“What’s been forgotten?” I asked.
She leaned over and pressed her cool lips against my forehead. I caught a whiff of jasmine.
When the hour comes, you will remember.
31
I woke up, rubbing the back of my neck. These military cargo planes were not built for comfort. Bennacio was awake, staring out the window.
“You were dreaming of her again, weren’t you?” he asked.
“Is she the Lady of the Lake?”
“I do not know. She is important, whoever she is, if only to you.”
“It was one of those dreams where you never want to wake up. You don’t think she’s kind of the ghost of my mother, do you? She’s dead, you know.”
“I cannot answer that, Kropp.”
“Only my mother was never that pretty, even when she was young. I don’t think it was heaven. I mean, you don’t picture heaven being on top of a slag heap. Where are we?”
“About an hour from our destination, I would guess. You have slept a very long time.”
“What is our destination?”
“France.”
“I’ve never been to France,” I said. “I don’t have a visa or a passport or anything.”
“That will not matter.”
“Is Mogart in France now?”
He shook his head. “I do not know. It appears Mogart has offered to sell the sword to OIPEP itself. OIPEP operates a safe house in France, where we will wait for Mogart’s final instructions on the delivery of the cash.”
“Bennacio, it’s none of my business, but whose plane is this? Who’s that guy Mike?”
“Surely you have guessed the answer by now, Kropp.”
He reached into his breast pocket and handed me the same business card he had showed the guard at the border. Mike Arnold’s name was on the card. Above the name was the acronym, in bold type, OIPEP. There was an 800 number beneath Mike’s name.
“Bennacio, are you ever going to tell me what OIPEP is?”
He smiled at me. “What do you think it is?”
“Mr. Samson said it was some kind of supersecret spy outfit. You don’t trust them, do you?”
“I do not trust outsiders to resist the temptation of obtaining the ultimate weapon.”
“So that’s the deal? Mogart’s offering the Sword to OIPEP?”
“Perhaps.”
“You seem awful calm about it, Bennacio.”
“I am a man of faith, Alfred.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“There is a purpose to all things.”
“Maybe,” I said. “But I don’t get it.”
“Not many do, when the test comes.”
“I think I failed that test.”
“Do you? Perhaps you have. Yet it is also possible that the true test has not yet come. Who can say? I have given much thought to your words in Halifax. Indeed, Samson did think it important you knew of our fall.”
“Maybe he just wanted me to know what a mess I made of everything.”
“Have you learned so little of us, Kropp, that you would believe such a thing? This mess, as you say, does not belong to you, any more than it belongs to me. Do not concern yourself so much with guilt and grief, Alfred. No battle was ever won, no great deed ever accomplished, by wallowing in guilt and grief.”
He patted my hand and stood up. “Excuse me, I must speak with Mr. Arnold for a moment.”
He disappeared into the cockpit. I yawned. I looked out the little window and saw nothing but a lot of sky, a lot of water, and something glinting in the fading sunlight off our wing. Probably an F-16. I yawned again. I had slept for hours and I still felt sleepy.
Bennacio was gone a long time. When he came back he was smiling.
“What?” I asked.
“She lives,” he said simply, and sat down beside me.
“That’s great,” I said. “I should apologize, Bennacio. I was supposed to keep her in that back room, but she kneed me in the crotch.” My face got hot telling him that. Some kind of squire I was turning out to be.
He gave a little wave of his hand. I didn’t know what that meant.
I said, “Is she your wife?”
“She is my daughter.”
“Oh.” I didn’t know what else to say, so I added, “She’s, um, pretty.”
He didn’t answer. He was peering out the window again. “It appears we are making our final approach, Kropp. Say nothing of what you know about the Sword to Mike.”
“That won’t be hard because there’s not a lot I know.”
“He is our ally in this quest, but we are strange bedfellows.”
“How’s that?”
“Surely it has occurred to you that evil men are not alone in their desire for the Sword. It is the ultimate weapon. There is no defense against it.”
“I was thinking about that,” I said. “Mr. Samson told me an army with the Sword at its head would be invincible, but couldn’t somebody just drop a nuke on it?”
“It is impervious to any device of man,” Bennacio said, “no matter how terrible. I do not know precisely what would happen, Alfred. All I know is the Sword cannot be defeated or destroyed.”
“After Uncle Farrell died, I had this dream. Well, more of a nightmare than a dream.” I told him about the faceless army and the rider of the black horse, how he slammed the Sword into the smoking ground, how planes fell and tanks blew up, how the soldiers screamed and ran from the blinding light of the Sword.
Bennacio stared at me for a long time after I finished.
“What interesting dreams you have, Alfred Kropp,” he said. “Let us pray they are not prophetic.”
32
Two cars waited for us on the edge of the private airstrip when we touched down in France. Three men in dark suits and dark sunglasses stood beside two black cars parked by the runway. I looked up as we walked down the stairs and saw the two F-16s scream by overhead.
“You guys must be wiped out,” Mike said. “Come on. It isn’t far from here, I promise.”
He opened the rear door of one of the black cars. I looked at Bennacio. He nodded and I slid in. He sat down beside me and one of the dark-suited guys got behind the wheel. Mike sat beside him up front and we started to drive. The other two guys followed us in the second black car.