by John Lyman
“No, sir. Please answer the question.”
“Actually, we’re on vacation. We had to put into port here after we had some sparking down in the engine room and lost electrical power. We didn’t want a fire at sea, especially with all these people onboard.”
“Yes, that’s quite understandable.” The officer scanned the large group of people crowding the back deck. “You certainly do have a lot of people onboard. Where did you say you were going?”
“Nowhere in particular. We’re taking a little pleasure cruise around the Mediterranean. I’ve been promising my friends I’d take them on a cruise like this for years now. If it’s OK with you it might be nice to let them sample the local beaches while my engineer works out our little electrical problem.”
“Of course, Professor. You’re free to go wherever you wish. Would you like us to send over a couple of our technicians to assist you?”
“Oh, I don’t think that will be necessary. It looks like we’ve almost got things figured out, but I appreciate the offer.”
“Anytime, Professor Wasserman.” The khaki-shirted officer’s smile returned. “We’re here to help ... really. Anything we can do.”
“That’s very considerate of you. Would you care to take a tour of my boat?”
The officer’s eyes suddenly shifted over Lev’s shoulder as the hulking figure of Alon appeared behind him. “Uh, no, that won’t be necessary. This certainly is a beautiful boat. Maybe some other time.”
“Yes ... maybe another time.” Lev extended his hand in the direction of the teak-wood stairs leading back down to the waiting patrol boat.
The young officer hesitated for a moment before giving a short salute and descending the stairs. A minute later the throaty roar from the patrol boat’s motor faded off across the harbor as it headed back toward the large gray ship.
“What was that all about?” Alon asked, releasing the grip on the pistol in his waistband.
“I believe that was a warning. Take a look at that big gray ship over there. No flags, no markings, and there are several large satellite dishes next to a sea of antennas sprouting from the top of the bridge.”
“Military?”
“No, I’m afraid it’s much worse. We’re looking at the future, Alon. No borders, no customs ... just big gray ships sitting in harbors around the world watching everything we do.”
“No wonder it’s so quiet around here. Looks like the locals have figured out the same thing.”
“I can see that. Forget my plan for buying a bus. We’re looking at a whole new ballgame here. I want you to spread the word for everyone to continue acting as though we’re all on vacation. We can’t start acting nervous, and if we suddenly abandon ship and hop on a bus we’ll be followed.”
“Which means we’ll lead them right to Leo.”
“Exactly.”
Alon walked to the railing and stared across the water at the ominous-looking ship. “How did Acerbi’s people get ships like that in place so quickly?”
“I’ve been wondering that myself. I believe someone has been secretly building the infrastructure behind Acerbi’s plan for quite some time now. For years, many in the Acerbi Corporation were working behind the scenes to infiltrate almost every government on Earth. Many of those who ruled over Rene’s vast secret network were caught in the wake of his plot to exterminate millions, but I’m beginning to think that most of his top people remained hidden in plain sight, just waiting for the real Antichrist to take over. Someone had to be building those giant computers. We’re looking at a worldwide conspiracy that’s probably been in the making for hundreds of years.”
Lev relit his cigar and threw the match overboard. “Why don’t we have Alex light up the electronics? No sense in trying to hide now. Also, have the crew lower the big watertight door at the stern and start ferrying people to the beach in the speedboats. Make it look like a party. While they’re busy with that I’m going for a little chopper ride with your girlfriend.”
CHAPTER 59
After increasing the rpm, Nava lifted the small blue chopper from the top deck of the Carmela and sped over the beach as Lev watched the green foothills of the Pyrenees fill the windshield. “Keep flying toward the mountains.”
Looking over her shoulder, Nava watched the big gray ship fading behind them. “How far do you want to take this?”
“Until they show their hand.”
Nava increased the tilt of the rotor blades and the chopper began to climb. Within minutes they were passing over deep valleys filled with shadows as sheer cliffs rose all around them.
“Anything yet?”
“Yeah, my radar just died ... and so did the radio.”
“Didn’t take them long. Fly around behind those cliffs ahead of us and set it down.”
Nava pulled the stick to the right, and as soon as they had passed out of sight, she pulled back and began a vertical descent, landing on the valley floor in a small clearing surrounded by large, overhanging trees. As soon as they touched down, Lev climbed out and pulled out some camouflage netting he had stowed in the back before they took off. As soon as they had covered the chopper, Lev peered up at the sky just as a fast-moving Blackhawk helicopter swooped by overhead and continued up into the narrow mountain valley.
Removing her helmet, Nava ducked under the netting and threw it into the pilot’s seat. “You were right, Professor. They were just waiting for us to make a move. What now?”
“We’ll hike out to the road where we can hitch a ride back into town. By the time we get back everyone should be on the beach.” Lev grinned. “I hope the people on the gray ship enjoy watching the party.”
* *
From the bridge of the gray ship, the party on the beach looked to be in full swing as the sun began to drop over the horizon. Watching the goings-on through his binoculars, the young officer smiled as he watched people stumbling around the bonfires with wine bottles in their hands. “Looks like they’re not feeling any pain.”
“What would you like us to do, sir?” said a thin sailor with tousled blond hair.
“Just keep an eye on things. Wake me up if they do anything strange.”
“Strange like what, sir?”
“Like if they don’t return to their ship or start running away from the beach.”
The seaman grinned. “Doesn’t look like they’ll be doing much running.”
“No, but just the same, keep an eye on them. I don’t like the way their helicopter disappeared on us today.”
“Yes, sir.”
* *
On the beach, it really looked like everyone was whooping it up as Alon stood next to one of the bonfires and stretched. Nodding to a small group sitting nearby, he walked them down to the water’s edge until they were trapped in the shadows between the rise of the sea and sharp slant of the white sand beach behind them. Hunched down, they quickly began making their way to an area behind some giant boulders that lay in the darkness at the far end of the beach. Once out of sight of the gray ship, he passed the group off to Lev and John before returning for another group.
Meanwhile, Moshe was edging one of the speedboats up onto the smooth wet sand of the beach as a group of fit-looking crewmembers hopped aboard. Shoving the throttles into reverse, he backed away into the flat surf and headed back to the Carmela. As soon as they disappeared behind the stern of the yacht, Moshe waited while the crewmembers flattened themselves against the bottom of the boat before he spun it around and headed back to the beach. To the seamen watching from the bridge of the gray ship, it looked like he had just dropped off a load of party goers at the yacht before returning an apparently empty boat back to the beach to pick up another group of happy campers, when in truth he was ferrying the same group back and forth while everyone else simply walked off the end of the beach under the very noses of those watching from the gray ship. With each trip of the speedboat, Alon would lead another group off the end of the beach, until, as the bonfires began to die down, the speedboat departed wit
h its so-called final load of party-goers and returned to the yacht.
On the bridge of the gray ship, a sailor smiled as the lights around the yacht began to go out. “Looks like they’ve all had enough fun for one day. Those people really know how to party.”
“They’ll be feeling it tomorrow,” another seaman remarked. “What are we watching these guys for anyway?”
“Orders, mate ... what else?”
Back on the yacht, Moshe and the fit-looking crewmembers stowed the speedboat below decks and raised the watertight door at the stern. After squeezing into black wetsuits, they slipped over the side and began swimming away from the now-empty yacht toward a pier that lay a quarter of a mile away through calm water.
Once they had made it to shore, they walked up beneath the pilings of the pier and stripped off their wetsuits before creeping around behind the buildings lining the waterfront. Then, crossing the beach road, they disappeared into the woods and met up with the rest of the group.
Rising up from behind a clump of bushes at the base of a bent oak tree, Lev walked over to Alon. “Is everyone here?”
“Yes, sir. I did three head counts.”
“Good. Let’s move out. By the time the people on the gray ship notice that no one’s aboard the Carmela tomorrow, we’ll be long gone.”
“I’ll take the point,” John said, pointing his rifle down the trail.
Ariella picked up her medical kit and slung it over her shoulder. “I’ll go with you.”
“Don’t you think you should hang back a little?”
“Why, because I’m a girl?”
“No.” John tried to look serious. “They always take out the point man first. Alon told me so. Since you’re the medic here, I want you back in the pack so you can patch me up if I get hit.”
Ariella smiled back and flipped her night vision goggles down over her eyes. “Nice try, commando boy. Besides, I have the map, now let’s move out.”
In the salty, humidity-laced breeze that was drifting in off the Mediterranean, John could hear Alon snicker in the background as they made their way through leafy foliage that pulled at them from the sides of a narrow goat trail that ran parallel to the beach highway. As soon as they had made their way off the beach, the so-called group of partygoers had undergone a startling transformation. Twenty members of the villa’s security force, plus several young men and women picked from the ranks of the yacht’s crew, were now wearing state-of-the-art night vision goggles and were armed with automatic weapons they had managed to smuggle ashore in coolers.
Looking back over his shoulder, John whispered to Ariella. “Which way, madam navigator?”
Ariella grinned back in the darkness before turning serious. “As long as this trail continues to parallel the road, we’re in danger.”
“What do you mean?”
“The beach road winds around to the northwest and begins a steep climb into the mountains. The terrain there is made up mostly of rolling pastureland, which means if we follow the road, we’ll be out in the open by daybreak. Nava said she saw a heavily forested valley from the air that looked like a pass through the mountains. We need to find that valley so we’ll have some cover, because when the sun comes up I’m pretty sure they’ll be searching for us by air.”
“They will be,” a voice called out from the darkness.
John and Ariella literally jumped as they pointed their rifles in the direction of the phantom voice. Peering through the narrow, tunnel-like view of their night vision goggles, they could see the hazy green image of a man carrying a crossbow as he stepped out onto the trail in front of them.
“Freeze right where you are!”
John’s shouts brought Alon and several others rushing forward. Within seconds the solitary figure was surrounded, and as their hearts beat in their chests and their fingers tightened on their triggers, the man slowly lowered his crossbow to the ground and raised his hands in the air.
“It appears that I am outnumbered.”
“Who are you?” John said, circling the man as he looked off into the woods to see if there were any others.
“My name is Gael Acerbi, and I’ve come to take you to Cardinal Leo.”
CHAPTER 60
The man who called himself Gael Acerbi reached into his hand-woven tunic and handed John a note wrapped around a ring.
“It’s from Leo,” John said.
“Let me see that.”
John turned around to see an out-of-breath Lev Wasserman, followed by Morelli and Francois. “Here, see for yourself, Professor. It says that we’re to follow this man and trust him with our lives.” John quickly pushed the note and ring into Lev’s outstretched hands.
“That’s definitely Leo’s ring,” Morelli said, peering over Lev’s shoulder at the sapphire in the cardinal’s ring.
As he read the hand-written note, Lev tried to slow his breathing. When he was finished, he glanced up with the sudden realization that he was staring at a man who looked like he had just stepped from a time machine. “You say your last name is Acerbi?”
“Yes, Professor. I’m from a different branch of the family. It’s a long story ... one I’d be most happy to share with you at a later time, but right now I suggest you come with me. We have a lot of ground to cover before it gets light, and if we don’t make it to the valley in time we’ll all be spotted by the spy satellite circling overhead.”
“He’s right, Daddy,” Ariella chimed in. “The only way though the mountains is through a pass, which means we need to find the right valley. He’s telling the truth.”
Lev looked down at the ring in his hand before fixing the man with a gaze that would make most men think twice about lying to him. “OK, but if you’re leading us into some kind of trap I’m sending you back to the Middle Ages where you came from.”
The man smiled before picking up his crossbow and motioning them forward into the leafy unknown.
* *
The arduous trek through a narrow pass in the Pyrenees had taken four days. Along the way, Gael had shown the group where to camp and which water sources were safe to drink from as they headed deeper into a forest that lay sandwiched between two snow-capped peaks. At first, Lev and the others had been skeptical, but as they came to know the gentle but capable man with the notorious surname, they slowly began to trust him.
For the group as a whole it seemed as though they were being led into a magical land of unspoiled beauty far from the worries of the civilized world that was slowly fading behind them. For days they hadn’t spotted another human being, and the sounds of the outside world had been replaced with songs of nature that called out from the overhanging trees that protected them from the probing eyes of orbiting satellites in the sky above.
Walking at Gael’s side on a forest trail locked in shadows, Lev looked up though the verdant green canopy above their heads. “How much farther?”
“We should be there before nightfall, Professor.” Gael noticed Lev was twisting Leo’s ring on his right ring finger where he had placed it for safekeeping.
“Don’t lose that,” Gael laughed. “The Cardinal told me he would be very unhappy if I failed to return with his ring.”
“Sounds like Leo. He must really trust you. What’s it like where we’re headed?”
“I’m afraid I’m bound by an oath of secrecy, Professor. I’d love to describe it to you, but if by some chance we were ambushed and taken prisoner by Adrian’s men, it would be better if you had no knowledge of our destination.”
“I suppose you’re right. I’d probably do the same thing in your position. What about you? Can you tell me a little about how you came to carry the Acerbi name?”
“That I can do, but I’ll have to go back seven hundred years.”
“It appears we have some more time. I’d love to hear the story.”
“Well, like I said, I have to go back seven hundred years to the time of the Crusades against my people. It was in this very area of France where my ancestors were hunted dow
n and burned at the stake for their beliefs. Needless to say we’ve been a rather secretive bunch ever since. I don’t know if you realize it, Professor, but you once lived in my ancestral home.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“The castle ... the one you purchased a few years back and had restored.”
“Oh ... the castle by the Aude River. I loved that place. I bought the property several years ago because it had once belonged to my great-grandparents. They moved onto the land sometime around the turn of the last century but everyone had to flee when the Nazis invaded France. I tried to trace the history of the castle during the reconstruction of the ruins, but we couldn’t find any records that went back past the 13th century. We never knew who the original builders were, but my grandfather always suspected that it was an ancient Cathar castle. Unfortunately it was destroyed last year by Rene Acerbi after he sent helicopters to attack us.”
Gael grimaced. “Yes, I know. That was the second time the castle was destroyed, and I can now clear up the mystery for you. The castle originally belonged to the Acerbi family, and in the summer of 1292 it was attacked by the army of the north after they discovered my ancestors were Cathars. A knight by the name of Armand Acerbi was the master of the castle, and he had a wife who went by the name of Marie. She is the woman all modern-day Acerbi’s are descended from. Together they had a daughter, Catherine Acerbi, who was only nine at the time of the attack on her family’s home. Legend has it that Marie gave the sacred scrolls of the Cathars to her daughter before two knights took the child and escaped through the forest when the castle was overrun. Catherine grew up to become a great fighter against the crusade, but she was eventually given up by a spy and burned at the stake.”
“I never realized that castle had once belonged to the Acerbi clan. I’m surprised Eduardo never mentioned it to me.”
“Eduardo was famous for keeping family secrets, Professor, and one of the secrets he kept was the fact that there was another branch of the Acerbi family. Before Catherine Acerbi was burned at the stake she had given birth to a son. His name was Guillaume Acerbi, and his father was said to be a Templar Knight. On the day of the execution, the abbot who had condemned Catherine to death ordered her aunt to bring Catherine’s son to the site where she was to be burned.”