The Celtic Conspiracy (15 page)

“What! Tell us!” Ryan said.

“He attributes a declaration to a bishop, whose name I can’t decipher. This declaration was shared with the emperor as a condition for a contract: ‘He who would conquer the pagans must destroy the Druids.’”

“And?”

“The bishop demanded that the emperor...wait a minute, the parchment isn’t from Constantine’s era, though. I don’t understand...”

“Oh, that doesn’t mean anything. It was mainly Emperor Theodosius I who supported the Church Father Ambrosius in his desire to wipe out anything that smacked of paganism. It was only during his reign that Christianity definitively became a state religion, even though Constantine often gets credit for it. The complete extermination of everyone with different beliefs was, from the very beginning, the declared goal of Theodosius’s regency.”

Deborah stared around the room. “But then that also means that this library wasn’t constructed in just a short period.”

“Shouldn’t we be calling MacClary sometime soon?” Adam asked.

“Later, Adam,” Ryan said. “First we should look around a bit more, so that we can make an intelligent decision about what we should take with us and what we have to leave behind.”

He turned in a full circle, gesturing helplessly at the sheer volume of relics.

* * *

Cassidy was still waiting for Salvoni, contenting himself with the analysis of the conversations one of his coworkers had been able to intercept right before the three Irish interlopers had gone into the cave. Since then, the thickness of the earth had made reception impossible. Just as he was about to dig into the provisions he had brought with him, his cell phone rang. The display read
Salvoni
.

“Yes.”

“Cassidy, we’ll be there in ten minutes. What’s the situation?”

“There’s nothing going on here,” Cassidy said, almost bored. “They’re still in the cave, but what we were able to hear didn’t suggest a huge find. Even if the three do discover something in the cave, they won’t be able to transport much in the little van they brought.”

“Good job, Cassidy, see you soon.”

* * *

Salvoni had his men park the bus at the bottom of the Magdalensberg while he drove up to get a better picture of the situation. A good dozen men dressed in black, some of them armed and carrying the most up-to-date equipment for retrieving relics, were getting ready for their assignment. They had received clear instructions from Salvoni. The operation should proceed as quickly and unspectacularly as possible. Under no circumstances should there be any direct confrontation or exchange of fire, since they didn’t have backup from the Austrian police.

Salvoni phoned Lambert. “We’re too late. They’re already inside. They apparently haven’t found anything important, if my men are to be believed, but we should still make sure.”

“Wait until they come out again, and then you’ll know what you have to do.”

“But Cardinal, we have to take advantage of the cover of night! What if they don’t come out until dawn?”

“Then you have free hand to do what you think appropriate.”

Salvoni repressed a sigh of relief with difficulty.
Free hand
. That was what he had been waiting for the whole time. An operation like this was his specialty, and he knew exactly how he needed to run it.

Shane was working with Deborah to identify more of the scrolls. “My God, when I think about what we’ve found here! All these records contradict in every conceivable way our current understanding of what was handed down to us by the Druids and the Celts.”

“You mustn’t forget who was writing the history you read. The true history of the Druids couldn’t be written before now because we hardly knew it. One thing is certain, though: everything here suggests that they were the architects of the entire Celtic society.” Deborah carefully placed another scroll in the box they had set aside for that purpose. “We know, as far as Ireland is concerned, that there was always a balance between worldly and spiritual power that kings and Druids shared. The idea of an empire was completely foreign to them. There wasn’t even a word for it in Gallic or any other Celtic language. It’s no wonder that this culture couldn’t be maintained in the atmosphere of the
Pax Romana
. The ones Saint Patrick didn’t force to convert to Christianity ended up submitting themselves
willingly. But here we find the source and...oh, look at this, a complete list of healing herbs and their applications. This must be worth a fortune.”

As Shane took another scroll out of the table, Deborah furrowed her brow and hastily scanned the text. “Take that too. That’s a description of the ability to communicate telepathically and to have an influence on the weather, animals, and other people. Even if it’s only a myth, it’s still interesting.”

“No, Deborah. I don’t think it’s just a myth. What if the Druids did have these abilities and this knowledge? That would have been yet another reason to persecute them. I mean, faced with such an accumulated knowledge, the Romans and the Christians must have been terrified. That’s why they needed this super god, the one true God. That’s the only way they could provide their armies with the necessary force to maintain an empire. I believe that the Druids really did have access to a universal knowledge, to a gift, that exerted an attraction and...”

Thomas had come back into the room. “As soon as we’ve filled all the boxes and chests that we want to take with us, I want to get out of here,” he said in a commanding tone. “In half an hour, I’m going to call MacClary and tell him that there’s no way we can retrieve everything here by ourselves.”

Thomas turned around and went back into the next chamber.

“And then what?” Shane asked.

“That’s it for us,” Deborah answered. “That’s the deal we made with MacClary. Ryan can take as much as he can and look for evidence that his ancestors left something here. The rest is for the archaeologists. Here, look at this!” Deborah translated another scroll. “
Our time is past. They are torturing us to break our power, to make us come to their source, but they will fail. We know their lies
... Damn, I can’t get anything else out of it.”

Shane had gotten up and was about to pack a dozen scrolls in one of the boxes they had left at the entrance. Then he saw Thomas, standing with his hand to his forehead. Dust and sand were raining down on him and another parchment, with which he was apparently quite preoccupied. He took a plastic container from one of the chests, which had a spiral inside it, so he could carefully store a parchment in it without having to touch the skin. He was concentrating so intensely on his work that he hadn’t noticed Shane at all.

“What are you doing there, Thomas?”

“This is something special. I’ll explain later.” Shane could tell Thomas was nervous, but he could also sense the relief that had washed over him. “It’s the scroll of Rodanicas,” Thomas continued, “one of my ancestors. This is what I’ve spent so much time searching for. It wasn’t a legend after all. I can’t let go of this parchment scroll again.”

Shane sat down next to Thomas. “But that’s not everything, is it?”

“No, Adam, that’s not it by a long shot. It’s not just about me and my family. What we’ve found here essentially belongs to eight Irish families whose ancestors at the beginning of the fourth century made it as far as Ireland. One of the secret schools we were talking about has survived, more or less, to the present day, so we were convinced that this place really existed and that we had to find it to learn more about our history.”

“Then it’s really true,” they heard from behind them. Deborah was headed to the exit with some scrolls.

“What is MacClary expecting from all of this here?” Shane asked.

“Oh, a lot. As you know, when his father left him with this riddle, it was a heavy burden. He also shares his father’s obsession about the early years of the Church. You mustn’t forget, the man is a jurist down to his bones, and he sees the genesis of the Church as more like the foundation of a criminal society. He wants to document these facts and arguments so the public will finally accept the truth and the Vatican will lose its influence.”

Shane had to laugh to himself. How naïve could these men be? Did Thomas really believe what he was saying? And the judge? Curb the influence of the Vatican! People were simply not ready for that. They had always looked the other way when a crime was committed in the name of faith—any faith. History, even recent history, was rife with this.

“In addition,” Thomas added, “a few months ago the British government officially recognized Druidism as a state religion. I’m sure we’ll also find proof here that the
Vatican set aside considerable portions of our cultural assets and is hoarding them somewhere. But let’s stop talking now and make sure we get out of here.”

Shane shook his head in disbelief. “But Thomas, what’s going to happen? Who’s going to get into the Vatican’s secret archive to prove this?”

“Adam, there is no secret archive in the Vatican. That’s just one of many conspiracy theories.”

“You’ll have to explain that to me. There’s enough information out there that suggests exactly the opposite.”

Deborah jumped into the conversation. “The
Archivio Segreto Vaticano
is, as the adjective
segreto
states, private, and not secret. Only the pope decides which inventory will be declassified, but this archive has nothing to do with the archive of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith. And the private archive of the pope is certainly not the place where such things are kept.”

“But where then?” Shane asked skeptically.

Deborah shook her head slowly. “The devil only knows, Adam. And I don’t use the word lightly.”

* * *

MacClary couldn’t contain his nervousness anymore.
My God, Ryan, just call already!
he thought as he stood in the library. For the first time, he began to fear that Ruth’s warning might turn out to be a premonition. Jennifer
had made herself comfortable under a blanket in a leather chair in front of the crackling fire in the library fireplace. He turned in her direction.

“So you want to quit. Did I understand you correctly?”

Jennifer looked up at him. “I do. Over the past few years I’ve started to realize that my career really isn’t fulfilling me anymore. The progress we’ve been able to make is negligible compared to the work that’s left to be done. I’m just tired, and I can’t take sleeping in hotels or a cold, empty bed at home anymore.”

MacClary hesitated a minute and then sat down next to her. For a while the only sound they could hear was the popping of the wood burning in the fireplace. Then he spoke again, softly. “It’s not that I’m happy when someone throws away her career, but as your friend, I’m inclined not to make any attempt to stop you.”

“You’d just let me go?”

“Do you think I don’t see what’s going on with you?” MacClary said as he stood up to get himself a whiskey. “Since the collapse of the UN reform, you haven’t had any of your old professional enthusiasm.”

The telephone rang. Both of them jumped, and Ruth, who happened to be walking by, rushed to the telephone to answer it. MacClary beat her to it, offering her a calming gesture at the same time. His hand on the phone, he paused for just a moment, as if he knew what Ryan was about to tell him.

“Thomas, is everything OK there?”

“More than OK. What we’ve found here exceeds all of our expectations, and above all, it has fulfilled mine.” Ryan’s euphoria was palpable. He sounded breathless and spoke so fast that it was almost impossible to understand him.

“Thomas, I’m completely overwhelmed! You really found the parchment scrolls? What else was there?”

“Suffice it to say that your father was right about everything. I can’t say anything more right now except that I’ve found all sorts of evidence here that we’ve been speculating about.”

“So you’ve finally found evidence of your family. I always knew you would, I—”

“There’s a problem, though. There’s just too much. It would be impossible to retrieve everything. My suggestion is that I send Adam and Deborah to Dublin with the most important scrolls. The rest has to be preserved immediately, otherwise—”

“I understand, Thomas. I’ll use my contacts in the Austrian Foreign Ministry to organize the immediate retrieval of the artifacts. That means that you need to get out of there.”

“Absolutely not. I’m staying here to make sure that no trespassers walk in on the site.”

Then, without even giving MacClary the chance to try to change his mind, Ryan hung up.

“Damn pigheaded mule,” MacClary said, beaming with joy.

* * *

Jennifer sat upright on the edge of her chair looking at MacClary expectantly. “What did they find?”

“What would you say if I offered you the opportunity to end your career with one of the oldest criminal cases in history?” MacClary was grinning as he only did when he was absolutely convinced of something.

Jennifer knew what was coming. How often had they sat together tossing all the legal, historical, and theoretical possibilities back and forth? Could they prove something against the Church? Did they have cultural objects from the Celts or the Druids in their possession? What if the descendants of those Celts or Druids could invoke international law and demand surrender of the objects?