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FORTY-SEVEN

MALONE WINCED AT STEPHANIE’S DECLARATION HE’D BEEN WONDERING when her patience would run out

"You can’t do that," Mark said to his overnment to be involved"

"Why not?" Stephanie asked "That abbey should be raided Whatever they’re doing is certainly not religious"

"On the contrary," Geoffrey said in a tremulous voice "Great piety exists there The brothers are devoted to the Lord Their lives are consumed with His worship"

"And in between you learn about explosives, hand-to-hand combat, and how to shoot a weapon like a marksman A bit of a contradiction, wouldn’t you say?"

"Not at all," Thorvaldsen declared "The original Te force"

Stephanie was clearly not impressed "This is not the thirteenth century De Roquefort has both an agenda and the enda onto others Today we call hied a bit," Mark spat out

"No, I haven’t I still believe that covert organizations with money, weapons, and chips on their shoulders are problems My job is to deal with them"

"This doesn’t concern you"

"Then why did your ht

"You didn’t understand when Dad was alive, and you don’t now"

"Then why don’t you clear up my confusion?"

"Mr Malone," Cassiopeia said in pleasant tone "Hoould you like to see the castle restoration project?"

Apparently their hostess wanted to speak with him alone Which was fine--he had some questions for her, too "I’d love that"

Cassiopeia pushed back her chair and stood froive everyone else here time to talk--which, clearly, needs to happen Please, make yourselves at home Mr Malone and I will return in a short while"

He followed Cassiopeia outside into the bright afternoon They strolled back down the shaded lane, toward the car park and the construction site

"When finished," Cassiopeia told him, "a thirteenth-century castle will stand exactly as it did seven hundred years ago"

"Quite an endeavor"

"I thrive on grand endeavors"

They entered the construction site through a broad wooden gate and strolled into what appeared to be a barn with sandstone walls that housed a modern reception center Beyond loomed the smell of dust, horses, and debris, where a hundred or so people milled about

"The entire foundation for the peri," Cassiopeia said, pointing "We’re about to start the corner towers and central buildings But it takes time We have to fashion the bricks, stone, wood, andthe sa the same clothes"

"Do they eat the same food?"

She smiled "We do make soh the construction area and up the slope of a steep hill to acould be clearly seen

"I come here often One hundred and twenty men and women are employed down there full time"

"Quite a payroll"

"A small price to pay for history to be seen"

"Your nicknaineer?"

"The staff gavetechniques I’ve designed this entire project"

"You know, on the one hand, you’re an arrogant bitch On the other, you can be rather interesting"

"I realize my comment at lunch, about what happened with Henrik’s son, was inappropriate Why didn’t you strike back?"

"For what? You didn’t knohat the hell you were talking about"

"I’ll try not to ments"

He chuckled "I doubt that, and I’o developed a lizard skin You have to in order to survive in this business"

"But you’re retired"

"You never really quit You just stay out of the line of fireStephanie Nelle si, isn’t it?"

"Not at all In fact, it’s entirely consistent with your personality"

Noas curious "How do you know about my personality?"

"Once Henrik asked reat deal about you I have friends in your forhly of you"

"Glad to know folks remember"

"Do you know much about me?" she asked

"Just a thumbnail sketch"

"I have many peculiarities"

"Then you and Henrik should get along well"

She s have you known him?"

"Since childhood He knew o, he toldon fascinated ht of me as the devil Unfortunately, I couldn’t help him on the last day of his life"

"Were you there?"

She shook her head "He’d traveled south to the mountains I was here when Henrik called and told me the body had been found"

"Did he kill himself?"

"Lars was a sad man, that was plain He was also frustrated All those amateurs who’d seized on his work and twisted it beyond recognition The puzzle he tried to solve has re time So, yes, it’s possible"

"What were you protecting him from?"

"Many tried to encroach on his research Most of them were ambitious treasure hunters, some opportunists, but eventually Raymond de Roquefort’s men appeared Luckily, I was always able to conceal my presence from them"

"De Roquefort is now master"

She crinkled her brow "Which explains his renewed search efforts He now commands all the Te about Mark Nelle and where he’d been living the past five years, so he told her, then said, "Mark lost to de Roquefort in the selection of a new master"

"So this is personal between them?"

"That’s certainly part of it" But not all, he thought, as he stared down and watched a horse-drawn cart work its way across the dry earth toward one of the partial walls

"The work being done today is for the tourists," she said, noticing his interest "Part of the show We’ll return to serious building ton out front said it’ll take thirty years to finish"

"Easily"

She was right She did possess many peculiarities

"I intentionally left Lars’s notebook for de Roquefort to find in Avignon"

That revelation shocked him "Why?"

"Henrik wanted to talk to the Nelles privately It’s e’re here He also said that you’re a man of honor I trust precious few people in this world, but Henrik is one I do So I’s no one else knows"

MARK LISTENED AS HENRIK THORVALDSEN EXPLAINED HIS mother appeared interested, too, but Geoffrey sily in a trance

"It’s time you fully understand what Lars believed," Henrik said to Stephanie "Contrary to what youafter treasure A serious purpose lay behind his inquiries"

"I’ll ignore your insult, since I want to hear what you have to say"

A look of irritation crept into Thorvaldsen’s eyes "Lars’s theory was sih it really was not his Ernst Scoville formulated most of it, which involved a novel look at the Gospels of the New Testament, especially with how they dealt with the resurrection Cassiopeia hinted at some of this earlier

"Let’s start with Mark’s His was the first Gospel, written around AD 70, perhaps the only Gospel the early Christians possessed after Christ died It contains six hundred sixty-five verses, yet only eight are devoted to the resurrection This most remarkable of events only rated a brief mention Why? The answer is simple When Mark’s Gospel ritten, the story of the resurrection had yet to develop, and the Gospel ends without mention of the fact that the disciples believed Jesus had been raised from the dead Instead, it tells us that the disciples fled Only wonore a coo to Galilee so the risen Christ could meet them there Rather, the wo no one what they saw There are no angels, only a young man dressed in white who caluards, no burial clothes, and no risen Lord"

Mark knew everything Thorvaldsen had just said was true He’d studied that Gospel in great detail

"Matthew’s testimony came a decade later The Romans had by then sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Te world The Orthodox Jeho stayed in the Holy Land viewed the neish Christians as a problem--as much of one as the Romans were Hostility existed between the Orthodox Jews and the e Jewish Christians Matthew’s Gospel was probably written by one of those unknoish Christian scribes Mark’s Gospel had left ed the story to suit his troubled tier who announces the resurrection becoel He descends in an earthquake, with a face like lightning Guards are struck down The stone has been reel perches upon it The woripped with fear, but it is rapidly replaced with joy Contrary to the women in Mark’s account, the women here rush out to tell the disciples what’s happened and actually confront the risen Christ Here, for the first time, the risen Lord is actually described And what did the women do?"

"They took hold of His feet and worshiped Him," Mark softly said "Later, Jesus appeared to His disciples and proclaiiven to me’ He tells thee," Thorvaldsen said "The Jewish Messiah named Jesus has now beco is more vivid Miraculous, too Then comes Luke, sometime around AD 90 By then the Jewish Christians had moved further away from Judaism, so Luke radically e The woain, but this tio tell the disciples Peter returns and sees only the discarded burial clothes Then Luke tells a story that appears nowhere else in the Bible It involves Jesus traveling in disguise, encountering certain disciples, sharing aThere is also a later encounter with all of the disciples where they doubt His flesh, so He eats with them, then vanishes And only in Luke do we find the story of Jesus’s ascension into heaven What’s happened? A sense of rapture has now been grafted onto the risen Christ"

Mark had read similar Scripture analyses in the Templar archives Learned brothers had for centuries studied the Word, noting errors, evaluating contradictions, and hypothesizing on the many conflicts in names, dates, places, and events

"Then there’s John," Thorvaldsen said "The Gospel written the furthest away froes in this Gospel, it’s almost as if John talks of a totally different Christ No Bethlehem birth--Nazareth is Jesus’s birthplace here The other three talk of a three-year ministry John says only one The Last Supper in John occurred on the day before the Passover--the crucifixion on the day the Passover lahtered This is different fro of the Temple from the day after Palm Sunday to a time early in Christ’s oes to the tomb and finds it empty She never even considers a resurrection, but instead thinks the body has been stolen Only when she returns with Peter and the other disciple does she see two angels Then the angels are transformed into Jesus Himself

"Look how this one detail, about as in the to el, which Luke expanded to two angels, which John els who becoarden on the first day of the week, as Christians are always told? Mark and Luke said no Matthew, yes John said not at first, but Mary Magdalene did see Him later What happened is clear Over time, the resurrection wasworld"

"I assume," Stephanie said, "you don’t adhere to the principle of biblical inerrancy?"

"There’s nothing whatsoever literal within the Bible It’s a tale riddled with inconsistencies, and the only way they can be explained is through the use of faith That o, or even five hundred years ago, but that explanation is no longer acceptable The human mind today questions Your husband questioned"

"So as it Lars meant to do?"

"The impossible," Mark ely understanding eyes "But that never stopped him" The voice was low andlain hidden "If nothing else, he was a wonderful dreamer"

"But his dreams had a basis," Mark said "The Templars once knehat Dad wanted to know Even today, they read and study Scripture that’s not a part of the New Testament The Gospel of Philip, the Letter of Barnabas, the Acts of Peter, the Epistle of the Apostles, the Secret Book of John, the Gospel of Mary, the Didache And the Gospel of Thomas, which is to them perhaps the closest we have to what Jesus may have actually said, since it has not been subjected to countless translations Many of these so-called heretical texts are eye opening And that hat made the Templars special The true source of their power Not wealth or e"

MALONE STOOD UNDER THE SHADE OF TALL POPLARS THAT DOTTED the promontory A cool breeze eased past and dulled the sun’s rays, re for Cassiopeia to tell him what nobody else knew "Why did you allow de Roquefort to have Lars Nelle’s notebook?"

"Because it’s useless" A crinkle of aht it contained Lars’s private thoughts Infor"

"So Lars created it just for the Templars"

"Would Claridon have known that?"

"Probably not Lars was a secretiveHe said once that only the paranoid survived in his line of work"

"How do you know this?"

"Henrik are Lars never spoke of the details, but he told Henrik of his encounters with the Te to the Order’s master They talked several times, but eventually de Roquefort entered the picture And he was altogether different More aggressive, less tolerant So Lars created the notebook for de Roquefort to focus on--not unlike the misdirection Sauniere himself used"

"Would the Templar master have known this? When Mark was taken to the abbey, he had the notebook with hio, when he sent it to Stephanie"

"Hard to say But if he sent the notebook to Stephanie, it’s possible the ain chase after it He apparently wanted Stephanie involved, so what better way than to bait her with so irresistible?"

Smart, he had to admit And it worked

"The master surely felt Stephanie would use the considerable resources at her disposal to aid the quest," she said

"He didn’t know Stephanie Too stubborn She’d try it on her own first"

"But you were there to help"

"Lucky me"

"Oh, it’s not that bad We never would have met otherwise"

"Like I said, lucky me"

"I’ll take that as a coht be hurt"

"I doubt you bruise so easily"

"You handled yourself well in Copenhagen," she said "Then again in Roskilde"

"You were in the cathedral?"

"For a while, but I left when the shooting started It would have been i my presence, and Henrik wanted that kept secret"

"And what if I had been unable to stop those men inside?"

"Oh, co How shocked were you when the brother leaped fro you see every day"

"He fulfilled his oath Trapped, he chose death rather than risk the Order’s exposure"

"I assume you were there because offor a visit"

"Partly When I heard of Ernst Scoville’s sudden demise, I learned from some of the older men in Rennes that he’d spoken with Stephanie and that she was co their days playing chess and fantasizing about Sauniere Each one of theed that he et Lars’s notebook He didn’t care for Stephanie, though he’d led her to believe otherwise Obviously he, too, was unaware that the journal was by and large less His death aroused my suspicions, so I contacted Henrik and learned of Stephanie’s io to Dennon?"

"I had a source at the asylum No one believed Claridon was crazy Deceitful, untrustworthy, an opportunist--certainly But not insane So I watched until you returned to clai in the palace archives, just not what As Henrik said at lunch, Mark never her to deal with than his father He only occasionally searched So, perhaps, to keep his father’s memory alive Whatever he may have found, he kept totally to himself He and Claridon connected for a while, but it was a loose association Then, when Mark disappeared in the avalanche and Claridon retreated to the asyluave up"

"Until now"

"The quest is back on, and this tio"

He waited for her to explain