The Nostradamus File

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

"The men who went after you were both in the system," Elizabeth said. "Convictions for assault and burglary. One of them just got out after doing five years for armed robbery."

Selena, Ronnie, Nick and Stephanie were in Harker's office. The cat lay sleeping in the sun outside the garden doors.

"Only five?" Ronnie said.

"He got paroled. Good behavior."

"A boy scout," Ronnie said.

"I'm following up with his parole officer. Known connections, all that. I don't expect to find much. We're not cops. We can't track down every low life he might have known."

"Be nice if we could turn up the third guy," Nick said.

"Selena, I'm sending you over to the Metro Police HQ to look at mug shots, on the off chance we can ID him. You'll liaise with a Detective Mark Hanson over there."

"All right."

"How's your arm?"

She flexed her shoulder. "I'm okay. The shoulder's sore."

"You're lucky he didn't break something," Nick said.

"He wasn't fast enough."

Nick smiled.

"This is starting to feel personal," Elizabeth said. "We need to get this resolved."

"Maybe the new Nostradamus material will help," Selena said.

Elizabeth nodded. "It's a good thing you copied it. They want it that badly, there has to be something in it."

"I printed it out," Stephanie said. She handed copies around.

"There are five quatrains that might have something to do with the Ark," Selena said. "I haven't finished all of the rest them yet but these five are grouped together. They could be relevant."

"How many more are there?"

"Another seventeen."

They looked at the quatrains.

"Under a broken sword," Ronnie read aloud. "What the hell does that mean?"

"I don't know," Selena said. "Someone's dead, that much is clear. And there are eight others with him."

"So it's about nine dead guys."

"Not just any nine dead guys," she said. "Probably nine dead knights."

"How do you get that?"

"The sword. They used to decorate the tombs of medieval knights with a figure of the knight in his armor, with his sword on top."

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Nick said.

Selena nodded. "One of the Knights Templar. After finding those Templar symbols in Jordan, that's the only thing that makes sense."

"That narrows it down some," Elizabeth said. "How many Templar tombs are there?"

"A lot. Even if we find the right one, we still have to make sense of the quatrain. It's like chasing the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland."

"How does a man speak from his grave?" Nick asked.

"Through writing, or something left behind. I think there might be something inside the tomb itself. Under the sword."

"That's great," Nick said. "First we have to find the right tomb, then we have to open it up on a million to one chance there's something there except bones."

"Do you have a better idea?"

Harker leaned back in her chair. "What about the other quatrains?"

"Nostradamus is predicting a war."

"Eagle, star and crescent. America, Israel and the Muslim world."

"War in the Middle East?" Ronnie said.

"Not again," Nick groaned.

"Our troops are coming back from Afghanistan. It's today he's talking about, right now."

"It might refer to what happened when Nick was in Jerusalem," Harker said.

"It could," Selena said. "But this next one bothers me."

"The seventh month is July," Selena said. "That's in just a few days. If any of this means anything, if Nostradamus really saw the future, we're running out of time."

Nick's ear began itching. "It's like the one you think is about Hiroshima."

"Yes. That bit about the sun touching the earth. It's how Nostradamus would have thought about a nuclear explosion, if he'd seen it in a vision. The Holy City would be Jerusalem or Rome. Or even Mecca. He capitalizes the word container. That could be the Ark. It's called the Sacred Container in the Bible. The next quatrain mentions it again."

"Who's the prince?" Ronnie asked.

"The bad guy," Nick said. "He thinks he's got it covered but he's making a mistake."

"Phillip Harrison," Elizabeth said. Her voice was strange.

They looked at her. "What's the matter, Director?" Stephanie said. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I just had this very odd feeling," she said. "My intuition says this prince is Harrison. He's planning something bad."

"A nuclear war would qualify," Nick said.

"What about this other one?" Ronnie said, "the one about wine?"

"I don't know. But it has to be about the Ark. That would be the only sacred container anyone would think of."

Harker picked up her Mont Blanc and began tapping. "This is the most bizarre investigation I've ever heard of," she said.

It broke the tension. Everyone laughed.

"Nothing new for us," Nick said. "Pyramids, ancient artifacts, we do it all. Why not prophecies?"

"All right," Harker said. "What's the next step?"

"Let me see if I can pin down a Templar tomb that matches the quatrain," Stephanie said.

"Ronnie and I are going over to Bethesda to see Lamont," Nick said.

"And I'll meet with the detective," Selena said. "What was his name?"

"Hanson. Mark Hanson." Elizabeth wrote his phone number on a piece of paper and handed it to her.

"Give him a call. He's expecting you."