Chapter 10
"What the fuck?" I repeated, only this time out loud.
The room's original occupants all turned in my direction; as though they had been so wrapped up in events here they hadn't even noticed when Lilith and I had arrived.
"Who is that?" I asked while pointing in the direction of the young man wearing Father O'Mallory's garb.
"Father O'Mallory," replied Mary as she climbed to her feet with what had to be the Holy Chalice in her hand.
"Father O'Mallory was old and, well, dead, the last time I saw him," I retorted feeling a little freaked out. But then I reminded myself I could phase through walls and open doorways to Hell and Beatrice was holding a stone that allowed her to talk to angels. Nothing should surprise me anymore. But things still did.
Mary shrugged. "I remembered the scene from the old Indiana Jones movie where he used the Grail Cup to heal his Dad after he was shot. I figured, what did we have to lose if I fed Father O'Mallory some water from the cup. He was already dead, it could hardly make him double-secret dead."
"But when Sean Connery drank from the cup, it just healed his wound. He didn't suddenly turn into the young super-hot Sean Connery from Dr. No."
Mary grinned, "I guess the real Grail Cup is more powerful than the movie version. Surprise, surprise."
"Father O'Mallory, how do you feel? What do you remember?" asked Beatrice, trying to be all business.
"I feel excellent; better than I've felt in forty years. And you need to stop calling me Father O'Mallory as it makes me feel like an old man, which I clearly no longer am. Please, call me Father Francis."
"And what do you remember?" Beatrice persisted.
"I remember everything. Well, I remember my whole life; the last couple of days while I was dead are pretty blurry."
"Ah, guys," interjected Lilith. "The clock is ticking. Ava says she has located another angelic relic, perhaps the item we were hoping to find. Let's go get it and get out of here before we are discovered."
"You found it?" asked Beatrice. She was stuffing the Seer Stone back into her shoulder bag, which made me wonder why she had taken it out. Had they needed more help from Michaela while Lilith and I had been looking for the other artifact? But I forced the question back down. Lilith was right, we needed to get moving. Hopefully, there would be time for questions later.
"Well, not exactly," I replied, as I backed out of the door and started moving down the short hall, trusting they could still hear me through my comm. "I determined it is in one of the chapels, but that's all. I never went into the chapel and from outside its barricade, its exact location and nature were impossible to determine."
I glanced down at my watch, the one with the special seven-minute timer. It read 5:27 AM. We had less than forty-five minutes to locate this new artifact and make it back to our vans before dawn.
"We need to hurry," I said as I broke into a run, the beam from my flashlight bouncing off the flagstone floor in front of me. Lilith was at my side and Camila was only a couple of steps behind us. Hopefully, the others weren't too far back.
I crossed the width of the nave and then proceeded up the left aisle, which was the side I had been exploring when I found the special chapel at the far end. As I ran, I realized I was still carrying my boots in one hand and the divinium knife and the flashlight in the other. Hopefully, I would have time to get my boots relaced and back on while the others worked on retrieving this new mystery item.
It took less than a minute to reach the chapel of interest; however we didn't have too many minutes left to spare. Once I was close, I had to stop and shine my light into several of the small chambers before I found the one with the stack of chairs I remembered. I kept my flashlight trained on the barred door as I moved a few steps further down the curved aisle to stay clear of the angelic devices Beatrice and Mary were carrying.
"It's in there, somewhere," I stated when the others caught up. As soon as I was certain they knew which one, I dropped to the floor and started working on the knot holding the laces to my wrist.
Mary and Father Antonio swung their lights around the chamber, looking for anything useful, while Beatrice knelt down with a small flashlight held in her teeth and what had to be a set of lock picks in her hands.
I heard the squeal of the seldom used door being opened, but didn't look up. My personal highest priority at the moment was getting my boots laced back up and that was going to take several minutes assuming I was able to give it my full attention.
"Here, give me the other one," said Lilith as she sank down beside me.
I nodded my thanks as I shoved the second boot and lace into her hands. Since neither of us could enter the chapel, or at least not more than a step or two, helping with my boots was probably the most useful thing Lilith could do for the moment. She was surprisingly dexterous considering her permanent fifteen centimeter talons.
Camila was watching as the others moved into the chapel. But with her skill with security systems, her input would probably be more valuable in these circumstances than Lilith's or mine.
"Camila," called Beatrice after a glance in our direction. "Can you step into the chapel and see if you can help us narrow down the search area?" Mary and Beatrice had left the Stone and the Cup out in the cathedral's aisle, well away from the chapel.
Nodding, Camila stepped gingerly through the opening. She took one more step forward before stopping. Then she moved to the left. Once she reached the left wall she took two small steps forward before retreating. Then she moved to the right wall and did the same thing.
"It has to be somewhere in or directly behind the altar," she said once she had stepped back until she was almost touching the wrought iron barricade near the right corner.
"Okay, just in case the device is hidden in plain sight, we'll remove things from the altar one at a time and bring them slowly towards you. Once an item is eliminated, we'll stack them in the opposite corner," said Beatrice.
When no one objected to her plan, she stepped up to the altar, crossed herself, said a quick prayer, and then with a grunt of effort raised the heavy gold crucifix.
Rotating around, she took a couple of steps towards where Camila stood in the corner.
"Anything?" asked Beatrice.
"Nothing," replied Camila.
Beatrice took one more step closer to Camila and was now easily within three meters. When Camila just shook her head, Beatrice turned and carried the crucifix to the opposite back corner and set it on the floor.
Before Beatrice had even stood back up, Mary grabbed a pair of candlesticks from the altar and carried them in Camila's direction. Once she was within range, Camila gave another negative shake of her head.
This went on for several minutes, as the altar had been stacked with a surprising number of small objects. Finally, except for the altar vestments and the antependium, the altar was bare.
"The object must be inside the altar or behind it," stated Beatrice. "Mary, help me remove these linens so we can check the altar for secret compartments."
Mary stepped to the other end of the altar and they reverentially removed the white linen cloth covering the upper surface. Then they went to remove the ornately designed tapestry covering the front of the altar.
"That's odd," said Beatrice.
"What?" exclaimed more than one person. Anything odd could be an important clue.
"The antependium appears to have a heavy rod sown into the lower edge. I guess it would help it to hang straight, but I've never seen one quite like this before."
The rod forced them to roll the heavy tapestry the long way rather than the more typical short way, leaving a bundle almost three meters in length.
With Beatrice and Mary at opposite ends, they moved to set it in the corner where they had placed all the other items from the top of the altar. As Mary moved, she took an unintended step closer to Camila. Camila let out a sudden bark of pain.
"That's it. Get it away from me," she cried as she tried to wedge herself deeper into the corner of the chapel even as she started to jerk and shake like she was being hit with a Taser.
Mary quickly lifted her end higher even as she stepped away.
"Set it back on the altar until we can get Camila out of here," said Beatrice as she moved back in that direction.
Camila stopped spasming once the bundle was further away, but it was clear she was unconscious.
"Father Antonio, Father Francis, can you carry Sister Camila out and take her far enough down the aisle so we can take this tapestry out to the aisle, too? We'll have more room to work on it out there."
The two men hurried over. Camila was already starting to moan so hopefully she wouldn't be out for too long. They hoisted her to a standing position and then draped an arm over each of their shoulders.
They half walked and half dragged her from the chapel and moved her well beyond where Lilith and I were sitting. Lilith moved back to check on her. I finished tying my second shoe and then went to join them and to give Lilith and Mary more space to work.
Once everyone was well clear of the chapel's entrance, Mary and Beatrice carried the tapestry bundle out and then laid it on the floor and unrolled it.
"How's Camila?" asked Beatrice.
"She should be fine in a few minutes, not that we have that many minutes to spare," replied Lilith. "Ava, what's the time?"
I glanced at my watch, "5:47." It was now only twenty-five minutes to dawn.
"We really need to be out of here in the next five minutes . . . ten minutes, tops," said Lilith.
"Fathers," said Beatrice, "Could you put everything back on the altar as best you can? And then do what you can to restore the chapel?"
"Why bother?" asked Mary. "The first person who enters the Chalice Chapel is going to notice it is gone."
"That can't be helped," replied Beatrice. "But I would just as soon not let our adversaries know what we were really looking for until it is unavoidable."
The priests nodded and headed back into the chapel.
Mary and Beatrice now had the tapestry unrolled. Beatrice pulled a small knife from the sleeve of her habit. "Mary, let's see if we can get the seam open that is holding the rod in place."
Mary pulled a knife of her own and started tearing loose the stitching from one end while Beatrice started from the other end. It took less than a minute to rip open the three meter long seam. They flipped open the flap of material and exposed the hidden rod.
By the light of their flashlights, it was medium colored wood about five centimeters in diameter. I was standing at least six meters back, but even from that distance it appeared to be inscribed with lettering over its entire length.
"That's odd," said Beatrice again, echoing her earlier remark when she had first noticed the rod within the tapestry.
"What?" a bunch of us said again in almost perfect unison.
"The inscription," she said as her finger lightly traced along its surface. "If it were to be inscribed, I would have thought it would be in Latin, but it's not." She paused, as though lost in thought, while her finger continued to move along the rod. "I've seen this somewhere before. I think . . . I think it is Ancient Hebrew. The old language from before they switched to Aramaic."
Ancient Hebrew? That had to mean the object was really, really old. Sister Areala, the first bearer of the Halo, had lived around the year 1000 A.D. This rod had to be several thousand years older than that.
"Can I see?" asked Father Francis as he stepped out of the chapel and knelt down near Beatrice. He studied it for a few seconds. "I agree. I think it is Ancient Hebrew."
"Can you read it?" Beatrice asked.
Father Francis shook his head. "No. But if it is Ancient Hebrew, I know several scholars who probably can."
"Father Antonio," called Beatrice. "Any chance you can read it?"
"Not if it is really Ancient Hebrew," he replied still working in the chapel. "Now if it is Old French, then I'm your man."
"Guys, we really need to go," said Lilith. "We can work on it more once we are somewhere safe."
"All done," said Father Antonio as he pulled the chapel's door closed with another loud squeal.
"Just give me a minute to lock the door," said Beatrice.
"Don't bother," said Mary as she went and picked up Beatrice's shoulder bag that held the Seer Stone and the Holy Chalice which had been standing next to it. "Unless you have a broom and want to spend ten minutes sweeping the chapel's floor, they are going to know someone has been in there, if anyone bothers to look."
Several beams of light turned in the direction of the chapel. Obviously, this chapel hadn't been opened in some time and the floor had a thick coating of dust. Now it was covered with a plethora of footprints.
"Right," said Beatrice. She grabbed up the tapestry and thrust it into Father Francis' hands. "Take this. Perhaps it will take them awhile to notice the antependium is gone." Then she picked up the rod. As she rose to her feet, she held the rod vertically and it struck me it would probably more properly be considered a staff than a rod.
Camila was more coherent now than when the priests had dragged her from the chapel, but she still didn't look ready to walk fully under her own power. Therefore Lilith and I helped her up and then draped her arms over our shoulders and set off at the fastest pace we could maintain since we were the closest to the route we had used to get from the basilica to the cathedral.
Over the comm, I asked, "Beatrice, are there any famous staffs in the Old Testament? None are jumping out to me."
"Holy shit," she blurted. "The Staff of God. This has to be the Staff of God!"
"What?" I asked, not recognizing the reference. Again, I am not a religious scholar.
"It appears a number of times in the Old Testament. Probably the first time, and the most famous time, is when Moses used it to bring the plagues down on Egypt and then used it to part the Red Sea when the Israelites were trying to escape Pharaoh's soldiers."
Diego and I had watched The Ten Commandments like a thousand times. Instantly, the image of Charlton Heston standing on the tall outcropping while commanding the sea to part and the resulting towering walls of water that had to reach a hundred meters popped into my head. If this was that staff, it should definitely have the power to send a fallen angel back to Hell!