The Nostradamus File

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Twelve hours later they were back, outside the door opening into the nave. The night was dark except for a distant streetlamp and a faint glow from within the church. Mist from the Thames and an elaborate stone portico outside the entrance helped conceal them. There was no one about. A light rain drifted down.

"Got it," Ronnie said.

Nick heard the tumblers turn. There was no sound of an alarm. No one expected thieves to go after stone slabs that would take six men to carry away.

They wore dark clothes. The tools were in a pack. They carried tranquilizer guns and their pistols. If they ran into someone, the trank guns could take anyone down before they sounded an alarm. They were effective, silent and non-lethal.

Ronnie eased the door open and they slipped inside.

So far, so good, Selena thought. Her heart was beating hard.

The interior of the nave was dimly lit. Deep pools of shadow filled most of the room.

"This feels wrong," Selena said. "Opening this tomb."

"I know. But we have to do it. It's not like we're grave robbers. Watch the entrance from the chancel," Nick said to Selena. His voice was very quiet. "You see a guard coming this way, put him down."

She nodded and moved to the chancel entrance, a trank gun in her hand. Few lights showed in the cavernous building. Rows of pews lined the floor. Several candles burned in the darkness. There was no one in sight.

Nick and Ronnie knelt by the effigy of William Marshal, First Earl of Pembroke. Ronnie took a package out of his pack. He uncoiled a length of sticky black cord and began to lay it all the way around the edge of the slab where it met the floor. The cord was treated with a compound designed for Special Forces. It reacted with concrete to break down the molecular structure. In effect, it turned concrete to dust. It had to be ignited and made a lot of smoke. It wasn't loud like a demolition charge, but in the deep silence of the nave it was going to be noisy.

"All set." Ronnie stood.

They stepped away from the slab. Ronnie touched off the cord. It burned with a bright, blue-white light and hissed and sparked as it shot around the slab. The noise was like a nest of snakes suddenly wakened. Thick, white smoke drifted up past the soaring arches.

They knelt down by the carved slab and pushed against it. It moved, just a little.

"On three," Nick said. "One, two, three." They grunted and pushed. The heavy slab scraped across the floor, a harsh sound of stone against stone that echoed through the chamber. The tomb of the Earl lay open. They peered in.

"Not looking so hot," Ronnie said.

"What did you expect? He's been dead a long time."

The Earl had been buried in his skirted, chainmail armor. The flesh had long vanished, leaving only bones. The skull gaped at them from within the headpiece. His skeletal fingers clenched a long broad sword, dull and rusted. There was a dry odor of dissolution, a whiff of rust and decay. Most of his tunic was still intact over the mail, the faded red of the Templar cross still visible.

"Look under the sword," Nick said.

Ronnie freed the ancient blade from Pembroke's fingers.

"Nothing. I don't see anything."

"There has to be something. Under his sword, it said. A great treasure."

"Not even a coin."

"Send Selena over. Maybe she can figure it out. You keep watch."

Ronnie got up, went to Selena and whispered. She came over and knelt down over the open crypt.

"He doesn't look so good."

"That's what Ronnie said. We can't find anything."

"You looked under the sword?"

"Yes."

"Is there an inscription on it?"

Nick turned the blade over. "No. Just rust."

"Let me think," she said. "This has to be the right tomb."

Nick waited.

"Nostradamus always played on words…pull up the skirt."

"What?"

"The skirt of his chainmail. Maybe Nostradamus wasn't talking about his broadsword."

Nick smothered a laugh. "How do you come up with these things?"

"I used to read a lot of Shakespeare," she said.

He worked the skirt of mail up around the bones. The mail was heavy and awkward. The right leg came apart under his hands as he moved the armor up over the hips. Fragments of a loin cloth covered something resting in the bony cradle of the pelvis. He pulled out a flat brown leather pouch, dried and cracked. Barely visible was a nobleman's crest, cut into the leather.

"I'll be damned," he said.

At the doorway to the chancel, Ronnie saw something move in the shadows.

"Nick," he hissed. "Someone coming."

Nick placed the pouch in a pocket on his pants. He stood. Selena stood with him.

There was a flash and sharp report in the darkness of the chancel. A bullet ricocheted off the wall near Ronnie's head. He ducked back into the round church.

"More than one," he called. There was no need to be silent now.

A burst of automatic fire from the chancel sent chips of marble flying. Ronnie fired twice into the darkness, loud reports that rang off the stone walls. Nick and Selena ran to the doorway, across from Ronnie. Nick reached around the corner and fired three quick rounds, blind. He risked a glance and saw a man dive behind one of the pews. Shots came from the right side of the church and shattered a stone vase inside the nave.

"Stalemate," he said. "They can't get in here, we can't go out there. They can see us if we try and they've got stuff to hide behind."

Ronnie said, "Too much noise. Someone's bound to hear." He fired three more rounds. More shots came back.

"I count four weapons," Selena said. "Maybe more."

"We've got what we came for. Ronnie, cover us, we're coming across."

Ronnie reached around the opening and fired four shots as Selena and Nick ran across. Bullets hummed past them. A window shattered and littered the floor of the nave with bits of glass.

"We'll go out the door. Like we came in."

"They could be out there," Selena said.

"Be ready in case they are. Lay down fire through the arch into the chancel as we go. Stay as close to the wall as you can. Once we get there, you and I cover while Ronnie opens the door."

"Got it." She nodded.

"Go."

They ran for the exit, firing blindly behind them at the opening into the chancel as they went. The three pistols made a lot of noise. Empty brass bounced and pinged off the floor as they ran. Shots came from behind them. A big chunk blew out of the circular window over the door.

Ronnie pulled the door open. A man appeared behind them at the entrance to the nave. Nick fired twice. The slide locked back on his pistol. The figure fell back into the chancel. They went through the door. Nick pulled it shut behind him, dropped the empty magazine and clicked in another. In the distance, a police siren sounded. Then a second joined in.

There was no one waiting for them outside. They ran in the shadows until they reached the spot where they'd left their rental car and piled in. Nick pulled away. Before he turned the corner, he saw the reflection of the lights on a police car bouncing off the Temple walls. They turned a corner and the lights disappeared.

He got a few more blocks and slowed down.

"Anyone hit?"

"Negative."

"No," Selena said. The adrenaline rush was still going strong. "How did they know we were there?"

"They might not have known," Nick said. "It has to be the same people who came after you in Washington. They got the manuscript. They figured it out, like we did. Bad luck they showed up when we were there."

"But good luck they didn't get there ahead of us," she said. "I wonder what's in that pouch?"

"We'll find out. Be nice if it isn't another damn puzzle."