The guard’s eyes widened, recognizing who stood before him.
“Of course, Cardinal Spera. Right away.”
The young man led him off the concourse and through a card-coded security gate. Down at the end of a hall lay the office of the head of airport security. The guard knocked and was gruffly called inside.
He pushed the door, holding it open. Looking back to the cardinal, the guard failed to see the pistol with a silencer raised toward the back of his head.
Cardinal Spera lifted a hand. “No…”
The gunshot sounded like a firm cough. The guard’s head snapped forward, followed by his body. Blood sprayed into the hallway.
A door off to the side opened.
Another gunman appeared. A pistol jabbed into Cardinal Spera’s stomach. He was forced into the office. The guard’s body was dragged inside behind him. Another man scooted a towel over the floor with his foot, sopping up the gore.
The door shut.
Another body already decorated the room, lying crumpled on its side.
The former security chief.
Behind his desk, a familiar figure stood.
Cardinal Spera shook his head in disbelief. “You’re part of the Dragon Court.”
“It’s leader in fact.” A pistol rose into sight. “Clearing the way here for the rest of my men to arrive.”
The gun lifted higher.
The muzzle flashed.
Cardinal Spera felt a kick to his forehead—then nothing.
6:18 A.M.
RACHEL STOOD with the other four around the etched glass floor.
Kat stood guard up above, equipped with a radio.
They had descended the tiers to the bottom level in almost reverential silence. Her uncle had offered commentary about the massive museum nested within this subterranean cathedral, but few questions were posed.
It truly felt like a church, engendering whispers and awe.
As they had climbed down, Rachel gaped at the myriad wonders that must be stored here. She had spent all of her adult life protecting and collecting stolen art and antiquities. Here was a collection that dwarfed any museum’s. To catalogue it would take decades and a university full of scholars. The immensity of age contained within this space made her life feel small and insignificant.
Even her recent trauma, the revelation of her family’s dark past, seemed trivial, a minor blotch against the long history held suspended here.
As she descended deeper, her burden grew lighter. Its hold loosened around her heart. A certain weightlessness enveloped her.
Gray dropped to a knee to stare at the glass floor and the labyrinth drawn in platinum upon it.
“It’s Daedalus’s maze,” her uncle said, and briefly explained its history and ties to Chartres Cathedral.
“So what are we supposed to do here?” Gray asked.
Vigor walked around the circular floor. He had cautioned them to remain on the lip of granite that surrounded the glass labyrinth. “Plainly this is another riddle,” he said. “Besides the maze, we have a double arch of lodestone above us. A pillar of the same in the center. And these twelve m-state gold plates.” He indicated the windows of glass that pocked the wall around them, formed by the last tier.
“They are positioned along the periphery like the markings on a clock,” Vigor said. “Another timepiece. Like the hourglass that led us here.”
“So it would seem,” Gray said. “But you mentioned light.”
Vigor nodded. “It’s always been about light. A quest for the primordial light of the Bible, the light that formed the universe and everything in it. That is what we must prove here. Like magnetism and electricity before, now we must demonstrate an understanding of light…and not just any light. Light with power. Or as Kat described it, coherent light.”
Gray frowned, standing up. “You mean a laser.”
Vigor nodded. He pulled free an object from his pocket. Rachel recognized it as a laser-targeting scope from one of the Sigma weapons. “With the power of these superconducting amalgams coupled with jewels like diamonds and rubies, the ancients might have developed some crude form of projecting coherent light, some type of ancient laser. I believe knowledge of that craft is necessary to open the final level.”
“How can you be sure?” Gray said.
“Kat and I measured these twelve plates of mirrored glass. They are very subtly angled to reflect and bounce light from one to the other in a set pattern. But it would take a powerful light to complete the entire circuit.”
“Like a laser,” Monk said, eyeing the plates with concern.
“I don’t think it would take a strong amount of coherent light,” Vigor said. “Like the weak Baghdad batteries used to ignite the gold pyramid in Alexandria, only some small force is necessary, some indication of an understanding of coherence. I think the energy stored in the plates will do the rest.”
“And it might not even be energy,” Gray said. “If you’re right about light being the base of the mystery here, superconductors not only have the capability of storing energy for an infinite period of time, they can also store light.”
Vigor’s eyes widened. “So a little coherent light might free the rest?”
“Possibly, but how do we go about starting this chain reaction?” Gray asked. “Point the laser at one of the glass plates?”
Vigor stepped around and motioned to the lodestone pillar, about two feet thick, resting in the middle of the floor. “The pedestal out there stands the same height as the plate windows. I suspect whatever device the ancients used was meant to rest atop it while aimed at one particular window. Our proverbial twelve o’clock marker.”
“And which one’s that?” Monk asked.
Vigor stopped beside the far window. “True north,” he said. “It took a bit of fancy footwork to calculate with all this lodestone around. But this is the one. I think you set the laser down, point it at this plate, then get clear.”
“Seems simple enough,” Monk said.
Gray began to step out toward the central pedestal when his radio buzzed. He placed a hand over his ear, listening. Everyone stared at him.
“Kat, be careful,” Gray said into his radio. “Approach cautiously. Let them know you’re not hostile. Keep silent about us until you’re sure.”
He ended the call.
“What’s the matter?” Monk asked.
“Kat’s spotted a patrol of French police. They’ve entered the palace. She’s going to investigate.” Gray waved the group toward the stairs. “This will have to wait till later. We’d better head back up.”