was the location of the first key.”
Griffin leaned back in his chair, pushing his coffee aside. “Deadfall. As in a wall falls on top of someone?”
“More like the entire tomb comes crashing down on the tomb raiders,” Francesca said.
“That’s my theory,” Xavier said. “I also think that when you find this hidden crypt, it’ll lead you to di Sangro’s body. And the treasure map. But Alessandra said that maybe the plagues were hidden there, and that’s why she wanted to connect with Dr. Balraj. She wanted to be prepared for either scenario. So whatever we find, extreme caution needs to be taken.” He pointed to a location on his map of the tunnels. “This,” he said, “is where we will enter. The basilica houses the entrance to the tunnels behind its altar. We have a lot of ground to cover. According to my cousin, who works for the city, all of Naples and the surrounding area sits upon a honeycomb of about a million square meters of caves, grottos, tunnels, and catacombs, all carved from volcanic sandstone, tufo.”
Griffin’s brows raised slightly at the number. “And where is this crypt located?”
To which Xavier replied, “Hard to say. Countless churches and cathedrals in Italy were built atop older churches, which commonly were built atop underground crypts for burial purposes. There’s a lot of bones down there.”
And Francesca said, “Everything I have heard on the keys directs us to a bone chamber of some sort. Since the first key was an inscription by a skull, and that led us to the Capuchin Crypt, I have to think we may be looking for another skull, or if it is truly leading us to a Templar map, a skull and crossbones.”
Sydney glanced over at the computer and the phrase from the chapel entrance. “How does this old quote help us?”
“That,” Francesca said, “is what we hope to find out once we get to the right location.”
“In other words,” Griffin said, copying the phrase onto a napkin. “Like the missing second key, you don’t have the answer.”
Francesca shook her head. “No. Not yet. But if time is of the essence, then what choice do we have?”
“No choice,” Griffin said.
Xavier smoothed out the map. “Here is the last place I was able to explore, using the coordinates we pieced together before—” He cleared his throat, took a breath. “—the last time I saw Alessandra.”
Sydney wanted to reach out, touch his hand, tell him it would be okay, but she knew it was a promise she couldn’t make, and he continued with “This is where di Sangro lived. And over here is a long section of tunnel that was known to have led to an underground marketplace back in the first and second century A.D. Di Sangro spent his fortune retrofitting his church, but it’s believed he was also retrofitting the caverns below it near that marketplace. It’s here that makes the most sense, because they could enter the tunnel without being seen from the outside, work as long as they needed, and no one’s the wiser.”
Griffin studied the map. “Do you think he went to the trouble of booby-trapping this chamber?”
“Legend aside, it would have taken a genius to design it, and the expertise of master masons to pull it off. Di Sangro was a genius in his own right. He ruined his own reputation, allowed himself to be shunned by society to protect the greater good, guarding this map. Which is a long way of saying yes, I do believe it. Without the key, anyone who enters the cache and disturbs the treasure will be crushed.”
“And these other paths,” Griffin said. “Where do they lead?”
“To here,” Xavier replied, pointing to each direction on the map. “This is my best estimation of where we want to end up. My cousin and I have done some exploring at this location, but we hit a dead end going down into a cistern. This time, I think we need to go up further in the tunnel, not down.”
Griffin leaned in for a better view. “It doesn’t look all that far.”
“Even so, I have to warn you, we’ll be heading into an area that, if you’re the least bit claustrophobic or afraid of the dark or heights, might make you uncomfortable.”
Okay, probably not the time for Sydney to mention her fear of the dark. But that’s what flashlights were for. Aloud, she said, “Heights? We’re going underground.”
“When you’re hanging from a rope with nothing beneath your feet but unending darkness and