King's Crusade (Seventeen) (31 page)

Jackson’s breath left his lips in a faint gasp. He glanced at Alexa as if to ascertain the veracity of Reznak’s words. ‘That’s impossible,’ he finally stated. ‘Besides, I thought you people turned to ash after your final deaths, and that crows came for you.’

‘What you have to remember is that, as the forefathers of our races, Crovir and Bastian were incredibly unique beings,’ said Reznak calmly. ‘Genetic analysis has started to show how special they truly were. The clay pots we found the hearts in date back to more than four millennia ago.’

Jackson’s skeptical expression faded only partially while Reznak closed the metal case and placed it back in the safe. The Crovir noble disposed of the gloves and headed out of the chamber. Alexa was the last to leave, the metal panel closing behind her with a soft, pneumatic hiss. Her birthmark almost immediately stopped burning, and she unclenched her jaw.

Her godfather crossed the floor to the second steel door south of the computer room. A newly assembled lab lay beyond it. Glittering metals and shiny plastics covered the half dozen workstations arranged in a rough semicircle around a central table.

The room had been kitted out with every possible piece of gear Jackson would need to analyze the unique artifacts in his possession.

The Harvard professor’s eyes glittering with rising excitement. ‘I’m officially impressed,’ he murmured.

‘There’s a resting lounge down the corridor outside the computer lab,’ said Reznak. ‘Let me know if you need any extra equipment.’

‘I don’t think I will, but thanks,’ said Jackson distractedly. He walked to the middle of the floor and carefully placed Alexa’s bag on the table. A faraway expression dawned in his eyes, his gaze lost on an invisible horizon that only he could see. ‘I’ll start now.’

Reznak’s eyebrows rose. ‘Won’t you have dinner first? Marie is preparing one of her special feasts.’

‘Oh.’ Jackson flushed slightly. He glanced longingly at the bag before nodding. ‘Can I come back afterwards?’

Reznak smiled. ‘Yes. I’ll bring you to the lab myself.’

The evening meal was a warm affair, Reznak assuming his role as host with his usual aplomb. They retired to the study briefly for coffee. Soon, the Crovir noble headed out of the back door with Jackson in tow. Carrington offered to drive them. Reznak refused and shooed the immortal away.

‘If I don’t get behind the wheel once in a while, I’ll get rusty,’ her godfather grumbled.

Jackson halted in the doorway and turned to look at Alexa. Since there was no need for her presence at the lab, she was staying back to keep Marie and Fawkes company. ‘See you later,’ he said.

Alexa could tell that it was more of a question than a statement. She gave a quick nod, aware of Marie’s watchful gaze.

The antique grandfather clock in the entrance hall was chiming midnight when she climbed the steps to her old room in one of the castle towers a few hours later. Although Alexa rarely visited the estate these days, Marie had kept her chambers exactly as she had left them. She looked over the familiar books lining the shelves on the walls, the beautiful antique bed, and the matching wardrobe and chests of drawers. There was even a dressing table, which she had barely used in all the time that she had lived there.

Alexa crossed the wood floor to a pair of French doors. A balcony lay on the other side. She walked out into the night and leaned against a cream, stone baluster.

The air was cold and crisp. The snowfall had finally abated. Stars dotted the inky sky, brilliant diamonds around a full moon that shed its ethereal light over the white, sparkling landscape. Her breaths plumed the air in front of her lips as she stared silently across the park to the Bohemian Forest.

Her birthmark still throbbed faintly on the back of her neck.

She was still standing there at two o’clock in the morning when she heard the door to her room open. Footsteps sounded softly on the floorboards. She saw the edges of the gauzy French curtains billow past her as someone stepped onto the balcony.

‘Hey,’ said Jackson quietly behind her.

Alexa turned, put her arms around his neck, and kissed him.

Chapter Twenty-Five

H
e was gone when she
woke the next morning. Alexa lay in her bed and stared at the ceiling while she tried to analyze the complex emotions churning through her mind.

Her passion for Jackson showed no sign of abating. They had made love with a raw intensity that matched their first night together, only succumbing to sleep after dawn had broken across the land.

She sighed, threw the covers back, and strode naked into the bathroom.

‘What will you do today?’ Marie asked her pleasantly when she joined the older woman in the kitchen for a late breakfast.

Alexa was not fooled by her benign expression. Marie was bound to have noticed that Jackson had not slept in his bed.

‘I’m going to the lab.’ There were still plenty of things she could do while Jackson worked on deciphering the mysteries of the artifacts.

Marie smiled. ‘Good,’ she said with a faint nod.

Alexa took one of the spare Jeeps and headed to the research facility shortly before midday. She found Yonten in the computer lab on the eighth floor. The monk was playing a video game with Banks. The young Crovir immortal was scowling at him.

‘Are you sure you haven’t played this before?’ said Banks suspiciously. Alexa got the impression that this was not the first time he had asked the question.

Yonten shook his head and beamed.

‘He is telling the truth,’ said Eva smoothly. ‘Analysis of his heart rate, pupillary reactions, and facial expressions confirm this. Face it, Jordan. You are a poor loser,’ the AI added smugly.

‘Are they in there?’ asked Alexa, indicating the door leading to the private lab.

‘Uh-huh,’ said Banks distractedly. ‘Okay! Let’s go for another round,’ he told the monk. Yonten nodded amiably and took a biscuit out of his robe.

She found Jackson seated behind one of the workstations in the lab. Reznak was leaning against the back of the Harvard professor’s chair. Oblivious to her presence, the two men talked excitedly as they stared at the crisp, enhanced images on the large monitor before them.

The Emerald Tablet and Anna Godard’s sun cross pendant stood propped under a pair of sleek, high-resolution, digital magnifiers on the table in the middle of the room.

‘See the markings here and here?’ Jackson was saying as he pointed to two lines of small, wedge-shaped characters in the middle of the tablet. ‘Although the rest of the text appears to be Assyrian, these are undoubtedly Akkadian scripts, which would put the origin of the stone to at least the third millennium BC. The carbon fourteen data from the mass spectrometer also gives that period as the approximate era for its source.’

Alexa cleared her throat.

‘Oh. Hi,’ said Jackson. He turned to her with a preoccupied smile.

Reznak observed the silent look she exchanged with Jackson with a carefully neutral expression.

‘Any progress yet?’ she asked in a steady voice.

Jackson nodded. ‘Yes. We’ve successfully dated the tablet, which will help with the translation. And I was correct about the pendant—the filigree and granulation design on the sun cross and the presence of Sumerian scripts puts its origin at the end of the fourth millennium BC.’ He looked at the two artifacts on the table. ‘I believe the pendant is older than the Emerald Tablet.’

Alexa’s gaze fell on the bag she had given to Jackson. She crossed the room and picked up the slim tome resting atop it. It was the book that Yonten had stolen from the Freemasons’ vault. ‘Have you examined this yet?’ she said, turning to look at Jackson.

A guilty grimace crossed the Harvard professor’s face. ‘No. I’m afraid I’ve been concentrating on the tablet and the pendant.’

She leafed through the pages of the book. ‘Mind if I take a look?’ she asked as she studied the tiny, calligraphic lettering that covered the thick sheets.

‘Er, no,’ said Jackson. ‘Knock yourself out.’

Lorenzio’s folder peeked out from beneath the bag. Alexa left the room with the book and document wallet in hand, took the last chair at the central hub in the computer lab, and put her feet up on the worktop. Banks looked away from the screen and gave her boots a frown. She raised her eyebrows coolly. He sighed and returned to his virtual Mario race against the monk.

She picked up the phone and called the main Crovir intelligence network. ‘Hi,’ she said after they acknowledged her ID. ‘I’m at Reznak’s place in Sumava. Can you send Eva the image of the van from Rome? Thanks.’

She disconnected and turned to the tome. Although the text had been written in Medieval Latin, she found a date in the margin of the second page. It read 1695.

Eva interrupted her a second later. ‘Hi, Alexa. I’ve received the picture you requested. Would you like me to process it?’

Alexa looked up. The shot of Lorenzio’s killer and the van outside St. Peter’s Square was in the top left corner of the monitor in front of her. ‘Yes. We’re trying to find a match for the vehicle. A current location would be ideal. Can you help?’

‘Of course,’ said Eva smoothly. ‘I will use my access to our satellites and recognition softwares straightaway.’

‘Thank you,’ said Alexa. She ignored Bank’s little yelp of frustration at losing another match to Yonten and settled back in the chair.

An hour later, she asked Banks for a scanner and uploaded the entire volume to the screen in front of her.

The first half of the Freemasons’ book had been a candid observation on the esoteric societies that had started to emerge across Europe shortly after the inception of Freemasonry around the fourteenth century. The second half was encoded.

Alexa had Eva bring up the decryption softwares from the central Crovir security network and had the pages deciphered within the next ninety minutes. Her eyes narrowed as she continued reading on the screen. Things were starting to get interesting.

The author of the book appeared to have fixated on a single esoteric society for the remainder of his work. The activities of this particular group had evidently perturbed him enough for him to encrypt the words he had put down on paper.

Alexa knew without a doubt that he was talking about the
Rose Croix
sect.

Her fingers flicked across a track pad as she highlighted specific sections and cross-referenced the associated historical events against Eva’s vast database. The words ‘Rosa Crucis’ and a drawing of a
Rose Croix
finally appeared in the margin of a page. By then, she had taken over a second display.

She occasionally rubbed the back of her neck as she studied the complex data on the monitors; her birthmark had started to feel hot again the moment she had come within a thirty-foot radius of the Egyptian cave and the pair of immortal hearts. She was certain Yonten and Reznak would find a cryptic significance behind the phenomenon if she mentioned it to them. Since there was nothing to be gained from alluding to it, she chose to remain silent on the subject.

Banks left the computer lab to go work elsewhere in the facility. Yonten started to play chess with Eva. At five in the afternoon, Alexa felt coldness start to trickle through her mind at the information displayed on the two monitors.

A pattern was starting to emerge.

She recalled what Jackson had said in Istanbul about his research into human history and how he had detected anomalies in the timelines, which aroused his suspicions about the existence of another race. As she turned to Lorenzio’s folder and opened it, something small and white fluttered out. She leaned down and picked it from the floor.

It was the piece of paper with the Cartesian coordinates that Jackson had stolen from the tavern in Istanbul. Alexa stared at it for a moment before tucking it inside her jacket.

She started to methodically examine the evidence gathered by the Pope’s secret commission over the last twenty years. At the back of the folder, she found several private documents by the dead archbishop recording his observations of the
Rose Croix
sect over a period spanning a hundred years.

Except for a couple of centuries, most of the data was there.

‘Eva,’ Alexa said quietly, ‘can you bring up the geographical and historical locations of the events I’ve underscored? I’m going to scan some more documents for you to upload.’

Yonten paused the game and turned to look at her. His solemn gaze shifted to the monitors.

Fifteen minutes later, the information was on the system. Eva spread the data across three screens. Alexa rose from the console, took a few steps back, and stood with her arms crossed while she studied the displays. Finally, she turned, crossed the floor to the private lab, and opened the steel door.

Reznak and Jackson were examining the sun cross pendant on the table.

‘You need to see this,’ she said.

They did not question her tone of voice. Banks walked through the doors of the computer lab just as she led the two men into the main chamber.

‘Whoa!’ said the young Crovir immortal. ‘What’d you do to my screens?’

He did not get an answer.

‘What are we looking at?’ asked Reznak, glancing curiously from her face to the monitors.

‘The
Rose Croix
sect goes by the name of Kronos,’ said Alexa, tilting her head at a highlighted paragraph decoded from the second half of the Freemason’s book. ‘Aside from a period of time spanning nearly two hundred years, this is as thorough an account as we’re likely to get about their activities over the last six centuries.’

Her godfather inhaled sharply. ‘Kronos? You’re certain?’ The color drained from his face.

Alexa tensed. ‘Yes, I am. What’s wrong?’

Reznak was silent for several seconds. ‘The scriptures in the cave walls above us give a partial account of Crovir’s life. He had six children,’ he finally said in a low voice. Muscles twitched in his jaw. ‘The name of his third son was Kronos.’

The cold feeling that had invaded Alexa’s mind intensified. She thought of Lorenzio’s account of pureblood immortals who had mated with humans and the resulting halfbreed offsprings. ‘Does this mean that Cavaleti could be a descendant of Kronos?’

‘It’s within the realm of the possible,’ Reznak admitted reluctantly, his expression darkening.

Alexa watched him for a moment before turning back to the screens. ‘Lorenzio’s speculation as to the motives of the sect appears to be validated by the pattern emerging from combining the data from the Freemasons’ book, the Pope’s secret commission, and the archbishop’s own observations in the century before that.’ She pointed at half a dozen sections on the screens. ‘All the major religious wars and disputes that have ever threatened to topple the Catholic Church have apparently been influenced by the actions of the sect.’

‘Holy crap,’ uttered Banks. ‘What’s this about toppling the Catholic Church?’ He stared at their solemn faces.

Alexa glanced at Jackson. ‘The
Mutus Liber
and the Emerald Tablet are also mentioned in the Freemasons’ book,’ she said.

Jackson’s gaze focused on the highlighted paragraphs she indicated.

‘It seems that Cavaleti’s sect has been searching for both items for centuries,’ she continued. ‘The Emerald Tablet was entrusted to the Freemasons in the fifteenth century by someone who sounds very much like an immortal. By the end of the seventeenth century, when the book’s timeline ends, the location of the
Mutus Liber
still remained a mystery.’

‘Hey, are you guys talking about the Philosopher’s Stone?’ asked Banks.

‘Yes,’ Alexa replied curtly.

‘Wow,’ whispered the young immortal.

‘Eva, split the screens,’ said Alexa quietly. The monitors changed, the data separating into two distinct streams. ‘I asked Eva to perform an extrapolation from the information available to help guide us as to Kronos’s next move.’ She pointed at the first monitor. ‘I think the reason their activities have accelerated of late, and that Cavaleti made such a rare public appearance after half a decade under the radar, is because they are close to their goal. If we put what we know about Kronos’s actions to date and their primary objective of bringing about the downfall of the Catholic Church, it’s safe to assume the immortals’ tombs are a big part of the picture.’ She watched understanding begin to dawn in her godfather’s eyes. ‘What would be an absolute and irrevocable way of denying the fundamental importance of the Catholic Church?’

Horror washed across Jackson’s face. Yonten frowned faintly.

‘By proving that its foundations are possibly based in lies,’ said Reznak, his expression hardening. ‘By revealing the existence of immortals.’

‘If we assume that the timeline of the history of Christianity is correct, then the Son of God could theoretically be a descendant of the original immortals,’ Jackson continued in a dull voice.

Alexa looked at the monitors. ‘Lorenzio suspected that Cavaleti wished to establish his own brand of religion. He thought the man wanted to be a living god. If Cavaleti believes he is from the lineage of Kronos, then he has every justification to indulge in that sick fantasy.’

‘But, even if this Cavaleti character were to succeed, he’d have to face the real immortals,’ interrupted Banks with a frown. ‘The Crovirs and the Bastians would never let him get away with this. Not after all the blood, sweat, and tears they’ve invested in the human race.’

A grim smile crossed Alexa’s lips. ‘Well said,’ she murmured, nodding curtly at the computer genius. ‘That’s where the second equation comes in.’ The stream of data on the other screen faded. Only three sets of words remained. ‘Lorenzio could not see the connection between the sect’s plans and the
Mutus Liber
. Add in the Emerald Tablet and the original immortals’ tombs, and it starts to make sense.’ She glanced at Jackson and could see rising awareness reflected in his cobalt eyes. ‘Cavaleti knows that the Crovirs and the Bastians are the only ones who can stop him. That’s why he’s obsessed with finding the Philosopher’s Stone.’

‘He wants to achieve true immortality,’ Reznak stated coldly in the taut silence that ensued.

‘If deciphered correctly, the Emerald Tablet and the
Mutus Liber
apparently describe the process of making the Elixir of Life,’ said Alexa. ‘As to the tombs—’

‘He must think that they somehow contain the ingredients to making the Philosopher’s Stone!’ Jackson concluded in a breathless rush of words. Admiration glowed in his fevered gaze as he looked at her.

‘But, surely he wouldn’t be able to challenge the combined forces of our two immortal races,’ said Banks dubiously. ‘The Crovirs and the Bastians are embattled veterans who have been fighting wars for millennia!’

‘That might have been true seven hundred years ago,’ Alexa said quietly, ‘but the Red Death decimated us almost to the point of extinction. Our races are nowhere close to the numbers they were at before the plague.’ She ran a hand through her hair. ‘Ismael Sadik said this sect was ancient. I believe him. I think Kronos has been around in one form or another for a long time. I would not underestimate the size of their faction. From what is written in those,’ she indicated the documents on the screens with a head tilt, ‘Cavaleti has been assembling a veritable army. Boyko Dragov is his right hand and principal disciple. There are immortals among their ranks, too. If he succeeds, we could be looking at the birth of a third, more powerful race of immortals.’

‘Damn,’ muttered Banks with a trace of admiration.

The soft, modulated voice of the AI interrupted them. ‘Alexa, I have a hit on the van’s registration plate,’ said Eva. ‘It was spotted in Budapest an hour ago. I’ve managed to trace its current location.’

A satellite image sprang up on one of the monitors. It showed a twilight view of a conglomeration of dark buildings in the middle of an empty countryside.

Alexa grew still as she studied the faint illumination outlining the distinct patterns of lines in the large field next to it. ‘Is that a military airbase?’

‘Yes,’ said Eva. ‘My data banks show that it was last occupied by the Soviet Armed Forces during the Cold War. It is currently classified as disused.’

Alexa turned to Reznak. ‘Dragov and Cavaleti could be there right now,’ she stated in a steady voice that managed to mask the anticipation building up inside her.

Her godfather was not fooled by her expression. ‘Take however many men you need,’ he said tersely. ‘I’ll talk to our First Council and the Bastians.’