The Omega Factor(111)

No need to linger here any longer.

“Go and get Friar Dwight,” he said to Rice. “I’ll meet you both at the gateway.”

Rice headed off with the backpack, down the aisle between the pews filled with maidens.

“Sister Claire,” he said. “I’d like a word before I leave.”





Kelsey did not appreciate the abbess’ indifference. Nick was out there unarmed against three men with guns, one of whom the abbess had just rearmed. She knew how he felt about weapons, but surely in his line of work he had to use one from time to time. No matter. She wasn’t going to allow him to fight alone. Sister Ellen and the abbess were already walking back toward the chapter room. She’d lingered in the foyer and now moved toward the oak doors, releasing the iron lock and swinging the heavy panel inward enough that she could leave.

The friar was a hundred yards ahead, moving away.

She ran after him.

“Sister Deal.”

The abbess. Behind her. At the doorway.

She stopped and turned. “You’re not my prioress. You’re my captor. I owe you nothing.”

And she headed off.

The door slammed shut behind her.





Nick heard what Fuentes had said to Rice.

He was positioned to the side of the entrance among a garden of boulders, out of sight. He fled his hiding place and moved from tree to tree, trying to get ahead of Rice, who emerged from the cleft and started back toward the cemetery and the motherhouse, a gun in one hand, the backpack in another. He waited until Rice drew close then stepped out onto the trail. It took a second or two for the friar to recognize him. Which he used to lunge forward and slug Rice in the face.

Something cracked. Probably Rice’s nose.

He kicked the gun from the man’s grasp.

Rice rebounded and they squared off, like boxers, trading blows. He could not allow this to go on too long. He needed to take this man out, but Rice was built like a fire hydrant and equally resilient. Blood poured from the nose. Rice dropped the knapsack and swung with his right fist. He ducked the blow and planted a kick to the man’s chest, staggering him back.

But Rice kept coming.





Kelsey made her way down the trail, past the cemetery, following Friar Dwight, who’d disappeared around a bend ahead. She stepped up her pace and came to the turn.

Fifty yards away Nick and the other friar were fighting.

Thirty yards ahead Dwight had stopped walking, the gun in his right hand being raised.

And aimed at Nick.





Chapter 74



Claire was ready for Cardinal Fuentes to leave.

Enough damage had been done.

But the bastard seemed intent on gloating in his victory.

“I appreciate your cooperation,” he said to her. “Along with the other maidens. What happens next for all of you?”

“That depends on you.”

“As I said earlier, you will have no more interference from me. Or Rome. We’ll leave the maidens to themselves.”

“That was the point of this entire endeavor. I just hope Rome follows that course.”

“We shall.”

“You seem like an ambitious man.”

“The church has grown soft of late, sister. Its voice devoid of thunder. We ask far more often than we demand. Hopefully, that will change in the future.”

“By you?” she asked.

“By many.”

“For me, this was not about you, or the church.”

He threw her a wry smile. “No, I suppose not. May I ask what this was about?”

“Ending something that should have ended a long time ago. To do that, I defied the one woman on this planet I respect the most. I violated my oath to my order and my God. But at least no more maidens will be hurt or killed. That’s what this was about.” She paused and grabbed hold of herself. “Now take the bones and leave us to ourselves. There is much to deal with, thanks to you and me.”

They stood toward the rear of the church, near the devotional with the secret panel. The altar was between them and the maidens were still seated in the pews.

Fuentes turned to leave.

“Cardinal,” she said.

The man stopped and turned back to her.

“If a man knows to do right and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

“Jesus to the Pharisees,” he said. “Inspirational. But that does not apply to me.”

“Then how about this? I hope you rot in hell.”

Fuentes chuckled and shook his head at her impertinence.

A gunshot rang out.





Kelsey assessed the situation.

Friar Dwight was trying to lock an aim on Nick, swinging the gun back and forth, but the fight was making that hard. Nick and the other friar were tangled up and Dwight seemed unsure when and where to fire. His attention was totally on the brawl, so she used that moment of his confusion—the gun be damned—to rush forward and leap onto Dwight’s back.

Taking them both down to the hard ground.





Nick caught movement to his right and pivoted away from Rice long enough to see Kelsey attacking Dwight, who held a gun.

Damn. He needed to get over there.

Fast.

So he swung off the ball of his left foot and slammed his right heel into Rice’s chest. He followed with an elbow to the throat that sent the friar gasping for air and reeling back into the trunk of a tree. He then landed another kick, this time to the kidneys, which brought a yelp of pain. One more punch to the bloodied face and Rice went down.