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who builds their own telescope.”
    “Freaking cool!”
    They all sat as Arthur and Catherine filled the table with the night’s meal. Pot roast, gravy, and broccoli. His favorite.
    Arthur continued to think about the whole thing while they ate. The rest were trying to make casual conversation, likely for Zack’s benefit, but he couldn’t. The incident with Jack had confirmed that Pan was right to be paranoid all these years. There were powers at work so well hidden from public scrutiny that it was frightening.
    At one point he looked down and saw an empty plate. He had finished his meal without remembering a single bite. Damn.
    After dinner his wife shooed them out of the dining room so she could clean up, but not before putting a slice of treacle in his hands to take with him. He smiled. She knew him well. Treacle was his favorite dessert when he felt bothered by something.
    Arthur felt outclassed. Here he was in the company of three bearers, between them seemingly limitless power, and they were asking for his help. It was ridiculous.
    “Arthur, you there?”
    He finally realized Pan had been trying to get his attention. “Sorry old man. What was that?”
    “The Templars, you remember when they were wiped out.”
    “Indeed I do.”
    “You had a theory about that.”
    He considered his words. He hadn’t talked about it for years. “Pope Clement the fifth ordered them murdered, and was going to steal their wealth. But when they arrested all the Templars, the wealth was already gone. Hidden, presumably. But you know at the time I did a little digging because it sounded a little too convenient. You know how they say follow the money? Well, it was no different in the fourteenth century. So I followed the money. It seemed to lead right back to Poitiers, where the Pope lived, right to a minor bishop who seemed to have access to the Pope himself.”
    John raised an eyebrow. “You’re saying someone paid the Pope to order the Templers killed?”
    Arthur smiled. “That wasn’t the half of it. I traced the money back to the Templars themselves, to Jacques de Molay, the Templar Grand Master.”
    “Holy shit,” Jessica said, before realizing Zack was still in the room playing video games. She covered her mouth, ashamed at the language.
    “Pardon the intrusion here,” Jack asked, “but does this have something to do with the folks who tried to kill me?”
    “Indeed it does,” Pan said. “When the Templars went underground, which is exactly what they did, they became even more powerful. Of course they don’t call themselves the Templars anymore, in fact I don’t think they call themselves anything, and frankly I don’t think they even have any loyalty or affiliation beyond enlightened self interest.”
    “So if the Templars went underground,” John asked, “how does this help us?”
    Pan grinned. “Because as Arthur said, all you have to do is follow the money, and I happen to know that one of the best researchers along those lines is sitting in this room.”
    Oh no. Arthur suddenly realized he was going to be spending more time looking over old records.
    ***
    Rob was furious.
    It had hardly taken a day and some self righteous astronomer had managed to find the incoming meteors. It wasn’t that it was a threat; that was handled easily enough, and this particular astronomer wouldn’t be causing him any more grief.
    It was that it was found so quickly. That probably meant that he would be far from the last to see them, and there were only so many astronomers that could have accidental deaths before people started to take notice.
    Sometimes the plans of his superiors made his life difficult.
    The ride to the airport was tedious. He had made the mistake of leaving the White House too late and his fool driver managed to get them stuck in rush hour traffic.
    At least he didn’t have to worry about missing the plane, since it was his private one. He almost sneered. They didn’t call commercial airliners cattle