Authors: Carolyn McCray
“
That is what I hoped the child would tell us.
”
Vakasa
,
though
,
simply picked up the
halarii
pendant and tied the leather cord around her neck. She patted it as if to make sure it was going to stay there. Vakasa then moved on to the second item. An unusual cross lay on the tattered blanket. With a circle encompassing the top of the cross, used to represent Christ
’
s death and resurrection, Rebecca was certain it was a Coptic cross. Silver and apparently heavy, Vakasa picked it up.
“
Hermano
,
”
she whispered, touching her lips to the center of the cross.
Brother.
“
Don
’
t start,
”
Brandt said from the corner of the room.
“
Are we learning anything of value here?
”
Vakasa took the cross
and
whacked it against the wooden frame of the bed.
“
No!
”
Rebecca cried out
,
trying to get the artifact from the child before the priest had an aneurism.
“
Honey, no.
”
But the girl wiggled out of her grasp and hit the cross again. It cracked at the base of the circle
,
revealing a small compartment down the shaft of the cross. Vakasa pulled out a small piece of parchment. With a smile
,
she walked over to Brandt and handed it to him.
Rebecca looked over Brandt
’
s
shoulder as he carefully unrolled the parchment. The drawings on it seemed to be a map. Only
,
a map of what?
* * *
Bunny paced behind Stark.
“
Well, is it going to work?
”
“
Everyone does realize I am hacking into the NSA
’
s central database
,
right?
”
Prenne
r frowned. He
’
d voted against them
, of course. Luckily
,
he was outvoted.
“
I still think we should move to Langley,
”
Emily added for like the thousandth time.
Stark nodded toward the leftovers. Only the trunk of a pancake elephant and tiny shreds of crispy hash browns survived.
“
And exactly what are they going to serve us there?
”
Before Emily could retort, Stark overrode her.
“
And these computers are more secure than any CPU in
any
government building.
”
To underscore his point, the computer dinged, indicating he had in fact just hacked his way into the NSA
’
s hub. Stark rubbed his hands together.
“
Let
’
s see what they
’
ve been up to since Vanderwalt dropped them off in Turkey.
”
Bunny really hated this whole radio silence thing. But with the Disciples hot on Rebecca
’
s trail and half the US military wanting to pull in Lopez and the rest, it was the only way to keep them safe. Stark flipped through reams of data, apparently sorting it in his head.
“
Here we go,
”
Stark stated
,
bringing up a photo of a jumbo jet parked on a pretty small runway.
“
That
’
s gotta be Lopez.
”
Yes, Bunny had to agree. Which meant they had headed to the Basque region. Which meant they were going back to Rebecca
’
s old stomping grounds.
“
Can you get us some satellite coverage of the north
west area of the Basque region?
”
Emily shook her head.
“
There
’
s not a lot over that area. Not since the separatists agreed to the cease
-
fire.
”
Bunny frowned.
“
Sorry, darlin
’
,
she
’
s right
,
”
Stark said.
“
I can
’
t pull up footage that isn
’
t there.
”
“
What about the Disciples?
”
Prenner asked.
“
Can you pick up their trail from the Congo?
”
“
Well, I already knew that they followed Brandt to Egypt after chartering a plane out of Cameroon…
”
Stark stalled out as he brought up and rejected several maps.
“
Out of Egypt
,
though? That is a problem. After the Sphinx disaster
,
only three planes made it out before a complete lockdown of Egyptian airspace. One was the Turkish plane. The other two were headed nowhere near Spain. One went to India
,
and the other headed to South Africa. It doesn
’
t look like they followed Brandt at all.
”
Stark was good. Extremely good at his job. However
,
the tech had never gone up against the Disciples. They didn
’
t give up. They didn
’
t know what giving up looked like. But how else could they
have gotten out of Egypt?
“
How long until they locked down the ports?
”
Prenner asked Stark.
“
Those are usually far more porous than airports or even train lines.
”
“
Good question,
”
Stark commented as his mouse flew across the multiple screens.
“
For major ships? They were pretty quick, but look at what we
’
ve got over here…
”
He brought up a map of the long coastline of Egypt. A satellite feed showed numerous small crafts launching from non-port locations. Actually
,
it looked a little like rats fleeing a sinking ship. If anything
,
there were too many boats to track.
“
This is going to take a while.
”
Prenner shook his head
,
though.
“
There
’
s no way they were going to stay on the water. Too high a probability they could get stopped and searched.
”
“
And it would just be too slow,
”
Emily added.
“
The Disciples must have known Brandt was going to take to the skies.
”
“
All right. Let
’
s see if anybody
’
s flight path cross
ed
a
—
”
Before he even got the sentence out, he found a seaplane that
had
landed near a boat. Sure enough
,
from Brandt
’
s description, that was Frellan and his team.
Bunny watched in horror as he shot
the crew
and pitched their bodies over the side. Yes, that was the Disciples for sure.
“
Looks like they headed to Italy, then took a charter to Madrid.
”
“
Madrid?
”
Emily clarified.
“
Yep.
”
Prenner frowned.
“
But look at the timeline. Lopez hasn
’
t even stolen that jumbo jet yet. How could they know Brandt was going to Spain?
”
“
Don
’
t know,
”
Stark admitted.
“
But let
’
s look at
Flickr
to find out what the Disciples did once they got to Madrid.
”
“
Flickr?
”
Bunny asked.
“
You
’
re joking.
”
“
Nope,
”
Stark said as he brought up the photo
-
sharing
site
and started grabbing photos from Madrid. The vast majority were from cell
phone shots. Candid pictures
taken by locals and tourists a
like. It was weird looking at the Spanish city through the eyes of hundreds of lens.
“
Got
‘
em.
”
Rapidly
,
the tech brought up a series of photos that
,
cobbled together
,
formed a crude and jumpy video. They watched as Frellan was met by a…
“
Is that a priest?
”
Prenner asked.
It certainly looked like it. Stark
’
s fingers flew again.
“
Let me backtrack and see where he came from.
”
If watching the cobbled
-
together video was odd going forward, it was mind-bending going backward. Yet somehow Stark followed the priest all the way back to
Iglesia de San Andres
. A prominent Catholic cathedral.
“
Unless the guy thought he was being followed,
”
Stark announced
,
“
i
t looks like he is a bona fide priest.
”
“
Where did they go from there?
”
Emily asked.
“
Working on it,
”
Stark said, fast-forwarding through thousands of photos. Then the video came to a stop as Frellan and the others climbed into three SUVs.
“
Gonna have to switch to real
-
time cams and hope we
’
ve got an angle on them.
”
Stark flipped through every traffic cam in Madrid, coming up empty.
“
Check the official Spanish website,
”
Emily suggested.
Even though Stark looked about as confused as Bunny was, he did as ordered.
“
Now what?
”
“
Check out the scenic cams. They stream live video of rural Spain.
”
Bunny nodded.
“
Look at
highways heading toward the Basque region.
”
No one spoke as a clear shot
appeared
of the three SUV
s
heading up into the mountains. Heading straight for Rebecca and Brandt.
* * *
Brandt studied the parchment. It looked like an old Crusader
’
s map
,
judging
by the Jerusalem Cross in red along with the standard waving
of
an antique
English
flag.
“
Does it show a location?
”
Rebecca asked.
“
I
’
m pretty sure it is of the Holy Land, but this arrow is pointing off the map.
”
“
Is that a Star of David?
”
Levont asked
,
indicating to the last item
on the bed
.
Drawn to the
artifact
, Rebecca left Brandt
’
s side. Just as well. Half a map didn
’
t get them very far. Vakasa picked up the steel star and spun it on her hand. After playing with it for a few moments, she laid it back down.
Not exactly the actions of
a
prophesized messiah.
“
I don
’
t get it,
”
Rebecca said
,
looking to each of the artifacts.