The Nostradamus File

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

The team and Lev Gefen sat in Elizabeth's office. Stephanie had brought in flowers from the garden, a touch of fresh color on Harker's desk. An East Coast summer simmered outside, humid and hot. Inside the office, it was pleasant and comfortable.

"I've been thinking about the coat of arms on that pouch we found in the church," Selena said.

"What about it?" Elizabeth said.

"The crest shows ten birds around the edge of the shield, with horizontal stripes. I looked it up. That's the crest of the de Valence family, William and Aymer, the 1st and 2nd Earls of Pembroke. William died in 1296, Aymer in 1324."

"That was the 1st Earl of Pembroke's tomb we opened," Nick said. "Makes sense the pouch would have his crest."

"Except that isn't his crest. There's more than one 1st Earl of Pembroke."

"How can there be more than one?" Ronnie asked. He had on one of his Hawaiian shirts, a red and white pattern of impossible flowers glowing with almost psychedelic intensity.

"The title goes with the estates, handed out by the King or Queen. It keeps going until that line dies out. When a new family takes over, the numbering starts again. William Marshal died in 1219. Almost eighty years before William de Valence held the title."

"Then what's the other guy's crest doing there?" Ronnie said.

"That's what I've been asking myself. We need to make some assumptions based on what we know so far."

"Go on," Elizabeth said.

"De Molay sends the Ark and maybe the Templar treasure to England, so the Templar Commander can hide it. That's la More. La More is tortured and dies, but doesn't reveal where it is. La More is the one who placed the letter in the tomb. That's assumption number one."

"That seems logical."

"Number two is that there's a good reason to use that pouch to hold the letter, with that crest."

"Okay."

"Why put it in the tomb?" she asked.

"To hide it," Nick said.

Gefen watched the exchange. It was the first time he'd seen how everyone worked together. How they figured things out.

"Of course. But why does it have that coat of arms on it? It's not la More's. It doesn't belong to the man buried in the tomb. Why a crest at all? A coat of arms was a message. It told you who the person was, their heritage. It was a medieval ID for all to see."

"For the big shots," Ronnie said.

"That's right. Peasants didn't have crests, only nobility."

"I think I see where you're going," Nick said. "You think the crest is a message."

"Yes. A clue to where the Ark was hidden."

"What do you think it means?"

"I don't know. Something about the Earls of Pembroke, but not William Marshall. De Valence."

"De Valence was alive when de Molay wrote that letter?"

"The father was dead. The son was alive."

"Was the son a Templar?" Lev asked. It was the first thing he'd said.

"I don't think so," Selena said. "If he was known to be a Templar he would have been arrested."

"So why point in the direction of de Valence?" Nick said.

"Say that again, what you just said."

"Why point in the direction of…"

"That's it!" Selena said. She was excited. "The crest is meant to point you at de Valence."

"This is all speculation," Gefen said. "How can you make a plan based on this?"

"It's all we've had from the start," Elizabeth said, "speculation. It's got us this far."

Ronnie cracked his knuckles. "What do the guy in the tomb and de Valence have in common?"

"They both held the title of Earl of Pembroke," Selena said.

"What else?"

"They held the same estates. The main castle still exists. It's in Scotland."

"Scotland might be a good place to stash something you didn't want anyone to find."

"You think the Ark is in Scotland?" Lev felt completely confused.

"Maybe we should take a closer look at that castle," Ronnie said.

"No problem." Stephanie had her laptop. It was hooked into the Crays and the monitor on Harker's wall. The monitor lit. She entered a search for Pembroke Castle.

"Lots of links." She clicked on one. An article and picture came up on the screen.

"Big castle," Ronnie said.

The castle had high ramparts of stone, a tower keep and walls 20 feet thick. It sat on land that stuck out like a thumb into the Pembroke River in West Wales. Three sides were surrounded by the river. The fourth side had a thick wall, a gate and tower. Beyond the castle was the town of Pembroke.

They read the article. "The place was mostly restored in the last century," Nick said. "If something was hidden there, wouldn't they have found it?"

"Not necessarily," Stephanie said. She clicked on a different link. "Here's something interesting. The castle is built over a limestone cavern carved out by water erosion. The Earls used it for storage. It's called Wogan Cavern."

A picture of the cave appeared on the screen.

"Caves are good places to hide something," he said, "but if anything was there, it's long gone."

"Sometimes there's more than one cave in a limestone formation like that," Selena said. "There could be connecting caves. If there are, something could be hidden in them."

"I'll task a satellite for a deep scan," Elizabeth said. "If there's another cave it will show up."