The Hand of Christ (38 page)

“
The 4
^th
Crusade, Dad! It was the sack of Constantinople, right?”

“
Damn good, son! Damn good!” Michael’s father beamed as if he had just watched his son hit the game winning home run.

“
Yes, Michael, you are right. During the sack, The Order was known by another name at the time.”

“
Back then they called themselves the Knights Templar,” Michael interrupted.

“
The Knights knew the sack was coming,” his pride for his son grew, “they had spies on the inside of the Church that warned them of it. The spies told the Knights that the Crusade was supposed to look like an attack on Muslim held Jerusalem, but that was a lie. The eastern half of the Church was well positioned along trade routes of the East. Their wealth had grown as fast as Rome’s wealth was diminishing. The eastern half of the Church was able to pay tribute to the attacking armies of the Huns, Arabs, and Turks to avoid wars. They stockpiled enormous sums and priceless artifacts. Rome wasn’t so lucky, her wealth and land holdings had eroded to almost nothing, and all she could do was resort to robbing countries in the name of god to replenish the treasury. The Roman Church was desperate and losing as much power as they were wealth. The sack of Constantinople wasn’t a Holy War against the Muslims by the Christians, it was a raid!”

“
If I remember correctly, the Knights attacked Constantinople, too. Didn’t they?”

“
No, it wasn't an attack; they just used the 4
^th
Crusade as cover. The Knights saw this as a way to build their own treasury. They knew it was going to happen; their spies belonged to a part of the Church that today is called Catholic Action. Back then the eastern counterpart of Catholic Action was known as
Skrinion Barbaron
, and was a foreign intelligence organization of the eastern half of the Church. This group has always had the mission to subvert the Church’s will on governments. Rome had a double agent in that group, and that agent not only belonged to Catholic Action, but also was also loyal to the Templars. That’s how they knew of the sack and where to find the treasury.”

“
Dad, Catholic Action was the arm of the Vatican that helped Mussolini come to power in 1922.”

“
That’s right; by helping to get that fascist into power the Church’s reward was the consummation of a deal to secure their wealth around Rome, around Italy. It’s hard to imagine the Pope bending to Mussolini for money, but bend he did. The Church required that their flock vote for Mussolini.”

It made sense to Michael, “The Lateran Treaty of 1929, it gave the Church more power and wealth. So, what happened after the sack, Dad?”

“
It is believed the Knights stole a great wealth from the East and unknowingly stumbled across an item that had been missing for centuries. It was a great stroke of luck really.”

His father stopped and just looked at Michael. This look was not new; it was something his father constantly did when he was young. It was his way of making Michael pay attention, to figure out the answer on his own.

“
Dad, they found The Hand of Christ, didn’t they?”

“
Yes, they did. They recovered their proof. Ever since then, they have used the wealth they stole from the sack of Constantinople to build a network of connections, to fund their efforts, all the while searching for the other half of the proof that they would need.”

“
Dad, you said they looted a great treasure,” Michael reached over to the book and turned to the section titled
Tresor
, “what do you make of this?”

His father eyed the cryptic phrase carefully reading it out loud, “Two halves of the world, evil leads to good. He is the first, the key to the beginning. To the sea i go. To the Presidents’ Mother. It is the second key to our power. It is Hidden.”

Sitting back, he scratched his head, “I am not quite sure what to make of it; some sort of riddle it would seem. Perhaps it divulges the location of their wealth.”

“
That’s what I think, too. I believe that it may lead to the location of their wealth.”

“
Son, that is a possibility but my hunch is that this isn’t all of it. The Order is an ancient society, a group of self-professed enlightened and learned men; they believe that they can trace their roots to Jesus himself; they are not stupid. Most likely they would not have hidden their greatest secret in one sentence or in one place. No son, this is just part of it, there would have to be another part.”

“
The lost Apocryphal of Paul?” questioned Michael. This didn’t make much sense to him as he continued, “The Apocryphal was written before the sack.”

“
Yes, Michael, it was, but the Apocryphal will also contain clues to the entire key. It would be from where The Order derived it originally. But since the Apocryphal is lost, they would have to be in possession of both books. Half of the key is in one, half in the other, and separated. It’s the way The Order maintains internal control of their wealth, it ensures no one man can take control of it without the consent of the other.”

Michael was troubled by one thing, “If they already have a tremendous amount of wealth, if they control politicians, why would they care about the Apocryphal?”

“
Michael, The Hand of Christ had changed hands a number of times. Pope Clement V knew of the Apocryphal and that the Knights had The Hand of Christ. He grew fearful of what they could do with it. The Knights had grown too powerful; they were the unofficial bank of Europe lending and controlling the flow of money to powerful men. King Philip IV of France was greatly in debt to the Knights. Both the king and the Pope conspired to have the Knights arrested, killing most of them. While Philip absolved his debt to the Knights through their murders, the Pope looted their vast treasury, looking for The Hand of Christ.”

Michael’s history lessons were coming back to him and he said, “Friday the 13
^th
, it was in October, 1307. Did the Church recover The Hand of Christ?”

“
No, I don’t believe that they did. I speculate that the Knights had already lost possession of it well before the Pope ordered them killed. Over time, The Hand of Christ eventually ended up being controlled by the Umayyad Caliphate, most likely through the conquering of Jerusalem by Saladin in 1244.”

“
Shit! Dad, that’s the name of the Mosque that was attacked!”
And the name of the dead leader in whose Mausoleum I was nearly killed
, thought Michael. He would keep that bit of information from his Dad.

“
Son, that’s how I knew you were there. Umayyad’s soldiers were somehow able to get their hands on The Hand of Christ. They had it in their possession for more than six-centuries before an American backed mission was able to recover it. Are you familiar with Captain William Bainbridge, Michael?”

“
Of course, you burned American history into my head since the moment I could talk. Bainbridge was a naval captain during the 18
^th
and early 19
^th
century. He commanded the George Washington and the Philadelphia.”

“
He did command those ships, but he did much more than that. It has been rumored that on a voyage in 1803, when the Philadelphia ran aground off the coast of Tunis and Bainbridge’s sailors were captured, he had been in the Middle East on a privately financed mission.”

“
Who financed the mission, what was their objective?”

“
Rumor has it that it was the first American parish of the Church of England: Christ Church. I haven’t yet found definitive proof, though.”

“
The one that’s in Philadelphia; the namesake of his berth?” Michael asked.

“
Yes, that’s the one. The mission they backed was to lead a small group of men to find The Hand of Christ. It may be conjecture, but I believe that Bainbridge found it and brought it back to the US, to the men of the church that financed the voyage.”

“
Dad, wasn’t Bainbridge imprisoned for over a year after running aground, how could the Islamic pirates not have found the book?”

“
They tried son. The Barbary pirates imprisoned the men and tortured them, killing at least two of them I think. But for Bainbridge’s lack of naval talent he made up with a bit of intelligence. Remember, at that point it wasn’t a book, it was a single page of vellum, The Hand of Christ, that Bainbridge was sent to find. According to legend, after finding the vellum Bainbridge sewed that one page into the lining of his shirt. He had a few other men aboard his ship, a small number that were most loyal to him, do the same thing, but every page other than the one that he had was a fake. He put a poison on the pages that he had given to his men. Bainbridge told no one of this only giving his men careful instructions to never put their bare fingers on the pages. Touching it would lead to a fast death.”

“
So, you are saying that Bainbridge’s mission was successful, who did he give the vellum to?”

“
I wish I knew, Michael. But this I can tell you, once The Hand of Christ left the hands of the Islamic Pasha of Tunisia, his rule and the Barbary hold on North Africa ended quickly, and America’s seemingly weak military and economic power quickly rose. It can be no coincidence.”

“
But Bainbridge never held any real importance or power in American history. You never told me what happened to him?”

“
Michael, Bainbridge was just a soldier for them; a Novice is what The Order calls them, nothing more. After nineteen-months of imprisonment in North Africa, the US paid the ransom to free Bainbridge and his men, and then the Captain just disappeared. The US furloughed Bainbridge after his release from the Barbary pirates, and then, poof, nothing, no verifiable record of his whereabouts for at least two years. Bainbridge was a member of Christ Church in Philadelphia; he’s buried there to this day. Fifteen of the founding fathers also belonged to that Church; some of those same fifteen were the ones that agreed to pay the ransom that freed him, it could have been any one of them that backed the mission.”

“
How can there be nothing? I don’t understand. Where did he go, what did he do?”

“
The only thing that I have been able to find is that he disappeared on a merchant ship and there was sporadic and cryptic correspondence from Russia, India, and Britain over that two-year time period. Other than that, the man was a ghost, never in one place for any period of time. I speculate that he was looking for the other vellum.”

“
I still don’t understand why The Order cares so much about the Roman Church. If Bainbridge found The Hand of Christ and returned it to The Order, what could they possibly do with it? What could they possibly expect from the Vatican?”

“
Son, the Vatican, after the Lateran Treaty, now has a wealth greater than any can imagine. With it, just think of what they can do, money controls
the order
of everything in our world.”

“
But, Dad, this is no longer a time where knights gallop around on horses swinging their swords and terrorizing the countryside. The Church isn’t going to just hand over their wealth simply because a group of men has an ancient piece of paper with a hand print on it unless…,”

Michael stopped. He was feeling foolish that he didn’t make the connection sooner. The shame on his face was apparent.

His father already knew what his son was thinking, “They are going to kill the Pope aren’t they Michael?”

Michael looked up at his father. He reached over and flipped the pages of the book to the last page of the section titled “Morto.”

It only took his father a moment to find the name “Joseph Apalis Reisenberger.”

“
Michael, you can’t let this happen.”

Chapter Thirty-Six

Going Home

Denver, CO

Michael’s home was only ten minutes from Denver University’s campus and his father’s office. There was so much to digest, but it was the Pope that he was most worried about. The Order could kill him and put in his place a Pope of their own, a Papal figurehead controlled by them. The Vatican wouldn’t hand over their wealth, they wouldn’t need to; The Order would just do what they have always done: assassinate him, and put in a leader that they control.

Adding to Michael’s troubles, Iran declared war and was demanding that the US hand over the man responsible. Iran wanted him and promised war if the US didn’t comply.

This compounded his worries; he trusted that the US would not hand him over to Iran.

It was a hope more than trust.

At least, that’s what he told himself.

If the Pope were assassinated, his death would be viewed no different than if it had been judgment from the ancient Laws of Hammurabi: The Pope's death would be seen as an
eye for an eye.
He didn’t have to be an expert in the Middle East to know what would happen next: World War III.

Breaking from his thoughts, the headlights in the rearview mirror bothered him. They seemed to be the same ones no matter which turn he made. His instincts and training kicked in, Michael accelerated the car from thirty-five to seventy, and two blocks later he made a quick right into a known dead end.

Michael stopped the car, killed the lights, and stared intently into his mirror. Nobody followed him in. He waited another ten minutes and then drove on thinking that he must be paranoid.