Nino slumped on the edge of his bed, hands folded in his lap, his face showing the weariness of age and the burden he now carried alone. His mother had died many years ago, and now his father, Don Adolfo, was gone too.
The secret of Altamura was hidden deep underground, in a cellar that everyone had long since forgotten – a secret of such immense importance that it seemed to Nino to have become nearly alive in its own right. He stared down at his wrinkled hands, unmoving, and considered what his next steps should be.
“Protect the secret always,” Don Adolfo had told him. “Protect not only the relics and the papyrus, but also the knowledge of where they are kept.”
Nino had eliminated the German art collector, then retrieved the journal from the American, so outsiders could not find the go
