"Do you think Nostradamus could really see the future?"
She brushed her hand across her forehead. "People have argued about that since the prophecies were published in 1555. A few seem to predict real events. Listen to these two."
She read from her notes.
"So?" Nick said.
"The bear is a symbol of Russia. It was like that even back then. I think this is about the Cuban Missile crisis in 1962. The eagle and the bear could be America and Russia. Thunder over the waters could be jets. And shadows beneath the sea could refer to submarines."
"You think he predicted an event 400 years in the future?"
"It's possible. He predicted the rise and fall of Hitler and the Nazis. If he got Hitler right, why not Cuba and the Russians?"
"Maybe. You said two. What's the other one?"
"There's only one flower throne," she said, "the Chrysanthemum throne in Japan. That would make this about Hiroshima. You could make a case that the Japanese people were unheeded by the Emperor after the bomb was dropped. It took the second one before Hirohito gave up."
She looked at the pages. "I've translated two more but they don't make much sense." She picked up a piece of paper covered with notes and handed it to him.
"None of these make any sense," Nick said. "A dark prince. He could be talking about Darth Vader, for all we know. You can interpret these any way you like."
Selena smiled. "That's always been a problem with the good doctor."
"Nostradamus was a doctor?"
"Sort of. He never graduated from medical school. He was famous for treating the plague, but his cures didn't work very well."
"You look like you're enjoying this," he said.
She nodded. "It's exciting. Do you realize what it's like for me, having this to work with?"
"Do you realize what it's like for me, to have you wrapped up in a 16th Century manuscript?"
She laughed. "Maybe I should take a break."
"How about dinner at that new Indian restaurant?"
"I'm not very hungry."
"We could do something to work up an appetite before we go out."
"What did you have in mind?"
"I have to show you."
He led her into the bedroom. They kissed. Selena started to unbutton her blouse. She stopped.
"Oh," she said.
Nick was about to take off his shirt. He stopped, his hand on his belt. "What?"
"I just thought of something."
She left the bedroom, doing up buttons.
Nick stood by the empty bed for a moment. There was a downside to living with Selena's mind. He sighed and followed her into the other room. She went to a bookcase and pulled out a Bible and walked over to the table with the manuscript. She sat down and began turning pages in the Bible.
"What are you doing?"
"I had an idea about what Jean-Paul meant when he wrote EX 25. It could be a biblical reference."
She found Exodus and turned pages to Chapter 25. "Oh, my," she said.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Former gunnery sergeant Ronnie Peete, USMC, sat on the couch in Harker's office with Lamont and Stephanie. He had on one of his quieter Hawaiian shirts, a scene of white and red flowers on a light brown background. The shirt almost picked up the tint of his skin. Ronnie was Navajo, raised on the reservation in Arizona. He had a large nose and dark brown eyes. People thought of paintings and photographs of the Old West when they saw Ronnie, unless he was holding a weapon pointed at them.
Ronnie looked relaxed. Lamont looked like a piece of spring steel. His eyes were icy blue, a mark of his Ethiopian ancestry. There was a thin scar of pink tissue across his face from a shrapnel wound he'd gotten in Iraq. Sometimes young children stared wide-eyed and clung to their mothers when he walked by. It hurt his feelings, but there wasn't much he could do about it.
Harker cleared her throat. "Interpol confirmed that Bertrand was offering the Nostradamus manuscript on the black market. He put it up on a hidden website that can only be accessed by people with the right code."
She brought the page up on the big wall monitor.
"This is the announcement. It's still up. Interpol is using it as bait."
It was written in English, French, German, Russian and Chinese. They read it in silence.
For the discriminating collector: a unique opportunity to acquire the legendary lost quatrains of the Seventh Century of Les Propheties by Michele de Nostradamus. An original manuscript in the Seer's own hand.
Guaranteed authentic.
A photograph of the quatrain about the cherubim was prominently featured. Selena sighed, a sound of disappointment.
Jean-Paul, she thought. What happened, to make you do this?
"So now we know how the bad guys knew about it," Nick said.
Harker continued. "Someone killed the boss of the French Mafia yesterday. His name was Sarti. He was a major player in stolen antiquities. My intuition says it's related to Bertrand's death."
Nick scratched his ear. Harker's intuition was usually dead on. "What do the French think?"
"That Bertrand's death happened during a robbery and Sarti was killed because of a power struggle within the mob. They found the body of Sarti's killer. He was wounded by Sarti's bodyguard but someone else killed him, probably to keep him quiet. Interpol doesn't much care if the bad guys kill each other and they're not pursuing it. The French are watching to see who takes Sarti's place, but that's all."
"Any ID on the shooter?"
"That's interesting. He was American, former Special Forces."
"A mercenary? What would an American be doing working for the French Mafia? They have their own shooters. That doesn't make sense." Nick paused. "Maybe someone hired Sarti to get the manuscript and it pissed them off when he didn't come through, so they got even."
"Kind of extreme," Ronnie said.
"So was killing Bertrand."
"Selena, what have you found out?" Harker asked.
"The manuscript is definitely by Nostradamus. It's not complete, but it's part of the quatrains no one has seen before. Jean-Paul would have been able to read them." She paused. "I think I know why he was killed. It ties into the letters and number he scrawled on the floor."
"E X 25."
"EX 25 is a biblical reference. Exodus, Chapter 25."
Harker was getting impatient. Her pen began its drumbeat on her desk. Nick waited. He knew what was coming.
"What does that have to do with the manuscript?"
"Chapter 25 describes God's instructions to Moses for building the Ark of the Covenant. Nostradamus knew where it was hidden."
Harker's pen stopped moving. That got her attention, Nick thought.
"Are you telling me those pages hold the key to the location of the Ark of the Covenant?"
"Nostradamus thought so. So did Jean-Paul. So far I've found one quatrain that could be about the Ark. There are three more grouped with it, but I'm not sure what they mean."