The only legend that Serena had been able to authenticate with any degree of certainty, however, was that the globes had been unearthed beneath the Temple Mount in Jerusalem by the Knights Templar.
Centuries later, the Masons took them to the New World and buried them under what would become Washington, D.C. That was where they rested until the twenty-first century, when Conrad Yeats dug them up before the Alignment could.
The globes apparently worked together like some kind of astronomical clock in a manner that Serena had yet to figure out. But she was positive it involved a secret code or alignment between a constellation on the celestial globe and a landmark on the terrestrial globe. After all, Conrad's knowledge that Washington, D.C., was aligned to the constellation of Virgo had led him to the location of the globes. So it made sense to Serena that the alignment of the globes themselves led to an even greater revelation-a revelation that for centuries had eluded the Church, the Knights Templar, the Masons, the Americans, and everybody else.
Everybody, that is, except the Alignment, which had ordered her to deliver the Templar globes next week to the meeting of the Council of Thirty on the island of Rhodes, all under the guise of the European summit on the fate of Jerusalem.
Serena ran her hand over the smooth contours of the continents on the terrestrial globe, marveling at its three-dimensional, holographic look. 'Now tell me what you discovered with the terrestrial globe,' she said to Lorenzo.
'The terrestrial sphere is full of hidden gear wheels that, in turn, drive the most unique surface dials I've ever seen on an ancient astronomical clock.'
'What dials?'
'The northern and southern hemispheres of the terrestrial globe are really dials,' he said. 'Inside the mechanism are gear trains that drive the dials. The gear trains are driven by a crank that is inserted into a tiny hole at the bottom in Antarctica.'
She looked closely at the tiny hole in the ancient landmass of East Antarctica. It was in the shape of a pentagon. 'How could I have missed it?'
'It is rather small.' Lorenzo pulled out a tiny S-lever that he had reproduced, inserted it into the hole, and began to crank it. 'It works like a keylock, moving the hidden gears within the shell.'
To Serena's amazement, the surface of the terrestrial globe began to change before her eyes like some kind of high-definition animation. The continents didn't move, but the contours within them shimmered for a moment and locked into place. 'What happened?' she demanded.
'This,' said Lorenzo, removing the lever and inserting a penlight into the hole. Three pinpricks of light burst forth from the terrestrial globe in the locations of Antarctica, Washington, D.C., and Jerusalem.
'It's a triangle,' Serena said decisively. 'Just like the U.S. Capitol, the White House, and the Washington Monument. Those monuments lined up with the constellations of Bootes, Leo, and Virgo. Likewise, these three capital cities from the terrestrial globe should line up with three constellations on the celestial globe.'
'The problem, of course, is that the real celestial globe is still with the Americans,' Lorenzo reminded her. 'And you've never seen it with your own eyes, only the terrestrial globe you stole from Dr. Yeats. He's the only person alive who has seen both globes, which puts us at a terrible disadvantage. The faux globe I've created over here is merely my attempt to mirror in astral terms the mapping I've gleaned from the terrestrial globe.'
All true, unfortunately, Serena thought. Her plan had been to procure the genuine celestial globe from Marshall Packard in exchange for her intelligence on Russian mining operations in the Arctic. But that plan had gone up in flames on Corfu. So she had been forced to resort to Plan B.
'I did the best I could,' Lorenzo explained weakly as he showed her the two globes side by side-the forged celestial globe and the genuine terrestrial globe.
'Oh, dear,' she said, unable to hide her disappointment. The celestial knockoff looked markedly inferior next to the terrestrial globe.
'Our metallurgists, meanwhile, tell me that they've never seen anything like the copper-bronze ore from which the original globes were cast,' Lorenzo said. 'What you see is their best attempt to match its appearance.'
Serena tried to suppress her alarm. They had but seventy-two hours to fix this disaster, and there were no second chances with the Alignment. 'Give me the penlight, Lorenzo.'
Lorenzo handed it to her, and she inserted it in the tiny hole at the bottom of the forged celestial globe. Three pinpricks of light appeared in the constellations of Orion, Virgo, and Aries: the buckle star Alnilam on Orion's Belt, the alpha star Spica in Virgo, and the brightest star, Alpha Arietis, in Aries.
'I selected Orion and Virgo based on what you told me about Antarctica and D.C. And I selected Aries for Jerusalem because Aries is the cosmic Lamb and Jerusalem is where the globes are said to originate.'
'I can accept that. Now we have to hope the Alignment will accept the forgery as the real thing.' She looked carefully at Lorenzo's creation. 'If we can't bring our celestial globe up to the quality of the terrestrial globe, then maybe we can degrade the look of the terrestrial globe without damaging it. Maybe dull it down with a coat of something or other.'
'It still won't hold up to Alignment scrutiny,' Lorenzo said.
'Of course it won't,' she snapped. 'I just need it to pass a quick visual and let the Alignment test the terrestrial globe first.'
'How are you going to get them to do that?'
She didn't have an answer yet, and she didn't want to indulge Lorenzo's anxiety with an attempt. The best she could do was fool the Alignment long enough for her to unmask the rest of the Thirty. The American Twelve had been unmasked by Conrad. The remaining eighteen members were European, including her as the head of the Dei. That left seventeen more to unmask at the council meeting on Rhodes.
'That's my problem, Lorenzo. Yours is to prepare these globes for their journey to Rhodes. You need to start working with the Greeks to get the globes through security at the EU summit. We're also going to need two custom shell crates with insulated cavities for transport.'
Lorenzo nodded and left without another word, closing the heavy ornate oak door behind him.
18
It was a five-hour drive from Zurich Airport to the chic ski village of Gstaad. The A1 autobahn took Conrad and his rented BMW through the Swiss capital of Bern. He fought the temptation to drive by Midas's bank containing the secret safe deposit box of Baron von Berg and instead turned onto the A6 to Thun, where he exited on Route 11 for Gstaad.
He had one shot to break into that bank, and the only man who could help him was hopefully still holed up in these Alps.
Conrad arrived just after the runs had closed and the five-star restaurants, bars, and discos were filling up with the fashionably rich of Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East. He parked his car several blocks from Sultan's Palace and walked the rest of the way. He had exchanged plates with another BMW at a restaurant stop outside Zurich while the owner was inside eating. All the same, it would be nice to have the car buried under snow by morning.
Sultan's Palace was the grande dame of Gstaad, a multi-spired castle combining the intimacy of Aspen's Little Nell with the majesty of St. Mortiz's Badrutt's Palace. Besides its breathtaking views of mountains and crystalline lakes, it boasted five restaurants, three bars, a world-renowned spa, and the members-only Sultan's Club, infamous across the Alps for its live music performances, dancing, and endless revelry with no curfew. It was, in other words, the very embodiment of its owner, Abdil Zawas, the man Conrad had come to see.
Conrad walked a red 'flying carpet' across a frozen moat and through a regal gate into the palace's elegant lobby. At the front desk, he asked for the general manager. While he waited, he looked around at the guests sharing drinks by the fireplaces.
The hotel certainly attracted an unusual quotient of celebrities and royals, he thought, starting with Abdil
