“You sure are. That nosebleed was a nasty business, eh?” Agatha agreed.
“Good to meet you, Agatha. I’m Sam,” Sam smiled and took her hand, since she only lifted it slightly to shake. Her odd mannerisms were obvious, but Sam could tell it was harmless.
“Sam Cleave,” Agatha said plainly, cocking her head sideways. Either she was impressed or seemed to acutely memorize Sam’s face for future reference. Then she looked down at the petite historian with a lively eagerness and rapped, “And you, Dr. Gould, are the one I’m after!”
Nina looked up at Sam, “See? I told you.”
Sam realized that this was the woman Nina had been referring to.
“So you were also in Russia?” Sam played dumb, but Purdue knew full well that the journalist was prying as to their less-than-coincidental meeting.
“Yes, looking for you, actually,” Agatha said. “But we’ll get to that once we get you into some proper clothing. Good God, that coat reeks.”
Nina was flabbergasted. The two women just looked at each other with blank expressions.
“Miss Purdue, I assume?” Sam asked, attempting to interrupt the tension.
“Yes, Agatha Purdue. I never married,” she replied.
“Not surprisingly,” Nina grunted with her head bowed, but Purdue heard her and chuckled to himself. He knew his sister took some getting used to and Nina was the least equipped to adapt to her eccentricity, for sure.
“I’m sorry, Dr. Gould. No insult was intended. You have to admit, the damned thing smells like the dead animal it is,” Agatha remarked nonchalantly. “But my not marrying was a choice, if you could believe such a thing.”
Now Sam chuckled with Purdue at Nina’s constant foul-ups brought on by that feisty nature.
“I didn’t mean ...” she tried to make up for it, but Agatha ignored her and took her bag.
“Come, dear. I’m going to buy you some new threads just up the road. We’ll be back before our flight is due,” Agatha said, flinging the coat on Sam’s arm.
“You are not traveling by private plane?” Nina asked.
“No, we took separate flights to make sure we were not traced too easily. Call it well-cultivated paranoia,” Purdue smiled.
“Or knowledge of impending discovery?” Agatha slammed her brother’s evasive ways head-on again. “Come on, Dr. Gould. Off we go!”
Before Nina could protest, the quirky woman was ushering her to the exit of the terminal while the men gathered up the bags and Nina’s awful rawhide gift.
“Now that we don’t have the instability of estrogen to derail our conversation, why don’t you fill me in how it is that you and Nina are not with Alexandr,” Purdue asked as they walked to the nearest coffee shop and sat down for some hot beverages. “God, please tell me that nothing befell the crazy Russian!” Purdue pleaded with one hand on Sam’s arm.
“No, he is still alive,” Sam started, but Purdue could hear by his tone that there was more to the news. “The Brigade Apostate has him.”
“So you managed to convince them that you were on their side?” Purdue asked. “Good for you. But now you’re both here and Alexandr ... is still with them. Sam, don’t tell me you escaped. You don’t want these men to think you are untrustworthy.”
“Why not? You don’t seem to come off worse for jumping from one to the other loyalty at the drop of a hat,” Sam chastised Purdue in no uncertain terms.
“Listen, Sam. I have to maintain my position to assure no harm comes to Nina. You know that,” Purdue explained.
“And what about me, Dave? Where do I fit in? You always drag me along with you.”
“No, I dragged you twice, by my count. The rest was just your own reputation as one of my party who had dunked you into the shit pit,” Purdue shrugged. He was right.
Most of the time it was just circumstances arising from Sam’s involvement with Trish’s attempt to oust the arms ring and his subsequent participation in Purdue’s excursion to Antarctica that led to his troubles. Only once after that had Purdue secured Sam’s services on Deep Sea One. Other than that it was just the fact that Sam Cleave was now firmly on the radar of the sinister organization that had not ceased its pursuit of him.
“I just want my life back,” Sam lamented as he stared into his cup of steaming Earl Grey.
“So do we all, but you have to realize that what we have gotten ourselves into now has to be dealt with first,” Purdue reminded him.
“On that note, where do we stand on the endangered species list of your friends?” Sam asked with genuine interest. He did not trust Purdue one bit more than he used to, but if he and Nina were in trouble, Purdue would have spirited them away by now to some remote place he owned where he would do away with them. Well, maybe not Nina, but certainly Sam. All he wanted to know was what Purdue had done with Renata, but he knew the industrious tycoon would never tell him, nor would he deem Sam important enough to reveal his plans.
“You are safe, for now, but this is far from over, I expect,” Purdue said. Coming from Dave Purdue, this morsel of information was generous.
At least Sam knew from a direct source that he did not have to look over his shoulder too much, obviously until the next fox horn sounded and he was back on the wrong end of the hunt.
13
It had been days since Sam and Nina ran into Purdue and his sister at Heathrow airport. Without too much sharing of information as to their respective circumstances and such, Purdue and Agatha had elected not to return to Wrichtishousis, Purdue’s mansion in Edinburgh. It was too much of a gamble, since the house was a well-known historical landmark and known to be Purdue’s residence.
Nina and Sam were advised to do the same, but they decided otherwise.
Before they parted ways again Agatha Purdue asked for an appointment with Nina to secure her services in the search for something Agatha’s client was after in Germany. Dr. Nina Gould’s reputation as a German history expert would be invaluable, as would Sam Cleave’s skill as photographer and journalist in the recording of all discoveries Miss Purdue might uncover.
“Of course, David also pried his way in under the consistent reminder that he facilitated our location of you and this subsequent meeting. I shall let him have his ego stroked, if only to escape his incessant metaphors and hints as to the matter of his importance. After all, it’s his money we are traveling on, so why deny the fool?” Agatha explained to Nina as they sat at the large round table of Purdue’s Manor near Thurso, at the most northern point of Scotland.
The place was empty, save for summer, when Agatha and Dave’s friend, Professor Something-or-Other, resided here. The luxurious manor sat just outside town near Dunnet Head. In the misty morning the few passing cars on the street looked like crawling phantoms outside the elevated living room window, but the fire inside kept the room very comfortable. Nina was enthralled by the design of the giant hearth she could easily walk into like a doomed soul entering hell. In fact, that was precisely what she imagined when she beheld the intricacy of the carvings of its black grid and the disturbing depictions in relief that framed the tall niche in the old stone wall of the house.
It was obvious by the nude bodies entwined with devils and animals on the relief, that the owner of the house was very impressed with Middle Age fire-and-brimstone images of heresy, purgatory, and divine punishment of bestiality. It gave Nina the creeps, but Sam entertained himself by running his hands over the curves of the female sinners, deliberately to annoy Nina.
“I suppose we could investigate this together,” Nina smiled accommodatingly, trying not to entertain Sam’s juvenile exploits while he waited for Purdue to return from the house’s wine cellar with something stronger to drink. Apparently the owner of the residence had a penchant for purchasing vodka from every country he frequented on his trips and storing the extra helpings he did not consume readily.
Sam took his place next to Nina when Purdue entered the room victoriously with two unlabeled bottles, one in each hand.
&nb
sp; “I suppose a request for coffee is out of the question,” Agatha sighed.
“Not so,” Dave Purdue smiled as he and Sam took the appropriate glasses from the grand cabinet next to the doorway. “There happens to be a percolator in there, but I was in too much of a hurry to sample this, I’m afraid.”
“Not to worry. I’ll make some later,” Agatha replied indifferently. “Thank the gods we have shortbread and savory cookies.
Agatha emptied two boxes of cookies onto two dinner plates, uncaring if they broke or crumbled. She seemed as antique as the fireplace to Nina. Much the same air surrounded Agatha Purdue as the ostentatious environment, where there lurked certain arcane and sinister ideologies, unabashedly on display. Just as these ominous items lived freely on the walls and furniture carvings, so was Agatha’s personality—void of excuses or subliminal meanings. What she said was what she thought and there was a certain liberty to it, Nina thought.
She wished she had the manner to state her thoughts without consideration of repercussion that only came from knowing one’s intellectual superiority and moral distance from the ways society dictated people to harbor honesty while uttering half-truths for the sake of political correctness. It was quite refreshing, although very patronizing, but Purdue had filled her in, a few days before, that his sister was that way with everyone and that he doubted that she was even aware of her rudeness.
Agatha refused the unknown alcohol the other three savored while she unpacked some documents from what looked like a school case Sam had early in high school, a brown leather satchel so worn that it had to be an antique. Some of the stitching had come loose on the side near the top of the case and the lid flipped open flaccidly from wear and age. The smell of it entranced Nina and she gently reached out to feel the texture between her thumb and the side of her index finger.
“Circa 1874,” Agatha boasted proudly. “Given to me by the chancellor of the University of Gothenburg, who later presided over the Museum of World Culture. Was his great grandfather’s, before the old bastard was killed by his wife in 1923 for buggery with a boy at the school where he tutored biology, I believe.”
“Agatha,” Purdue winced, but Sam held back a roar of laughter that even had Nina smiling.
“Wow,” Nina marveled, letting go of the case so that Agatha could put it away.
“Now, what my client asked of me, is to find this book, a journal purportedly brought to Germany by a soldier of the French Foreign Legion three decades after the Franco-Prussian War came to an end in 1871,” Agatha declared, pointing at a photograph of one of the pages from the book.
“That was the Otto von Bismarck era,” Nina mentioned while she scrutinized the document. She squinted, but still could not figure out what the messy ink noted on the page.
“It’s very hard to read, but my client insists that it is from a journal originally obtained during the Second Franco-Dahomean War by a legionnaire who was stationed in Abomey just before the subjugation of King Béhanzin in 1894,” Agatha recited her exposition like a professional narrator.
Her storytelling ability was astounding and with her perfect enunciation and change in tone she immediately drew in her audience of three to listen closely to the interesting rendition of the book she was seeking. “According to lore, the old man who wrote it died from respiratory failure in a field infirmary in Algiers somewhere in the early 1900s. According to the report,” she passed them another barely legible old certificate from the field medical officer, “he was well into his eighth decade and had mostly lived out his days.”
“So he was an old soldier who never returned to Europe?” Purdue asked.
“Correct. In his final days he befriended the German officer of the Foreign Legion stationed in Abomey, to whom he gave the journal shortly before his death,” Agatha affirmed. She ran her finger over the certificate as she continued.
“In the days they spent together he amused the German with all his war stories, all of which are transcribed in this journal. But one tale in particular was prevalent through the senile old soldier’s ramblings. During his duty in Africa, in 1845, his company was posted at the small holding of an Egyptian landowner who had inherited farmland from his grandfather and moved from Egypt as a young man to settle in Algeria. Now, this Egyptian man apparently had in his possession what the old soldier called ‘a treasure forgotten to the world’ and the location of said treasure was locked in the poem he penned later.”
“This very poem that we cannot read,” Sam sighed. He fell back in his chair and grabbed the glass of vodka. With a shake of his head he gulped it all down.
“That’s clever, Sam. As if this story isn’t confusing enough, you have to haze up your brain even more,” Nina said, shaking her head in turn. Purdue said nothing. But he followed suit and swallowed a mouthful. Both men groaned as they resisted slamming down the delicate glasses on the well-woven tablecloth.
Nina thought aloud, “So the German legionnaire brought it back home to Germany, but from there the journal was lost to obscurity.”
“Yes,” Agatha agreed.
“Then how does your client know about this book? Where did he get the photograph of the page?” Sam asked, sounding like the old journalistic cynic he used to be. Nina smiled in reaction. It was good to hear him sharp again.
Agatha rolled her eyes.
“Look, obviously a man who possesses a journal that holds the location of a world treasure will document it somewhere else for posterity, should it get lost or stolen or, God forbid, he croak before he could look for it,” she explained, gesturing wildly in her frustration. Agatha could not fathom how this was at all confusing to Sam. “My client discovered the documents and letters relaying the story among his grandmother’s belongings when she died. Its whereabouts were merely unknown. It didn’t cease to exist altogether, you know.”
Sam was too intoxicated to make a face at her, which is what he wanted to do.
“Look, it sounds more confusing than it is,” Purdue explained.
“Aye!” Sam agreed, unsuccessfully concealing the fact that he had not a clue.
Purdue poured another drink and summarized for Agatha’s approval, “So we have to find a journal that came from Algeria in the early 1900s.”
“Basically, yes. One step at a time,” his sister attested. “Once we have the journal, we can decipher the poem and figure out what the treasure is that he was referring to.”
“Would that not be for your client to do?” Nina asked. “After all, you need to procure a journal for your client. Cut and dried.”
The other three gawked at Nina.
“What?” she asked, shrugging.
“Don’t you want to know what it is, Nina?” Purdue asked in astonishment.
“You know, I’m a bit off adventure as of late, in case you haven’t noticed. It would be good for me just to consult on this and stay the hell out of the way for the rest of it. You all are welcome to go ahead and hunt for what might well be bullshit, but I am done with elaborate chases,” she rambled.
“How can it be bullshit?” Sam asked. “There is the poem right there.”
“Yes, Sam. The only copy in existence for all we know and it’s fucking indecipherable!” she snapped, her voice raised in annoyance.
“Jesus, I can’t believe you,” Sam fought back. “You are a fucking historian, Nina. History. Remember that? Isn’t that what you live for?”
Nina pinned Sam with her blazing leer. After some pause, she calmed down and simply replied, “I don’t know anymore.”
Purdue held his breath. Sam’s jaw dropped. Agatha ate a cookie.
“Agatha, I’ll help you find this book, because it is what I am good at ... and you unfroze my finances before you paid me for this, and for that I am eternally grateful. Really,” Nina said.
“You did that? You gave us back our accounts. Agatha, you are a right champion!” Sam exclaimed, unaware in his rapidly growing inebriation that he interrupted Nina.
She gave him a reprimandi
ng look and carried on, addressing Agatha, “But that is all I am going to do this time.” She looked at Purdue with a decidedly baleful expression. “I am done running for my life because of people throwing money at me.”
None of them had either a retort or a feasible argument as to why she should reconsider. Nina could not believe that Sam was so zealous to embark on another of Purdue’s chases.
“Have you forgotten why we are here, Sam?” she asked plainly. “Have you forgotten that we are only sipping devil piss in a posh house in front of a warm fire because Alexandr offered to be our insurance?” Nina’s voice was fraught with silent rage.
Purdue and Agatha shot quick glances at each other, wondering what Nina was trying to tell Sam. The journalist just held his tongue, nursing his drink while he didn’t dare look at her.
“You go on your treasure hunt to God knows where, but I will keep my word. We have three weeks left, old boy,” she said coarsely. “At least I’m going to do something about it.”
14
Agatha knocked on Nina’s door just after midnight.
Purdue and his sister had persuaded Nina and Sam to stay on at the Thurso house until they had figured out where to begin searching. Sam and Purdue were still drinking down in the billiards room, their alcohol-induced discussions escalating in volume with every match, and every glass. The subject matter between the two educated men ranged from football scores to German recipes; from the best angle to cast a line at fly fishing to the Loch Ness monster and its relation to bi-location. But when the stories of naked Glasgow hooligans came up, Agatha could stand no more and she quietly went up to where Nina had escaped the rest of the party after her little disagreement with Sam.
“Come in, Agatha,” she heard the historian’s voice chime from the other side of the thick oak door. Agatha Purdue opened the door and to her surprise she did not find Nina Gould lying on her bed with tear-reddened eyes, pouting about what assholes men were. As she would also have done, Agatha saw Nina delving into the Internet to research the background of the tale and trying to ascertain the parallels between the hearsay and the actual chronological run of similar tell during that estimated era.
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