The Cup (10 page)

CHAPTER 23

The monastery of Panagia Soumela was five kilometers out of Kastania, a pleasant drive from the hotel. The area around the church had been turned into a park with a large parking area for tourists and pilgrims.

The building was cruciform in the Greek Orthodox fashion, the walls of brown and white stone, the curved roofs of red tile. Three soaring archways fronted the church. Smaller archways led to secondary entrances on each side. A massive round tower with long, narrow windows rose over the building and dominated the setting.

Only a few cars were parked in the extensive lot outside. The church was a popular pilgrimage point but it was a weekday and late in the season. The chill of coming winter hung in the mountain air.

Nick dropped money in a donation box as they entered.

Lamont said, "Man, look at this place."

His voice echoed in the cavernous building. A dozen people, tourists or worshipers, wandered about the church.

"Someone spent a lot of money and went to a lot of trouble to build this," Selena said. "You'd expect to see a church like this in a major city with a big congregation, not a little mountain town. It's more like a cathedral than a church."

Ronnie looked up. "How high do you think that ceiling is?"

"I don't know," Nick said. "A hundred feet?"

The ceiling was groined in medieval style, painted with religious figures and crosses. Rows of slatted wooden chairs faced the main altar. A wooden railing separated the public area from the altar. Behind the altar was an elaborate carved backdrop of dark wood, framing rows of painted icons. An enormous chandelier hung over the chairs. The air smelled of incense.

"Where's the icon that causes miracles?" Lamont asked.

Selena pointed at a separate alcove off to the side of the main room. "I think that's it."

They walked over and stood in front of it.

The icon was recessed inside an elaborate housing and lit on both sides. A curtain was pulled back to the sides of the painting. A chain stretched between brass posts to keep people from getting too close. A short pillar with a vase holding fresh flowers stood on each side of the painting. Beyond them, two enormous brass stands reached toward the ceiling, each with three tall columns mounted to hold candles. Four icons of saints hung on the wall behind. A crystal chandelier blazed with light overhead.

Ronnie peered at the ancient painting. "Pretty hard to see what it's supposed to be."

"You can just make out the shape of the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus," Selena said. "Don't forget, this is supposed to be two thousand years old. It's had time to fade."

"Okay," Lamont said. "We've seen the icon. Now what?"

Nick pointed at a priest walking across the room.

"That priest looks old enough to be in charge. Selena, go talk to him. Get him talking about how the icon was hidden and recovered. We have to start somewhere."

She left them standing near the alcove with the miraculous icon, went over to the priest and greeted him. Soon they were in an animated conversation.

Three men entered the church. Nick's ear began itching. He reached up and tugged on the mutilated lobe, where a Chinese bullet had clipped him on the day he'd met Selena.

"You're doing that thing again," Ronnie said.

"What thing?"

"Pulling on your ear."

"Just a habit," Nick said. "It doesn't always mean trouble."

"Yeah, sure," Ronnie said.

Sometimes when something bad was going to happen, his ear began itching. The worse it itched, the more trouble was coming his way. It was a gift or a curse, depending on how you looked at it. The gift had made his Irish grandmother an outcast in the old country, but it had saved Nick's life more than once.

"It's probably nothing," he said.

"Looks like Selena is getting along fine with the priest," Lamont said.

"I'm more interested in those three that just came in."

"They don't feel right to me," Lamont said. "One of them just looked at us, pretending he wasn't."

"Maybe he's checking you out," Ronnie said.

"Nah. You're more his type."

Nick sighed. "You guys want to cut it out?"

"Here comes Selena." Ronnie nodded in her direction.

"Any luck?" Nick asked.

"Nothing useful. When they went back for the icon they recovered a few other things they'd hidden when they were forced to leave. He didn't say anything about a cup."

"He wouldn't, would he? I wonder if there's an archive, a record of what they hid away when they abandoned the monastery."

"There's no way they'll let us see any records."

"Not if we ask. We'll come back tonight."

CHAPTER 24

They parked down the road from the church and walked the rest of the way. Dressed in dark clothes, they were almost invisible under a moonless sky.

Breaking into the church was easy. The doors and entrances were stout in the old tradition and locked at night, but the locks were modern. Ronnie worked his picks and within a minute they were inside the building. Nick waited to see if an alarm would sound. All was silent.

Most of the cavernous space was in shadow. A few candles burned in the darkness, creating a feeling of a time long past. The miraculous icon was lit in its alcove across the way. It gave off a soft, golden glow.

"The office is that way," Selena said.

"Stay away from the icon," Nick said. "I wouldn't be surprised if they have an alarm set for that."

The office door was unlocked. Inside was a desk, a computer, and a row of gray filing cabinets. An old-fashioned floor safe on wheels sat against one wall. It was painted green and decorated with leaves and vines painted in fading gold leaf. There was a large combination dial in the center of the door, with a brass handle underneath.

A single nightlight lit the room. A glass display case with religious artifacts, documents and several old books sat against one wall..

Selena looked at the filing cabinets. "I'm surprised they don't have everything on computers by now."

"They might keep the files as physical backup," Nick said.

"How do you want to start?" Selena asked.

"With the display case."

He tried the lid of the case. It was locked.

"I'll get it open," Ronnie said.

"Lamont, you've got sentry duty."

"Right."

Lamont went back into the main area.

Ronnie lifted the lid of the case and rested it against the wall.

"All yours, Kemo Sabe."

"See if you can get the safe open while we look here."

Ronnie went to the safe and knelt in front of it, leaned his ear against the door and began turning the dial. Selena started looking through the contents of the case. She ignored everything except the books and documents. After fifteen minutes, Ronnie was still working on the combination.

Nick was getting impatient.

"We can't stay here all night. Someone might check on the building once in a while."

Selena placed a leather bound journal back in the case. "This is hopeless, Nick. There's too much material to go through in a short time. Everything here is from when the monastery was in Turkey, but I haven't found anything dating back to the time of Anastasius."

"You think we're wasting our time?"

"There could be something in here but I don't see how we're going to find it without cooperation from the church authorities. We need permission to examine everything at leisure."

"Does anything stand out at all?"

Selena shook her head.

"What about the file cabinets?"

"We're here, we might as well take a quick look."

Selena pulled open a drawer at random.

"These are construction invoices from nineteen fifty-two." She opened another drawer. "Comments about the annual Feast of the Dormition. It's the major celebration here."

"I never heard of that."

"It's a Greek Orthodox celebration. In their teachings, the Virgin Mary fell asleep when she died and was taken in her sleep to heaven. The feast is a celebration of her ascension."

Across the room, there was a loud sound of metal against metal as Ronnie unlocked the safe.

"Got it." He swung the door open.

"Good work, amigo."

"Not much in here. Looks like a few hundred dollars in cash, probably from the entrance donations. Some legal papers. A box."

"What's in the box?"

Ronnie stood, holding a flat metal box in his hands. The box was rusty and sharp cornered, made of tin. Ronnie pried back the lid and swore.

"Damn. Cut my finger on the edge of this thing."

He put the finger against his mouth and sucked on it. Then he looked down at the box.

"Whoa. We've got another tile here."

"Jackpot," Nick said.

Selena came over. "Let's see."

The tile was a mate to the one in Sweden. This one, too, showed a figure, but it was not the same man.

He was bearded like the emperor's confessor but was dressed differently, in a brown robe that hung to his sandaled feet. A rope belt encircled his waist. Keys hung from it.

There were other differences between the two tiles. This figure faced to the right. On the other tile, the priest had faced left. On the first tile, Anastasius was pointing at the earth with the index finger of his left hand and holding the Grail in front of him. On this one, the figure held a golden staff in his right hand, his index finger pointing to heaven. Toward the top of the staff, two snakes curled toward each other. At the top was a cross composed of four diamonds. His left arm was held out in front of him, his hand open in anticipation of receiving something. Rays of light streamed down on him from above.

Beneath the figure was a phrase in Latin.

Et infra , ut supra

"As below, so above," Selena said. "This man looks like a monk, not a priest."

Lamont came into the office. "I think I saw someone outside."

"Time to boogie," Nick said. "Ronnie, you take the box."

The candles in the church cast enough light to see where they were going without flashlights. They moved in a fast crouch across the floor. At the side entrance where they'd come in, Nick paused.

"If we run into someone out there, chances are he'll be local. Don't hurt him."

There was no one outside. If someone had been there, he was gone. Their car was on the side of the road about fifty yards from the parking lot. They were almost to it when three men stepped out of the darkness. They were holding AK carbines that had been concealed under their winter jackets.

The leader pointed his weapon at Nick. He was stocky, bearded. He wore a wool watch cap pulled down over his ears.

"Far enough. You stop there. Hands up."

The three I saw in the church,
Nick thought
. That accent is Middle Eastern, probably Iraq.

They raised their hands. "What do you want?" Nick asked. "We don't have much money."

"Not money. You look for something in church. Tell us what you find."

"Now hold on there, buddy," Lamont said. "We just went in there to pay our respects to the Virgin."

"Virgin?" one of the men said to the leader.

"Shut up, Abdul."

Ronnie glanced at Nick. His raised hand moved toward the back of his head. The three men were close, no more than ten feet away, but that was still a long way to go against someone holding an AK.

Nick moved a step closer.

The leader was nervous. "You stay where you are. No move."

"Sorry," Nick said. "There was a stone under my shoe."

In a blur, Ronnie drew his throwing knife from the sheath behind his neck and hurled it at the leader. It took him under the right eye. He screamed and staggered back, blood spouting from the wound, the knife protruding from his face.

His finger spasmed and the gun fired into the ground, a hard sound in the cold night. He fell forward onto the pavement, clawing at the knife.

The sudden violence shocked the other two, long enough to delay them a critical second. Lamont drew his knife and went for the man on the right. With the haft held in his left hand and the blade facing outward, he brought the knife across with a backslash motion that opened the terrorist's throat to the spine. A fountain of blood sprayed from the wound. The dying man fell to the floor. 

Selena went after the man on the left and got inside his guard. He blocked her elbow strike and clubbed her in the side with his carbine. She grunted and drove a rigid fist into his throat. The strike came all the way from her shoulder, aimed at the space behind his neck. It was a killing blow, crushing the larynx. He choked and stumbled away trying to breathe, then collapsed. His body spasmed as he gasped for air. Selena backed away and watched until he stopped moving.

"Search them," Nick said.

A quick search turned up passports and an assortment of currency, a set of car keys,  pistols and knives. Ronnie stuffed everything in his pack.

"We'd better get out of here," Lamont said. "That was a lot of noise. Someone might come looking."

Nick looked around. "Where's their car?"

"Over there."

He pointed at a car parked about fifty feet away.

"Move it here," Nick said. He tossed Lamont the keys. "We'll put them in it and send them down the side of the mountain. It will confuse things."

Lamont ran to the car, got in, started it and drove up to where they stood over the bodies. He got out and left the car running.

"Get these guys inside."

It didn't take long to move the dead men into the car. They tossed the AKs in after them. Nick propped the leader up behind the wheel and patted him on the shoulder.

"Say hello to Allah for me."

Lamont found a large rock by the side of the road. Nick jammed it against the accelerator and the engine roared. He turned the wheel so that the car would go off the road, down a steep incline and through a grove of trees. He reached through the open door, put the car in gear and jumped away.

The car shot forward, sailed off the side of the road and dropped into the trees. The sound of crunching metal and breaking branches seemed to go on for a long time.

They got in their rented Toyota and headed back toward town.