"Don't forget the knight," Stephanie said. "He'd been guarding the Grail for what, hundreds of years? Drinking water from the Grail kept him from dying."
"Must've been boring," Lamont said, "sitting there all that time with no one to talk to and nothing to do except look at a bunch of cups on a shelf."
Elizabeth rapped sharply on her desk. "Shall we talk about the mission?"
"Sorry, Director," Lamont said. Nick hid a smile behind his hand.
"Stephanie made the connection to Sumela in less than a day, researching the tile. If she did it, so can ISIS. If the monks had the Grail, they would have hidden it with the icon and taken it back to Macedonia when they got the icon out of Turkey. Going to Greece is the next logical step, for us and for whoever might be after it."
"How are we supposed to know who the bad guys are if they show up?" Lamont asked. "They'll probably look like everybody else."
"He has a point, Elizabeth," Selena said.
"This isn't any different than trying to ID terrorists in a crowd. There will be something that gives them away."
"What do you want us to do if we find them?" Nick asked.
"Find out what they know and who sent them."
"Where's the monastery located?"
"Macedonia, at the foot of Mount Vermion, around three hundred and fifty kilometers northwest of Athens. You'll fly into Athens and connect to a city called Veroia. The monastery is less than two hours from there. You can rent a car and drive the rest of the way."
"And if we don't find anything helpful?"
"Whatever you find, after that you're going to Milan."
Lamont said, "I bet they've got good pizza there."
Elizabeth gave him a look that told him he'd better be quiet.
"What's in Milan?" Nick asked.
"The Companions of the Holy Grail," Stephanie said. "It's a religious society, headed up by an Italian count named Mercurio. I went looking for something about that gold ring Bellini was wearing, the one you photographed in Sweden. It's only worn by members of the society."
"Did you find out why Bellini was at Bergstrom's house?"
"The Swedish police found correspondence between Bergstrom and Count Mercurio," Elizabeth said. "Bergstrom was negotiating with Mercurio for the Anastasius tile and Bellini was his representative. Mercurio had purchased stolen antiquities in the past, but only from the early Christian era. He wasn't interested in anything else."
"He must be looking for clues, like we are," Selena said. "He wants to find the Grail."
"Pretty big leap," Nick said.
"What else could it be? He heads up a religious society that calls itself the Companions of the Grail."
"Maybe he just collects things about the Grail. Lots of people collect things that interest them."
"So he sends someone to Sweden to offer Bergstrom a stack of euros for that tile? I don't think so."
"When you get to Milan, you can ask him why he wanted it," Elizabeth said.
"What if he doesn't want to tell us?" Ronnie asked.
"Mercurio's interest seems to be religious, not criminal. You'll just have to ask him nicely. Remind him about what happened to Bellini. He needs to know that he's stepped into the middle of something out of his league."
"The last time we had a mission that took us to a church, we ended up in a hell of a firefight," Ronnie said.
"Try not to do that this time," Elizabeth said.
CHAPTER 21
The flight to Greece was long and boring. From the air, Athens was almost invisible under a thick blanket of brown smog. On the ground, the polluted air stung their eyes. You could almost hear the smog eating away at the ancient stones of the acropolis.
Diplomatic passports took them and their weapons through customs without a luggage search. They spent the night at a hotel near the airport. In the morning they connected for a flight to Macedonia and Veroia.
Selena's fluent Greek smoothed the way everywhere they went. They rented a Toyota Land Cruiser at the airport in Veroia. When Selena explained that they had come to visit the holy icon of Soumela, she was met with smiles and advice. She spoke with the clerk for several minutes before taking the keys and a map.
Once they were outside, Nick asked, "What was all that?"
"She was very helpful. The monastery is on Mount Vermion. The nearest town is Kastania. The clerk has a cousin there who owns a hotel. She said it's the best hotel in town and we should stay there because the beds are clean and the food is good."
Lamont said, "That sounds like a great recommendation. You can put up with a lot if the food's good."
"I didn't know you liked Greek food," Ronnie said.
"Hell, yes, I do. Like that lamb on a spit, what do you call it?"
"Souvlaki," Ronnie said.
"And that bread they serve with it."
Selena smiled. "Pita bread. There's a lot more to Greek food than that."
"Good. I'll try it all."
They got in the car. It smelled vaguely of onions.
Kastania was less than fifty kilometers from Veroia. It was a straightforward drive along a good highway that passed through a broad valley outside of the city before it started the climb into the mountains. After about twenty minutes they turned off for the town.
The road was a typical, narrow mountain road with blind curves and sheer drops. A low guard rail formed the only barrier along the cliffs. In most places going through the rail meant certain death.
Selena was looking at a brochure about Kastania she'd taken from a rack at the car rental.
"It's a small town with only a few hundred people, set on the slope of Mount Vermion. The main attraction is that it's near the monastery."
"We'll be there soon," Nick said.
The hotel was easy enough to find. There weren't a lot to choose from. At the desk, Selena chatted away with the clerk, the nephew of the woman at the car rental in Veroia. He gave them keys to rooms on the second floor, old type skeleton keys marked by a large tag with the room number on them, the kind you left at the desk when you went out.
The rooms looked out through arched windows over the plain below. A wide river ran through it. There were snowcapped mountains in the distance.
"Nice view," Nick said. "I'll bet they fought some big battles on that plain in the old days. It's a natural. That river had to be an important artery."
Selena came over to stand beside him. She put her hand on his shoulder.
"It probably still is, and you're right about the history. Alexander's armies went through here, and his father's before him."
"This whole country is soaked in blood. Nothing ever changes, only the weapons and the names of the generals."
"That's really cynical, Nick."
"You know it's true. They always say that people who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it but nobody ever seems to learn a damn thing. You look at what's going on in the world and it's the same old, same old. The people in charge keep making the same mistakes for the same reasons, and people like us have to clean up after them."
"I've never heard you talk like this before."
"I'm going to be a year older next month and I've been doing this my whole adult life. There's always another asshole waiting right around the corner, out to screw everything up for everyone else. I'm not sure what I'm fighting for any more."
"We're on a quest for the Holy Grail! How many people can say that?"
"You're a romantic."
"Yes, and so are you."
"What do you mean?"
"You and Don Quixote, always going against insurmountable odds for the sake of truth and justice."
"Someone has to do something about the people who want to tear down everything that's good," Nick said.
"See? You're a romantic, just like Cervantes' hero."
"Don Quixote tilted against windmills. They didn't shoot back with AKs."