The Nostradamus File

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

The river was calm and black and smelled of green weeds and rushes and mud. A chorus of frogs croaked in chaotic rhythm in the night. The sky was clouded over, the moon a dull glow when it could be seen at all. It was a night that almost defined the words black ops.

They'd found a wide, flat-bottomed skiff, big enough to hold them and anything they might discover in the castle. They'd changed into black clothes. Ronnie carried a small pack with the things they needed.

Nick worked the oars, breaking the surface of the river with quiet splashes. Selena watched the towering castle wall draw closer, a darker shape in the blackness of the night.

This is real, she thought. I'm about to sneak into a 12th Century castle in Britain to look for the Ark of the Covenant. She felt the adrenaline rush begin, the excitement.

The boat grounded with a soft scrape at the bottom of the slope below Wogan Cavern. They scrambled out. Nick pulled the skiff up out of the water. They climbed up to the gate leading into the cave and Ronnie took out his pouch of tricks. He bent to the lock. A minute later the gate swung open, the hinges making a brief, harsh noise in the night.

Inside the cavern, Nick turned on his light. The LEDs cast an intense, blue-white beam on the limestone walls. They glistened in the cold light. The cavern seemed vast in the darkness. It was silent except for the sound of their breathing and a slow drip of water.

They went to the spot they'd found the day before. Ronnie took a spray can from his pack.

"Better move back," he said. "Makes a lot of fumes."

Ronnie sprayed the contents of the can back and forth across the concealed opening and stepped away. Thick, bitter smoke roiled off the surface. After five minutes, the reaction stopped.

"Now what?" Lev said.

For answer, Ronnie stepped forward. He kicked the wall. It fell inward, revealing a dark opening. A whiff of old, stale air pushed past them.

"Technology is a wonderful thing," he said. "Better living through chemistry."

"We don't have anything like that," Lev said. There was admiration in his voice.

They bent low to enter. Inside, the roof was high enough to stand. Nick moved his light back and forth. The cave was about fifteen feet long and as wide again. Something gleamed white in the back corner. Nick played his light over it. It was a skeleton, wearing a leather tunic and boots and fragments of clothing. A long sword lay at its side. The skull had been cleaved open by a savage blow. The rest of the cave was empty except for rubble on the floor.

"Damn." Nick swore under his breath.

Selena felt a wave of disappointment. There was no Ark. No Templar treasure. Just old bones and debris.

"I wonder what happened to this guy?" Ronnie walked over to the bones. He picked up the sword, swung it across, back again. The blade was over three feet long. It made a thick, deadly sound as it cut through the air.

"Nasty. I wouldn't want to get cut with one of these."

"Can I see that, Ronnie?"

He handed the sword to Selena. She examined the hilt.

"This isn't a 13th Century sword," she said. "Look at the hilt. It's a basket hilt. See the rounded guard and the way the hilt is pierced and sculpted? The earlier swords had wide, heavy blades meant for slashing. This one is narrow, made to thrust. This is from the 17th Century, maybe around the time of Cromwell. It's the right style."

Ronnie was no longer surprised at the things Selena knew. "Who was Cromwell?" he asked.

"A Protestant commander who defeated the Catholic Royalists in England's Civil War. He took over the rule of England. Cromwell is one of the most controversial figures in English history."

"Was he ever here, at Pembroke?"

"I don't know."

Selena played her light over the floor in the center of the cave.

"There was something heavy here," she said. "You can see where it made marks as it was dragged away. A chest, something like that."

"Could it have been the Ark?"

"Maybe. The Ark took four priests to carry it."

Her light caught something shiny on the floor. She bent down and picked it up.

"Gold," she said. "It's a small piece of thin gold. It could have come from the covering of the Ark."

"Looks like we're a few hundred years too late," Nick said. "Let's get out of here. Ronnie, take the sword with you. It's the only connection to whatever happened here."

They went back out to the cavern and through the gate. Nick closed it behind them. The next time someone went into Wogan Cavern, they were in for a surprise.

There was a sound from the river that shouldn't have been there. A boot, scraping on rock.

They dropped flat to the sloping ground. Clothing whispered as they drew their pistols.

Then the night lit with the flash of guns.

Lying there on the steep slope under the castle walls with the whine of bullets passing overhead, Selena entered the zone.

Time turned into a slow motion dream. A light breeze off the water brought the dank, moist smell of the river and the rushes on the banks, mixed with the sharp odor of burnt gunpowder. She watched the bright, winking flashes of the guns below. She fired back at them, watched her pistol lift slowly with the recoil of each shot.

Ronnie lay next to her. She saw the slide on his pistol working back and forth, the empty cases drifting through the air, settling and bouncing around them. Somewhere in the back of her mind she realized they were in a full blown firefight. The sound of the guns seemed far off, muffled. There was another sound. With a shock, she realized she was yelling, an inarticulate scream of primal rage and fear. It snapped the spell. Time sped up again.

They lay on the ground, facing down at the river, everyone firing. It sounded like someone had started World War Three.

Then it was over. They waited. Across the water a light came on in someone's house. Then another. There were no more shots from below. Nick risked a quick light. Crumpled shapes lay on the slope below. His beam landed on a boat drifting away from the shore. An arm draped over the edge trailed in the river current. The boat was beginning to settle as water poured through bullet holes in the side. Nick stood. The others got to their feet. All except Lev.

"Lev," Nick said. "Are you all right?"

He bent over the Israeli. Lev lay face down on the ground. The back of his skull was bloody. Brain matter oozed from the wound. Nick rolled him over. There was a large, open wound in his forehead. His eyes were open.

"Shit," Nick said. More lights were going on across the way. "Ronnie, Selena. Help me get him into the boat."

They carried Lev down to the boat. Ronnie ran back up, retrieved the sword and Lev's pistol and got in with the others. They pushed off from shore. Nick rowed hard, back to where they had parked by the river. Ronnie jumped out, waded to the bank and pulled the skiff in. They picked up Lev's body and put it in the back of the rental van. They got in and headed southeast, back toward England.

Nobody spoke. As Nick drove, he remembered Lev showing him the pictures of his wife and children.