The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp (Alfred Kropp #1)(50)

“Uncle Farrell was Bernard Samson’s son? Wouldn’t that make me his . . .” I tried to figure it out. “Grandnephew or something?”

“Alfred, Bernard Samson was your father.”

I stared at him for a long time. “I don’t understand, Bennacio.”

“Sixteen years ago, the man you know as Bernard Samson fell in love with a woman he met on a business trip. A business trip to Salina, Ohio, Alfred. That woman’s name was Annabelle Kropp.”

I was slowly shaking my head. Even though it was larger than average, it wasn’t big enough to hold what he was telling me.

“Samson did not wish to expel Mogart from the Order. In many ways, Mogart was the best of us: intrepid, clever; with sword and lance he had no equal. But Mogart wanted more than to be a mere knight like the rest of us. He desired Samson’s place. But when you were born, he could not have it.”

“Oh, great. This is just great, Bennacio. Now that’s my fault too?”

“It is no one’s fault, Alfred. It is merely a fact. You are the last in the line of Lancelot, the greatest knight who ever lived.”

I didn’t know what to say. Of all the things that had happened to me since my mother died, this was probably the weirdest—and the worst.

“You’re just making this up to get me to take this stupid vow or oath or whatever it is. I’m not his . . . He’s not my father . . .”

I couldn’t go on and Bennacio didn’t make me. He sat very still while I cried.

“Why did he leave my mom?” I finally made myself ask.

“So as not to endanger her—or you.”

“That didn’t work out too well, did it?”

“Not all good intentions do.”

“I still don’t believe it.”

“As with the angels, Alfred, that hardly matters.”

I looked down and saw the sword across my lap.

“Why didn’t you tell me, Bennacio? Why did you wait till now to tell me?”

“I was hoping I wouldn’t have to.”

Bennacio whispered, “Speak the words now, Alfred Kropp. Speak, son of my captain, heir to Lancelot. ‘I, Alfred Kropp, swear in the name of the Archangel Michael, my guardian and protector, that I will sacrifice my life in defense of the Sword of Righteousness, and that by my life or my death, I shall defend it against the agents of darkness.’ ”

I repeated the words, and in the silence that followed, waited for some heroic valor to swell my breast. I didn’t feel anything except a little sick to my stomach.

Bennacio smiled, patted my shoulder again, and placed the sword back into its box.

Then from downstairs came the sound of Mike’s cell phone ringing. I knew it was Mike’s because the ringer played “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”

“Ah,” he said. “At last. The call comes. Perhaps a good sign.”

“Am I a knight now?”

“There are no knights left, save one, and his reckoning is soon upon him.”

39

Mike knocked loudly on the door and stuck his head in. He was smacking gum and smiling.

“Great news, cowboys. We’re a go. Let’s load ’em up and move ’em out!”

He clapped his hands and clumped down the hall in those big hiking boots he wore.

“You want me to take up your sword,” I told him. “But I don’t even know how to use a sword.”

“There is no time to teach you, Kropp. However, I suspect the day will not be lost or won through swordsmanship.”

We went downstairs. Jeff had laid out sandwiches. He said Mike had given orders to eat before we left.

“Where are we going?” I asked Mike.

“That’s classified.”

Bennacio and I took our sandwiches into the great room and ate by the fire. Abby was standing off by herself, talking quietly on a cell phone and checking her watch. Cabiri was there, and Natalia, of course, but neither of them ate anything. Cabiri was very quiet too, not his usual jokey self, and Natalia looked like she was about to cry.

Everybody gathered by the front door.

“Okay, here’s the game plan,” Mike announced. “Jeff, Paul, Bennacio, and moi head for the rendezvous point. Everybody else hangs here until we get back.” He was kind of smirking in Abby’s direction.

“I am going with Bennacio,” Cabiri said.

“No can do, pal,” Mike said cheerfully. His mood was a lot better now that the game was finally on. “You don’t have clearance.”

“I do not need your clearance,” Cabiri said. “I found you once . . .”

“You try to leave this château and I’ll have you shot in the back of the head,” Mike said with a smile. “I’ve already given the order.”

Cabiri turned his head and made a spitting motion.

“Cabiri,” Bennacio said. There was a faraway-ness in his voice and eyes, as if he were already at the rendezvous point, the Sword of Kings within his grasp. “Stay.”

“Jeez, this is heartwarming,” Mike said. “Parting, the sweet sorrow thing and all that, but we’re on a tight schedule here and we’ve got to get shaking.”

He opened the door and waved at Bennacio. I stepped forward with him.

“You’re staying here, Al,” Mike said.