The Cleric's Vault (34 page)

Chapter 59

Southeastern Ecuador

Hunter
had driven to a spot about thirty minutes outside of the city.
 
There, he’d turned off the main road in
favor of an old dirt one that led through a field to a grove of trees at the
foot of a hill.

Once
he reached the patchwork forest he stopped and ordered both of his passengers
to get out of the car slowly.
 
He
still held the gun firmly in his hand making sure the two men were aware that
he had not wavered since exiting the city.

The
rain had subsided on the drive out and now a cool breeze rolled across the
meadow and through the treetops nearby.

After
he made his way around the front of the vehicle, Hunter held out the wooden
cylinder towards Schultz.
 
“Open
it,” he ordered, pointing the gun at Tommy’s chest.

He
hesitated for a moment then reached out and took the object.
 
Instead of obeying, he scanned the
outside for a moment, again taking a look at the inscription that had been
burned into the cap.
 
Then,
carefully, he raised the tube to his ear and tilted it back and forth slowly.

“What
are you doing?” Hunter asked, shaking the weapon in Tommy’s direction.

Schultz
gave him an indignant expression.
 
“You don’t do a lot of this sort of thing, do you?” he asked, sarcasm
lathering the question.
 
“Sometimes
these have a separate glass filament on the inside.
 
Within that inner cylinder is acid and if opened incorrectly
would destroy any paper contents immediately.”

Hunter
frowned at this new information and lowered his weapon slightly.
 

“Fortunately,”
Tommy continued as he lowered the container back to his waist, “this isn’t one
of those.”

“How
do you know?” Carlson looked skeptical.

Schultz
sighed, obviously annoyed.
 
“Because if it were one of those, I could hear the liquid sloshing
around on the inside.
 
And
typically, those types of cylinders have a sort of combination lock to
them.
 
They’re called codices.
 
This one,” he held up the container,
“has nothing like that.”
 
Satisfied
he’d convinced Hunter it would be alright to proceed, Tommy squeezed the cap of
the wooden object and started pulling and twisting.
 

Hunter
tensed up for a second, not sure what was going to happen.

The
lid popped off, sealed by a cork on the underside.
 
Tommy peered in as Will watched with high interest.

Carlson
observed carefully as Tommy turned the container upside down and a small scroll
slid out.
 
“What is it?” Carlson asked,
impatiently.
 

Tommy
was already unrolling the tiny scroll very slowly.
 
“It’s vellum,” he said as he continued to work with the old
piece.
 
“Made from an animal skin.
 
Whoever created this piece knew that it
would stand a better chance against the elements and time than ordinary
paper.”
 
He turned towards the car
and laid the scroll out flat on the hood.
 
It had been dry for fifteen so minutes so he doubted it would hurt.

Carlson
stepped close to get a better look and held up a small, key ring flashlight.
 
The LED bulb illuminated the old
writing surface, revealing a dull shine.
 
What they saw was a very simple, crude drawing.
 
There was a squiggly line that went
from the top right of the writing surface to a point where it forked into two
similar lines.
 
At the point of the
fork was a darkened circle.
 
“What
is that?” Hunter asked and pointed at the dot.

Tommy
shook his head.
 
“I don’t
know.
 
There’s no other
information.”
 
He picked up the map
and turned it over, hoping to find another clue as to where they were supposed
to go but there was nothing.
 
Not
even a hint as to who had drawn up the old piece.
 

Carlson
stepped away from the vehicle.
 
“Is
this some kind of joke?
 
There has
to be more to it than just this.”

Tommy
stared at the stranger.
 
He had a
tired and frustrated look in his eyes.

It
was late and they were all tired.
 
Maybe Tommy could use that to buy some time.
 
“Look, it’s late.
 
We’re exhausted.
 
Let’s hole
up somewhere and get some rest and maybe we can figure this out in the morning.”
 
He tried not to sound like he was
begging, but he had the feeling the man with the gun wasn’t buying it.
 

“You
think I’m stupid?” Carlson answered.
 
“Yeah, let’s all just take a nap and when I wake up you two will still
be here.”

Will
interrupted.
 
“There’s rope in the
back of the truck.
 
Tie us up if
you want.”

Tommy
nodded in agreement.
 
“Tomorrow
morning we can drive to the next town and ask around about this drawing, see if
it turns up any leads.”

To
Hunter, their idea was starting to make a little sense.
 
He was tired and they weren’t going to
make any progress at that late an hour.
 
He could tie them to a tree in the grove nearby and in the morning maybe
he could find someone who could tell him the location of the circle on the
map.
 
“Ok,” he said after a few
more moments of thought.
 
“Get the
rope out of the back.
 
I don’t have
to remind you of what will happen if you try anything.
 
And I am a very light sleeper.”
 
Part of him considered killing Will and
dumping him on the side of the road.
 
No one would know and he only needed Tommy.
 
Hunter had learned, though, one could never have too much
insurance.
 
At the moment, he felt
like he had all the poker chips at the table.
 

*****

Adriana
ran into the hotel after parking her motorcycle at the side of the
building.
 
She flashed by the
concierge and up to the second floor room where she knew Sean would be.
 

Catching
her breath for a second, she knocked on the door.
 
She heard Sean tell her to come in from the other side so
she obeyed.

Sean
looked up as she entered the room.
 
Her dark hair was tousled.
 
In the black leather jacket and tight, black pants she was quite the
vision.
 
His mind, though, could
only think about his friend.
 
The
bond he and Tommy had was brotherly.
 
They’d known each other a long time.
 
And they took care of each other.
 
Tommy had offered Sean a way out of the Justice Department.
And he’d had always tried to protect his friend from unsavory characters.
  
In the last three weeks he’d
failed twice.
 

Adriana
put a gentle hand on his shoulder and stood next to him, not saying a
word.
 
Her thoughts were
understood.
 
She didn’t need to ask
how he was feeling.
 
And he
appreciated that.
 
“What are you
looking at?” She looked at the computer screen as she spoke.
 

He
turned the laptop slightly so she could see a little better.
 
“It’s a text from the Bible,” he
answered.
 
“Second Kings five,
verse ten.”

She
leaned over and read what was on the monitor silently.
 
“
Go
and wash seven times in the Jordan River, and your flesh will be restored and
you will be cleansed.
  
“What
does it mean?” she asked.

He
turned the computer back to where it had been then quickly typed in a few more
commands.
 

She
was impressed with how fast he could type.
 
Obviously, he had some kind of computer training.
 
The realization caused her to think
back to her father and for a second, she glanced out the window and down at the
city.
 
Somewhere down there, he was
up to his old tricks.
 
Worry
started to creep into her mind again, but she had to push that away for now.
 
Her father could handle himself, at
least a little while longer.

Sean
turned the screen back towards her again.
 
It displayed a map of Ecuador and all the main rivers.
 
He was particularly interested in the
region around Cuenca.
 
“We found
the Bible text engraved on a wooden cylinder last night at Crespi’s
church.
 
It was hidden under the
baptismal font.”

She
raised an eyebrow.
 
“What was
inside it?”

He
shrugged.
 
“The map, we think.
 
We don’t know for sure.
 
Before we could open it all hell broke
loose.
 
There was a bunch of
shooting.
 
We barely got out the
back of the church alive.
 
When we
did get out, Maury came with me.
 
Tommy and Will got in the second truck.”
 

His
face washed over with regret.
 
“That was the last I saw them.”

“What
happened to the other truck?”

He
tipped his head towards Mauricio who was still on the phone.
 
“We don’t know.
 
But Mauricio is trying to find
out.
 
He’s talking to the local
cops.
 
My gut tells me the car was
hijacked during the shootout.
 
So
whoever was following us has Tommy and Will now.”

She
looked at him sadly.
 
“I should
have been there.
 
Perhaps I could
have helped.
 
I am so sorry.”

He
shook his head.
 
“It’s okay.
 
I’m glad you weren’t.
 
You might have been in trouble now too.
 
“Did you get to do what you needed?” He
changed the subject for the moment.

She
just nodded and offered a forced smile, which he returned.

Delgado
hung up the phone and joined in the conversation next to the desk.
 
“The local police haven’t found the
vehicle yet, and no one has seen or heard anything.
 
Whoever took them left town immediately and didn’t say a
word to anyone.
 
They found my
driver’s body outside the church, along with a few other unknowns.”

The
news was what Sean had expected.
 
That still didn’t make it easy to hear.
 
“We have to assume that whoever has them wanted whatever was
in that cylinder,” he said.
 
“Without knowing what is on the map, it makes it a little harder to
figure out exactly where they might be going.
 
“I tried calling Tommy’s phone but he didn’t answer.
 
Whoever jacked the car probably took
whatever they had, including their phones.”
 

Her
mind was racing as she took in all the new information.
 
“So, you think that the Bible text from
the inscription is meant to refer to one of these rivers?” she pointed at the screen
again while she spoke.

Sean
nodded.
 
“Problem is, there are
several rivers within a hundred miles of here.
 
And even if we can figure out which one is the right one,
you’re potentially talking about hundreds of miles of shoreline on both sides
we would need to cover.”
 
It was a
big problem and Sean knew it.
 
“We
have to assume that the map pinpoints the location on a specific river,” he
added.

“Do
you have any idea what we are looking for?” Mauricio asked.

“Not
really.
 
It could be a cave or
maybe a big rock that marks the location.
 
We really have no idea what we’re looking for.”
 
Sean sighed in frustration and closed
his laptop.
 
His fingers rubbed
tired eyes.
 

“You
need to get some rest,” she spoke firmly.

He
shook his head.
 
“I won’t be able
to sleep.”

“There
is nothing you can do right now.
 
It’s late.
 
In the morning
maybe we can go into town and see if there is anyone who can help us.”