The Cup (16 page)

CHAPTER 37

The monastery was a sprawling complex of stone buildings on a high plateau. From the highway they followed a drive lined with trees to a large, paved parking lot. There were a dozen cars in the lot, including a black Mercedes with a uniformed driver waiting inside the car. He glanced over at them and went back to reading a newspaper.

The rain had stopped. They got out of the car and walked toward a set of broad, stone steps leading up to the entrance. Two tall bell towers topped with the Syriac cross rose over the buildings. Everything was made of sand-colored stone, perfectly cut and fitted. The motif of the diamond cross was everywhere you looked, set on balustrades as finials and carved into the walls.

"This is something," Lamont said. "Place looks like a fortress. That's a hell of a lot of stone."

"The monastery has been here for more than sixteen hundred years," Selena said. "They've had a lot of time to work on it."

"Let's see if anyone's home," Nick said.

They climbed past two crosses flanking the steps and stepped onto a flat stone terrace in front of the entrance. The door opened as they approached. A monk waited to greet them.

A full beard streaked with gray reached halfway down his chest. He wore a robe of midnight blue that was almost black, with a tight hood that covered his hair. It was bordered with white and divided in the middle by a white line. The top of the hood bore a lighter field of blue stitched with a dozen white Syriac crosses.

Nick guessed his age at around sixty. His face appeared relaxed. He looked as though he spent a lot of time smiling. He was shorter than Nick, about Ronnie's height.

The monk stood to the side and gestured for them to come in.

"Welcome," he said. "I'm Brother Jacob. Please, enter. Your friend is waiting for you."

"What friend?" Nick asked.

"This way," the monk said.

He led them down a long arched colonnade and through three arched doorways. As they moved deeper into the complex, the look of the passage changed. They were coming to the oldest part of the monastery, part of the original building.

They entered a chapel with an elaborate altar set in an alcove at one end. The wall behind the altar was decorated with a mosaic design of the Syriac cross. Mosaic grapevines bearing clusters of grapes climbed the edges of the alcove.

Count Mercurio was waiting for them.

"Hello, Mister Carter."

"What are you doing here, Count?"

"The same as you, looking for the Grail."

"Count Mercurio has been telling me about your quest," Brother Jacob said. "It is most admirable, but I am sorry to disappoint you. What you are looking for is not here."

"I mean no disrespect, Brother, but it's a little hard for me to just take your word for it. We know the Grail was brought here after it left Italy."

"Yes, your friend has explained it to me. The tiles told a true story. The monk on the tile was Brother Gabriel. He was one of the first to live here, one of the builders. It was wonderful for me to see a picture of him."

"Then the Grail was here? You admit it?"

"We have nothing to hide. If it were still here perhaps I would not be so forthcoming with you, but it was taken to Rhodes centuries ago."

"Rhodes? Why Rhodes?"

"Are you familiar with the history of our monastery?"

"No."

"There is a long history of conflict here with Islam."

"That figures," Ronnie said.

The monk continued. "Have you heard of Tamerlane?"

"The last Mongol conqueror," Selena said. "He wanted to re-create the Empire of Genghis Khan."

"That is the man," Jacob said. "Timur the Lame. He called himself the 'Sword of Islam.' In 1401 he attacked this monastery. The remains of the monks he murdered are buried in caves below the chapel floor where we stand."

"What does that have to do with the Grail?" Nick asked.

"My predecessors knew what was likely to happen. It was decided to move the Grail to a place of safety. It was taken to Rhodes and placed under the protection of the Knights Hospitallers."

"So your order is no longer responsible for its protection?"

"That is correct."

Up until now Mercurio had been silent, listening to the conversation. Now he interrupted.

"Sulemein the Magnificent attacked Rhodes in the sixteenth century and defeated the Knights Hospitallers. This isn't good news, Brother Jacob."

"Were they all killed?" Lamont said.

"The survivors were allowed to leave. They went to Sicily. After that, to Malta."

"The Knights would never allow the Grail to fall into the hands of Sulemein," Selena said. "They would have taken it with them."

"If they took it with them, it would have been on Malta when Sulemein laid siege to the island," Mercurio said. "He was trying to gain control of the Mediterranean. Malta was a key strategic location."

"Who won that one?" Ronnie asked.

"The Hospitallers. It's one of the great victories against Islam," Mercurio said. "At the time it must have seemed hopeless. Sulemein had overwhelming superiority of numbers."

"Then the Grail could be on Malta," Nick said.

"Unless it was moved again," Selena said.

"It's enough to give you a headache," Nick said.

"You didn't think finding the Grail was going to be easy, did you?" Mercurio asked.

CHAPTER 38

One of Haddad’s men had been reporting back to him. Haddad had many hidden cells in Turkey. One of them was in Osmaniye, on the road to Mor Gabriel, led by a man named Kamal. Haddad instructed him to intercept and follow the Americans.

Kamal had a good description of the car Nick and the others were using. Four foreigners in a blue Toyota were hard to miss. He spotted them as they came through the outskirts of the city.

Asif Nawabi caught up with the cell in Midyat. There were three men, all dedicated to the caliphate and the strict interpretation of the Prophet's teachings.

Kamal was the oldest. His family had been killed during the battle for Falluja. The death of his wife and four children under the bombs of the Americans had added fuel to a fire of hatred for the West that had been burning long before the invasion.

Omar saw from one eye. The other had been sacrificed to Assad's artillery in Syria. He was a truly ugly man, singularly unattractive to women, but ISIS had changed that. Women were forced to satisfy the needs of the fighters for the caliphate. His new wife was mostly satisfactory. He'd only had to beat her a few times to make her understand. He was grateful for having been given a place in society. The caliphate valued rage and Omar was considered a prized asset.

Rafa was barely out of adolescence. His name meant "happy" in Arabic, but happiness was something he'd never known. The closest thing to it was his feeling of pride and purpose when he saw the black flag of ISIS flying in the desert wind. Happiness would come in paradise. For now, doing the will of Allah was enough. No one questioned Rafa's courage or dedication, but he was young and inexperienced. He tended to act on impulse, without thought. Kamal thought that one day it would get him killed.

They'd followed the Americans to the monastery. Now Nawabi stood with the others in the passage outside the chapel where Nick was talking with Brother Jacob. Each was armed with an AK-47, as familiar to each man as his name. Nawabi gestured with his hand and they stepped into the chapel.

The Americans and a monk and an older man were at the other end of the room, near the altar. Between them and Nawabi were a dozen rows of wooden pews.

Nick saw them enter and yelled a warning. He reached for his pistol.

Rafa raised his rifle.

"Wait," Kamal said, too late.

"No," Mercurio shouted.

He stepped in front of Selena just as Rafa fired. The bullets hurled him to the side. Blood spattered over Selena. She drew her pistol and shot Rafa and ducked behind a pew. Bullets streaked over her head, shattering the stone cross on the altar.

Brother Jacob stood frozen in shock until a burst from Nawabi sent him stumbling sideways. The monk grabbed at the heavy cloth on the altar, pulling it with him as he fell. Everything on the altar crashed to the floor. The patterned cloth drifted down over his face and covered him.

Ronnie and Lamont and Nick and Selena fired from behind the cover of the heavy pews, outgunned. Rounds from the ISIS guns slammed into the thick wooden pews. The air filled with flying splinters, sharp as darts. The chapel echoed with the roar of the guns and the whine of ricochets from the stone walls. A haze of burnt powder began to fill the room.

Omar staggered as a half-dozen .40 caliber hollow points hit him. He spun and fell, firing wildly as he went down. Selena's last round took Kamal in the throat. Her slide locked open. Only Nawabi was left. Nick slammed in another magazine.

"Allahhu Akbar! Allahhu Akbar! "
 

Nawabi ran toward the front of the chapel, his mind crazed by rage, firing as he came. Nick leaned around the end of the pew and shot him four times. Nawabi took two steps forward. Blood spewed from his mouth. He collapsed, his rifle clattering across the floor.

The sudden silence was heavy as a stone.

Mercurio lay on his back near the altar. He'd taken two rounds, one on the right side of his chest and one through the center of his gut. His face was white with pain. Blood dribbled from his mouth. Selena knelt over him, pressing her hands on his wounds. Blood welled up between her fingers.

"I...can't feel...my legs..."

"Sshh, don't try to talk," Selena said.

Nick came over.

"How is he?"

She looked up and shook her head. Then she turned back to Mercurio.

"You saved my life," she said.

"You must...find it," Mercurio said. "All my life..."

His voice trailed off and his eyes opened wide as though he were looking at something. He smiled.

"Oh," he said. "I see it. I see..."

Then he died.

Selena stood.

"He's gone."

"So is Brother Jacob," Nick said.

Ronnie and Lamont were checking the bodies at the other end of the chapel. Lamont had a ragged gash on his cheek where a splinter had ripped into it.

"They're all dead," he said.

"Good riddance." Nick holstered his pistol. "How the hell did they know we were here?"

Lamont moved over to Nawabi's body and began going through his pockets. He held up a cell phone.

"Might be something on this to tell us."

"We'll let Stephanie look at it."

"Better call Harker," Ronnie said.

CHAPTER 39

Elizabeth was reading an intelligence brief on dissident activity in Russia when Nick called.

"Director, we ran into trouble."

"What happened?"

"We were at the monastery. ISIS showed up and everything went bad from there. They have four new martyrs but one of the Syriac monks is dead. So is Count Mercurio."

"Mercurio? What was he doing there?"

"Same thing we were. Chasing down the Grail."

"Are any of you hurt?"

"Lamont has a splinter wound but that's it. We were lucky."

"A splinter wound?"

"From a wooden pew. We were in a chapel. They had AKs."

"Are the police there yet?"

"No."

"Was the Grail there?"

"No."

"Can you get back to Incirlik?"

"I don't think there's time. People will have noticed our car and someone will put it together. Every cop in Turkey is going to be looking for us."

Elizabeth's fingers sped across her keyboard. A live satellite view of the monastery appeared on the wall monitor. She could see Nick's blue Toyota in the parking lot.

"Leave now and start driving back toward the base. I'll task a helicopter to pick you up, but it will take time to reach you. I have a visual of the monastery and I can see your car. I'll track your GPS."

"Copy that, Director."

"If you get stopped, stall them. Do not engage in any hostile action with Turkish forces, understood?"

"They may not give us a choice."

"I mean it, Nick. Turkey is still technically an ally. You shoot a cop and I've got an international incident to explain to the president."

"I'll do my best, Director. But they start shooting at us, we're going to shoot back."

"Nick..."

Stephanie came into the room as Nick broke the connection.

"What's up?"

"Trouble. ISIS followed the team to Mor Gabriel and they got into a firefight. Count Mercurio is dead and so is one of the Syriac monks."

"Mercurio? What was he doing there?"

"That's what I said. He was looking for the Grail, what else?"

"Did Nick find it?"

"No."

"Maybe it's time to give this up," Stephanie said. "It feels like we're running after a myth."

"You may be right. Nick didn't say whether or not he found out anything else. If he didn't, we've reached a dead end."

Elizabeth made the call that would send a helicopter to pick up the team. On the monitor, the red dot of Nick's GPS moved away from the monastery.

"Unless they have new information, I'm bringing them home," Elizabeth said.

"Did King Arthur's Knights ever find the Grail?" Stephanie asked.

"It depends on what version you're looking at. There's a movie by John Boorman called Excalibur, where Percival brings back the Grail and heals the King so he can go fight Mordred in the final battle. But I don't think anyone ever brought it back in the original stories. A few of Arthur's Knights saw it. That was a big deal."

"Didn't most of them die?"

"All except one, as I recall."

"Seems like it's worth your life to go looking for it."

"I never believed it existed," Elizabeth said. "I'm not sure I believe it now."

"What about that manuscript Selena found? The Book of Simon?"

"Even if it's real, that doesn't mean the cup has magical powers."

"That doesn't matter," Stephanie said. "What matters is what people believe. And if there really is a cup that caught Christ's blood, it's the most important Christian artifact in existence."

Elizabeth watched the GPS signal on the screen.

"It's important to Muslims, too. For them, it's a relic of one of their prophets. They believe Christ will come back and convert all the Christians to Islam. That's the signal for the Mahdi to appear. Then comes the Day of Retribution, what we call the Last Judgment."

"Convert the Christians to Islam? Good luck with that," Stephanie said.