The Spear of Destiny

Chapter FOURTEEN



Dennis and Hutchinson woke to a chilly dawn. They had spent a cold, uncomfortable night drifting on the container in the Tyrrhenian sea towards the city of Naples. Dennis guessed that they were a couple of miles out and he thanked their luck that they’d not drifted out to sea. A passing ship had spotted them and alerted the Italian navy who had sent a patrol boat out to pick them up.

After being given dry clothes, food and drink, they were detained under house arrest until De Luca had driven to Naples with Natalie to pick them up.

Hutchinson had slept in the car during the drive back to Rome and Dennis had told of their story.

When Sonnenburg saw them walk into his office his face split into a large grin.

“Welcome back to the Vatican,” he said, “And may I say how pleased I am to see you both still in one piece,” he said to Dennis and Hutchinson, “Though I see you are both sporting some nasty bruises. Have you seen a doctor?”

They both nodded.

Sonnenburg gestured towards the large screen on the wall.

“You’ll be interested to know that we have received correspondence from the British military intelligence service. You will probably better know it as MI6.…”

Dennis nodded.

“We are no longer working with Interpol but with respective military authorities on this matter. This means that progress may become a little slower regarding the warrant for Von Werner and his group. His acts have now been classified as terrorism and therefore will merit military intervention. I can tell you that his container ship, the one you were on, the ‘Ocean breeze’ was boarded by Interpol agents accompanied by Italian navy seals. Von Werner had already left the ship. It was found to only contain crew members and none of his mercenaries. Six crew members were arrested, two released and four detained. The ship itself was allowed to continue on schedule because of the itinery of its cargo. It will be docking in Agadir in Morocco in one week.”

Sonnenburg brought up images on the screen.

“Thanks to British intelligence we now have known acquaintances on five more of Von Werner’s associates. For instance, this man.”

“Anatoly Petrov,” Hutchinson read the name on Sonnenburg’s screen.

“Yes. Former Russian agent, ex-military. First gulf war. Served in Afghanistan, Kosovo, virtually anywhere the Russians have been involved in in the last twenty five years, Petrov has been a part of it. Rose to the rank of colonel. In charge of a task force in Iraq he began working for the other side, supplying weapons to various terrorist factions. Has disappeared until now.”

“Sounds like a real nasty piece of work,” Hutchinson said.

Dennis leaned in closer to the screen.

“Mr Dennis, do you have something you wish to add?” Sonnenburg asked.

Dennis studied the face casting his mind back to the sniper on the Ocean breeze.

“I think he was on the ship.”

“You are sure?”

“It was raining hard. It was dark and the ship was rolling and pitching but I did get a good glimpse of him for a split second. I think it was him.”

Sonnenburg clicked on the next picture. This name Dennis did know.

“Gennady Borodinoff,” Sonnenburg began, “Served under Petrov in Iraq. Wanted for war crimes against humanity….”

Dennis raised his hand.

“Yes.”

“He was crushed by a container on the ship.”

“Crushed?”

“Yes. There was a container that come adrift. It killed him.”

Sonnenburg began typing on his laptop.

“We’ll need confirmation of course.”

The next picture showed Sergei Danilov. A red banner across the image read ‘deceased’. Natalie looked into the eyes and shuddered. The next image was of a man with oriental features with very scarred cheeks. Possibly caused by acne as a child.

“This we believe is Kim Li Choi. He’s North Korean, a former North Korean army lieutenant. His father is a colonel in the North Korean army. Kim was court-martialled from the army in disgrace. His father disowned him and he was believed to have moved to Russia, became involved in drug dealing and is wanted in connection with the murders of two policemen in St Petersburg, Russia. Has a taste for fast cars, could possibly be one of our Hummer drivers.”

“He was on the ship,” Dennis said, “He handed a briefcase to her,” Dennis added as the image of the redhead appeared next.

“We’re not sure about her. Her name and details are unknown.”

“She was on the ship. She left in the Dolphin helicopter with the Korean,” Dennis said moving closer to the screen. He looked at the picture of the beautiful redhead getting into a black car. She was wearing dark sunglasses but Dennis was sure it was her.

“You are sure?” Sonnenburg asked the journalist.

“Definitely. She took the briefcase and left just before they took me hostage.”

“Have you any idea of what was in the briefcase?”

“Sorry.”

“Where did all this intelligence originate. I mean why weren’t we shown these before?” Hutchinson asked.

“I already told you we got this information from MI6. The man you captured in London Mr Dennis has decided to talk,” Sonnenburg brought the man’s image up on the screen. “His name is Ireneusz Stancyk. He is a Polish national. Not much is known about his background as yet. It seems the British offered him 15 years off a prison sentence if he was willing to talk, and he did.”

“Ah well, I’m pleased to see that my evening of getting my arse grilled by the metropolitan police paid off.”

“Where does Von Werner get his people from?” Hutchinson asked quietly.

“Physco’s-r-us,” Dennis offered to a stern look from Sonnenburg.

“Sorry,” he said, he grimaced at Natalie who was trying to keep a straight face.

Sonnenburg chose to ignore them and turned back to his large screen on the wall. The team stayed with him for a further hour helping him with his enquiries. Then Sonnenburg put a large white envelope on his desk.

“You are booked onto a flight to London tomorrow morning at nine o’clock. My officers will pick you up at your hotel at 7am,” he extended his hand for them to shake, “I would like once again to thank you for everything that you have done to help us in this case. I am sorry that it concluded without a conviction but we did everything we could.”

Dennis shook the offered hand.

“So is that everything then?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“I’m not in trouble for anything I’ve done.”

“No.”

“I stole a motorcycle.”

“It’s been dealt with.”

“Caused an explosion on a ship.”

“Of the twenty five containers that fell from the Ocean breeze two were recovered. The one you were on and another. The rest sank. The company or companies who own them will be insured. This is Italy Mr Dennis, not Britain. Here the criminals are in the wrong.”

Sonnenburg shook Hutchinson’s and Natalie’s hands.

“On behalf of my government thank you for your assistance. Have a safe journey home.”



The three of them sat in the departure lounge at the Leonardo Da Vinci airport waiting for their flight to Gatwick

“I’m kinda sorry we’re going home,” Hutchinson said, blowing on his hot coffee.

“Yeah me too,” Dennis replied, “After all we’ve done in trying to help them apprehend Von Werner all we get is our marching orders.”

“Well I for one will be glad to get home,” Natalie said, “My life was quiet until I met you. I was a simple marine archaeologist working in Greece….”

Dennis stared at her open mouthed.

“Then I get dragged all around Europe. Nearly killed god knows how many times. Almost raped, been shot at. Thought I’d lost you God knows how many times….”

“Are you serious?” Dennis asked.

“….Nearly been blown up,” she continued.

Hutchinson chuckled.

“It’s been fun though Nat hey?”

She smiled.

“Absolutely. I didn’t realise just how boring my life was until I met you.”

Dennis puffed up his cheeks and blew out his breath.

“Thank God for that. I wasn’t sure where you were going with this.”

“Has your life always been like this Pete,” Hutchinson asked, “Always getting into the thick of it.”

“Actually it has.”

“I’ll be honest though,” Hutchinson continued, “It’s a shame to let them get away with what they’ve done and not bring the spear back with us.”

“I’m sure the authorities will bring them to justice Jim,” Natalie added.

“Yeah but gee….I’d love to have seen the spear perform its magic. You know it’s said that whoever possesses the spear would be invincible.”

Natalie and Dennis looked at each other and then at the American.

“We know,” they said together.

Hutchinson was staring into his coffee.

“Were there any clues in that journal Pete?”

“To tell you the truth, in all the excitement of the last few days, I haven’t even looked at it.”

“You’ve still got it though.”

“Yes. It’s in my hand luggage.”

“Can I have a look at it?”

Dennis put his rucksack on the seat next to him.

“Of course.”

He got the old leather bound journal out and unclipped the popper. Hutchinson began flicking through the pages. He paused briefly over the ones with Alexander the great’s sarcophagus on them. Then moved on. He went another four pages and paused again. There were some drawings here of Chinese lions and some writing he didn’t understand. He could read and speak Latin fluently but these days it was an almost dead language. Something on the next page caught his eye.

“Hm! What’s this?”

Dennis turned the book slightly to see better.

“This is to do with Sir Francis Drake searching for the lost cit of El Dorado.”

“Now that is interesting,” Hutchinson said studying the drawings.

Dennis reached across and turned the page.

“Moving on!”

“What?” Hutchinson said, “A guy can’t broaden his horizons.”

“Are you interested in the spear or not?”

“Of course.”

“Then let’s look for that. Wait a minute what’s this?”

There were four different drawings of spear heads. There was a sketch of Christ on his cross being speared in the side by a Roman soldier.

“And that I presume is Longinus stabbing Christ to death.”

“Looks like it,” Dennis said, then his tone took on a darker note, “You know Jim there are those who say that Longinus is still alive. That he still walks the earth. His punishment to dwell neither in heaven or hell for what he did that day.”

Hutchinson looked up from the page he was studying.

“What?”

“There is a legend about Longinus which often gets confused with that of the wandering jew.”

“It’s what? I’m sorry, say again.”

Natalie cut in.

“It’s said that as a punishment for what he did Longinus was cursed to walk the earth in perpetual immortality. The wandering jew is of a legend about a man who taunted Christ on his way to his crucifixion and was then cursed to walk the earth until the second coming of our lord. The two stories very often get confused.”

“I thought we discovered back in London that Longinus himself was beheaded.”

“He was,” Dennis replied, “He was beheaded in front of a king who was blind and the king’s sight was restored when he was splashed by the blood of Longinus. Or so the story goes. Like we said, it’s only a legend.”

Hutchinson was studying the four spears again. The Schatzkammer one was the only one sketched with a shaft.

“Now this is interesting,” Hutchinson said, “The Vienna spear is the only one depicted as having the shaft attached.

Dennis and Natalie both craned their necks to see.

“Do you suppose the shaft is needed. Maybe that’s the missing piece of the puzzle. Maybe it’s not relics at all. Would it still exist?”

Dennis saw a sign on the wall announcing free wi-fi. He picked up Hutchinson’s permanently left on lap top.

“Mind if I have a look?”

“Be my guest.”

Dennis got the answer in less than a minute.

“The shaft is in one of the four pillars of st Peter’s church.”

“Why didn’t they go for it then.”

“Probably they knew it would be impossible,” Natalie said.

“Or without the journal you’re holding they didn’t even know of its existence.”

“Hey. Apparently, legend has it, that another spear shaft exists in Israel or Palestine. The whereabouts is unknown.”

“That’s not much help,” Hutchinson said studying the drawings of the spear and shaft both separate and then joined together. The joined drawing had a halo around the spear head.

“It would seem that Doctor Von Brest knew that the spear was magical only when complete and joined to the shaft, Hutchinson tapped the leather bound journal, “That would now explain why Von Werner was desperate to get this back,”

“And kidnap you for it.”

Hutchinson turned another page. The creature sketched was hideous.

“What the hell is this?”

Dennis and Natalie leaned in again for another look. The creature drawn had its hands held up to its face and was screaming. The fingers were long with long fingernails like talons. The teeth were long and pointed, sharp fangs to rip at flesh. The jaw was also long and frayed in the sketch, where the jaw ended couldn’t be seen and yet, strangely, the creature was wearing what appeared to be Roman armour. There wasn’t enough of the shoulders and torso drawn to verify it but the armour definitely looked to be Roman. Next to the sketch were the words ’Casca Loggius’

“Casca Loggius,” Hutchinson said, “Is that the name of a place. Like city of the dead or something.”

“No,” Dennis shook his head, “It’s him. Longinus. Von Brest has misspelt the name. Or got it confused with someone else. These are very common names in ancient Rome.”

“Longinus? Don’t tell me you believe the story that he still walks the earth.”

Dennis looked at the foul creature in the sketch.

“If that’s anything to go by. I hope not.”

Hutchinson turned the next page, glad to be rid of the foul monster. On the next page was a sketch of the church of the holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. He flicked back a few pages to Christ on the cross, his side pierced by Longinus. Dennis was taking a swig of his coffee. Natalie had taken over the lap top and she suddenly looked up.

“I think I’ve found our missing link. There is a second possible location for the spear shaft,” she said spinning the computer screen around for them to see.

“Where?” they both asked excitedly.

Natalie brought up a map and zoomed out slightly.

“Qumran?” Dennis asked, “Where or what is that?”

“It’s the caves in Palestine where the dead sea scrolls were discovered,” Hutchinson answered, “It’s always been rumoured that they were linked to Christ himself. They’re certainly from the same time period. The Vatican on the other hand dismisses any evidence of Christ and the scrolls though.”

Natalie looked for more clues on the web page.

“Anything else?” Dennis asked.

Natalie read on. There were more clues and she read them out one at a time. Hutchinson listened intently. He continued to flick backwards and forwards between the pages of the journal.

Then he looked up.

“How sure are you that Von Werner is trying to heal himself?”

“I’m certain of it.”

He flicked through one last time and then snapped the journal shut. Natalie and Dennis still had their faces shoved into the lap top screen. Hutchinson suddenly jumped to his feet.

“Give me your tickets.”

They did as they were told. The American dashed off to find an official.

“What’s going on?” Natalie asked.

“ I Don’t know.”

Hutchinson was taken to a desk and a customs official came out to speak to him.

“I need to cancel these tickets.” he said, “I need three tickets for the next flight to Tel Aviv.”

The customs man picked up his telephone.

“Peter?” Natalie said.

“I think we’re still in the game,” he replied.