The Cup

CHAPTER 44

Two days had passed since Nick and the others had returned to the base at Incirlik. Elizabeth and Hood had narrowed the list of ISIS leaders who could be searching for the Grail to three possibilities. At the same time, Stephanie had been searching through thousands of records from the sixteenth century, looking for anything to indicate where the Grail had been taken by the Knights Hospitallers.

She'd found nothing. She came into Elizabeth's office to tell her.

"I give up," she said.

"You give up what?"

"On finding anything about where the Grail went after Rhodes, assuming it was ever on Rhodes in the first place. There isn't much hard information about the Hospitallers during that time period. They moved all over Europe for years before the king of Sicily gave them Malta. As far as Malta goes, I looked through everything I could find. There's nothing at all about the Grail or anything like it."

"You're certain."

"I admit, it's frustrating. But I can't find something that isn't there."

"I was afraid it would come to this, sooner or later. It's amazing we managed to trace it as far as Rhodes."

"Even that isn't certain," Stephanie said. "What if that monk was lying?"

"We'll never know, will we?"

"Are you going to bring the team home?"

"Yes. There's no point in sending them to Malta now."

"They'll be glad to… oh!"

Stephanie doubled over, clutching her bulging abdomen with both arms. Elizabeth got up and went to her. She put her hand on Stephanie's shoulder.

"Steph, what's the matter? Are you all right?"

"I don't know."

A sudden rush of liquid ran down Stephanie's legs.

"Your water broke. The baby's coming. "

"But it's not time yet!"

"I'm afraid it is. I'll drive you to the hospital. It's quicker than calling an ambulance."

They went out to the parking lot and got into Elizabeth's Audi. Elizabeth called ahead to the gate for her escort. She was met by two black GMC suburbans at the entrance to the compound, each manned by four men from her security detail. One of the vehicles went ahead, one behind. They sped toward Alexandria and the hospital.

They were moving fast, doing more than seventy, weaving in and out of heavy traffic with strobe lights flashing. Stephanie was talking to Lucas on her cell phone when the lead vehicle blew a front tire. The suburban veered right, then hard left. It tipped onto its side and rolled, bouncing into the air. The truck struck a gray compact and sent it spinning across three lanes of traffic.

A massive chain collision began, cars smashing into each other in every direction. Elizabeth swerved to avoid the suburban and struck a delivery van in the outer lane. Her fender crumpled into the tire and shredded it. The Audi went down on the rim, sending a stream of sparks by her window.

She fought the wheel for control.

The car back ended a motorcycle caught in the middle of the chaos. The rider was hurled onto the pavement. Elizabeth wrenched the wheel over to avoid running over him and slammed sideways into the back of a pickup truck. The car crumpled in a shrieking chorus of tearing metal and breaking glass.

As she lost consciousness, Elizabeth heard Stephanie scream.