‘Why?’
‘To match it against the one in the book. Have you done that?’
Joachim was silent for a moment, then shook his head. ‘I haven’t. We already have a copy of the rubbing and it told us nothing.’
‘Does Qayin know where this stone is?’
‘No, he doesn’t. And if he did, what would it matter?’
Lourds took his fresh rubbing and matched it against the one in the book he’d got from Qayin. ‘Can you hold the book for me?’
Joachim took the book.
‘Hold the book so the page with the rubbing hangs down by itself,’ Lourds instructed. Joachim did so. By that time the others had all come around to watch what he was doing. Lourds folded the new rubbing so that it fitted over the one in the book. Then he held his flashlight behind the papers so that both were illuminated. When he had them lined up, they matched exactly.
He grinned. ‘Looks like the same stone to me.’
‘That wasn’t necessary.’
Lourds rummaged in his backpack for a digital camera. ‘Of course it was. Empirical evidence is always important. Especially when you’re saving the world.’
‘You still don’t believe.’
‘Have you stopped to think that maybe I’m able to read that language because I’m not a believer? I’m not looking for the same things you are. I don’t have preconceived notions about what we’re supposed to find and how we’re supposed to find it. I’ve got a more open mind about what we’re looking for.’
Joachim didn’t say anything.
‘One thing I do believe is that I’m going to get you the answers that you haven’t had in over eight hundred years. Now hold that flashlight on this stone for me.’
‘More empirical evidence?’
‘No,’ Olympia said with a knowing grin, ‘Thomas likes his souvenirs.’
Finished with the camera, Lourds replaced it in the backpack. ‘Now I’m going to need you to use some of that faith you so readily claim to have.’ He took a small pry bar from an outside pocket of the backpack.
‘What are you going to do?’ Joachim demanded.
Lourds pointed with the pry bar. ‘I’m going to take that stone out of the wall.’ Hardly had the words left his mouth than Joachim hit him in the face with a balled fist. Pain exploded in Lourds’ face as he sailed backward.
Deep in the passageway now, Colonel Anthony Eckart stood still and studied the terrain through the night-vision goggles he wore. So far there was still no sign of Lourds or the others. Eckart’s gut clenched and ached in anticipation. He couldn’t wait to meet the redheaded woman close up and personal. The men he had lost at the university had been good men, in no way friends, but good soldiers were hard to come by.
‘Mayfield, do you have a reading on our position?’ Eckart asked.
‘Affirmative, sir. I’ve rerouted the overland support teams to you. They’re almost directly overhead.’
‘Near the church?’
‘That’s affirmative. I’m reading your position under the church now.’
Eckart gazed at the blank walls. ‘What’s under here?’
‘Tunnels. Lots and lots of tunnels. From the maps I’ve been able to download from the geological survey services in the city, it looks like a regular rat’s warren down there.’
‘It is. Do you have any idea where our target is headed?’
‘Negative. Like I said, there are a lot of tunnels down there. On multiple levels as well. Some of them cross over or under without touching any other tunnels.’
Eckart thought about that. Back in the early days of war, tunnels had been important defensive and offensive measures. Tunnels enabled large groups of warriors to either vanish or appear somewhere else on a battlefield. Sappers were specially trained troops that dug under castle walls and other fortifications to tunnel in or bring down the walls. Ammo and supply routes ran underground as well, as did paths for retreating.
‘It’s got to be something to do with the church,’ Mayfield said. ‘That church has had treasures in the past. Maybe there’s something like that hidden down there.’
‘All right,’ Eckart said, ‘the GPS reads us five by five?’
‘Affirmative. And I’m keeping an eye on your back door.’
Eckart sent his point man back into motion. The group moved out like a well-oiled machine.
Only a few minutes later, they came to a fork in the tunnel. Eckart waved one of his men forward. The man used a latent thermographic scanner to pick up the heat signature left by the people they followed. The body temperature of the group had soaked into the rock enough to leave a ghost trail that was just strong enough. If they got too far behind, and the trail was allowed to cool, they would lose them.
A short distance further on, they came to another fork. This time the scanner didn’t pick up the trail.
‘What’s wrong?’ Eckart asked as the soldier turned and checked the readings again.
‘I’m not getting the readings any more, sir.’
‘You said we were practically on top of them.’
‘Yes, sir. We were. Actually, we still are.’ The soldier looked at the wall next to them. ‘The readings show that they walked right into this wall.’
‘Or through it.’ Eckart pushed on the wall, but it felt solid. ‘Mayfield.’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Do you still have our position?’
‘Affirmative.’
‘Do you see a tunnel along the north wall?’
Only the popping crackle of the stressed signal sounded for a moment. ‘No, sir. According to the maps I’m looking at, nothing is there.’
‘Well, the maps are evidently wrong because these people didn’t just vanish into thin air.’ Eckart shone his light on the floor.
There were no scrapes or scuff marks on the floor, nothing to indicate the presence of a door that opened outward.
If not outward, then inward, he reasoned. He reached into his chest pack med kit and took out a pair of aspirin. He crushed the tablets between his fingers and dropped the fine white powder into his other palm. Lying on the floor, he dusted the area in front of the wall, then gently blew the powder toward it.
Some of the white powder slid gracefully through a carefully mortised crack that hadn’t been visible to his naked eye. In bright sunlight he might have seen it, but not in the eternal darkness of the passageway. He studied the wall again. There was nothing there to indicate the presence of the hidden door.
He got to his feet and called for his demolitions expert. Maybe Eckart didn’t know all the tricks or the secret word to get through the door, but there was always another way to make an entrance.
‘Joachim! What are you doing?’
Stunned and hurt, Lourds watched Olympia grab hold of her brother’s arm and haul him backwards before he could strike again.
‘I’m protecting this place,’ Joachim snarled, his angry features looming out of the darkness, ‘as I promised our father I would do.’
‘You can’t just hit him like that!’ Olympia protested.
Actually, Lourds thought that Joachim could hit him like that any time he chose to. Lourds wasn’t eager to repeat the encounter. He sat up gingerly and worked his jaw. He tasted blood.
‘I guess you’re not very big on the trust part,’ Lourds said.
Olympia wheeled on Lourds. ‘And you! What did you think you were doing telling him you were going to pry that stone out of the wall?’
‘Well,’ Lourds replied, ‘with all of us crammed in here like sardines, it didn’t seem very likely that I was going to be able to get the stone out of the wall without him seeing me do it. I thought it would be better to tell him what I was going to do.’
‘Why would you want to take the stone out of the wall?’
‘This can’t be allowed,’ Joachim protested. ‘This is the crypt of the Elders. This is where those men gave their lives to protect the secret that John of Patmos entrusted to our order.’
‘To ensure the safety of the world,’ Lourds said in a bored tone. Joachim took a step towards him. Lourds took a step back and bounced off the wall behind him.