Crescent Dawn

by Clive Cussler

  “Then I guess we keep digging,” Summer said, opening up a new folder of the Archbishop’s papers.

  They worked for another hour before the stacks grew thin. Nearing the bottom of her last folder, Summer suddenly sat upright when she read a short letter from a Bishop in Portsmouth. She read it a second time before passing it over to Julie.

  “Take a look at this,” she said.

  “‘The parcel has been delivered and the messenger sent away,’” Julie said, reading the letter aloud. “‘The item of interest shall cease to be a concern within 72 hours.’ Signed, Bishop Lowery, Portsmouth Diocese.”

  Julie set the letter down and gave Summer a blank look. “I’m afraid I don’t see the relevancy,” she said.

  “Look at the date.”

  Julie gazed at the top of the letter. “June 2, 1916. Three days before the Hampshire sank,” she said in a surprised voice.

  “It would seem,” Summer said quietly, “that the plot has thickened.”

  24

  AFTER EXITING THE LIBRARY, RIDLEY BANNISTER MADE his way across the Lambeth Palace grounds to a small brick building adjacent to the main living quarters. Entering through an unmarked door, he stepped into a cramped office, where a handful of men in security uniforms stared at video surveillance monitors or worked at desk computers. Ignoring the quizzical look from a man seated near the door, Bannister stepped toward a private office in the rear and walked through its open door.

  A falcon-eyed man with greasy hair was seated at a desk watching a live video feed on his computer. Bannister could see the figures of Julie and Summer seated at a table in the reading room. The man looked up, shooting Bannister a disappointed look.

  “Bannister, there you are. You were supposed to check in with me before the ladies arrived. Now you’ve blown your cover.”

  Bannister slid into a wooden chair facing the desk. “Sorry, old boy, they forgot my wake-up call at the Savoy this morning. I do want to thank you for the airline tickets, though. Glad you remembered first class this time.”

  The Archbishop of Canterbury’s chief of security ground his teeth in contempt.

  “You did purge the files before they were turned over to them?” he asked, motioning toward his computer screen.

  “I’ve been through those files before, Judkins,” Bannister said, picking a piece of lint off his jacket. “There’s nothing incriminating in those files.”

  Judkins’s face turned red. “You had orders to review and clean those files.”

  “Orders? Orders, you say? Have I unknowingly been conscripted into the Archbishop’s private army?”

  There had been an immediate dislike between the two men the instant they had met, and the feelings only festered over time. But Judkins was Bannister’s appointed contact, and there was little either man could do about it. The archaeologist pushed the line with Judkins as far as he dared without jeopardizing his contractual arrangements with the Church.

  “You are an employee of the Archbishop and you will obey his requests accordingly,” the security chief responded, his eyes aglow.

  “I am nothing of the sort,” Bannister retorted. “I am a simple mercenary for historical truth. While it may be true that the Archbishop has enlisted my services from time to time, I am under no obligation to ‘follow orders’ or even bow or curtsy in the esteemed Archbishop’s general direction.”

  Judkins withheld responding, staring silently at Bannister while he waited for his blood pressure to decrease. When his face finally lost its red bluster, he spoke in a direct tone.

  “While it certainly wouldn’t be my choice, the Archbishop has elected to retain your services to inform and advise him of historical discoveries, particularly in the Middle East, that may have a bearing on existing Church doctrine. This alleged Manifest, and its prior association with the Church, has been deemed extremely sensitive. We, I mean the Archbishop, needs to know why this Cambridge researcher is inquiring into the records of Archbishop Davidson and at what risk to the Church.”

  Bannister smiled thinly at Judkins’s forced deference.

  “Julie Goodyear is a historian from Cambridge who has written several highly regarded biographies on leading figures of the nineteenth century. She is currently writing a bio on Lord Kitchener. Miss Goodyear and the American woman, Summer Pitt, have apparently discovered that Kitchener’s ship, the Hampshire, was destroyed by an internal explosion. They seem to think there may be some remote connection to the late Archbishop Davidson.”

  Judkins physically paled at the news.

  “My dear Judkins, is there something wrong?”

  “No,” the security chief replied with a violent shake of his head. “What about this Manifest?”

  “The Archbishop knows that I made a diligent search for the document several years ago. At a considerable cost, I might add,” he said with a wink. “I am relatively certain that it vanished along with Kitchener on the Hampshire.”

  “Yes, that is the Archbishop’s understanding. However, there may be some related historical events that could prove, shall we say, troublesome to the Church and embarrassing to the Archbishop. I want you on those two women now.”

  “You want me?” Bannister replied, raising a brow.

  “The Archbishop wants you,” Judkins replied angrily. “Track them closely and extinguish things if you have to before they become a problem.”

  “I’m an archaeologist, not an assassin.”

  “You know what to do. Just handle it. You’ve got my number.”

  “Yes. And you’ve got my number?” Bannister asked, rising to his feet. “The number of my Bermuda bank account, that is?”

  “Yes,” Judkins grumbled. “Now, get out.”

  The security chief could only shake his head as Bannister bowed to him gracefully, then marched out of his office like he owned it.

  25

  THE BRIGHT MORNING MEDITERRANEAN SUN HAD ALready begun baking the Aegean Explorer’s deck when Rudi Gunn stepped into the sunlight with the day’s first mug of coffee. He was startled to see an unfamiliar stretch of Turkish coastline just a mile or two off the ship’s side railing. He heard the whir of an outboard motor in the distance and squinted until he spotted the ship’s Zodiac bounding over the waves toward shore.

  His groggy mind suddenly focused on the research project at hand, and he scurried to the stern of the ship. Making his way past a white submersible, he was disappointed to find the autonomous underwater vehicle lying securely in a padded rack. A large torpedo-shaped device, the robotic AUV contained a variety of sensors used to sample the water as it ran free of the ship. When he had staggered to bed six hours earlier, the Explorer was tracking the AUV as it surveyed a large grid ten miles from shore.

  Gulping a large swallow of coffee, he turned and made his way forward, then climbed two flights of stairs to the bridge. There he found Pitt studying a coastal chart with the ship’s captain, Bruce Kenfield.

  “Good morning, Rudi,” Pitt greeted. “You’re up early.”

  “I could feel the engines throttle down from my bunk,” Gunn replied. “How come we pulled off-line?”

  “Kemal received word that his wife was in a traffic accident. It’s apparently not serious, but we put him ashore so that he could go check on her.”

  Kemal was a marine biologist with the Turkish Environment Ministry who had been assigned to the NUMA vessel to monitor and assist with the water-sampling project.

  “That’s unfortunate,” Gunn said. “After the Zodiac returns, how long will it take us to return to the grid and resume operations?”

  Pitt smiled and shook his head. “We technically can’t resume the survey until Kemal or a replacement is on board the ship. Our invite from the Turkish government specified that a representative from the Environment Ministry must be aboard at all times while we are conducting survey work in Turkish waters. At this point, it looks like we might be down for three or four days.”

  “We are already behind schedule. First our sensor flo
oded and now this. We may have to extend the project in order to complete the areas we agreed to survey.”

  “So be it.”

  Gunn noticed that Pitt seemed to share none of the frustration that he was feeling. It was uncharacteristic for a man that he knew hated to leave things unfinished.

  “Since you returned from Istanbul, we’ve only had two full days of surveying on the new grid,” Gunn said. “Now we go idle again, and you’re not even upset. What gives?”

  “It’s simple, Rudi,” Pitt replied. “Halting work on the algae bloom project means resuming work on an Ottoman shipwreck excavation,” he said with a wink.

  LESS THAN FOUR HOURS after the Zodiac was hoisted back aboard, the Aegean Queen reached Chios, dropping anchor a hundred yards from the site of the Ottoman shipwreck. Little time had been spent examining the site after Pitt and Giordino’s initial dive, barely allowing the ship’s underwater archaeologist, Rodney Zeibig, the chance to stake an aluminum grid over the exposed portions of the wreck.

  Zeibig hastily trained a handful of scuba-qualified scientists in the art of underwater survey and documentation, then coordinated a careful examination of the wreck. Pitt, Giordino, and even Gunn took a hand in the dive rotation, photographing, measuring, and excavating test pits at various locations around the site. A small amount of artifacts, mostly ceramics and a few iron fittings, were retrieved as skeletal fragments of the wreck were exposed.

  Pitt stood near the stern rail of the Aegean Explorer eyeing a growing pattern of whitecaps that dotted the sea under a stiffening westerly breeze. An empty Zodiac bounced wildly on the waves, moored to a nearby buoy that was fixed to the wreck site. A pair of divers suddenly poked to the surface, then bellied their way into the inflatable boat. One of the men released the mooring line while the other started the outboard engine, then they quickly raced to the side of the research ship. Pitt lowered a cable over the side and helped hoist the Zodiac onto the deck with the two men still seated in it.

  Rudi Gunn and Rod Zeibig hopped out and began stripping off their wet suits.

  “It’s turned a bit bouncy out there,” remarked Zeibig, a buoyant man with bright blue eyes and salt-and-pepper hair.

  “I’ve passed the word that we’re halting dive operations until the winds settle down,” Pitt said. “The weather forecast indicates that things should be calm by morning.”

  “A good idea,” the archaeologist replied, “although I think Rudi will be on pins and needles until he gets back to the wreck.”

  “Find something of interest?”

  Gunn nodded with an excited look in his eyes. “I was digging in grid C-1 and touched a large carved stone. I only uncovered a small corner of it before our bottom time ran out. I think it may possibly be some sort of monolith or stele.”

  “That could add a clue to the ship’s identity,” Pitt said.

  “I just hope we don’t have to share in her discovery,” Zeibig said, nodding toward the starboard rail.

  Pounding over the waves just over two miles away was a high-performance motor yacht headed directly for the Aegean Explorer. It was Italian built, with wraparound smoked-glass windows and a large open stern deck. A red Turkish flag with white crescent and star flew from a mast, along with a smaller red flag that featured a single gold crescent. Though it was far smaller than a Monte Carlo show yacht, Pitt still could see that it was an expensive luxury boat. The three men watched as the yacht closed to within a half mile before slowing to a halt, where it bobbed on the unsettled waters.

  “I wouldn’t be too concerned about your wreck, Rod,” Gunn said. “They don’t exactly look like they’re here to perform excavation work.”

  “Probably somebody just nosing about to see what a research ship is doing parked out here,” Pitt said.

  “Or perhaps we’re blocking the view of someone’s villa on shore,” Gunn muttered.

  Pitt assumed that no one besides Ruppé knew of the location of the wreck site. Perhaps he had already notified the Turkish Ministry of Culture, he considered. But then he remembered that Ruppé’s office had been burglarized and his chart to the site stolen with the artifacts. His concern was diverted when he heard his name shouted from the forward part of the ship. He turned to see Giordino hanging his torso out of a work bay door beneath the bridge.

  “Some info from Istanbul just came in for you over the wire,” Giordino shouted.

  “Speak of the devil,” Pitt muttered. “Be right there,” he yelled back, then turned to the other two men.

  “I bet that is Dr. Ruppé’s analysis of our earlier artifacts from the wreck.”

  “I’d like to see his results,” Zeibig said.

  The two divers quickly changed clothes, then met up with Pitt and Giordino in the small bay, which housed several computers linked to a satellite communications system. Giordino handed Pitt a multipage printout, then sat down at one of the computers.

  “Dr. Ruppé also e-mailed a couple of photographs with the report,” he said, tapping at a keyboard to open an electronic file. A close-up image of a gold coin filled the computer screen.

  Pitt quickly scanned the report then passed it to Zeibig.

  “Are we still looking at an Ottoman wreck?” Gunn asked.

  “Almost certainly,” Pitt replied. “Dr. Ruppé found a representative coin from a mint in Syria that he believes is identical to one of the coins in Al’s lockbox. It dates to around 1570. Unfortunately, Ruppé says he had to base the comparison on memory, since the coins were stolen from his office.”

  “I’d have to agree with him,” Giordino said. “It looks like the same coin to me.”

  “The mint marks were known to have been used between 1560 and 1580,” Zeibig said, reading from the report.

  “So we know the wreck is no older than 1560,” Gunn said. “A shame the whole box of coins was taken, as that might have zeroed things in a bit more.”

  “The other dating clue was the ceramic box that held the crown,” Pitt said. “As Loren and I discovered at the Blue Mosque, the particular design indicates the tiles came from the kilns of Iznik.”

  Giordino clicked to the next few photographs, which showed a number of known tile samples from Iznik.

  “Unfortunately, the ceramic box was also taken from Ruppé’s office, so again we’re working from memory.”

  “His report indicates that the tiles incorporate patterns and colors that were popular with Iznik ceramics in the late sixteenth century,” Zeibig noted.

  “At least we have some consistency,” Giordino noted.

  “I can also attest that from what I saw of the wreck’s framing, it corresponds with known sixteenth-century vessel construction in the Mediterranean,” Zeibig added, looking up from the report.

  “That’s three for three,” Gunn said.

  “Which brings us to King Al’s crown,” Pitt replied with raised inflection.

  Giordino pulled up a new photograph, which showed a detailed image of the gold crown. The seabed encrustations had all been cleaned from it, leaving a sparkling headpiece that looked as if it had just left the goldsmith.

  “Thank goodness my baby was kept safe in Dr. Ruppé’s vault,” Giordino said.

  “Dr. Ruppé calls this one of the most significant finds in Turkish waters, as well as one of the most mysterious,” Pitt said. “Despite considerable research, he was unable to utilize the crown’s shape and size as a clue in identifying its provenance. However, after a thorough cleaning, he clarified the faint engraving on the inside of the band.”

  Giordino brought up an enlarged photo of the crown while Zeibig thumbed to the description in the report.

  “The engraving is in Latin,” Zeibig reported with a quizzical look. “Ruppé translated the inscription as follows: ‘To Artrius, in gratitude for capturing the relic pirates.—Constantine.’”

  “Ruppé found records of a Roman Senator named Artrius. It so happens that he lived during the rule of Constantine,” Pitt said.

  “Constantine the Grea
t?” Gunn blurted. “The Roman Emperor? Why, he lived a thousand years earlier.”

  The room fell silent as everyone stared at the photographic image. Nobody had expected such a disconnect with the shipwreck’s other artifacts, particularly by something as remarkable as the gold crown. And yet there was no clue as to why it was aboard. Pitt inched away from the monitor and stood up, finally breaking the silence.

  “I hate to say it,” he said with a grin, “but I guess this means that King Al has been transferred to the Roman Legion.”

  26

  BROOME PARK WAS A CHARACTERISTIC OLD ENGLISH manor. Purchased by Kitchener in 1911, it featured a towering Jacobean-style brick house built during the rule of Charles I, surrounded by 476 acres of lush, parklike grounds. During his short occupancy, Kitchener labored extensively to upgrade the estate’s gardens, while commissioning an elaborate fountain or two. But like top hat and tails or horse and carriage, Broome Park’s original grace and charm was now mostly reserved for an earlier age.

  Sixty miles southeast of London, Julie turned off at Dover and followed the short road to the estate. Summer was surprised to see a foursome playing golf on a stretch of grass just beyond a sign welcoming them to Broome Park.

  “It’s an all-too-familiar tale around Britain,” Julie explained. “Historic manors are passed down from generation to generation until one day the heir wakes up and realizes he can’t afford the taxes and maintenance. First the surrounding acreage is sold off, then more desperate measures are eventually taken. Some are converted to bed-and-breakfasts, others leased to corporations for conferencing or used as outdoor concert venues.”