The Nostradamus File

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Selena came into Nick's hotel room with her laptop under her arm. They were sleeping in separate rooms and separate beds. It had nothing to do with being in a Muslim country. Until Nick got a handle on his nightmares, it seemed like a smart move. Neither one of them was happy about it.

"What did you find out?" Nick said.

"What do you know about the Templars?"

"Not a lot. I know they conquered Jerusalem and that they were knights that fought in the crusades."

"The Templars protected the routes to the Holy Land. They invented a banking system as a way to keep pilgrims from being robbed along the way. You gave your money to them and they gave you a piece of paper that was like a credit card. You could use that at Templar stations during your pilgrimage to pay for things. If you were robbed, it was worthless to the robbers. The Order charged interest. It made them wealthy, along with donations of land and money from the nobles and the Church."

"Pretty slick. And here I thought credit cards were a modern development."

"The King of France owed the Templars a lot of money he'd borrowed for his wars. He made a deal with the Pope and accused them of heresy so he could get out of paying."

"I hate to say this, but that sounds pretty modern, too. Like the banks making a deal with the government and blaming the little guy for going in debt."

"Anyway. The Order was disbanded. The leaders were tortured and burned at the stake. They had a large treasure but the King never found it. The Ark may have been part of that."

"Who was the king?"

"Phillip. He was called Phillip the Fair."

They both thought of it at the same time.

"The Fair King in the quatrain," Nick said. "Remember?"

"Yes." She pulled up the quatrain on her laptop.

"It makes sense," Nick said. "Nostradamus is talking about what happened to the leaders and the Templar treasure. Nobody told the king where it was, even when they were tortured."

''The pope and the king died not long after the heresy trials," she said. "Jacques de Molay predicted their deaths as they lit the flames under him."

"The Pale Rider reigns Supreme," Nick said.

"That manuscript is like a sentence of death for anyone who has it. There are a lot of people who want that treasure. Not to mention the Ark."

"We're the ones who have it now."

"You had to say that." She pushed hair away with the back of her hand.

"People will keep after us until we find the Ark or prove it doesn't exist. You said you found something. What is it?"

"The Templars had branches all over Europe, especially in England and France. I came across a medieval reference to a place called the House of Five Trees. It's a chapel in Normandy."

"Another tourist attraction?"

"No. I had some trouble locating it. It's off the beaten track and it was never an important site, not like some of the Templar buildings. It's just a small chapel in ruins, not much to see."

"Another stamp for the passport. I'll call Harker."

On the second ring she picked up.

"Yes, Nick."

"We need to go to France." He told her what Selena had discovered. "The chapel is in the countryside near Cherbourg."

"All right. Do it as soon as you can."

"There's an Air France flight to Paris tomorrow."

"Try to stay out of trouble."

"Roger that." He hung up.

"How about a glass of wine?" Selena said. She held up a bottle. "Chardonnay."

"I'll get some ice. There's a machine in the hall. It'll just take a minute."

Nick picked up the ice bucket and went into the hall. The machine was at the end of the corridor, set back in an alcove. The hall was carpeted in a floral pattern. It was a big hotel. Rows of doors marched down both sides of the corridor.

He got to the machine and slid the lid open and reached for the scoop. As he scraped the ice into the scoop, he heard a soft sound.

Something hit him.