The Pharaoh's Secret (NUMA Files 13)

“I was so close,” Joe said.

Kurt didn’t even respond to that. “Go on.”

“Sophie Celine was the third cousin, and the distant love, of Pierre Andeen, a prestigious member of the French Legislative Assembly, which convened after the Revolution. Because both were married to other people, they were unable to officially be together but that didn’t stop them from having a child.”

“Scandalous,” Kurt said.

“Indeed,” Renata added. “Scandalous or not, the birth of that child was a thrilling moment for Andeen and he used his influence with the French Admiralty to have a ship named after the mother.”

“As some kind of present,” Kurt said.

“Trust me,” Joe said. “Most women prefer jewelry.”

“Agreed,” Renata said.

“So what happened to Sophie?” Kurt asked.

Renata put her feet up. “She lived to a ripe old age and was buried in a private cemetery outside Paris after she died in her sleep.”

Kurt could see where this was going. “I’m guessing it’s Sophie Celine, the ship that Kensington was referring to.”

Renata nodded and handed Kurt a printout on the ship’s history. “The Sophie C. was attached to Napoleon’s Mediterranean fleet and happened to be berthed in Malta during the brief period of French rule. As luck would have it, the ship went down in a storm after leaving here loaded with French treasure that had been plundered from Egypt. She was found and the wreck excavated by members of the D’Campion Conservancy, a nonprofit group supported by a wealthy family here on Malta. After keeping the artifacts in their private collection for years, they’ve recently decided to sell some of the items. The museum was to be the intermediary, for a percentage.”

“The same items our violent friends just lifted without paying a penny,” Joe said.

“Kensington said two hundred thousand wouldn’t get them a seat at the table, so they took the whole buffet.”

Joe asked the obvious question: “Why would Kensington point us to the Sophie Celine when he wouldn’t even tell us what was going to be in the auction?”

“The same reason these guys didn’t kill him and take the artifacts until we showed up and started asking questions. There must be something on that wreck they still want, something that hasn’t come up yet.”

“The Egyptian tablets I saw were broken,” Joe said. “Partial pieces, fragments. Maybe they’re after the remaining sections.”

Kurt turned to Renata. “Where’s this wreck?”

“Here’s the location,” she said, handing Kurt the rest of her notes. “It’s about thirty miles east of Valletta.”

“Last I checked, that wasn’t the way to France,” Kurt said.

“Her captain was trying to avoid British ships. He planned a route east and then north, either intending to skirt the coast of Sicily or to cut through the strait between Sicily and the Italian mainland. Apparently, he ran into bad weather before he had the chance to do either. The guess is he turned back but never made it to port.”

For the first time in days, Kurt felt they were getting ahead of the game.

“I guess we know our next move,” Joe said. “And their move as well. When they find out these carvings and tablets are only partials and fragments, they’ll go after that wreck and try to salvage what’s left on it themselves.”

“That’s what I would do,” Kurt said. “I still can’t imagine how this all connects or what they’re after, but if it didn’t truly matter, they’d have cut and run by now. Something tells me we’d better dive on this wreck site before they do.”

30

The Sea Dragon left Valletta with Kurt, Joe, Dr. Ambrosini and a skeleton crew on board. Kurt had sent everyone else back to the States out of an abundance of caution.

“Stay on this heading,” he told Captain Reynolds.

“Aye,” Reynolds said. “But you realize we’re going to miss the wreck by miles unless we turn north.”

“I’m counting on that separation to give us the element of surprise.”

Reynolds nodded and rechecked the navigation screen. “You’re the boss.”