The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry Read Free Book Online

adjacent to a crowded street. People were coming and going from the auction hall, while others were waiting for their cars to be brought by attendants from a nearby lot. Clearly his surveillance of Stephanie had not gone unnoticed, and he cursed himself for not being more alert. But he decided that, contrary to the threats made, the two men on either side of him would not risk exposure. He was being detained, not eliminated. Perhaps their task was to give whatever was happening in the cathedral with Stephanie time to unfold.
    Which meant he needed to act.
    He watched as more patrons spilled out from the auction hall. One, a gangly Dane, owned a bookshop in the Strøget, near Peter Hansen’s store. He watched as a valet delivered the man’s car.
    “Vagn,” Malone called out, stepping away from the gun to his back.
    His friend heard his name and turned.
    “Cotton, how are you?” the man answered in Danish.
    Malone casually walked toward the car and looked back to see the short-haired man quickly conceal the weapon beneath his jacket. He’d caught the man off his guard, which only confirmed what he already thought. These guys were amateurs. He was ready to bet that they didn’t speak Danish, either.
    “Might I trouble you for a ride back to Copenhagen?” he asked.
    “Certainly. We have room. Climb in.”
    He reached for the rear passenger door. “I appreciate it. My ride is going to hang around awhile and I need to get back home.”
    As he slammed the car door shut, he waved through the window and saw a confused look on the two men’s faces as the car eased away.
    “Nothing interest you today?” Vagn asked.
    He turned his attention to the driver. “Not a thing.”
    “Me, either. We decided to leave and take an early dinner.”
    Malone glanced over at the woman next to him. Another man sat in the front. He did not know either, so he introduced himself. The car slowly made its way out of Roskilde’s warren of tight streets toward the Copenhagen highway.
    He spied the twin spires and copper roof of the cathedral. “Vagn, could you let me out? I need to hang around a little longer.”
    “You sure?”
    “I just remembered something I need to do.”
    STEPHANIE PARALLELED THE NAVE AND PLUNGED DEEPER INTOthe cathedral. Past the massive pillars rising to her right, the church service was still in progress. Her low heels clicked off the flagstones, but only she could hear them, thanks to the ponderous organ. The path ahead rounded the main altar, and a series of half walls and memorials divided the ambulatory from the choir.
    She glanced back to see the man calling himself Bernard sauntering forward, but the two other men were nowhere to be seen. She realized that she would soon be heading back toward the church’s main entrance, only on the other side of the building. For the first time, she fully appreciated the risks her agents took. She’d never worked in the field—that was not part of her job—but this was not an official assignment. This was personal and she was officially on vacation. No one knew she’d traveled to Denmark—no one besides Cotton Malone. And considering her present predicament, that anonymity was becoming a problem.
    She rounded the ambulatory.
    Her pursuer stayed a discreet distance back, surely knowing that she had nowhere to go. She passed a set of stone stairs that dropped down into another side chapel and then saw, fifty feet ahead, the two other men appear in the rear vestibule, blocking her way out of the church. Behind her, Bernard continued his steady advance. To her left was another sepulcher, this one identified as the Chapel of Magi.
    She darted inside.
    Two marble tombs lay within the brilliantly decorated walls, both reminiscent of Roman temples. She retreated toward the farther. Then a wild unreasoning terror seized her as she realized the worst.
    She was trapped.
    MALONE JOGGED TO THE CATHEDRAL AND ENTERED THROUGHthe main doors. To his right he spotted two men—stocky,