“I have a digital security system. It records the inside of my apartment constantly. I’m able to remotely access its logs from my smartphone. When I started to receive messages from my neighbors asking if I was okay, I logged onto my security account and watched the footage.”
“What did you do?”
“The only thing I could. I withdrew my entire savings in cash, keeping the bulk of my life-savings stored in untraceable Bit Coins. Then I got on a train in London and traveled through to Paris, Munich, Vienna, Budapest, Bucharest and finally Istanbul — where I’ve been hiding ever since.”
“Why Istanbul?”
“My great ancestor made a note about Emerald Star being the second expedition to steal the Death Mask. The first attempt failed in 1653 when the Mary Rose, carrying a stone map of the desert was sunk in a storm in the Black Sea. I have a map he drew of the two expeditions.”
Peter handed it to him and Tom scanned the map, drawn on well-aged vellum. It formed a primitive outline of the African continent, Mediterranean Sea through to the Black Sea. An asterisk was observed in the middle of the Black Sea approximately forty miles out from Istanbul, if the drawings were to a correct scale. Next to this, was the name, Mary Rose, 1653 — First failed expedition. Tom studied it for a few minutes, making sure he read each word correctly.
Tom smiled. “You came here to find it, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“And what did you find?”
“It took nearly a year but I found the wreck. It’s located about thirty miles north of Istanbul and was supposed to be carrying a stone map that charted the position of the ancient pyramid of the Namibian Desert.”
“Did you find it?”
“No,” Peter said. “I found the shipwreck, but it may as well have remained lost for all the good that it does me. The ship that was moving the stone across the Black Sea struggled with the weight of the stone in a storm, and floundered.”
“Why didn’t you recover the stone?”
“I headed over there. Hired a boat and some dive equipment. You see I couldn’t go in with a big professional group of divers, because the treasure hunters would then all get involved.”
Tom nodded. “Go on.”
“In the end, the Mary Rose was too deep to reach.”
“How deep does she rest?”
“Nearly three thousand feet. Impossible to reach using anything but commercial dive equipment.”
“If I could reach it, would you be willing to give me the precise location?”
“Sure. Why, do you have some experience deep sea diving?”
“A little.” Tom grinned. “There’s a chance I might just have a way to reach it.”
Chapter Thirty-One — Paris, France
It was a warm night in Paris and the Eiffel Tower glowed golden as local Parisians and tourists walked the airy and restaurant lined streets of one of the most romantic cities on earth. Few of those out tonight realized that, at the time of construction, Gustave Eiffel had built a secret apartment for himself at the very highest level of the tower at a height of 1,063 feet. Fewer still knew that tonight a very private arm of the Christies Auction House had managed to secure the apartment for just three hours in order to receive bids for one of the most startling auctions in their history.
Sam Reilly sat in the very narrow apartment, which was barely large enough to fit the four bidders and a single auctioneer. The item in question was being handled by a very private section of Christies Auction House, which specialized in extremely rare and esoteric artifacts. He doubted the validity of the claim, and had it not been for the reputation of Christies he wouldn’t have been interested, but as it was, the item being sold tonight might just buy him the answers he’d been looking for in his search for Dr. Billie Swan.
Bidding was on an invitation-only basis. He glanced around the room. With the exception of the auctioneer, he recognized a man called John Wallis who worked for the Swiss Guard at the Vatican, but two other men he didn’t recognize at all. They both wore dark suits and looked like professional antiquity buyers — people who purchased items on other people’s behalf — and they were talking to each other animatedly. The auction was held in the strictest privacy and none of the bidder’s names would be revealed. Not that it mattered to Sam. He didn’t care less who was involved, so long as his bid won.
The auction was set as a first-price sealed-bid auction, known as a blind auction. In this type of auction, all bidders simultaneously submit their sealed bids, so that no bidder knows the bid of any other participant. The highest bidder pays the price they submitted. In theory it was the most powerful way to drive up the price, particularly with something this valuable and important, where the bidders were willing to invest heavily to secure the item. In an open auction the winning bidder would theoretically still be willing to pay more than what he or she paid, whereas in this case, everyone will have placed their utmost highest price on the bid.
The auctioneer waited until he received radio confirmation that no one else was on the Eiffel Tower. Privacy was of the utmost concern in this matter for two reasons. First the bidders all intended to remain anonymous, so that no-one else would attempt to follow them to the location when it was time to collect the item. And secondly, the item on sale tonight was entirely illegal — so the auction house needed to distance itself from the transaction.
Having received the confirmation, the auctioneer began to describe the item including scientific data to support the claim’s validity.
The man coughed. “My name is Raymond Howser. I’m here on behalf of the current owner of the item. As you are all aware the item on sale tonight is the location of what appears to be an ancient temple. Inside which are some very detailed drawings of people, most notably a very good depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.”
Raymond coughed. “What makes this discovery even more valuable is that inside the mostly frozen cavern lies the remains of a wooly mammoth, an animal known to become extinct in the region more than ten thousand years ago. Radiocarbon dating shows that it’s between 9130–8800 BCE.”
There was a slight stir from the four bidders. They had all heard of the discovery, of course, or they wouldn’t even be there, but hearing someone from the highly esteemed and reputable auction house of Christies confirm its authenticity was nevertheless a thrilling confirmation of the auction’s value.
Raymond continued. “As you are all aware the location of the cavern is not private land and as such we don’t have the ability to sell the actual ancient temple ourselves. Instead, what is on offer today is the location of the cavern, which we can guarantee that currently no one other than the offeror and the employees of Christies know.” He paused slightly to allow the bidders to consider what was actually being sold. “As a representative of Christies, I would be remiss if I did not remind each of you that an archeological treasure trove such as this would need to be reported to the local government, and after doing so, it would be almost certain that you would lose possession of any item or image discovered inside. Do I make myself clear?”
There was a quiet sound of acknowledgement throughout the small group of men in the apartment at the top of the Eiffel Tower, as each tacitly agreed to ignore this advice.
“Good, then on your chairs you will find an envelope. Inside I would like you to write your final offer for the said item.” Raymond looked around at the four men. “You may or may not know the other buyers in this room, but I assure you this is an extremely exclusive group of purchasers. Each of you has been granted the opportunity to bid on this item because Christies believes you have a particular interest in what is on hand, and the substantial financial resources at your disposal to purchase it. The winner tonight, I assure you, will have paid a very high price.”