Beck shook his head. ‘It’s silver, so it’s probably worth a few hundred bucks, but we didn’t find anything special about it.’ He paused, as if trying to convince himself of what he was about to say. ‘What was in it, on the other hand…’
Eddie regarded him quizzically. ‘You said it was water.’
‘It was. But… it wasn’t normal water.’
‘How so?’ Nina asked.
The FBI agent produced a thick document. ‘I’m a cop, not a chemist, so I don’t understand half of this. But our analysts gave me a cheat sheet.’ He flicked through the topmost pages. ‘Here: “The water sample contains a high level of colloidal silver, at over five hundred parts per million. Such levels run the risk of the user’s developing argyria with prolonged consumption, though the initial autopsy report shows no evidence of such a condition in the deceased. In addition, the water was discovered to hold a small electrical charge, though as yet the cause and mechanism for this remains unidentified. Finally, the water was also found to contain molecules of carbon-60, also known as buckminsterfullerene or buckyballs—”’
‘You just made that up!’ said Eddie. ‘That’s not a real name, surely.’
Nina smiled. ‘Let me tell you about the problems archaeologists have with moronic acid sometime.’
‘I’m just reading what it says here,’ said Beck. ‘Okay, so: “The concentration of these molecules is far higher than previously discovered in any natural water source, though there is none of the expected purple colouration associated with carbon-60 content. Carbon-60 is believed to have potential for various medical treatments, including inhibition of the HIV virus and antioxidant neutralisation of free radicals, but all current research is still experimental.” Like I said, it’s not normal water.’
‘With all that crap floating about in it, it sounds as bad as New York tap water,’ Eddie joked, before noticing his wife’s thoughtful expression. ‘What?’
‘We’ve seen something like this before,’ she said. ‘In Egypt — when Khalid Osir was looking for the strain of yeast that extended the lives of the ancient Egyptian rulers. The yeast we found in the Pyramid of Osiris had very similar properties.’
‘Life extension?’ said Seretse. ‘You’re suggesting that this water may have somehow slowed the ageing process of these war criminals?’
‘I don’t know, but it would explain why this guy,’ she indicated Jaekel’s picture, ‘only looked forty rather than ninety.’
‘What, clones are out, but you’re fine with magic water?’ Eddie scoffed.
‘Yeah,’ Petrelli agreed. ‘It sounds pretty far-fetched.’
‘You’re the ones who insisted that the dead guy in LA is a wanted Nazi war criminal,’ Nina countered. ‘And the water’s not magic — it just has unusual properties. It’s not the first time we’ve encountered something like that.’
Her husband’s face turned downcast. ‘Yeah. Some of it pretty recently.’
Seeing Seretse’s inquisitive gaze — she had not told him the full reason for her resignation from the IHA — Nina quickly moved the subject along. ‘It’d also explain why Jaekel was so desperate to get the flask, even with cops pointing guns at him. If the water really does have some kind of anti-ageing effect, then it would literally be his lifeline.’
‘But what does it have to do with what happened in Los Angeles?’ asked the diplomat. ‘The murder of the young man, the attempt on your life, and these plans to rob the tomb of Alexander the Great?’
‘I don’t know, but— Holy crap!’ she gasped as an answer suddenly came to her. It was wild, even crazy, but it made a twisted kind of sense…
Seretse and the two FBI men stared at her, startled by the outburst. ‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘But I think I’ve found a connection!’
‘What connection?’ said Beck.
‘Alexander the Great — as well as all the historical records we have of his achievements, there was also a text called the Alexander Romance,’ she said, mind racing. ‘In a way, it was the first ever novel. Parts of it recounted his actual life and conquests in a semi-fictionalised, romanticised way — hence the name — but there were also chapters that were more fantastical. Alexander and his men went on adventures where they encountered strange beasts and monsters, races of giants, centaurs, plant men, that kind of thing. Alexander himself went to the bottom of the ocean in a diving bell and was carried into the sky by eagles, until the gods themselves ordered him to return to earth.’
‘Now that’s the kind of history book I’d want to read,’ Eddie said. ‘Better than boring lists of kings and queens!’
‘I have read the Alexander Romance,’ said Seretse. ‘In the original Greek, of course — I studied it at Cambridge.’
‘Well of course,’ said Nina, a little facetiously. ‘It loses so much in translation.’
He ignored her veiled sarcasm. ‘As I recall, the most fantastical parts of the story came after the death of King Darius of Persia.’
‘That’s right,’ she told him. ‘Alexander defeated Darius’s armies, and in the historical accounts secured the Achaemenid Empire before moving on into India. In the Romance, Alexander took a detour and headed north to explore the lands around what he thought was an ocean, but is presumably the Caspian Sea, given his route. That’s where he encountered all these weird creatures. But the main reason he went there was because he’d heard of a place called the Land of Darkness — which contains the Spring of Immortality.’
‘Like the Fountain of Youth?’ Eddie said sceptically.
‘Yes, although there aren’t many details, because Alexander never actually found it. What happened was that Alexander’s cook, Andreas, discovered it by accident — he put a dried fish in a stream to wash it, and the fish came back to life. Andreas drank the spring water himself, and even kept some of it, but was too frightened to tell Alexander what he’d found. By the time he eventually did, the army had moved on, and when they went back, they couldn’t find the right spring. The secret of immortality was right there in front of them, but now it’s lost for ever.’
‘Sheesh,’ said Beck. ‘I bet Alexander wasn’t happy about that.’
‘He wasn’t. He had a stone tied around Andreas’ neck and threw him into the sea.’
‘Maybe he just didn’t like his cooking,’ Eddie joked.
‘I doubt it was exactly haute cuisine, yeah. But because Andreas was now immortal, he became a spirit. Or so the story goes, at least.’
Seretse regarded her thoughtfully. ‘Could there be any truth to it? It would not be the first time you have discovered that a legend was based on fact.’
‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘I mean, without some solid evidence, I’m certainly not going to buy into the story that there really is a spring that gives you eternal life, even if this guy Jaekel apparently believed it. Was there anything else in those plans that might tell us more?’
He referred to a translation of the German text. ‘Perhaps. There is a passage here… “According to the relics, the statue of Bucephalus is located in the inner burial chamber. Obtaining the statue intact is our primary objective: it holds the map to the Kingdom of Darkness. We must secure the map before we can find the spring.” Could they mean the Spring of Immortality?’
‘Maybe,’ said Nina. ‘I don’t remember anything about a statue of Bucephalus when I was at the IHA, though. Has anything like that been found in the tomb since then?’ Seretse shook his head.
‘Who’s Bucephalus?’ Eddie asked.
‘Alexander’s horse. He tamed him as a child, and rode him throughout his campaigns. He was so devoted to him that when Bucephalus was stolen by a forest tribe, he ordered his men to cut down every single tree and slaughter every last member of the tribe if he wasn’t returned. He got his horse back very quickly.’