The Cup Read online

  "Probably came out a side window," Nick said. "If they go in that door, they'll be behind Forsberg's and his team. We have to stop them."

  Ronnie nodded in the direction of the building. "They don't know we're here. We can take them."

  Nick tugged at the scarred earlobe on his left ear.

  "Let's do it. Get their weapons."

  The three men were intent on reaching the nearest entrance, twenty feet away. Nick and the others were almost on them when the man carrying the AK saw them coming. He shouted a warning, aimed the rifle at Ronnie and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. He'd forgotten the safety.

  Selena knocked the gun from his hands and beat him to his knees with a flurry of blows, then kicked him hard under the chin. His head snapped back with a sharp crack as his neck broke. He fell to the ground like a puppet with cut strings.

  Nick grabbed the second man's pistol as it came up. He wrapped his hand around the slide, grabbed the forearm with his other hand and pushed the gun and arm in opposite directions. The sudden movement twisted the gun sideways and bent the trigger finger at an impossible angle. It broke. The man screamed in pain. Nick kneed him in the groin and punched him on the back of the neck as he folded over.

  The last man fired as Lamont knocked his arm away. The round went wide. Lamont head butted him and kicked him in the head after he was down.

  The fight was over.

  Three Swedes came out of the building, followed by Forsberg. He looked at the three men lying on the ground and the weapons lying beside them.

  "What happened?"

  Nick pointed. "Those three were getting ready to go in behind your guys. We stopped them."

  "I wasn't going to bring you along. I'm glad I changed my mind. Thanks."

  "Sounded like you had a hard time inside."

  "They were waiting for us. Someone tipped them off."

  He took out a cell phone and dialed, spoke briefly and hung up.

  "Ambulances are on the way. Three of my men are down. At least a dozen foreigners."

  "Hussein?"

  "Dead." Forsberg took off his headgear and wiped away sweat. "This is a real mess."

  "What about his buddy, Gabriel?"

  "No sign of him."

  Selena said, "Why turn this place into a war zone?"

  "They're terrorists. They don't need an excuse."

  "Maybe. Or there's something they didn't want you to find here."

  "Besides the weapons they had? If there is anything, we'll find it. Do you read Arabic?"

  "Yes."

  "Come inside with me. There's something I want to show you."

  "I'm gonna stay out here. I need the air," Lamont said.

  "Likewise," Nick said.

  Sirens sounded in the distance.

  CHAPTER 12

  Selena followed Forsberg into the building, past his men herding people out. He led her to set of rooms where bullets had splintered the wooden door frame and punched holes in the wall. To her right, a door opened onto a bedroom. To the left was a small kitchen. Ahead was a sitting area.

  "In here," Forsberg said.

  The sitting area contained a worn couch, a desk and a chair. Hussein lay on the floor on his back, his robe soaked in blood. His eyes were open. His turban was askew. A pistol lay by his outstretched hand. Papers lay scattered on the floor around him, in front of a fire blazing in a brick fireplace.

  "I think he was going to burn those papers," Forsberg said.

  Selena picked up a page. "This doesn't look like anything important. It's an invoice from a grocer in Ystad specializing in Arab foods. Where's Ystad?"

  "It's a small town all the way down south, at the tip of the country. Warmer, down there."

  "Don't they have Arab grocers in Stockholm?"

  "Yes, several of them."

  "What else is in Ystad?"

  "It's a commercial and fishing port. There's ferry service to Poland and Latvia from there. Also Denmark. From Denmark, you can go anywhere in Europe."

  She handed him the paper. "Why order from way down there if you can get the same thing nearby? I'll bet that's where they ship the antiquities out of Sweden."

  Someone called to Forsberg.

  "Let me know if you find anything else," he said. He left the room.

  Selena turned her attention back to the papers scattered on the floor. There were several invoices for Arab foodstuffs from the same address, dated over the past year. She didn't find anything else that seemed important and decided to look around the building.

  She passed an open door and stepped through into an apartment. No one was there. A framed picture on a side table showed the translator, Gabriel, and a woman wearing a Hijab. They stood in a city square bordered by pockmarked and shattered buildings, signs of heavy fighting. Behind Gabriel was a shop sign with a name written on it in Arabic. The picture had been taken in Mosul.

  Iraq, she thought. Gabriel is from Iraq. Hussein probably was as well. Where is Gabriel, I wonder?

  She opened a dresser drawer and rummaged through it. She found a cell phone stuffed under children's clothes, where someone had tried to hide it. It was a throwaway. She put it in her pocket. Nick could decide what to do with it. After poking around a while longer, she went back outside.

  Several police cars had arrived. With Forsberg's men, the cops moved the occupants of the refugee asylum into groups. They stood shivering in the cold, surrounded by hostile stares. Guns were pointed at them. No one smiled.

  Selena took Nick to the side and showed him the phone. "This was in Gabriel's room. Should I give it to Forsberg?"

  "Let's find out what's on it first. I'll take it."

  She handed him the phone. Nick dialed Virginia. Elizabeth answered.

  "What is it Nick?"

  "The raid went south. There was a jihadist cell inside the center, armed to the teeth. They opened up on the Swedes."

  "Why did they start shooting?"

  "That's what everybody wants to know. Forsberg thinks they were tipped off. Selena thinks they were hiding something. That might be, but I think they're mostly just stupid jihadists who thought this was their opportunity to meet Allah. Forsberg and his people are going over the building with a fine tooth comb."

  "Will they tell you if they find something we need to know about?"

  "Maybe. Maybe not. I thought I might improvise a little, just in case they don't. I have something for Stephanie. Can you put her on?"

  "Wait one."

  Stephanie Willits came online. Steph was a critical cog in the complex machine of Project operations. There wasn't much she couldn't do with a computer or a piece of communications gear. Satellite communications was one of her specialties. She'd helped Nick and the others out of a bad situation in the field more than once.

  "What's up, Nick? Elizabeth says you guys ran into serious trouble."

  "We did, but it's over now. I have a phone in my hand. I want to send you whatever is on it."

  "Give me a minute," Steph said.

  Nick waited while she set up the transfer.

  "Okay, go ahead."

  Nick plugged the cell into his satellite unit, turned on Gabriel's phone and pressed a sequence of keys. Thirty seconds later the file transfer was complete.

  Stephanie said, "Got it."

  "This phone belonged to one of the jihadists. He’s missing and he may have been second in command. These guys were selling looted artifacts on the black market. If something indicates Swedish involvement, Stockholm will cover it up."

  "You want me to look for whatever I can find, right?"

  "Yup."

  "I'll have to run everything through a translation program, unless the conversations are in English. It will take time."

  "Whatever it takes," Nick said. "Thanks, Steph."

  Nick broke the connection.

  "Let's see what comes out of that." He looked around. "We're done here. I'll tell Forsberg we're leaving."

  He went over to where Forsberg stood talking
with one of his men.

  "Selena found this in Gabriel's room." He handed the phone over.

  "What's on it?"

  "I don't have any idea," Nick said.

  Forsberg pocketed the phone. "We'll take care of it from here."

  He looked at Selena. "I've been told to let you keep those scrolls for now, while you translate them."

  "Wonderful. It shouldn't take more than a few days."

  "You must have some serious pull. Make sure nothing happens to them. Nick, I'll call you at the hotel later."

  "Yeah," Nick said.

  CHAPTER 13

  Back in their room at the hotel, Selena carefully unrolled the scrolls and laid them out on a low coffee table. She photographed them and began working on a translation. Ronnie and Lamont were next door, catching up on sleep.

  After a while she looked up and said, "No one has ever seen anything like this. The descriptions of the crucifixion in the Bible show minor variations, but they're all pretty much the same story. This one is similar up to a point, but then it's different."

  "How so?"

  "Because of what it says about Joseph of Arimathea."

  "Who was he?"

  "A rich follower of Jesus, one of the ruling council in Jerusalem. He donated his tomb for Christ's burial. Tradition says he purchased a shroud to wrap the body when they took it down from the cross. That's in here, but there's more."

  She looked at him, her eyes wide.

  "It says Joseph held a cup and caught Christ’s blood as He hung on the cross. You won't find that anywhere in the Bible."

  "A cup?"

  "There's only one cup like that. The Holy Grail."

  "That's a legend. A story made up in the twelfth century. King Arthur, all that."

  "That's what most people think. But this scroll changes that. My God, Nick, think about it!"

  "What if it isn't authentic? There are plenty of phony relics out there, made up in the Middle Ages to encourage pilgrims. It could be one of those."

  "I've seen a lot of documents from the first century. You get a feel for authenticity after a while. It would have to be tested, but I'd be surprised if this is a fake. The box must have been in a church ISIS looted. It's valuable because of the silver but the scrolls are worth far more than the box. I can't imagine what this would bring if it were auctioned off at one of the big houses."

  "If it's real."

  "Yes. It will create an uproar. It's sure to be attacked as a hoax. People have looked for the Grail for a thousand years. Emperors and kings. Napoleon. Hitler searched all over the world for it. It's part of the Arma Christi."

  "What's the Arma Christi?"

  "The weapons of Christ, symbolic of how Christ defeated Satan. The Grail is one of them, along with the lance that pierced Christ's side and the nails from the cross."

  "The lance is gone. We know it was destroyed."

  "Nobody knows that except us. It doesn't matter anyway, when you're talking about the Grail."

  "Even if this manuscript proves the Grail was real, nobody knows where it is or if it still exists."

  "If this becomes public, people will start searching for it."

  She began reading the second scroll.

  "Oh, my."

  "That doesn't sound good."

  "There's a prophecy about the Grail," she said. "Simon repeats the story of the open tomb. Then he says that as he was praying in front of the tomb an angel appeared, dressed in robes of fire."

  "Sure," Nick said. "Sometimes I think there must've been something in the water back then. Or maybe magic mushrooms in the soup."

  Selena ignored him and began reading from the page.

  As I prayed before the tomb, then did an angel of the Lord God appear to me in terrible beauty, wreathed in robes of flame. I fell to the ground in fear, daring not to look upon its face. The voice of the angel was not like the voice of men, but as a sound of thunder inside my head.

  And the angel said, fear not: write of the trials of the Teacher and tell of the cup that caught His blood.

  And the angel said, look: and before me appeared great cities where buildings of stone rose high as mountains into the heavens and crowds of people walked the streets. Then all vanished and the earth was covered with smoke and fire and the cries of the dying rose into the heavens.

  And the angel said: a time will come when evil kings and their servants will rule the earth. Their hearts will be corrupt, filled with greed and darkness. They will speak with lying tongues of brotherly love and God and peace but plot war.

  Then the angel said: war will come on wings of fire in the night and all that I had seen would come to pass, unless the cup was kept safe by just men.

  And the angel said: that if the cup should come into the hands of the liars and the hypocrites, the final days of man would come to pass. But if the cup was kept safe by just men, then the Lord's judgment would be stayed.

  "That's a hell of a prophecy," Nick said. "He's talking about the End of Days, isn't he? The Last Judgment?"

  "It would be hard to see it as anything else," Selena said.

  "Is that all he wrote?"

  "Almost. There's one more short section."

  And the angel said: go to Joseph of Arimathea and tell him of the Lord's message, for Joseph is chosen as guardian of the cup, until his time on earth is finished.

  "If Joseph was the one chosen, how come the vision didn't appear to him?" Nick asked.

  Selena looked at him and shook her head.

  "Sometimes I really wonder about you, Nick."

  CHAPTER 14

  The next day Nick was on the phone again with Elizabeth.

  "You found an eyewitness account of the crucifixion by the man who helped Christ carry the cross? Are you kidding me? That's what was in the box?"

  "I know it sounds far-fetched. Selena is sure it's authentic. But that's not the best part."

  "I can't wait to be surprised."

  "The scrolls confirm the existence of the Holy Grail."

  There was silence at the other end of the line.

  "Are you still there, Director?"

  "Did you really say that?"

  "There's also a prophecy about the Grail."

  Nick repeated what had been written on the scrolls.

  "You said Selena thinks it's authentic?"

  "That's what she says."

  "This is going to cause a lot of trouble," Elizabeth said.

  "That's what she said."

  "I wonder if ISIS knows about this?"

  "I don't think so," Nick said. "If they knew what was in those scrolls they wouldn't have sent them off with the rest of the looted artifacts."

  "I have to think about this before I decide anything. What's the public reaction to the raid over there?"

  "It's a big deal. There's a protest march being organized. The media is in a feeding frenzy. There are calls for criminal charges against Forsberg and an investigation of the KSI. Hussein is being painted by papers that follow the government line as an innocent victim of racial and religious prejudice. According to them, Forsberg is a trigger-happy fascist."

  "And the rest of the media?"

  "Demanding that the borders be closed and that the government send everyone back where they came from. Everything is black and white here, there's nothing in between."

  "That sounds familiar," Elizabeth said. "What about your role in this? Has anyone got wind that you're involved?"

  "Not yet, but it's only a question of time. What do you want us to do?"

  "Stephanie found a call on that phone you discovered that went to a man named Bergstrom. She checked him out. He's a Chief Superintendent in the national police, stationed in Stockholm."

  "Knowing a high ranking cop could come in handy if you were smuggling things into the country."

  "It can't be a coincidence. Bergstrom has to be involved. You have to let the Swedes handle it."

  "What if they decide to cover it up? They're certain to handle it internally but
they might not want us to know about it."

  "I'm not willing to ignore the connection," Elizabeth said. "Bergstrom is probably the man who sets up the exchange with the end buyers. We need to know who they are. He's not the buyer, he couldn't afford it on a cop's salary."

  "What do you want me to do?"

  "If they tell you what's on the phone, leave it alone. If they don't, I want you to pursue it. You won't have much time. They'll be embarrassed by discovering one of their own is involved. They'll tell you to leave and I won't be able to keep you there."

  "I need information on Bergstrom."

  "Steph is putting something together now. She'll send it to you in a few minutes."

  "We're headed over to KSI in a few minutes," Nick said. "If they're going to come clean, it will be then."

  "Good. Then you'll know where you stand. Keep me informed."

  Harker broke the connection.

  "What did she say?" Lamont asked.

  Nick told them what Elizabeth had said about Bergstrom.

  "So we're going to follow up on Bergstrom if the Swedes don't keep us in the loop?"

  "That's about it. Steph is sending the info we need about him. It all depends on what happens at the meeting this morning."

  The islands, lakes and waterways of Stockholm made the city an interesting and beautiful place. It had snowed the night before, but the morning was clear and sunny. The city looked like something out of a modern fairy tale.

  Ronnie said, "Snow means water. Where I come from, water is a good thing."

  "Sure is pretty out," Lamont said. "Makes me think of a Christmas card."

  "It's a beautiful day," Selena said.

  The good feeling evaporated inside KSI headquarters. Forsberg was in a bad mood. He was being called a closet Nazi and a fascist by the left-wing papers because of the raid on the refugee asylum.

  Politics in Sweden wasn't much different than it was in America. When there was political capital to be made, the gloves came off. Control of the country's government was at stake in the upcoming election and the political rhetoric was heating up. The issue of immigration was tearing Sweden apart. The confrontation with Islamic militants at the asylum had thrown gasoline on a fire already burning out of control.