finding it.'
'I see it, thank you,' the president said tersely. 'And no, Dr. Yeats, like you I had no idea of the extent of my family's dealings with the Alignment. But as you discovered, when your roots go that far back in American history, it's probably unavoidable. Some of these names will turn up modern-day Alignment figures. Some won't. It will be a tricky but necessary ordeal to ferret them out. But we will.'
'Like Senator Scarborough?'
Conrad knew the FBI had raided Scarborough's home in Virginia that morning. News reports said a federal grand jury was looking into his ties to a defense contractor-biotech billionaire Max Seavers.
'It appears Seavers funneled money to the senator,' the president said, sounding genuinely shocked. 'Scarborough's position in Congress, where he sits on the Armed Services Committee that controls the Pentagon budget, could have allowed him to influence the flow of contracts to Seavers's company, or even Seavers's appointment to DARPA.'
So that's how it's going down, Conrad thought. 'So the only reason you wanted the Newburgh Treaty was to take names?'
'Hell no, Yeats,' the president said. 'This is America. Nobody gives a damn what your ancestors did. Or shouldn't. We're judged by our fruits, not our roots. The sins of the fathers should not be visited on their sons. I should think you would appreciate that more than anybody else.'
Conrad sighed at this none-too-subtle reminder of Antarctica and his father General Yeats.
'It's what the Newburgh Treaty and the Alignment represent that threatens our security,' the president went on. 'Science and technology have advanced more rapidly than the ability of politicians and generals to grasp their implications. That's what Plato implied was the real problem with Atlantis. Not the cataclysm that supposedly destroyed it. If we don't do any better in America, which Sir Francis Bacon prophesized to be the New Atlantis, we'll suffer the same fate. Hell, just a few years back I used to sweat over mass extinction from some terrorist biotoxin. Max Seavers was on the brink of bottling it as a vaccine with the label 'Made in the USA.' Thank God you stopped him.'
'God?' Conrad repeated, wondering if the president really believed in America as 'one nation under God' or was simply posing for Middle America at his prayer breakfast the other day.
The president gazed up at Washington over the fireplace.
'Washington's greatness lay in his readiness to surrender power and embrace his faith,' the president said, a faraway look in his eyes. 'He understood that true political freedom cannot exist without religious freedom. Sure, he bent over backwards not to favor any particular religion. But he instinctively grasped that Americans of religious faith are the true protectors of American liberty.'
'He also gave his spies bags of gold, Mr. President.'
The president paused for a moment, then pursed his lips and smiled at Yeats in a way that almost resembled a smirk. 'You've done your part, Dr. Yeats, and America is grateful,' he said. 'Big time.'
The president put the Treaty down on the table beside him and picked up a box. 'There's more, don't worry,' he said, holding the box out to him. 'This is the Presidential Medal of Honor with Military Distinction. The incredible truth is that you successfully carried out the orders of the commander-in-chief.'
Conrad wasn't sure if the president was referring to himself or George Washington. But he felt an honest-to- goodness surge of pride as he opened the box and looked at the medal. It was a golden disc with a great white star on top of a red enamel pentagon. In the center of the star was a gold circle with blue enamel bearing thirteen gold stars. The medal hung from a blue ribbon with white edge stripes, white stars, and a golden American eagle with spread wings.
The president said, 'Secretary Packard insisted you deserved no less and wanted me to tell you that he wants you back at DARPA.'
'It's Danny Z and old Herc who deserve this,' Conrad said and closed the box. 'Along with that poor soul you buried in my father's tomb.'
The president only said, 'Take a lesson from Sister Serghetti, son, and stop mourning for those you're sure to follow shortly.'
'None of this changes the fact that we have one globe and the Vatican has the other,' Conrad pressed. 'Or that you and Sister Serghetti and I saw the names on the Treaty with our own eyes.'
'That girl is going to do what she's going to do,' the president said. 'I have to do what I have to do.'
The president rose to his feet, picked up the Newburgh Treaty and stepped to the fireplace. He touched a lighter to the corner of the Treaty and placed the Treaty in the fireplace.
Conrad looked on as a corner curled into black and then burst into flame beneath the watchful eyes of George Washington. Within seconds more black holes like growing welts appeared all over the Treaty until it went up in smoke.
52
STILL TORMENTED over her sudden abandonment and betrayal of Conrad, a resolute Serena marched into the office of Cardinal Tucci in the Governorate with the terrestrial globe and a plainclothes security detail of six Swiss Guards. Much like the American president's Secret Service, the centuries-old guards protected the pope both at home and abroad. Whether they would do the same for her now, well, she was about to find out.
Cardinal Tucci was seated in practically the same position she had last seen him weeks earlier, deep in his leather chair between two Bleau globes, echoes of the globes that Conrad had uncovered. Tucci held a glass of red wine in his hand. The silver Roman coin around his neck caught the morning light from the window beside him, warning her that he was the head of Dominus Dei.
She said, 'A bit early in the morning for that, Your Eminence.'
'Sister Serghetti, I see you brought me the globe,' Tucci replied, 'along with an entourage.'
Serena turned to the captain of the guards and said, 'I'd like a private audience with His Eminence for a moment. Wait outside.'
As the guards withdrew and closed the door behind them, Tucci took another sip of his wine. 'I take it you disobeyed my direct orders and opened the globe?'
'I did, Your Eminence. Both of them.'
'I see.'
'So do I,' Serena said. 'And I see your mother's family in Boston among the names at the bottom of the Newburgh Treaty. You're Osiris. And Dominus Dei is the Alignment's cell within the Church. It always has been. Long before the Knights Templar. It's the Church that's in danger, not just America.'
'Is that what you told Dr. Yeats?' Tucci said dismissively. 'I'm sure he appreciated your sentiments. Tell me, did you sleep with him on your adventure?'
Serena pointed her finger at him. 'You are the wolf in sheep's clothing, Tucci! You don't love the Church. You've never loved the Church. You and your kind have only used the Church for yourselves, to build a worldly empire for the Alignment.'
'Well, if you bother to look around, Sister Serghetti, you'll find that there are plenty of others like me. Where God builds a church, the Devil builds a chapel, you know. I take it by the guards that you've told the Holy See?'
'I have, Your Eminence, and this is one chapel I'm closing.'
'Only to build the Antichrist's cathedral.' Tucci finished his wine. 'Indeed, the federal city of the future, the world's capital city, is going up soon. Something to make Washington and the new Beijing pale in comparison.'
'What are you getting at?' she demanded.
'America is inconsequential in the sweep of history-it doesn't even merit a mention in the Book of Revelation,' Tucci said. 'It was the globes all along and not the Newburgh Treaty that the international Alignment was interested in.'
'The globes?'
