I'm always amazed at how fast you can get things done when you have money and influence. It's probably because I've never had very much of either! It took Bill and Ulrich between them about half a dozen phone calls to arrange for Bill and I to be in Naples the following day. One call to Anubis was sufficient to arrange all our travel requirements and the hotel bookings, I hated to think how much they must charge. However, this time, The Authority was paying, that's what the other phone calls were about!

Unfortunately the hotel in Naples didn't have the light tight rooms and tough security arrangements of the more modern, "vampire friendly" hotels and so Ulrich arranged for Bill to be provided with security by The Authority. He would just have to remain in the travel pod during the day. We flew out the next day and arrived in Naples just after dusk. The hotel had been selected as it was not far from San Lorenzo Maggiore and when we had checked in and settled down a bit, Bill and I went out to walk to the church and check out the meeting place and the area around it.

As we strolled hand in hand through the narrow streets I almost forgot why we were here and just enjoyed being in Bill's company in the warm night air of southern Italy.

We stood outside the great basilica of San Lorenzo gazing up at the statues of the saints and then Bill put his arm around me and we walked down to the plaza and sat down outside a lively little bar where Bill ordered me a glass of wine.

"Just one!" I insisted with a laugh.

"Oh don't worry!" he said smiling down at me "I'm not planning to get you drunk." He leaned forward and whispered in my ear "not unless I've got you somewhere private!"

I sat back in my chair and sipped my wine, watching Bill. He was leaning back in the shadows, observing the couples wandering around the square hand in hand, just as we had been doing.

"Penny for your thoughts?" I said with a smile.

He leaned forward and put his elbows on the table, his luminous blue eyes gazing into mine with a thoughtful expression. After a moment he spoke.

"For one hundred and forty years I have watched people going about their business, doing normal, human things and I have always felt...separate, apart from them. There have been so few times when I felt that I was...almost normal. That I fitted in, that I was part of life. Those times are so rare that they are very precious to me." He took my hand in his. "This is one of those times."

He reached over and gently brushed a tiny tear from my cheek and we sat quietly, hand in hand, in the moonlight until it was time to return to the hotel.

I woke the next morning and rolled over in the double bed, expecting to find Bill's still form next to me. It was quite a shock therefore to find the bed empty. I had a brief moment of panic before I remembered that the room was not light tight and sat up to see the closed travel pod with the Anubis logo on it sitting on the floor on the other side of the room. I looked at the clock and calculated that I had time for a shower and something to eat before heading off for my rendezvous with Reynaldo, the manuscript courier!

Propped up by the door was a dark grey rucksack which had been handed to us when we arrived, together with a note from Ulrich instructing me to take it with me to the noon meeting. Apparently Reynaldo would recognise me by the rucksack. Well, I guess I'd have looked a little incongruous with a carnation in my buttonhole!

As I left the hotel I caught myself checking around the entrance. There were two mothers hurrying a group of small children towards a bakers shop on the other side of the road, a couple of ordinary looking men sitting on a bench opposite, reading newspapers and two young men in jeans and T shirts one with long dark greasy looking hair and the other bald, with a striking tattoo down his neck consulting a map. A smartly dressed woman carrying a briefcase was just coming past me up the steps into the foyer.

"You're getting paranoid again!" I told myself firmly as I slung the rucksack over my shoulder and headed for the church.

I arrived a few minutes before noon and strolled into the cool, dark interior. There were a number of tourists wandering around with guide books and I took one from the stand at the entrance and sat down on a pew at the back of the nave to read it, carefully placing the rucksack in full view on the floor at my feet. After about ten minutes a young man came over and sat down next to me.

"May I borrow that for a moment?" he asked with a smile, gesturing at the guide I was reading. He had the most delightful Italian accent I had ever heard.

"Sure" I said, passing it over to him. He sat reading for a few moments as I gazed around the inside of the church and then he handed it back to me.

"Grazie" he said and got up with a smile. As I watched him walk away, out into the sunlit street it occurred to me that the guide in my hand felt a little thicker somehow. I looked down and saw that there were half a dozen typed pages inside it. The translation of the Spanish monk's manuscript.

"Smooth, very smooth," I thought to myself. "There's a man who's watched too many James Bond movies!

I slipped the manuscript into my rucksack and wandered around the church for a while until I was sure that he had got a good distance away, then I headed out into the afternoon sunshine. My relaxed and happy mood lasted until I turned the corner by the hotel. There were many more people about now and there was quite a crowd walking past the hotel entrance but there were two young men sitting on the bench where I had noticed the newspaper readers earlier. They wore jeans and T shirts and one was bald with a noticeable tattoo on his neck. They were watching the hotel!

Screwing up every ounce of courage I possessed I walked calmly down the street in the middle of the crowd, past the bench, past the hotel and straight on around the far corner without a pause. Once out of sight around the corner my legs nearly gave way beneath me and I leaned on the wall, panting as if I had run a mile. Why, oh why did I allow myself to be talked into these things? I vowed that if I got out of this in one piece Bill was going to have to make it up to me, big time.

Well...that wasn't really fair actually, I had wanted to help after all.

Okay, so I couldn't go back to the hotel, so what should I do now? I had no idea who these guys were. Were they really looking for us? Were they working for Lazlo? Were they even human? The further away from them I was, the more comfortable I would feel so I headed slowly back to the plaza just down the street from San Lorenzo. I went into a little coffee shop on the square and sat down at a table well away from the window. Getting out my phone, I called Bill's number and left him a concise message describing what had happened and also describing the two men. I told him where I was and left him strict instructions to come and get me as soon as possible and flipped the phone shut. I was confident that, provided he was forewarned, Bill would be able to deal with them. Then I reached down to the rucksack and pulled out the manuscript. I had several hours to wait until dusk so I ordered a pot of coffee and began to read.

It was in the seventh month of the year of Our Lord 1537 that I became a traitor to my country and to my church. Although, having followed the armies of Hernando Pizarro and his brothers through New Spain for twelve months, I have to say that the disillusionment I had suffered from witnessing the wanton acts of greed and cruelty inflicted on the native people by my countrymen had meant that I no longer gave much thought to those ideals of honour and nobility with which I had arrived on these shores. I had come here in hopes of converting the pagan natives to the noble Catholic faith, but within six months of my arrival I had begun to accept that the Inca people had more nobility than many of my Catholic brothers.

It was on the San Carlos, a prison hulk, an old dismasted wooden galleon which lay at anchor out in the Urubamba river that I first heard the story of the goddess Azaria. I had gone on board this disgusting vessel armed with my bible, a thick leatherbound volume embossed with the two crossed arrows which were the symbol of my monastery in Spain, in the hope of bringing the Word of God to the unfortunate pagan Indians who were the prisoners of the Spanish army. There was one group of Inca warriors who appeared to be prepared to listen to me. Their spokesman was a man called Manco who struck me as being possessed of more than usual intelligence. For example, in the months during which he had been confined in the San Carlos he had learned enough of our language to make himself understood, and to translate for his friends. I had been visiting this group for a few weeks when one day I arrived to find an argument going on.

As I walked in through the barred wooden door which had been opened for me by the guards Manco came over to me. "Brother Diego" he said "is it true what we have heard? That the great lord Hernando is on his way here, looking for treasure?"

"Yes, I have heard this." I answered. "Commander Pizarro is on his way here now."

I saw a look of absolute panic cross Manco's face"Then I must find a way out of here. He will find her, he will be drawn by the silver and if he removes it, all will be lost."

"Find who Manco?" I asked.

"Azaria!" he said, then to my surprise he made the sign of the cross. "This is the sign of your God, yes?" he asked. "Azaria is our goddess, our protector, the spirit of our people."

"She is made of silver?" I asked. "An idol of some kind?" I knew that a solid silver idol would draw Hernando like a fly to honey.

"No, no she is real. I was told the story by my uncle who is priest to the Sun God in the Temple of the Sun, the Corichanca, in Cuzco. She lived several hundred years ago and was the daughter of our king Pachacuti, the Sapa Inca, but she was taken by an evil spirit. This spirit gave her great power, but also made her very dangerous and so the priests imprisoned her in a box covered with silver and placed her in a secret temple in this valley. So long as she is contained within the Temple she is able to protect our people as she wished to do. But if your Lord Hernando removes her from the box to take the silver then he will release the evil spirit. Only the power of the sun god Inti will be able to stop her."

Manco put his hand on my arm "Please, Brother Diego, you must help us to find her and to hide her where she will be safe from your treasure hunters."

I paused and poured myself another cup of coffee. Evidently the Inca warriors had retained a version of the same story which Ulrich and Ilario had told Bill and I back in England. A version slightly distorted by the priests of the sun. I took a sip of coffee and turned the page.

narrow path running alongside the river dodging hanging vines...

That didn't make sense! I turned back a page, checking – damn it! There was a page missing! Did it matter though? I read on to discover Brother Diego and two other monks heading down the Urubamba valley with Manco, the Inca warrior. They were evidently heading for the hidden temple so I didn't think I'd missed anything important.

At that moment I felt a wave of contentment wash over me and I looked up to see Bill standing in the doorway.

I woke at dusk to a vague feeling of unease. I had felt a shock of fear earlier during my daytime sleep but it had faded so quickly that I was not sure if it was genuine or part of some dark dream dredged up from the depths of my subconcious mind. Unfastening the latch on the inside of the travel pod I climbed out and stretched, looking around for Alex. She was nowhere to be seen but the bathroom door was closed. I walked over and tapped on the door.

"Alex? Are you in there?" The door swung open as I touched it and the room beyond was empty. The unease began to grow. Perhaps she had gone down to the restaurant for something to eat. I opened the door to see Ulrich's two security guards outside.

"Has Miss Morgan gone down to the restaurant?" I asked.

"Sorry Sir" said one of the guards "We haven't seen her since she left just before noon."

"What? She hasn't come back?" I dashed back into the room and pulled my phone from my jacket pocket. Yes! There was a message from her. As I listened to the message I moved quietly to the window, staying well back so that I could not be seen, and glanced down into the street below. Sure enough, there were the two men she was describing, sitting patiently on the bench opposite the main entrance. As I watched them I heard a low rumbling noise, getting louder and moments later two huge Harley-Davidson motorcycles rolled over the cobbles and pulled up outside the hotel. I watched as the two men on the bench got up and began to talk to the bikers. Standing with my back to the wall beside the partly open window I sniffed cautiously at the air. Weres! I flipped the phone open again and dialled Ulrich.

Bill stood in the doorway of the café wearing a pair of jeans, heavy boots and the leather biker jacket he had worn that night at Carmillas. He smiled with relief when he saw me and came over to my table.

"You got it then?" he said, looking down at the papers on the table in front of me. "Better pack up though, we need to get out of here fast. Those men you spotted outside the hotel? They're Weres, and there are more of them, I managed to get out of the hotel without them noticing but they'll be able to track me before long. Fortunately Ulrich was able to provide me with transport, he's waiting for us at The Authority's base in Sorrento."

I packed up the rucksack and handed the manuscript to Bill.

"Here, you'd better take this" I said as we left the café.

We hurried around the corner into the square and I stopped dead. Parked beside the kerb was a gleaming black Ducati. Bill slipped the copy of the manuscript into his jacket, zipped it up and flung his leg over the bike, flicking up the sidestand with his boot. "Come on. Get on, quick!" he urged. He pressed the ignition and the engine fired with a roar.

"Are you sure about this?" I asked, tightening up the straps of the rucksack. "Do bear in mind that I could get killed on this thing even if you couldn't."

As I spoke we heard a howling coming from the direction of the basilica.

"If you stay here you could get killed as well!" said Bill reaching for my hand. "Come on Alex, you can do this!"

I reached over the bike and flipped down the pillion footrest on the far side. "Just promise me you'll be careful" I pleaded "I've never ridden pillion behind a dead man before!"

"I'll try and drive as if I'm still alive, I promise!" laughed Bill as I put my foot on the peg and swung myself up behind him. The Ducati was not really designed for two people and so there was no rack, no bars, nothing to hold on to except Bill. I put my arms around his hips and locked my fingers together just over his belt buckle.

"Okay, go!" I said. I saw Bill's hand twist the throttle and the rumbling growl of the engine increased to the roar of a great cat as it leaped forward across the square, heading for the arched gateway to the right. As we turned to go through the arch I caught a glimpse of several low grey shapes running into the square followed by a couple of big, powerful motorbikes. Then we were out of the square and racing down the hill towards the coast.

I clung to Bill as we headed through the narrow streets of Naples towards the coast road. I could feel the tension in his body as he swept the powerful machine around the scant late night traffic, weaving our way out of the town and onto the road to Ercolano, the ancient city of Herculaneum. The old coast road was dark once we left the edge of the city but I got an occasional glance in the mirrors and I could see a single bright headlight sweeping along the road behind us. Then another joined it, two motorcycles! I saw Bill's head turn as he checked the mirrors and saw them and suddenly the Ducati speeded up even more. The scenery was blurring as we raced along and with every bend I looked down to see the concrete surface of the road flying past a foot from my knee. I held tight to Bill and prayed that he knew what he was doing.

After a few miles my pounding heart began to slow a little and I kept a closer eye on the mirrors. The following bikes appeared to be bigger and heavier than ours and, although powerful and fast in a straight line, the smaller, lighter Ducati was getting away from them on the twisting coast road even carrying the two of us. This was partly due to the fact that Bill was tearing through the bends, flicking the bike over at about 45 degrees on each one. I could feel the flexing of his powerful muscles as I held on to him, and something else. Flooding through the bond was an almost savage excitement, a fierce joy that I could feel bubbling up in him as we flew towards the little town which had been wiped from the maps by the eruption of Vesuvius on that terrible day in August 79AD.

We reached the outskirts of Ercolano and I saw Bill's head move as he looked in the mirrors. There was nothing, we had outdistanced our pursuers for the moment. Bill braked sharply and unexpectedly, throwing me forward against his muscular back and turned in to the ancient site. Before I had a chance to wonder what he was doing we had roared down a side street and pulled up beside one of the ancient roadside bars.

I had visited both Pompeii and Herculaneum before I met Bill and I knew that, while Pompeii was an open site with wide plazas and open buildings of which only the ground floors at most remained, Herculaneum was different. Here a succession of pyroclastic flows had buried the city from the bottom up and there had therefore been much less damage with many structures surviving almost intact to the roof levels. On some streets you almost expected a door to open and a senator to emerge on his way to the bath house. Bill had pulled up the Ducati around a corner from the main street and sheltered completely from the main road. He immediately cut the engine and the lights and we both sat silent, listening.

In just a moment or two we heard the roar of two powerful engines and caught a glimpse of two headlight beams sweeping down the main road and heading away to the south. I let out a breath which I hadn't realised that I was holding and slackened my grip on Bill.

"Do you think we've lost them?" I asked.

"For the moment at least." answered Bill thoughtfully. "When they fail to catch up with us on the next straight they may realise that we've given them the slip. It depends how bright they are." He turned his head and smiled at me. "Most Weres are not that bright! We need to be going in the same direction though, so we'd better head inland and make for Sorrento another way. Are you okay there? I can slow down a bit now if you like!"

"Just a little perhaps" I said "So that I don't have to hang on quite so tight?"

"Shame" he whispered. "I was quite enjoying it!" and before I could think of a smart answer he had fired the engine up again, checked that my hands were firmly around his waist and set off inland at a slightly more sedate pace.

The inland roads were a longer route and we took a few detours to ensure that we were not followed, so it was an hour or so later that we rolled up to an unobtrusive garage door in the tourist town of Sorrento. I was finding it hard to believe that the Vampire Authority could have a base of operations in such a popular resort but what I hadn't realised was that one of the best hotels in the town, built into the side of the cliffs over the Bay of Naples, was in fact owned by The Authority. The beautiful public rooms on the side of the cliff with the enormous picture windows and the terraces looking out to Capri were only the surface. Built deeper into the cliff was the part that the tourists didn't see. The second hotel designed solely for vampires, completely light tight and with extremely tight security.

Bill and I left the Ducati in a garage at the base of the cliff and were escorted up to Ulrich's office in a lift which appeared to be big enough for us to have taken the bike up with us! A security guard stood at the door and tapped on it when we appeared. He opened the door and gestured for us to enter. Ulrich was sitting behind a desk and scowling at a computer screen but he looked up and smiled when he saw us.

"You made it! Well done. I trust they didn't follow you here?" he asked.

"No" said Bill confidently. "We shook them off back at Ercolano." He unzipped his jacket and pulled out the manuscript. "I think this is what you've all been looking for" he said with a smile at me.

Ulrich reached over and placed his hand on the manuscript. "Have you read it?" he asked me.

"Some of it" I answered carefully. I was not quite sure whether he had intended me to or not, but he didn't seem surprised.

"Have you any information we could use?" he asked.

"No, sorry. I only read the first few pages." I paused, unsure if I should ask or not. "I'd like to read the rest though...if that's alright?"

Ulrich smiled "Of course! Without you we might never have got our hands on it at all! I'll arrange for you to have a photocopy. I trust that you will both be our guests here for a while. I've arranged for a suite of rooms to be made available for you and we will provide a security card to enable you to go through into the main hotel" he smiled at me again. "Just show the card to get service in the bars or the restaurants." He turned to Bill "A supply of artificial and donor blood is available in your rooms..." his eyes slid to me again, "...should you require it."

Bill simply smiled and thanked him. "Very well" said Ulrich "I'll leave you to settle in for the day. Perhaps tomorrow we could get together and go over the manuscript, together with the other evidence we have?" He pressed a button on his desk and a security guard came in. "Show Mr Compton and Miss Morgan to their rooms would you?"

The rooms proved to be very impressive although I wondered if I would ever really get used to the lack of windows. There was a spacious sitting room, a large bedroom with an extremely comfortable looking bed which cried out to muscles which were beginning to stiffen from the unfamiliar exercise, and a large bathroom with a big, semi-circular bath.

"Oh yes, a bath. I could just do with a long soak in a hot bath" I said. "Oh wait, all our luggage is in Naples!"

Bill said nothing, merely pointed to the bed where my silk nightdress lay tastefully draped over the pillow.

"They brought our luggage here from Naples?" I asked.

"Looks that way" said Bill "I guess Ulrich has confidence in us!"

Ten minutes later we were both lying in the deliciously hot scented water, relaxing our tired muscles. I laid my head on Bill's shoulder and very nearly nodded off to sleep. After a while Bill stirred and said "The dawn is coming, I can feel it. You need to sleep too."

"I also need to eat!" I said. I think I'll go into the Hotel and see if there's any chance of a meal before I come to bed...if you don't mind?"

"Of course not." You'll be safe here. I'll see you at dusk. He leaned over and kissed me tenderly then climbed out of the bath.

So that's how I came to be sitting on a terrace under an olive tree with a plate of pasta and a glass of wine watching the sun come up over the Isle of Capri.


I woke slowly, swimming up from the depths of the deep sleep of the day to find Alex in my arms, sleeping peacefully, her black hair lying in a warm blanket over my chest. I tightened my arms around her drowsily and pulled her closer. She was lying on her side, facing away from me and I held her warm naked body close against me, my arm around her waist, one hand cupping one of her soft, warm heavy breasts. I nuzzled my face into the hair at her neck and she gave a tiny little sigh, but did not wake. I loved the feel of her warm soft skin against mine, the sweet scent of her filling my nostrils.

I relaxed beside her and let my mind drift back to the events of the previous night when my precious Alex had once again shown herself to be courageous and resourceful in her determination to help someone she felt to be deserving of her assistance. She had witnessed my horror at the terrible fate which had overtaken Azaria and she was now resolved to help her, just as she had risked her life to help me. I smiled to myself as I recalled the moment when she had placed her hand on my shoulder and pulled herself up onto the back of the motorcycle Ulrich had provided. I closed my eyes and I could almost feel her warm body pressed up against my back, her thighs squeezing mine, her arms around me with her small hands clasped tight against the buckle of my belt.

No! don't think about that! Too late I realised that my drowsy recollections were having a predictable effect on my body. I could feel myself stiffening against her soft, round to my surprise she gave another little sigh and wriggled back against me, shifting her body until that part of me which was now pushing insistently against her, slipped gently between her thighs. I carefully brushed the hair back from her face and looked down at her. She appeared to be asleep. I must admit to a little pang of guilt as I relaxed against her, feeling her warm soft skin against my stiff urgent flesh. I lay quietly beside her and tried to think of something else, something other than the delicious sensations that I was feeling every time I shifted even slightly and my, now rock hard, member rubbed against her skin.

I placed my lips gently to her ear. "Alex?" I whispered sliding my hand down her smooth belly and into the nest of soft dark curls between her legs. My fingers slipped easily into her folds which were coated with that sweet silkiness which I adored. As I gently opened her with my fingers the tip of my stiff member slipped in almost of its own accord, straining to be inside her. "Oh Alex….please wake up precious" I moaned softly "this is driving me insane!" She gave a little whimper and pushed herself back against me. I gasped, fighting the almost uncontrollable urge to simply hold her body down against the bed and take her, I couldn't do this could I? Well yes….actually I could, but I shouldn't! Just at that moment her eyes fluttered open and she turned her head to look up at me.

"Mmmm…..oh Bill," she said sleepily "that is so much better than an alarm clock!"

I leaned over her and kissed her neck, just below her ear. "Hello precious" I breathed "are you okay?"

"Ooooh….yes." she sighed and wriggled against me drawing an agonised moan from my lips. "Oh please…." I whispered, my fingers sliding over the joining of our flesh, spreading her silky fluid along my shaft, lubricating it ready for her, the warmth, the feel, the scent of her driving me mad with lust. She turned her head drowsily, her mouth searching for mine. I pressed my lips to hers and felt her tongue slide between them as she raised her hips and pushed herself back against me, wriggling into a position where she could slide herself onto me.

I held my body absolutely still, my tongue curling against hers and felt the full length of my member slide into her, the little circle of muscle within her squeezing down my rigid shaft until I was holding her body crushed against mine, my shaft buried deep within her. She gave a contented little sigh and tried to move against me but I held her still and resumed my gentle stroking of her soft flesh.

"Whatever have you been dreaming about?" I whispered "I hope this is for me?"

"Mmm…this is what I was dreaming about" she breathed, am I awake now?

"Oh I hope so!" I said "I'm going to have some apologising to do if you're not!"

She gave a little giggle, from which I deduced that she was, in fact, awake. However, I could sense, both from her body's response and through the bond, that she was very close to the edge and so I remained motionless and continued to stroke her gently until I felt her muscles begin to contract around me. I removed my mouth from hers and transferred my lips to her throat, her head pulling back eagerly to present it to me. Just as I thought I could no longer bear the sensation of her body convulsing around me, I bit down on her throat, my fangs slicing easily into her flesh and the taste of her hot, sweet blood on my tongue pushed me over the edge with her as I climaxed, my hips moving involuntarily as I poured my soul out and into her.

We lay for a while, our bodies locked together, not moving, just holding each other. Then Alex gave a sigh, wriggled out of my arms and sat up.

"Shouldn't we be taking a look at that manuscript?" she asked. "Ulrich wants to see us later doesn't he?"

"Sure, we can do that" I said, pulling her back down beside me and reaching over to the bedside table where I had put the photocopy of the manuscript before I fell asleep with the dawn. I piled the pillows at the head of the bed and we sat up against them with the manuscript on my lap. I put my arm around her and we began to read it together from where she had left off.

I pushed aside a hanging vine and stepped out into an open space. Before me in a gap in the cliffs was a small lake which fed the tributary to the river. A narrow path wound around it and in the centre of the lake was a small island. To one side of where we stood were two stone pillars with a rope tied to one. The rope went over the water to the island and was attached to a log bridge which, when drawn across, would span the lake at its narrowest part.

Manco ran to the Pillar, untied the rope and began to pull the end of the logs across the narrow gap. Brother Alfonso and I ran to assist him and soon the end of the bridge was resting on the ground at our feet. Manco looped the rope back around the pillar and set off across the bridge with the three of us following behind him. Once on the island Manco headed into the thick undergrowth along a faint pathway. It was evident that not many people ever actually visited this temple and in a few moments we came out into a clearing before a curious building.

When I first arrived in this strange land I was amazed at the skill of the Inca builders. The walls of their cities and public buildings were made using huge blocks of stone which were cut to fit together so perfectly that not a drop of mortar was required. I had to admit to myself that not even the great cathedrals of Spain were any more impressive than the Corichanca, the great Temple of the Sun in their city of Cuzco. This was a very much smaller structure but made with the same techniques and attention to detail. The entrance was blocked by a great stone door. I took one look at it and thought that we would never in this world be able to move it. You may imagine my surprise therefore when Manco walked up to the doorway and pushed it open with one hand! I followed him through the entrance, looking back to see that the great door was balanced so perfectly that it moved easily with the slightest touch.

To the side of the doorway was a basket containing a number of unlit torches and Manco pulled out one for each of us. He then placed them on the floor with the heads together and squatted down next to them. Pulling out two stones from a pouch at his belt he struck the two stones together with the ease of long practice and a spark fell to the dry tinder on the heads of the torches lighting them immediately. I heard a gasp of surprise from Brother Enrique behind me and smiled to myself.

"Take a torch Brother Diego" said Manco. The Temple of Azaria is always kept in darkness.

"Why is that?" I asked, picking up two of the torches and handing one to Alfonso.

Manco gave a shrug "The priests say that the sun god is her enemy" he said.

We took the lighted torches and walked carefully into the temple. The building was quite small with a low ceiling and there was a thick stone wall built across it only ten feet or so from the doorway with a narrow gap at either end. Beyond the wall was solid darkness and I realised that the wall was cleverly designed to cut off any light from the doorway from reaching into the interior of the temple. There was very little light now even in the entrance as it was nearly sundown and we passed into the main area of the temple holding the torches up before us.

I was so engrossed in the story that the buzzing of my phone went almost unnoticed. Suddenly I realised what it was and reached over to pick it up. Ulrich's voice barked into my ear. "I'd like you and Alex to join me in my office please. Now!" The phone clicked and went dead. Alex and I grinned at each other and, reluctantly, got out of bed and dressed.


The two security guards escorted Bill and I to Ulrich's office where he was poring over his copy of the manuscript.

"Well?" he asked as we entered. "Have you read it yet?"

"You didn't give us time to finish it." said Bill mildly.

"Sit down" Ulrich gestured at the couch against the wall. "Take all the time you need." We sat down and the three of us resumed our reading.

I don't know quite what I expected to find behind the wall but it was like nothing I had ever seen before! The floor was composed of large stone flags, again cut to fit together perfectly, and a large stone altar stood in the centre. Other than this the room itself was empty, but the walls! Every few feet a niche had been cut into the walls and in each niche sat an offering to the goddess. Although some of the niches were so old that they were almost completely covered with dirty, grey cobwebs, everywhere there was the gleam of gold.

"Madre de Dios!" I turned to see Brother Alfonso cross himself and turn to Manco. "You are right my friend, General Pizarro could never resist this." We paused gazing around in wonder, knowing that this place could soon be destroyed by our fellow countrymen's lust for gold.

"But where is she, your goddess?" I asked, for there appeared to be nothing else in the temple. I could see no other doors, nor any niche which was big enough to hold a body.

Manco smiled. "I told you she was hidden brother. Protected by the sign – by that which would destroy her." He walked to the rear wall and pressed a mark carved into it. There was a grinding noise and to our amazement one of the large stone flags before the altar sank into the ground revealing a flight of steps.

Brother Enrique leapt forward with a gasp and jumped down on to the steps, holding his torch to the slab, trying to see how this had happened. "How does this work Manco?" he asked excitedly.

"I'm sorry brother" said Manco "I do not know. Only our master stonemasons can understand the secret."

"I was a stonemason before I entered the Benedictine Order" answered Enrique "I could understand this!"

"Not now Enrique!" I said, "There will be time to examine the mechanism later. Let us find her first!"

We held up our torches and walked, with some trepidation on my part at least, down the steps and into the secret crypt of the temple.

Moments later the four of us came out into the blackness of the crypt, Enrique still trying to see the mechanism which had lowered the great flagstone. But then even he had to tear his eyes away from the stones which were his passion as the flickering torchlight fell on what lay in the centre of the chamber.

A raised stone platform stood in the middle of the floor and on the platform was a coffin. But I had never seen such a coffin before in my life. It appeared to be made of wood but almost every inch of the surface was covered with silver plate, heavily engraved with pagan symbols so that it glittered fiercely in the light of our torches. It reminded me somewhat of the reliquaries which are held in some of our Cathedrals and which hold the bones of the holy saints. This also evidently occurred to my two brother monks as they immediately stepped forward as if to open the casket.

Manco jumped forward and held out his hands. "No….no…you must not open it" he said urgently. "You will release the evil spirit!" Alfonso and Enrique ignored him and moved to the casket.

"Don't be afraid my friend" I said. "The Lord will protect us. We need to see what is in the box before we can decide what to do with it." I put my hand on his muscular arm and gently drew him back, surprised to notice that he was actually shaking with fear. This caused me some alarm for I had never known Manco to fear anything even during his imprisonment on the dreadful prison hulk, the San Carlos. I comforted myself in my innocence with the thought that it was merely pagan superstition which terrified him so much. I was soon to learn otherwise.

My brothers had managed to lift the lid of the great casket and laid it against the wall. We picked up the torches and held them up to light the interior as we looked inside.

I had expected to find dust, or perhaps a few bones. What I saw was completely unexpected. Inside the casket lay the body of a young woman. It was still recognisable although the flesh had shrivelled until the bones of the skeleton showed through. She was dressed in a tunic of some soft woven fabric which had fallen into rags around her and her copper coloured skin appeared to be moulded to her bones. Around her brow she wore a band of gold which had been placed over the long black hair that fell, still thick and glossy, almost to her waist. I gazed down at her in amazement. If she had truly lain here for several hundred years then it was no wonder that these people worshipped her as a goddess.

I looked up and noticed that my two brother monks were far more interested in the silver plated casket than its contents.

"Look at this Diego!" called Alfonso holding up his torch. "It must be worth more than all our order owns!"

As I turned to look at the lid of the casket which was leaning against the rear wall of the crypt I thought I heard something, a sigh. I looked back towards the steps down which we had descended. "The wind" I thought "It must have been the wind." I turned back to my brothers with my hand resting on the edge of the casket.

"Really Alfonso, you should not even be thinking such….."

I suddenly let out a cry of shock as I felt something grasp my wrist. I dropped the torch to the floor where it spluttered and went out leaving me in a patch of darkness beside the casket. In its shadowy depths I imagined that I could see movement and my wrist was being held by the hand of the corpse. I could not believe what I was seeing. The bony fingers were hard and cold against my skin and immensely strong. I cried out and struggled to pull away from her but I was quite unable to break her grip.

My two brothers turned to see what had happened just as my struggles caused the silver cross around my neck to fall forward out of my habit and onto the goddess's hand. I heard a gasp of what might have been pain from inside the casket and suddenly the grip loosened and her hand fell away from my wrist.

"Quickly…the lid!" I cried. The three of us heaved the great, silver plated lid back onto the casket and brother Alfonso sat on it panting. The three of us crossed ourselves instinctively and stared at each other.

"You see?" said a voice quietly.

I jumped and turned to see Manco standing with his back against the far wall.

"I warned you that you would release the spirit, but you did not listen. Now you see why she must be kept from your soldiers?" he said.

I knew that he was right. If General Pizarro learned of this place his only thought would be to strip the silver from the casket and melt it down into bullion to send home to Spain. Without the restraint imposed on her by the silver...I shuddered to think what could happen.

Brother Enrique placed his hand gently on my arm. "What should we do brother?" he asked.

"Could we exorcise the spirit?" asked Alberto.

Enrique and I looked at him for a moment. "You think that you can exorcise that?" I asked. "Let me know before you make the attempt so that I can be as far away as possible. Even Father Abbott could not deal with an evil spirit that strong!"

"Then we should destroy it!" said Enrique getting to his feet.

"Wait!" I said. "Think about this. Manco said that the girl was human once, the daughter of a king. She was taken over by the spirit. If we destroy the body will we not simply set the evil spirit free?" I could see the brothers thinking about this. "No, Manco is right. We must leave her in the casket where the spirit is confined and hide her. Somewhere she will be safe from Lord Hernando's greed. Somewhere where no-one will ever find her. We cannot risk releasing this spirit." As we stood in the darkness of the temple I realised that there was only one answer. Somehow we must take the casket back with us to Spain and conceal it.

"How on earth could we possibly get away with that?" asked Alfonso. "You know the army doesn't trust us as it is. If we were found to be trying to smuggle so much silver out of New Spain we'd be hanged!"

"If we allow this evil spirit to be released who knows what harm could come to us, and to these people. No, when we leave to return to Spain we must take the casket with us. In my village in the mountains there is a tiny church which is almost abandoned. We shall hide her there somehow."

I placed my hand on the silver lid of the casket and bowed my head, remembering the young girl who lay within. "And we must ask all our brothers to pray for her immortal soul."

Bill slapped the photocopied pages down on the desk and sat back. "Never mind her immortal soul! What about her immortal body! She woke! When they opened the coffin." His face was grey and drawn with pain. "That poor child, we have to find her!"

I remembered the silver chains touching Lazlo's skin and the way his flesh had smoked, the silver burning into him. What would be the effect of the silver surrounding her for all these centuries, I wondered.

"But where did they take her?" I asked looking briefly over the last page of the manuscript. "He just describes boxing up the casket in a wooden crate and loading it into the hold of the galleon which was taking them home to Spain. Brother Diego told the Captain that the crate contained the body of an Inca nobleman who had converted to Christianity, which they were taking back to be buried in consecrated ground." I held the final page of the photocopy in my hand and waved it at Ulrich. "Is this all there is?"

Ulrich gave a frustrated little sigh. "Our agent said the manuscript was incomplete" he said. "The only other information we have is a list of towns in northern Spain which we found in Lazlo's rooms after he fled.

"But how could they hide the casket in a church?" I asked. Even if it was abandoned you'd think that something that distinctive, with Inca symbols engraved on the lid in silver would have been found long ago."

"Not necessarily" said Bill thoughtfully, "remember that Brother Enrique was a stonemason. He was fascinated by the mechanism which opened the vault in the temple. What if he persuaded the Inca stonemasons to show him how it was done? He could have re-created the vault in an abandoned church."

"It was opened by pressing a sign" said Ulrich. "But it doesn't say what the sign was!"

"Okay….let's see what we have." I said. "Diego suggested that he was gong to conceal the casket in an abandoned church in his village in the mountains. Do we know anything else about him, where he came from? Which monastery he lived in?"

"We have no other information about him" said Ulrich. "Monks from monasteries all over Spain travelled to the New World with the Conquistadores."

"We know they were Benedictines" said Bill. He turned back the pages in his hand and read…."before I joined the Benedictine Order". "That should cut the numbers down a little. And if he came from a village in the mountains then it's likely that the monastery was in the north. You said that Lazlo had a list of towns in northern Spain? Can we get a list of Benedictine houses in Northern Spain in the 16th Century?"

"Can we?" asked Ulrich.

Bill got up and moved around the desk to Ulrich's computer. "You have an internet connection?" he asked.

"Sure! Help yourself!" Ulrich got up and Bill took his place in front of the computer. In just a few moments he had a list on the screen. "Have you got Lazlo's list?" he asked. Ulrich reached into a tray, pulled out a paper and handed it to Bill who compared it with what was on the screen.

"Yes!" This is a list of all the towns that had a Benedictine House in the 1500's. Lazlo must have seen the manuscript, or at least got some information on Brother Diego, before he left The Authority.

Ulrich sat down in Bill's chair and looked thoughtful for a moment. "So we need to find the village where Brother Diego was born. In the mountains to the north of one of these towns." He smiled "I'll get our security onto it right away, and I suspect they just might pick up Lazlo doing the same thing!"

He sat back with a smile. "You've both been incredibly helpful. I assure you we won't forget….."

"Wait just a moment!" I said holding up my hand to stop him. Bill and Ulrich both looked up at me with identical surprised expressions. "There was something else." I picked up the manuscript and leafed through the pages. "Yes here, Brother Diego is describing his Bible. He says the leather cover is stamped with the crossed arrows which are the sign of his monastery."

"Crossed arrows?" said Bill puzzled. "What could that mean?"

I thought for a moment "Most monasteries are named for saints, right?" I said. "Well the only saint I can think of who was associated with arrows is Saint Sebastian, he was martyred by being shot with arrows."

Bill was way ahead of me, I saw him running a finger down the list of towns. Suddenly he stopped and grinned at me. "San Sebastian!" he said. "On the northwest coast of Spain, just south of the Pyrenees."

I grinned back at him excitedly. "So we're looking for an abandoned church in a small village in the mountains north of San Sebastian!"

Ulrich looked from Bill to me and back again. "Well" he said "it looks like you two are going to Spain!"