The Cross of Sins (23 page)

Will swam quickly back to Eden and Jacques.

Jake shook the water off the lighter, hoping it wasn't too waterlogged, hoping it would still work. There was no chance to test it—the lighter would either work or not.

Jake looked at Will and Eden, who knew exactly what he was about to do.

As Jake nodded his head at them, Will and Eden took a breath and submerged themselves, taking Jacques under the water with them, holding his nose and mouth closed.

The moment they were gone, Jake slid beneath the water as well.

All but the one hand with the lighter vanished beneath the surface.

Then, his thumb triggered the lighter.

The lighter gave off a single spark before the entire gas-filled airspace impacted with a thunderous blow.

Jake pulled his hand down fast as the air above ignited. Flames rolled and cannoned outward, demolishing the furnace doors and shattering the wall standing between the chamber and the water beyond.

With an almighty force, the entire Grand Canal folded in on the chamber.

Jake started to swim like hell away from the flood, as did Will and Eden with an unconscious Jacques in tow. But all four were snatched up by the current like a leaves in a hurricane, sweeping them out through the shattered cast iron furnace doors.

As the canal completely flooded the chamber, it instantly extinguished the flames from the explosion. But the blast pummeled the walls and the countless dislodged stones and rocks.

Suddenly, the whole of Perron's palazzo began to quake on its foundations.

Tumbling head over heels through the torrent, Jake, Will, Eden and Jacques were ejected through the ruined furnace doors and swept into the armory room. They swirled and swiveled through the flood as dozens of deadly weapons—from hatchets to bayonets to daggers—cut and cleaved and sliced at them through the charging wall of water, missing them by inches. Rocks tumbled away from collapsing walls and rained down from the ceiling.

The water carried all four of them through the narrow corridor at lightning speed, banging their shoulders, limbs, and heads against the tight walls before spitting them out at the foot of the marble staircase that was now flooding furiously.

Jake spilled across the floor and picked himself up. Will was already on his feet and the two of them scooped Jacques out of Eden's arms. Eden hauled himself to his feet nursing his broken arm, and the four of them staggered hurriedly up the marble staircase.

As they reached the top of the stairs and rushed through the antechamber, a tremendous ripple tore through the unstable foundations of the palazzo. An enormous chunk of the ceiling suddenly gave way, and one of the antechamber's columns came crashing down a few feet behind them.

In the courtyard, party guests were already screaming and running for their lives. Columns were sinking into the floor all around them, crumbling like cracking icebergs. Iron chandeliers dropped from their chains and pulverized their ceramic drip trays, spitting fire and liquid wax everywhere.

Jake and Will helped Jacques while Eden dodged giant chunks of rubble and leaped over twisted traps of cast iron, looking desperately for Luca and Shane. He charged onto the boat landing and saw the Riviera was gone.

Police boats were already speeding down the Grand Canal, taking in dozens of panicked party guests.

"We need help here!" Eden shouted. "This man's hurt!"

Eden, Jake and Will helped Jacques onto one of the many emergency boats that arrived, sirens blaring and lights flashing, and watched the canal bubble and erupt beneath them as the bowels of the Perron's palazzo rumbled and rocked, transforming the mansion into its own ancient ruin.

A hand landed on Jake's shoulder. He turned and saw Eden, drenched to the bone. "Thank you," he said in a soft, low voice.

Jake nodded and said, "Is he gonna be okay?" He looked over to see Will with Jacques. The Frenchman had been laid out. Police had gathered with first aid kits. Bandages were unraveled. Injections were administered.

Eden said, "They're taking us straight to the hospital." He began to move back to Jacques, to be with him. Jake watched as Eden returned and nursed Jacques' head, keeping him safe as the police assisted.

There was another crash and boom from somewhere deep within Perron's mansion. Jake looked back into the blackness of the gushing water below the palazzo as they left it far behind, knowing with absolute certainty that the Devil of Kahna Toga was a hidden treasure once again.

He wondered what was more valuable in life—a diamond Devil, or an angel like Eden. He glanced back once more at the handsome Brazilian.

And for the first time in his life the thought crossed his mind: If he wanted a life of adventure, maybe he didn't have to live it alone after all.

XIII

Vienna, Austria

Elliott Ebus waited until Elsa and the Professor had both gone to sleep before creeping out the door of the hotel suite and down to the lobby. Elsa had warned the Professor he would try this. The Professor responded by saying there was no point caging Elliott like an animal. Nobody can influence the destiny of another if they choose to take that destiny into their own hands. They had all warned Elliott Ebus of the danger he was in, but Elliott thought otherwise.

He scurried down the street, hastening through the cold Vienna night, until he reached a phone booth on the corner. Through the glass panels of the booth, he could see the Royal Hotel. He watched closely to see if the Professor or Elsa might emerge, but nobody came for him.

Elliott pulled coins and a small, frayed piece of paper from his pocket. Dropping the coins in the slot, he looked at the number that was written on the paper in faded ink. Elliott had been holding onto that piece of paper for a long time, hoping he would never have to use it, hoping he would never again see the man who had sold him that cursed book. He had been told to call the number on the piece of paper if ever anything happened to the book.

Slowly, carefully, he dialed those dreaded digits.

A man on the other end of the line picked up. "Mr. Ebus. I've been expecting your call."

"Things have gone wrong. Terribly wrong." Elliott's voice was quivering with absolute terror. "It wasn't my fault."

"I understand. It's all right. The book is in safe hands now."

"You have it back?"

"My men do, yes."

Elliott breathed a sigh of relief. "Then, it's all over. This whole wretched mess is finally over." He actually began to smile.

"That's right," said the man on the other end of the line. "There's just one small matter left to clean up—and that's you."

The smile quickly faded from Elliott's face. Panic returned to his voice. "No, you don't have to do that. I won't tell a soul, not a word! I don't know anything. I'll vanish. I'll disappear. You'll never see me again."

"I can see you right now."

Elliott Ebus gasped. He swiveled on his feet in the booth, his eyes frantically scanning the surrounding area until they finally landed on a man standing in the shadows across the road, wearing a hooded crimson robe. The man pulled one hand out from under his hood to reveal a cell phone. His other hand emerged from inside his robe holding a pistol with a silencer on the end of it.

Elliott let out a tiny shriek.

He dropped the phone receiver.

He heard the splinter of glass cracking, and then looked down to see a small bullet hole in the phone booth, in a direct line between him and the robed figure.

That's when the blood began to spread across his tweed jacket. It was the last thing he ever saw. His eyes rolled back into his head, and Elliott Ebus collapsed in a lifeless heap on the floor of the phone booth.

The man across the street slid his weapon back under his robe and turned his hood in the direction of the Royal Hotel.

The heavy knock on the door woke both Elsa and the Professor instantly. They both put on their dressing gowns and emerged from their rooms with a curious look on their faces before stepping up to the door.

The knock came once more, and they both jumped.

"Who is it?" Elsa asked.

A voice called through the door. "It's hotel staff. We have found your companion. He seemed quite lost. And to be perfectly honest, I think he may have been drinking."

Elsa looked through the peephole and saw the top of Elliott's head. Seemingly, he was looking down in shame, or perhaps even passed out. Another man to the side of Elliott was propping him up, but Elsa's view of him was somewhat obscured.

"I told you he couldn't be trusted," Elsa said to the Professor, but the Professor was already moving briskly to his makeshift workstation in the sitting room.

Elsa removed the latch, and suddenly, the door exploded open.

She was unconscious before she hit the ground.

Will, Jake and Eden left San Giovanni Hospital in Venice shortly after Jacques regained consciousness. Doctors had removed the bullet and stabilized his condition.

"He'll have to stay here for a couple of weeks," one of the doctors told Eden while Will and Jake downplayed their reports of the incident to police. "But he's young and healthy. With the proper rest and care, he should make a full recovery."

Eden, his arm now in a sling, went in to see Jacques, who was still groggy from the anesthetic. "The doctor says you're going to be all right."

Jacques gave him a faint smile. "I can't remember a thing."

"You were very brave. Perhaps a little too brave."

"Wait. I remember a man—he only had one arm."

"He's still out there somewhere," Eden said. "And two of my friends are missing. I'm going to come back, but first I need to find them."

"Are they in trouble?" Jacques' voice was full of concern.

"I don't know."

"You have to go help them. Do what you have to do."

"I won't be gone long. I'll come back. I promise," Eden said. He leaned in and gave Jacques not one soft, sweet kiss, but two, one on each eyelid.

"I believe you. I'll be waiting."

Eden, Will and Jake left Venice in a rented BMW driving as fast as they could over the mountains and into Austria. They tried the Professor's cell phone the entire way, but there was no answer. They did not call the hotel reception for fear of attracting any undue attention to the Professor.

At the Royal Hotel, in Dr. Ivan Jastrow's suite, they found no sign of the Professor or Elsa. Their luggage was all still there, undisturbed. Will opened one of the closets in the hall to find all their clothes still hanging and folded there.

Eden opened the next closet, and the lifeless, crumpled body of Elliott Ebus rolled out onto the floor.

Eden dropped to his knees, felt for a pulse and checked his skin for temperature and his limbs for signs of rigor mortis. "He's been dead for ten hours, perhaps twelve."

At the other end of the suite, Jake opened the doors to the sitting room and saw that the Professor's computer equipment had been more or less destroyed. The floor was littered with shattered glass and cracked Braille keyboards. All the monitor screens were punctured. "Hey guys," he called. Eden covered Elliott Ebus with a sheet, and he and Will joined Jake in the sitting room.

"Looks like Dominic Dixon isn't the only one who likes swinging an ax around," Eden said.

Jake examined one of the screens. "Actually, they're bullet holes. My guess is whoever did this used a silencer."

Eden tried to turn the monitors on, to see if the Professor had left any clues before his disappearance.

One of the monitors blew up with a surge of energy.

Another powered up, and then sizzled and hissed and powered down forever.

But a third monitor, despite its splintered screen and the occasional spark, came to life, revealing a fractured image of Italy. There was a small red flashing dot on the screen, just above Sicily.

"That's no glitch," Eden said.

"What is it?" Jake asked.

They all crowded around the sparking monitor. Eden zoomed in. The red flashing dot appeared to be moving north off the shores of Sicily.

"The tiepin," Will breathed, realizing what they were looking at. "The Professor's got the tiepin."

Eden stood bolt upright and raced for the door. "Come on, we have to be on the next plane to Palermo."

"But he's not in Sicily," Will said. "He's heading north of it. We don't know where the hell he's going."

"Yes we do," Jake nodded, suddenly tapping into Eden's wavelength. "The words on the first stone. Home. Fire. They're heading to the home of fire. They figured out the clues."

"I don't get it," Will shrugged, frustrated.

"
The Cross of Sins
—" Eden answered. "It's on the island of Vulcano."

XIV

Tyrrhenian Sea, North of Sicily