The Cup

CHAPTER 39

Elizabeth was reading an intelligence brief on dissident activity in Russia when Nick called.

"Director, we ran into trouble."

"What happened?"

"We were at the monastery. ISIS showed up and everything went bad from there. They have four new martyrs but one of the Syriac monks is dead. So is Count Mercurio."

"Mercurio? What was he doing there?"

"Same thing we were. Chasing down the Grail."

"Are any of you hurt?"

"Lamont has a splinter wound but that's it. We were lucky."

"A splinter wound?"

"From a wooden pew. We were in a chapel. They had AKs."

"Are the police there yet?"

"No."

"Was the Grail there?"

"No."

"Can you get back to Incirlik?"

"I don't think there's time. People will have noticed our car and someone will put it together. Every cop in Turkey is going to be looking for us."

Elizabeth's fingers sped across her keyboard. A live satellite view of the monastery appeared on the wall monitor. She could see Nick's blue Toyota in the parking lot.

"Leave now and start driving back toward the base. I'll task a helicopter to pick you up, but it will take time to reach you. I have a visual of the monastery and I can see your car. I'll track your GPS."

"Copy that, Director."

"If you get stopped, stall them. Do not engage in any hostile action with Turkish forces, understood?"

"They may not give us a choice."

"I mean it, Nick. Turkey is still technically an ally. You shoot a cop and I've got an international incident to explain to the president."

"I'll do my best, Director. But they start shooting at us, we're going to shoot back."

"Nick… "

Stephanie came into the room as Nick broke the connection.

"What's up?"

"Trouble. ISIS followed the team to Mor Gabriel and they got into a firefight. Count Mercurio is dead and so is one of the Syriac monks."

"Mercurio? What was he doing there?"

"That's what I said. He was looking for the Grail, what else?"

"Did Nick find it?"

"No."

"Maybe it's time to give this up," Stephanie said. "It feels like we're running after a myth."

"You may be right. Nick didn't say whether or not he found out anything else. If he didn't, we've reached a dead end."

Elizabeth made the call that would send a helicopter to pick up the team. On the monitor, the red dot of Nick's GPS moved away from the monastery.

"Unless they have new information, I'm bringing them home," Elizabeth said.

"Did King Arthur's Knights ever find the Grail?" Stephanie asked.

"It depends on what version you're looking at. There's a movie by John Boorman called Excalibur, where Percival brings back the Grail and heals the King so he can go fight Mordred in the final battle. But I don't think anyone ever brought it back in the original stories. A few of Arthur's Knights saw it. That was a big deal."

"Didn't most of them die?"

"All except one, as I recall."

"Seems like it's worth your life to go looking for it."

"I never believed it existed," Elizabeth said. "I'm not sure I believe it now."

"What about that manuscript Selena found? The Book of Simon?"

"Even if it's real, that doesn't mean the cup has magical powers."

"That doesn't matter," Stephanie said. "What matters is what people believe. And if there really is a cup that caught Christ's blood, it's the most important Christian artifact in existence."

Elizabeth watched the GPS signal on the screen.

"It's important to Muslims, too. For them, it's a relic of one of their prophets. They believe Christ will come back and convert all the Christians to Islam. That's the signal for the Mahdi to appear. Then comes the Day of Retribution, what we call the Last Judgment."

"Convert the Christians to Islam? Good luck with that," Stephanie said.