The Camelot Code Read Online Free PDF Page B

with a structured handbag in the same striking colour. She’s on her phone and drops a retro Diadora gym bag beside her desk while she talks intently.
    Mitzi silently curses. It’s just not right that Eleonora looks that good.
    The Italian finishes and glances across the desks. ‘
Buongiorno
, ’itzi. How are you?’
    ‘It’s Mitzi. M for motherfucker, then
itzi
. M-M-M-itzi.’
    Eleonora laughs. ‘I am sorry. M for M-itzi. How are you?’
    ‘I’m good. Now let me guess, you’ve been to the gym and you’re feeling absolutely amazing.’
    ‘No, I feel like shit. I always do after gym. Did you know Michelle Obama goes at four-thirty a.m. every day?’
    ‘I don’t even want to think about four-thirty, let alone go anywhere at that time.’
    Eleonora fingers her wet hair. ‘Guess I look a mess, yes?’
    ‘I wish I could say yes, but you look like you’re just about to strip off and model for
Sports Illustrated
.’
    ‘That’s a magazine?’
    ‘It’s a magazine. Guys say they buy it for the articles, but they’re not fooling anyone.’
    A flash of mischief illuminates Eleonora’s face. ‘Aah, now I understand. Men, they are such simple animals.’ She grabs her purse. ‘I am going to the restroom, then maybe I buy coffee before I meet Bronty. You want to come with us?’
    ‘Where are you going?’
    ‘Bronty called last night. He met a priest who introduced him to someone in the Church of Satan and he knows our dead woman, Rea Masters.’
    ‘Knows as in sexually?’
    ‘No. I don’t think so. Though of course it is possible. Bronty said Rea started in the Church of Satan then found herself at odds with the grotto she joined.’
    ‘Grotto? You make it sound like Santa Claus.’
    Eleonora sits on the edge of her new colleague’s desk. ‘That is what they call the covens, or lodges. You know the Church of Satan’s founder lived not far from here. For maybe thirty years it was run from San Francisco.’
    ‘Anton LaVey. He wrote the Satanic Bible, right?’
    ‘
Si.
After he died the Church switched to New York.’
    ‘Hell’s Kitchen?’ jokes Mitzi.
    Eleonora misses the pun. ‘You want to come with us?’
    ‘Yeah, thanks, I’d like to ride along.’
    The office door opens and Donovan sticks her head in. ‘Got a job for you, Fallon.’
    ‘I thought I had a job – this witchcraft case?’
    Her boss hands over a sheet of paper. ‘This has got your name all over it. Just in from Washington.’
    Mitzi takes the paper and looks at it. ‘What is this? Some kind of cross?’
     
     
    ‘Congratulations. I see why you made lieutenant and why you’re so valuable to HRU. It’s a cross that has been linked to a murder. The detective in charge has asked for our help. I said you’d be on the redeye and arrive tomorrow.’
    ‘That could be a problem. I need to fix childcare.’ She nods to the two girls in the photo on her desk.
    ‘It
won’t
be a problem,’ says Donovan. ‘Life fits around the job, not the other way round. Fracci and Bronty are working Masters, so you had better be on that plane – or find yourself another squad.’

13
     
WALES
     
    The stone of the chamber floor makes for a cold pillow, but Myrddin gladly endures it until he feels some strength creep back into his limbs.
    The seer’s head throbs and his bones crackle with arthritis as he gets to his feet. He knows what has to be done. His task is far from finished.
    Myrddin eyes the Font of Knowledge, aware of the dangers it contains. For many years, the ancient receptacle has drained his energy and spirit. It has taken from him and given to him in equal measures. Each experience has left him fuller in mind and less in body.
    He grips the bowl of the font. Braces himself for what is to come, tilts his head back and closes his eyes. ‘I am here, old friend. Standing firm and tall, ready for you again. Write your page of history and leave me fit to carry it to the fingers of the world, that they may turn it and move on.’
    The