"Looks like they headed to Italy, then took a charter to Madrid."
"Madrid?" Emily clarified.
"Yep."
Prenner frowned. "But look at the timeline. Lopez hasn't even stolen that jumbo jet yet. How could they know Brandt was going to Spain?"
"Don't know," Stark admitted. "But let's look at Flickr to find out what the Disciples did once they got to Madrid."
"Flickr?" Bunny asked. "You're joking."
"Nope," Stark said as he brought up the photo-sharing site and started grabbing photos from Madrid. The vast majority were from cell phone shots. Candid pictures taken by locals and tourists alike. It was weird looking at the Spanish city through the eyes of hundreds of lens. "Got 'em."
Rapidly, the tech brought up a series of photos that, cobbled together, formed a crude and jumpy video. They watched as Frellan was met by a...
"Is that a priest?" Prenner asked.
It certainly looked like it. Stark's fingers flew again. "Let me backtrack and see where he came from."
If watching the cobbled-together video was odd going forward, it was mind-bending going backward. Yet somehow Stark followed the priest all the way back to Iglesia de San Andres. A prominent Catholic cathedral.
"Unless the guy thought he was being followed," Stark announced, "it looks like he is a bona fide priest."
"Where did they go from there?" Emily asked.
"Working on it," Stark said, fast-forwarding through thousands of photos. Then the video came to a stop as Frellan and the others climbed into three SUVs. "Gonna have to switch to real-time cams and hope we've got an angle on them."
Stark flipped through every traffic cam in Madrid, coming up empty.
"Check the official Spanish website," Emily suggested.
Even though Stark looked about as confused as Bunny was, he did as ordered. "Now what?"
"Check out the scenic cams. They stream live video of rural Spain."
Bunny nodded. "Look at highways heading toward the Basque region."
No one spoke as a clear shot appeared of the three SUVs heading up into the mountains. Heading straight for Rebecca and Brandt.
Brandt studied the parchment. It looked like an old Crusader's map, judging by the Jerusalem Cross in red along with the standard waving of an antique English flag.
"Does it show a location?" Rebecca asked.
"I'm pretty sure it is of the Holy Land, but this arrow is pointing off the map."
"Is that a Star of David?" Levont asked, indicating to the last item on the bed.
Drawn to the artifact, Rebecca left Brandt's side. Just as well. Half a map didn't get them very far. Vakasa picked up the steel star and spun it on her hand. After playing with it for a few moments, she laid it back down.
Not exactly the actions of a prophesized messiah.
"I don't get it," Rebecca said, looking to each of the artifacts.
Which was not good news. If Rebecca didn't get it, none of them could. Brandt was beginning to feel like it was time to pull the plug. Head home, face the consequences of their actions. Actually, Brandt would have done that several injuries ago. His instinct was to get stateside ASAP, hopefully ditching the Disciples. But there was that little girl and her radiant smile. If they went home now, without clear answers, Vakasa would be whisked away, taken to some DARPA research facility.
Rebecca leaned over to study the Hebrew symbol. "A halarii, a Coptic cross, and a Star of David-what made you collect them?" she asked the priest.
"It was not I, but the monks that originally settled here," the friar stated. That didn't seem to help Rebecca any, though, so he continued. "Look to the back of the star."
Turning over the star, Rebecca read an inscription on the back. "Schechinah."
Brandt frowned. He'd heard the word but couldn't place its origin. Rebecca turned over the broken cross. The same inscription. Vakasa twirled her halarrii around her neck to reveal the same word.
He was about to ask Rebecca what it meant but realized she was "processing." Not emotionally. Hell, Rebecca was worse than his men at dealing with her feelings. No, her mind spun, trying to tie everything together. Vakasa. The items. The inscription. Asking Rebecca anything at this point would only slow her coming to a conclusion.
Unfortunately, the friar didn't seem to understand this concept. "The girl was born in Solomon's mines, was she not?"
"What?" from all four of them echoed off the mossy walls.
"We don't..." Rebecca stammered. "We're not sure...What?"
The priest seemed nonplussed by their surprise. "In the Congo region. The child came from deep within East Africa."
Normally, Brandt would find such a statement almost insulting and racially charged, yet the friar did not seem to be making any kind of political statement. He really wanted to know where Vakasa was born.
Rebecca cleared her throat. "We don't know for certain where she was born, but we did find her in the Congo."
The friar bowed his head, taking in a deep breath. "The monks that lived here were devoted to the Black Madonna, but when the Holy See discovered their endeavors to bring all the relics to this place, the monks were taken from this place and the monastery closed." The priest pointed to the items. "They begged my ancestors to protect these artifacts. We were to watch for an earthquake in the Congo. Two sunsets later, we were to embrace any dark child that entered our church."
The man put a hand on Vakasa's shoulder, seeming to want to test that she was in fact tangible. Real.
"For centuries, we have waited for-"
A window shattered behind them. Brandt pulled Rebecca and Vakasa to the floor. Although, to be honest, Rebecca was already on her way down. Talli shoved the friar down as he made his way over to the window. Levont checked the exits. They still seemed clear.
As Brandt prepared to give the order to retreat to the car, another window blew out. There was no way in hell that was the Disciples' sniper. He didn't miss. And neither did Davidson. Which meant that the kid was trying to send them a message.
They weren't alone.
Rebecca risked reaching out a hand and grabbing the cross and Star of David. Whatever was happening, their trip was being cut short.
Another window shattered. Even though the shots didn't seem aimed to kill, Rebecca still flinched. Vakasa plugged her ears with her fingers.
"Father, thank you," Brandt stated, "but we've got to bug out."
Hernandez shook his head. "You must follow the map. It is the only way to know if she is the child of God."
"Yeah," Brandt countered. "We'll catch that one on the flip side."
"No," the priest said, reaching over and grabbing Brandt's arm. "The other half of the map is in a brother to that cross."
"That's great and all, but we need to leave." Brandt looked to his point man. "Levont."
Hernandez seemed pretty desperate, though, physically blocking Levont. Not that he would last long if the muscle-bound point man decided to do something about it. "The cross is hidden at the El Salvador Church." Off Brandt shaking his head, the friar hurried on. "It is just over the ridge." Levont went to brush past the priest, but the man held his ground. "There is but one paved road out of the village."
Brandt looked to Levont, who nodded his head. "Go on."
"If you leave your vehicle here, making it seem you are still in the area, it will delay your pursuers, no?"
Rebecca watched Brandt's frown deepen. "It could."
"Then you hike out on foot through the forest. The church is along your path to town. You will know the place."
Rebecca gulped. It was a risk. Actually, anything they did at this point was a risk. Which one would Brandt take?
He looked to her. "Well? I'm sure you've got an opinion."
"It is on the way..."
Brandt grunted, then let off a single shot out the window. It must have been a signal to Davidson. He swooped up Vakasa as he rose, settling her on his hip.
"You better be right, Padre," Brandt said through clenched teeth. "And you better have our backs."
The priest pressed his palms together as if in prayer. "We shall."
With that, they were out of the monastery. Lopez was there with the SUV, doors open and everything.
"Change of plans," Brandt announced. It was Lopez's turn to frown. "We are hiking our way out of here."
"Hiking?" Lopez said. "This thing is a V-ten with four-wheel drive. I can get us anywhere."
"Park the car as if we are still at the church."
The corporal was clearly confused but also seemed to know that now was not the time to ask any more questions. He knew Brandt as well as Rebecca, if not better. Quickly closing the doors, Lopez climbed in and followed orders, moving the car.
Brandt didn't even wait for him or Davidson, who approached from the south. Instead, Brandt just started climbing the ridge. He turned to Rebecca. "Well?"
Rebecca hesitated for a moment. Over the southern ridge, she could see dust being stirred up by the Disciples' advance. And they were hiking? Rebecca could now see Lopez's point more clearly. She felt exposed. Vulnerable.
"Thor," Vakasa said with a sigh, laying her head on his shoulder.
The little girl was right. Brandt would get them through this.
They were rapidly approaching a dense forest made up of maple, beech, birch, and ash trees, many of them pollarded. Pollarding was a pruning technique, used since the Middle Ages. It created what almost looked like a tabletop bunching in the trunk about four feet up, from which the rest of the branches would then climb. The trees ended up looking twisted and tortured, the effect more than a little bit creepy.
Climbing up beside him, they followed Levont up the hill, rapidly hidden by the forest. Each step taking them closer to Vakasa's destiny.
CHAPTER 23.
Undisclosed Location 10:33 a.m. (EST) Bunny picked at the last of the hash brown shreds and popped them into her mouth. She had to do something to keep distracted. Never mind those potatoes were soaked in saturated fat. Once the team was home safe, she'd have to do like a hundred crunches to burn off the calories.
With no more food around, Bunny was about to resort to biting her nails.
"Shouldn't they have intersected by now?" Prenner asked.
Stark checked a dozen different calculations. "I am hooked into every Spanish police scanner, CB radio bandwidth, and cell phone tower. When the Disciples and Brandt meet on the road up to the village, we are going to know about it."
Only, they didn't know about it. The first window had been over two minutes ago. That was with the Disciples going seventy miles per hour and Lopez going a hundred, which was a pretty accurate speed. Bunny watched the numbers flicker. Even if the Disciples had been going fifty miles per hour and Lopez eighty, they should have met on the sole road out of the village.
"Maybe they are planning an ambush," Emily suggested. "Stayed at the village and are lying in wait."
Bunny couldn't help it-her thumbnail found its way between her teeth.
Prenner shook his head. "With Lopez's speed and control? I think Brandt would have taken to the road. Setting up an ambush could backfire, leaving them trapped."
They both looked at Bunny like she was some kind of Brandt expert. Okay, maybe she was as close as they could come.
"His priority is going to be protecting Vakasa and Rebecca."
"Not exactly helpful," Prenner commented-unnecessarily, in Bunny's opinion.
Stark threw up his hands. "They would have to be crawling to have missed each other by now."
"So Brandt did plan an ambush," Emily stated, seeming a bit more pleased with herself than usual.
"Without satellite feed, we're blind..." Stark said even though his fingers still tapped away. "But maybe I can pick up some audio-"
Static burst from the speakers, nearly rupturing Bunny's eardrums. Stark couldn't dial the volume down fast enough, but then the sound abruptly stopped on its own.
"What was that?" Bunny asked, rubbing her ears.
Stark didn't answer her, though. He just kept typing, scanning the screens until the static returned, albeit at a quarter of the volume. Then he pushed back away from the keyboard like it had zapped him.
"No," he said, cocking his head at the screen.
"What?" Prenner asked, studying the same screen. However, he clearly had no idea what information it held.