The Bone Chamber

your turn,” Adami said.

She didn’t remove the parchment. Instead, she picked up the cigarette, and held it closer to the paper. “Tex first.”

Adami motioned for Tex to slide out. His hands were tied behind him, and he moved stiffly. “Hand me the map, and I will allow Griffin to assist him from the car.”

“Get your man away,” Sydney ordered.

“Silvio,” Adami said. “In the car.”

Silvio walked back around and opened the front door, got in. Just before he closed the door, she saw the driver, his gun pointed toward the passenger compartment. “Tell your driver, and anyone else with a gun, that if I so much as hear a click, this thing is going up in smoke.”

“Lower your weapons,” Adami called out.

Sydney looked at Griffin. He ignored her, walked to the other side of the car. As he pulled Tex out, she dropped the rolled parchment into the tube, leaned forward, handed it to Adami. Tex was in Griffin’s arms, and he dragged him back, away from the car. Sydney let go of the leather strap, tossed the cigarette into the gutter as Adami rolled up the window. “Go!” he said to the driver.

The Mercedes took off.

Griffin looked at Sydney, defeat and anger written across his face.

38

Griffin shook himself. Sure, with Sydney’s help they’d rescued Tex, but at what price? The map was lost and he had no one to blame but himself for their failed mission.

“Easy does it,” Tex said, as Dumas cut the cords at his wrists. When he was free, he rubbed the circulation back, glaring at Griffin. “I spent how many days tied up in some room of his, and you let him get that map? You do realize what it leads to? Why he wanted it?”

“It’s not his fault,” Sydney interjected. “There’s something I-”

“Now isn’t the time,” Griffin told her.

“Hell if it isn’t,” she said. “When Adami figures out that that map isn’t quite what he bargained for, we’re going to be in a world of hurt.”

“What are you talking about?” Griffin asked.

She lifted her shirt.

Francesca sucked in her breath. Tex whistled. “That what I think it is?”

“When Griffin sent me into the bathroom to destroy it, I figured why not cut out the important parts? Give him what’s left over?”

“Jesus Christ,” Griffin said. “We need to get the hell out of here. Now!”

“Xavier is waiting at the cafe for Alfredo,” Dumas said. “My car is there.” Dumas took one side of Tex, Griffin the other, just in case he needed help, but Tex held his own as they raced around the corner.

“Where are they?” Griffin asked.

Dumas looked about the piazza. “There!” he said, pointing to a table at the cafe.

Alfredo and Xavier saw them and ran across the cobbled piazza, Alfredo carrying Sydney’s black bag on his shoulder. He held it out. “This was left in my van.”

Griffin took the bag and handed it to Sydney. “Right now, the farther you are from us, the safer you’ll be,” he told Alfredo. “Adami will undoubtedly be coming after us and the map.”

“Where should we go?” Alfredo asked.

“Take Xavier to the nearest carabinieri office. Have them contact the vice-comandante generale in Rome. Give them my name and they’ll know what to do.”

“Very good,” Alfredo said.

“And thanks for your help. Both of you.”

The two took off toward Alfredo’s van, and Dumas directed the others to his car parked nearby. He unlocked it, then threw Griffin his keys. “You’re better at evading,” he said, getting into the front passenger seat.

Francesca and Sydney got into the back. Tex was just about to slide in beside them when Griffin looked up, saw a black Mercedes drive past the intersection. The telltale sound of tires skidding on pavement told them that he and Tex had been spotted. “Hell,” he said, digging out his phone and tossing it into the backseat for Tex, before he got in. “HQ has a chopper on standby at the airport. Get it here.”

Tex called HQ as Griffin hit the gas, sped off. Traffic was incredibly thick on the main street. He pulled in at the first opening, not pausing to see if Adami was following.

“May I see it?” he heard Francesca ask Sydney.

Griffin eyed Sydney in the rearview mirror. “Do not pull that thing out under any circumstances.”

Francesca wasn’t about to let the matter drop. “I have to know how you did it?”

“Did what?” Sydney asked.

“Fooled Adami into making him think he had the map?”

“Technically he did have it. Just not all of it.”

“But I saw it!”

“Only what was left of it. I unrolled it just far enough so he couldn’t see that I’d cut out most of the labyrinth from the middle and the list of words of what I presumed was some sort of key or legend.”

Francesca gave a horrified gasp. “Do you realize what you’ve done? The history you’ve decimated?”

“And the lives she saved?” Griffin replied, braking to avoid a motorcycle that pulled out in front of him.

That, at least, shut Francesca up, but any chance of peace was lost when Dumas slammed his hand on the dashboard. “What about the lives I may have lost?”

Griffin checked the mirrors, saw the roof of a black vehicle about four cars back. “You sure it can’t wait for Sunday confessional? I could use your help trying to save the lives in this car right now. He’s behind us.”

“But what he told you about the ambassador.”

“What the hell? You didn’t think I believed that shit?” When there was no answer, Griffin glanced over, saw the look of self-loathing on the priest’s face. “For Christ’s sake. You mean you knew the ambassador was relaying info to Adami?”

“No. But I should have known.”

“How?” Griffin said, looking into the mirror. Adami’s driver veered into the opposing lane, passed two cars, then jumped in again. “He was as much a part of ATLAS as you and I.”

“Yet you didn’t pass on information, thereby endangering the team.”

Griffin felt Sydney’s gaze on him. “No, but my failure to pass on information caused issues.” He hit the horn, trying to get the car in front of him to pull aside.

“That makes us quite the pair. You trust no one, and I put all my trust in God.”

To which Tex said, “This Kumbaya shit is all well and good, but I could sure use a shot of Johnnie Walker and a shower, and if Adami catches up to us, I’m not getting either.”

Griffin checked his mirror. The black Mercedes was closing in on them. He whipped the wheel, made a hard right turn down a narrow street. “Find out where that chopper is, Tex.”

Tex made the call. “They’re tracking our cell now.”

Griffin turned left down an alley, then down another street that opened into a plaza. He blasted the horn. Pedestrians fled. The Mercedes was on their tail. Silvio leaned out the window, pointed a gun at them. And then the welcoming thrum of helicopter rotor blades filled the air. Griffin looked up, saw the military helicopter hovering above an Egyptian obelisk in the plaza’s center.

The chopper maneuvered down, and two uniformed carabinieri leaned out, submachine guns in hand. He saw Giustino behind the crew, talking to someone on his headset. “The cavalry’s here,” Griffin said.

“Adami’s backing off,” Tex replied.