The Relic Hunters by David Leadbeater

Author:David Leadbeater [Leadbeater, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9781503902473
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Published: 2018-06-21T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Reunited with Cross, Jemma, and Gunn, the team took their original seats and rested as the older man drove them north out of the city. Jeff was buckled into his seat right where he’d been when they left him.

“’Kin ’ell, Jeffo,” Cassidy said. “Move much?”

“I’m not a fighter,” the young archaeologist said.

“That makes two of you.” Bodie nodded at Gunn. “But Gunn did jump in when needed.”

“To receive help in life you have to show willing,” Cross said from the front seat.

“Ancient proverb of the day.” Cassidy grinned with mischief. “But true.”

“You okay, Miss Movie Star?” Cross looked at her in the rearview. “Any more cuts like that and Hollywood will be saving you for the slasher flicks.”

“A past life.” Cassidy waved it away. “And probably one better not spoken of in front of the CIA.”

“Apologies, that’s my bad.”

Heidi looked hurt. “Am I not a member of the team? Not proven myself yet?”

“No,” Cassidy said.

“Well . . .” Bodie tried.

Cassidy rolled her eyes. “He’s always like this. Pretty chick comes along, bats her . . . frizzbomb, and he’s all Lady Gaga.”

“My frizzbomb?”

“Yeah. What do you call it?”

“We’re digressing here,” Bodie said. “The Hood is out there, wherever he’s going, and still with the map”—he turned to Jeff—“and you’re our next best thing, so make yourself useful. What did you say was the first waypoint?”

Jeff sipped at a can of Pepsi Max. “We returned something new to Spartacus, and 1776.”

“Ah, yes, the movie reference. Any ideas?”

“It’s not a movie reference. It’s actually an easy first clue if you know your Illuminati history. 1776 is the year they were founded.”

Jemma shook her dark hair. “No. Someone said Adam was the first Illuminati.”

“Well, yes, the ancients may have had a similar form of secret society, where events were manipulated for the sake of a greater power that believed it had the right to rule over all. Perhaps the Illuminati used it as their role model, but officially they began in 1776.”

“Officially?” Heidi asked. “Now I’m stumped. I thought they were secret. Shadows behind the scenes, manipulating the puppets.”

“They are now, but I think that you are testing me. You, Agent Moneymaker, are on their trail, so you must know their history.”

“Ah, ya got me. Go on, kid.”

“The Bavarian Illuminati were the first of their kind, the first of their order. Formed by a man named Adam Weishaupt. Weishaupt was deeply nonclerical, made that way by Jesuits who frustrated and discredited any manner of work that they regarded as liberal or protestant. Weishaupt resolved to spread the word of enlightenment through a secret society, but considered the Freemasons of the time too expensive and actually too narrow-minded. So they formed the Perfectibilists and decided on the Owl of Minerva as their emblem.”

“Perfecti-what?” Cassidy asked.

“Yes, yes, that’s what Weishaupt thought after a time. He contemplated naming them the Bee Order and then decided upon Illuminatenorden, or Order of Illuminati.”

“In 1776?” Bodie confirmed.

“Yes. And each member of the Order used a code name.”

“You’re kidding. For real?” Bodie never would have imagined the TV sometimes got it right.

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