The Nostradamus File Read Online Free PDF Page A

Nebo?"
    Stephanie's voice was soft. She wore a dark blue skirt and blouse. Large gold hoops dangled from her ears. Her brown eyes reminded Nick of a doe. Unlike a doe, Steph had a pistol in a quick draw holster at her waist and knew how to use it. She had a quick intelligence and a genius ability with computers.
    "I don't think it's still on Mount Nebo, if it ever was," Selena said.
    "The Ark of the Covenant could cause serious problems in the wrong hands," Harker said. "The real article could light a fire in the Middle East. If it exists, we have to find it."
    "You really think it's that important?" Lamont said.
    " The Ark is part of the tradition of three major Western religions. Of course it's important. An important religious artifact could start a war. The whole Middle East is ready to explode, right now. There's the Israeli election, the problems with Syria, the rhetoric out of Iran. The discovery of the Ark could be the last straw. This has to be why people are getting murdered over that manuscript."
    She tapped her pen, thinking. "If we can get an idea of where it is, I'm going to send the team after it. "
    "You 're going to send us after the Ark of the Covenant?" Nick said. "Do I look like Harrison Ford?"
    "Maybe with the right hat."
    Everyone laughed.
    "Do I get a bull whip?"
    "No. You get a SIG .40. I want everyone to switch over. The guns are already downstairs in the armory. I know you like your .45, Nick, but I want everyone carrying the same thing. We have to standardize."
    "I'd rather keep my H-K."
    "It's not open to discussion. You want the .45, take it as backup. You're the one who said it might be a good idea, remember?" She fixed him with one of her don't mess with me looks. He might have mentioned it as an idea in passing, but he didn't remember. He decided to let it pass for the moment.
    "Where do you want us to begin looking?"
    "Jordan. Go to Mount Nebo and see if you can find those five signs."
    "I need to finish translating the manuscript before we go anywhere," Selena said.
    "How long will it take?"
    "I don't know. Steph and I are going to work on it when we're done here."
    Harker looked at her. "You said some of the quatrains were missing."
    "That's right."
    "Could Bertrand have had them?"
    "If he did, why not send them to me with the rest?" Selena brushed a hair from her forehead.
    "You told me he was paranoid," Nick said. "He could have split the file up, sent one part to you, one to someone else. "
    "Maybe it's still in his shop."
    "The police have been all through the shop," Harker said. "There's nothing like that."
    "Where else would he send it?" Ronnie asked Selena. "Family, someone like that? Maybe a lawyer?"
    "He had a lawyer. No family, though."
    Harker made a note. "What's the lawyer's name?"
    "I met him, once." Selena frowned, trying to remember the name. "Durand, that's it. Jacques Durand. He's in Paris."
    "Let's look him up." Harker said. She pulled a hidden keyboard out of her desk and tapped a key. The wall monitor lit. She entered Jacques Durand + Lawyer + Paris in a Google search.
    The top hit was a headline. French mob lawyer found murdered .
    Harker clicked on the link. It was a newspaper article from the day before. Durand had been working late when someone had killed him. His office had been ransacked. Police were investigating. Durand had defended members of L'Union Corse in the past. The article speculated on a possible link to the death of Marcel Sarti and suggested that a gang war had started.
    "Someone else thinks like we do," Nick said. "This can't be a coincidence. They were looking for the manuscript."
    Elizabeth said, "I wonder if the lawyer had the other part? If there is one."
    Nick tugged on his left ear, where a Chinese bullet had taken off most of the earlobe. His ear was a built-in genetic warning system. It itched and burned when things were about to get dicey. They all knew it. He saw the look the others gave him.
    "Just an itch," he said.
    "I wish you wouldn't