“Only eight of them are from ancient Egypt, though. Still, what’s your point?” Tommy pressed.
Sean clicked one of the images and zoomed in on it. “That’s my point,” he said, tapping the screen emphatically.
“It’s an eight-pointed star with a cross on top of it.”
“And it looks just like the stars on the well cover.”
Adriana could barely contain her excitement as everything became clear. “That’s it. That’s where I’ve seen those before.” She grabbed the computer and twisted it so the screen faced her more directly.
She scrolled down and clicked another image. “See that one?” she said, pointing at the monitor. “Those humps are the same as the ones in the picture of the well cover. They represent the city on seven hills. That’s one of the monikers Rome has carried for thousands of years.”
“It looks exactly like the one from the well cover,” Tommy said in awe.
Adriana clicked on another image. This one featured an obelisk with four lions below a star. “There are the lions.” She moved the mouse arrow again and clicked a third image. “And there is our sun atop the Solar Obelisk.”
Sean tried to contain his excitement. No matter how many times he, Tommy, and Adriana had done this sort of thing, the thrill of piecing together clues never went away. Adriana showed them a globe atop one of the obelisks.
She clicked through seven obelisks in total, showing off the symbols above the point of each one. Then she came to the last one, the Vatican Obelisk. The bronze symbols above the giant monolith were a cross on top of another star. The star sat over the same hills they’d seen on a few other examples.
“The keys,” Sean said. “The riddle says that he who seeks the keys. Saint Peter’s Square is a giant keyhole.”
“Everybody knows that,” Tommy said.
“I didn’t,” June commented with fake irritation in her voice.
Before Tommy could apologize, Sean went on. “I’m saying that it’s a big keyhole because it references the keys. That’s it. The sword must be somewhere near the obelisk.”
“Or in the obelisk?” Tommy offered.
“It all makes perfect sense,” Adriana said. “We’re looking for the sword that Peter carried the night Jesus was arrested. Sure, it belonged to Joshua, David, Judah Maccabee, the three pagans, the three Christians like Arthur, but the man who carried it while walking the earth with Jesus was Peter. Why wouldn’t it be in Saint Peter’s Square?”
Everyone stared at the screen with tempered excitement.
“That would also follow the Vesica Piscis theory,” June said. “If that symbol was used for Christianity, it makes perfect sense.”
“The sword of Peter would have been an extremely important relic in Christian history,” Sean said. “And if the Catholic Church has a penchant for something, it’s relics. Think about all the resources they’ve used since their beginning to acquire anything related to the apostles or Jesus Himself.”
“It’s a staggering amount, for sure,” Tommy agreed. Something still didn’t add up as far as the sword’s hiding place. “So if the sword is there at Saint Peter’s Square, what does that last part mean concerning the sword bearer’s altar?”
The question spurred another thirty seconds of silence before Sean attempted an answer. “The square is the altar?” he offered.
“Could be. That entire plaza is dedicated to Saint Peter. So in a way, it’s an altar to him.”
“There’s the basilica, too,” Adriana said. “Saint Peter’s Basilica is a tribute to him.”
“Or it could be the literal altar inside the basilica,” June added. “Can you look that up?”
Adriana was a step ahead, already typing the search keywords into the box. She entered the search and got a fresh set of results. She clicked on the first one, and they were taken to an online encyclopedia article about something called the baldachin. An image displayed a gargantuan canopy with twisted pillars and intricately carved reliefs of heavenly beings around the roof’s edge. Unhappy with the result, Adriana clicked the back button and then clicked the images tab to get more visual results.
The images displayed on the page showed an incredible structure. Four gigantic Solomonic columns held up a high bronze canopy, sculpted in the Baroque style. Adriana clicked on one of the images that showed bright beams of sunlight streaking through windows on the other side of the building, shining down on the altar as if through some kind of divine design.
“Is that a person underneath that thing?” June asked, looking at the incredible imagery.
“Yeah,” Sean said. “That thing is mammoth. Gives you perspective on just how big the rest of the basilica is.”
Tommy stared at the pictures without saying a word for a moment. There was something turning in his mind, and he knew it was in the back of Sean’s head as well.
“So if the sword really is in the altar of Saint Peter — in the Vatican — how in the world are we going to get it out?”
Sean thought for a moment and then looked over at Adriana. They both had the same thought simultaneously.
“We steal it.”
Chapter 27
Han-Jae held the phone against his ear as he waited patiently for his spotter — a bright young spy named Sun Pak — to answer.
He and the two surviving members of his team had narrowly escaped Glastonbury. When they got back to their cars, they found two of the blond’s men unconscious on the pavement. The only explanation was that the Americans had somehow found a way back to their vehicle and managed to escape. If he’d been forced to guess, Han-Jae would have said that they looped around much the same way he and his men had.
Both of his remaining men wondered how they were going to find the Americans now that they’d let them slip through their fingers again. Han-Jae, however, had already taken care of that issue.
“I got ’em,” the voice on the other end said as he answered the phone. “Been watching them ever since they left the abbey.”
“Where are they now?” Han-Jae asked.
“They’re in a pub here in London. You on your way back?”
“Yes. We should be there within the hour.”
“Good, because you’re going to need a plane, and I doubt there’s any down there that flies where you’ll be heading.”
“Which is?”
Han-Jae had put the spotter on the Americans without telling his three men. Making sure he always had a backup plan in place may have seemed a little overly cautious to some, but that was one of the reasons the general trusted him. Things rarely went according to plan. So having something in place for just such a contingency not only took some stress off his mind, it allowed Han-Jae to focus on the things he could control.
The spotter had been there in the parking lot when the Americans made their getaway. He’d remained hidden in another vehicle, parked outside the main visitor’s area, while Sean and the others went in and snooped around. He watched as the two male Americans fought off the men the blond had left behind to guard the exit. He was surprised when the two women came to their rescue and effectively saved the two men.
The odd twist caused him to wonder just how good the men really were. Based on what he’d seen, he also tried to understand how these Americans had been able to overtake Han-Jae and the others. That wasn’t for him to question. His job was to report to Han-Jae on what he saw, not convey doubts about his leadership.
“Su Pak?” Han-Jae said, snapping the spotter back to the question at hand. “Where are they going?”
“Humble apologies, sir. They are flying to Italy. They believe the sword will be found at the Vatican, in Saint Peter’s Square.”