The Omega Factor(113)

He caught the self-righteous tone of a man realizing he was once again in control.

“We appreciate your efforts on our behalf,” Claire said to Nick. “But I ask you to stop. We will not allow either one of you to harm the other. Please, just give him the bones and let him go. The damage is done and cannot be undone.”

He debated all of the options.

None were good. So he decided to listen to her.

“Bring me the pack,” he called out.





Kelsey had waited for Nick’s instructions.

They’d both been unsure as to what to do with the bones they’d found. Nick had figured the bag would get Fuentes’s attention, so they’d dumped the bones into the backpack and replaced them with stones. She’d been hesitant at such a desecration since Sister Claire, the maidens, the abbess, and Cardinal Fuentes all believed these were the mortal remains of the Mother of God. But this was an extraordinary situation, so the Blessed Virgin would just have to understand.

She stepped from her hiding spot and walked past the last pew toward where Nick stood, handing him the backpack.

Deception time was over.

“All right,” Nick called out. “Here’s what you want.”





Fuentes decided to linger no further.

But there was a new matter he had to broach with Sister Claire. “This man and Sister Deal know a great deal.”

He kept his voice low.

“I agree. But what does it matter? The tomb is destroyed. The bones will be gone. No one here is going to say a thing, nor are you. So they have nothing but a wild tale.”

“Ordinarily, I would be hesitant. But there’s little I can do, considering your show of defensive force. So I’ll rely on you to deal with them.”

“Not to worry. I’ll handle it. The last thing we want is for this to continue past today.”

He appraised her carefully, gauging for himself her credibility. “All right, sister. You deal with it.”

He turned to leave.

“Cardinal,” she said, her voice louder, “leave the gun.”

He turned back and faced her. “I will not.”

“Then you’ll not be given those bones. And I have eighteen maidens to back that up. You may be able to shoot one, two, four, but not all of them.”

A showdown? Interesting. But she was right.

He was outnumbered.

“I thought Vultures never killed,” he said.

“We don’t. But we can maim. Badly.” He remembered the arrow to the thigh. “And I owe you for that blow to my face.”

Good point.

Better to leave.

So he laid the weapon on the altar and walked away.

The maidens crowding the center aisle parted into the pews, clearing a way to Lee and Sister Deal. He approached and Lee handed him the backpack Rice had left with.

“Where are the friars?” he asked.

“Outside,” Lee said. “But we have their weapons.”

He accepted the pack from Sister Deal, unzipped it, and checked, seeing the bones. “How do I know you did not keep one?”

“You don’t,” Lee said.

He shrugged.

What would one fossil-like bone, with no provenance matter? “I certainly hope I’ll never see, or hear from, either of you again.”

And he left.





Chapter 75



Nick and Kelsey stood outside the church in the cool afternoon air. They’d watched as Fuentes roused both Dwight and Rice and the three had walked off down the path. Sister Claire and the maidens also left, heading back toward the motherhouse in silence. He’d tried to engage Claire, but she’d ignored him.

Finally, they too started walking, passing the cemetery.

“There are maidens lying here dating back centuries,” she told him. “Sister Rachel is over there, in that open hole.”

He stared across the markers at the fresh grave. “Do you believe that those bones were the Virgin Mary’s?”

“I don’t know. But it’s clear that the maidens, and that cardinal, believe they are.”

“And yet, all those women rebelled against that which they so fervently believed.”

“We don’t know the dynamics that have been happening within this order. There could have been trouble brewing for a long time. Trouble that finally came to a boil today.” She paused. “The abbess wants me to join them.”

That was a surprise. “What did you tell her?”

“Nothing. They turned Dwight loose before I could answer her and gave back his gun. That’s when I came after him.”

“Foolishness.”

“You would have preferred I let him shoot you.”

“Maybe a shouting match instead of an assault.”

“So he could shoot us both?”

Good point.

They kept walking through the trees, the dense canopy shadowing everything more like twilight instead of midday. The grounds were quiet. Peaceful. No sign of Fuentes or his cohorts. Surely headed down the mountain with the bones, their mission accomplished. They came to the gate and he noticed, through the trees, that the front doors to the motherhouse hung wide open.

“That’s really odd,” he said, pointing.

“I agree. Those women are not the open-door types.”