The eye of the lion

The Eurotunnel which joins England and France, beneath the waters of the English Channel, is one of the great successes of human engineering.

Inaugurated by Queen Elizabeth II and President François Mitterand on May sixth 1999, it had soon become an important means of communication for Gauls and Britons, as it made it possible to travel from France to England (24 miles) in just 40 minutes.

The three pressurized tunnels that it comprised were tirelessly traveled by the most powerful trains in the world, carrying cars and passengers at tremendous speed and with the highest security. Everything was controlled by computers.

We arrived at Folkestone, the British end of the tunnel, at dawn. Dr. Cole’s RV was comfortable and spacious, but it had been an exhausting journey. No-one had been able to sleep because of stress, and I was still in a lot of pain.

Colin Bertrand, one of my old contacts in France, was already waiting for us with new passports for the crossing to France. Knowing that even people in France’s Ministry of the Interior could be involved in the trap that was set for us, the most prudent thing was to use new identities to enter the country. The decision to return to France had seemed to us to be the most sensible one. It was the place in Europe where we had the most support and the safest places to hide before deciding what to do in our difficult situation.

We embarked the blue Eurotunnel train at midday. Dr. Cole’s RV was secured in the vehicle carriage and we went up to the passengers’ carriage. Within a few minutes we were traveling beneath the English Channel.

The forty-minute journey seemed like an eternity. We were afraid that at any minute some French official would appear before us and ask to see our new passports. But no-one came.

An hour later we were on board Cole’s RV in Coquelles, the French side of the tunnel. Marina was feeling a little unwell, so we decided to stop in a town along the way to rest and have something to eat. In the rush of leaving, we hadn’t brought anything to eat in the RV.

While Aeesha accompanied Marina to the restaurant’s bathroom and Dr. Cole went to the men’s, Jessica, Mark and I were

alone for a few moments, so I seized the opportunity to talk with them.

“Guys, we have to make some decisions...” I began.

“The team doesn’t exist any more. Carter’s probably dead, and the mission is over. I’ll understand perfectly if you decide it’s time to split and go our own ways.”

“There are people looking for us, to wipe us out,” affirmed Mark. “Our only chance of survival is to stay together.”

“Mark’s right, sir,” agreed Jessica. “If we were separated we’d be easy prey for those people.”

“They want the girl,” I said, shaking my head. “Not us.”

“Knowing what we know, I don’t think they’d let us go that easily. Anyway, we’ve seen them,” said Jessica, looking me in the eye. She was right.

“Who the hell are they?” interrupted Mark. “We don’t have any leads.”

“We have one,” said Jessica, getting something out of the pocket of her pants. It was the piece of paper on which I’d drawn something I’d remembered in my delirium, at Cole’s house: The golden cross that Kelly and Kratz had been wearing. Mark looked at it and seemed disconcerted.

“I know what it is...” announced Jessica. But a voice beat her to her explanation.

“It’s the Templar cross,” said Dr. Cole, looking at the drawing.

“Yes it is,” nodded Jessica, looking at her uncle. Cole sat down beside her, looking at the drawing from behind his glasses. Jessica looked at me and I nodded discreetly. It didn’t make sense to keep from the Doctor information that he would find out sooner or later. In any case, the man had abandoned his house and left everything for us. He at least deserved that. What’s more, it was very likely that we would be spending a lot of time together. It made no sense to keep quiet.

“The men who are after us use this symbol, uncle. Do you know what it means?” asked Jessica. The Doctor looked at her for a moment, pensive.

“How do we know that those guys use this symbol?” asked Mark, with a skeptical smile. “I didn’t see anything like that on the ones who attacked us.”

“I did,” I confirmed. “Kratz and Kelly had one like it, in the form of a pin, I believe.”

Mark looked at me. He didn’t seem very convinced.

“With all due respect, sir. It must have been very difficult to see something like that in the middle of the fire, the confusion and the building collapsing around you, to see a

pin at that distance... Are you sure?”

I doubted for a moment.

“Actually...I remembered it afterwards. In dreams,” I said, not very sure.

“You were delirious from the fever, sir,” said Mark. “You could have seen anything.”

“I think it means something,” sustained Jessica. Anyway let’s not forget that Haile has a photographic memory. He can remember those unconscious details even in the middle of a fever.”

Mark shrugged his shoulders, unconvinced. Jessica looked at her uncle.

“What can you tell us about this, uncle? I know symbols are one of your hobbies, aren’t they?”

Cole nodded, smiling.

“I’ve read one or two books on the subject. This is a more or less well-known symbol.”

He picked up the paper and examined it. Then he continued, taking off his glasses.

“The Templars were a monastic military order, during the time of the Crusades, around 1118. Originally the order’s mandate was to protect the pilgrims en route to Jerusalem, but later, when the order grew, in number and strength, they were

directly involved in defending the Holy Places. Baldwin II, King of Jerusalem allowed them to live near the temple, so from then on they were known as the Templar Knights, or Templars. The symbol of the order was a red Greek cross with eight corners, on a white tunic.”

The Doctor put the paper on the table, then continued.

“In the almost two-hundred years that the order existed, there was a social and economic resurgence in Europe, thanks to the financial structure set up by the Templars and the many good works they undertook. The order grew and became incredibly powerful and influential. So much so, that they started to put out - or frighten - the Vatican and the King of France. Philip the Beautiful owed a lot of money to the Templar Knights and was jealous of their prosperous community, so he allied himself to the corrupt Pope Clement V and they decided to take the riches away from the Templar order.”

“It really wasn’t very difficult,” continued Cole. “The Templar Knights had a lot of powerful enemies, people who owed them large sums of money or simply orders who were envious of their worldly possessions. So in 1307, under charges of heresy, paganism, sodomy and a string of other nonsense, the Templars were arrested and stripped of everything. Years later, in 1311 if I remember rightly, the last grand master of the order,

Jacques de Molay, was burned alive at the stake. They say that as he died, he spoke out a terrible curse which was very effective: before nine months were up, King Philip the Beautiful and Pope Clement had died. Almost all of the others who were involved in the process were assassinated shortly afterwards.

The four of us looked at each other in silence. Dr. Cole’s knowledge didn’t cease to amaze me.

“So the order was totally destroyed?” asked Jessica.

“Not totally. They say that the night they raided the Order’s main house, in Paris, three members managed to escape,” said the Doctor. “There are rumors that some of them re-founded the order, with different names, in Spain and Portugal, and perhaps in other places too.”

“So this Order could even exist today,” theorized Jessica.

“It could be,” conceded Cole.

“It’s a fascinating story, no doubt. But in my opinion it’s little more than a legend,” commented Mark. “There’s no proof that these men who attacked us have any real link to those Templars.”

“Maybe...,” I said. “But Kelly talked about his “brothers who made him see the light” and his “brothers who had saved his life”. And all that makes me think of a religious association or brotherhood of some kind... And I don’t think I hallucinated

that.”

Mark understood the allusion and said nothing.

“I’m almost sure that these people were responsible for the Colonel’s disappearance, and no doubt it was they who shut Voquessi up and put an end to his sensational declarations.

“But what interest could they have in the girl?” asked Jessica.

That’s when I realized that neither she nor Mark knew much about Waiss’ project. I hadn’t had time to meet with them and bring them up to speed about what Randall and I knew.

I was opening my mouth to speak, when I saw that there was no time for explanations. Marina and Aeesha were approaching the table. Strangely, Marina was helping the black girl to walk, and not the other way around. The girl looked weak and confused. Jessica got up to help her.

“What’s wrong?” she asked Marina. “What happened to her?”

Mark moved aside and helped Aeesha to sit down next to him. Dr. Cole stood up.

“Let me look at this girl.”

Marina reassured him in her basic English.

“No, it’s nothing. Give her a minute, it’ll pass.”

Aeesha was looking at us, a little disoriented.

Marina looked at us all for a moment.

“There’s something I need to tell you,” she announced. “It’s about Aeesha.”

Not far from us, a television was announcing the news about Geneva.

I didn’t need a perfect command of French to understand that it wasn’t remotely good.