The Bone Chamber

He looked around the room, perhaps trying to see where the camera was situated, then moved in close. “There’s nothing we can do,” he said, lowering his voice. Then, louder, said, “Adami’s on his way. I for one am going to take a shower.”

He disappeared into the bathroom, and while he was gone, she tried to determine why he was against taking a photo of it. Then again, if this room had cameras, Adami would know the moment they tried to snap a photo.

Griffin stepped out of the bathroom a few minutes later, towel-drying his hair, dressed only in his pants. He draped his shirt over the chair. “Dumas hasn’t called?”

“Not yet.”

He walked over to take another look at the map, when there was a knock at the door. Griffin strode over, peered through the peephole, then backed away. “It’s Dumas. He’s with Francesca. And there’s someone standing beside them.”

“Who?”

“Our friend from the Capuchin Crypt,” he said quietly, then pointed at the map.

She lifted the ice bucket, allowing the parchment to roll up on itself. She rolled it tighter, then dropped it into the tube.

“Hold on,” Griffin said loudly, grabbing his shirt. “Let me throw on my clothes.”

“What do you want me to do?” she whispered.

“Hug me for good luck.”

It took a moment for his odd request to sink in, and then she thought, cameras. She stepped into his arms, felt his skin, warm, moist against her, as he whispered, “Take it in the bathroom, pretend to be taking a shower, and destroy it.” She looked up, about to protest, but he held her tight, his whisper filled with urgency. “We’re out of ammo, and Tex or no Tex, if we can’t get the map out of Naples, I’m under orders not to let it leave our hands-even if we are killed in the process. We have to destroy it.”

His words sent a chill through her. She couldn’t believe he would willingly let his friend die. But she knew the hopelessness of the situation the moment she looked into his eyes, saw the pain, the resignation. As much as he wanted Tex safe, it had always been about the map, keeping it from the enemy.

She took the tube, carried it into the windowless bathroom, closed the door, locked it. She turned on the water to the shower, then looked at her reflection more ghostly than real through all that steam, and in that moment, she realized the full weight of Griffin’s dilemma. He was under orders not to let Adami have the map. But could she really think that he’d choose the map over Tex’s life? Even then, he couldn’t just turn over the map, when they knew what it might lead to. If there was any truth to this whole biblical plague thing-and so far everything she’d seen led her to believe it was all true-then everything they did from this moment on could mean countless lives saved…

Griffin’s bosses wanted the map. Impossible with Adami’s man outside the door.

But the impossible meant the map had to be destroyed. She took out the knife Griffin had given her, removed the map from the tube, unrolling it on the bathroom counter. She poised the knife over the map, intending to cut it to shreds, before flushing it, and it occurred to her what sort of history she was about to decimate.

But it wasn’t history that came to mind. It was Tex. One life or thousands of lives?

How did one choose?

“Dumas,” Griffin said, opening the door. “I see you brought company.”

Father Dumas gave an apologetic shrug. “The professoressa said that you’d want to see this man. He says his name is Silvio and that Adami sent him. He wants to know if you have the map.”

“I do. Where’s Tex?”

Silvio, his hand in the pocket of his overcoat, no doubt holding a weapon on them, barged into the room, looking around. “Signore Adami will bring your friend, once I call to confirm the map is here. Where is it?”

“Surely you saw the map on the monitor?”

“Until I verify that it is real, no exchange will be made.”

“It’s in the bathroom with my associate. I’d get it, but the door’s locked and she’s taking a shower.”

Silvio pulled his hand from his pocket, revealing the pistol he’d been hiding. He pointed it at Griffin. “I’d suggest she hurry. We are to meet Signore Adami out front with the map in hand in exchange for your friend. And he wants to know that he has the only copy, or the deal is off.”

There was a moment of silence, and then Griffin shouted Sydney’s name.

“I’m washing my hair,” she called back.

“Hurry.”

Griffin leaned against the bathroom door, heard the blow dryer start up, and wondered what the hell Sydney was doing in there.

Adami’s man stood in the center of the room, his arms crossed. “You’re sure she’s going to come out?”

“She has to. There are no windows.”

“What’s taking her so long?”

“She’s a girl. That’s what they do.”

The man’s phone rang. He flipped it open, said, “Pronto.” Then, “Adami is here. He wants reassurance that the map is here. Now.”

“No cameras in the bathroom?”

“We are not without some scruples,” he said, which was when Griffin wondered if there really were cameras in the room at all. Griffin had purposefully taken a shower just in case there were cameras in there, in order to steam the things up. He was not about to destroy the map and let anyone see it being done. Adami had no scruples, and he doubted that anyone who worked for him did, either. Definitely not this man, who demanded, “Let me see the map or Adami leaves with your friend.”

“Sydney! The map. I need it now.”

He heard the blow dryer shut off.

A few seconds later, the door opened a crack, and Sydney stepped out, holding the tube, her hair looking damp, as though she hadn’t bothered to dry it all the way.

“The map,” Griffin said, nodding toward Sydney.

“Show me.”

Sydney unbuckled the lid. His heart skipped a beat as he peered in, saw a bit of yellowish white. It was there, he realized, watching her tipping it upside-down to slide out the parchment partway. He wanted to throttle Sydney. She was supposed to have destroyed it. Francesca sucked in her breath at the sight of the fleur-de-lis on the outside corner. When she tried to move closer, Dumas put his hand out to stop her, and Sydney tapped the rolled parchment back into the tube and handed it to Griffin.

The man said into the phone, “It appears to be the map…”

“Satisfied?” Griffin asked.

“Signore Adami will be once he is assured there are no copies. I’ll need to search the room and the bathroom, as well as any of your possessions.”

“All yours,” he said, indicating the man could check the hotel room.

Adami’s man walked through the room, looking in Griffin’s backpack, the armoire, then behind it. He ripped off the sheets, checked beneath the mattress, around and beneath the bed, then in the drawers of the small bedside table, as well as the desk. And that confirmed it for Griffin that there were no cameras. They would have known that he and Sydney came straight in, opened the map, and then took it into the bathroom. He no doubt knew they were dusty because he had someone posted out front, and that person had seen them walk in. The man pocketed a small pad of paper he found in the desk drawer.

Griffin looked Sydney in the eye, trying to figure out what she was up to, why she didn’t destroy the map as ordered. “He wants to check the bathroom, to make sure there is nothing hidden in there.”

“Have at it,” she said, pushing the bathroom door wide open.

Adami’s man walked inside, looked around, peeked behind the door and into the shower, then came out. Into the phone, he said, “All clear.” He listened a moment, then told Griffin, “He’s waiting downstairs in the car.”

“I want to know my friend is safe before we go down there.”

“You don’t call the orders.”

“Then you don’t get the map.”