The Malta Escape

by Chris Kuzneski

  She was getting ready to ask her mentor for a clue when she spotted an enigma on the left side of the screen. On one of the stones, there appeared to be a chiseled mark that she had seen thousands of times in Malta. She quickly tapped the arrow key until the image shifted over ever so slightly, and then she zoomed in a little more until the symbol filled the screen.

  It was a cross.

  A Maltese cross.

  Carved right into the stone.

  Associated with the Order of Saint John since the sixteenth century, the eight-pointed cross was formed by four V-shapes, each joining the others at its vertex while the two tips spread outward in a symmetrical fashion. The eight points of the four arms represented the eight original langues of the Knights Hospitallers while also symbolizing the eight obligations of the knights: to live in truth; to have faith; to repent of one’s sins; to be humble; to love justice; to be merciful; to be sincere and wholehearted; and to endure persecution.

  Marissa had memorized the list a long time ago, but upon seeing the symbol in the stone, the last obligation of the knights suddenly took on a whole different meaning.

  After surrendering to the French, Grand Master Hompesch had been despised by most of the knights and had been ridiculed far and wide for his inactivity during the invasion, but he had never defended himself or said a word about his secret plans or the location of the Maltese treasure because he didn’t think that was in the best interest of the Order.

  Instead, he had endured the persecution as he patiently waited for the opportunity to move his treasure to the new home of the organization that he loved so dear.

  An opportunity that never came.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR

  Payne, Jones, and Jarkko had planned to fly from Finland to Switzerland in order to help Marissa and Ulster with additional research at the Archives—or at the very least, to enjoy the mountain scenery and the use of Ulster’s personal chef while the historians did most of the work. But all of that had changed when Payne received a giddy phone call from Ulster, who claimed to have found conclusive evidence of the treasure’s location in Valletta.

  Eager to reveal the information to his friends but unwilling to ruin the surprise over the phone, Ulster had purchased two plane tickets from Zurich to Malta to get to the tunnel system as soon as possible. That allowed the Payne Industries jet to fly directly from Helsinki instead of having to pick up Ulster and Marissa in Switzerland.

  With a few hours to kill in Valletta before the guys arrived, Marissa finally had a chance to pick up her car and visit her apartment. Although she had appreciated Payne’s generosity, she hadn’t worn any of her own clothes since their initial meeting at the library. She had loved the excitement of the last week, but she also had missed her daily routine.

  Dying to shower in her own bathroom, she spent nearly thirty minutes in the hot water, trying to wash away all of the stress that had been building since the shootout. While tending to the wound on her leg, she realized that the most nerve-racking part of the past week hadn’t been when her life was in danger, but rather when she was awaiting word about Payne’s safety.

  Somehow, during the past five days she had fallen for him hard.

  Or, at the very least, the idea of him.

  She had always admired him from a distance, and when she combined that adoration with the excitement and adrenaline of their time together, it was the perfect formula to get swept away. And yet, as a levelheaded academic, she also knew that the two of them hadn’t spent much time alone or had a lengthy conversation that didn’t end in an argument, so she wasn’t quite ready to start planning a wedding. But she was more than willing to go on a date.

  And for her, that was the equivalent of a miracle.

  Of course, her social life would have to wait while her professional life took priority. After putting on her lucky T-shirt and a favorite pair of shorts, she drove Ulster to a parking lot near St. Paul’s Co-Cathedral before they walked the streets for nearly an hour while trying to figure out how much of Cassar’s tunnel system still remained. In the end, they realized they wouldn’t know for sure until they went back underground to look for themselves.

  Just after dark, a black panel van—borrowed from Galea—pulled into the parking lot, and Payne, Jones, and Jarkko hopped out. Marissa and Ulster greeted them like conquering heroes, pretending to bow down in their presence. Hugs were exchanged and laughs were shared as the two groups were reunited. Both sides wanted to know what the others had been up to in their time apart, but they quickly agreed to hold off on the details for a more appropriate time.

  For now, everyone’s focus was on the treasure.

  Since their last journey had been such a success, they decided to enter through the manhole cover in the same order as before. Payne went first, followed by Jarkko, Ulster, Marissa, and then Jones. This time around, they weren’t dressed in black outfits or carrying nearly as much equipment—the bulk of which remained in the van. Instead, they brought lights to guide their way, a video camera to film their progress, and Payne’s magic wand to open the door.

  That is, if there was a door.

  If not, this would be a wasted trip.

  As they walked down the utility tunnel, they were relieved to see their sheets of plastic still hanging over the passageway that they had dug through the wall. Over the past several hours, Ulster’s biggest concern wasn’t about his research—he was confident that he was correct about his findings—it was about the sanctity of the site. Once he inspected the materials that sealed their hole and realized they were still intact, he breathed a huge sigh of relief.

  “Marissa,” Ulster said, “it was your photograph of the wall that led us back here, so I think you should be the one to break the seal.”

  Marissa smiled as Jones filmed her big moment. “It would be my honor.”

  She carefully peeled the tape on the right side of the hole and pulled back the plastic before she turned to face the group. “Before we go in, I just wanted to take a moment to say thanks to all of you. Despite a rocky start, this has been the best week of my life.”

  Jarkko grimaced. “What rocky start?”

  “You know, the shootout at the library?”

  “Heck,” Jones cracked, “that was one of my highlights. Sometimes when I close my eyes, I can still feel the air on my face as I do my flip through the air. Truth be told, I’m still kinda pissed that no one filmed it. Speaking of which, take this damn camera. Last time, you missed me going through the wall. I don’t want you to repeat your rookie mistake.”

  Marissa laughed. “Oh, so now I’m a rookie?”

  Jones handed her the device. “Look around you, girl. All of us are experienced treasure hunters. I don’t remember any major discoveries on your résumé.”

  “Maybe not,” Ulster said in her defense. “But that’s about to change.”

  Jones grinned. “Uh-oh! Petr’s getting cocky. That’s always a good sign.”

  “Speaking of signs,” Payne said as he held back the plastic so Jones could climb through. “You still haven’t told us what you two spotted in Marissa’s photograph that brought us back. I’m assuming it’s something big.”

  Ulster shook his head. “Actually, it’s rather small, but that’s all I’m going to say until we’re standing in front of the wall. I’ve waited this long. I’m certainly not going to spoil it now.”

  Riding their wave of good luck, they entered the ancient tunnel system in the exact same order as the previous time. Jones went first, followed by Ulster, Marissa, Jarkko, and then Payne, who had an extreme case of déjà vu when he climbed through the wall.

  After setting down his equipment, his gaze immediately went to the twisted web of roots that hung from the limestone ceiling. The trees’ journey through the stone had taken centuries, slowly but surely pushing their way though the darkness until they had finally broken through.

  In many ways, it paralleled his team’s appearance in the tunnel.

  Only they still had s
ome digging to do.

  Payne turned to his right and walked toward the stone wall where Marissa and Ulster were whispering to each other in the gloom. Upon his approach, they turned and faced him as he joined Jones and Jarkko in front of the wall. To preserve the big moment, Jones worked the camera while Jarkko shined his flashlight on the historians.

  Ulster glanced at his former student and gave her a slight nudge with his elbow. “Go on, my dear. Let them know why we’re here.”

  She smiled at the others, completely confident in their findings. “On our previous trip, we were so overwhelmed by the grand scope of our discovery that we failed to appreciate the finer details of the site. It wasn’t until Petr and I returned to the Archives to view our videos and photographs that we noticed something on the wall.”

  She turned and shined a green laser pointer at a single stone. It was approximately eight feet above the floor and a few feet left of center on the wall. “David, please zoom in on this brick and let me know what you see.”

  Jones did as he was told and spotted a symbol. “It’s a Maltese cross.”

  Payne and Jarkko glanced at the camera screen and nodded in agreement.

  “By itself,” she explained to the group, “this wouldn’t have been much of a discovery. After all, this symbol has been a part of the fabric of Malta for centuries. But then we spotted another one, just below it.”

  She shifted her laser pointer down a few feet, and Jones followed it with the camera. Payne and Jarkko stared at the screen as Jones zoomed in on the second symbol.

  “Once again,” she said as she moved away from the wall, “not a big deal. I’m sure if we walked through the streets of Valletta, we would see this symbol on several buildings. And flags. And T-shirts. Honestly, if we went outside right now, I bet we could find fifty of them in less than an hour.”

  “Okay,” Jones said. “What’s your point?”

  She smiled at him, glad that he had taken the bait. “When Petr and I examined the wall, do you know how many crosses we found?”

  Jarkko guessed. “Nine hundred and fifty-two.”

  She shook her head. “We found eight.”

  He shrugged. “Jarkko was close.”

  She continued. “Do you know how many points there are on a Maltese cross?”

  Jones counted on the screen. “Eight.”

  “And do you know how many basic obligations the Knights of Malta had?”

  Jones smiled. “I’ll go with eight.”

  She nodded. “That is correct.”

  Payne chimed in. “Eight crosses. Eight points. Eight obligations. The math makes sense, but I’m still not sure where it leads us.”

  “Then it’s a good thing we’re here,” she said as she gently pushed the three guys to the left side of the tunnel. “Petr, come join me so I can show them what we found.”

  Ulster had a huge grin on his face as he moved away from the wall. “About a year ago, I was given this gizmo by a visiting scholar, but I could never quite make it work. Thankfully, Marissa figured it out in a snap. You know me, I don’t even know how to set my digital clock. If not for Winston, it would still be stuck on a blinking twelve.”

  Marissa pulled out a small machine from her bag that was capable of projecting digital shapes. She set the device on the floor a short distance from the wall. “While examining the eight points, Petr and I realized that they weren’t randomly spread across the stones. Instead, they formed a shape. A very specific shape. And all we had to do was connect the dots.”

  With a flip of the switch, the gloom of the tunnel was suddenly filled with red light. Projected from the tiny device, the laser light formed a large rectangular door on the wall—complete with a small circle to approximate a doorknob.

  “I’ll be damned,” Payne said as he walked toward the wall to inspect the eight Maltese crosses that provided the pattern for the rectangle.

  Marissa moved the device just a bit on the floor so the digital shape would line up perfectly with the symbols on the wall. “Obviously we added the tiny doorknob just for fun. That’s not actually in the stone, but I thought it would help you visualize things better.”

  Jarkko hugged her from behind. “Jarkko love doorknob! Jarkko can’t wait to open door!”

  She patted the arm around her neck. “Jon, what do you think?”

  Payne looked at her and grinned. “I’m with Jarkko. Let’s open the damn door.”

  Wasting no time, Payne hustled back to the passageway and returned with his equipment. Realizing that the laser projector would be useless with workers blocking the beam, Marissa used a piece of chalk to carefully draw the rectangle on the wall. Unable to reach the top of the door, she handed the chalk to Payne, who finished the job as Jones filmed everything.

  Before he powered on the sonic baton, Payne and Marissa put on work gloves and safety goggles—just to make sure neither of them ended up like Kaiser. Although the group had recently seen the device in action, they were still amazed by its precision and speed. The wall practically flaked away as Payne followed the chalk line along the left edge.

  After a few minutes, they realized it wasn’t just the device.

  It was the mortar itself.

  As Marissa vacuumed up the residue, the center portion of the wall started to crumble. One brick fell, and then another. Then a third practically leapt from the wall.

  Realizing what was happening, Payne handed the magic wand to Ulster for safekeeping and called Jarkko over to assist. Two days earlier, he had used his strength to carry and stack thick chunks of limestone in the utility tunnel in order to keep their work site clean, but now he was going to do something a lot more fun: he was going to help Payne break down the door.

  With his bare hands, Jarkko ripped a stone from the wall and was prepared to launch it against the side of the tunnel just to see if he could make it explode into dust, but before he could hurl the object, Payne grabbed his arm from behind.

  “Whoa, big fella!” Payne said in a calming voice. “Settle down! We’re in an ancient tunnel. The last thing we need is for you to hulk out down here.”

  Jones groaned from behind the camera. “Don’t go using my line! I said the same thing to you, like, ten days ago—or whenever the hell we were down here last. I swear, I don’t even know what month it is anymore.”

  Payne laughed. “The mind is always the first thing to go.”

  Ulster nodded. “It certainly is.”

  “Good,” Jarkko said. “Then my willy will continue to work for a while.”

  Behind them in the tunnel, Marissa rolled her eyes. “Come on, guys! Keep your focus! We’re this close to making history. You can talk about your willies later.”

  “Actually,” Payne said as he glanced back at her. “I think there’s a big enough gap for us to get a sneak peek at the room right now. That is, if you’re interested.”

  “Of course, I’m interested!” she said as she tried to squeeze in, but the workspace was already too crowded with bodies. “But you guys are too big.”

  Jarkko grinned. “Jarkko thought we were supposed to talk about our willies later?”

  Marissa and Ulster couldn’t help but smile.

  Meanwhile, Payne looked at Jones. “You know, this might work better with the camera. That thing has a light, doesn’t it? Why don’t you turn that sucker on and hold it up to the opening? That way we can all look at the screen at the exact same time.”

  Payne glanced at Ulster. “Unless that offends you in some way.”

  Ulster laughed at the thought. “I’m sure Howard Carter is spinning in his grave right now, but if he had used a video camera when he cracked open Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922, perhaps he wouldn’t have been cursed afterward.”

  Jarkko took a step back. “Ghost?”

  Marissa put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “No ghost.”

  Jarkko breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay. Jarkko ready.”

  “I’m ready, too,” Jones complained, “but this plan won’t work unle
ss you move out of the way to let me in. Truth be told, I’m not even sure why I’m working the camera. I’m too damn pretty to be on this side of the lens.”

  Marissa smiled. “I’ll gladly take over from here.”

  Jones playfully pushed right past her. “Not a chance, rookie. We know what happened the last time you were supposed to film. I did something cool, and you missed it completely.”

  “No problem,” she said as she linked one arm with Payne’s and the other with Ulster’s as a sign of unity. “I’m happy to let you do your thing. I’ll just stand back here and watch.”

  Jarkko was so nervous he was almost afraid to look. With one eye closed and the other one squinting, he stood behind Marissa while resting his chin on her shoulder.

  Jones put the camera near the gap in the wall and got ready to turn on the light. “Okay, everybody, let’s do this as a team. On my mark, let’s count down from three. Are you ready? Does everyone know their numbers? You do? Good! Then here we go….”

  In unison, the group counted aloud.

  “Three…two…one…!”

  EPILOGUE

  Wednesday, June 20

  Valletta, Malta

  Cameras flashed when Payne and Jones exited the black sedan and waved to the crowd.

  A lot had changed since their initial trip into the utility tunnel near St. Paul’s Co-Cathedral. Instead of sneaking through the darkness to avoid the police, they were now being escorted through the cheering masses by some of the same officers who had questioned them about the shooting at the National Library of Malta.

  No longer persons of interest, they were now national celebrities.

  Jones high-fived the people that he passed. “I could get use to this shit.”

  Payne paused to have his photo taken. “You mean being liked by white people?”

  Jones laughed. “I meant having a police escort, but yours works, too.”

  Payne glanced back and realized that Galea had been swallowed by the boisterous throng that had gathered to get a glimpse of the treasure. Packed into the narrow streets of Valletta, the collection of locals and tourists alike had started to arrive on Monday evening when word of the discovery had leaked and spread around the globe.