“So, you’re going to walk away from this one?”
“Not a chance.”
Jim sighed. “I figured not.”
“Thanks for your help, Jim. I’ll be in touch. We may have need of your services again sometime.”
“Happy to,” the Englishman said and ended the call.
Sean strode back over to the others. Alex was just finishing the final scan of the book, and Tara was removing her mask, stepping away from the table.
“Petrov is dead,” Sean announced, his voice subdued.
Tommy’s eyes brightened for a moment then narrowed. “Why don’t you seem happy about that?”
“He worked for a wealthy Frenchman named Gerard Dufort. It seems this Dufort is not one to be trifled with. Turns out, he’s dirty. Real dirty. Jim said the rumors are that he runs a human trafficking ring out of Paris, but no one has been willing to take him down. He’s got heavy influence with the local authorities and the French government.”
“Sounds to me like they’re on the take,” Tommy commented.
“Right.”
“But why kill Petrov?” Adriana asked. “Why now? He surely delivered the coin.”
“I wondered the same thing. Maybe they had a disagreement. Based on Dufort’s reputation, I doubt Petrov would say much to the man, but you never know.”
“Why kill him now?” Adriana posited.
Sean crossed his arms and straightened his back. “The only thing that makes sense is that Dufort knows about the book.” He pointed at the open copy of Hamlet. “Maybe not specifically that it is a book, but that there was another clue Petrov was supposed to bring back. From Jim’s description, the body wasn’t exactly hidden. So either Dufort wants us to back off and give up, or it could be something else.”
Tommy was puzzled, but the answer came to him before Sean said it. “He wants to send us a message.”
“That’s what I’m thinking.”
Adriana’s mind was running now too. “What could be so important that he would kill one of his own men to try to keep us from pursuing it?”
“Must be pretty valuable,” Alex said from the wall near the doorway. He flipped on the overhead fluorescent lights, bathing the room in a sterile glow.
His comment was an obvious conclusion, but anything’s value depends on how much someone wants it, a fact Sean knew well. Dufort’s actions proved that whatever secrets the legend of Holger Danske held, he was willing to go to extreme lengths to possess them.
“Tara,” Sean spoke up, taking the subject on a slight detour, “were you and Alex able to dig up anything new with the Holger Danske story?”
She shut off the spotlights mounted on the desk and removed her protective gloves. “Not much,” she said, pulling up a stool at a computer station directly behind where she’d been working. “But the story is certainly interesting.”
Sean made his way back to the group and listened closely as she relayed the tale.
“It took quite a bit of digging, as you put it, to find this little tidbit.” She tapped on the keyboard a few times and motioned for Alex to plug the camera into the USB. After he’d done what she asked, she clicked the mouse a few times and then spun around while the computer automatically imported the images.
“There is a poem involving Holger, or Ogier le Danois, as he is referred to in the writing. The poem is actually French. It’s called The Song of Roland. As the story goes, he was the son of the Danish king Gudfred, a major enemy of Charlemagne, the medieval king who laid the foundations for modern France. The problem with this story is that Gudfred didn’t have a son name Ogier or Holger, nothing close to that.”
“So who was he then?” Tommy wondered out loud.
Tara went on. “As best we can figure, he was likely one of Gudfred’s Viking knights. According to some of the Danish historical archives, there was a Danish knight that served under Charlemagne for a time, most likely during the king’s campaign in Spain. How long he may have served exactly, we don’t know. But we do know that at some point, the knight fell out of favor with Charlemagne and ended up having to fight his way out of the country. It’s rumored that he killed one of Charlemagne’s sons in the process.”
A question stuck out in Sean’s mind. “Why did Holger go to Charlemagne in the first place? If he and Gudfred were rivals, it would seem the last thing he would do is send Holger to serve under his enemy’s banner.”
“We thought the same thing,” Alex said. “At some point in the tenuous relationship, there was a time of peace. Charlemagne held out an olive branch to his nemesis and offered a truce. In exchange, Gudfred offered his mightiest warrior.”
“Something still doesn’t add up,” Adriana interrupted. “Even if there were a cease fire, you never give the enemy your biggest weapon. No matter how much you want to convey trust.”
“Right,” Tara agreed. “Which means there had to be an underlying reason as to why Gudfred would send Holger to Charlemagne.”
“He had a vast treasure,” Tommy offered. “They’re still recovering some of the relics, artwork, and gold that disappeared over the last twelve hundred years.”
“It would have to be something more important than money,” Sean corrected. “The Danish coffers of the time were doing just fine.”
“Well,” Tara said and then paused for a second, “there was something else that Charlemagne was rumored to have in his possession.” She waited until everyone was staring anxiously at her. “Please keep in mind that I already know what the claims are in regards to this particular item. Alex and I discussed it at length. But the truth is that even though many people say they have the authentic one, it is extremely difficult to validate.”
The other four in the room stared at her with a “spit it out, already” expression.
“The Holy Lance,” Alex blurted out.
“Alex, I was just about to say that,” Tara chastised him.
“You were taking too long.”
“Yeah! Because it’s just a tad crazy that we are telling them we believe that the Holy Lance isn’t in Vatican City or any other sacred place, and that all the people who claim to have it are really just charlatans peddling relics.”
“To be fair,” Sean quipped, “you never actually called anyone a charlatan.”
“No,” Tara agreed. “But some people take those things very seriously.”
“We’re aware,” Tommy said.
Adriana cut in again. “So you are saying that the real reason Holger Danske went to serve in Charlemagne’s court was so he could steal the lance that pierced Christ’s side?”
“It’s the only thing that makes sense,” Alex defended. “During the coronation of Charlemagne as king of the Lombards, the accounts tell us that he grasped the shaft of the spear. That is a fairly well-known part of the story. What’s interesting about this is the word that was used to describe Charlemagne’s action. It was translated into English and many other languages as grasp or take hold, but looking back on the records of the event, the word that was used had another meaning. This other translation suggests that Charlemagne took the lance.”
Tommy stopped her right there. “Wait. You mean he stole it?”
“We’re not entirely sure, but it looks that way. There are records from the Lombard historian, Paul the Deacon, that say there were several instances the lance was seen tucked away in Charlemagne’s throne room. Though he didn’t have it in his possession at all times, the accounts suggest that he might have showed it off when he needed to assert his power.”
Alex interrupted, “Basically like a kid showing off their new bike to a friend.”