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FIFTY-NINE
MALONE STOOD AND MARCHED TOWARD THE ALTAR IN THE BEAM of his flashlight he’d noticed that there was no ement of the support stones had drawn his attention, and kneeling had allowed him to see the crack
At the altar he bent down and shone the light closer "This top is not attached"
"I wouldn’t expect it to be," Mark said "Gravity held the’s what? Three inches thick and six feet long?"
"Bigou hid his cryptogram in the altar colu place Unique, wouldn’t you say? To get to it, he had to lift the slab enough to free the locking pin, then slide the glass vial into the niche Shift the top back and you have a great hiding place But there’s e by that selection" He set the flashlight down "We need to move this"
Mark walked to one end and Malone positioned hi each side with his hands, he tested to see if the stone would htly
"You’re right," he said "It’s just sitting there I don’t see any reason for niceties Shove it off"
Together, they waddled the stone left and right, then worked it enough so that gravity allowed it to crash to the floor
Malone stared into the rectangular opening they’d exposed and saw loosely packed stones
"The thing is full of rocks," Mark said
Malone set ’em out"
"For what?"
"If you were Sauniere and didn’t want anyone to follow your tracks, that stone top is a good deterrent But these rocks would be even better Like you told ht a hundred years ago Look around Nobody would have co but a ruin And ould have disasse here for centuries unmolested But if someone did do all that, why not another layer of defense"
The rectangular support stood about three feet off the floor, and they quickly tossed the stones aside Ten minutes later the support was empty Dirt filled the bottoht he detected a gentle vibration He bent down and probed with his fingers The parched soil possessed the consistency of desert sand Mark shone the light while he scooped the earth aith a cupped hand Six inches deep he hit so With both hands he cleared away a foot-wide crater and saooden planks
He looked up and grinned "Ain’t it nice to be right"
DE ROQUEFORT STORMED INTO THE ROOM AND FACED HIS COUNCIL He’d hastily ordered an asse his telephone conversation with Geoffrey
"The Great Devise has been found," he said
Astonishment crossed the assembled faces
"The for place I have a brother embedded with them as a spy He’s reported their success It’s tie"
"What do you propose?" one of thehts and seize them"
"More bloodshed?" the chaplain asked
"Not if the action is handled with care"
The chaplain seemed unimpressed "The former seneschal and Geoffrey, who apparently is your ally since we know of no other brother in league with them, have already shot two brothers There’s no reason to suggest that they would not shoot h "Chaplain, this is not a uidance is not needed"
"The safety of the members of this Order is all our responsibility"
"And you dare to say that I don’t have the safety of this Order in mind?" He allowed his voice to rise "Do you questionmy decision? Tell me, Chaplain, I want to know"
If the Venetian was inti in his countenance betrayed fear Instead, the ianceno matter what"
He did not like the insolent tone
"But, Master," the chaplain continued, "was it not you who said that we should all be a part of decisions of this nitude?" A few of the other officers nodded "Did you not tell the brotherhood in conclave that you would chart a new course?"
"Chaplain, we are about to ereatest mission this Order has undertaken in centuries I have not the ti praise to our Lord and God was our greatest mission And that is a matter of faith, to which I ah "You are dismissed"
The chaplain did not move None of the others said a word
"If you do not leave iht before me later for punishment" He paused a moment "Which will not be pleasant"
The chaplain stood and tipped his head "I will go As you command"
"And we shall talk later, I assure you"
He waited until the chaplain left then said to the others, "We have searched for our Great Devise a long tirasp What that repository contains does not belong to anyone but us Our heritage is there I, for one, intend to claihts will assist me I will leave it to you to select those ymnasium in one hour"
MALONE CALLED OUT FOR STEPHANIE AND CASSIOPEIA AND TOLD the the shovel they’d off-loaded from Cassiopeia’s Rover They appeared with Henrik, and as they entered the church, Malone explained what he and Mark had found
"Pretty smart," Cassiopeia said to him
"I have et the rest of that dirt out of there," Stephanie said
"Hand me the shovel"
He bailed out the loose soil A few minutes later three blackened wooden planks were revealed Half were bound together with ed door that opened upward
He bent down and lightly caressed the one A hundred years of exposure has worked on them" He stood and used the shovel to chip away their remnants
"What do you mean, a hundred years?" Stephanie asked
"Sauniere built that door," Cassiopeia said "The wood is in fairly good shape, certainly not centuries old And it appears to have been planed to a s you would see in medieval lumber Sauniere had to have an easy way in and out So when he found this entrance, he rebuilt the door"
"I agree," Malone said "Which explains how he handled that heavy stone top He just slid it halfway off, took out the rocks over the door, clih Froood shape Daap at the door’s edge and fulcrurabbed hold Malone tossed the shovel aside and together they freed the hatch fro orifice
Thorvaldsen stared into the void "Aht actually be the place"
Stephanie shone a flashlight into the opening A ladder stood against one of the stone walls "What do you think? Will it hold?"
"One way to find out"
Malone extended a leg and gently applied weight to the first rung The ladder was fashioned out of thick lumber, which he hoped was still bound with nails He could see a few rusted heads He pressed harder, holding on to the top of the altar support just in case so held He placed his other foot on the ladder and tested more
"I think it’ll hold"
"I’o first"
He smiled "If you don’t mind, I’d like the honor"
"You see, I was right," she said "You do want this"
Yes, he did What lay beloas beckoning hih obscure shelves You never knehat e of the altar support, he lowered hihteen inches apart He quickly transferred his hands to the top of the ladder and descended one
"Feels okay," he said
He kept heading down, careful to test each rung Above hi the darkness with their lights In the halo of their combined beams he saw that he’d coround was the next step Everything was covered with a fine gravel and stones the size of fists and skulls
"Toss ht," he said
Thorvaldsen dropped one of the torches to hiht it and focused the beam around hi He saw that the exit stood in the center of a natural corridor, one that h the limestone He knew the Pyrenees were riddled with caves and tunnels
"Why don’t you jump off?" Cassiopeia asked
"It’s too easy" He was alert to a chill that had settled in the hollow of his back, one that did not co around to the back side of the ladder Drop one of those stones straight down" He positioned himself out of the way
"You clear?" Stephanie asked
"Fire away"
The rock plunged through the opening He followed its path and watched as it struck the ground, then kept going
Light beaht," Cassiopeia said "That hole was just under the surface, ready for someone to leap off the ladder"
"Drop soround"
Four more rained down and thudded onto hard earth He knehere to leap, so he dropped off the ladder and used the flashlight to examine the booby trap The cavity was about three feet square and at least three feet deep He reached inside and retrieved some of the wood that had been laid loosely across the top The edges were tongue-and-grooved, the boards thin enough to shatter away at the weight of a ravel At the bottom of the hole were metal pyra to snare an unsuspecting intruder Time had dulled their patina, but not their effectiveness
"Sauniere was serious about this," he said
"Those could have been Templar traps," Mark noted "Is that brass?"
"Bronze"
"The Order was expert in y Brass, bronze, copper--all were used The Church forbade scientific experis like that from the Arabs"
"The wood on top could not be seven hundred years old," Cassiopeia said "Sauniere must have repaired the Templar’s defenses"
Not what he wanted to hear "Which means this is probably just the first of many traps"
SIXTY
MALONE WATCHED AS STEPHANIE, MARK, AND CASSIOPEIA CLIMBED down the ladder Thorvaldsen stayed on the surface, waiting for Geoffrey to return, ready to hand down tools, if needed
"I meant what I said," Mark made clear "The Templars were pioneers in booby traps I’ve read accounts in the Chronicles of techniques they developed"