What caught everyone’s attention was the symbol at the top of the sign.
“That’s the circle I saw on the scroll from the Vatican,” Sean whispered. “It looked exactly like that.”
Tommy gazed at the object. He recognized the emblem, though he didn’t want to jinx the mission. “That definitely looks like the Round Table,” he said.
His father and mother stepped nearer to the sign to get a better look.
His father ran his finger along the smooth stone, outlining the black circle with his fingernail. “That looks an awful lot like a Templar cross.”
“Yeah,” Tommy said. “I was thinking the same thing.”
“You don’t think Baldwin and the Brotherhood are…” Sean asked.
“The Brotherhood of the Sword is an ancient order,” Tommy’s mother said. “They’ve been around for thousands of years, and they predated the Templars. One possibility we considered was that they might have founded the Knights Templar. There wasn’t much evidence to that theory, though, and trying to prove that point seemed a bit unnecessary at the time. Still, it is intriguing.”
Sean’s eyes scanned the area, making sure they weren’t being watched. “We should probably get inside and see what’s there.”
He held the door until everyone was in, gave one last look around, and then followed them into the building.
Seeing artifacts hadn’t been part of the plan when they’d left to come to Jordan, but the inside of the ancient church was too breathtaking to ignore.
Big stone blocks were exposed along the base of the walls, telling the age of the original structure. One of the signs inside the cool foyer said that this place was called the Basilica of Moses.
Intricate mosaics covered the floor from front to back. They featured stories from Greek antiquity, pictures of animals from long ago, as well as people and even activities that would have been part of daily life when the church was originally built. The vibrant colors were remarkably preserved through time, almost as if the tiles had been laid in recent years.
The building’s interior smelled of rock and dust, a common characteristic of old stone structures. In spite of the church being built in the desert, the stone walls kept it remarkably cool, almost like an air conditioner was running full time.
The six visitors moved cautiously through the first chamber, walking by mosaic images of birds, oxen, people, plants, fruits, and pottery. One of the mosaics bore words written in Greek.
Adriana read them in English for everyone. “Offering of Caesarion, at the time of Alexios and Theophilos priests.” She stared at the tiles for a moment. “Incredible this church has remained in such good condition. It’s so old.”
“Climate can do wonders for that sort of thing,” Tommy’s dad said.
At the end of the room, a stone baptismal font made from slightly more orange rock stood close to the far wall. Two circles were cut into the front with more Greek inscribed within them. A cross was cut into the stone between the circles.
The group turned into one of the adjacent rooms where more mosaics decorated the floors and parts of the walls.
They made their way through the rest of the building but didn’t see any sign of the North Koreans or anything that looked like a clue as to the whereabouts of the sword. After spending another five minutes investigating the church, Sean suggested they go back outside and see if Baldwin and his men had found anything. He led the way to the entrance and stepped outside into the warm, dry air.
Once outside, everyone’s senses heightened at the renewed feeling of being exposed.
“Let’s keep moving,” Sean said.
Tommy nodded as he and the others followed Sean around the edge of the building, down a crushed-gravel path that wound around the church to a slightly lower observation area. A large sculpture of a cross stood over the landing. It was designed to be an artistic replica of the cross used by Moses when Israel became afflicted with an overwhelming number of venomous snakes. A symbolic serpent wrapped around the huge bronze sculpture.
Sean stopped suddenly and put his hand up behind his back, signaling the others to halt as well.
“Quick, into the woods,” he ordered, motioning to a thick stand of trees that ran from the base of the church down to the edge of the lookout point.
No one questioned him. They all climbed over the short rock wall and took cover behind the biggest tree trunks they could find.
Only when everyone was out of sight did Tommy dare ask Sean what was going on.
“What is it?” he asked.
Sean peeked around his tree, holding the weapon Baldwin gave him in front of his nose. “They’re here.”
“The Koreans?”
Sean nodded. “Yeah. And they have hostages.”
Chapter 34
“Hostages?” Tommy hissed.
“Yeah. One of Baldwin’s men, and another man and woman. All being held at gunpoint. Their leader has a gun aimed at Baldwin, probably twenty feet away from him. Looks like a stalemate.”
“It sounds like a massacre waiting to happen.”
Adriana was listening closely. “What do we do? Go around and hit them from behind?”
Sean shook his head. “No good. They’re positioned in such a way that they’d see any movement. Unless Baldwin ran his mouth, the North Koreans don’t know we’re here yet.”
“Unless they saw us,” June said.
“Right, but we’ll just have to work with the assumption they didn’t.”
“You know what happens when you assume, right?” she said.
Sean grinned. He liked her. A little snarky with just the right amount of sweetness. “Yeah. In this case, we don’t have much choice.”
“So, what?” Tommy asked.
“Looks like they are saying something to Baldwin. Too far away to hear. If we wait too long, though, people might get hurt.”
“Maybe we could use a diversion,” Adriana suggested.
That idea had crossed Sean’s mind, but a sudden noise or movement might startle one of the villains and cause them to fire a weapon by accident.
“Too risky,” he said. Sean didn’t want to wait it out. As time passed, bad things could happen. One important lesson he’d learned long ago that had repeated itself over and over again was that a window nearly always opened if one was patient enough. “We have to wait for an opportunity.”
“Opportunity?” Tommy asked.
Sean shot him a look that reminded his friend of all the times he’d been right in the past.
“Okay, so we wait. For what?”
“A tactical advantage.”
Sean poked his head around the tree and continued watching the standoff at the overlook. He could see the fear in the man’s and woman’s eyes. They were innocently visiting a holy site, minding their own business. They had no idea when they woke up that morning that they’d be held at gunpoint, jammed squarely in the middle of a battle they had nothing to do with.
Baldwin was holding his gun by his hip, a signal that the North Koreans had gotten the drop on him. There was a reluctance about his posture and facial expression. Sean didn’t need to hear what was being said to understand exactly what was going on.
Han-Jae wanted Baldwin to put down his weapon. That was the first step. What the Korean leader would do next was up in the air.
Sean didn’t have to wait long to find out.
Baldwin slowly raised his left hand to surrender and bent his knees to lower the gun to the ground. He dropped the weapon on the rocks and stood up straight. The Korean leader shook his head and motioned with his weapon, saying something else.