He tried to sit up from the bed, but his right side jarred with electric pain. He winced and clutched at his stomach.
'You have broken ribs. I, too, in youth, broke mine once. It hurts.'
He lay back down. 'I was brought here?'
The old man nodded. 'My brothers are trained to be resourceful.'
He'd noticed the white cassock and rope sandals. 'This a monastery?'
'It's the place you've been seeking.'
He was unsure how to respond.
'I am master of the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon. We are the Templars. Your father sought us for decades. You, too, have sought us. So I decided the time was finally right.'
'For what?'
'That's for you to decide. But I am hoping you choose to join us.'
'Why would I do that?'
'Your life is, I'm sorry to say, in utter chaos. You miss your father more than you could ever voice and he's been dead a long six years now. You're estranged from your mother, which is difficult in more ways than can be imagined. Professionally you're a teacher, but you're not satisfied. You've made some attempts to vindicate your father's beliefs, but have been unable to make much progress. That's why you were in the Pyrenees-searching for the reason Abbe Sauniere spent so much time there when he was alive. Sauniere once scoured the region looking for something. Surely you found the coach and horse rental receipts among Sauniere's papers that evidence the fees he paid to the local vendors. Amazing, isn't it, how a humble priest could afford such luxuries as a private coach and horse.'
'What do you know of my father and mother?'
'I know much.'
'You expect me to believe that you're the master of the Templars?'
'I can see how that premise might be hard to accept. I, too, had trouble with it when the brothers first approached me decades ago. Why don't we, for now, concentrate on mending your wounds and take this slow.'
'I stayed in that bed for three weeks,' Mark said. 'After, my movements were restricted to certain parts of the abbey, but the master and I spoke often. Finally, I agreed to stay on and took the oath.'
'Why would you do such a thing?' Stephanie asked.
'Let's be realistic, Mother. You and I had not spoken in years. Dad was gone. The master was right. I was at a dead end. Dad searched for the Templar treasure, their archives, and for the Templars themselves. One-third of what he'd been looking for had just found me. I wanted to stay.'
To calm her growing agitation, Stephanie allowed her attention to stray to the younger man standing behind Mark. An aureole of freshness hovered about him, but she also registered interest, as if he were hearing things for the first time. 'Your name is Geoffrey?' she asked, recalling what Mark had called him earlier.
He nodded.
'You didn't know I was Mark's mother?'
'I know little of other brothers. It is Rule. No brother speaks of himself to another. We're of the brotherhood. From where we came is immaterial to who we are now.'
'Sounds impersonal.'
'I consider it illuminating.'
'Geoffrey sent you a package,' Mark said. 'Dad's journal. Did you receive it?'
'That's why I'm here.'
'I had it with me the day of the avalanche. The master kept it once I became a brother. I discovered it gone after he died.'
'Your master is dead?' Malone asked.
'We have a new leader,' Mark said. 'But he's a demon.'
Malone described the man who'd confronted him and Stephanie in the Roskilde cathedral.
'That's Raymond de Roquefort,' Mark said. 'How do you know him?'
'We're old friends,' Malone said, telling them some of what had just happened in Avignon.
'Claridon is surely de Roquefort's prisoner,' Mark said. 'God help Royce.'
'He was terrified of the Templars,' Malone said.
'With that one, he has good reason.'
'You still haven't said why you stayed at the abbey for the past five years,' Stephanie said.
'What I sought was there. The master became a father to me. He was a kind, gentle man, full of compassion.'
She caught the message. 'Unlike me?'
'Now is not the time for this discussion.'
'And when would be a good time? I thought you were dead, Mark. But you were secluded in an abbey, commingling with Templars-'
'Your son was our seneschal,' Geoffrey said. 'He and the master ruled us well. He was a blessing to our Order.'
'He was second in charge?' Malone asked. 'How'd you rise so fast?'
'The seneschal is chosen by the master. He alone determines who is qualified,' Geoffrey said. 'And he chose well.'
Malone smiled. 'You have a devoted associate.'
'Geoffrey is a wealth of information, though none of us is going to learn a thing from him until he's ready to tell us.'
'Care to explain that one?' Malone asked.
Mark spoke, telling them what had happened over the past forty-eight hours. Stephanie listened with a mixture of fascination and anger. Her son talked of the brotherhood with reverence.
'The Templars,' Mark said, 'rose from an obscure band of nine knights, supposedly protecting pilgrims on the way to the Holy Land, to a multicontinent conglomerate composed of tens of thousands of brothers spread over nine thousand estates. Kings, queens, and popes cowed to them. No one, until Philip IV in 1307, successfully challenged them. You know why?'
'Military prowess, I'd assume,' Malone said.
Mark shook his head. 'It wasn't force that gave them strength, it was knowledge. They possessed information no one else was privy to.'
Malone sighed. 'Mark, we don't know each other, but it's the middle of the night, I'm sleepy, and my neck is killing me. Could we skip the riddles and get to the point?'
'Among the Templar treasure was some proof that related to Christ on the cross.'
The room went silent as the words took hold.
'What kind of proof?' Malone asked.
'I don't know. But it's called the Great Devise. The proof was found in the Holy Land beneath the Jerusalem Temple, hidden away sometime between the first century and AD 70, when the Temple was destroyed. It was transported by the Templars back to France and hidden away, known only to the highest officers. When Jacques de Molay, the Templar master at the time of the Purge, was burned at the stake in 1314, the location of that proof died with him. Philip IV tried to obtain the information and failed. Dad believed that the abbes Bigou and Sauniere at Rennes-le-Chateau succeeded. He was convinced that Sauniere actually located the Templar cache.'
'So was the master,' Geoffrey said.
'See what I mean?' Mark glanced back at his friend. 'Say the magic words and we get information.'
'The master made clear that Bigou and Sauniere were right,' Geoffrey said.
'About what?' Mark asked.
'He didn't say. Only that they were right.'
Mark looked toward them. 'Like you, Mr. Malone, I've had my fill of riddles.'
'Call me Cotton.'
'Interesting name. How'd you get it?
'Long story. I'll tell you sometime.'
