CONNER MILLS WAS WORRIED. It had been two days since the conference at Hilton Head had ended, and still there was no word from either Melchisedec or Spencer. He was almost sure there had been no breach in Spencer’s cover. Almost.
Melchisedec was another matter. He had not seemed alarmed when Mills told him Neisen had a duplicate set of the pictures. Since several besides himself were assigned by the Vatican to investigate The Brotherhood, he felt confident the pictures could have reached Neisen in any number of ways.
Yet the gnawing in Mills’ gut wouldn’t go away.
Dr. Henrì Bodien, nom de guerre Melchisedec, as curator of the Vatican Archives, was one of several Priests selected by the Pope to assess the dangers, if any, posed by The Brotherhood. Since only the Pontiff knew the identity of those charged with this surveillance, any one of them could have taken the pictures and passed them on. All Bodien said he knew was that he had received his copies in an envelope secured by the Pope’s own seal. Since he did not know the photographer, he saw no way the pictures were traceable back to him.
It was not long after Mills’ first contact with Bodien that he learned the Vatican had known of The Brotherhood’s existence for many years. But even they had little concrete information about the group, just vague rumors suggesting it might represent a challenge to the true faith.
Until Bodien came to the attention of the Pope, there had been no opportunity to infiltrate the organization. Other than names of some of its members, there had been no useful information garnered except for one name: Dr. Francis Abelard, an Oxford professor of anthropology.
Bodien, a recent graduate of the Sorbonne in that specialty, had descended from a long line of French clerics, his uncle having been an intimate of the Holy Father. From Bishop of Cherbourg, the uncle had been elevated to cardinal and eventually appointed Papal Nuncio to England.
Shortly after his graduation, Bodien received an invitation for a private audience with the Pope. Mills assumed the Vatican’s influence brought the young man to Oxford to study under Abelard. However, his own brilliance, tenacity, and guile gained him access to The Brotherhood’s inner circle. Mills thought it ironic that Bodien’s taking of Holy Orders had been exactly what both the Pope and Abelard had wished for him.
Mills also suspected that only after the gravity of the threat posed by The Brotherhood became clear did the Pope order Bodien to pass the pictures and other information on to the Agency. He was sure the Vatican hoped the CIA would join them in confronting a threat far greater than first imagined.
So far, Bodien’s information, while intriguing, had been sketchy at best. His case file contained a patchwork of references to ancient texts and speculation about the existence of a mysterious stone, although there was no hard evidence such an object existed, much less that it posed a threat. However, the fact that powerful men such as Erik Stiediger believed it did and were devoting their fortunes to finding it, were sobering.
There was another consideration. Mills knew the Vatican usually played its hand close to its vest and never overacted, so its desire to team up with the agency to investigate the organization was enough to make him take the threat even more seriously.
Mills opened the Melchisedec file and flipped through its contents. The introductory letter from the cleric and the pictures had arrived at CIA headquarters by registered mail about two years before with all correspondence since then routed through Mills’ secure email site.
There had been no contact with Bodien since last summer’s dig at St. Jean until duplicates of the pictures he sent the agency were found by Spencer in Neisen’s office. Hard on the heels of Mills’ warning Bodein’s cover might be blown, came another startling piece of information from the Priest.
“Enclosed,” he wrote, “is a copy of a letter sent by Francis Abelard to all in The Brotherhood’s leadership.
“I assume Abelard is sending us a translation of an ancient text called the Lamech Fragment as a means of whetting our appetites for even more revelations when we meet in Hilton Head, South Carolina, during Christmas.”
It certainly had done that, Mills thought as he continued browsing Bodien’s report. It said Abelard’s letter to his leadership also referenced an ancient cuneiform tablet called the Gilgamesh Epic. A rumor had circulated in archaeological circles for years that its discoverer had deliberately broken off a corner of the tablet for reasons unknown. What made this information intriguing to Mills was that Abelard disclosed its discoverer was a member of their order and that the corner was broken off because it contained information regarding the fabled mark of Cain referenced in Genesis – information its discoverer considered vital to The Brotherhood’s continuing search for the key to reclaiming Paradise.
Mills read again the translation of the Lamech fragment Bodien included in his report. Like other intelligence he had received about the stone, it simply added another layer to a mystery that seemed beyond solving.
“Hear oh sons of Lamech,” it began:
Give heed to the words of your father. The stone of Cain our father is your gift… (Undecipherable) …birthright. By it [through it?] the vaults of knowledge… (Undecipherable) …hidden by him who cast you forth…are opened… (Undecipherable) …by your power and the stone you will return and claim what is yours by right, when time rolls round again.
Pointless to speculate about its meaning, Mills thought. Of more immediate concern was the last paragraph of an email he received from Melchisedec just days before he left for the conference of The Brotherhood’s leaders in South Carolina. As he read it again, his feeling of foreboding grew.
“I have made an exciting discovery in the archives,” it said. “Abelard is also on the trail of something. Everything may come together when we meet at Hilton Head. I will inform you of the outcome of the meeting as soon as I return to Rome. Melchisedec.”
So far, Mills had not heard a word from his agents—either one of them.