She was tired.
It wasn't just the illness that made her tired, the disease that almost killed her before the doctors found the drug that saved her life. It wasn't the frequent headaches, an after effect of the .22 round she'd taken in her head.
She was just plain tired.
She closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair. When was the last time you took a vacation? She thought about it. Years ago. She'd gone to the Bahamas and gotten the worst sunburn of her life. In the back of her mind she'd thought she might meet someone on one of those white sand beaches, someone to have a romance novel fling with. She'd never had a fling.
She'd never been promiscuous, but she was no stranger to sex. The last time she'd let a man into her bed she'd been younger, still working at Justice. She'd thought he was the one. She'd had the classic hopes, a career, a family, a loving husband. Classic hopes had turned into a classic situation. He'd turned out to be a pompous ass. He'd left her for someone who didn't challenge his narcissistic image of himself, someone younger who ended up throwing him out.
Since then there'd been no one she was really attracted to. Someone who could handle the reality of who she was, her job and all the ripples that went with it. If he was out there, she hadn't met him yet.
The time was past for children. But she wouldn't mind having someone to share her life with, someone to hold on a cold night, someone to have breakfast with in the morning.
For Christ's sake, she thought. Elizabeth, you need a break. Maybe Hawaii…No you can't. Not now. Maybe later.
When all this was over she promised herself she would take that vacation.
She opened her eyes. Reality returned. Stephanie had been right. She had to send the team after the Codex. Nick and Selena could join Ronnie and Lamont in Portugal after they were done in Prague.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Red velvet rope kept a group of tourists away from a glassed case holding the crown jewels of the Holy Roman Emperors. Two armed guards wearing elaborate powder-blue uniforms kept watch on either side of the case. Blue Cap was in the group. Suspenders pretended to study a display of medieval armor a hundred feet from where Nick and Selena stood.
They looked at the glittering display. The crown was made of hoops of gold rising from a circular band of gold set with precious stones. Four elaborate finials rose from the band, studded with the biggest sapphires Selena had ever seen. The crown was topped with a golden cross embedded with more sapphires. Diamonds, rubies the size of pigeon eggs and gleaming pearls rounded out the decorations. A golden scepter and orb, both set with an abundance of jewels, completed the display.
"We're lucky to see these," Selena said. "They're usually locked up. It says in the brochure that it takes seven separate keys just to get to where you can access the vault."
"Some of our politicians in Washington would like a set of those."
"I'll bet that crown was heavy."
"Price of being king," Nick said. "You get the toys, you get the headache and the stiff neck."
"Can you imagine living here?"
The original castle had been started in 880 CE. It had been added to for centuries. Every style of European architecture was represented somewhere. There were hundreds of rooms. There were chapels, quarters for medieval monks and nuns, kitchens and bedrooms and dungeons, buildings for every use and description, a large cathedral. The castle stretched for half a mile, a rat's maze of halls, passageways, walkways, gardens, bridges and stairs.
She said as much to Nick.
"Rat's maze. Our rats are still with us. I'm getting tired of sightseeing. Let's get them somewhere quiet."
Nick consulted a map of the castle he'd picked up when they came in.
"Here."
"The Basilica of St. George?"
"There will be fewer people around. It's good a place as any."
The Basilica was located toward one corner of the castle grounds, away from the main buildings, connected to a former Benedictine convent and marked with two needle-shaped towers of whitish stone. The towers were over 90 feet high. Everything about the castle was big. The Basilica of St. George was no exception.
They strolled through the castle grounds until they reached the Basilica. They went in with their watchers not far behind. Their footsteps echoed on the hard stone floor. Nick looked around and pointed at a side chapel.
"That looks like a good, quiet spot."
The tour map identified the chapel as the shrine of Vratislav I. A sign with closed in four languages hung from a chain strung across the entrance between two metal stands. They stepped around the barrier and into the shrine.
It was an impressive room. The high, arched ceiling had been fitted together with a master stone mason's skill. At the far end of the chapel, wide stairs swept up in matching curves to a curved apse with tall windows. The dome-like ceiling of the apse bore faded paintings of religious figures against a white background. Afternoon sun streamed though the windows and filled the chapel with light.
The tomb of the saint was to their right. It looked like a small wooden house set on a stone base and was decorated with a painting of a nun and a bishop holding a staff. The bishop knelt in front of the nun. Nick didn't have time to contemplate the symbolism. Blue Cap and Suspenders came in. Steel flashed in their hands.
"Go for the high ground," he said. "There's room to move up there. Try not to use your gun."
They ran up the stairs.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The two Serbian killers split and came up the stairs on each side of the apse. Selena and Nick waited for them near the windows. Blue Cap had a long, shiny switch blade. He tossed it from hand to hand and smiled. Nick watched them come. He turned to Selena.
"I hate knives."
"So do I."
"To hell with the noise." He pulled his pistol out. Selena did the same.
The two Serbs froze. They hadn't expected that.
"Drop the knives." Nick's voice was harsh. "Do it."
The one wearing suspenders looked at Blue Cap. Blue Cap was the leader. He nodded. The knives clattered on the stones.
"You will not shoot," Blue Cap said. "If shoot, police come, you die in jail quick. I guarantee this."
"Your English is pretty good for something I'd usually scrape off my shoe. Tell us who sent you."
"No one send. We are seeing sights. We see rich American tourist, think you have money. Just business. You should let us go now."
"Who told you we were American? We're Canadian, asshole. You were waiting for us in the cafe. Who told you we'd be there?"
"Okay, you Canadian. Having coffee in cafe." He shrugged. "No one sends us." He grinned.
"Get down on your knees."
Blue Cap didn't like that.
"You make mistake."
"Down. Now."
The two men got down on their knees.
"Put your hands behind your back." Nick took a roll of electrician's tape from his pocket and gave it to Selena.
"Cuff 'em, Dano."
"What?"
"You never watched Hawaii Five-O? Doesn't matter. Wrap this around their wrists and hands. Bind them tight. We'll take a little walk to the police station. I know who you are, Jovanovich. The cops might be interested in Srebrenica."
Blue Cap was fast. As Selena stepped forward, he fell forward onto his hands in sudden movement and swept his legs across and knocked Selena down. He grabbed for her gun. She rolled toward him and slammed her elbow into the side of his head and followed with a hammered fist into his solar plexus. He gasped and stopped fighting. His partner tried to get up. Nick brought the Sig down hard on top of his head, then hit him again to make sure. The man sprawled unconscious on the floor. Selena got to her feet. They taped the men's hands behind them.