Soul Thief (Blue Light Series) (38 page)

Doug frowned. He wanted to scream in frustration.
It was driving him crazy imagining just hanging out here, eating and doing exercises while Annie’s life hung in the balance, or worse, his unborn child was slated for some dark purpose. Knowing that Annie thought he was dead was especially difficult. “What about Annie?” he asked.

“She’s okay,
still with her father at the house in Florida. They haven’t left the premises since your memorial service.”

“How do you know that?”

“I just do. Isn’t that enough?”

Doug stared.
“My god, who are you people? Don’t you get it? De Roché is a monster.”

“No harm will come to
Annie until after the baby is born. And that’s still more than four months away.”

“That’s comforting,” Doug said
, looking into Lucy’s eyes, trying desperately to see a truth that did not want to be seen. She was not being totally honest with him. He sensed it. No, he
knew
it. He wasn’t sure how he knew, he just did. He was picking up the same vibes he’d felt at the hospital; there was an odd and disturbing familiarity about this woman that totally baffled him. Had they met somewhere before? Had something happened while he was comatose that made him feel this strange affinity toward her?

H
e had to let it go because he did not have the strength or the wit to delve too deeply into it now. He’d been mostly asleep for the past couple of months. And Lucy was right about one thing. He did need to get his strength back. He really didn’t have much of a choice. He lifted the artifact up off his chest and inspected it, this time more thoroughly than before. To him it looked old, but otherwise unimpressive. Its surface was green and pitted, worn by the ravages of time. He remembered how he’d thought it had turned to gold when he’d first held it in his hand, but now he wasn’t sure of anything. Perhaps he’d dreamed that part of the story. It seemed so long ago, impossible now. Finally he let the object fall back in place and heaved a deep sigh. Suddenly he felt very tired.

“I remember everything now,” Doug said
, his voice a mere whisper. “An old man who said he was a priest gave this to me. He said it was meant for me. He’d been shot and he was dying. He tried to kill Annie’s father but failed. When he gave me the object he told me that it was both magical and a burden for the one that carried it.”

Doug watched Lucy’s eyes fill with tears.

“You knew him, didn’t you?”

Lucy nodded. “He knew he couldn’t kill
De Roché. He also knew that you wouldn’t believe anything he said. He sacrificed his life so that you
would
believe.”

“Jesus,” Doug said.

“I want to tell you a story,” Lucy said. “Think you’re up for it?”

“Yes. I need to know what’s going on.”

Lucy told him about the massacre at the church the night before the artifact was passed to Doug and about members of the Order being slaughtered. Doug listened without responding through the entire story. Finally Lucy said, “There’s a traitor in our ranks. We were supposed to be watching you and Annie, protecting you, but something went terribly wrong on the morning your house was destroyed. That should never have happened. And then Paul Redington called a meeting of the elders. He should not have done that, either, but he didn’t feel he had a choice. As it turned out, his instincts were correct.”

Doug
stared. “Where does that leave your organization?”

“The
Order is still very much alive but obviously less healthy. They’ve survived worse in their history.”

“Such as?”

“On October 13, 1307, a day so infamous that Friday the 13th would become a synonym with ill fortune, officers of King Philip IV of France carried out mass arrests in a well-coordinated dawn raid that left several thousand Knights Templar, sergeants, priests, and serving brethren—in chains, charged with heresy, blasphemy, various obscenities, and homosexual practices. None of these charges was ever proven, even in France—and the Order was found innocent elsewhere—but in the seven years following the arrests, hundreds of Templars suffered excruciating tortures intended to force confessions, and many more died under torture or were executed by burning at the stake. They were hunted nearly into extinction.”

“
I’ve read about the Templars,” Doug said. “Are you telling me . . .?”

“Yes, Doug, the Jesuit
Brotherhood of the
Order is a direct descendent of the Knights Templar. The massacre of 1307 forced them underground where they’ve remained for seven hundred years. They have become one of the most powerful, yet secret organizations on earth . . .” Lucy stopped and waited for her words to sink in. She watched Doug pick the object up off his chest and gaze at it. She saw the question in his eyes.

“
Paul Redington was their grand master,” Lucy said. “And that object you now hold in your hand is one of the most sought after artifacts in human history. He sacrificed his life to make sure you received it.”

“
This is what they were really after, isn’t it?” Doug said. “I mean back in 1307.”

Lucy nodded. “
History is skewed on that question, but the real truth has been safe inside the Order for more than seven hundred years. Many have given their lives protecting that truth.”

“So
where did it come from? I mean, how did the Templars acquire it?”

“This is the part that’s going to be difficult for you to
accept,” Lucy said.

“
Why?”

“Because it involves Annie and her father and ultimately it involves
you and your unborn child.”

Doug
said nothing.

“
The artifact was found on the bank of a silt-filled river near a muddy battlefield during the end of the Norman domination of France under King Philip Augustus,” Lucy said. “That was in 1204, more than a century before the Friday the thirteenth massacre. Legend has it that an ordinary soldier found it, and supposedly that’s when the Collector appeared for the first time—like an angel or a devil—depending on which version of the story you prefer, and he bargained with the soldier to obtain it. Legend also says that the soldier was mortally wounded and that after the bargain he was miraculously healed. Supposedly, he told his comrades that he’d given the demon the artifact in exchange for immortality. The soldier went on to found a great French dynasty. There are legends that say he outlived children and grandchildren. Then he was lost to history.

“
Templar lore says that the Collector placed the artifact in their hands for safekeeping and that on Friday the thirteenth 1307 more than one hundred years after it was passed to the Templars a traitor within their ranks brought the artifact to the attention of King Philip IV and subsequently to Pope Clement V, which set that entire Friday the thirteenth chain of events into play.

“
They were shockingly effective,” Lucy continued, “instantly chopping off the head of the Order. Or so they thought. Phillip obviously had a hit list of the most important knights to nab. Accounts differ wildly, but the most respected ones agree that 625 members of the Order were arrested in the first wave. These included the Grand Master, the Visitor-General, the Preceptors of Normandy, Cyprus, and Aquitaine and the Templars' Royal Treasurer.

“
The arrested Templars, whose average age was 41, were put into isolation and immediately subjected to the gruesome tactics of medieval "interrogation" on the very first day of their arrest. The technique of the
strapaddo
was common. It involved binding the victim's wrists behind his back, passing the rope over a high beam, pulling him off of the ground, and suddenly dropping him, snapping his arms and dislocating his shoulders. Stretching the victim on the rack was another favored method. Perhaps the most horrible was coating the victim's feet in lard or oil, and then slowly roasting them over a flame. Subjected to these agonies, the overwhelming majority of the knights confessed to every charge that was put to them except for one. When asked about the artifact and its whereabouts none would admit knowing of its existence. Many went to their deaths protecting the secret.

“
So the Order survived and its secret survived with them, and they did it by going underground where they remain to this day.”

“
That’s some story,” Doug said.

“
Yes,” Lucy said, “it is.”

“So,
tell me again why I have this thing?”

“Because you are the only one who can be trusted to see that it is placed in the hands of its rightful owner.”

“Who just happens to be my unborn child?”

Lucy nodded.
“The name of the soldier who found the artifact has been passed down through the generations. It is very firmly set in Templar lore.”

Doug remained silent.

“His name was De Roché,” Lucy said.

Doug said nothing but
Lucy saw the acquiescence in his eyes.

“
Once again there are traitors in our ranks,” she said. “It’s why you were discovered at the hospital, and it is why we had to run for our lives.”

“But that was the government chasing us.”

“Doug, it’s all connected.”

“So you’re saying that the traitors within the
Order are connected to the government.”

“Perhaps not in a direct and blatant manner, but yes they are connected.”

“How?”

“
They want the same thing. And they’re not the only ones who want it.”

“So it’s only a matter of time before they find me again,” Doug said.

Lucy shook her head. “I’ve gone rogue this time, broken all the rules.
They don’t know where I am and they don’t know where you are.”

“You said this place belonged to friends. If they want to find you they’ll find you.”

“These friends are special. Our friendship is different than normal friendships. The Order knows nothing about them. I know that nothing I say will put your mind totally at ease, but you have to trust me on this.”

Doug sighed.
“I guess I don't have a choice, do I?”

For a long moment
Lucy was silent. Finally she said, “Are you a superstitious man, Doug?”

Doug frowned.
“Superstitious? I’m not sure what you mean.”

“Do you believe in God?”

He gave his shoulders a casual shrug. “Not really. I grew up in a Christian family. We went to church, but not on a regular basis. After my parents were killed . . . well . . . I suppose I decided it really didn’t matter. I realized that bad things often happen to good people. Christian, Jew, Muslim. What the hell’s the difference? It’s all about one philosophy telling the rest of us how we should live our lives because theirs is the right way.”

“If we were to step back and really look at it, we all essentially believe the same thing,” Lucy said.

“I don’t know,” Doug said, as if he was struggling with Lucy’s philosophy. “To me, faith requires a suspension of intellect, and that’s what fundamentalism is all about, at the cost of everything else. I’ve never been willing to live my life with blinders on. Against all odds I’ve always believed in logic, scientific evidence, rationality.” Doug picked the artifact up off his chest and gazed intently at it. He looked at Lucy and then back at the artifact, a question in his eyes.

Lucy nodded as if answering his unspoken question.
“Difficult to explain that thing using your criteria. Wouldn’t you say?”

“
Let me get this straight,” Doug said. “You’re telling me that this is one of the most sought after, yet carefully guarded secrets in the history of the world.” Doug paused and cleared his throat. “You expect me to believe it has magical properties? You expect me to believe that De Roché was the soldier that made the bargain with the Collector more than seven hundred years ago? I’m supposed to believe that the Collector placed it in Templars hands for safe keeping. It makes no sense. Why would he do that? He’s a monster.”

“Maybe he’s not the monster we all think he is,” Lucy said. “Maybe he’s so different from us that we’re totally unable to
comprehend who he is or why he does the things he does.”

Doug sighed in frustration. “So now I’m supposed to believe his intentions are noble?”

“Maybe not noble exactly,” Lucy said, “but certainly debatable.”

Doug stared at Lucy for a long silent moment. Finally he said,
“Am I supposed to believe that this thing is a fragment of the spear that pierced the flesh of Jesus Christ on the day he was crucified?”

“No one knows
that for certain, Doug, but it is what the Order has always believed. It forms the foundations of their very system of beliefs. It is why they exist to this day. They have fought and died for centuries because of that belief.”

“So how did it end up on the bank of a river in
France more than twelve hundred years after the fact?”

“That’s another story
for another time.”