Thomas Greanias - The Atlantis revelation

Packard hung up the phone and looked at him. "It's going to take a few hours, but I think we can clear you with Interpol so that police everywhere will stop shooting at you on sight."

"You can't do that," Conrad said. "Midas would know that Serena lied to him about my demise. That alone would put her loyalty in doubt with the Alignment. I need an alias with ID to get me through all zones of security."

Packard sighed. "That's going to make it easier to nab the globes?"

"I don't need to steal anything. That's the beauty of it. I just need to see the three globes for myself. In and out."

"Because you think they'll reveal where and possibly when the Alignment will detonate the Flammenschwert?" Packard asked skeptically. "I'm not sure I'm ready to make that assumption."

Conrad said, "I think the leadership of the Alignment will use the message of the globes as some sort of mystical directive for their mystical weapon, even if they manipulate the meaning to suit their ends. So that message is invaluable regardless."

"Serena's whip-smart, son. What makes you think she can't figure it out for herself?"

"Not on the spot, she can't. She hasn't had the time I've had with both globes. And she's a linguist, not an astro-archaeologist. She won't be able to figure out the celestial-terrestrial alignments between the globes, let alone translate them to real-world coordinates. Even if she could, you know they're not going to let her leave Rhodes alive once she's delivered the only leverage she's ever had with the Alignment."

Packard licked a finger and flipped through the report again, clearly still agitated with himself and his analysts for having missed the possibility of the existence of a third globe. "So let me get this straight: You think all three used to be in Solomon's Temple and were later buried beneath the Temple Mount when the Babylonians destroyed the First Temple. Furthermore, you think they may have been the Holy Grail that the Knights Templar were after when they started digging up the Temple Mount looking for Solomon's treasures during the Crusades."

"I think they worked to pinpoint a location of some great treasure, but it may not have been gold."

"Then what the hell else could it have been? And don't tell me the Ark of the Covenant."

"Obviously, something of great value. In ancient Egypt and Tiahuanaco and Atlantis, that meant the secrets of First Time or the End Times."

"The Alignment already has the secret of the End Times, son, and it's called the Flammenschwert. That's how they're going to end things for all of us. And that's why we need to find that weapon." Packard's face reddened, and he threw the report down. "I traded the globe for you and got nothing."

There was something just a little too forced in Packard's voice, and Conrad suddenly understood.

"You bastard," he said. "You weren't that desperate to get me. You just wanted to give Serena the globe and make her think she worked for it. What did you do to it?"

Packard sighed. "It's got a tracker."

Conrad slapped his hand on the table, furious. "Like the Alignment's not going to find it and kill her? Then they'll have the globes as well as the Flammenschwert, and you'll still have nothing."

"I told you, son, she's our girl at this EU summit. Both she and Midas are invited. You and Uncle Sam aren't. Security is going to be extremely tight, and the Alignment is supposed to think you're dead. Anybody recognizes you, she's dead."

"She's dead already."

Packard seemed to be going back and forth in his head, weighing the risks and rewards. "Well, I can't send U.S. troops, even Randolph, into this theater," he said, as if thinking aloud. "And when it comes to European summits, trust me, it's always theater."

"So I'm in."

"Hey, it's your head and hers," Packard said. "This doesn't come back to Uncle Sam. Just stay out of sight, if that's possible, and report as soon as you know anything."

"I told you, I can do this without being seen, even by Serena. But I'll be watching her."

"As will everybody else. So watch yourself."

Ten minutes later, the twin engines and four blades of the Super Puma Eurocopter were winding up for takeoff as Wanda Randolph walked Conrad across the tarmac and gave him his identification badges.

"Your name is Firat Kayda, a military liaison with us in Turkey, and you're working the EU summit for the delegation from Ankara. It'll take you about an hour in the air from here to there."

Conrad looked at the four Greek airmen in the chopper. They already seemed to be glaring at him, the Turk. "Packard is truly determined to make everybody in this world hate me, isn't he?"

"Well, he tries," said Wanda. "At least this way, the Greeks won't be asking you too many questions on the way over."

Serena stepped off her seaplane in Mandraki Harbor at Rhodes and felt like she had stepped back in time to the Crusades. The Palace of the Grandmaster, the fifteenth-century Tower of St. Nicholas, and the Mosque of Sultan completely overwhelmed the contemporary seaside cafes, chic shops, and sleek yachts lining the harbor.

Brother Lorenzo of the Dei, his mouth agape in astonishment, was waiting for her by a silver Mercedes-Benz G55 AMG sport-utility vehicle as she walked toward him, holding the celestial globe from the Americans against her belly and looking like a pregnant woman about to give birth.

She felt naked without the full escort of Swiss Guards she normally had at her disposal. But this was not official Vatican business, and if any agents of the Alignment were watching from rooftops through scopes, it was probably for her protection until she delivered the globes. There was no reason for any sort of smash-and-grab attack.

"The genuine celestial globe," Lorenzo said reverently as he helped her load it into the back. He had no clue where she had gone between Paris and Rhodes and was clearly impressed with her acquisition. "But how?"

She certainly wasn't going to tell him. "Where's Benito?"

"At the convention center with the terrestrial globe and the fake celestial globe."

"Let's go, then."

The Rodos Palace hotel and convention center sat on a hill overlooking Ialyssos Bay and billed itself as Greece's finest and largest convention resort, specially built to host the European heads of state. Serena could see from all the armored vehicles and police outside that this was certainly the case today. Some twenty-seven ministers of the European nations and all their security had descended on the peace summit to discuss and possibly reach some sort of international resolution on the fate of Jerusalem, which they had deemed the key to establishing an independent Palestinian state and peace in the Middle East.

Lorenzo bypassed the main entrance to the complex on Trianton Avenue and rounded the corner to the vehicle inspection point in front of the drop-off lane at the VIP entrance. He popped the rear hatch, lowered his window, and handed to a police officer his license and registration, along with their summit ID badges. Serena watched the officer slide the badges through a card reader while four soldiers surrounded the SUV and passed mirrors under the chassis in search of explosives.

A couple of the soldiers had gathered around the globe and asked that she and Lorenzo step out and explain while the interior cabin of the SUV could be examined.

"It's part of the art for one of the exhibitions at the summit," she said. "We're not even taking it inside. We're picking up another globe at the loading dock outside the Jupiter Ballroom and then taking both of them to the Palace of the Grandmaster for viewing."

"Of course, Sister Serghetti," the officer said. "I am sorry for the inconvenience."

She climbed back inside the SUV, and Lorenzo got behind the wheel and started it up again. Then he drove them all of fifty yards down to the loading entrance outside the Jupiter Ballroom.