The Spear of Destiny (23 page)

  Dennis’ head broke the surface of the water in time for him to see the massive fireball the explosion had caused.

  “Pete! Over here.”

A large wave pushed Dennis towards the container and together he and Hucthinson clung to it. An ominous creaking and groaning sound came from the ship and they watched in amazement as four stacks of containers six high leaned out over the side and then toppled into the sea one at a time.

  “Fuck!” Dennis said, “Did I cause that?”

  “Uh-huh,” Hutchinson replied as the ship moved further away.

On the gantry by the bridge Von Werner and Petrov slowly picked themselves up. Von Werner found his small round spectacles and put them on. He brushed his white suit down with his hand, a strange smile on his lips.

  “Do you want me to go after them sir?” Petrov asked, the Dragunov rifle resting across his chest.

  Von Werner shook his head.

  “They won’t last long in that sea.”

Inside he was thinking, ’I hope you do survive Mr Dennis. I hope to see you again real soon’

He turned and went back to the bridge.

  Dennis and Hutchinson were still watching the ship. Within minutes it was a quarter of a mile away. Dennis pulled himself up out of the cold water and onto the top of the container. He instantly turned, held out his hands and helped pull Hutchinson out of the sea also. Together they collapsed onto the hard steel surface.

  “What a night!” Dennis said.

  “Do you think this thing will stay afloat?”

  “I hope so.”

  “What do you think is in it?”

  “I don’t know. Why don’t we open it?”

  “Ha funny!”

The rain was still lashing at them. Hutchinson turned on his side.

  “Pete there are lights on the horizon.”

Dennis rolled over to look. With the rising and falling of the container in the churning sea Dennis could make out the lights. One particularly large wave lifted them high enough to see more lights.

  “I think it’s Naples Jim.”

  “How far out do you think we are?”

  “Don’t know. Five miles. Ten. But I think we’re slowly being swept in.”

  “Oh good,” Hutchinson said, “I’ve always wanted to see Pompeii.”

Dennis looked at him for a moment then threw back his head and roared with laughter.

  “I sure could use a cold beer,” Hutchinson added.

  “Yeah me too,” Dennis agreed as the waves brought them closer to land.

                        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.