"You want me to look for whatever I can find, right?"
"Yup."
"I'll have to run everything through a translation program, unless the conversations are in English. It will take time."
"Whatever it takes," Nick said. "Thanks, Steph."
Nick broke the connection.
"Let's see what comes out of that." He looked around. "We're done here. I'll tell Forsberg we're leaving."
He went over to where Forsberg stood talking with one of his men.
"Selena found this in Gabriel's room." He handed the phone over.
"What's on it?"
"I don't have any idea," Nick said.
Forsberg pocketed the phone. "We'll take care of it from here."
He looked at Selena. "I've been told to let you keep those scrolls for now, while you translate them."
"Wonderful. It shouldn't take more than a few days."
"You must have some serious pull. Make sure nothing happens to them. Nick, I'll call you at the hotel later."
"Yeah," Nick said.
CHAPTER 13
Back in their room at the hotel, Selena carefully unrolled the scrolls and laid them out on a low coffee table. She photographed them and began working on a translation. Ronnie and Lamont were next door, catching up on sleep.
After a while she looked up and said, "No one has ever seen anything like this. The descriptions of the crucifixion in the Bible show minor variations, but they're all pretty much the same story. This one is similar up to a point, but then it's different."
"How so?"
"Because of what it says about Joseph of Arimathea."
"Who was he?"
"A rich follower of Jesus, one of the ruling council in Jerusalem. He donated his tomb for Christ's burial. Tradition says he purchased a shroud to wrap the body when they took it down from the cross. That's in here, but there's more."
She looked at him, her eyes wide.
"It says Joseph held a cup and caught Christ’s blood as He hung on the cross. You won't find that anywhere in the Bible."
"A cup?"
"There's only one cup like that. The Holy Grail."
"That's a legend. A story made up in the twelfth century. King Arthur, all that."
"That's what most people think. But this scroll changes that. My God, Nick, think about it!"
"What if it isn't authentic? There are plenty of phony relics out there, made up in the Middle Ages to encourage pilgrims. It could be one of those."
"I've seen a lot of documents from the first century. You get a feel for authenticity after a while. It would have to be tested, but I'd be surprised if this is a fake. The box must have been in a church ISIS looted. It's valuable because of the silver but the scrolls are worth far more than the box. I can't imagine what this would bring if it were auctioned off at one of the big houses."
"If it's real."
"Yes. It will create an uproar. It's sure to be attacked as a hoax. People have looked for the Grail for a thousand years. Emperors and kings. Napoleon. Hitler searched all over the world for it. It's part of the Arma Christi."
"What's the Arma Christi?"
"The weapons of Christ, symbolic of how Christ defeated Satan. The Grail is one of them, along with the lance that pierced Christ's side and the nails from the cross."
"The lance is gone. We know it was destroyed."
"Nobody knows that except us. It doesn't matter anyway, when you're talking about the Grail."
"Even if this manuscript proves the Grail was real, nobody knows where it is or if it still exists."
"If this becomes public, people will start searching for it."
She began reading the second scroll.
"Oh, my."
"That doesn't sound good."
"There's a prophecy about the Grail," she said. "Simon repeats the story of the open tomb. Then he says that as he was praying in front of the tomb an angel appeared, dressed in robes of fire."
"Sure," Nick said. "Sometimes I think there must've been something in the water back then. Or maybe magic mushrooms in the soup."
Selena ignored him and began reading from the page.
As I prayed before the tomb, then did an angel of the Lord God appear to me in terrible beauty, wreathed in robes of flame. I fell to the ground in fear, daring not to look upon its face. The voice of the angel was not like the voice of men, but as a sound of thunder inside my head.
And the angel said, fear not: write of the trials of the Teacher and tell of the cup that caught His blood.
And the angel said, look: and before me appeared great cities where buildings of stone rose high as mountains into the heavens and crowds of people walked the streets. Then all vanished and the earth was covered with smoke and fire and the cries of the dying rose into the heavens.
And the angel said: a time will come when evil kings and their servants will rule the earth. Their hearts will be corrupt, filled with greed and darkness. They will speak with lying tongues of brotherly love and God and peace but plot war.
Then the angel said: war will come on wings of fire in the night and all that I had seen would come to pass, unless the cup was kept safe by just men.
And the angel said: that if the cup should come into the hands of the liars and the hypocrites, the final days of man would come to pass. But if the cup was kept safe by just men, then the Lord's judgment would be stayed.
"That's a hell of a prophecy," Nick said. "He's talking about the End of Days, isn't he? The Last Judgment?"
"It would be hard to see it as anything else," Selena said.
"Is that all he wrote?"
"Almost. There's one more short section."
And the angel said: go to Joseph of Arimathea and tell him of the Lord's message, for Joseph is chosen as guardian of the cup, until his time on earth is finished.
"If Joseph was the one chosen, how come the vision didn't appear to him?" Nick asked.
Selena looked at him and shook her head.
"Sometimes I really wonder about you, Nick."
CHAPTER 14
The next day Nick was on the phone again with Elizabeth.
"You found an eyewitness account of the crucifixion by the man who helped Christ carry the cross? Are you kidding me? That's what was in the box?"
"I know it sounds far-fetched. Selena is sure it's authentic. But that's not the best part."
"I can't wait to be surprised."
"The scrolls confirm the existence of the Holy Grail."
There was silence at the other end of the line.
"Are you still there, Director?"
"Did you really say that?"
"There's also a prophecy about the Grail."
Nick repeated what had been written on the scrolls.
"You said Selena thinks it's authentic?"
"That's what she says."
"This is going to cause a lot of trouble," Elizabeth said.
"That's what she said."
"I wonder if ISIS knows about this?"
"I don't think so," Nick said. "If they knew what was in those scrolls they wouldn't have sent them off with the rest of the looted artifacts."
"I have to think about this before I decide anything. What's the public reaction to the raid over there?"
"It's a big deal. There's a protest march being organized. The media is in a feeding frenzy. There are calls for criminal charges against Forsberg and an investigation of the KSI. Hussein is being painted by papers that follow the government line as an innocent victim of racial and religious prejudice. According to them, Forsberg is a trigger-happy fascist."
"And the rest of the media?"
"Demanding that the borders be closed and that the government send everyone back where they came from. Everything is black and white here, there's nothing in between."
"That sounds familiar," Elizabeth said. "What about your role in this? Has anyone got wind that you're involved?"