But now, the fact that he might have been right was not uppermost in his mind as he raced up the stairs toward the council meeting room.

“Stop him,” Seth shouted to Zoe. In the confusion, Braun had grabbed the box with the shroud and the Sophia Passion. He was halfway to the door when Zoe turned and fired her revolver. It was her turn to be rewarded with a dull click.

Braun bolted through the door with the box under his arm and ran left down the corridor toward the stairwell. He passed the entrance to the dining room and rushed past the doors to the kitchen. Near the end of the hallway, he stumbled momentarily on the carpeting and resumed his headlong rush toward the stairwell door at the end of the hall.

Zoe fired again. This time the revolver jumped in her hand, but too late. Seth rushed past her, sprinting down the hall. She and Morgen followed him. Seth was halfway down the hall when Braun jerked open the door to the stairwell and dashed into the kitchen.

Most of the vast kitchen was unused except when the Cardinal’s Nest hosted large dinner parties. It was a huge room, perhaps forty feet square, with a gleaming stove, freezers, and food processing machines lining the stainless steel counters. Pots hung from racks dangling from the ceiling. It was a kitchen that could handle a state dinner for any president or dictator in the world. But on this morning it was deserted except for the cook, who was preparing a large pot of stew for the guard staff.

Seth raced through the doors of the kitchen, followed closely by Zoe; far behind her, Morgen made his way slowly toward the door.

“Stop!” Seth shouted at Braun, who was only a few paces in front of him “Stop or I’ll shoot.”

From the corner of his eye, Seth saw the cook drop to the floor, Braun ran, heedless of Ridgeway’s threat.

On the run, Seth aimed the revolver and pulled the trigger. The gun roared, striking a thick skillet next to Braun’s head just as he turned the corner of a counter. The intense gonglike sound startled Braun and he lost his balance, crashing to the floor, still holding on to the jeweled box. Seth was on top of him in an instant.

“Give me that,” Seth said. When the cardinal refused to relinquish the box, Seth tucked the revolver in his belt, bent over, and tried to wrest it from Braun’s hands.

“Call Rolf!” Braun screamed at his terrified cook. “Call him now.”

Zoe rushed over to the cook and covered him with her pistol.

From the outside entryway, Rolf padded quietly toward the kitchen, his .44 Magnum drawn and ready. As he approached the door to the kitchen, he heard the shot and the sounds of a scuffle.

Seth grappled with Braun for the box, trying to loosen the man’s almost deathlike grip on it. Suddenly Braun lashed out with his free fist, catching Seth on his forehead and stunning him for an instant. Braun was nearly standing when Seth recovered. Carrying the box under one arm, Braun tried to stagger to the stairwell. Seth stepped quickly over to him and leaned into a right hook that caught Braun on the left side of his head and knocked his feet out from under him.