the room until we get there.”
“And when will that be?”
“Enough time for the both of you to take a shower. You look a bit dusty.” He disconnected.
Griffin tossed the phone onto the bed. “How did we not figure he’d have cameras set up in this room?”
“We had other things on our mind. What should we do?”
He looked around the room, perhaps trying to see where the camera was situated, then moved in close. “There’s nothing we can do,” he said, lowering his voice. Then, louder, said, “Adami’s on his way. I for one am going to take a shower.”
He disappeared into the bathroom, and while he was gone, she tried to determine why he was against taking a photo of it. Then again, if this room had cameras, Adami would know the moment they tried to snap a photo.
Griffin stepped out of the bathroom a few minutes later, towel-drying his hair, dressed only in his pants. He draped his shirt over the chair. “Dumas hasn’t called?”
“Not yet.”
He walked over to take another look at the map, when there was a knock at the door. Griffin strode over, peered through the peephole, then backed away. “It’s Dumas. He’s with Francesca. And there’s someone standing beside them.”
“Who?”
“Our friend from the Capuchin Crypt,” he said quietly, then pointed at the map.
She lifted the ice bucket, allowing the parchment to roll up on itself. She rolled it tighter, then dropped it into the tube.
“Hold on,” Griffin said loudly, grabbing his shirt. “Let me throw on my clothes.”
“What do you want me to do?” she whispered.
“Hug me for good luck.”
It took a moment for his odd request to sink in, and then she thought, cameras. She stepped into his arms, felt his skin, warm, moist against her, as he whispered, “Take it in the bathroom, pretend to be taking a shower, and destroy it.” She looked up, about to protest, but he held her tight, his whisper filled with urgency. “We’re out of ammo, and Tex or no Tex, if we can’t get the map out of Naples, I’m under orders not to let it leave our hands—even if we are killed in the process. We have to destroy it.”
His words sent a chill through her. She couldn’t believe he would willingly let his friend die. But she knew the hopelessness of the situation the moment she looked into his eyes, saw the pain, the resignation. As much as he wanted Tex safe, it had always been about the map, keeping it from the enemy.
She took the tube, carried it into the windowless bathroom, closed the door, locked it. She turned on the water to the shower, then looked at her reflection more ghostly than real through all that steam, and in that moment, she realized the full weight of Griffin’s dilemma. He was under orders not to let Adami have the map. But could she really think that he’d choose the map over Tex’s life? Even then, he couldn’t just turn over the map, when they knew what it might lead to. If there was any truth to this whole biblical plague thing—and so far everything she’d seen led her to believe it was all true—then everything they did from this moment on could mean countless lives saved…
Griffin’s bosses wanted the map. Impossible with Adami’s man outside the door.
But the impossible meant the map had to be destroyed. She took out the knife Griffin had given her, removed the map from the tube, unrolling it on the bathroom counter. She poised the knife over the map, intending to cut it to shreds, before flushing it, and it occurred to her what sort of history she was about to decimate.
But it wasn’t history that came to mind. It was Tex. One life or thousands of lives?
How did one choose?
“Dumas,” Griffin said, opening the door. “I see you brought company.”
Father Dumas gave an apologetic shrug. “The professoressa said that you’d want to see this man. He says his name is Silvio and that Adami sent him. He wants to know if you have the map.”
“I do. Where’s Tex?”
Silvio, his hand in the pocket of his overcoat, no doubt holding a weapon on them, barged into the room, looking around. “Signore Adami will bring your friend, once I call to confirm the map is here. Where is it?”
“Surely you saw the map on the monitor?”
“Until I verify that it is real, no exchange will be made.”
“It’s in the bathroom with my associate. I’d get it, but the