"Go on," Elizabeth said.
"De Molay sends the Ark and maybe the Templar treasure to England, so the Templar Commander can hide it. That's la More. La More is tortured and dies, but doesn't reveal where it is. La More is the one who placed the letter in the tomb. That's assumption number one."
"That seems logical."
"Number two is that there's a good reason to use that pouch to hold the letter, with that crest."
"Okay."
"Why put it in the tomb?" she asked.
"To hide it," Nick said.
Gefen watched the exchange. It was the first time he'd seen how everyone worked together. How they figured things out.
"Of course. But why does it have that coat of arms on it? It's not la More's. It doesn't belong to the man buried in the tomb. Why a crest at all? A coat of arms was a message. It told you who the person was, their heritage. It was a medieval ID for all to see."
"For the big shots," Ronnie said.
"That's right. Peasants didn't have crests, only nobility."
"I think I see where you're going," Nick said. "You think the crest is a message."
"Yes. A clue to where the Ark was hidden."
"What do you think it means?"
"I don't know. Something about the Earls of Pembroke, but not William Marshall. De Valence."
"De Valence was alive when de Molay wrote that letter?"
"The father was dead. The son was alive."
"Was the son a Templar?" Lev asked. It was the first thing he'd said.
"I don't think so," Selena said. "If he was known to be a Templar he would have been arrested."
"So why point in the direction of de Valence?" Nick said.
"Say that again, what you just said."
"Why point in the direction of…"
"That's it!" Selena said. She was excited. "The crest is meant to point you at de Valence."
"This is all speculation," Gefen said. "How can you make a plan based on this?"
"It's all we've had from the start," Elizabeth said, "speculation. It's got us this far."
Ronnie cracked his knuckles. "What do the guy in the tomb and de Valence have in common?"
"They both held the title of Earl of Pembroke," Selena said.
"What else?"
"They held the same estates. The main castle still exists. It's in Scotland."
"Scotland might be a good place to stash something you didn't want anyone to find."
"You think the Ark is in Scotland?" Lev felt completely confused.
"Maybe we should take a closer look at that castle," Ronnie said.
"No problem." Stephanie had her laptop. It was hooked into the Crays and the monitor on Harker's wall. The monitor lit. She entered a search for Pembroke Castle.
"Lots of links." She clicked on one. An article and picture came up on the screen.
"Big castle," Ronnie said.
The castle had high ramparts of stone, a tower keep and walls 20 feet thick. It sat on land that stuck out like a thumb into the Pembroke River in West Wales. Three sides were surrounded by the river. The fourth side had a thick wall, a gate and tower. Beyond the castle was the town of Pembroke.
They read the article. "The place was mostly restored in the last century," Nick said. "If something was hidden there, wouldn't they have found it?"
"Not necessarily," Stephanie said. She clicked on a different link. "Here's something interesting. The castle is built over a limestone cavern carved out by water erosion. The Earls used it for storage. It's called Wogan Cavern."
A picture of the cave appeared on the screen.
"Caves are good places to hide something," he said, "but if anything was there, it's long gone."
"Sometimes there's more than one cave in a limestone formation like that," Selena said. "There could be connecting caves. If there are, something could be hidden in them."
"I'll task a satellite for a deep scan," Elizabeth said. "If there's another cave it will show up."
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
Nick took Lev Gefen to the part of the old Nike site that had been converted into a shooting range and armory. He opened a wide cabinet to reveal a full array of personal assault weapons. They all had one thing in common; deadly efficiency.
Lev looked at the racks of weapons. "Interesting," he said. He took an MP-5 from it's place, checked to see if it was loaded, held it to his shoulder. "I always liked these. We use the Tavor C21."
"That's a fine weapon in the field," Nick said. "We mostly use the MP-5s and the SIG-Sauer. We've switched over to .40 Smith and Wesson. Makes it easy to keep the ammo straight."
"A good round. That is what we use in our pistols. What you call a Baby Eagle."
"The Jericho 941."
Lev nodded.
"Pick a pistol. I take it you didn't bring yours."
"No. Ari told me you would take care of it."
Lev took a Sig-Sauer P229 from the rack. All the pistols were flat black. No stainless styling to catch a stray ray of light and give away a position. "This will do."
Nick nodded. "The 226 is a little more accurate, but these are easier to carry. Let's practice."
Nick ran man-sized silhouette targets out to the end of the shooting lanes. They loaded up, put on glasses and ear protection and began firing. After a half hour, they stopped.
"Nice shooting, Lev."
The Israeli's targets were consistent. Tight groups centered on the body. Occasional two shot groups to the head, for variety. Gefen could shoot. Nick hoped he didn't have to find out if the Israeli could do the same thing when the targets were shooting back.
There was a meeting with Harker and the rest of the team in half an hour. They began cleaning the guns.
"Your file says you're married."
"That's right. My wife's name is Rachel. We've got two children."
Lev ran a cleaning brush through the bore of his pistol. The distinctive smell of Hoppe's No. 9 filled the room. He set the pistol down and took out his wallet. He showed Nick pictures.
"This is Aaron. He's five. And this is Rebecca. She's seven."
The children were laughing, splashing each other in a backyard pool. "Rebecca thinks she's the boss, but Aaron always gets even. They're good kids. This is Rachel."
His wife was dark haired, with strong features and a wide smile.
"You're a lucky man, Lev." For just an instant, Nick wondered what it would be like to have children. Megan had wanted children. He thought of Megan and pushed the image away. Megan was gone, a long time ago. Now he was with Selena. She hadn't brought up the subject of children and neither had he. Sometimes it was best to let things be.
Gefen put the pictures away, picked up the gun and began running patches through the barrel. He kept changing them until they came out clean.
"How about you, Nick? You are with Selena, no?"
"You could say that." Nick looked at his watch. "Let's finish up. Time to get upstairs."
There was something in his voice. Lev decided not to pursue it.
Harker had satellite images up on the big screen when they entered her office. Ronnie and Selena and Stephanie were already there.
"Glad you could join us," Elizabeth said.
"Sorry." They sat down.
"This was taken yesterday," she said. "It's a deep infrared scan of Pembroke castle. You can see the difference between the castle walls and buildings and the underlying cavern. The structures on the surface are warmer, so they're very distinct. The darker space underneath on the river side is the cavern. Look at the end away from the river."
The shape of the cavern was a large, oblong egg under the castle grounds. There was a smaller shape on one side, with a thin line signaling a different heat gradient between it and the larger cavern. There was another vague heat differential within the smaller space.
"It's another cave," Nick said, "sealed off from the big one."
"It looks like there's something inside it," Ronnie said. "Those different gradients."