The Nostradamus File

CHAPTER SEVENTY

The piece of the Ark lay on Elizabeth's desk. It was the kneeling figure of a cherubim, minus the wings. They had broken off when the lid struck the floor.

The figure was carved from a solid piece of wood, finished with a flat base. Some of the thin gold covering remained, some had been lost in the mad dash from the burning house. Now was the first time they'd all had a chance to examine it.

But it wasn't the first time Selena had looked at it. She hadn't even told Nick what she'd found.

"It's hard to believe you found the Ark and now it's gone," Stephanie said. "It's a terrible loss."

"Maybe it's not quite what you think," Selena said.

"What do you mean?"

"Director, take a look at the bottom of the cherubim, on the lower right corner. You have to look close."

Harker picked up the fragment and turned it over. She peered at the lower corner.

"I don't see…wait a minute." She got a magnifying glass out of a drawer and held it over the piece.

"This can't be right. There's something written here." She read it out loud.

"That's Latin. What's Latin doing there?"

"Exactly," Selena said. "It says 'Bernard made me in the Year of Our Lord 1307'."

The silence was electric. Nick found his voice.

"You mean the Ark was a fake?"

"Yes. That inscription was under the cherubim, where no one would ever see it. The ark we saw was made in 1307, by someone named Bernard. Probably a Templar."

"Why make a fake?" Ronnie said.

"Deception," Selena said. "1307 was a bad year for the Templars. De Molay suspected treachery. I think they had the real Ark and he ordered a copy made in case King Phillip and the Pope managed to seize the Templar treasure. The letter was probably meant to throw them off the scent."

"But they never found it."

"No."

"Then it may still exist," Harker said.

"Along with the rest of the Templar treasure."

Nick started laughing.

"Want to share the joke, Nick?"

"Sorry, Director. All those clues we followed. For a fake. Harrison went to a lot of trouble chasing it down and got himself killed. All for a fake."

The alarm on Elizabeth's desk beeped five times. The display turned red.

DEFCON1.

Elizabeth's phone rang. She picked up, listened, set it back down.

"Stephanie, pull up the Iranian missile base."

Stephanie's fingers flashed over her keyboard. The monitor lit with a live shot of the missile base at Badr. There was frenzied activity on the ground.

"The silos are hot," Nick said. "Look at those heat signatures."

"They're going to launch." Elizabeth was pale. "If they've mounted that nuke, all hell is going to break loose. Steph, give me a split screen over Israel. Rabat-David Air base, in the north."

A second picture appeared on the screen. Rabat-David was one of Israel's major air bases, home to a large part of the Israeli Air Force. Planes were taking off at a steady rate. Nick saw dozens more waiting.

"They're putting everything into the air," Nick said.

"Switch to Egozi," Harker said.

Egozi military base wasn't on the tourist maps of Israel. It was where the Israelis kept their nuclear missiles in underground silos.

"The silos are open," Stephanie said. "It's what Nostradamus predicted. A nuclear war."

The silo openings had been concealed under desert sands. Now they were exposed. White vapor rose from the openings. Israel was preparing to launch.

"They're launching in Iran," Stephanie said. Her voice was hoarse.

The screen showed intense heat at one of the silos, then at half a dozen more. The missiles began to rise into the air. At lift off, the deadly shapes were still visible. It was like watching a slow motion ballet of death.

"Oh, Jesus," Ronnie said.

Then the screen went white in a violent burst of light and blanked out.

"What happened?"

"I don't know." They watched. The image returned, distorted with lines of static and visual debris. A towering, brown mushroom cloud rose into the desert sky over Iran. The missile base at Badr had ceased to exist. There was no sign of any Iranian missiles, no readouts of projected trajectories, arrival times, targets. They were all gone.

No one said anything. They watched the cloud, billowing up into the atmosphere.

Elizabeth's phone rang.