“That’s a good idea,” Sam said, “Thanks we’ll give it a look.”
Jen asked, “Anything else unique about this buried vault that you’re looking for?”
Sam turned to Goddard. “Anything you can think of?”
Goddard thought about that for a moment. “I suppose it might be buried beneath a younger temple, such as a church, which was built over the top of it.”
“That means we’re back to the drawing board. Where do you want to begin?” Sam said.
“Let’s look at churches,” Goddard suggested.
“That shouldn’t be hard,” Jen said. “Malta, despite being small, has probably more churches than any other country on Earth.”
Sam thought about that for a moment. “Okay, let’s narrow the field.”
Goddard asked, “How?”
Sam glanced at a map of Malta. “You said that the masks are drawn to Malta by some sort of unexplained magnetic field?”
Goddard said, “That’s right. I can’t say for certain the second one does, but mine certain did.”
Sam said, “So, let’s see if there are any churches that have any involvement in events that couldn’t be explained away with science?”
Jen said, “Like what, miracles?”
Sam grinned. “You’re right. Miracles, exactly!”
“What?” Goddard asked.
Sam said, “I think I know where the Chamber of Knowledge is buried.”
Chapter Forty-Six
Rhyse Vaughn picked up his cell phone and dialed an international number by heart.
A curt voice answered. “I said not to contact me on this number. It’s not safe.”
Rhyse said, “I’ve lost him!”
The cell phone went silent, and for a second, he thought the man had hung up on him.
General Painter’s voice came back in a whisper. “Ah, shit… what happened?”
“He got away with the Mask in Venice. He had help from Sam Reilly and his big friend, what’s his name?”
“Tom Bower?”
“That’s the one.” Rhyse said, “They lost us. I sent a man to follow Reilly’s private plane, which flew from Venice to Paris, but only Tom Bower got off.”
“Where’s the jet now?”
“Still sitting on the tarmac in Paris.”
“Where are you now?”
“Malta.”
“Surely it hasn’t come to that yet?”
Rhyse said, “I don’t know. According to customs, Reilly and Goddard haven’t entered the country. But that doesn’t mean they’re not here.”
“What are you going to do?”
Rhyse opened the briefcase. It was loaded with C4. He pressed the arm button next to the timer and closed the lid. “I’m going to go wait by the church… in case they turn up.”
Chapter Forty-Seven
Sam Reilly stared up at the massive Basilica.
The design of the present church is based on the Pantheon in Rome, and at one point had the third largest unsupported dome in the world. It was built between 1833 and the 1860s to Neoclassical designs of Giorgio Grognet de Vassé, on the site of an earlier Renaissance church which had been built around 1614 to designs of Tommaso Dingli.
But was there an even older church?
At 4:40 p.m. on April 9, 1942, the Luftwaffe dropped three bombs on the church, and two of them deflected without exploding. However, a third one, an eleven-hundred-pound high explosive bomb pierced the dome and entered the church, where a congregation of more than three hundred people were awaiting early evening mass.
The bomb didn’t explode. This event was interpreted by the Maltese as a miracle.
Sam wondered whether the magnetic field that radiated from the ancient Chamber of Knowledge might have played a part in it as well.
He and Goddard stepped into the main building.
Its façade had a portico with six Ionic columns, which were flanked by two bell towers. Being a rotunda, the church had a circular plan with walls about thirty feet thick to support its massive dome, which had a diameter of one hundred and twenty-two feet.
The interior contained eight niches, including a deep apse with the main altar.
Sam and Goddard split up to search the interior, including the eight niches and deep apse.
A couple minutes later, Sam heard his name.
He turned to come face to face with Sandi Larson, the anthropologist who had taken the Homo neanderthalensis mask.
“Hi Sandi,” Sam said. “How was your flight?”
“It was okay, thank you.” Her eyes searched the massive dome wall above. “Find anything?”
“No, but Goddard’s gone to talk to a priest about the previous church, built during the Renaissance, on which this cathedral was eventually built.”
“Neat. Any guess what we’re going to find here?” Sandi asked.
“I don’t know. Goddard thinks this is an ancient vault, which stores all human knowledge.”
Sandi cocked her eyebrow. “That’s a bit fanciful, don’t you think?”
“Sure, but everything about this is unique. Whatever it is, it’s valuable if people are willing to kill to get to it.”
Sandi opened her mouth to speak, and then stopped.
Goddard approached at the pace of a much younger man.
Sam glanced at him. He wore a broad smile. “What did you find out?”
“The Basilica of the Assumption of our Lady doesn’t have a crypt…”
Sam sighed. “But?”
“The previous church did.” Goddard grinned. “What’s more, the priest offered to take us down into the hidden passageway, which descends all the way down to the historic site.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
Rhyse Vaughn turned his back so that they didn’t see him.
A woman next to him complained that he was blocking her view of the altar. He silently mouthed an apology, and took a step out of her way, following Andrew Goddard as he moved toward the east wing of the cathedral. Rhyse didn’t have to work hard to conceal himself. The horde of tourist faces did that job for him.
He watched as Reilly, Goddard, and a woman he didn’t know disappeared through a vaulted doorway at the end of the sanctuary, along with a priest.
Rhyse waited a moment and tried the door.
It was locked. He cursed under his breath and tried to push the door hard. It wouldn’t budge at all. He glanced around the room, trying to think of a way to break through. There was nothing. The door was made of Spanish hardwood. It would take him half an hour with a good axe to break through.
No matter, he would just have to wait until they returned.
It wasn’t a long wait. The priest returned, but without his guests. Rhyse set his jaw. Feeling his heart in his throat and blood pounding in the back of his ears, he set the timer of the bomb to thirty minutes and pressed start.
The priest looked at him, startled by his penetrating gaze. “May I help you, my son?”
Rhyse withdrew his silenced handgun and aimed it at the priest. “Yes, father. Forgive me for I am about to sin.”
Chapter Forty-Nine
Sam, Goddard, and Larson entered the 16th century crypt.
The first floor housed large marble vaults, where bygone kings and noblemen and women were once buried. Similar to the Hypogeum of Ħal-Saflieni, there were multiple superimposed levels hewn into the soft globigerina limestone. Dismissing the relatively modern marble vaults of the first level of the crypt, the three of them continued down the descending passageways interconnected through a labyrinthine series of steps, lintels and doorways.