The Cathari Treasure (Cameron Kincaid) (17 page)

* * *
* *

When Nicole finished the Lord’s
Prayer, she shared an embrace with Marie, and then moved back to the end of the
sofa to pray.

Cameron approached Marie and
knelt by her side.

Marie’s forehead beaded with
sweat, her mouth held the courage of a warm smile.

“Can I get you anything to eat?”
asked Cameron.

“No, thank you Mister Kincaid,”
said Marie, her voice soft and weak.

“Its Cameron, Marie, Mister
Kincaid is not necessary.  Let me get you something, please.  Some
food will build up your strength.”

“Cameron,” said Marie.  He
smiled when she called him by his first name.  “You know I will not be
getting any stronger.  I have begun the endura.  I will no longer eat
or drink.  The fasting will speed my departure to heaven.”

Cameron’s brow furrowed and he
inhaled deeply through his nose.  Marie continued, “It’s really quite
alright.  Nicole has prepared me and I am now one with the Holy Spirit.”

Cameron leaned forward to kiss
her forehead, “You must not kiss me.  I must remain pure.”

“Will you become a Perfect now?”
asked Cameron.

“I am going to die, but now that
I am truly pure, I will be able to go to heaven.”

The two looked at each other for
a long moment.  Finally Marie said, “You know, Monsieur Claude was right.”

“How’s that?”

“There is something about you, a
je ne sais quoi that has led to a charmed life.”

They both chuckled
lightly.  “I don’t feel very charmed right now,” said Cameron.

“But you are.  You are the
chevalier that has been chosen to protect the treasure.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Nicole is the treasure you must
protect.  You must protect her and deliver her to safety.” 

“You mean because only she has
knowledge of the treasure?”

“No Cameron, I am telling you that
Nicole is the treasure you must protect.”

“I don’t understand, you said
there were other Perfects.”

“This is true, but Nicole is
very special to us.”

“How so?”

“Remember, if a Perfect loses
austerity, even in the slightest, if they should eat meat or willfully kiss,
then they lose the power of the sacrament.  More so, all of those that
have received the consolamentum along the line of that Perfect also lose the
power of the sacrament.  Nicole will continue a line that we know to be
pure and uncorrupted, all the way back to our Lord Jesus.  She is special
to us because only with the sacrament can we escape the cycle of rebirth in
this physical realm and return to heaven from which we all came.  She is
our salvation.”

“The salvation of the Cathar?”

“Not only the Cathar, for all
people, for you.  Salvation is not in this world, not in simple belief,
not in the walls of a church.  The gift of the Holy Spirit Nicole carries
is all that is needed to bring peace to all mankind, to end the cycle of suffering
of this world.  To deliver all of God’s children from the trickery of this
world to their rightful place in heaven.”

“So she is the treasure that the
Rex Mundi are after?  The treasure they think will change the world?”
asked Cameron.

“She carries with her our only
sacrament.  When the time is right, the Cathar will again spread the true
religion.  People will learn that the material world is false, that the
churches, mosques, synagogues are all merely manifestations of the material
world.  The great lie.  When people learn that the Holy Spirit is
easily attained with pure living, and that there is no reason for fear or
wealth and that there is a way to be freed from this world, from this cycle,
that will change the world.”

“That’s a lot to take in. 
I thought the treasure was a cavern of gold and jewels or some secret royal
bloodline.”

“Salvation is the treasure the
Rex Mundi fear.  The gold and bloodline are of their world, things they
can manipulate and control.  The truth will always be the truth, so for
them it must be kept secret and ultimately destroyed.”  Marie looked down
at Nicole at the end of the sofa.  “Nicole dear.  Come here,” said
Marie.

Nicole stopped her prayer and
came closer to Marie.

Marie reached her hands around
to the back of her head.  The emerald pendant slid up her neck as she
teased the ends of the necklace.  Marie’s eyes squinted and she let out a
sigh.

“Let me help you,” said Nicole,
and she reached behind Marie’s neck to unfasten the clasp.  After Nicole
separated the clasp, she put the necklace into Marie’s hands and gently closed
Marie’s hands around the pendant.  Nicole rested her own hands on the edge
of the sofa.  Marie lifted the pendant and reached around Nicole’s
neck.  Marie’s hands fumbled again and as the two shared a smile. 
Nicole reached up to refasten the clasp.

Cameron wanted to ask why the
necklace was so important.  Marie had impressed upon him the Cathar’s view
of the physical, the essence of which that the physical is a lie and has no
value or spiritual worth.  Yet, the look in Marie’s eyes as she bestowed
the pendant to Nicole signified that there was something special about the
necklace.  Cameron decided not to beat upon the obvious negation. 
The belief Marie and Nicole had in the physical realm was not Cameron’s own, or
even his business.

* * *
* *

Quebec

Cameron powered up his cell
phone.  To conserve the battery he had left the cell phone off since
leaving Montreal.  Cameron was glad to see that the little battery icon in
the corner of the screen was still green.  On the seat next to him was a
piece of paper with a phone number that Marie had given him, the number to the
Cathari in Quebec.

Marie had thought that the
gunshot wound was fatal and had requested the consolamentum to be become a
Perfect before dying.  Anticipating imminent death, Marie had even begun
the endura, a form of voluntary euthanasia through starvation.  Believing
she was mortally wounded, Marie would refuse to eat or drink to speed death. 
Cameron thought Marie had gone to an unnecessary extreme receiving the last
sacrament.  The bullet had gone clean through, and though Marie had lost a
great amount of blood, she had regained consciousness and her color had
returned.  Cameron thought Marie was on the upswing and was preparing the
thigh sized brown trout he bought from the market on the drive from Toronto
when Nicole had come from the sofa to tell him that Marie had passed. 
Cameron had been so sure that Marie was going to recover that he had put on
classical music while he was cooking and opened a bottle red wine. 
Cameron thought that all he needed to do to convince Marie to take some
nourishment was to prepare an irresistible meal.  Marie had not lived to
see the meal served.

Now driving north on highway 401
back toward Montreal, Marie’s task had become Cameron’s.  He would contact
the Quebec safe house that was waiting for the young Perfect, the Cathari
treasure.

Cameron handed Nicole the paper,
“Read that number to me.”  He lifted his cell phone over the steering
wheel so that he could enter the number and still see the road.  As Nicole
read the phone number to Cameron, he punched the digits into the phone. 
He placed the cell phone next to his ear and waited for someone to pick
up.  The answer came quickly.

Though they said nothing,
Cameron knew that somebody had answered because of the click.  Cameron
said the two words Marie had given him to make contact, “White swan.”

Cameron was curious to see if he
would even get a response or if the phone would go dead.

“Hello,” came a voice on the
other end of the line.  Cameron knew the voice on the line, though he was
unsure of the meaning of Christophe answering the phone.

“Hello,” said Cameron.

“There is nowhere to go. 
Nowhere safe at least and you’re a fool if you think so.”

“Is that so?”

“Really, you have to ask. 
I would have thought that by now you would have abandoned those witches.”

Christophe had said witches,
plural, that told Cameron that the Rex Mundi was unaware that Marie had been
wounded, that Marie had died.  “I can honestly say that the thought has
crossed my mind,” said Cameron.

“You know you can still walk
away.  We only want the young woman.”

“And why is that?”

“She is dangerous.  Mostly
to you right now,” said Christophe.

“Thank you for your deep concern
for my well being.”

“Listen, we could care less what
you do after you hand over the young woman.  We will not follow you. 
We will even make it worth your while, and then, you will be done, your hands
free.”

“How much do you figure the
young woman is worth?” asked
Cameron.

“Bring us the young woman and we
will give you five hundred thousand dollars.”

“Woo, that might make it worth
my while.  I bet you fellas have deeper pockets than that.  Let’s
make it an even million.  Whadda you say?” asked Cameron.  He
expected Christophe to argue.  Christophe did not, rather he answered
without hesitation.

“A million it is,” said
Christophe.

“And all I have to do is hand
over the young woman.”

“That’s right, all you have to
do is hand over the young woman.  We don’t even care about the other
one.  We only want the young one.”

“Fine,” said Cameron. 
“Where can we make the switch?”

Cameron could hear Christophe
talking to someone else, another man, as clear as if that person were on the
phone as well.  Though Christophe had not hesitated at the price, he was
caught off guard at Cameron’s acceptance.

“You are in Quebec?” asked
Christophe.  That was another good sign.  The operatives did not know
where Cameron was.

“Where do you want to do the
exchange?  It will need to be someplace public.”

“Public, of course,” said
Christophe.  “You know the Notre Dame de Cathedral?”

“Yes I know where that is.”

“Good.  Be there tomorrow
at noon.”

“Noon tomorrow, got it.”

“And Mister Kincaid.”

“Yes,” said Cameron.  He thought
Christophe might have heard Marie or Nicole call him by that name at the
restaurant, so much for anonymity.

 “If you have a change of
heart, may I remind you once again, there is nowhere to run.”

“Oh, my mind is decided,” said
Cameron.  “Don’t worry yourself about that.”  Cameron pulled the cell
phone from his ear and hit the end call button.

“What are you doing?” asked
Nicole.  “I cannot believe you plan to betray us, I mean, Marie would be
so upset.”  Nicole turned her head to look out her window.

“You are right not to believe
that I would betray you.  I won’t.  I will do what I need to do to
draw them out though.  They’re so predictable.  We’ll use that to our
advantage.”

“What do you mean predictable?”
asked Nicole.

Cameron turned toward her and arched
his brow.  “Really?” said Cameron.  Since Nicole became a Perfect in
Toronto she had been praying constantly and only drinking water for
nourishment.  Cameron thought that Nicole might be in shock.

“Yes, really.  What is
predictable that we can use?”

Cameron was looking back to the
road.  “What I mean by predictable is that these Rex Mundi have been
around every corner we have turned.”  His hand, still squeezing the cell
phone, tapped some invisible object above the dashboard.  “Predictable is
that when I called that number Marie gave me, a number by the way that was
supposed to be to a safe house in Quebec, it was not one of the good guys that
answered the phone.”  Cameron flashed his eyes away from the road to
Nicole, “Christophe answered the phone.  Christophe, who only two days
ago, mind you, was outside the Lotus Flower in Toronto, is now already in
Quebec.”

“So?”

“In Quebec, Nicole.  He
could have been in any city in North America, or any of the other safe
houses.  He wasn’t, he was in Quebec.  The Rex Mundi did not only
know about the safe house.”  Cameron let the next word out slow and
heavily enunciated, “Again.”  He flashed another look to Nicole this time
with his brows arched high, “they knew that was our next destination.”

“You’re right.  That is
strange.”

“Strange, yes that is a word for
it, strange.  Odd might be another word, a better word might be
intel
, as in ‘good intel on their part’.  You said
yourself they have had years to track your movements, waiting for an
opportunity to strike, never giving up their hand.  That makes them
predictable.  They will be where they expect us to be.  So we will
not disappoint, we will go right to Quebec as planned.  They will be
waiting for us and when we get there we will simply deal with them, and then be
on our way.”  Cameron turned his head one last time and winked.