by Dayna Rubin
“Yes,” Natanya replied, “Now, you’ve got it.”
“Ah, so that’s why I have to sneak you in…that and the fact you’re taller than Dauphine…and don’t really look like her at all…”
“Yes…I know, you told me I don’t look like her.” Natanya said, sinking back into her seat, suddenly exhausted.
“There’s one more thing.” Natanya remained looking forward in her seat while they continued to drive toward the Research and Development branch of NASA.
“What would that be?” Gage asked, momentarily taking his eyes off the road to look at Natanya.
“They would all come forward.”
“Who would come forward?” Gage asked.
“I believe Aunt Rose referred to the existing Resistance Members. If they were asked to do so, they would all come forward.”
“Wait…do we want that?” Gage asked.
“Yes, of course,” Natanya exclaimed.
“How, exactly, do we do that?” Gage asked.
“That’s the problem, I don’t know…I think there was something, some kind of special cue or something…I can’t remember. You have to realize, I never thought I would have to use the notes…” Natanya put her head in her hands.
“We’re here,” Gage said as he turned off the engine.
Chapter Twenty-One
A Series of Zips
“I’m changing out of these clothes… I hate to admit it, but I’ll bet your polyester blend is better than these coveralls.”
“In time, Philippe…let’s get out of the airport, deliver the shipment to the Hermitage, and then we’ll be able to change into our own clothes on our way to Ragnit Castle.”
“How about my shoes? Can I change into my loafers? I don’t even know what size shoes these are…smaller than my foot, I can tell you that, and there’s a metal plate in the toe, for God’s sake. How that possibly speaks of comfort is beyond me, it’s not even whispering.”
“Stop whining…” Warren said from the back of the utility van trailing behind the large truck containing the pictures. “We’ve got about a ten to eleven hour trip before we reach Neman, so start thinking about how we’re going to get there.”
“We flew for exactly twelve hours; we were on the plane for another hour waiting for clearance to take off, and another hour before we were cleared to land. That makes the trip fourteen hours total,” Pascal said in a matter of fact tone of voice.
Warren sat in his seat frowning due to Philippe’s incessant complaints; his chin rested in his hand while he leaned on the armrest.
“Can we ask the driver to pull over to view a paper? They had to have deciphered a few of the pictures by now.” Philippe said.
“We’ve only got a few hours on them, not enough for them to have achieved much.” Pascal stated. “We’re eight hours behind, and we’ve been traveling for roughly fourteen, so they’ve had about six hours, which doesn’t leave time for the newspaper to set in the codes.”
“What about using the news media…you know, television instead? Maybe CNN or something?” Philippe asked.
“Certainly possible…I’m sure it could be done?” Warren asked.
“You’ll need to contact your former colleagues to let them know they need to get the story to the broadcasting media…” Warren turned to Pascal seated next to him in the van.
“Leave it to me…I’ll ask someone at the museum if I could use their phone to place an International call. Ask me to do something difficult…” Philippe had the back seat to himself; he stretched out, yawned, and then closed his eyes.
“You mean, you’ll ask a girl…” Pascal said.
Philippe smiled.
“We’re still without a means of transportation from the Hermitage Museum to Neman.” Warren stated.
“Doesn’t your identification from the National Gallery give you some kind of clearance or something?” Philippe asked beneath closed eyes.
“You mean, can I use my credentials to secure a vehicle?” Warren retorted.
“I don’t know, can you?” Philippe let the question dangle in the air.
“You contact your colleague with Philippe’s help, and I’ll acquire a vehicle. I’ll wager a bet…”
“Oh yeah, what would that be?” Philippe asked.
“I’ll bet I can drive up to the front of the museum faster than you can ‘borrow’ a phone to make your call.”
“What’s the wager?” Philippe asked, opening his eyes to narrow slits as he stared at the back of Warren’s head.
“Depends,” Warren replied.
“On what?”
“What size are those Italian loafers?”
“Wager’s off. Not in the cards.” Philippe closed his eyes again.
“You’re losing your shoes…I already know they’ll fit.”
“I’m not losing my shoes.” Philippe crossed his arms as he lay back on the seat.
“Then I guess you better get your call in before I get the car.” Warren said smugly. “You may get more use out of those steel plated boots than you had expected.”
The driver and his passenger had been speaking to one another in Russian while playing the radio, but suddenly it was silent.
“We must be here…I’m ready, how about you Philippe?”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Vivid and Intense
“Change your suit jacket this morning Phin?” Teri asked as they walked by her office.
Gage stopped abruptly, touched Natanya on the elbow to indicate she should continue, and then popped his head into Teri’s office. “You don’t miss a thing Teri…yes she did…it was a coffee spill.”
“Why you guys don’t stay in the cafeteria for your morning break like the rest of us, I’ll never know.” Teri shifted a giant stack of papers in order to find a stray marker.
“Yeah, we don’t really like the coffee here…”
“Lunch?” Teri looked up from her mountain of paperwork.
“Maybe…we’ve got a lot going on today. Hey, I’ve gotta go and, ah… catch up with Dauphine. Catch you later.” Gage tapped her doorframe then sprinted down the hall to catch up with Dauphine.
“Thank God you caught up with me. I had absolutely no idea where I was going, and this guy was skipping and peeking at me from another hallway. He didn’t even say hi, he just looked at my nametag and then me and smiled. He kind of creeped me out. You know. Like he knew I wasn’t Dauphine.” Natanya’s shoulders gave a tiny little shimmy as she spoke.
“He’s harmless. I wouldn’t worry about him,” Gage said.
“What does he do here anyway?” Natanya asked.
“Special Projects.”
“What does that mean? What department or what capacity is he? What’s his rank?” Natanya asked as their pace picked up.
“No one really knows.” Gage stopped in front of a set of double doors. He reached for the doorknob and turned to Natanya. “Wait here while I see if she’s with anyone.”
“Is that really a good idea? You know, to leave me out here…where anyone could see me?” Natanya realized she was speaking to the closed door and turned around to face the hallway.
Natanya positioned her hand near her nametag, hanging around her neck, ready to either cover it or say hi at any time. People bustled through the hallway, intent on their task, not bothering to acknowledge her as she waited at the door.
Gage quickly opened the door, stepped to the side while looking up and down the hallway for anyone he recognized, then motioned for Natanya to enter.
“Okay, here’s how this is going to play out. Both of you should never be in the same room at the same time, and further more, we’ll have to make sure you wear the same clothes, wear your hair the same way…” Gage was interrupted by Dauphine.
“No one ever pays attention to what people are wearing…and as for our hair, I can’t see how that matters, it’s just a matter of getting in the building. After that, she should just take off the identification…” Dauphine stated through a yawn she had
started at the tail end of the sentence.
“A woman named Teri knew that you had worn a different suit jacket,” Natanya stated while nodding her head.
“Well, except her…she’s into everyone’s business around here, you should be fine. Here, give me the identification in case anyone comes in. You don’t look anything like me… Your hair, and possibly the suit is about all that is similar.” Dauphine stepped over to a drawer she pulled open, rummaged around in it, then came up with a clip.
“Wear this after you enter the building, then take off the jacket. That way if anyone runs into you, you don’t have to pretend to be me and jeopardize our mission.”
Natanya accepted the clip, twisted her newly colored blonde hair into a knot and secured it at the back of her head; then removed her suit jacket and placed it on the back of a stool within the stark white lab. “I have the album with me, and I’m ready to get started.”
“Don’t worry.” Gage saw the concerned look on Dauphine’s face. “I know all about it and I’m willing to help.”
“I don’t know if we should risk bringing you in on this…” Dauphine’s eyes seemed to drill into Gage’s for an incredible length of time before she said, “Okay, I’ll let you help.”
“You’ll let me help? You’re both lucky I was the one who picked up Natanya, because she can’t lie well at all. She had disclosed your entire operation before we had lost sight of the planes coming in for a landing.” Gage walked over to several instruments on the counter, and then began uncovering them.
“I didn’t really do that? Did I?” Natanya fidgeted with loose tendrils of hair at the nape of her neck, trying to tuck them back into the clip. “I mean…you knew that there was a secret before you even picked me up…”
“Please…” Gage went to the adjoining room where a large oval table centered the room. Glass panels lined the walls, hung midway up the wall extending to the ceiling.
“Do you have the laptop?” Gage asked Natanya.
“I have it right here. Let me get it out, along with the album and we can get started.” Natanya placed the laptop on the table, opened it, and then looked from Gage to Dauphine then back again.
“What’s the matter?” They both asked in unison.
“Wait…I almost have it.”
“You forgot the password to get into the laptop. Oh, well, now we’re sunk. If there’s no…” Gage walked back into the lab.
“Shhh, let me think for a minute. It’s a song…I have to hum it to remember.
“So, it’s a song?” Dauphine asked.
“No, it’s a book,” Natanya said.
“I thought you just said it’s a song.” Gage said. “This could take the rest of the morning.” Gage pulled out a chair from the table and sat down next to Natanya.
“I’ve got it.” Natanya started typing. “They’re lyrics in a song that became a book, and that’s all I can say.”
“I know that you’ve impersonated a Federal Government official, forged a painting, and are embarking on a mission to conduct other illegal activities, but you won’t let me know what the password is to your boyfriend’s cousin’s laptop?” Gage asked incredulously.
“That’s right. I promised Pascal I wouldn’t give it out,” Natanya stated as she searched for the program Pascal had created.
“Is she serious?” Gage asked Dauphine.
“I think so…look, it doesn’t matter,” Dauphine said as she walked, her heels clicking on the floor as she transitioned from the lab back into the carpeted meeting room.
“Unless there’s something else he doesn’t want us to see…” Gage stated.
“You have an overly active suspicious mind,” Natanya said as she scowled at Gage.
“Let’s start scanning, then we can disseminate the clues embedded into the pictures.” Dauphine glanced from one to the other then accepted the photograph and its negative from Natanya’s extended hand.
Natanya jerked her head up suddenly. “Are the doors locked to these rooms?”
“They are. Do you know how to use the software this cousin of your boyfriend made?” Gage asked Natanya.
“No, but I’ll do the best I can.”
“I have something better…this is NASA, remember, and we have the best of the best.”
“Okay…” Natanya sat back in her cushioned armchair while Gage sprung out of his.
“This is where I excel…” Gage raised his voice to reach Natanya and Dauphine in the next room as he moved about within the lab. “Most films are affected by the physics of silver grain activation which is activated by a minimum amount of light required to expose a single grain, and by the statistics of random grain activation by photons. Are we clear so far?”
“Yes,” Natanya and Dauphine said in unison.
“All right, so we know that film requires a minimum amount of light before it begins to expose, and then responds by progressively darkening until all of the grains are exposed and the film achieves its maximum optical density. This is the process of developing film,” Gage explained.
“Now, let’s review the photograph of the painting first.” The screen before them brightened with the image of Virgin of the Rocks by Leonardo DaVinci. “What do we see? Nothing different, but wait, let’s magnify it.”
Gage stepped back into the conference room and stood next to the screen. “Noting that the photographs were taken in the neighborhood of 1934 to 1945, we can see that there was some trick photography utilized by the slight haze, or variation along the edges within several areas of the photograph. Is this intentional?” He was met with silence.
“Ahhh, I’m really asking, is this intentional?” Gage put his pointer down to his side to look toward Natanya in exasperation.
“Oh, right, you’re asking me. Yes, I would think so,” Natanya responded.
“We can take these images and separate them, revealing the image behind it, as it was double processed. Probably using a piece of drawing vellum darkened with a Zulu pencil.” Gage tapped the area of the photograph that had been altered. “Pretty cool, huh?”
“Yeah, so it’s emphasizing the Halo, which is in one of the versions of Virgin of the Rocks, but not in the other, and then it’s also emphasizing the girl pointing…and the wings…it’s like their entirely separate from the painting,” Natanya exclaimed.
“Look at the cross! In addition, the hands… the hands have been altered as well. Wow.” Dauphine stood up suddenly from her seated position at the table next to Natanya, her chair rolled back to hit the dark stained bank of cabinetry.
“Tell us what this means Natanya,” Gage said as he stepped back from the screen.
“All right…we have wings. We have the open hand, the cross, and of course the pointing hand. Therefore, that would be two hands, one open, one closed. The wing is either eleven or twenty and the pointing itself is either twelve or thirty. The cross is also twenty-two…” The end of the sentence trailed off with Natanya’s thoughts.
“What about the Halo?” Gage asked.
“The halo is a circle, which means support…and it’s singular, or just one…so we need to take the initial numerical value, not the larger value,” Natanya stated.
“I’m lost…” Dauphine continued to scrutinize the picture, placing both elbows on the table to support her chin.
“The Celestial Coordinates should be the same as the other painting…55 degrees North and 22 degrees East, which would make this painting hidden at-”
“At Ragnit Castle?”
“Exactly,” Natanya said as she sat back down.
“I’ll be right back.” Gage ran out of the room.
Madonna of the Yarn Winder appeared on the glass panel.
“Let’s bring up the resolution, magnify the photograph showing the alterations, and there we have it.”
“The mountains, and…the entire body of water…is that right?” Dauphine blurted out.
“This one is pretty clear…I would say that it is in this painting, which would indicate b
y the jagged mountains that it is twenty-one and the water is either thirteen or forty…but which one?” Natanya bit her lip as she considered the options.
“Look at the cloth; it’s standing out, as though it were altered in some way. Could that make a difference?” Gage asked.
“The tone of blue…let me think…if only I had the notes…okay, I’ve got it, and I think it means the Blue City, or the City of Luz….maybe City of Linz?”
“Germany! The Linz Museum…that’s where this was taken. But why hide it at the very place that Hitler was trying to take all the paintings to in the first place?” Gage exclaimed, “That doesn’t make sense!”
Gage ran back into the lab, “I’m inputting the coordinates, and of course we have to take into the consideration the Epoch, since these are Celestial Coordinates…I’ve got a position…should be…well, it looks like it’s in Bavaria…. Do you think that’s right?”
“I’m just pulling it up…and taking into consideration the Epoch…okay, I think I’ve got it. It’s close to the Mespelbrunn Castle, which we’ll have to take a look at.”
“What’s next in the DaVinci line?” Dauphine asked.
“Angel of the Annunciation, and I’ll just slip the photograph in, and there we have it.” Gage raced back into the conference room to view the picture. “What’ve we got…what d’ya see?”
Gage waited expectantly by the glass panel with his pointer at his side, looking from the photograph back to Natanya.
“Now this is interesting…we have a cloak…and then we have a set of eyes; they are really accentuated, and that’s all I can see…” Natanya said.
“Can you magnify this photograph a bit more Gage?” Natanya asked.
“Look at those eyes….” Dauphine said. “What does the cloak mean?”
“This means invisibility or stating that something is hidden,” Natanya answered.
“By the way, I’m making a reference guide for every photograph we decipher,” Gage said without lifting his eyes from the screen.
“Isn’t this one of the most famous paintings by DaVinci which was lost but copied by another artist?” Dauphine ventured.