The Seventh Stone (64 page)

O’Malley started down the center aisle, greeting the people, welcoming them, quietly, with understanding, not celebration.

“
I wish Dad was here to see this,” she said. She could tell him that the Breastplate had connected her with Mom. That she knew Mom was loved, happy, and in a place where to forgive was a given. If you believed in that sort of thing. But that was a prayer that wouldn’t be answered. She had called, texted, emailed, and received no reply. Helen had told her to accept his death.

“
Makes you want to believe,” Braydon said, “one last time.”

“
O’Malley is with his family,” she said. “All I want is to be with mine.” She clasped his hand in hers. “Come with me.”

He smiled. “I believe I will.”

They walked down the side aisle towards the exit. A man ambled toward them, relying heavily on a cane. He was dressed in worn, baggy pants, a scruffy leather jacket, and a wide-brimmed fedora, a man who’d been through hell. The man raised his face to hers. It was Dad.

CHAPTER
71

“
Merry Christmas,” Donohue said, raising his stainless steel cup filled with aguardiente, the local sugarcane alcohol.

The strike force, except for the two perimeter guards, welcomed the break, sweating and puffing as they rested their old bones on the jumble of boulders. “Merry Christmas,” they toasted.

One swig downed the drink, and they were back at it. Picks and shovels, they didn’t dare use dynamite and risk destroying the Breastplate of Aaron.

“
Got another one,” Leader called out. He stepped back and grimaced at the stench. He had seen his share of corpses as a Navy Seal, but it was worse here, in the heat and humidity. He made a sign of the cross and dragged the crushed body of the savage to the others awaiting burial.

The volcano rumbled and spewed out more of its sulfuric stink. They were running out of time. The Joint Chiefs had been alerted to the situation. Donohue’s orders were clear. He had completed the first part of his mission. He had collected every last leaf of the antidote plant they could find. He was to return to Washington immediately with the plants, before the spreading ash of the volcano completely closed the airspace and any hope of air travel out of the region. The Joint Chiefs were taking a page from the Prophet’s playbook. Soon, they hoped to wield the power of a bio-weapon for which they had the only defense. They placed their faith in the hands of scientists working to synthesize an antidote that God had hidden away in this unique microcosm since the birth of creation. Arrogant fools.

As far as the Breastplate of Aaron, the Joint Chiefs were determined to keep it the best guarded secret in history. They were marshaling an elite team from a nearby base to extract it, no doubt to squirrel it away in some ultra-secret research facility. They believed in its power, not to open a portal to Heaven, but to explode into an international incident.

Like Salvatierra defying the Vatican, Donohue had to defy the order of his commander. He had to achieve his own mission to right a wrong, even if it risked his life, even if it risked his immortal soul.

He fingered the dog tags hanging around his neck, Clive’s dog tags, not his.
You have to find the Breastplate
, Eleanor had begged before he left for Colombia,
for Clive. The Breastplate will prove that life exists beyond death. If I know that our son can live beyond his death, then I can live again beyond his death. He needs to know our love for him has no end.

Soon, they would unearth the Breastplate of Aaron. This wasn’t the end of his mission, but the beginning.

###

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Pamela Hegarty
has adventured in more than thirty-five countries on six continents. She has summited Mount Kilimanjaro, backpacked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and camped with lions in the Serengeti. She
is
the author of
San Francisco & Beyond: 101 Affordable Excursions
,
Best Places to Kiss in New England
and
Best Places to Kiss in Northern California (Second Edition)
and a contributor to seven
Fodor’s
guidebooks. She has published more than three hundred articles in
Woman’s Day, Good Housekeeping, McCall’s, Diversion, Country Inns, San Francisco Focus, The Peak
(Hong Kong),
Explore
(Canada) and other magazines and newspapers. She welcomes readers to contact her through her website at pamelahegarty.com or at
[email protected]
. Follow her on twitter at @pamelahegarty.