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THIRTY-FOUR

BAINBRIDGE HALL, ENGLAND

5:20 AM

MALONE ADMIRED THE MARBLE ARBOR IN THE GARDEN THEY’D taken a train twelve miles north from London, then a taxi froe Hall He’d read all of Haddad’s notes stashed in the satchel and ski tohe and Haddad had discussed through the years But he’d come to the conclusion that his old friend had taken the rave

Above stretched a velvet sky A cool draft of night air chilled hiarden in a pewter sea, the bushes and shrubs islands of shadow Water danced in a nearby fountain He’d decided on a predawn visit as the best way to learn anything, and had obtained a flashlight frorounds were unfenced and, as far as he could see, not alarmed The house itself, he assumed, would be another matter From what he’d read in Haddad’s notes, the estate was a minor museum, one of hundreds owned by the British Crown Several of the round-floor rooh uncurtained panes, what appeared to be a cleaning crew

He turned his attention back to the arbor

The wind rustled the trees then rose to sweep the clouds Moonlight vanished, but his eyes were fully accustomed to the eerie pall

"You plan to tellis?" Pam asked She’d been uncharacteristically quiet on the trip

He directed the light onto the i called The Shepherds of Arcadia Two Thoe went to a lot of trouble to have it carved" He told her what Haddad had written concerning the ie, then used the beam to trace the letters beneath

D OVOSVAVV M

"What did he say about those?" Pae and that there are more inside the house"

"Which certainly explains e’re here at five o’clock in the ht her irritation "I don’t like crowds"

Paht her eyes close to the arbor "Wonder why he separated the D and the M like that?"

He had no idea But there was one thing he did comprehend The pastoral scene of The Shepherds of Arcadia II depicted a woathered around a stone toraved letters ET IN ARCADIA EGO He knew the translation

And in Arcadia I

An enigmatic inscription that made little sense But he’d seen those words before In France Contained within a sixteenth-century codex describing what the Knights Templar had secretly accomplished in the months before their o

An anagrao arcana dei

I conceal the secrets of God

He told Pam about the phrase

"You can’t be serious," she said

He shrugged "Just telling you what I know"

They needed to explore the house Fro cedars, he studied the ground floor Lights flicked on and off as the cleaners went about their work Doors to the rear terrace were propped open with chairs He watched as a s, which he tossed into a pile, then disappeared back inside

He glanced at his watch: 5:40 AM

"They’re going to have to finish soon," he said "Once they’re gone, we should have a couple of hours before anyone arrives for work This place doesn’t open till ten" He’d learned that froate

"No need to say how foolish this is"

"You alanted to knohat I did for a living, and I never could tell you Top secret, and all that crap Time to find out"

"I liked it better when I didn’t know"

"I don’t believe that I reet"

"At least I didn’t have any bullet wounds"

He se" Then he motioned her forward "After you"

SABRE WATCHED AS THE SHADOWY FORMS OF COTTON MALONE and his ex-wife e Hall Malone had coed on his curiosity His operative had also done her job She’d hired the three extra men he’d requested and delivered hi breaths and welco Sauer from his jacket pocket

Time to meet Cotton Malone

MALONE APPROACHED THE OPEN REAR DOOR, STAYING TO ONE side, e the shadows, and peered inside

The rooht cascaded froilded furniture and paneled walls livened by tapestries and paintings No one was in sight, but he heard the whine of a floor polisher and the blare of a radio from beyond the archways

Heof the house’s geography, but a placard told him he was in the Apollo Roo rooance Its title is particularly reflective The Epiphany of St Jeroin with an epiphany

So they needed to find the drawing room

He led Pa the majestic lines of a cathedral transept, arches eloquently stacked atop one another Interesting, the abrupt change in style and architecture Less light softened the outlines of the furniture into gray shadows Within one of the arches he spotted a bust

He crept across the marble floor, careful with his rubber soles, and discovered the likeness of Thoed face was replete with furrows and curves, the jaw clenched, the nose beaklike, the eyes cold and squinty Froe was apparently a learned man of science and literature, as well as a collector-acquiring art, books, and sculptures with a calculated judg to Arabia and the Middle East at a time when both places were as familiar to the West as the moon

"Cotton," Pam said in a low voice

He turned She’d drifted to a table where brochures were stacked "Layout of the house"

He stepped close and grabbed one from the pile Quickly he found a room labeled DRAWING He oriented himself "That way"

The floor polisher and radio continued to duel upstairs

They departed the dih wide corridors until they entered a lit hall

"Wow," Parand space was reminiscent of the vestibule to a Ro contrast to the rest of the house

"This place is like Epcot," he said "Each room’s a different tilow illuminated white marble stairs, lined down the center with a deep ht up to a peristyle of fluted Ionic colu linked the pink marble columns Niches on both floors fralanced up The ceiling would not have been out of place inside St Paul’s Cathedral

He shook his head

Nothing about the manor’s exterior hinted at such opulence

"The drawing room is up those stairs," he said

"I feel like we’re going to ant runner up the unrailed risers Paneled double doors at the top opened into a darkened room He flicked a switch and another chandelier, fashioned fro a crowded salon, worn and co with velvet the color of pea soup

"Wouldn’t have expected much less," he said, "after that entranceway"

He closed the doors

"What are we looking for?" Pas, ures No one he recognized Maple bookcases stood in rows below the portraits His bibliophile’s eye quickly noticed that the volumes were innocuous, only for shoith no historical or literary value Bronze busts topped the cases Again, no fae

"The Epiphany of St Jerome," he said "Maybe one of those portraits"

Pae He counted them Fourteen Most were of wo robes coo Two sofas and four chairs forined this here Thoe may have spent a lot of ti to do with a St Jeroe said it was here"

"Maybe so But it’s not now"

THIRTY-FIVE

WASHINGTON, DC

STEPHANIE STARED AT BRENT GREEN AND HER IMPASSIVE EXPRESSION gave way to a look of astonishment "Thorvaldsen told you to call off my backup? How do you even know the reat h at theoff her protection was foolish," Cassiopeia said "What if I hadn’t been there?"

"Henrik said you were, and that you could handle things"

Stephanie worked to control her rage "It was my ass"

"Which you so foolishly placed on the line"

"I had no idea Dixon was going to attack me"

"Which is ain s "This is another exaht think, a security detail will check in here shortly They always do I may crave my privacy but, unlike you, I’?" she asked "Why are you in this? Are you working with Daley? Was all that earlier between you and hi-and-pony show for my benefit?"

"I have neither the ti-and-pony shows"

Stephanie was not impressed "I’ve had my fill of lies Malone’s boy was taken because of ht noith an Israeli assassination squad I can’t find hie Haddad’s life may be at stake Then I learn thatthe Saudis want to kill me? What am I supposed to think?"

"That your friend, Henrik Thorvaldsen, thought enough to send you help That your other friend, me, decided the help needed to work alone How about that? Make sense?"

She considered his words

"And one other thing," Green said

She glared at him

"This friend particularly cares what happens to you"

MALONE WAS ANNOYED HE’D COME TO BAINBRIDGE HALL hoping for answers Haddad’s notes had pointed the

"Maybe there’s another drawing room?" Pam said

But he checked the brochure and determined that this was the only space so labeled What was heAdjacent to one of thealcoves, where elaborate stained-glass panes waited for thesun, a section of wall shone bare Portraits filled every other available space But not there And the faint outline of a rectangle loo

He hurried to the bare spot "One’s gone"

"Cotton, I’ to be difficult, but this could have been a wild goose chase"

He shook his head "George wanted us here"

He paced the rooer One of the cleaning crewBean’s guns, he didn’t want to use either

Pa the tables that backed the two sofas Books and azines were decoratively stacked a one of the small bronzes-an older man, his skin wizened, his body ure was perched on a rock, his bearded face concentrating on a book

"You need to see this," she said

He approached and saas etched at the statue’s base

ST JEROME