few trips into the Sahara. It was a long journey from

  Marrakech because of the Atlas Mountains. “We’ll be in the

  car for a while.”

  “Maybe later on we’ll take the long, scenic route, but I’m

  not in the mood for that today.” Levi dropped the bags when

  Yasmine put her arms around her neck and pulled her down.

  “Ibrahim isn’t a fan of long drives either.”

  “Okay, I’ll grill you for answers later, but Zara should be

  ready to go by now.” A porter collected the rest of their

  luggage to store until they came back. Ibrahim was outside

  with his man, Omar. Two more guys waited in large vehicles

  with Ibrahim’s company logo on the doors.

  They drove to a small airport north of town. Ibrahim

  assured them there was a safe place to land twenty miles

  outside of Ouarzazate and that it would be a lot harder for

  anyone to follow them in the sky. The women took off with

  Ibrahim, and the others would meet them where they’d be

  making camp for the night.

  Yasmine squeezed Levi’s arm when the pilot finally circled

  and informed them they were getting ready to land. There was

  no runway, just miles of nothing below them.

  “I’ve never done this before,” she said as Levi kissed her

  temple.

  “I promise I’ll take care of you. Your grandmother will

  take a belt to me if something happens to either of you.”

  The landing was bouncy and unpleasant, and Yasmine was

  glad to get off the plane as quickly as possible. A man in

  traditional desert clothing awaited them, and he gave them

  time to put on their head wraps as protection against blowing

  sand. He drove them through Ouarzazate, the ancient city right

  outside Ait Benhaddou. It was a beautiful place, popular with

  tourists, but the wild wind had cut the usual number of

  visitors. The city, nestled against a hillside, was made

  completely of red mud bricks and surrounded by the

  traditional wall, which dated back to the eleventh century,

  though all its treasures were taken eons ago.

  “We have to go to the highest point,” Levi said,

  shouldering the backpack with all their materials in it. She

  motioned toward the pale stone bluff with a small building of

  some kind at the top that overlooked the city.

  Yasmine led them through the gates. Places like this

  always made her feel in her heart the history she taught.

  Walking where people had lived and died for centuries always

  came with a thrill. It took the group an hour of constant

  weaving up the tight streets to make it to what had been a

  watchtower.

  “The worker at the gate said he left the door unlocked,”

  Ibrahim said.

  They went in, and Levi produced a flashlight to study the

  space. There was nothing on the walls or ceiling, but Yasmine

  hadn’t expected there to be. A lot of time had passed since the

  1300s. Whatever clue had been there was likely now just a

  memory, like the people they were chasing. “It couldn’t be

  something they left on the floor, right?” she asked.

  “We’re getting close to the desert, but we’re not quite

  there,” Levi said, wandering to the window. “André had to

  pick something that would last no matter the years, but this

  time I think she took a lesson from Farah.”

  “What do you mean?” Yasmine peered out at the vastness

  before them and saw only a few people and a herd of camels.

  “Nothing that could be left in this space would last, but the

  Berbers have been traveling this area for years. You don’t

  memorize that many miles of sameness without learning some

  landmarks that would last longer than even the sand.” Levi

  gestured and Yasmine looked again. “Does anything out there

  seem familiar?”

  “Damn,” Zara said, tugging on Levi’s backpack.

  Yasmine stared but didn’t see anything—not until Zara

  pulled out the picture of the stones and Levi laid it on the

  windowsill. Yasmine gasped. The symbols weren’t some

  strange language but a map that would only make sense from

  this vantage point.

  “It still doesn’t fit with the rest of what they wrote, and

  where I think Farah was from. The rest of the description has

  to do with the desert, not a town where whatever they hid

  would’ve been easily found.” Yasmine kept glancing from the

  picture to the view.

  “It’s not here,” Levi said, taking a Sharpie from her pack.

  She traced on the picture everything she could find outside

  that matched. Zara pointed out a few more things, and between

  them they matched almost everything on the stones with

  something outside. “It’s here,” Levi said, pointing to the

  symbols she hadn’t found.

  “They still don’t mean anything to us…” Yasmine stopped

  talking as something occurred to her. “Wait.” She took the pen

  from Levi and melded some of the symbols together. “In a

  land divided by Muslims and Christians, you had to find

  something neither of them would understand easily. They hid

  their treasure here but left some of the clues in a new world

  that embraced a Christian God in an old language.”

  “So, as a way to keep the secret, you write it in Hebrew,”

  Levi said, and Zara slapped the side of her head.

  “Why didn’t I see that? I’ve been staring at those forever.”

  “The only way to know which symbols mattered and

  which didn’t was to stand here and line it up. What isn’t part

  of the map is Hebrew, but you couldn’t have seen it without

  standing in this exact spot and understanding how the

  constellation fit with the landscape. It’s genius,” Yasmine said.

  She was happy to finally have found something that would

  help.

  “How’s your Hebrew?” Levi asked, putting her arm around

  her.

  “Probably as good as yours. That’s what Google is for,

  though, so give me a minute.” She accepted the burner phone

  from Levi and used a translation app. “We’ll have to confirm,

  but I think these are the directions.”

  “What does it say, specifically?” Zara asked.

  “Follow the warrior to the southeast until the road gives

  way to the sand and the moon is highest in the sky. Travel for

  two cycles of the moon in the season of winter. You will find

  what you seek only after you find the gates that will lead you

  to the branches that define life.” Yasmine finished and glanced

  up at Levi. “I love you,” she said softly. “But I have to tell

  you, if all our searches have these kinds of clues, this job will

  be downright aggravating.”

  Levi laughed and squeezed her hip. “They seem cryptic,

  but once you figure it out like we did today, it’s not that

  difficult. I think André and Farah didn’t take into account the

  age of technology. It’s not like they could anticipate Google.”

  “This also means you’re the luckiest person alive,” Zara

  said. “If you’d missed one clue along the way, we wouldn’t be

  here.”

  “It’s better to be lucky than good, but I’m blessed to be

  both.” Levi blew on her nails and buffed them on her shirt.

  “I’d say you were letting your ego get away from you, but

  that’s totally true,” Yasmine said and laughed when Levi

  blushed. “I also believe that they had to come back here once

  they buried whatever it was to make the map as accurate as

  possible. Our problem is that there are no gates anywhere in

  the Sahara. There are pyramids and other ruins, but no gates.”

  “It’s time to go.” Levi led them down and stopped in one

  of the narrow alleyways of what had to be the old souk.

  “What?” Yasmine tightened her grip on Levi’s hand and

  put her other hand on Zara’s shoulder.

  “I’m not sure,” Levi said, looking in every direction. “Ever

  get the feeling someone’s watching you?”

  Ibrahim walked a ten-foot circle around them and shook

  his head. “I don’t see anything,” he said.

  “Are we ready to go?” Levi started walking again. This

  time she seemed more vigilant.

  “Our camp should be ready. Your guests have arrived, so

  the research end should be much easier.” Ibrahim opened the

  plane door for them and flinched at the lightning that didn’t

  look that far off.

  The plane flew low enough for Yasmine to see the details

  of the few towns they passed, along with the Tafilalt oasis,

  which stretched for over thirty miles, the largest oasis in

  Morocco. She had good memories of playing in the palm

  groves as a child when her great grandmother was alive.

  They landed in a small town located where the road gave

  way to the sand. Ibrahim’s men were waiting with more four-

  wheel-drive SUVs. The ride to the camp took four hours, but

  the satellite phones in each car allowed them to get online

  while they traveled.

  “We plotted the position of the warrior constellation back

  when they would’ve made this trip,” Levi said, bringing up the

  map she’d started to plot. “It’s only slightly off from where it

  is now, and it brings us to this area if you pinpoint where the

  shield is pointing.” Levi pointed to a spot way south of them.

  “The addition of the gates and the branches of the tree of

  life make this more difficult. I’m not a frequent visitor to the

  Sahara, but I can tell you there are oases in certain spots, but

  it’s mostly sand. Nothing else.” Yasmine took Zara’s laptop

  and did a search for Sahara gates. “See, all the gates you find

  are for tourists to take pictures in front of, and they’re in the

  small towns on the way out here. Once you’re in the desert,

  it’s nothing but sand.”

  “Ibrahim, did you bring all the boxes I asked for?” Levi

  asked, and he nodded. “I don’t think a gate the magnitude of

  the pyramids is what it means, but there had to be something

  the nomads left behind. There’s no way to be sure, but it’s

  likely they had a winter spot and then they moved on.

  Wherever that was, it had to have water. For all we know those

  spots are still being used, but the gate is only the first part. The

  branches of the tree are what worry me.”

  “We’ll have to wait and see, but I’m not sure how you

  narrow it down from over three million square miles.”

  Yasmine braced herself against Levi when they hit a patch of

  rocky ground. The large dunes everyone thought of as the

  Sahara didn’t come for another fifty miles or so.

  “This is your first time, but I’ll make a treasure hunter out

  of you yet,” Levi said and put all her stuff away. It had been an

  early morning, so she put her head back and closed her eyes.

  “And I might make a professor out of you,” Yasmine

  replied, putting her head on Levi’s shoulder. “We’ll find a

  balance.”

  ✥ ✥ ✥

  Graham stared out the window of the plane following the

  same route Montbard and the Hassani sisters had taken. His

  team at the hotel had done a good job, replacing the women’s

  pilot and gaining access to their flight plans.

  “What do you think she’s searching for?” Wallace Sterling

  asked.

  Graham had spoken to Cristian again, and they’d agreed to

  heed Bartholomew’s advice to have someone else help him.

  Wallace had experience with this kind of thing, and he’d come

  from a military background. If this turned ugly, Graham knew

  Wallace could handle it. Now the muscle was covered, so he

  had to use his wits to get them the rest of the way.

  “I don’t really know, but it’s worrying Cardinal Chadwick.

  Baggio Brutos is Opus Dei and works as a fixer for Chadwick

  when it comes to information. From the time he took his vows,

  Chadwick has been on a mission to bury and destroy any

  antiquities that would put the Church in a negative light. At

  first I didn’t think anything of it since the Church has done

  that from the beginning of time, but this is a driven narrow-

  mindedness that makes you think there’s something off.”

  The sun was starting to set, and Graham wanted to be on

  the ground before it was dark. He’d never been to Morocco or

  the desert, so traveling at night was something he wanted to

  avoid. No matter how hard you tried not to, you missed things

  in the dark.

  “Baggio is a bastard. I’ve crossed paths with him before,

  and he’s vicious.” Wallace pointed out the window and

  Graham saw a small strip. “Whatever Brutos’s men took from

  the house in London, it’s sent him off in a different direction.”

  “Chadwick’s not going to give up that easily. No dead end

  will put him off forever.”

  The plane touched down smoothly, and the pilot pointed to

  a man waiting in the hangar. “Montbard must’ve found

  something big if Chadwick has called out all his operatives.

  Those guys from MI6 handle very little for him, but they come

  when called.”

  “We’ve been looking for proof positive of the end of the

  Templars, and not just what the Church has told us. The pope

  has always been known as the architect of their demise, but

  Clement V was led to what happened. Everyone accepted that

  the blame lay with him and the king, but Cristian and I have

  always thought there was more to it than that.” The waiting

  vehicle had two men in the front and plenty of equipment in

  the back. “I don’t want to get my hopes up, but I think Levi

  found something that has to do with that.”

  “It shouldn’t matter in this day and age,” Wallace said.

  “It shouldn’t, but people have long memories. Think of

  Pope Benedict. His decision to step down had nothing to do

  with his past, but some people never forgave him the stain the

  Nazis put on him. Some things carry a permanent stigma, and

  uncovering something that fascinates people even today will

  not be tolerated by some in the Church.” He slipped off the

  new boots he’d purchased for this trip and stretched his toes.

  “We’ll make sure if it’s there, it will come out.”

  “It’s our sacred duty.” He placed his hand over his heart

  and took a deep breath. “Our world flourishes when the truth

  comes out into the light.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  “Papa,” Levi said when she saw Cristobal sitting around the

  fire at the center of the tents they’d erected. “How was your

  trip?”

  “Your grandmother loved it. She and your parents are back

  at the hotel keeping an eye on things and waiting for Percy and

  Jane to arrive. I’m the advance team.” He hugged her, then

  Yasmine and Zara. “Thank God we’re here, look at you.” Her

  grandfather touched her face where the bruising was the most

  pronounced. “Tell me everything.”

  Yasmine caught him up on what she’d translated and what

  had happened to the group. “Today we solved another piece by

  figuring out the stones. All those strange symbols were

  actually a map, except for the last part.”

  “Hmm,” he said when Yasmine read the message the

  stones held. “Our best bet is to let Jane run that. It might

  narrow down the places we have to search.”

  “I’m sending it to her tonight. There’s no reason for them

  to come all the way out here, but they can serve as our

  research team in the land of internet.” Levi thanked one of the

  men when he handed her a plate.

  “If Percy misses finding anything, he’ll never forgive you.

  Besides, we’re a family, and we’ll be better off together. How

  often do you get to have a family reunion in such lovely

  surroundings?”

  His outlook on life always made her smile. “Okay, but let’s

  get some sleep after we eat. Knowing that group, they’ll be

  here at sunrise.”

  The tents were clustered together, but not too close to not

  give some privacy. Two were closer together than the others,

  and Ibrahim pointed in that direction. “For you and the

  sisters.”

  “Good night.” Zara kissed both their cheeks and headed for

  the smaller tent.

  Levi and Yasmine’s tent had a blow-up mattress covered in

  blankets on the floor, a basin for washing up, and a small

  folding table to sit at. This wasn’t the glamping experience

  most tourists got on desert excursions, but it would be

  comfortable for as long as they had to be out here. Levi

  dimmed the lantern and stepped behind Yasmine. It had been a