In the greenish glow of her night vision goggles, Nava viewed the rising curves of the surrounding hills as she guided the small chopper toward the farm. Below, she could see the rushing water of the Aude River descending from the Pyrenees into a rugged gorge before entering the rolling French countryside where it slowed on its way to the sea. The river’s cool water was the lifeblood of the valley. It provided the much-needed irrigation for the lush fields, while at the same time it gave the workers who lived along its banks a place to escape the sun’s heat on those long summer afternoons when work became impossible.
Spotting a large hill rising from the fields, Nava circled to land without the benefit of landing lights. A recent rain had moistened the ground, thus keeping the swirling dust at bay as the helicopter touched down in the center of the compound.
The rotors were still turning when a thin man dressed in an olive-drab shirt and matching shorts approached the chopper. Opening one of the rear doors, he had to shout to be heard above the whine of the chopper’s turbines. “Lev … I’m glad to see you made it here safely!”
Lev jumped out and embraced an older man who looked like he hadn’t eaten a good meal in years. “Ephraim, my old friend. How are you?”
“Good … good. And this must be the famous Cardinal Leopold Amodeo.”
“Yes. Leo … I want you to meet one of my dearest friends, Ephraim Amit. Ephraim runs the farm here. He used to oversee the vineyards at the villa before we purchased this property. Now he swears his wine is better than ours at the villa.” Lev leaned close to Leo and spoke in a loud whisper. “He’s becoming a snob about his vineyard.”
“I heard that,” Ephraim said. “It’s the soil around here … you’ll see. Don’t listen to this old Israeli, Cardinal. One taste of my wine and you’ll be sold. I’ll send a case to the Vatican. I hear the pope’s been drinking California wine lately.”
Leo began laughing for the first time in days. “Do you people know everything?”
“Not everything,” Ephraim chuckled. “Come on, Cardinal. You’ll all be staying in the big house. I’ll show you the way.”
The men began heading across the gravelly surface of the compound as the sound of the helicopter’s engines increased in the background. Nava still had several more flights to make.
Looking past a large garden, they spotted a barn and several small houses scattered beneath the trees around the perimeter. Ephraim motioned them forward along a rocky path that wound up a steep, curving incline. Small rocks crunched beneath their feet until Leo finally spotted the dark shape of an immense stone structure at the top of the hill as they continued up the path in the bright moonlight.
Ephraim looked back over his shoulder. “Don’t worry, Cardinal, we’re not having a power failure. The main house is blacked out so as not to draw attention to our location. This hill overlooks the entire valley, and any light from here can be seen from miles away. We’ve been hearing stories of small bands of criminals taking advantage of the plague to raid homes. Mostly they just take food … it’s the most valuable commodity right now, but there have been reports of more serious incidents. A farmer and his wife were found shot a few miles from here and their two teenage daughters are still missing. Everyone is hoping they’re hiding somewhere.”
“What about your perimeter defenses?” Leo asked.
“You talk more like a soldier than a man of the cloth, Cardinal,” Ephraim grinned. “Mostly, we have listening devices and old-fashioned tripwires along the perimeter, but we also have manned outposts scattered around the property equipped with forward-looking infrared radar linked to laser-guided weaponry. No one comes on this compound without us knowing about it, and if they do, well …”
As soon as they reached the top of the hill, the group followed Ephraim up some wide steps that led to a terrace fronting a stone structure that loomed five stories above their heads. Stopping to catch their breath, they looked out over the moon-lit fields below. The light from the moon, combined with the green of the valley, made the water of the Aude River appear blue as it wound its way along the periphery of the property.
In the valley below, Mendoza noticed several clusters of twinkling lights in the distance. “Shouldn’t those people be keeping a low profile too?”
“Those are police outposts,” Ephraim explained. “They want people to be able to find them.”
The creaking sound of old hinges caused Leo to turn as a pair of tall wooden doors opened behind them. Standing in the towering doorway, Leo spotted John and Ariella framed in the haze of the faint yellow light that was streaming out from behind them.
“You should see this place, Leo,” John said. “It’s an old castle.”
Ephraim hurried forward. “Come, Gentlemen. We need to get inside and close this door. Like I said, we don’t want to announce our presence. There are eyes all around looking for signs of life, and the light from that open door is like a beacon to anyone watching.”
Walking inside, Leo stared up at the thick wooden timbers supporting a roof three stories above their heads.
“How old is this place, Lev?”
“The original structure was probably built during the dark ages, but we’ve discovered evidence of some additional construction that was probably done during medieval times before gunpowder made castles like this one obsolete. It was pretty much a ruin when we started rebuilding it several years ago. Most of the walls are four feet thick in places. That’s probably the reason they were still standing after all these years.”
Looking around, Leo marveled at the exacting stonework that made up the immense entrance hall. A thousand years before, men who had lived in a completely different world had quarried the huge blocks of stone and somehow transported them up to the top of this steep hill just so that they could wall themselves off from other men. Things really hadn’t changed all that much.
Above their heads, they could see a row of multi-colored flags hanging between the timbered ceiling and a long, open gallery lined with stone pillars. To their left, an intricately carved archway led to a narrow staircase that wound its way up to the gallery, and to their right, they saw a mammoth dark hallway leading off into the rest of the castle. It was classic medieval architecture. Every angle had been planned well in advance to give the castle’s defenders every advantage over any attackers who made it past the front entrance.
Ephraim motioned the group toward the narrow staircase to their left. “Your rooms are upstairs. It looks like you could all use some sleep.”
“I need to stay awake until everyone makes it here safely,” Lev said.
Ephraim yawned as he removed his round, wire-framed glasses and ran a hand through thinning gray hair that ended in a ponytail. “I had a feeling you might say that. We’ll clear a space in the barn tomorrow so we can park the helicopter out of sight. We’ll have a real fight on our hands if one of those roving bands of thugs discover we have a chopper. We’re going to need it in the days ahead.”
“Sounds like you already know why we’re here,” Leo said, casting a sideways glance at Lev.
Ephraim winked. “That I do, Cardinal … that I do.”