Chapter 27
Berlin
After their lunch, Elena and Simon had returned to their rooms to continue their recuperation. When Elena awoke from her nap, it was late, so she called Simon and suggested that they have breakfast the next day. In truth, Simon was relieved. His conversation over lunch had set his mind racing and he needed time on his own to think. What if there was a spy in the Order? He could not quite grasp the concept, but he equally could not fault his logic.
He had been in the room for almost 24 hours now and was beginning to feel the walls closing in. He had watched all of the television channels he understood, which was relatively few, his German, Russian and Arabic not being what they might. Sod it he decided, he needed a walk. Picking up his coat and key, he left the room and turned down the hall to the escalators. He pressed the button before noticing the man sitting on the sofa between the lifts.
“Dr Pelham” he said, standing up.
Startled, Simon nodded.
“Are you going somewhere?” the man asked. His cheap, ill-fitting suit suggested a policeman, but Simon was not sure.
“Yes, going for a walk.” Simon replied.
“I don’t think that is a good idea. Agent Waldheim would be most upset if anything else happened to you. Please return to your room.” The man took Simon by the arm and gently turned him around and propelled him forward, just as the elevator arrived.
“All I want is to go for a walk. I need to get out of the room for a while.”
“Dr Pelham, several people have tried to kill you. It is not safe for you to be roaming the streets. Please stay in your room. You are in a 5 star hotel, it cannot be that bad.”
“But we had lunch downstairs earlier. Why can’t I go down for dinner?”
“We know you did doctor, but unfortunately, there is another demonstration taking place tonight, and more tomorrow. We cannot afford the officers, so we cannot take any unnecessary risks. I am sorry, but you have survived several murder attempts, it would be best for you to stay in.”
Simon saw his point, and realised that there was little point in arguing. Doubtless the policeman had a gun, and Simon had seen enough of them recently not to want to see any more. Safely deposited in his room, he ordered room service and prepared to watch CNN for the the seventh time that day.
The next morning, it turned out that Elena had a visit from the doctor so was unable meet Simon for breakfast. Increasingly frustrated with his gilded prison, he once more tried to escape, this time to eat in the hotel restaurant. Once more, he was turned back and forced to dine alone. He wondered if the Germans suspected him of some involvement in the recent crimes, and were subtly trying to destabilize him into a confession.
As he was moving from grumpiness and paranoia into depression, a progression not helped by the measly serving of jam provided for his toast, the telephone rang. It was Elena. The doctor was satisfied with her progress and since Waldheim did not want them to leave their rooms, perhaps he would like to join her for a room service lunch. While not enthused at the prospect of eating once more from the short menu, Simon was pleased with the prospect of some company and readily agreed.
Half an hour before they were due to meet, Elena called him to take his order for lunch. Simon asked for a hamburger (the second time he’d had it in a day), which drew a reasonably pointed remark about his weight and the healthy benefits of salads. However, she carried on to say that some people could carry a bit of extra weight, and she quite liked the teddy bear look anyway. Blushing slightly, Simon hung up and got ready.
When Elena opened the door, the first thing to strike his senses was the smell of fried onions and burger. His hostess showed her displeasure by wrinkling her nose and shaking her head.
“You do realise I’ve got to sleep in this room” she said. “It’s like being gassed.”
“You can always open the window.” Simon said, moving past her to remove a chip from his plate.
“It’s minus 10 outside.”
“You could always come to my room.” Simon replied, surprising himself with his confidence.
“Tempting offer.” Elena replied. “But I’ll stay here with my onions”, she winked at him teasingly.
“They might not be so cuddly, but they’re much better for my health.”
They ate the rest of their lunch, which was cooling rapidly, and washed it down with some cokes from the mini-bar; diet for Elena.
When they had finished, Simon decided to broach the subject he had been mulling in his mind overnight.
“I’ve been thinking about our discussion yesterday. We came to the conclusion that there must be a spy in the Order.”
“Yes, I remember. I’ve been thinking about it too. I don’t see any other possible explanation.”
“Neither do I. But that’s where the problem lies.”
“What?”
“We’ll, I’m the Order’s newest member. I only knew another two, your father and Dr Fleicher. that’s three in total, but there are another nine out there. One of them must be the spy.”
“So we need to find these other nine people.”
“Yes, and one of them must be the spy. The only thing is, I’ve got no idea of who they are.”
“Didn’t my father tell you?”
“No, he told me about the history of the Order, what it does and the treasures it protects, but nothing about who the other members are.”
“Maybe if we look at the list of treasures, that will tell us?”
“I don’t think so. Each of the treasures is in a different country. Fleicher protected the lance, that much is clear, and I think your father protected the lost Eagle of Varus. I’m from England, so presumably I’m meant to look after Excalibur.”
“See, it’s not that hard.”
“But that’s the point, it is that hard. We could guess that Fleicher looked after the lance, that was his job in real life anyway, but your father and the Eagle? How could we know that?”
“Well, he was always interested in Roman history, particularly in Germany.”
“You know that because you’re his daughter. I looked him up on Google last night, and there was nothing to show any interest in history, let alone ancient history, whatsoever. If you look up Jonathan, there’s no mention of Excalibur, or Arthur or anything like that. I knew him better than anyone, and I would never have guessed. We can’t assume that the members of the Order will have any obvious connection to the objects.
Do you remember your father having any guests from overseas. Places like Japan, Turkey, the States, even Egypt?”
Elena shook her head. “There were always people coming and going, but I don’t remember any specific names or people.”
“We’re stumped then.”
“Not necessarily.”
“Why?”
“Well, presumably there are records somewhere. The Order must have kept a list of its members. Surely my father as Master would have been in charge of keeping the records.
He knew that you were Jonathan’s successor, so he must have known who the other members were.”
“Where do you think he would keep them? In the schloss?”
“No, probably in his apartment in Vienna.”
“Why there?”
“It was where he spent most of his time. If he needed to do something urgently, he would keep the files where he could get hold of them most easily. That means Vienna.”
“I think we need to get back to Austria.”
“Do we?”
“What do you mean? We need to find the spy. The only way I can see of doing that is to find those records which your father must have kept. Therefore we have to go to Austria.”
“I don’t agree. The bad guys, whoever they are, already know about us. That’s why they keep trying to kill us. The cat is out of the bag. There’s nothing we can do about it now. We can find the spy later, the most important thing is to stop these people who keep attacking us. And that means we stay here and help Waldheim.”
“How can we help him? I don’t know anything about them, neither do you. What use could we be?”
“Well, you know about the lance.”
“I don’t really. I know the legend, but I’m hardly an expert.”
“You know more about the background than any of us do, that’s useful. Maybe all that Ancient History has some value after all.” Elena smirked.
“Ancient History has value beyond measure” Simon puffed.
‘I’m only teasing.” Elena replied, attempting to bring Simon round. “You were the one who worked out where the book was, and that led us here.”
“Where we were attacked by a murderous nutter.” he pointed out.
“Where we were attacked, yes, but don’t you see, that must mean that we’re getting closer.Whoever did this must have sent that man because they were worried about us, so we must be getting close. And that’s because of you. You’ve brought us this far, maybe you can take us the rest of the way. It will only be capturing these men that makes us safe. There will be time to catch the spy later, but rather than looking for one man who could be anywhere, why not look for a bunch of men, whom we’re relatively sure must be in Germany?”
Simon thought. “I think you’re right.” He admitted grudgingly. “But I still don’t see what we can do. I mean Waldheim has the whole resources of the German state behind him, all we’ve got is ourselves and the internet.”
“Waldheim is looking at this as a murder inquiry. And, in some ways, he’s right. But we know there’s more to it than that, and I don’t think he’s really focusing on that side of things. If we can work out what’s happening with the lance, maybe we can find this gang that keeps attacking us.”
“Go on.”
“Well, we know about the book, and we know about the lance, so maybe we should try to concentrate on the two of them together. We know from Weiss that the Nazis thought the book somehow activated the Spear, but what does that mean? What were they trying to do? Why did they go to all the effort in the last days of the War, when they could have spent their time more profitably trying to escape?”
“I agree with you about that. Germany was crawling with Allied soldiers. They must have known that the end was only days away. Yet, they spent their last hours with this ancient object. Now, I know they must have been desperate, but there must have been something about it that would have made all that effort worthwhile. Whatever it was meant to do must have been so spectacular that it would have turned back the allies, or at least make them sue for peace. What could do that?”
“I can’t think of anything, but isn’t that the point? The Lance is not something from our everyday experience, but something much more powerful, almost otherworldly.” Elena replied, aware that she was straying from the sorts of hypotheses drummed into her at Police College.
“You know, your father said something that made me think. He said that the Order was formed when science had reached the stage when it could test the objects and confirm their power. It was at that point that the treasures moved from being objects of faith, to objects with verifiable powers. That was when they became dangerous, when people would accept that their abilities were real and not just old wives’ tales.
Now, if we could find some way of accessing that research, maybe we could find out what the powers of the Spear are supposed to be. And if we can do that, we might just be able to get a handle where our friends are.”
“Very good. See, I knew you could do it when you tried.” Elena smiled. “What’s the next step then?”
“Simple, we find the research that was done on the Lance in the nineteenth century.”
“And how will we do that?”
“I have a friend who knows everything.”
“Who’s that?” Elena asked, remembering her last encounter with one of Simon’s friends in Athens.
“Mr Google”
Berlin
After their lunch, Elena and Simon had returned to their rooms to continue their recuperation. When Elena awoke from her nap, it was late, so she called Simon and suggested that they have breakfast the next day. In truth, Simon was relieved. His conversation over lunch had set his mind racing and he needed time on his own to think. What if there was a spy in the Order? He could not quite grasp the concept, but he equally could not fault his logic.
He had been in the room for almost 24 hours now and was beginning to feel the walls closing in. He had watched all of the television channels he understood, which was relatively few, his German, Russian and Arabic not being what they might. Sod it he decided, he needed a walk. Picking up his coat and key, he left the room and turned down the hall to the escalators. He pressed the button before noticing the man sitting on the sofa between the lifts.
“Dr Pelham” he said, standing up.
Startled, Simon nodded.
“Are you going somewhere?” the man asked. His cheap, ill-fitting suit suggested a policeman, but Simon was not sure.
“Yes, going for a walk.” Simon replied.
“I don’t think that is a good idea. Agent Waldheim would be most upset if anything else happened to you. Please return to your room.” The man took Simon by the arm and gently turned him around and propelled him forward, just as the elevator arrived.
“All I want is to go for a walk. I need to get out of the room for a while.”
“Dr Pelham, several people have tried to kill you. It is not safe for you to be roaming the streets. Please stay in your room. You are in a 5 star hotel, it cannot be that bad.”
“But we had lunch downstairs earlier. Why can’t I go down for dinner?”
“We know you did doctor, but unfortunately, there is another demonstration taking place tonight, and more tomorrow. We cannot afford the officers, so we cannot take any unnecessary risks. I am sorry, but you have survived several murder attempts, it would be best for you to stay in.”
Simon saw his point, and realised that there was little point in arguing. Doubtless the policeman had a gun, and Simon had seen enough of them recently not to want to see any more. Safely deposited in his room, he ordered room service and prepared to watch CNN for the the seventh time that day.
The next morning, it turned out that Elena had a visit from the doctor so was unable meet Simon for breakfast. Increasingly frustrated with his gilded prison, he once more tried to escape, this time to eat in the hotel restaurant. Once more, he was turned back and forced to dine alone. He wondered if the Germans suspected him of some involvement in the recent crimes, and were subtly trying to destabilize him into a confession.
As he was moving from grumpiness and paranoia into depression, a progression not helped by the measly serving of jam provided for his toast, the telephone rang. It was Elena. The doctor was satisfied with her progress and since Waldheim did not want them to leave their rooms, perhaps he would like to join her for a room service lunch. While not enthused at the prospect of eating once more from the short menu, Simon was pleased with the prospect of some company and readily agreed.
Half an hour before they were due to meet, Elena called him to take his order for lunch. Simon asked for a hamburger (the second time he’d had it in a day), which drew a reasonably pointed remark about his weight and the healthy benefits of salads. However, she carried on to say that some people could carry a bit of extra weight, and she quite liked the teddy bear look anyway. Blushing slightly, Simon hung up and got ready.
When Elena opened the door, the first thing to strike his senses was the smell of fried onions and burger. His hostess showed her displeasure by wrinkling her nose and shaking her head.
“You do realise I’ve got to sleep in this room” she said. “It’s like being gassed.”
“You can always open the window.” Simon said, moving past her to remove a chip from his plate.
“It’s minus 10 outside.”
“You could always come to my room.” Simon replied, surprising himself with his confidence.
“Tempting offer.” Elena replied. “But I’ll stay here with my onions”, she winked at him teasingly.
“They might not be so cuddly, but they’re much better for my health.”
They ate the rest of their lunch, which was cooling rapidly, and washed it down with some cokes from the mini-bar; diet for Elena.
When they had finished, Simon decided to broach the subject he had been mulling in his mind overnight.
“I’ve been thinking about our discussion yesterday. We came to the conclusion that there must be a spy in the Order.”
“Yes, I remember. I’ve been thinking about it too. I don’t see any other possible explanation.”
“Neither do I. But that’s where the problem lies.”
“What?”
“We’ll, I’m the Order’s newest member. I only knew another two, your father and Dr Fleicher. that’s three in total, but there are another nine out there. One of them must be the spy.”
“So we need to find these other nine people.”
“Yes, and one of them must be the spy. The only thing is, I’ve got no idea of who they are.”
“Didn’t my father tell you?”
“No, he told me about the history of the Order, what it does and the treasures it protects, but nothing about who the other members are.”
“Maybe if we look at the list of treasures, that will tell us?”
“I don’t think so. Each of the treasures is in a different country. Fleicher protected the lance, that much is clear, and I think your father protected the lost Eagle of Varus. I’m from England, so presumably I’m meant to look after Excalibur.”
“See, it’s not that hard.”
“But that’s the point, it is that hard. We could guess that Fleicher looked after the lance, that was his job in real life anyway, but your father and the Eagle? How could we know that?”
“Well, he was always interested in Roman history, particularly in Germany.”
“You know that because you’re his daughter. I looked him up on Google last night, and there was nothing to show any interest in history, let alone ancient history, whatsoever. If you look up Jonathan, there’s no mention of Excalibur, or Arthur or anything like that. I knew him better than anyone, and I would never have guessed. We can’t assume that the members of the Order will have any obvious connection to the objects.
Do you remember your father having any guests from overseas. Places like Japan, Turkey, the States, even Egypt?”
Elena shook her head. “There were always people coming and going, but I don’t remember any specific names or people.”
“We’re stumped then.”
“Not necessarily.”
“Why?”
“Well, presumably there are records somewhere. The Order must have kept a list of its members. Surely my father as Master would have been in charge of keeping the records.
He knew that you were Jonathan’s successor, so he must have known who the other members were.”
“Where do you think he would keep them? In the schloss?”
“No, probably in his apartment in Vienna.”
“Why there?”
“It was where he spent most of his time. If he needed to do something urgently, he would keep the files where he could get hold of them most easily. That means Vienna.”
“I think we need to get back to Austria.”
“Do we?”
“What do you mean? We need to find the spy. The only way I can see of doing that is to find those records which your father must have kept. Therefore we have to go to Austria.”
“I don’t agree. The bad guys, whoever they are, already know about us. That’s why they keep trying to kill us. The cat is out of the bag. There’s nothing we can do about it now. We can find the spy later, the most important thing is to stop these people who keep attacking us. And that means we stay here and help Waldheim.”
“How can we help him? I don’t know anything about them, neither do you. What use could we be?”
“Well, you know about the lance.”
“I don’t really. I know the legend, but I’m hardly an expert.”
“You know more about the background than any of us do, that’s useful. Maybe all that Ancient History has some value after all.” Elena smirked.
“Ancient History has value beyond measure” Simon puffed.
‘I’m only teasing.” Elena replied, attempting to bring Simon round. “You were the one who worked out where the book was, and that led us here.”
“Where we were attacked by a murderous nutter.” he pointed out.
“Where we were attacked, yes, but don’t you see, that must mean that we’re getting closer.Whoever did this must have sent that man because they were worried about us, so we must be getting close. And that’s because of you. You’ve brought us this far, maybe you can take us the rest of the way. It will only be capturing these men that makes us safe. There will be time to catch the spy later, but rather than looking for one man who could be anywhere, why not look for a bunch of men, whom we’re relatively sure must be in Germany?”
Simon thought. “I think you’re right.” He admitted grudgingly. “But I still don’t see what we can do. I mean Waldheim has the whole resources of the German state behind him, all we’ve got is ourselves and the internet.”
“Waldheim is looking at this as a murder inquiry. And, in some ways, he’s right. But we know there’s more to it than that, and I don’t think he’s really focusing on that side of things. If we can work out what’s happening with the lance, maybe we can find this gang that keeps attacking us.”
“Go on.”
“Well, we know about the book, and we know about the lance, so maybe we should try to concentrate on the two of them together. We know from Weiss that the Nazis thought the book somehow activated the Spear, but what does that mean? What were they trying to do? Why did they go to all the effort in the last days of the War, when they could have spent their time more profitably trying to escape?”
“I agree with you about that. Germany was crawling with Allied soldiers. They must have known that the end was only days away. Yet, they spent their last hours with this ancient object. Now, I know they must have been desperate, but there must have been something about it that would have made all that effort worthwhile. Whatever it was meant to do must have been so spectacular that it would have turned back the allies, or at least make them sue for peace. What could do that?”
“I can’t think of anything, but isn’t that the point? The Lance is not something from our everyday experience, but something much more powerful, almost otherworldly.” Elena replied, aware that she was straying from the sorts of hypotheses drummed into her at Police College.
“You know, your father said something that made me think. He said that the Order was formed when science had reached the stage when it could test the objects and confirm their power. It was at that point that the treasures moved from being objects of faith, to objects with verifiable powers. That was when they became dangerous, when people would accept that their abilities were real and not just old wives’ tales.
Now, if we could find some way of accessing that research, maybe we could find out what the powers of the Spear are supposed to be. And if we can do that, we might just be able to get a handle where our friends are.”
“Very good. See, I knew you could do it when you tried.” Elena smiled. “What’s the next step then?”
“Simple, we find the research that was done on the Lance in the nineteenth century.”
“And how will we do that?”
“I have a friend who knows everything.”
“Who’s that?” Elena asked, remembering her last encounter with one of Simon’s friends in Athens.
“Mr Google”
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