They were trapped inside the facility!

88.

Like he was a launched ballistic missile, Finn charged out of the third-floor stairwell, hung a Louie, and ran towards the library.

'The laboratory is two doors down from the library.'

'Two Doors Down' one of his favourite Dolly Parton songs.

Finn smiled, everything going according to plan. Soon it would all be over. And when he'd completed the mission, he planned on sweeping little Katie right off her feet.

His smile widened. He wasn't supposed to let his emotions flare during a mission. But what the h.e.l.l? This was his last op. Once he cleared himself of the murder charges, he was going to put in for a transfer to Fort Bragg. Get himself a cushy position as a Delta Force training instructor. And while he didn't want to get ahead of himself, he was feeling pretty confident that Kate would sign up for the move.

Arriving at the second door, Finn peered at the mezzanine below Aisquith and Kate were already at the exit, about to make good their escape. Perfect.

Ripping open the flap on his cargo pants, he removed Uhlemann's severed index finger, using the hem of his T-s.h.i.+rt to wipe off the excess blood. That done, he placed the fleshy tip on to the biometric reader.

A white light flared. An instant later, the bolt on the door popped open.

'In like Finn,' he chortled, riding a little happy high. He flung the butchered finger aside and opened the door. 'I love it when the op goes without a hitch.'

Stepping across the threshold, he hit the light switch. A row of fluorescent bulbs washed the laboratory in antiseptic bright light.

'There it is, the Flux Capacitor.' But unlike the DeLorean time machine from the Back to the Future movie, this was the real deal. Not some contrived Hollywood invention.

He strode over to the gla.s.s enclosure. The remaining pipe bombs will definitely do the trick.

In a big-a.s.s hurry, Finn went down on bent knee in front of the enclosure. He then carefully removed the last three bombs from his Go Bag and lined them up directly in front of the heavy-duty gla.s.s. Retrieving the cigarette lighter from his breast pocket, he quickly lit all three fuses.

Okay, boys and girls. 'It's home from work we go.'

Lurching to his feet, he rushed over to the door ... Only to draw up short an instant later.

Seeing the metal security panel attached to the side of the doorframe, Finn's heart skidded. Full stop. Little Katie forgot to mention that there was a biometric security lock on both sides of the laboratory door, Uhlemann's severed finger now on the other side of the locked door.

Ah, s.h.i.+t.

89.

Refusing to surrender, Caedmon glared at the numeric keypad, the locked door an unforeseen wrinkle in the plan.

'If we can't exit the facility, Finn won't be able to get out either,' Kate anxiously informed him. Visibly shaking, her concern had already leapfrogged from moderate to acute.

'Not to worry. I'll call for help.' Caedmon removed his cell phone from his jacket pocket and flipped it open, relieved that Uhlemann's bald-headed minion had lacked the foresight to confiscate it.

d.a.m.n!

Bewildered, he showed Kate the dark screen. 'It's completely dead. I don't understand ... the battery was fully charged.'

'I'm guessing the Vril force emitted an electromagnetic pulse that somehow disabled it.'

He shoved the phone back in his pocket. 'Do you recall seeing a fire alarm anywhere in the research facility? If so, I could trigger it, alerting the guards in the lobby.'

Kate's brow furrowed. 'No, I ...' She shook her head dejectedly. 'I'm sorry, Caedmon, but I can't '

'It's not your fault.' He hesitated, worried that if he shouted for help, an armed interloper might answer the summons.

b.u.g.g.e.r it.

Cupping his hands to his mouth, Caedmon stepped away from the door and bellowed, 'McGuire! Where are you? We need your a.s.sistance!'

Ears still ringing from the first three bomb blasts, he c.o.c.ked his head to one side and listened attentively.

Not so much as a pin. d.a.m.n.

He walked back to the exit door. 'Doctor Uhlemann's postmortem revenge, I daresay. Not only are we in the stocks, but we're unable to communicate with the outside world. Only one thing left to do.' Although his right arm ached and his head throbbed ferociously, Caedmon forcefully beat on the steel door with his balled fist in the hope that someone might be on the other side.

The painful shock waves that pounded his body in the aftermath were for naught. No one replied.

'Wait!' Wide-eyed, Kate clutched his forearm. 'Didn't Dolf key in a security code to gain entry to the viewing chamber?'

Caedmon replayed the scene in his mind's eye. 'He did, but I didn't take note of the code.'

'Um ... let me think a minute ...' Closing her eyes, Kate raised her right hand. She then took several deep breaths before her fingers moved across an imaginary keypad. An instant later, her eyes popped open. 'Three, eight, two, five, six, three. Try it.'

He hurriedly keyed in the code.

Hearing the lock click open, Caedmon sagged against the door jamb. Although he wasn't a church-going man, he offered up a grateful prayer.

'What a relief,' Kate murmured. 'We need to wait here until '

Just then, a blast detonated on the upper level of the atrium. The force of the explosion blew out an entire bank of frosted gla.s.s, strafing the mezzanine with thousands of white shards. A deadly snowfall. A second later, the next blast detonated, hurling a section of railing through the air.

'Finn! Where are you?!' Kate screamed over the third and final bomb blast.

90.

Was.h.i.+ngton, DC Two weeks later The waiter placed an iced coffee in front of Kate. She promptly reached for the ceramic sugar bowl. He then set a gla.s.s of tonic water, sans the gin, in front of Caedmon, prompting him to grit his teeth. Mindful that gin had rendered him an unfeeling brute, he was now determined to retain what few shreds of humanity he still had left. The going wasn't easy. Case in point.

Res ipsa loquitur. The d.a.m.ned thing speaks for itself, in a blaringly loud voice.

'I'm glad that, in the end, you and Finn managed to overcome your differences,' Kate remarked as she stirred a teaspoon of sugar into her gla.s.s, ice cubes tinkling merrily.

a.s.suming a solemn air, Caedmon placed his right hand over his heart. 'As the Buddha so wisely extolled: "Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned." '

Her brow puckered. 'Did you have to mention the Buddha?'

Reaching across the table, Caedmon gently patted her hand. 'Give it time, Kate. Yours is a forgiving religion.'

'Other than the fact that everyone is speaking English, it almost feels like we're sitting at an outdoor Paris cafe,' she effused, effectively changing the subject.

Caedmon glanced at the Georgetown cityscape, the quaint eighteenth-century brick architecture more reminiscent of London than Beaux Arts Paris. Kate, no doubt, referred to the weather; a typical August evening, it was hot, humid and oppressively muggy, the air so thick it was palpable. A week ago when they had left Paris, the city had been in the midst of a fiendish heat wave.

'I can't thank you enough, Caedmon, for helping me get everything settled. I had no idea that there would be so much paperwork to fill out, what with the insurance forms for what used to be my house, police reports and a slew of security statements.' Shaking her head, Kate amiably chuckled. 'I'm thinking of changing my middle name to "Affidavit".'

'I was happy to a.s.sist.'

'All the same, treating you to a gla.s.s of tonic water seems small recompense.'

'More than I deserve.'

Particularly since he'd d.a.m.ned near got her killed at the Seven Research Facility. No surprise that after the bomb blasts they'd immediately been apprehended, the explosions bringing the official sector out in force. Debriefed ad nauseam, they'd finally been exonerated of any wrongdoing, with security agencies on both sides of the Channel relieved that Dr Uhlemann's 'Great Experiment' had been disrupted. Although those same security agencies were none too pleased that the CTC device had been destroyed, quick to recognize that it was the sort of game-changing technology that could easily alter the balance of power.

Thank G.o.d it had been destroyed. Caedmon didn't trust his own government with that kind of technology, let alone a foreign rival.

In exchange for the blanket annulment, they were forced to sign a confidentiality agreement, a draconian contract which secured their vow to never mention, write about, whisper, or mutter in their sleep anything to do with the Seven Research Foundation, the Vril force, or what took place in that underground bunker beneath the Grande Arche.

As fate would cruelly have it, the Grail had been obliterated in the pipe bomb explosion. For the best, Caedmon grudgingly conceded, the reality far more dangerous and deadly than the innocent prize that Parzival sought. The ma.s.s of men could not comprehend the breadth of the Grail's power, while the few who did were h.e.l.l-bent on using it to advance their own twisted ambitions.

Because of that, the Grail would forever remain that most elusive of relics.

'So, what's next on your agenda?'

'Er, if you must know, I intend to further investigate the Cathar sanctuary at Mont de la Lune,' he confessed diffidently, worried that Kate might think him bonkers. Or that he was biting off more than he could reasonably chew. 'There's a mystery there that I'm keen to solve. Perhaps I can shed some light on what has always been a dark page in medieval history.' The confidentiality agreement didn't cover the time that he spent in the Languedoc. Since the 'powers that be' had failed to enquire, he had accordingly failed to volunteer the details of his trip. How fortuitous.

'I can't wait to read the book.' Kate moved her right hand theatrically through the air, disclosing an imaginary book t.i.tle. 'You can call it Isis Revealed.'

'Such high expectations. I might crumble under the strain.'

'You're a stronger man than that.'

'We shall see,' he quietly replied, still navigating the shoals.

Just then a bloke blithely strolled past their table in a pair of rudely tight trousers. Emblazoned on the front of his T-s.h.i.+rt was a single word, boldly printed all in capital letters: HUNG.

'Talk about being boastful.'

Raising his gla.s.s of tonic water, Caedmon chortled good-naturedly. 'At least give the fellow credit for using the correct verb tense.'

'While I love Was.h.i.+ngton, there are some things that I'm not going to miss.' Kate rolled her eyes at the retreating braggart. 'That was one of them.'

'Just letting his freak flag fly, as your commando is wont to say. Ah! Unless I'm mistaken, this is him now come late to the party.' Caedmon nodded at the yellow cab that had pulled up to the nearby kerb.

The back door opened and Finnegan McGuire got out of the taxi. Mercifully, he'd survived the explosion at the research facility, managing to take cover behind a brawny 3000-pound mainframe computer before the pipe bombs detonated. While he'd been bashed up quite a bit, suffering several cracked ribs, deep lacerations and a nasty concussion, he'd lived to tell the tale. He'd also had the foresight to record enough of the tale on to a digital voice recorder. Though it'd taken nearly a week for CID, the French National Police and INTERPOL agents to verify the evidence, he was eventually cleared of the murder charges.

'Ask the driver to wait please!' Caedmon called out. Bending over, he retrieved his piece of carry-on luggage, slipping the leather strap on to his shoulder.

'I wish you'd booked a later flight. There's still time to call and cancel,' Kate added, smiling winsomely.

'Needs must.' He wasn't about to admit that he felt like a third wheel. Overcome with an unexpected burst of nostalgia, he grabbed her by the shoulders, warmly kissing her on each cheek. 'Goodbye, Kate. You're in good hands now.'

Farewells always awkward, he left it at that. Hitching the luggage strap a bit higher on his shoulder, he walked towards the waiting taxi, meeting the commando midway.

'Come on, buddy. Why don't you stay another day?' McGuire entreated, placing a congenial hand on his shoulder. 'There's a great pizza joint '

'Thank you, but I really must catch my flight.' Then, with a self-deprecating snort, he said, 'My Grail quest has finally come to an end.'

'If it's any consolation, Caedmon, you made a believer out of me.'

'High praise, indeed, coming from such a diehard sceptic. Good luck, Finn.' Caedmon extended his right hand in a heartfelt show of friends.h.i.+p. 'And pity the poor lads who have you as a drill instructor.'

'Yeah, I'm looking forward to becoming the most hated man at Fort Bragg,' the commando retorted with his trademark smirk.

'But loved by the one person who matters.' Caedmon glanced pointedly at Kate, who stood waiting by the bistro table. Two weeks ago, he had mistakenly thought them strange bedfellows. He knew better now.

Ducking his head, Caedmon slid into the back seat of the taxi. 'Ronald Reagan National Airport, please.'

As the cab pulled away from the kerb, he peered out of the window, casting his gaze towards the western horizon. The sun's fiery last light had softened into a burgundy blush, making for a breathtakingly beautiful sight. He stared, awestruck.

''Tis not too late to seek a new world.'

Smiling at the thought, he folded his arms across his chest.

Eat. Sleep. Live to fight another day. But it was the moments that took one's breath away that made it all worth while.

And the fact that it did, gave him hope.

Acknowledgements.