The little group walked around in the main sanctuary for a few minutes but found nothing of interest. The bland interior décor left nothing to the imagination and certainly represented no clues as to the whereabouts of Crespi’s map.
It was getting late in the evening and Sean was starting to wonder if Adriana knew how to find her way to where they were. He’d thought about it before. Did she know about Mauricio’s little plan? If so, she would know where to meet them. But his friend had said nothing about her. However, being familiar with Cuenca, she must have known they were not at the right place before. For now, he’d have to believe that she knew what was going on.
The group scoured the building for anything that might give them a hint as to where Crespi may have left a map or anything that could point in the right direction. After almost a half-hour of searching, though, they’d come up empty.
Sean had discovered classrooms and several prayer alcoves. Mauricio had also shown them the dormitory where Crespi had lived. However, there had been nothing of note in the barren chamber. The sanctuary, too, had proven fruitless.
They arrived back in the foyer of the church as the cathedral bells rang out the hour.
“Is there somewhere we may have missed?” Tommy asked Mauricio. “I looked all over this place and didn’t see anything remotely interesting. “
“I can only provide the location, my friend. I’m afraid that when it comes to finding lost things, I am fairly useless.” He smiled as he made the confession.
Sean wandered over to a window he’d passed a few minutes before. Light from the evening moon poured in through the clear glass panes. Beyond, a vast courtyard opened up in the shape of a rectangle, surrounded by the walls of the church compound. He gazed out at small benches, prayer coves, stone paths, and small trees. “What’s that out there?” he asked as he pointed at the window.
“That’s the courtyard,” Mauricio answered. “We can go have a look if you want. Out there is the last place where Crespi’s collection was seen, in a storage room on the other side of the space.”
Sean raised an eyebrow at his friends. “We may as well go have a look then.”
It had taken Hunter a few minutes to navigate his way through the hidden passageway beneath the church that led to the streets of Cuenca. He had reached an exit point where a gate of iron bars had been left open. It was fortunate for him since he didn’t much feel like going back out through the church. At some point, he figured that team of assassins would get tired of waiting and make their move into the building. He found a bicycle nearby, locked to a streetlight. It only took him a few seconds to pick the lock. He decided to play a hunch and head towards another church he’d seen earlier in the evening on his way to the bar.
As he weaved his way through the sleeping city streets, doubts filled his mind momentarily causing him to wonder if he was indeed going to the right place. He would have to chance it. Without any other leads to go on, it was time to take a gamble. If Wyatt’s group found the map and left, Carlson could miss his window of opportunity. The thought pushed him to pedal faster. He could be at the other church in ten or fifteen minutes if he went hard.
“I didn’t want to come. There are dangerous men following us,” Adriana looked into her father’s eyes.
The old man laughed and stepped back. He removed his hat and set it on the table. “I’ve dealt with dangerous people before, my dear. You of all people know that.”
She tried to force a smile. “These people are well-trained. They will not let anyone get in their way.”
Before she could say anything else, he held up his hand and interrupted. “You needn’t worry about a thing. I know exactly who is following you and what they are looking for.” She sat in stunned silence for a moment. He raised both eyebrows and his face squinted in a big smile. “What, your old papa can’t hear things?” He laughed again as he said it, though she still looked confused. Seeing she still wasn’t convinced, he stepped close and put his hand around her shoulder. “Come, my daughter, let’s go downstairs and have a tequila. Perhaps that will settle your nerves a bit.” She nodded as he led her around the corner out of the front room and down a darkly lit staircase.
The courtyard presented an eerie silence as the men made their way through a pair of large wooden doors and into the open space. It was like a small park built right into the center of the church complex. Off to the side, the huge structure of the sanctuary formed a high wall while the orphanage and school encompassed the rest of the area. The cool air filled their lungs as they walked reverently past statues and potted plants, trees and flowerbeds. A gentle breeze rustled a few leaves on a tree near Tommy as he passed by.
“They say that Padre Crespi planted most of the plants here and even designed a great deal of the layout for this place,” Maurcio broke the silence. “He had a great love of architecture and design. I was told that he wanted a place for the people of this church to be able to escape from their busy lives and get back to the basics of prayer and meditation.”
“Sounds like an interesting guy,” Sean added.
Delgado nodded his agreement. “Honorable men like that only come along so often.”
Mauricio’s two men remained at the door to keep watch while the group continued moving through the courtyard. Several doors dotted the space along the perimeter wall. Most of them were of simple design, made of wood. Some had a single window in the center-top. Others did not. “Which one of those doors housed the collection?” Tommy asked just above a whisper. He spoke as though his voice would disturb the peace of the place.
“I believe it was that one over there,” Mauricio answered. “Of course, we cannot go in there,” he continued. “It has been locked since the time of the Padre’s death, never to be opened again. However, I assure you the vault is completely empty.”
Tommy was clearly disappointed he couldn’t have a look inside the room, despite it being empty. To be in a place where such an amazing collection was housed would be worth it.
Sean snapped him back to the moment. “I’m going to go take a look over here. I suggest we spread out and see if there is anything out of the ordinary.” The others nodded and each went in separate directions towards the four corners of the great courtyard. When he reached the corner he had chosen to investigate, Sean left the stone pathway and began checking around on the dusty ground for anything that might give a clue as to where Crespi’s map could be. He noticed the other men doing something similar. After a few more fruitless minutes of searching, he started to head back to the path when his eye caught an old wooden ladder leaning up against the wall about twenty feet away. That gave him an idea.
Carlson pulled up to a darkened bakery at the corner of the square across from the Church of Maria Auxiliadora. He leaned the bicycle against the wall of the building and crept to the edge to get a better view of the scene. Two black SUVs sat quietly out front of the cathedral’s entrance. From his vantage point, it appeared that two men dressed in black suits were waiting next to the vehicles. One smoked a cigarette while the other seemed to be passing the time by doing something on his phone. If the two men were supposed to be keeping a lookout, they were doing a less than adequate job. Hunter shook his head at the thought.
From within his jacket, Hunter pulled a small, black handgun. Quickly, he reached into another pocket and withdrew a sound suppression barrel. In less than thirty seconds, he’d attached the barrel to the gun and was leaving his position at the corner. He tried to space out his movements to keep as far away from each streetlight as possible as he crept hurriedly towards the two parked cars. Half-way across the plaza, he ducked down to hide behind a park bench that rested near the grass median separating him and his targets. There was one giant tree planted in the center of the green space with a few other bushes planted near by. If he used the tree for cover, he could take out one guard and then the other without causing a ruckus. Of course, even with the suppression barrel on his weapon, there would still be a muffled pop. The noise would only be loud enough for the other guard to hear and before he knew what was happening, he would be dead too.