“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.”
14
Cologne
“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.”
“Almost?” Adriana asked.
“They became consumed with being more like their neighbors. As you Americans say, keeping up with the Joneses. Greed, lust, and other temptations took hold of their nation. That’s why the Brotherhood was formed. Since the time of Joshua, we have protected it. When a worthy warrior reveals himself, only then did we remove it from its hiding place.”
Sean was confused. “So wait a minute. You guys knew where it was and were responsible for giving it to people you deemed worthy throughout history.”
“Only when it was needed,” Baldwin interrupted.
“Right. Fine. So what happened? Did someone misplace it along the line or what? Seems like an awfully important relic to lose.”
Baldwin pushed back his irritation. “No. One of our forefathers returned it to its resting place and hid it so that it couldn’t be used for evil.”
“But you said that part of what you guys do is bring it out in times of need, to give it to a worthy warrior. Seems like if you’re supposed to do that, it might be handy to know where it is.”
Baldwin realized Sean made a good point, one for which he didn’t have an answer. He looked down at the floor for a moment, perplexed by the issue. “Thank you for pointing that out. Our orders now are that we do not allow anyone to find it. That is our creed and will continue to be until the end of time.”
Sean thought about pointing out their blind obedience, but he decided he’d asked enough questions on that issue.
“What about the North Koreans?” Adriana asked. “You said they want to engineer some kind of super soldiers. How do you know that? And what happened to the guys who escaped earlier?”
“We have reason to believe that one of the Chairman’s generals is going to try to overthrow the government and seize control of the country. While most of the military is loyal to the leader, if the general were to acquire the sword, his coup would be virtually guaranteed a victory.”
“So why not send a message to Dear Leader? Tell him that he’s got a rebellious general in his midst. Let him take care of the problem.” Tommy brought up a good point. Sean knew the answer, but he let Baldwin give it.
“The Chairman does not take well to messages from the outside world. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but he tends to be a bit paranoid when it comes to that sort of thing.”
Was that sarcasm? Sean wondered. Up until that point, he was fairly certain Baldwin was a robot with no emotions, feelings, or a sense
of humor.
“Were we to send him a message, he would simply ignore it,” Baldwin finished his thought.
“He’s right,” Sean agreed. “They look at anything coming in from the outside as propaganda. Wouldn’t believe it for a second.”
“So what do we do?” June asked.
“You,” Baldwin said in a sharp tone, “will do nothing. You will let us do what we have been trained to do. We will eliminate the threat and keep the sword safe.”
“Well, you guys are doing a bang-up job right now,” Sean said. “You’ve got a North Korean hit squad running loose in Europe right now.”
“And if you’d stay out of our way, we could get back to taking care of them.”
“Do you even know where they are, where they’re going?”
“We’ll know shortly.”
“And how is that?”
“We have our methods.” Baldwin snarled the last word.
The others in the room felt like they were watching two young rams butting heads.
“You still didn’t answer my question,” Adriana said. “How do you know about their plans for the super soldiers? And how did the North Koreans learn about the medallion and the other clues?”
Baldwin looked over at the man with the bandage on his head. The guy shrugged and then gave a nod.
“They had help.”
“Help?” Tommy asked. “What kind of help?”
Baldwin shifted, clearly uncomfortable with either the question or the answer. No one in the room could figure out which.
“For the better part of two decades, they’ve been searching for Excalibur. Initially, it was the former Chairman’s idea. When he learned about it and the potential it held, he spent millions scouring the globe to find it. When he died, his son took over and scrapped the entire project. Said it was a foolish errand, a wild goose chase. He wanted to spend more money on nuclear warheads and less on trying to find a mythical sword with magical powers. The general, however, was less willing to let go.”
Baldwin turned to the big screen and pressed a button on his remote again. The image of a man in North Korean military garb appeared on the screen. He had an angry scowl on his face that looked like it might have been permanent.
“This is General Ku Min-Woo. He was behind the initial search. It was he who convinced the previous Chairman to search for the sword. When the son refused to continue looking, Min-Woo started formulating a plan to seize power. He has a loyal group of followers in the army. You met some of them today.”
“We actually met them before,” Sean said.
Adriana ignored the comment and pressed on. “You said they had help. Who would help the North Koreans? Chinese? The Russians?”
Baldwin shook his head slowly. “No. They are not involved. The Chinese know better than to mess with them. The Russians might have, but they didn’t know anything about the sword.”
“Who then?” Tommy asked.
Baldwin paused, contemplating how to answer. His eyes blinked rapidly. When he spoke, it was in a grave tone. “They had help from American archaeologists.”
“What?” Tommy said. “Why would Americans help them? They’re like the weakest enemy we have. Every American knows that. Why in the world would someone do anything that could help make North Korea more powerful?”
“They didn’t do it willingly, Tommy. They were forced to.”
“So they’re prisoners?” Sean said.
Baldwin nodded, but for some reason he kept looking at Tommy. “Yes. They were captured almost twenty years ago. We believe the previous Chairman knew what they were looking for and tracked them. Once he had them…let’s just say they have ways of getting what they want out of their captives.”
“He tortured them,” June said. “Ugh, that must have been awful. For twenty years, living like slaves? I can’t imagine.”
Baldwin’s gaze never left Tommy.
It was clearly making Tommy uncomfortable. “Um, why do you keep looking at me like that? It’s kind of weird. I get it. I’m an archaeologist; the Americans who helped the General tin-boo or whatever are archaeologists. You’re creeping me out a little.”
Sean’s eyes widened as the realization hit him. He knew it before Baldwin opened his mouth to speak.
“Tommy,” Baldwin said, “the people helping the North Koreans…they’re your parents.”
15
Cologne
“What did you just say?” Tommy stared at the leader of the Brotherhood.
At first, the man’s words barely seemed real. It took a minute before they set in. When that happened, Tommy’s confusion turned to anger. His eyes blazed like bonfires, and his nose flared with every breath.
He stood up from his chair suddenly. The man behind him placed his hand on Tommy’s shoulder to force him back down, but he may as well have been a fly buzzing around a bull. Tommy swatted his hand away and shoved the man in the chest with surprising force.
The guy started to step toward Tommy, but Baldwin held up a hand—a silent order to stand down.
“You got a lot of nerve bringing up my parents. What kind of sick joke is this?” Tommy’s voice raged, booming off the walls like thunder.
Baldwin remained calm, keeping his voice low and even. “I know that it must be hard to hear. I can’t imagine the tidal wave of emotions you must be feeling. But it’s no lie. Your parents are alive, Tommy. They’ve been living in North Korea for the last two decades.”
“Shut up! Stop it! Do you hear me? Stop it!” Tommy yelled. Tears welled in his eyes. His face burned red.
“As far as we know, they’re okay. They’ve been living in a nice apartment under the careful supervision of General Min-Woo. Our operative said they have not been harmed, they’re well fed, and well cared for.”
“No,” Tommy shook his head emphatically. “No. This can’t be real.” He lowered his voice and bit his lower lip. “They were killed in a plane crash.”
Baldwin treaded carefully with the subject. “That’s what you were told, Tommy. But the plane was never found. You know that. When search teams couldn’t find it, they assumed it was lost at sea. It wasn’t.”
Tommy started to jump over the counter to tackle Baldwin, but Sean sprang out of his chair and wrapped a strong arm around his friend’s chest.
“Easy, buddy,” Sean said, holding his friend back. “Take it easy.” Sean turned to one of the other guys. “Can you get him a bottle of water or something?”
One of the men nodded and disappeared through the door at the other end of the room.
Tommy choked. Sean felt him go limp as he held him, so he eased his friend back into his seat. Tommy collapsed, putting his head in his hands. He could control the tears no longer, and the dam holding them back burst, letting them flood down both cheeks and through his fingers.
Sean looked up at Baldwin. “For your sake, I hope you’re not making this up. Because if you are, I’ll kill you myself. Do you have any idea what he’s been through over the years?”
“I can only guess,” Baldwin said. “I’m not lying, though. Have a look for yourself.” He pressed the button again, and the screen behind him changed.
It was a black-and-white image of a window, taken from a considerable distance. There was no mistaking the faces in the glass. Tommy’s mother and father were sitting at a table. They were surrounded by papers. His father held a pen in one hand. His mother was looking at a stack of files.
Sean couldn’t believe his eyes, and a moment later a tear streaked down his cheek.
He put his hand on Tommy’s shoulder.
Tommy hadn’t looked up yet, but when he felt his friend’s strong grip, he picked up his head and stared with unbelieving eyes at the screen.
“This was taken last week,” Baldwin said.
Tommy swallowed. His head twisted back and forth. “No. It can’t be.”
“They’re alive, Tommy. Until now, we still haven’t figured out a way to get them out safely. For the moment, they’re okay. We
know that much. The general won’t do anything to his golden geese as long as they keep getting him leads.”
“Those leads will eventually run out, though, won’t they?” Adriana asked.
Baldwin nodded. “Yes. And I don’t need to tell you the methods the North Koreans use on people who cease to be useful to them.”
“What are you saying?” Sean said.
“I’m saying we know where his parents are. If you want to see them alive again, you’ll do what we say. Do that, and you may have a chance to save them.”
Tommy wiped his face and peered through eyelids that were little more than slits. “What do you want?” he asked through clenched teeth.
“Walk away from this crusade. Leave Excalibur to the mists of legends and folklore. Forget everything you’ve seen and learned. Do this, and we will give you the exact location of your parents.”
“That’s a fine offer,” Sean said. “Except there’s one huge problem. Even if we do what you say and you tell us where we can find his folks, there’s still the little issue of how we get them out of North Korea. It’s not like we can just waltz in there, knock on a door, and drive them to the airport.”
“It’s the best we can do for you,” Baldwin said. “You have connections, Sean. You can figure something out.”
Tommy slowed his breathing. He sniffled a few times before speaking again. “Why did you send someone to North Korea?”
“We received an encrypted message from your parents, though we’re not sure how they found us or how they got it out of the country without any of the North Korean authorities catching it. They warned us as to what was going on. They also told us that if we found you to let you know that they’re alive and well.”
Tommy continued shaking his head. “Sent you a message? How did they know you would find it? How did they even know you exist?”
“Your parents are…resourceful, Tommy. They took a big risk attempting to contact us. We have operated in secret for thousands of years. You could imagine our surprise when someone got our attention with a direct message.”
The Sean Wyatt Series Box Set 4 Page 38