The Venetian Betrayal (6 page)

Not the same ones he'd just seen through the microscope.

But he instantly knew what the digits on the supposedly ancient medallion represented.

A Danish phone number.

Chapter
TEN

VENICE

6:

0 A
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VINCENTI STUDIED HIMSELF IN THE MIRROR AS HIS VALET creased the jacket and allowed the Gucci suit to drape his enormous frame. With a camel-haired brush, all remnants of lint from the dark wool were removed. He then adjusted his tie and made sure the dimple plunged deep. The valet handed him a burgundy handkerchief and he adjusted the silk folds into his coat pocket.

His three-hundred-pound frame looked good in the tailored suit. The Milan fashion consultant he kept on retainer had advised him that swarthy colors not only conveyed authority, they also drew attention away from his stature. Which wasn't an easy thing to do. Everything about him was big. Pouched cheeks, rolled forehead, cob-nose. But he loved rich food and dieting seemed such a sin.

He motioned and the valet buffed his Lorenzo Banfi laced shoes. He stole a last look in the mirror, then glanced at his watch.

"Sir," the valet said, "she called while you were showering."

"On the private line?"

The valet nodded.

"She leave a number?"

The valet reached into his pocket and found a slip of paper. He'd managed some sleep both before and after the Council meeting. Sleep, unlike dieting, was not a waste of time. He knew people were waiting for him, and he despised being late, but he decided to call from the privacy of his bedroom. No use broadcasting everything over a cellular.

The valet retreated from the room.

He stepped to a bedside phone and dialed international. Three buzzes shrilled in his ear before a woman's voice answered and he said, "I see, Supreme Minister, that you're still among the living."

"And it's good to know your information was accurate."

"I wouldn't have bothered you with fantasy."

"But you still haven't said how you knew someone would try to kill me today."

Three days ago he'd passed on to Irina Zovastina the Florentine's plan. "The League watches over its members, and you, Supreme Minister, are one of our most important."

She chuckled. "You're so full of it, Enrico."

"Did you win at buzkashi?"

"Of course. Two times into the circle. We left the assassin's body on the field and trampled it into pieces. The birds and dogs are now enjoying the rest."

He winced. That was the problem with central Asia. Wanting desperately to be a part of the twenty-first century, its culture remained entrenched in the fifteenth. The League would have to do what it could to change all that. Even if the task would be like weaning a carnivore onto a vegetarian diet.

"Do you know the Iliad?" she asked.

He knew she'd have to be humored. "I do."

"Cast the souls of many stalwart heroes to Hades and their bodies to the gods and birds of prey."

He grinned. "You fashion yourself Achilles?"

"There's much to admire in him."

"Wasn't he a proud man? Excessive, as I recall."

"But a fighter. Always a fighter. Tell me, Enrico, what of your traitor? Was that problem resolved?"

"The Florentine will enjoy a lovely burial north of here, in the lake district. We'll send flowers." He decided to see if she was in the mood. "We need to talk."

"Your payment for saving my life?"

"Your end of our bargain, as we originally discussed long ago."

"I'll be ready to meet with the Council in a few days. First, there are things I need to resolve."

"I'm more interested in when you and I will meet."

She chuckled. "I'm sure you are. I am, too, actually. But there are things I must complete."

"My time on the Council ends soon. Thereafter, you'll have others to deal with. They may not be as accommodating."

She laughed. "I love that. Accommodating. I do enjoy dealing with you, Enrico. We so understand each other."

"We need to talk."

"Soon. First, you have that other problem we spoke about. The Americans."

Yes, he did. "Not to worry, I plan to deal with that today."

Chapter
ELEVEN

COPENHAGEN

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN NOT EXACTLY ?" MALONE ASKED THORVALDSEN.

"I commissioned a fake elephant medallion. It's quite easy to do, actually. There are many counterfeits on the market."

"And why did you do that?"

"Cotton," Cassiopeia said to him, "these medallions are important."

"Gee, never would have guessed. What I haven't heard is how and why."

"What do you know of Alexander the Great, after he died?" Thorvaldsen asked. "With what happened to his body."

He'd read on the subject. "I know some."

"I doubt you know what we do," Cassiopeia said. She stood beside one of the bookshelves. "Last fall, I received a call from a friend who worked at the cultural museum in Samarkand. He'd found something he thought I might like to see. An old manuscript."

"How old?"

"First or second century after Christ. Ever hear of X-ray fluorescence?"

He shook his head.

"It's a relatively new procedure," Thorvaldsen said. "During the early Middle Ages, parchment was so scarce that monks developed a recycling technique where they scraped away the original ink, then reused the clean parchment for prayer books. With fluorescence, X-rays are formed from a particle accelerator, then bombarded onto the recycled parchment. Thankfully, the ink used centuries ago contained lots of iron. When the X-rays hit that ink, molecules deep in the parchment glow, and those images can be recorded. Pretty amazing, actually. Like a fax from the past. Words once thought erased, written over with new ink, reappear from their molecular signature."

"Cotton," Cassiopeia said, "what we know firsthand about Alexander is confined to the writings of four men who all lived nearly five hundred years after Alexander. Ephemerides, Alexander's so-called royal journal, which was supposedly contemporaneous, is useless--the victor rewriting history. The Alexander Romance, which many people cite as authority, is wild fiction and bears little relation to reality. The other two, though, were written by Arrian and Plutarch, both reputable chroniclers."

"I've read the Alexander Romance. Great story."

"But that's all it is. Alexander is like Arthur, a man whose actual life has been replaced with romantic legend. He's now regarded as some great, benign conqueror. Some sort of statesman. Actually, he slaughtered people on an unprecedented scale and totally squandered the resources of the lands he acquired. He murdered friends out of paranoia and led most of his troops to early deaths. He was a gambler who staked his life, and the lives of those around him, on chance. There's nothing magical about him."

"I disagree," he said. "He was a great military commander, the first person to unite the world. His conquests were bloody and brutal because that's war. True, he was bent on conquering, but his world seemed ready to be conquered. He was politically shrewd. A Greek, who ultimately became a Persian. From everything I've read, he seemed to have little use for petty nationalism--and I can't fault him for that. After he died his generals, the Companions, divided the empire among themselves, which ensured that Greek culture dominated for centuries. And it did. The Hellenistic Age utterly changed Western civilization. And all that started with him."

He saw that Cassiopeia did not agree with him.

"It's that legacy which was discussed in the old manuscript," she said. "What actually happened after Alexander died."

"We know what happened," he said. "His empire became the prey of his generals and they played finders-keepers with his body. Lots of differing accounts about how they each tried to highjack the funeral cortege. They all wanted the body as a symbol of their power. That's why it was mummified. Greeks burned their dead. But not Alexander. His corpse needed to live on."

"It's what happened between the time when Alexander died in Babylon and when his body was finally transported back west that concerned the manuscript," Cassiopeia said. "A year passed. A year that's critical to the elephant medallions."

A soft ring broke the room's silence.

Malone watched as Henrik removed a phone from his pocket and answered. Unusual. Thorvaldsen hated the things, and especially detested people who talked on one in front of him.

Malone glanced at Cassiopeia and asked, "That important?"

Her expression stayed sullen. "It's what we've been waiting for."

"Why you so chipper?"

"You may not believe this, Cotton, but I have feelings, too."

He wondered about the caustic comment. When she'd visited Copenhagen during Christmas, they'd spent a few pleasant evenings together at Christiangade, Thorvaldsen's seaside home north of Copenhagen. He'd even given her a present, a rare seventeenth-century edition on medieval engineering. Her French reconstruction project, where stone by stone she was building a castle with tools and raw materials from seven hundred years ago, continued to progress. They'd even agreed that, in the spring, he'd come for a visit.

Thorvaldsen finished his call. "That was the thief from the museum."

"And how did he know to call you?" Malone asked.

"I had this phone number engraved on the medallion. I wanted to make it perfectly clear that we're waiting. I told him that if he wants the original decadrachm he's going to have to buy it."

"Knowing that, he'll probably kill you instead."

"We're hoping."

"And how do you plan to prevent that from happening?" Malone asked.

Cassiopeia stepped forward, her face rigid. "That's where you come in."

Chapter
TWELVE

VIKTOR LAID THE PHONE BACK IN ITS CRADLE. RAFAEL HAD STOOD by the window and listened to the conversation.

"He wants us to meet in three hours. At a house north of town, on the coastal highway." He held up the elephant medallion. "They knew we were coming--and for some time--to have this made. It's quite good. The forger knew his craft."

"This is something we should report."

He disagreed. Minister Zovastina had sent him because he was her most trusted. Thirty men guarded her on a daily basis. Her Sacred Band. Modeled after ancient Greece's fiercest fighting unit, which fought valiantly until Philip of Macedonia and his son, Alexander the Great, slaughtered them. He'd heard Zovastina speak on the subject. The Macedonians were so impressed with the Sacred Band's bravery that they erected a monument in their memory, which still stood in Greece. When Zovastina assumed power, she'd enthusiastically revived the concept. Viktor had been her first recruit, and he'd located the other twenty-nine, including Rafael, an Italian whom he'd found in Bulgaria, working for that government's security forces.

"Should we not call Samarkand?" Rafael asked again.

He stared at his partner. The younger man was a quick, energetic soul. Viktor had come to like him, which explained why he tolerated mistakes that others would never be allowed. Like jerking that man into the museum. But maybe that hadn't been a mistake after all?

"We can't call," he quietly said.

"If this becomes known, she'll kill us."

"Then we can't let it become known. We've done well so far."

And they had. Four thefts. All from private collectors who, luckily, kept their wares in flimsy safes or casually displayed. They'd masked each of their crimes with fires and covered their presence well.

Or, maybe not.

The man on the phone seemed to know their business.

"We're going to have to solve this ourselves," he said.

"You're afraid she'll blame me."

A knot clenched in his throat. "Actually, I'm afraid she'll blame us both."

"I'm troubled, Viktor. You carry me too much."

He threw his partner a self-deprecating expression. "We both messed this one up." He fingered the medallion. "These cursed things are nothing but trouble."

"Why does she want them?"

He shook his head. "She's not one to explain herself. But it's surely important."

"I overheard something."

He stared up into eyes alive with curiosity. "Where did you hear this something?"

"When I was detailed to her personal service, just before we left last week."

They all rotated as Zovastina's day-to-day guards. One rule was clear. Nothing heard or said mattered, only the Supreme Minister's safety. But this was different. He needed to know. "Tell me."

"She's planning."

He held up the medallion. "What does that have to do with these?"

"She said it did. To someone on the phone. What we're doing will prevent a problem." Rafael paused. "Her ambition is boundless."

"But she's done so much. What no one has ever been able to do. Life is good in central Asia. Finally."