The Lost Key (A Brit in the FBI 2)

“But things fell apart. Leo overheard his mother telling her old nurse that the kaiser’s men were nearly there. They were in danger, and the nurse had to take Leo to Esbjerg right away without her. She’d kissed him and told him they would soon be together again and he was going to have a grand adventure. That was the last time he saw her.

“A week later, Josef found Leo in Edinburgh in a poor inn, sleeping on the floor next to the old nurse, who lay dead, probably from the influenza. On their wild journey back to the Cotswolds, Josef had to tell his son that his mother was dead.”

Sophie fell silent, tears in her eyes. “You know the rest. No one knows if Victoria was torpedoed by the English or the Germans in the North Sea off Scotland. All we really know is they didn’t make it.”

82

Nearing Paris

1:00 a.m.

Sophie stretched, careful not to hurt her back. She smiled sadly. “Until the day he died, Leo remembered the massacre at the cottage, how they’d tortured his father, and William Pearce had found Leo holding him in his arms. Leo watched William bury the men, including his father. He remembered Pearce’s tears, he remembered seeing his terrible rage as he dug six separate graves for men he’d admired and loved.

“My father told me that Leo didn’t speak for nearly a year after William Pearce found him, and once he did speak again, he was quiet, reserved.

“As for the key, the book, and all those gold bars, they were lost until Adam was able to use the satellite imagery to locate the sub.”

“Sophie, did Josef know the sub ended up in Loch Eriboll?”

Sophie shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

Nicholas asked quietly, “Did Leo or William Pearce ever discover who betrayed the men in the Cotswolds?”

“No one ever was identified, but the Order wasn’t attacked again. It was commonly believed the betrayer was killed either in the war or in the influenza outbreak. He clearly was someone close to the kaiser. But William and Leo Rothschild Pearce did find the three men who killed the Order members in the Cotswolds, and eliminated them.”

Nicholas sat forward, his hands clasped between his knees. “We have got to get that key.”

Sophie said, “The key is important, yes

, but it’s the book that’s critical. It contains Curie’s notes on how to make the weapon, and the directions to her secret lab.”

Mike said, “Adam sent us a note about Curie’s secret lab.”

“So you know the whole story,” Nicholas said.

“Quite a bit of it, yes. I know that after the war, the Order decided they had to find the sunken sub and destroy the key and Curie’s notebook. They didn’t want to take the chance that Curie’s special polonium would ever find its way into the hands of a hostile government.

“So now you understand why Adam and I are so important to the Order. We’re more than institutional knowledge. We’re also the last physical link to the Order’s past, to Josef and Ansonia Rothschild.”

“So Paris seems by far the best bet since this is where Curie lived and worked,” Nicholas said. “But the question is, where in Paris?”

“I honestly don’t know. But her book is the only way to find out the location of her secret lab.” Sophie sighed. “And now Havelock has it.”

83

Quai d’Anjou

12:30 a.m.

They’d blindfolded Adam on the plane, but he knew they were flying to Paris, where Curie’s secret lab had to be located.

He wasn’t a linguist like Sophie, so he didn’t understand what Havelock was saying to Elise. His specialty was all binary code and obscure numbers. Havelock’s rapid-fire German sounded incomprehensible to him.

Adam heard Havelock mention Weston several times and wondered what had happened to him. Weston couldn’t return to his life at MI5 since he and Havelock had both overplayed their hand, and were both wanted by the police. Havelock had probably killed Weston because he was of no more use to him. Havelock must also have realized the Order would never let him through the doors now.

They landed, got into a car, and drove for at least twenty minutes. When the car stopped, Adam heard the sound of water lapping against a wall. He managed to angle his head to he could see the street name. QUAI D’ANJOU. He was on the Seine.

They removed his blindfold and shoved him into an elaborate entryway. He saw high ceilings, antiques, an expanse of tile floor before Elise stuck a gun in his back and forced him up two flights of stairs, then put him into a dark room. A key grated in the lock. He was alone and, unfortunately, still handcuffed. Adam stumbled around in the dark before he managed to run his fingers along the wall by the door. He finally found a light switch, nudged it up with his shoulder, and the room lit up with a soft glow.