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."He took the cup and the knife up to the museum to see that friend of his.He was up pretty early—I don't think he slept too well last night.Kept tossing and turning." Tony shook his head."I'm starting to think he has something against putting bullets into people.""I'll try and pretend you're joking.He probably did save your life last night.""I could've evaded that knife.Still, it helped.He proved himself.I don't feel as much at risk with him anymore.""That's big of you.I don't think he's any more afraid than we are.He just doesn't like killing, that's all.""When you're in the field, you don't have much choice in the matter.""Not in the doing," said Laika, "but you have a choice in the liking.Do you like it, Tony?"He met her gaze evenly."No.I don't like it, Laika.But when I have to do it, I do it, and I don't even think about it.You don't like or dislike what you don't think about."She nodded."Joseph will be all right.""I guess so," Tony said, standing up to get more coffee."But he thinks too much."Joseph came back at noon.He looked more pale than usual, and didn't smile as Laika greeted him with, "So what's the news from the museum?""Umm.strange.The news is rather strange.David—this friend of mine?—is in antiquities, and when I showed him the cup, he hemmed and hawed, but came to the conclusion that it definitely could be first century A.D.If it's not, he said, then it's an extremely clever forgery.But he couldn't explain why anyone would make a forgery of such a.nondescript and plain cup."The box he dated to the thirteenth century, though the velvet inside is much later.The knife, he said, is from about the same time.He, uh, asked me where I got it, and I was pretty noncommittal.But he recognized the sign of the Knights Templar on the knife, and told me that most of the designs on the box were connected with the order as well."Then he said to me." Joseph paused, and took a deep breath.Laika couldn't get over how uncomfortable he seemed."He said, 'So are you going to try to sell this to the press as the Holy Grail?'""So McAndrews, or whoever he was," said Laika, trying to ignore the comment about the Grail, "might truly have been a Knight Templar?""They were supposed to have died out centuries ago," Joseph said."But there were always stories of their survival.The most persistent story had them being connected to a Scottish Masonic lodge a few centuries ago.""And it's a good bet that the eleven who died.and McAndrews.were all Scottish," said Laika.Joseph nodded."Things tie together even more.In some medieval documents, the Holy Grail is called the Sangraal, which can translate as sang real.""'Royal blood,' " said Tony."The bloodline of Christ."Joseph didn't respond.Instead, he sat down at his computer and glided the mouse over the pad, clicking several times."I got up early this morning," he said, "and scanned the fingerprints we took from McAndrews onto the computer.Then I sent them to the Sûreté and asked them to do two things.One was to see if there were any other suspects captured in the attempted burglary where Robert Gunn was arrested.And if there were, to check their fingerprints against those I sent." Joseph read what was on the screen, and the corner of his mouth twisted in a bitter smile."There was another man," he said."Ewan McCullough.And the prints match.Perfectly.""You mean," Laika said, feeling a numbness start to creep up her back, "that Kyle McAndrews—the man who died last night—burglarized that house back in 1907? Ninety years ago?""Yeah, unless you want to believe that the Sûreté made another 'mistake' like they supposedly did with Gunn."Laika shook her head."They didn't make any mistake.""There's something else," said Joseph."Something I didn't tell you before.The house that was burglarized? The Villa Bethania? I found out when I read the book.You remember the priest who found the documents in the pillar? The one who got mysteriously rich?"That priest built and lived in the Villa Bethania.Gunn and McAndrews were trying to break into the house of the man who had discovered the bloodline secret
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