Alex Lukeman - The Cup

"Why would he get spooked?" Lamont asked.

"Are you kidding? One look at you would do it."

The scar across Lamont's face tended to make people wary the first time they saw him.

"Hey, I'm not so bad when you get to know me," Lamont said.

"Mmm," Nick said.

Nick and Selena got out of the car. Selena greeted the woman.

"Buon giorno, signora. Parli inglese?"

"Yes, I speak English. Who are you?"

"My name is Selena, and this is my husband, Nick. We've come to talk with the count about something important to him."

"Anastasius."

"Yes."

Her expression was unfriendly. "Count Mercurio is not a well man. I must ask you to respect that. The name you mentioned has upset him."

"That was not my intention," Selena said. "On the contrary, we have information for him that he'll want to hear."

The woman sniffed. "Follow me."

She swept away, not bothering to see if they followed.

"Friendly," Nick said.

"She being protective," Selena said.

They followed her up a wide, marble staircase to the second story and then down a tiled hall to a set of tall, wooden doors open at the end.

"The count will receive you in his study," the woman said.

She gestured at the open doors and stood aside. Selena and Nick walked past her into a large room that was part study, part library. The ceiling was fourteen feet high, giving the room a sense of regal space. The floor was made of reddish tile and scattered with antique Persian rugs. One wall featured an enormous bookcase filled with books. At the far end, tall French doors opened onto a balcony.

Count Mercurio stood as they entered. Selena's first thought on seeing him was that he looked as though he should be sailing on the Riviera rather than waiting to talk with a pair of foreign strangers who had disrupted his day. He wore a light blue silk sport jacket, dark slacks and polished black loafers. His shirt was a creamy white, open at the collar. A silk handkerchief peeked from his breast pocket. On the third finger of his left hand was a large gold ring, identical to the one Bellini had worn in Sweden.

Selena introduced herself and Nick in Italian.

"You are American," Mercurio said. "Please, speak English. I need the practice. I must admit, I am intrigued. What do you know about Anastasius?"

"We didn't mean to disturb you, Count."

"You've been talking to Maria, haven't you? She saw me react and she worries about me. Pay no attention."

Selena took out to photographs. The first was of the Anastasius tile. She passed it over to him and followed up with a picture of the tile they'd found in Greece.

Mercurio sucked in a breath. "I see. We'd better sit down."

He gestured toward the doors by the balcony, where a couch, chairs and low table formed a comfortable grouping. Mercurio took a seat on the couch.

"You obviously know of my interest in Anastasius. What else do you know?"

"We know about your connection with Bergstrom," Nick said. "We also know it was your agent who was murdered with him in Sweden."

A look of distress flashed across Mercurio's face. It was gone as quickly as it had come.

"Antonio was much more than an agent. He was a very old friend. Are you police? Interpol?"

"No. We're not interested in creating problems for you. The antiquities you've been buying from Bergstrom are brought out of the Middle East by ISIS. They use the money to fund their terror tactics. We want to shut them down."

"Are you CIA? By the way, your pistol is showing."

Nick looked down. The butt of his Sig was visible under his jacket.

"We're not CIA," Selena said, "but we work for our government. A smaller agency. It was ISIS that killed your friend and Bergstrom. They were looking for the Anastasius tile."

"Oh, dear."

"You may be in danger," Selena said. "We found you without much trouble by tracing the ring your friend was wearing. The tile and the ring were evidence. They were supposed to be safe in Stockholm but they've gone missing. Someone in the Swedish police is working for ISIS, which means the caliphate knows about you."

"Oh, dear," Mercurio said again.

He picked up a bell from the table and rang it. The woman Mercurio had called Maria came into the room within seconds.

Listening outside, Nick thought.

"Maria, please bring the Sancerre. The 2010 vintage. And glasses."

Maria gave Nick and Selena another disapproving look and left the room.

"She means well," Mercurio said.

Selena said, "We know you're looking for the Grail. Tell us about the Companions."

Mercurio sighed. "The society was founded in the 1500s. The search for the Grail has always been the real reason for our existence, although these days most do not join with serious intent. That serves us well. It gives us the look of another religious organization that exists for social reasons. Antonio was the only other member who knew about the tile. We both felt it confirmed the manuscript."

"What manuscript?" Nick asked.

Maria came back into the room with a tray bearing the wine and three crystal glasses. She set the tray down and reached for the bottle.

"I'll do that," Mercurio said.

"Signor… "

"It's all right, Maria. Thank you."

When she was gone, Mercurio opened the bottle.

"We'll let it breathe for a bit."

"What manuscript?" Nick asked again.

Mercurio stood and walked over to a cupboard on the far wall, opened it and took out a flat wooden box. He carried it over to the table where they were sitting and sat down. He lifted the lid off the box. Inside was a single yellowed page, protected by an archival glass case filled with inert gas. The page was covered with fading lines of brown ink.

"This manuscript," he said.

Selena looked at the page and Nick saw her face take on a look he'd seen before. However she'd changed since joining the Project, her first passion would always be for ancient languages. Almost nothing could get her attention as much as some faded document covered with a language that had been dead for thousands of years.

"This is a form of Latin that was popular in the first part of the Christian era," she said.

"You can read it?" Mercurio looked surprised.

"Easily. Where did you get this?"

"It came into the possession of the companions about a hundred years ago. One of my predecessors discovered it in Turkey."

Selena bent over the page and began reading. After a few moments she looked up.

"What does it say?" Nick asked.

"It was written by someone from Sumela monastery, the one that had the icon before the Turks shut it down. According to this, after Theodosius died a priest named Anastasius came to the monastery with a holy object given to him by the emperor. It has to be the man on the tile."

"He brought the Grail with him?"

"It doesn't say that, but it's a good guess. Whoever wrote this didn't want anyone to know what the object was, but he wanted to make sure there was a record of it."

"What happened to it?"

"It doesn't say."

"Of course not. That would be too easy," Nick said.

"Do you see why I wanted to obtain the tile?" Mercurio said. "When Bergstrom sent me a picture, I knew it had to be the same Anastasius mentioned in this document. I thought I might learn something from the tile that might not be evident in a photograph."

"Something to lead you to the Grail," Nick said.

"That's right."

"I examined the tile," Selena said. "There wasn't anything that can't be seen in the photographs. No hidden marks, for example."

"But now we have this second tile," Mercurio said. "This is most interesting."

"Tell him about the Book of Simon," Nick said.

Mercurio looked at him and then at Selena. "The Book of Simon?"