Free CS 01 The Grail Conspiracy by Lynn Sholes Page A

it."
    There were a few moments of silence. John had been kind
enough, she thought, but he didn't seem to detect the same significance she did. And he certainly wasn't suspicious that anything as
valuable as the Holy Grail rested inside the box. Maybe the break-in
and the box weren't related at all. But there was the tape....

    "There's one more thing. I think I accidentally left a videotape in
the crypt. My face is all over the footage, and the fact that I work for
SNN."
    "Or you might just as easily have lost it somewhere else. You said
you had emptied one of your bags earlier while you were alone in the
desert."
    "I hope you're right, but I have a sickening feeling I left it in the
chamber."
    "So someone could have gotten the tape, realized you had been
there, and found out where you live."
    "Yes." She felt better. He understood she had probable cause for
her anxiety. If John could open the box. . . "You mentioned a reference book?"
    "It's here somewhere." He rose and went to the bookcases. His
eyes moved up one shelf and down the other, finally coming to rest
on a tattered cloth-bound book. "This should have something." He
pulled down the volume, placed it on the coffee table, and sat beside
her.
    Cotten saw Myths and Magic of the Middle Ages on the cover.
    The pages crackled as John leafed through it.
    "`Puzzle Cubes and Prize Boxes,"' Cotten said, reading the chapter
title. Beneath was a page of text, and as John flipped through the next
several pages, she saw drawings and diagrams showing the workings
of different box styles.
    He studied the diagrams, going back through them repeatedly.
Finally, he said, "This one looks right." He took the box and rotated
it. Gripping the top and bottom, he pulled in opposite directions.
Nothing.
    "What do you think?" Cotten asked.

    John looked at the diagram again. "I need to figure out which surface is actually the top. Once I do that, it says here that it should open
easily."
    He shifted the cube a quarter turn and pulled again. Still nothing. It
took six rotations and additional reading before a faint click sounded.
The top separated, exposing a fine, thin seam.
    "I think we've done it," John said.

    At the end of the first crusade Jerusalem had been retaken by the Christians. The Prieure de Sion, a group of monks whose objective was to
return the thrones of Europe to the descendants of the Merovingian
bloodline, a bloodline they believed was established through a union
between Jesus and Mary Magdalene, created a military arm of warrior
monks to protect Jerusalem and those who traveled there.
    From a simple quest, the new organization grew, made up of the elite
and powerful of Europe having positions of authority in politics, religion, and economics. Free from taxes and accountable only to the pope,
over the centuries, it became one of the world's wealthiest and most
influential organizations. It was called the Knights of the Temple of
Jerusalem or the Knights Templar.

     

CROIX PATEE

    JOHN SET THE BOX on the table before carefully sliding the top sideways. It opened and swung down revealing a tiny set of hinges on the
inside that kept the top attached.
    Cotten saw that the inside was filled with a white linen-like cloth
wrapped around an object. "Look at that," she said, pointing at the
corner of the material's top fold. Woven into one corner was a cross
and a five-petal rose, and on the opposite corner were embroidered
two knights riding the same horse-the words Sigillvm Militvm Xpisti
stitched in a circle around them. Although slightly faded with age, the
cross was still red, the rose pink, and the words golden.
    "One second," John said. From a drawer in a rolltop desk he withdrew a pair of white cotton gloves. Slipping them on, he cautiously
removed the contents of the box and unwrapped the cloth.
    Cotten bit on her bottom lip when the material fell away revealing
a chalice. It was about six inches tall and four inches in diameter at