The Sacred Bones
A Novel
Michael Byrnes
F
OR
C
AROLINE
, V
IVIAN, AND
C
AMILLE
Contens
Looking out from the eastern parapet of Kolossi Citadel's square...
Salvatore Conte never questioned his clients' motives. His many missions...
Salvatore Conte rapped a gloved hand on the wall's limestone...
THREE DAYS LATER
As the El Al captain announced the flight's final descent...
Charlotte Hennesey was battling the unforgiving eight-hour time difference, and...
Deep beneath Temple Mount, Razak and Farouq stood amidst the...
At the end of the dimly lit corridor Charlotte Hennesey...
Razak led the Englishman over to the blast hole, motioning...
Father Donovan and Charlotte rode a noisy freight elevator down...
Returning from his meeting with the archaeologist, Razak found Farouq...
On the wide cement walkway along Stazione Termini's loading zone...
The wooden shipping crate was a sturdy, four-foot cube with...
Father Patrick Donovan devoured what lay before him. Only weeks...
Attached to a rail on the side of the workstation...
Outside the Vatican Museum, the sun was low over western...
The rising sun cast a faint glow of deep blue...
The two scientists convened in the lab at eight a.m.,...
"Surely you don't expect me to desecrate the remains of...
Having spent the past two hours completing a comprehensive journal...
Down the corridor from the lab, in a cramped space...
In a dim, cramped cell beneath the Fort du Coudray...
In the Apostolic Palace, Father Patrick Donovan sat at a...
Outside Temple Mount's northern gate, Barton avoided the chaos of...
Charlotte Hennesey was still grappling with the notion that the...
Graham Barton turned off Souk El-Dabbagha in the Christian Quarter...
Each time Father Patrick Donovan walked down the Apostolic Palace's...
Returning from lunch, both scientists felt refreshed. The afternoon had...
Watching Giovanni Bersei at work on the other side of...
As Charlotte exited the Vatican Museum through the upstairs service...
Sipping qahwa, Razak sat on the veranda of his apartment...
Charlotte Hennesey turned to see her alarm clock's digital readout...
At precisely twelve o'clock, Razak strolled over to the square...
Bringing up the skeletal scans in full-screen view, Giovanni Bersei...
Razak found Farouq in the small upstairs room in the...
Standing to get a better look at what Charlotte had...
An hour southwest of Jerusalem, the lush farmlands of Israel's...
Just after five o'clock, Father Donovan entered the lab.
Crossing the Ponte Sant' Angelo Bridge, Charlotte strolled down Via...
Just after nine a.m., Barton negotiated his way past Akbar...
Shortly after nine a.m., Father Donovan buzzed the lab intercom,...
When Ari Teleksen's cell phone rang, he already knew the...
Both scientists stared in amazement at the screen.
Evan Aldrich threaded his way past the workstations heaped with...
Farouq had just hung up his phone, in utter disbelief,...
The two scientists rode the elevator up one level and...
By the time Graham Barton returned to his second-floor rental...
Hands bound behind his back, Jacques DeMolay was escorted by...
Opening the front door of his quaint townhouse overlooking Villa...
Bersei didn't say a word until they were safely outside...
In the Secret Archive, Father Donovan placed the Ephemeris Conlusio...
Veering off congested Via Nomentana through the Villa Torlonia park...
For fifteen minutes, Giovanni Bersei worked his way deeper into...
Inside Station Zion's cramped detaining cell, Graham Barton stared hopelessly...
Huddled inside a loculus high on the passage wall, Giovanni...
At ten to ten, Father Patrick Donovan entered the lab...
Traversing the Apostolic Palace's grand corridor, Donovan stole a glimpse...
Cardinal Santelli was the first to break the atmosphere. "Are...
Carefully resting the ancient, weathered manuscript on the glossy mahogany...
Leaving the Apostolic Palace, Charlotte headed directly to the lab...
Charlotte sprinted down the corridor, the rubber soles the lab...
An hour northeast of Rome, Salvatore Conte's rented black Alfa...
Donovan dragged Conte's broken body into a thicket of bushes...
Seated at his kitchen table, sipping a late afternoon tea,...
After dawn prayer, Razak headed straight for the El-Aqsa Mosque....
Inside Farouq's office, Razak sat anxiously awaiting the Keeper's explanation...
In their suite at the Fiumicino Hilton, Evan and Charlotte...
Cardinal Antonio Carlo Santelli stared dejectedly out of his office...
Razak waited for Farouq to put on his reading glasses...
Aldrich moved closer to Charlotte. "Charlie, what if I told...
St. Peter's Basilica had closed promptly at seven p.m. and the...
Graham Barton had never been so glad to see the...
Farouq sat on his veranda, overlooking the red-tiled roofs and...
L
IMASSOL
, C
YPRUS
A
PRIL 1292
Looking out from the eastern parapet of Kolossi Citadel's square tower, Jacques DeMolay gazed across the open expanse of the Mediterranean, his white mantle and thick auburn beard fluttering against a warm breeze. For a knight nearing fifty, his regal features-- long nose, penetrating gray eyes, firm brow, and sculpted cheekbones-- were surprisingly youthful. His cropped hair was thick and peppered with gray.
Though he couldn't actually see the shores of the Holy Land, he swore he could smell the perfume of its sweet eucalyptus trees.
It had been almost a year since Acre, the last major Crusader stronghold in the eastern Kingdom of Jerusalem, had fallen to the Egyptian Mamluk's. The siege lasted six bloody weeks, until the then Grand Master, Guillaume DeBeaujeu, had thrown down his sword and retreated from the citadel wall to the rebukes of his men. DeBeaujeu had responded: "
Je ne m'enfuit pas...Je suis mort
."-- "I'm not running away. I am dead." Raising up his bloody arm, he had shown them the arrow plunged deep into his side. Then he had fallen, never to rise again.
Now, DeMolay wondered if DeBeaujeu's death had foretold the fate of the very Order itself.
"
Monsieur
," a French voice called over to him.
He turned toward the young scribe standing by the steps. "
Oui
?"
