Chapter Eleven
Nathaniel and his men led Tanya and Abigail into Trinity Church, which, thankfully, was completely deserted. The two women sat in one of the pews, somewhere in the middle of the church, as Nathaniel and his men filed into the church. The men spread out and sat around in a rough circle around the hostages. Nathaniel himself sat in the pew in front of them, facing them as well as he could. "What do you know about the treasure room, Abigail?" he asked.
"What do you want me to show you first?" she asked, meeting his gaze with a level, strong one of her own.
Before Nathaniel could answer Abigail, however, his phone rang, and he answered before it became too distracting. "Hello? Yes, it's me. Have you got anything?" He listened patiently as the person on the other end of the line spoke; it seemed to Tanya and Abigail like the person on the other end was reading a novel cover to cover. "You know the underground chambers, it seems, so get down here and show me around, or they die." He snapped his phone shut, hard, and returned his attention to Tanya and Abigail. "You two have roughly six hours to live, so count your blessings."
NTNT
Ben shut his phone and sighed.
"What's going on?" Ian asked.
"We go to Trinity Church, take Nathaniel down to the treasure room, and see what we can find," Ben replied.
"What else is there to find?" Riley asked. "We already found the Templar Treasure, and it's all been recovered by now. What else could there be?"
"Something on the floor, perhaps?" Ian replied.
"What could possibly be on that floor?"
"Maybe it's the lantern," Ben added. "Something that's down there somewhere, anyway."
"We need the FBI and their advanced equipment or something, anything but their wooden boards," Riley said. "We all know what happened." After a moment of somewhat awkward silence, he asked, "What?"
"He's right," Ian said. "We do know what happened, and we do need advanced equipment, for the sake of our safety."
"There might still be some equipment set up from when we recovered the treasure," Ben said, almost wistfully, staring off into space past both Riley and Ian. "I wish I could check with Abi, but..."
"Okay, here's what we've got, something under Trinity Church and a meeting with the President in two days where we might learn some new stuff about Page Forty-seven," Riley said. "So, we're doing the Trinity Church thing first?"
"Yes, let's go," Ian said quickly.
Within minutes, Ian and his men were all gathered together in a large van, with Riley and Ben as somewhat reluctant followers. Viktor pulled the van out of the walkway and turned onto the street, headed north.
NTNT
Nathaniel and his men had clustered in one corner of the church, leaving Tanya and Abigail sitting side-by-side in one of the pews, staring at the altar. "So what do we do?" Abigail whispered.
"We give this man what he wants," Tanya replied. "We give him what he wants and we hope we can get out of here alive. That's our only option, which means at some point, we have to work together."
"So give me a good reason to trust you."
"It's not as if my brother's actions have an effect on myself personally."
"You grew up together."
"And I have the feeling you're extremely prejudiced."
Abigail sighed heavily and slumped back against the pew. Tanya rolled her eyes and turned her gaze to a corner.
Shaw's transparent form appeared in the corner into which Tanya was staring, and he nodded. It took her a moment to figure out what he meant, but when he gestured to Nathaniel and then to the hole behind the altar, she understood. He held up his hand in a gesture of patience just as she started to get to her feet. She sat down again, slowly, so as not to attract attention to herself, and turned to face the door, even though she knew it would still be some time before Ian, Ben, Riley, and God knew who else to show up.
Abigail shot Tanya a sidelong glance and asked, "Seeing ghosts?"
"Are you questioning my sanity or your own?" Tanya asked in reply. "After all, you are quite narrowminded, and you feel that you must bring others down to your level, which most people are already at."
The look Abigail had on her face was absolutely priceless to Tanya. She looked like she got slapped in the face, and Tanya cracked up uncontrollably. Abigail opened and closed her mouth several times before groaning and turning away. It took Tanya a little longer to regain control of herself, but as soon as she did, the men staring at her from the corner returned to whatever they were discussing.
NTNT
"When're we gonna get there? I'm hungry. This car smells weird," Riley said dryly, his head against the back passenger window.
"How come I have the feeling I heard this before?" Ben asked, turning his gaze toward Ian in the driver's seat next to him.
"So do we throw him out?" Ian asked, glancing at Ben before returning his attention to the road.
"Hey," Riley snapped.
"Relax, Riley. We're not getting rid of you just yet."
"Sure, you say that now."
"Riley, we mean it," Ben said, and Riley could tell his friend was serious, so he just let the subject drop.
"Alright, sae what dae we do?" Powell asked.
"What we do is figure out what this crazy guy wants so we can get his hostages back," Riley said.
"Tha's ae good plan. Ian, whaddae yae think?"
"My personal feeling is that he's thinking the exact same thing we are," Ian said, turning onto an onramp and speeding up. "This is the reason we're going to Trinity Church."
"So why am I meeting with the President again?" Ian asked.
"Answers," Ben and Ian said at the same time.
"Gettin' real confusing real quick, ain't it," Phil said, casting a sidelong glance in Riley's general direction before switching the song he was playing on his iPod.
"I just wish this whole thing were over."
"It will be, Ri. I promise," Ben said.
"I sure hope you mean that, Ben," Ian hissed, making a point of keeping his eyes on the road.
Ben said nothing, looking out the passenger side window. Riley pulled out his own iPod and picked a song at random, turning up the volume almost to the point where it would bother him. Powell looked behind the back seat, where Viktor lay across a large empty space covering the distance between the van's back door and the back seat.
After what felt like both an eternity and only a few minutes, Ian pulled into an offramp and slowed his speed. Riley looked around at the city they were driving into, and for a moment, he barely recognized it, but then it hit him like a ton of bricks. "Isn't Broadway on the other side of the freeway?" Riley asked.
"We'll get there," Ian said as evenly as he could manage.
"Okay, just makin' sure."
Ian turned a corner and headed straight a few blocks before turning another corner. Riley glanced at the street signs and nodded slowly in complete understanding.
"'Heere at the wall,'" Riley whispered.
"'Heere at the wall' indeed," Ian replied, parking the car a few blocks from Trinity Church. "We walk the rest of the way."
Viktor, Phil, and Powell were first to climb out of the van, followed by Riley, Ian, and then Ben. As a sixsome, they walked down the street and filed into the church.
NTNT
"Ah, they're here," Nathaniel said suddenly, walking over to the door just as Ben, Riley, Ian, Powell, Phil, and Viktor filed through it. "Do you have an answer for me?"
"It's something in the treasure room," Tanya said. "That's where the next clue is."
"Hope for their sakes that she's right." Nathaniel gestured for them follow him down the aisle, and Tanya and Abigail got to their feet simultaneously, following the group to the hole in the wall which had been Parkington Lane's tomb. Tanya glanced off into the corner, where she glimpsed Shaw, who nodded again. She nodded in return and slipped into the tunnel inside the tomb.