Jean had bought a map of South Tyrol at the gas station and she now spread it out on her lap. “The only thing that Romano’s book says,” she said, “is that the Chapel of the Magi is in the mountains to the west of Brenner, just steps from the Austrian border. There’s only one road that leads to any place that fits that description, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find.”

At Brenner they exited the highway and drove through the village, then Jean directed Nemo onto a narrow, unmarked road about a mile south of town. The road quickly turned to a gravel track that took them high above the valley through a series of hairpin turns. Enough light remained in the sky that, when they emerged from the forest into a less steep Alpine meadow, they could just see the silhouettes of the peaks in the distance and the utter lack of buildings ahead. Nemo drove slowly over a road that had not been built for rental vans, bouncing the passengers as they crept toward Austria. After a couple of miles and a few more switchbacks, the road, if one could call it that, turned left and followed the line of a ridge south along relatively level terrain.

“According to the map,” said Jean, who had been following each curve of the road, “that’s Austria about fifty feet over there.” Nemo slowed to a crawl and they all squinted through the gloaming, trying to catch sight of any sort of structure.

“Did they have any hotels back in Brenner?” said Ruthie. “I’d rather not spend the night out here. It’s so . . . empty.”

“What’s that,” said Patton, pointing to a barely discernible shape down the hill to the left. Nemo stopped the van and they all looked, but no one could say for sure if what Patton had seen was a building or a rock. Nemo managed to maneuver the van so that the headlights pointed toward the shape and they all exhaled disappointed breaths.

“Rock,” said Ruthie.

“Maybe Ruthie’s right,” said Jean. “Maybe we should come back in the morning when we can see better.”

“No,” said Nemo and Patton in unison.

“Whatever is hidden out here,” said Nemo, “we have to find it before Weiss catches up with us. She called the library while we were there. We spent about forty-five minutes there and it took us another forty-five to leave Prague. Assuming she drove from Berchtesgaden to Prague after she called the library and then spent an hour or so there figuring out the clue in the scroll, we’ve got about a four-hour lead on her. I’m not about to waste one minute of that.”