“It’s what? I’m sorry, say again.”
Natalie cut in.
“It’s said that as a punishment for what he did Longinus was cursed to walk the earth in perpetual immortality. The wandering jew is of a legend about a man who taunted Christ on his way to his crucifixion and was then cursed to walk the earth until the second coming of our lord. The two stories very often get confused.”
“I thought we discovered back in London that Longinus himself was beheaded.”
“He was,” Dennis replied, “He was beheaded in front of a king who was blind and the king’s sight was restored when he was splashed by the blood of Longinus. Or so the story goes. Like we said, it’s only a legend.”
Hutchinson was studying the four spears again. The Schatzkammer one was the only one sketched with a shaft.
“Now this is interesting,” Hutchinson said, “The Vienna spear is the only one depicted as having the shaft attached.
Dennis and Natalie both craned their necks to see.
“Do you suppose the shaft is needed. Maybe that’s the missing piece of the puzzle. Maybe it’s not relics at all. Would it still exist?”
Dennis saw a sign on the wall announcing free wi-fi. He picked up Hutchinson’s permanently left on lap top.
“Mind if I have a look?”
“Be my guest.”
Dennis got the answer in less than a minute.
“The shaft is in one of the four pillars of st Peter’s church.”
“Why didn’t they go for it then.”
“Probably they knew it would be impossible,” Natalie said.
“Or without the journal you’re holding they didn’t even know of its existence.”
“Hey. Apparently, legend has it, that another spear shaft exists in Israel or Palestine. The whereabouts is unknown.”
“That’s not much help,” Hutchinson said studying the drawings of the spear and shaft both separate and then joined together. The joined drawing had a halo around the spear head.
“It would seem that Doctor Von Brest knew that the spear was magical only when complete and joined to the shaft, Hutchinson tapped the leather bound journal, “That would now explain why Von Werner was desperate to get this back,”
“And kidnap you for it.”
Hutchinson turned another page. The creature sketched was hideous.
“What the hell is this?”
Dennis and Natalie leaned in again for another look. The creature drawn had its hands held up to its face and was screaming. The fingers were long with long fingernails like talons. The teeth were long and pointed, sharp fangs to rip at flesh. The jaw was also long and frayed in the sketch, where the jaw ended couldn’t be seen and yet, strangely, the creature was wearing what appeared to be Roman armour. There wasn’t enough of the shoulders and torso drawn to verify it but the armour definitely looked to be Roman. Next to the sketch were the words ’Casca Loggius’
“Casca Loggius,” Hutchinson said, “Is that the name of a place. Like city of the dead or something.”
“No,” Dennis shook his head, “It’s him. Longinus. Von Brest has misspelt the name. Or got it confused with someone else. These are very common names in ancient Rome.”
“Longinus? Don’t tell me you believe the story that he still walks the earth.”
Dennis looked at the foul creature in the sketch.
“If that’s anything to go by. I hope not.”
Hutchinson turned the next page, glad to be rid of the foul monster. On the next page was a sketch of the church of the holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. He flicked back a few pages to Christ on the cross, his side pierced by Longinus. Dennis was taking a swig of his coffee. Natalie had taken over the lap top and she suddenly looked up.
“I think I’ve found our missing link. There is a second possible location for the spear shaft,” she said spinning the computer screen around for them to see.
“Where?” they both asked excitedly.
Natalie brought up a map and zoomed out slightly.
“Qumran?” Dennis asked, “Where or what is that?”
“It’s the caves in Palestine where the dead sea scrolls were discovered,” Hutchinson answered, “It’s always been rumoured that they were linked to Christ himself. They’re certainly from the same time period. The Vatican on the other hand dismisses any evidence of Christ and the scrolls though.”
Natalie looked for more clues on the web page.
“Anything else?” Dennis asked.
Natalie read on. There were more clues and she read them out one at a time. Hutchinson listened intently. He continued to flick backwards and forwards between the pages of the journal.
Then he looked up.
“How sure are you that Von Werner is trying to heal himself?”
“I’m certain of it.”
He flicked through one last time and then snapped the journal shut. Natalie and Dennis still had their faces shoved into the lap top screen. Hutchinson suddenly jumped to his feet.
“Give me your tickets.”
They did as they were told. The American dashed off to find an official.
“What’s going on?” Natalie asked.
“ I Don’t know.”
Hutchinson was taken to a desk and a customs official came out to speak to him.
“I need to cancel these tickets.” he said, “I need three tickets for the next flight to Tel Aviv.”
The customs man picked up his telephone.
“Peter?” Natalie said.
“I think we’re still in the game,” he replied.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Natalie looked across at the Mediterranean sea just four miles away and twinkling in the sunshine. It was a warm late October afternoon. The sky overhead clear. The sound of Israeli fighter jets never far away.
For the first time the team of Natalie, Dennis and Hutchinson had entered a war zone. From Rome Hutchinson had intended for the three of them to enter Israel directly but Dennis had persuaded them the easiest and best way to enter the Palestinian territories, currently closed to tourism, was through Egypt and the Rafah border crossing.
They had needed special permission to enter Gaza, as all visitors do, and during a three day stay over in Alexandria, Egypt, Hutchinson had managed to go to his office and make a phone call to a contact from the international solidarity movement for human welfare, otherwise known as the ISM, to invite them in as guests. Dennis’ status as a freelance journalist helping to speed up the normally three week waiting period process for the invite. Hutchinson had managed to arrange important archaeological permits to accompany them.
Dennis had acquired the 1994 Land Rover defender they were travelling in from someone he knew in Alexandria and the vehicle was perfect for what they needed. He had paid a fair price for it and had removed the black UN lettering from the white paint.
“Wouldn’t it be better to leave those on?” Hutchinson had asked.
“No,” Dennis had replied, pulling the last of the black stickers off. Their outline could still be made out as the paint around them had discoloured over the years, “Trust me they’ll only draw the wrong sort of attention to us and as westerners we are targets for kidnapping as it is,” he glanced at Natalie in the rear view mirror, “It might be a good idea to get rid of your ‘I love NY’ hat,”
He threw her a black and white Keffiyeh, the traditional head scarf worn by Arabs, “Put that on instead.”
“I thought only men wore them,” she said, tying it in place.
“Some women wear them. In some countries they’ve become a fashionable item.”
She concealed her blonde ponytail in it and caught a glimpse of her reflection in the window.
“I quite like it,” she said.
“I don’t understand why we couldn’t have just flown into Gaza this morning,” Hutchinson said as they passed a sign for the Yasser Arafat airport.