The Fraternity of the Stone (51 page)

The priest came up beside him, his voice respectful. "Am I intruding? If so, I can wait for you at my car."

"No. Stay if you like. I don't mind the company. But how did you know I'd be here?"

"I suppose I could pretend to understand you well enough to predict your patterns. The truth is, at the townhouse when you woke up this afternoon, you told Arlene where you'd be. I hope you don't think she violated your confidence by telling me."

"Not at all. I trust her judgment."

"It's peaceful here."

"Yes. Peaceful." Drew waited for the priest to say what was on his mind.

"When we first met" - Father Stanislaw's voice was resonant - "you asked me about my ring. I told you, one day when we knew each other, I'd explain."

"About the fraternity of the stone?" Drew's interest quickened.

"Yes."

Even in shadow, the ruby was so rich that a subtle fire seemed to glow within it. Father Stanislaw rubbed its insignia. The intersecting sword and cross. "This is a copy of a ring that dates back to the time of the Crusades. It represents history. Are you a student of history?"

"You have my attention, if that's what you mean."

Father Stanislaw chuckled. "Palestine," he said. "Eleven ninety-two. The Third Crusade. With the blessing of the Pope, armies from France and England invaded the Holy Land to capture it from the Muslims, the heathen. But at the victorious siege of Acre, a rift developed between the French and English forces. You see, the English claimed considerable territory in France, and the French king, Philip, grasping the chance to gain an advantage, decided to take his forces and leave the Holy Land, to go home. His purpose was to ensure control of those contested regions in France while the English king, Richard, and his army remained in the Holy Land, continuing the Crusade."

"Politics," Drew said with contempt.

"But shrewd. And good came out of it. Before the French returned to Europe, their intelligence officers met with their English equivalents. As a gesture of professional brotherhood, despite their political differences, the French proposed a solution to a growing dangerous problem that the English would now have to deal with alone. The assassins."

"Yes. The first of their kind. They originated terrorism," Drew said.

"The crusaders were certainly terrorized. As knights, they were used to a noble code of battle, in the open, face to face. They had no experience with an enemy who considered it equally noble to attack under cover of night, to enter an opponent's tent and kill him while he was helpless, unarmed, asleep. The assassins took particular delight in cutting off the head of a crusader and setting it on the altar where mass would take place the next morning. Such barbarism made the crusaders feel that the world had become unhinged."

"The purpose of terrorism."

"Precisely. To kill so as to demoralize. But the French intelligence officers, before they left the Holy Land, proposed a solution. Fight fire with fire. Use assassins to fight assassins. Demoralize as they themselves had been demoralized. This proposal met with serious objections from the English. 'Descend to the level of our enemy? Never'. But in the end, the English agreed. Because the Christian assassin would not be one of themselves but, instead, a former Muslim. A Palestinian who'd converted to the one true faith, Catholicism. A monk at the Benedictine monastery in Monte Cass-ino, Italy.

"This monk, because of his heritage, knew the traditions of the assassins. And because he was of their race, he could pass easily among them. An assassin attacking assassins, he would fight terror with terror. But this terror would be different. With the blessing of the Pope, this crusading assassin would be killing for God. His terror would be holy."

Drew listened with growing distress, the darkness seeming to smother him.

"The monk's Christian name was Father Jerome. His Muslim name has never been verified, though legend has it that he was called Hassan ibn al-Sabbah, by divine coincidence the same name as the founder of the original Muslim assassins. I take this to be apocryphal. But of his achievements, there is no doubt. He did strike terror into the terrorists, and at the close of his service for God, when the Third Crusade was over, he returned to the monastery at Monte Cassino, where he was given the honor and rewards he deserved."

"By 'rewards' you mean the ring?"

"No, that came later. In fact, it was first given to someone else, though in time it was also given to Father Jerome."

The cold night air stung Drew's face. "If you expect me to play Twenty Questions... "

"Forgive me for being cryptic. The history is complicated. At the end of the Third Crusade, the English king, Richard - he was known as the Lion-Hearted - set out to return to England. Part of his motive for discontinuing the Crusade was his realization of the mistake he'd made in allowing the French to return before him. The French king, Philip, had negotiated a treasonous bargain with Richard's temporary replacement. Indeed, the acting head of state was Richard's brother, John. The bargain was intended to settle the dispute about the English lands in France. John agreed to give up England's claim to the lands in France. Philip in turn agreed to support John's claim to the English throne - against the rightful claim of Richard."

"So Richard decided he'd better head home," Drew said.

"But he was stopped. On his way through Europe from the Holy Land, he was captured by the Austrians and held for ransom. The problem was, how to pay it. Richard's brother, John, didn't want his brother released. John did everything possible to prevent the ransom from being paid. He sent agents pretending to be from Richard and had them collect valuables intended to be part of the ransom. But those valuables went into John's own treasury. Meanwhile Richard rotted in prison. At last, in desperation, Richard found a way to guarantee that his subjects would know which ransom collectors were truly from him and not from John."

"The ring? Am I right?"

"Yes. The ring. Almost identical to the one I wear." Father Stanislaw rubbed its insignia again. "Richard gave his ring to a trusted assistant. His subjects had learned to identify the ring with him. By showing it, the assistant could prove that the valuables he collected would help get Richard out of prison and not go into John's treasury."

Drew shook his head.

"You see a problem with that tactic?" Father Stanis-law asked.

"To stop his brother, all John had to do was order a jeweler to make a copy of the ring."

"John had mental limitations. He never thought of it. If he had, he might have gained the throne. Instead, with the aid of the ring, Richard's assistant collected the ransom, and Richard was released. He returned to England and crushed his brother. Because of his ring. With a slight distinction, this ring. It had importance. It was a password. It possessed a power."

Drew became more uneasy; he sensed a disturbing undertone to the story.

Father Stanislaw continued. "Richard refused to abide by John's agreement with the French. He took his army to the mainland and reclaimed his territories. But there, one of his new subjects, a French peasant, saw him walking outside the walls of a castle one day and shot him with an arrow. The wound was in the shoulder. It should not have been fatal, but unskilled treatment made it mortal. Dying, Richard insisted that his attacker be brought before him. 'Why did you kill me?' Richard asked. The peasant answered, 'Because you would have raped my wife and starved my children.' Richard objected, 'My subjects love me. All I wanted was the land. I would have let you live in peace.' But the peasant answered, 'No, your brother would have let us live in peace.' And Richard, understanding how this simple man had been used by his enemies, said 'God help you. You know not what you've done. I forgive you. Let this man go away unhurt.' It is said that the priest who was present at Richard's deathbed exhorted him to repentance and restitution for his sins, but Richard drove the priest away and died without benefit of the sacraments."

"And the peasant?" Drew asked. "Was he allowed to go away unharmed?"

Father Stanislaw stepped closer to Drew in the darkness. "That's the point of my story. After Richard died, his angry associates debated what to do about their lord's final wish. They wanted to question the peasant to learn if anyone else had been involved in the assassination. But before they did, a priest went to hear the peasant's confession. The peasant died shortly after his confessor left. It seems he committed suicide by swallowing poison, though no one discovered how he got the poison."

"From the priest?" Drew asked.

"Would it help if I said that the priest who heard the peasant's confession was also the priest whose medical treatment failed to save Richard's life?"

Drew's spine tingled. "The priest was Father Jerome?"

"No. His Mideastern features would have betrayed him. But the priest was trained by Father Jerome."

"And why did he kill... "

"To keep the peasant from revealing that King Philip had hired him. Only a priest would not be suspected of silencing Richard's assassin. In this way, a Franco-English war was averted."

"That's not what I meant. Why a priest? Why did Father Jerome let himself become involved?"

"In exchange for his service - and his assistant's service - Father Jerome gained some of England's land in France for the Church to which he'd converted."

Drew felt sick. "And the Church went along with it?"

"The Church, the Pope and his associates, never knew. They have never known. The fraternity of the stone is an order located on the Atlantic coast of France, in one of the regions once claimed by England. Its symbol is this ring. The intersecting sword and cross."

"Religion and violence?" Drew was appalled.

"The symbol of a warrior for God. Holy terror. Through the years, using the example of Father Jerome, the fraternity has intervened for the Church whenever the profane world has threatened it. Soldiers for Christ. Church militant. We fight Satan with Satan's tactics. In Richard's time. And even more today."

As he'd felt last night when Uncle Ray had died, Drew wanted to vomit. The revelation put him on guard. The priest was telling him things Drew shouldn't know.

"The three men who helped you last night - you noticed their rings - are members of the fraternity," Father Stanislaw said. "I emphasize that our order is distinct from the members of Opus Dei who've been assisting us. Opus Dei is the intelligence branch of the Church. We are - "

"The Church's assassins." Drew was outraged. "Except the Church doesn't know about it."

"Though we do have the Church's sanction."

"That doesn't make sense. Sanction? How? If the Church doesn't know."

"By tradition. Just as each Pope inherits the mandate given by Christ to Peter, so we inherit the absolution given to Father Jerome by the Pope at the time of the Third Crusade. A Pope is infallible. If it was justifiable to kill for the Church at that time, it must be equally justifiable to kill for the Church at other times."

"I don't want to hear any more."

"But I thought you'd find it interesting." Father Stanislaw rubbed his ring. "After all, you did ask for an explanation of the stone. Given your reaction, you realize now why I waited."

"Till we knew each other better."

"Yes."

The cemetery was silent in the deepening night. Drew sensed what was coming.

"Join us," Father Stanislaw said.

In spite of his premonition, Drew wasn't able to prepare himself. He reacted automatically - with disgust. "Become an assassin for God?"

"To some degree, you already are. Since you left the monastery, you've killed several men. To protect the Church."

"I had a different motive."

"What, to stay alive? To get even with those who'd attacked you? You're a complex man. Those reasons aren't sufficient. A Carthusian, who once was a killer but for the wrong reasons, you could use your skills now for the right reasons. To safeguard the Holy See. To defend Christ's mission on earth."

"To defend Christ's mission?" Drew couldn't contain his anger any longer. "Maybe I read a different New Testament than you did. Didn't Christ say something about turning the other cheek, about the peaceful inheriting the earth?"

"But that was before his Crucifixion. The world, my friend, is a desperate place. Without the fraternity, the Church would long ago have failed. History, which is the record of God's will, has justified our cause."

"I pass," Drew said.

"But you can't."

"Killing? I want nothing more to do with it. What I want is peace."

"But in this world, peace isn't possible. Only a long hard fight. Till Judgment Day."

"You're wrong. But I'll pray for your soul."

Father Stanislaw inhaled sharply. "Three times I saved your life."

"I know that. I promised I'd do anything to save your life in return."

"You aren't remembering correctly. Last night, you promised you'd return the favors in kind. Remember how I phrased the demand? Return the favors in kind! And now I'm asking you to fulfill your promise. To keep your word. Join us. Not to save my life - to save the life of the Church. Use your talents for the good of the Lord."

"I wonder," Drew said bitterly. "Which Lord is that?"

"God. I'm asking you to serve God!"