Adriana frowned. “Wait a minute. The North Koreans were arrested, same as us. I saw the police taking them away.”
“Yes,” Baldwin said. “They were arrested. And subsequently they escaped. They never reached the station. Two cops were killed in the process.”
“What?” Sean said. The mood in the room turned serious all of a sudden. “How is that possible?”
“We’re not sure. But just in case you think I’m lying, here’s the headline.”
He pressed a button on a small remote in his hand, and the biggest screen on the back wall switched to a local newspaper. The headline corroborated Baldwin’s story: Two dead in escape plot.
“How is that possible?” June asked.
“You four need to understand something. The Brotherhood represents good in this world. We are protectors of a powerful relic that, if in the wrong hands, could bring about the end of the world.”
Sean was dubious. “I’m sorry, man. But I have trouble believing one sword could cause that much trouble in a world of air forces and tanks and navies. Not to mention the armed public, in America of course.”
“You really don’t understand what you’re looking for. Do you?”
“I guess not. I thought we were looking for the sword of King Arthur.”
Baldwin shook his head. “Arthur was only one of many who held the sword.”
“Yes, we know that,” Tommy cut in. “There were eight others.”
“No. There were more than that. Many more.”
The puzzled looks on the faces of the four Americans told the blond man to keep talking.
Baldwin stepped around behind one of the workstations in the center of the room, putting the large screen directly behind him. “Long ago, our world was hit with a barrage of meteors. Many burned up in the atmosphere. One, however, made it through our planet’s natural shield and struck the Earth. Hundreds of years passed before anyone found it.”
“Joshua,” Tommy said in a reverent tone.
“Very good,” Baldwin said. “Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and all the way to the border of Canaan. But he was not allowed to lead the people into the promised land. That task was passed to his apprentice, Joshua.”
“Sinai,” Sean said. “Moses found the stone on Mount Sinai.”
“I can see your intuition is strong, Sean. The stone found by Moses emitted a powerful form of radiation. It made the one who possessed it extremely powerful, but it also had consequences.”
“Consequences?” Adriana asked.
“Yes. While this type of radiation wasn’t immediately harmful, it effectively caused genetic disorders that eventually resulted in death.”
“He who raises the sword will die by it,” Sean quoted the text from Matthew.
“Precisely. For a short time, the sword will give incredible power to the one who wields it. However, if it is not surrendered, it will cause death.”
Tommy shook his head. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand. You were talking about a meteor. Now it’s a sword. Which is it?”
“The story about the sword in the stone is allegorical. In truth, Excalibur was forged by combining metal of Earth and metal from the meteor. It was the ultimate weapon, a sword of God.”
“And whoever took it into battle couldn’t lose,” Tommy whispered.
Baldwin went on. “Now, the forces of evil seek the sword. If they succeed in locating it, the North Koreans will be unstoppable. I don’t believe I need to tell you what that would look like for humanity.”
He was right. Everyone knew about the massacres in North Korea, the corruption, the people starving to death every day. If they were able to take over, their way of doing things would spread like a pestilence.
“Still hard to believe that a single sword could cause that much trouble. Like we said, in an age of planes and bombs and such, what harm could it cause?” Tommy asked.
“If the sword is found, they could use it to alter their own genetics.” Baldwin paused for a moment to let the implications set in. “They could create a race of super soldiers.”
Everyone in the room fell silent for a long minute.
“Okay,” Tommy said. “We get it. Sword in wrong hands, bad. So let’s just go get it and move it to another location. That way, they can never find it.”
Baldwin’s statuesque expression flinched. He glanced over at the man with the bandage on his head.
“Wait a minute,” Sean said. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
“What?” Adriana asked, turning to Sean.
He shook his head. “They have no idea where it is. Do you?”
Baldwin drew in a deep breath. He finally shook his head as he exhaled. “No.”
Chapter 14
“Hold on,” Tommy said. “You guys are protecting this thing, but you have no idea where it is? Doesn’t sound like you’re very good at what you do.”
Baldwin crossed his arms. “We monitor everything,” he said. “When someone finds something related to the sword, we intervene.”
“And scare them off the trail,” Sean said.
“I wouldn’t put it that way, but yes. We deter people from searching further.”
“I have to ask,” June said, emboldened, “how is all of this funded?” She waved a hand at the tech gadgets surrounding them. “This kind of operation can’t be cheap.”
“We’re a special order of the church. This is our monastery.”
“Wow,” Sean gasped. “So you guys are like warrior monks?”
“We are ordained by the church, yes. So technically, we’re priests assigned to protecting the sword at all costs.”
“A sword you still can’t find,” Tommy added.
“Mr.… Tommy, we believe it is safer if no one knows the true location of the sword to better protect it and the world from its power. That means no one in the Brotherhood can know its location either.”
It was an old trick. Sean had heard of that sort of thing before. Better no one know where the treasure is. That way, no one would be tempted to go take it. In this case, the treasure was a radioactive sword.
“So this sword, if found, could be manipulated to genetically alter human beings?” Sean asked. “Sorry, but that sounds a little too much like science fiction.”
“Look at the facts, Sean,” Baldwin leveled his gaze with the American’s. “The nine men you know of were incredible warriors. They never really suffered defeat.”
“There. You said it again.”
“Said what?”
“You said the nine men we know of. Earlier, you said something similar to that. Are you saying there are others?” Sean raised an eyebrow.
Baldwin drew another long breath in through his nose. “The history of Excalibur is a sordid one. It was held — for a time — in Ireland. It was called Caladbolg then. Some of Ireland’s greatest heroes wielded it in battle and, as a result, enjoyed incredible military success. Songs were sung about their exploits. But nothing lasts forever. Those who raised the sword died by it, and it disappeared once more.”
The room fell silent again as the visitors processed the information. Sean considered the story, though there were still some missing pieces.
“Who else had the sword? Were there others besides the Irish?”
“Of course. Excalibur turned the tide of the Trojan War. Troy was wiped from the face of the Earth, never to be seen again — much like Jericho when Joshua and the Israelites invaded Canaan.”
Tommy nodded. “The Bible says the entire city was wiped out. I thought the Ark of the Covenant did that.”
Baldwin’s lips creased slightly. “The Ark was a powerful weapon in its own right. When combined with the sword, the Israelites were almost invincible.”