The Bone Chamber

31

Francesca rushed forward, so relieved to see Xavier that she nearly knocked over the table as she embraced him. “You’re okay. Thank God.”

“Of course I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be?” He looked past her to the two agents, before holding her by her shoulders and searching her face. “What is going on? Where’s Alessandra? I’ve been trying to call her for two weeks.”

Francesca wasn’t sure how to tell him, wasn’t sure how he’d react. She would have liked more time, and hated that she had to break the news this way. “She’s…she’s been murdered.”

His face blanched, and she reached up, grasped his hands from her shoulders, then guided him to the table. “That’s impossible,” he finally said. “She was fine when I last saw her. She said-She told me-I can’t believe it.”

“I didn’t believe it at first, either, but it’s very real, and these people with me are working to find out who killed her.”

“Who are they?” he said, as he took a seat at the table.

She gripped his hand tighter, knowing he wouldn’t like this news any better. “Government agents.”

“What?” He tried to rise from his seat, and she pulled him back down.

“Don’t worry. They’re on our side.”

“The government’s never on our side.”

“You have to trust me,” Francesca said. “Trust me that they’re here to protect us and everything will be fine.”

“Alessandra’s dead. How can everything be fine?”

“Because she wanted this as much as you. You honor her by continuing with what she started.”

He gave a slight nod, seemed to calm, then turned his attention to the two agents, his expression guarded. “Who are you?”

Sydney held out her hand, and said, “Sydney Fitzpatrick, FBI. I’m here because my friend was killed looking into Alessandra’s murder.”

“This friend was an agent?” he said.

“A forensic anthropologist.”

He shook her hand, said, “I’m sorry about your friend.”

“Thank you.”

“And you? Who are you?”

“Zachary Griffin. I was a friend of Alessandra’s, and she asked me to help her. Unfortunately, I was too late.”

Xavier covered his face with his hands. “I shouldn’t have left her. Maybe I could have done something…”

Grief was better than blinding distrust, Francesca figured, and she turned to Griffin. “I think we could all use some coffee.”

He left to order the coffee.

“Xavier, I need you to listen to me,” Francesca said.

“Can’t I have a few moments?”

“We don’t have time. A friend of theirs was kidnapped by these people. Your life is in danger. All our lives.”

“What do you mean?”

“The people who came after Alessandra and Sydney’s friend? They’re after me, and they stole my computer. It had the e-mail you sent to me. Griffin thinks you’re in danger.”

“Why come after me?”

“Because they want what I have, what we’re looking for-and they’re willing to kill anyone who gets in the way of their plans.” There, she said what she hadn’t been willing to admit before. It did little to ease her guilt over the needless deaths. No, not deaths. Murders-something neither she nor Alessandra had foreseen. Alessandra’s murder had been totally unexpected, as had the attack up at the Passegiata. And while she couldn’t bring Alessandra back, she could damned well find the answers and thereby ensure that Alessandra hadn’t died in vain. But after the murder of the taxi driver, she realized that every step she took from that point on was as dangerous as walking on the highest, crumbling cliff with nothing but jagged rocks below. And now everyone she encountered on that walk was subject to the same torturous death, whether they were truly involved or not. “If you come with us, your life is in danger. I can’t ask that of you.”

“But if I don’t go with you, it seems my life is in danger.”

“I think so.”

“Then I go with you. For Alessandra,” he said, his voice catching.

“For Alessandra.”

He looked away, brushed at his eyes, and just when Griffin returned, said, “I think I’ll go see what’s taking that coffee so long.”

Xavier got up, walked to the front, then made a right toward the restroom instead.

As soon as he disappeared around the corner, she turned to Griffin and Sydney. “I would rather he didn’t come. He’s too young. He hasn’t even graduated college yet.”

“I think,” Griffin said, “that we can arrange for safe passage home, once we get him out of Naples. Until then, he’s probably safer with us than without.”

“All right,” she said, as the waiter arrived with their coffees. She dusted hers with cinnamon, then sipped at the steaming foam, trying to relax, telling herself that all would be fine. But then, they still had the tunnels to negotiate, and she looked at Xavier’s backpack, and the laptop she knew was within. And suddenly panic set in. She reached for the lanyard around her neck, worried that she’d lost the flash drive. But no, it was there.

That thought quickly fled to worse thoughts when, several minutes later, Sydney said, “Xavier is going to come out of there, isn’t he?”

The last thing Griffin needed was to chase after a college student and a professor, because he didn’t doubt for a second that if Xavier took off, Francesca wouldn’t be far behind him. He stood, gave Sydney the signal to watch over Francesca, then walked to the restroom, finding Xavier standing just outside it. His eyes red-rimmed, he leaned against the wall next to the pay phone, and Griffin felt a twinge of guilt for not trusting the kid. “You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah.” Xavier took a breath, stood a bit straighter. “I’m fine.”

“It’s not easy losing someone you’re close to. I know,” he said, trying but failing to keep from thinking about those he’d lost, and now there was Tex and he wondered if he was safe…

“We weren’t close. Not like that. I mean, I liked her, she just wasn’t interested, you know?”

Griffin merely nodded, since it seemed the right thing to do at the moment.

“She was sort of married to this thing. Wanted to know all the answers. I admired her a lot.”

“Me too,” Griffin said.

“You knew her?”

“For about a year. I worked at-for her father at one time.”

“I didn’t know her father. I met her at the university…All these crazy ideas I had, all this conspiracy stuff I wrote about for my class at UVA, no one believed me. When she talked about it, it was like she knew, really knew this stuff went on. She was the only one who didn’t think I was crazy.”

Griffin glanced at the door, hoped no one would wander their way and interrupt the kid’s flow. “What sort of things did she talk about?”

“I appreciate what you’re doing, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to trust you. The professor said you work for the government.”

“In the end, I work for myself.”

“What does that mean?”

What it really meant was that when the shit hit the fan, the government wasn’t about to take the blame for anything Griffin and his crew did, not something he was about to relay to Xavier, or anyone else for that matter. “That means I’m my own boss. I answer to me.” As if, he thought. “I do what’s right, and what is needed to finish the job.”

“And your job is?”

“To find out who killed Alessandra, and rescue my friend. And to do that, I need to know what she was involved in, who she was involved with.”

“That’s it? You’re only here to help solve her murder?”

“That’s it.” As long as one didn’t count that if the map did exist, and it led to the Templar treasure, and there really were some sort of bioweapons that could come from finding it, and that if it fell into Adami’s hands, he’d use it to manipulate world governments even more than he was currently doing. Something else that bothered him about this was that they had yet to learn who Adami was working for. “But there is one thing you need to understand. I need your cooperation in all things if you want to stay alive. We’re working against some very bad people, who won’t hesitate to kill you, if given the chance. We have very little time.” He looked at his watch. “Six hours before they kill my friend if we don’t find whatever this is that is buried and bring it to them. So any background on what you and Alessandra were working on can only help.”

Xavier nodded. “I was helping her with some of the research when all these weird things started happening. We assumed it was the government,” he said, with a dark look.

Since Griffin wasn’t even aware the kid had existed until now, he seriously doubted the government was involved-at least not the legitimate government. “What sort of weird things?”

“Like we were being followed, or I’d hear clicks on my telephone, like someone was listening in. And then someone shot into my apartment, and the police called it a gang-related drive-by, but I’m not so sure. Alessandra said that she was being followed, too, and that’s when she asked me to stop, back off, you know? But by then, I was too far into it. My cousin works for the Department of the Underground here in Naples, and with his help, I found all this information on the tunnels, and we figured that the prince had to have used the underground caverns to hide the map. My job was to come to Naples, and explore the tunnels to find the one that we’d pinned down, then wait for Professor Santarella to meet up with me here as soon as she got back from some dig she was on.” He looked away, tried to compose himself. “I’ve been here for two weeks, and the entire time, Alessandra’s been dead, and I didn’t even know it…”

“What happened the last time you saw her?”

It took a moment for Xavier to shake off his grief. “By then there was no doubt that she was being followed, and so we borrowed my girlfriend’s car, you know, to throw them off. Alessandra dropped me off at a restaurant, and I slipped out the back, took a taxi to the airport. She stayed on, because she had to do some more research in the States. She was supposed to meet up with that forensic anthropologist who had been working out on that same dig. The one where Alessandra had discovered that they were searching for the first key. Then she was supposed to meet up with some scientist to find out…well, if there was any way this stuff could be true. The biblical plague thing. And then she was going to follow me out here.”

“Did you hear from Alessandra after you arrived in Naples?”

“One call when I got here to let her know I’d arrived safe. She said not to worry if I didn’t hear from her for a bit, because she was going to lay low, and if her phone was being tapped, she didn’t want to lead anyone to me. But I do know this. Whatever it was she was looking for, she’d found it, and she was sending it home, so it would be there when she got back.”

Which verified why Adami’s men had been watching the ambassador’s residence. “Were you on a cell phone when you called her?”

“No, I used a pay phone at the airport. But I called her cell phone.”

Alessandra’s phone had no doubt been compromised, and they’d heard every word. He wondered how long they’d been watching her. “And do you have any idea what she was about after you left for Naples?”

“Like I said, research. She wanted to talk to some scientist about the viability of some virus or plague laying dormant for a couple thousand years, and what would happen if it was suddenly released into the wild, or disturbed. She wasn’t sure if what she was looking for might contain these old plagues, or if they were maybe somewhere else.”

“Do you know the name of this scientist?”

“Dr. Raj? Raja? Something like that.”

“Could it have been Balraj?”

“That was it.”

“Any idea where they were to meet?” he asked, even though he knew the answer.

“Yeah. The Smithsonian,” Xavier said.

“Why the Smithsonian? The Templar display?”

“She wasn’t there for the display, not really. She’d seen all that stuff before, but she knew there was lots of security. She wanted someplace public, just in case she was being followed.”

And a lot of good that did her. The real security guard was probably killed the moment that Alessandra and the microbiologist entered the Smithsonian, and Alessandra’s killer needed a cover. “Any idea if she found what she was looking for? This information on the plagues?”

“You might check with Francesca, since she’s the one that Alessandra sent the flash drive to.”

“She sent what?”

“You know. A mini hard drive? Francesca said she found it stuffed into the spine of some book that Alessandra had mailed to her.”

Griffin wondered how many times he’d be blindsided on this case, and it was all he could do to keep his temper in check. Last thing he needed was to spook the kid, because he wanted to throttle the professor. “Go drink your coffee. We don’t have much time.”

Xavier walked out, joined Sydney and Francesca, and Griffin watched Francesca’s face as Xavier took a seat beside her. Relief. That boded well, he decided, and he called McNiel and related what Xavier told him about why Alessandra wanted to meet with Dr. Balraj, the query into how many centuries a plague or virus could survive under optimal conditions.

“You think this map really exists?” McNiel asked.

“A good chance, considering the research the professor did at the Vatican. She no doubt knew Alessandra was inquiring into the viability of dormant plagues and viruses, since she’s the one who told us that the map was believed to lead to them. It certainly explains Adami’s interest.”

McNiel gave a sigh of resignation. “Do what you can to rescue Tex, but that map is not to fall into Adami’s hands. If it ends up a suicide mission, I want that map destroyed. Clear?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I’ll send a chopper out from Rome and have them stand by at the Naples airport.”

Griffin disconnected, knowing there was no way he could break the news to Sydney. Her world was not so black and white as his. How was he going to tell her that their mission was to destroy the map if it left their hands, even if it meant Tex’s life? Or their lives?

Her instinct would be to save Tex. He would deal with that when the time came. Now, he had to worry about what Francesca knew, what she was holding back, and if she assumed Xavier had kept all her secrets. He returned to the others, sat down across from the professor, smiled. “You didn’t forget to mention anything that might have come from Alessandra, did you?”

Her gaze darted from him to Xavier, then back. “What do you mean?”

“Say, a flash drive? Perhaps one that has information about this map on it?”

“I-I didn’t think it was important. I couldn’t access it, so I figured it had been damaged…”

“Let me make one thing perfectly clear. As long as Tex is being held captive, you do not get to choose what is important. And in case that isn’t clear enough, should I find out you are withholding any other information, I’ll ship you back to the States. In handcuffs if I have to.”

She reached into the collar of her shirt, pulled a lanyard from around her neck, one that had escaped his notice until now. Hanging from it was a flash drive, which she handed over. “You’ll see. There’s nothing on it. Just a copy of my notes on the tunnels.”

“We need a computer,” Griffin said.

Xavier hefted his backpack to the table. “I have one.”

Xavier took out his laptop, booted it up, and slid it toward Francesca, so that she could insert her flash drive into the USB port. She typed something on the keyboard, then slid the computer to Griffin. “As you can see,” she said, “there’s nothing on there but a copy of my notes on the tunnels, which I e-mailed to her. And then a photograph of di Sangro’s family crest at his chapel, which, at the time, we thought was the location of the third key. But the key is supposed to be with him, and his body is not in the crypt. In fact, it has never been found.”

“The actual crypt is supposed to contain the map,” Xavier said. “That’s what I’ve been searching for.”

Griffin clicked on the icon for the flash drive. Two icons appeared in the folder. Francesca’s documents on the tunnels, which he opened, scanned, then closed out. The other was an icon showing a photograph. He clicked on it. Nothing happened.

“As I told you,” Francesca said, “I couldn’t open it, either.”

“It’s encrypted,” Griffin replied.

“Encrypted?”

He typed in a command to have the computer open the photograph. Appearing in the very center near the bottom was a long white box, with a blinking cursor, waiting for a password to be entered.

Xavier stared at it. “Great. What the hell is the password?”

Francesca leaned over, and before Griffin could stop her, typed in a password and hit enter. Nothing happened. “This makes no sense. Where’s the information from my flash drive? My notes?”

“Actually,” Griffin said, putting his hand out to keep her from typing anything further, “it’s part of the program.”

“How would you know?” Francesca asked.

“I gave the program to Alessandra.”

A look of distrust filled Xavier’s face. “Why?”

“She wanted to embed some information and was worried about someone in her father’s household gaining access to her computer should she visit. At least that’s what she told me. What that was, I have no idea.”

Francesca leaned forward, trying to get a better view. “Then how do we access what is embedded?”

Griffin pushed his coffee cup aside, then angled the computer so they could all see it. “She didn’t give either one of you the final access code?”

“No,” Francesca said. “Clearly the code isn’t my password. Unless I made a mistake. You want me to retype it and see what happens?”

“Only if you want to chance destroying whatever information is on the flash drive,” Griffin replied. “We need to be sure. This particular program gives us three tries. First one is gratis. You already took that. Second, the cursor stops moving, indicating you are about to be locked out. Third mistake is fatal. It erases whatever information she embedded into it.”

The four of them stared at the screen, the cursor blinking, blinking, blinking in the empty box just begging for a password. Sydney sat up, looked over at Griffin. “She did pass on the final code. She said you knew it.”

“Of course,” Francesca said to Griffin. “She insisted I ask for the code, and that was how I would know you. Dumas told us the code this morning. You confirmed it. All for one and one for all.”

“That can’t be right,” Griffin said. “There has to be a combination of letters and numbers, or the program wouldn’t accept the password to begin with.”

Francesca said, “Maybe substituting the numeral one for the word one?”

Two chances left, he thought. “Try it.”

Francesca typed in the new variation, “Allfor1and1forall.” The cursor stopped blinking.

“Damn it,” Francesca said.

Not good, Griffin thought. Alessandra hadn’t counted on dying, obviously, but she’d certainly taken the precaution to protect the information if she couldn’t be there. “If not that, what code would she have used?”

“Maybe,” Xavier said, “there isn’t anything so drastic as a special code. She knew the professor and I were going to meet. Maybe we simply enter our individual codes together. They have the letter numeral combination.” Xavier angled the computer his way to look.

Griffin stopped him. “Alessandra was too meticulous to combine two known codes. We have one try left. If we don’t get it, it’s over.”

Francesca said, “Surely the government has something they can hook up to it, and figure out what the hell it should be?”

“Which,” Griffin said, “entails time and resources we don’t have at the moment. We need to think about this.” And quickly, he realized. With less than six hours to search unknown caverns for something they didn’t even know existed, the odds were not stacked in their favor.

Sydney reached for a napkin. “I’ve got it.” He certainly hoped so. “I think Francesca was on to something, replacing the words with numbers, but if Alessandra was as meticulous as you say, and as paranoid as Xavier, she’d go further if at all possible. She’d replace everything.”

Francesca said, “Like the word ‘for’ with the numeral four?”

“Even more so. Especially if she was entrusting that someone else was going to bring that code back, and there was the possibility of being overheard or intercepted. Think license plates.”

“License plates?” Griffin asked.

“Anyone have a pen?” Sydney said. Xavier pulled one from the pocket of his backpack. She wrote on the napkin, then turned it for everyone to see. L41N14L. “L equals all and N equals and.”

“Yes,” Xavier said. “I can see her doing that.”

“Well?” Sydney asked.

“Type it in,” Griffin said.