Read Matt Drake 14 - The Treasures of Saint Germain for Free Online

why Webb has popped up in Versailles.”
    “They backtracked his movements to a break in at the palace.” Another observation, this one from Mai. “Webb’s on the trail of something.”
    “That’s why he let the Pythian organization destroy itself and then wither away,” Drake said. “His obsession with this Saint Germain character.”
    “It must be a heck of a treasure,” Alicia said, “to so readily relinquish his entire privileged life for. What prize could be worth all that?”
    “We have been lax,” Kinimaka said. “We should have been researching. But I guess that was Karin’s forte.”
    “Not long now,” Drake put in. “She’ll be back.”
    “The big question is . . .” Dahl added softly. “It seems by the wording at the end there, that Interpol are inviting us over?”
    “Appears so,” Hayden replied. “So they can take on board our recent dealings with the world’s most wanted man. And Argento knows us.”
    She made a call. “Wheels up in thirty. I’ll call Argento and then the State Department. Make your preparations. We should arrive in Paris by 4 a.m., local.”
    The team took a common, deep gulp of air. This was how it always began. Planning for the new job, calling relatives to give them the news, not even time to slip back and grab a hug. Their lives were about to change once more, for better or worse.
    Drake wished they could leave all the uncertainties and discontentment at the door, but this team had changed. Whether it was for the better was about to be determined.
     

CHAPTER SEVEN
     
     
    The Baconian cipher was a relatively simple cryptogram, but one that could still be tricky without respect and concentration. Webb had given it both, and figured out a location for the next clue on the train to Paris. The address was particularly interesting. Not a museum or church or palace this time, but a residence of sorts. Maybe this time he’d become one of the few individuals throughout history to be privileged enough to stand in one of the Count’s many laboratories. Maybe certain alchemical secrets would be revealed.
    Webb had found his excitement rising. He’d better quell it before giddiness took hold and made him careless. No doubt the authorities would eventually track him from Versailles to Paris—that was unavoidable thanks to the gun-toting goons back in Versailles, but once he left Gare du Nord, Tyler Webb would wholly and completely vanish once again.
    When the train slowed and the famous station loomed closer, lit up in the dark and recognizable to Webb, he had risen out of his seat and readied to disembark, face down. Every little helped, of course. Quickly then, he’d escaped the station, breathing a sigh of relief at the lack of police presence and knowledge that he hadn’t yet been recognized on CCTV. Time passed, and he melted away, using his stalking skills to avoid cameras, busy areas and tourist hot spots where surveillance would be at its highest. The residence sat exactly where he expected it to be, so he’d made a fast reccie, then paid cash to sit in a hotel room not too far away.
    Waiting for the night.
    Webb now had other problems, bigger complications. Never in his decades of research had he come cross a group that might already be on the path to Saint Germain, or perhaps guarding it. But that appeared to be the case. Investigations had revealed that the group dogging his footsteps were secretive, largely unidentified and unfamiliar. Webb reasoned that they must be Saint Germain nuts, purists, keeping their criminal ardor only for the Count, otherwise they’d be red-flagged by now and easier to research. Of course, he hadn’t embarked upon this trip unprepared—he had contingencies upon contingencies. Ways of escape and backup plans and worse, much worse, if it seemed somebody might be about to catch him. The years of meticulous planning will pay off.
    Chase me all you like, he thought. I have so many ways prepared.
    The room was tiny, comprising of