James Acton 04 - The Templar's Relic by J Robert Kennedy Read Free Book Online

scanned the road, and his heart leapt. There was a group of children playing, ignorant of the threat that now bore down on them. He jumped from his horse and ran toward them, shouting for them to move. They looked up at him, but not at the danger he pointed at.
    The roar of the wood wheels on the ancient stone echoed through the street, and finally the children realized the danger, most of them running out of the way, leaving one tiny girl crying on the road, frozen in terror. Sir John’s legs pumped, protesting against the effort they were now unaccustomed to, as he grew ever closer to the wailing child. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the cart, laden with heavy bags of flour, almost atop them both.
    There wasn’t time.
    He dove, grabbing the girl, and shielded her with his body. The impact was jarring, more powerful, and more painful, than anything he had ever experienced. He pulled the screaming girl closer as the rear wheel smashed into his already broken frame. It surged over him, continuing on its destructive path, ended with a crash into the side of a building at a bend in the road.
    Sir John couldn’t move. Pain racked his body, the little girl’s screams actually providing him some comfort.
    She was alive.
    A woman ran over, crying, and pried the tiny girl from Sir John’s arms, thanking him profusely. He couldn’t speak. He gasped for air, but he knew it was no use. His lungs had collapsed. He looked up and saw the little girl hugging her mother, apparently unharmed, and he smiled.
    Raymond was at his side in moments.
    “Sir John, are you okay?”
    But Sir John could tell his friend already knew the answer. He was not. He could feel himself weakening, and he knew he only had moments to live. He reached up and grabbed Raymond by the back of the neck, pulling him closer.
    “Save the scroll.”
    And with that, a hero of the Third Crusade to free the Holy Lands, the survivor of innumerable battles against Islamic hordes and pilgrim-harassing bandits, and one of the most respected of the Templar Knights, died as he had lived, rebalancing the scale of life, his silent prayer for the future of the small child he had just saved. For as Malik had died from saving a young Sir John, Sir John now died to save the life of this little child, and he prayed she would earn the reward she had just been granted.
     
     

 
     
     
    Northern Wall Construction Site, Vatican City
    Present Day
     
    “Heave!”
    Acton and several of the construction crew pulled the ropes now running under the lid of the sarcophagus, the lid having been pried up earlier with crowbars to position the ropes. The lid didn’t budge, but the slack was removed from the rope, the teeth of the pulley system preventing the rope from slipping back.
    “Heave!” ordered Laura again.
    The men pulled again, and this time the lid moved.
    “Once more, heave!”
    They pulled, grunting at the weight and the humidity. The lid lifted. Acton handed off his rope to another worker, and stepped toward the lid. He and Laura swung it clockwise, perpendicular to the body of the sarcophagus.
    Acton heard Laura gasp and he took a quick look, feeling his heart begin to hammer in his chest. He quickly returned his attention to the ropes. Reaching up, he grabbed a small rope tied to the teeth.
    “Okay, when I pull this, lower the top as gently as you can. Ready?”
    The Italian crew nodded after one translated.
    Acton reached up and yanked the line, the teeth snapping free. Grunts surrounded them as the men slowly let the line out the couple of inches they had raised it.
    The lid came to rest atop the sarcophagus, the stone meeting stone echoing through the small room. Acton tested it for stability, then gave a thumbs up to the crew.
    “Great work, guys. Now take a break. We’ll move this out of the way after we’ve completed our first examination.”
    The men let go of their ropes and began to climb the ladder out of the chamber as Acton joined Laura at the