The Omega Factor(112)

Not moving. Done.

He whirled and felt as if caught in the midst of a kaleidoscope, everything around him changing shape by the second. He swiped away the sweat that stung his eyes, then a blast of energy exploded him into action and he rushed to where Kelsey and Dwight were wrestling on the ground. Dwight still held the gun, which he kicked from the man’s grasp as the right hand swung upward. A round cracked off as it flew through the air, the bullet heading into the trees. He reached down and ended the struggle, grabbing Dwight by his jacket and yanking him up to his feet.

Kelsey twisted out of his clutch.

“Enough,” he yelled at Dwight.

The tall friar wrenched himself free and was about to engage when his body jerked forward, as though hit from behind. Dwight’s eyes went wide and his legs started to cave. The body went limp and folded to the ground. Behind him, Kelsey stood, holding a rock the size of a softball, which she’d used, two-handed, to take the man down.

“You could have killed him,” he said to her.

She tossed the rock aside.

“God forgive me, but I wish I had.”





Fuentes did not move, keeping the altar between him and the maidens beyond. Why had Rice fired a shot? What was wrong? He stared out into the rocky cleft, open sky, and trees beyond the pews.

A man appeared.

Medium height and build. Brown wavy hair. Clean-shaven. A gun in his right hand. The canvas bag Rice left with in the other.

The newcomer stopped where the pews began.

“And you are?” he called out.

“Nick Lee.”

The man who’d intervened in Ghent. From the United Nations. He’d not made any calls to New York because he genuinely did not think it an issue. Clearly a miscalculation on his part.

“Where is Friar Rice?” he asked.

“Unconscious,” Lee said. “Along with Dwight. It’s just you and me now.”





Nick stood at the rear of the church, fifty feet away from Fuentes who remained by the raised altar. Sister Claire stood off to Fuentes’s right. The other maidens were seated in between, their attention varying between him and Fuentes.

“This does not concern the United Nations,” Fuentes said. “You have no business here.”

“I’d say I do. You put a gun to Sister Deal’s head. That makes this my business.”

“And what is she to you?”

“A woman I almost married.”

Fuentes stayed behind the altar. “How gallant. But, again, this is not your concern.”

Nick raised his arm and displayed the canvas bag. “I found these in Rice’s backpack. They important to you?”

That grabbed the cardinal’s attention. Which had been the whole idea of bringing them. Outside, Kelsey had given him the CliffsNotes version of what was going on. So it did not take a rocket scientist to figure out that the tomb had been destroyed and the bones removed. He’d also retrieved the weapons from Rice and Dwight. His “no guns” rule seemed a bit foolish at the moment.

So he kept one.

Which he raised and aimed at the altar.

“You’re done.”





Fuentes could not believe what he was hearing. After all that had gone right, now this.

He had to act.

So he dropped down behind the altar, drew his own weapon, and aimed it straight at Lee. He had cover. Lee did not.

One shot would end this.

“I am not in any mood to be played with,” he said. “I’ll shoot you dead, then get those bones back myself.”





Kelsey had stayed to the shadows and slipped into the rock church at the far end of the cleft, away from the main route inside that bisected the pews. She toted the knapsack. Nick had told her to remain hidden and let him handle it with Fuentes. He’d said he was betting that Fuentes would not shoot anybody with so many witnesses.

But she wasn’t quite so sure.





Nick was pushing his luck. No question. He was bare-ass-to-the-wind, out in the open. Armed, but Fuentes had the high ground and the altar between them. He debated sending a round that way, but a ricochet might endanger Sister Claire, who stood way too close and wasn’t retreating at the sign of trouble.

“Maidens,” Claire called out.

And all of the women rose from their pews, spilling out into the center aisle, forming a human barrier between where he stood and where Fuentes had taken cover.

Neither one of them could shoot the other now.

“Nick,” Sister Claire said. “If you truly have the Virgin’s bones, I ask you to hand them over to the cardinal. On one point he is correct. This does not concern you. The maidens and the church have fought a long-standing battle, which ends today.”

“A choice you made,” he said to her.

“Somebody had to. My friend Rachel died. A point you reminded me of several times. Sister Deal was placed in dire jeopardy. I cannot, and will not, allow any more harm to come to anyone. If the destruction of the tomb and the removal of the bones will end this, then I’m good with that. As are the other women standing in front of you.”

Fuentes stood from behind the altar. “Maidens, know that this will all end today and your order will go on. Unaffected. You have my word.”