know of no other brother in league with them, have already shot two brothers. There's no reason to suggest that they would not shoot more.'
He'd heard enough. 'Chaplain, this is not a matter of faith. Your guidance is not needed.'
'The safety of the members of this Order is all our responsibility.'
'And you dare to say that I don't have the safety of this Order in mind?' He allowed his voice to rise. 'Do you question my authority? Are you challenging my decision? Tell me, Chaplain, I want to know.'
If the Venetian was intimidated, nothing in his countenance betrayed fear. Instead, the man simply said, 'You're my master. I owe you allegiance… no matter what.'
He did not like the insolent tone.
'But, Master,' the chaplain continued, 'was it not you who said that we should all be a part of decisions of this magnitude?' A few of the other officers nodded. 'Did you not tell the brotherhood in conclave that you would chart a new course?'
'Chaplain, we are about to embark on the greatest mission this Order has undertaken in centuries. I have not the time to debate with you.'
'I thought giving praise to our Lord and God was our greatest mission. And that is a matter of faith, to which I am qualified to speak.'
He'd had enough. 'You are dismissed.'
The chaplain did not move. None of the others said a word.
'If you do not leave immediately, I'll have you seized and brought before me later for punishment.' He paused a moment. 'Which will not be pleasant.'
The chaplain stood and tipped his head. 'I will go. As you command.'
'And we shall talk later, I assure you.'
He waited until the chaplain left then said to the others, 'We have searched for our Great Devise a long time. It's now within our grasp. What that repository contains does not belong to anyone but us. Our heritage is there. I, for one, intend to claim what is ours. Twelve knights will assist me. I will leave it to you to select those men. Have your choices fully armed and assembled in the gymnasium in one hour.'
MALONE CALLED OUT FOR STEPHANIE AND CASSIOPEIA AND TOLD them to bring the shovel they'd off- loaded from Cassiopeia's Rover. They appeared with Henrik, and as they entered the church, Malone explained what he and Mark had found.
'Pretty smart,' Cassiopeia said to him.
'I have my moments.'
'We need to get the rest of that dirt out of there,' Stephanie said.
'Hand me the shovel.'
He bailed out the loose soil. A few minutes later three blackened wooden planks were revealed. Half were bound together with metal straps. The other half formed a hinged door that opened upward.
He bent down and lightly caressed the metal. 'The iron's corroded. These hinges are gone. A hundred years of exposure has worked on them.' He stood and used the shovel to chip away their remnants.
'What do you mean, a hundred years?' Stephanie asked.
'Sauniere built that door,' Cassiopeia said. 'The wood is in fairly good shape, certainly not centuries old. And it appears to have been planed to a smooth finish, which is not something you would see in medieval lumber. Sauniere had to have an easy way in and out. So when he found this entrance, he rebuilt the door.'
'I agree,' Malone said. 'Which explains how he handled that heavy stone top. He just slid it halfway off, took out the rocks over the door, climbed down, then put everything back when he was through. From everything I've heard about him, he was in good shape. Damn clever, too.'
He wedged the shovel into the gap at the door's edge and fulcrumed the door upward. Mark reached in and grabbed hold. Malone tossed the shovel aside and together they freed the hatch from its frame, exposing a gaping orifice.
Thorvaldsen stared into the void. 'Amazing. This might actually be the place.'
Stephanie shone a flashlight into the opening. A ladder stood against one of the stone walls. 'What do you think? Will it hold?'
'One way to find out.'
Malone extended a leg and gently applied weight to the first rung. The ladder was fashioned out of thick lumber, which he hoped was still bound with nails. He could see a few rusted heads. He pressed harder, holding on to the top of the altar support just in case something gave way. But the rung held. He placed his other foot on the ladder and tested more.
'I think it'll hold.'
'I'm lighter,' Cassiopeia said. 'I'd be glad to go first.'
He smiled. 'If you don't mind, I'd like the honor.'
'You see, I was right,' she said. 'You do want this.'
Yes, he did. What lay below was beckoning him, like the search for rare books through obscure shelves. You never knew what might be found.
Still gripping the edge of the altar support, he lowered himself to the second rung. They were about eighteen inches apart. He quickly transferred his hands to the top of the ladder and descended one more rung.
'Feels okay,' he said.
He kept heading down, careful to test each rung. Above him, Stephanie and Cassiopeia were searching the darkness with their lights. In the halo of their combined beams he saw that he'd come to the bottom of the ladder. The ground was the next step. Everything was covered with a fine gravel and stones the size of fists and skulls.
'Toss me a flashlight,' he said.
Thorvaldsen dropped one of the torches to him. He caught it and focused the beam around him. The ladder rose about fifteen feet from floor to ceiling. He saw that the exit stood in the center of a natural corridor, one that millions of years of rain and melting snow had forged through the limestone. He knew the Pyrenees were riddled with caves and tunnels.
'Why don't you jump off?' Cassiopeia asked.
'It's too easy.' He was alert to a chill that had settled in the hollow of his back, one that did not come solely from the cold air. 'I'm going to swing around to the back side of the ladder. Drop one of those stones straight down.' He positioned himself out of the way.
'You clear?' Stephanie asked.
'Fire away.'
The rock plunged through the opening. He followed its path and watched as it struck the ground, then kept going.
Light beams probed the impact site.
'You were right,' Cassiopeia said. 'That hole was just under the surface, ready for someone to leap off the ladder.'
'Drop some more rocks around it and find solid ground.'
Four more rained down and thudded onto hard earth. He knew where to leap, so he dropped off the ladder and used the flashlight to examine the booby trap. The cavity was about three feet square and at least three feet deep. He reached inside and retrieved some of the wood that had been laid loosely across the top. The edges were tongue-and-grooved, the boards thin enough to shatter away at the weight of a man, but thick enough to shoulder a layer of silt and gravel. At the bottom of the hole were metal pyramids, sharpened to a point, wide at the base, waiting to snare an unsuspecting intruder. Time had dulled their patina, but not their effectiveness.
'Sauniere was serious about this,' he said.
'Those could have been Templar traps,' Mark noted. 'Is that brass?'
'Bronze.'
'The Order was expert in metallurgy. Brass, bronze, copper-all were used. The Church forbade scientific experimentation, so they learned things like that from the Arabs.'
'The wood on top could not be seven hundred years old,' Cassiopeia said. 'Sauniere must have repaired the Templar's defenses.'
