ALEX BALKED AT THE FINAL COMMAND CONCERNING THE COLLECTION OF Lucy, but he knew he’d played it out almost to his last card and would have to accept this stipulation. He flipped his cell phone shut and fell in behind the last passenger boarding his flight. He was weighing up the quiet menace of the unspoken threat he’d just heard so very clearly.

Adrenalin had kept him focused for the last grueling hour, but he clicked his seat belt home and allowed himself the privacy to evaluate in his mind what had been rushed upon him. After volunteering unsuccessfully to accompany him to France, Calvin had done his best during the car journey to acquaint Alex with these three men: not merely their obsessive interest in the papers of Dr. John Dee but, more alarmingly in the light of Lucy’s abduction, he had hinted at the nature of the company they kept, the connections they had right at the top in government in three continents. The one Alex had just spoken to was the man Calvin called Guy—“the American in Paris”; he chose to live mostly in France because of some ancestral pride about being descended from a Templar, and he had all kinds of men in his pocket. The way Calvin pronounced his name, Alex could only think of clarified butter—which helped, for some reason. Slippery perhaps, he thought, but not solid.

In volley after volley of shocks that broke on Alex, Calvin had spoken of other men connected with his college who seemed unduly fascinated with their ancestor and his supposed role as confidant to the angels. Alex noticed that they all had epithets instead of real names, and their chain of influence extended, according to Calvin, into lofty political offices. They never had to do their own dirty work, his cousin had told him, and Alex felt sure Calvin’s tone had disclosed real anxiety about them. His summation had been precise: they were impossible to cross, and they didn’t want treasure. He assured Alex that it was propaganda they wanted, and it would be put to a powerful political use. They would be heavily protected by many men of stature who were interested in their findings; but, he believed, they would almost certainly stop short of serious harm as long as they got exactly what they wanted. For the moment at least, it would be best to try to do things their way.