping from his shirt through his fingers and onto the mauve carpet. He looked at Marcus. “Go! Leave now!”
“Lie down. We’ll get you a doctor. Save your strength.”
Levy shook his head and leaned against the wall. He glanced at Alicia and smiled. “You both must leave the train as it pulls into Salerno. That’s in a few minutes. Don’t go through the normal exit doors. Go out the opposite side of the train through the emergency exits, through a window if you have to.” Levy coughed, his eyes closing in pain. He opened them and stared at Marcus for a moment, the smoke swirling in the air conditioning. “They have a huge bounty on your head. The information on the flash drive and the spear are what they want, and they want to silence you before you can add more to the website. They won’t stop. You’ll be hunted to the ends of the earth unless you can find a way to stop them.”
Alicia said, “I’m going to get help.”
“No!” Levy shook his head, the sweat beading on his face. “It’s not safe. Trust no one. Get off the train and disappear.” He looked up at Marcus. “Paul, you were right. What you said, I know now, is true. The conspiracy, the assassinations of Rabin and Meltzer, Kennedy. You also succeeded in shutting down some of Iran’s nuclear progress. Two of their nuclear centrifuges self-destructed. The Iranians are hunting you, too.”
The train began to slow. Levy held his stomach with both hands, the blood dripping across his shoes. With his back to the wall, he slowly lowered himself to the floor. He glanced up at Marcus. “In my office, I have a photograph of my father standing next to a burial trench in Nazi Germany. Many bodies are in the mass grave. A Nazi officer pointed a Luger at my father’s face. He stared at death and didn’t shy away. My father was a good man who did his best to protect his family. I did my best to protect the family of Israel. I can only pray that I have been my father’s son.” He glanced over at Alicia. “Take care of this man. You may be the last person on earth he can ever trust.”
Alicia nodded and said, “I will.”
Levy coughed, his eyes moving back to Marcus. “Paul…there is something else you must know. They have hired the devil himself to hunt you down — the Lion. He is unstoppable. God be with you. The assassin’s name is…” Levy coughed, his eyes opening wide, trying to focus on something above Alicia’s head. Nathan Levy touched Marcus’s hand, closed his eyes and died as the train pulled into Salerno.
Marcus felt stomach acid burn in his throat. He opened his hand and stared at the spearhead. He looked at Alicia. “We have to go.” Marcus took the pistol from Levy’s hand and tucked it under his shirt.
ONE-HUNDRED-TEN
They didn’t wait for the train to come to a complete stop entering Salerno station. Marcus kicked open the emergency door exit and turned to Alicia. “Ready?”
She shook her head. “Yes.”
The train slowed to a crawl. Marcus jumped from the steps leading out the emergency door. Alicia followed. She rolled once on the concrete and got up. They ran through the perimeter of the station, ignoring the dozens of passengers sitting on bus-stop benches in the passenger arrival areas.
Marcus flagged down a taxi. He and Alicia jumped in the backseat and he said, “Parli inglese?”
“Of course. Salerno is the number six most popular Italian city to the tourists. Many from England and America.”
“How far is the port?”
“Twenty kilometers. Not far.”
“Good. Take us there.”
“No problem. However, I am almost off the clock. Because my home is not far from the port, I will take you there. But, on the way, I must stop for a pizza I ordered. It will take only a few minutes. I used my mobile to call…how you say in English…a take-out. It is small restaurant downtown, so we go by there.”
“Do you happen to know the ferry schedules?”
“Some. Where you want to go?”
Alicia glanced at Marcus. He said, “We’re still undecided. Maybe in the area of the Aeolian Islands, Messina or maybe even Palermo.”
“Some leave at eleven or closer to midnight, and you wake up in Sicily in the morning. However, most ferries do not operate to the islands in this month. All ferries operate to Sicily. More go to Palermo. Some to Messina and one will go to Catania. I am not certain of all their schedules.”
“Please, take us to the port.”
The driver nodded and pulled away from the rail station.
Another car left and kept a good distance behind the taxi.
Within minutes, the cab driver was driving through the streets of Salerno. Gesturing toward the peaks of the mountains, which were lit by the moon to the east of the city, he said, “It is beautiful, no? Good wine comes from those mountains.” The driver slowed in front of a downtown restaurant. The word PIZZA flickered from a neon sign in the window. There was a large bell tower protruding from the adjacent building, the light from the moon coming through the massive arched portals on all sides of the tower.
“What’s that?” Alicia asked.
The cab driver grinned. “It is the Duomo of Salerno. It’s a cathedral — the final resting place of the Apostle Matthew. I’ll be right back.” He got out of the taxi and disappeared into the restaurant. Marcus stared at the bell tower, watching moonlight float through the arched portals. At that moment, the single bell began chiming: dong…dong…dong…
Marcus counted the rings. “Eleven…twelve.” He stared at the belfry, the light of the moon streaming through the old stone porticos.
“Paul, what are you thinking?”
Marcus whispered, ‘…about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, only the Father.’”
Alicia looked from Marcus up to the bell tower. “What did you say?”
“I’m remembering something I read in the Book of Matthew that Isaac Newton mentioned in his notes.”
“What?”
“Something Newton was trying to link to a passage from Daniel. Matthew wrote a direct quote from Christ that said, ‘…about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, only the Father.’”
“What are you saying?”
“Newton knew there was some connection between Revelation 12:12 in the year 2012 and some passage in Matthew. Now I know what that is…”
“What?”
“Thirty seconds ago, it just turned midnight, December twelfth. Add the twelfth day of the twelfth month and you get twenty-four…as in Matthew twenty-four. If you add the twelfth year, 2012, to twenty-four, you get thirty-six. Matthew 24:36 says, ‘…about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, only the Father.’”