Paul Christopher - Red Templar

“No. It is thought that the Tainitskaya Tower also had two tunnels, one leading to the nearby bank of the Moskva River, the other leading across Red Square to the cathedral.”

“Was any such tunnel ever found?”

“They filled in the tunnel to the river in the 1930s, when the tower was completely sealed. They never found the second tunnel,” said Ivanov.

It was well past midnight before they reached their objective, at least according to Ivanov’s GPS, programmed on the basis of Father Ignatius Stelletskii’s eighty-year-old maps of the underground city. They stood in a small circular chamber with a rib-vaulted ceiling and finally stripped off their respirators and stepped out of their Tyvek suits.

At the base of each rib in the chamber’s vault there was a carved rosette, and beneath the rosette a pillar reaching to the dressed-stone floor. Twelve ribs, twelve rosettes and twelve pillars arranged in a circle around a raised stone plinth set in the middle of the floor.

Around the plinth a deep circle had been carved into the floor, surrounding it, carved wavering rays of light extending outward from the circle like a great, flaming sun with the raised dais at its center: an altar. On the plinth was a stone sarcophagus of a knight carrying a long shield, and on the shield a carved Templar cross. The fourth Templar, who carried the Sword of the South, Octanis, the last of the swords sent forth from Castle Pelerin. In the knight’s mailed fist he clutched a broadsword, and along the blade there was an inscription:

YA OHRANNIK VELICHAISHIE SOKROVISHCHA MIRA.

“It’s Old Russian,” said Ivanov. “It says, ‘I guard the greatest treasures of the world.’”

“A Templar tomb,” murmured Genrikhovich.

“I’m not so sure,” said Holliday.

Genrikhovich snorted disdainfully. “Don’t be absurd. The stone effigy is carrying a shield with a Templar cross blazoned on it.”

“I’m not disagreeing with you about the stone carving; I’m just disputing the fact that it’s a tomb.”

“What else could it be?”

Holliday, who’d seen something much like this not too long ago in the middle of Ethiopia’s Lake Tana, just smiled. He turned to Eddie. “Lend me a hand, will you?”

“Of course, compadre, ” said the big Cuban. Holliday put both hands about six inches apart on the edge of the plinth closest to the effigy’s head. Eddie joined him.

“On three, push as hard as you can,” instructed Holliday.

“What on earth are you doing?” Genrikhovich asked.

“Ready, one, two and three!” Holliday heaved and Eddie joined him. At first nothing happened, but finally the whole stone structure began to rotate on its axis, rumbling as it followed the narrow circular track in the floor.

“Chto, chert voz mi?” Genrikhovich whispered.

At forty-five degrees from its original position the plinth and its stone figure of the Templar Knight revealed a stone staircase, its steps disappearing into the darkness.

They went down the stairway, one after another, the beams from their miner’s lamps playing over what lay ahead. Twelve steps and then a landing, and twelve more steps before a second landing and another ninety-degree turn. There were four sets of twelve steps, eventually turning through a full three hundred and sixty degrees and exiting into a strange, twelve-sided room, its ceiling an oddly shaped barrel vault high above them. In each of the twelve narrow walls was an equally narrow door.

Ivanov slipped off his backpack and unclipped the big eight-volt light from it. He switched on the powerful lamp and the room was suddenly brilliantly illuminated.

“It’s magnificent!” Holliday whispered.

The floor of the room was made of mosaic tile, its colors as brilliant as the day it had been constructed. The design was an arcane circular device surrounding a seven-pointed star that in turn enclosed another circle and another star. In the circular ribbons there were inscribed letters and words in an arcane language that might have been Aramaic or ancient Hebrew. In the center of the second seven-pointed star, a design depicting four swords had been picked out in the mosaic, their points not quite touching, the space between them a perfect cross.

Holliday bent down and ran his fingers over the mosaic. The designs hadn’t been done in ceramic, as he’d first thought, but in semiprecious stones. The whole floor was made up of obsidian, jade, agate amethyst and opal, garnet, moonstone and amber. The whole floor glittered and flashed in the light from the big lamp. Holliday stood again and stared.

“?Que es?” Eddie asked.

“I think it’s a pentangle of some sort,” answered Holliday. “A magician’s symbol.”

Genrikhovich shook his head. “Not a magician, but an alchemist-in this case Basilius Valentinus, the canon of the Benedictine Priory of Sankt Peter in Erfurt, Germany, a contemporary of Ivan the Terrible and well-known to him. The design is the Key of Solomon; in this case instead of the Hebrew name of God being in the center it shows the four swords of Pelerin.”

“Aos, Hesperios, Polaris and Octanis,” supplied Holliday.

“Quite right, Colonel,” said Genrikhovich.

“Of which one is missing,” put in Ivanov. “Octanis, Sword of the South.”

Genrikhovich smiled knowingly. “Octanis is not missing, Father Ivanov. It is here, where it has been hidden for the past five hundred years.”

“Where?” Holliday asked flatly.

“Look around you and choose,” said the Russian, a faintly condescending and aristocratic tone in his voice.

The walls of the twelve-sided room were painted a deep blue-black, like the great wheel of the night sky, and on each door there was a constellation picked out in bright golden stars. The sky wasn’t real, however, but astrological. “I would suggest that Father Ivanov use his GPS to find us south, the door to Octanis.”

The priest went and stood in the center of the room. He took out his GPS unit and switched on its compass function. He turned slowly until he faced the side of the room that had been on their left when they reached the bottom of the stairway. “That way.” He pointed. “That is south.”

“The constellations Castor and Pollux, the twins, or Gemini, and Alpha Cancri, the claw of Cancer,” Genrikhovich said. “Which shall we choose?”

“I wouldn’t choose either,” said Holliday.

“And why not, Colonel? Do you have some knowledge of alchemy and the works of Basilius Valentinus?”

“Never heard of the man until a minute ago, but I do know that in astrology the poles are counterintuitive-north is south and south is north.”

“You hardly seem the type to believe in astrology, Colonel.”

“I’m not, but my cousin Peggy is always telling me that it’s Mercury in retrograde, or my aspect is wonky or something, and I managed to pick up a few things over the years-the north-south transposition was one of them.”

“So we’re supposed to believe your cousin then?” Genrikhovich sneered.

Holliday finally reached his boiling point. “I don’t care what you do anymore, you arrogant Russian jerk; frankly I’m sick and tired of you and your lies and your bullshit. If it weren’t for Brother Rodrigues I wouldn’t be here, and you’d be the last person I’d be here with.”

“?Bravo, mi compadre!” Eddie laughed.

“One thing more,” said Holliday, still fuming. “I don’t know a hell of a lot about alchemy, but I know lots about history, and as I recall Ivan the Terrible was famous for his dungeons and his torture chambers. I wouldn’t be so quick to go through any doors he designed; you might find yourself playing ‘The Lady or the Tiger.’”