Crusader's Gold

TWENTY SIX

In the shadow of the great Arc de Triomphe the Gold Team regrouped. Though surrounded by light, noise and groups of locals and tourists they felt as unobtrusive a crew in Paris as they were ever likely to get. Alicia knew none of them had had time to process the Riley or even the Kenzie angle yet. A team like theirs simply couldn’t disappear off the grid forever.

Action would have to be taken.

“It’s a clue buried deep within the Congress of Vienna.” Crouch pitched his voice below the timbre of the crowd. “But on the same page that ceded the Horses back to Venice. Listen up and tell me what you make of this:

Crouch finished and looked expectantly at the others. Russo grunted. Healey stared. Alicia put their expression into more eloquent words.

“Fucked if I know.”

“Well, luckily for you guys Caitlyn and I have been working on it all night,” he said. “We have some of the stanzas figured out. It’s a history, a chronology if you like, of the Hercules Tarentum and the quadriga. ‘From an Ancient Wonder’s home’ is…” he paused.

Alicia shrugged. “There were only seven. And I’m guessing this also revolves around their maker so I’m guessing Alexandria.”

“Yes. The Lighthouse of Alexandria was one of the seven ancient wonders and where Lysippos created both pieces. Now, through some web research we have determined that the Horses then came to Rome. The Romans certainly knew of Lysippos through the writings of Pliny — there was a huge market for his work. A big emperor needed a big Lysippos to prove his power, his manhood. So, according to the records the Horses made their way to Emperor Nero who displayed them in his Domus Aurea, which was a huge landscaped villa built at the heart of ancient Rome around AD 68. Pliny the Elder was there whilst it was being built, this so-called Golden House, and mentions it in his writings.”

“Is it also the Golden Palace?” Alicia asked.

“Yes, nicely thought out. The next two lines are a reference or a clue to the actual pieces, of course, possibly a way of covertly alluding that the Hercules goes in tandem with the quadriga. Suggestions of spectacle and strength — the Horses and the Hercules. It also hints that the Horses are for display whilst the Hercules is concealed, a suggestion that is reinforced later in the verses.”

Caitlyn broke in as Crouch took a breath, unable to curb her enthusiasm. “Right! Next verse. ‘From the Floating City to the New Rome’. It’s now you realize that they skipped Constantinople, see? Where we know the Horses stood atop the Hippodrome. We think this is because the people who wrote these verses in 1815 and ceded the quadriga back to Venice were more than a little embarrassed at themselves for not sending it back to the only place they knew positively that it actually came from. Anyway, the Floating City is naturally Venice whilst the New Rome, we think, is a dig at Napoleon.”

“Nobody’s above a good dig it seems,” Russo commented.

“Nope. And with Napoleon just defeated and jailed after referencing his Paris as the New Rome we think the theory stands up.”

Alicia racked her memory. “ ‘Undivided as Lysippos intended’. That’s pretty clear.”

“It is,” Crouch broke back in with a smile. “Lysippos built these pieces to complement each other. Spectacle and strength. The show and the unseen power at its back. They were never meant to be parted.”

“So maybe they never were,” Healey said. “And we head back to St. Mark’s Basilica.”

“Maybe.” Crouch nodded. “The next two lines are more references to the pieces’ meaning. What they signify to each other. The quadriga—”

“Wait.” Healey broke in, waving an arm and sidestepping a bungling tourist. “What is a quadriga anyway? I missed that bit.”

“A quadriga is four horses. Four horsepower. It was pretty quick back in the day.”

Alicia laughed. “Fourth century BCE? I’ll bet.”

“Now,” Caitlyn took up the metaphorical reins, “is where it gets interesting. The final stanza tells us where the Hercules is currently, or at least where it was taken after 1815. And looking at the big picture, that’s just a moment ago in history. It says ‘then sundered materially but never in spirit’. This points to the very real possibility that the pieces were parted. The Horses sent to Venice, the Hercules…”

“But why?” Russo asked.

“There must have been a very good reason. The people who wrote the congress clearly knew the pieces were meant to stay together.”

“And where?” Alicia asked.

“Read the rest of the verse. What do you think?”

“By the Pillars of Hercules,” Alicia recalled. “A part of the soil. Hiding among New Arches envisioned. To the victor the spoils.”

“This is where we falter,” Crouch admitted. “I’ve never heard of the Pillars of Hercules or the New Arches. And ‘to the victor the spoils’ seems almost to be a challenge. More like the hunt, a riddle-master saying — if you find it it’s yours.”

Caitlyn stared into the middle distance. “Well, I do know that the Pillars of Hercules are two promontories at the Strait of Gibraltar. One of them is the actual Rock of Gibraltar.”

“Lots of, um, toffs out that way,” Russo said. “I don’t think we’d fit in.”

“I know of the Rock of Gibraltar,” Crouch said. “Of course. But I didn’t realize the Pillar of Hercules connection.”

“And Napoleon’s activities in the Med are well documented,” Caitlyn added. “My only problem is the quote we found from Napoleon: ‘I have found the Pillars of Hercules. That doesn’t quite fit.”

“All right.” Crouch stored that away for later perusal. “Let’s concentrate on the New Arches reference for a bit. We’ll revisit the Pillars of Hercules later.”

“Wasn’t the Arc de Triomphe built after the Arc du Carrousel?” Alicia asked.

“Yes, but they were designed and begun at the same time. You think ‘arches’ refers to the triumphal arches of Paris?”

“Or Rome.” Alicia shrugged. “Wasn’t that where arches first started off?”

“Ancient Rome, yes,” Crouch replied quietly, clearly thinking hard. “As I mentioned there’s an Arch of Constantine in Rome.”

Healey jerked alert, ready to go. Alicia waved him down. “Relax, boy. We’re just guesstimating here.”

“Constantine just doesn’t fit,” Caitlyn said. “Yes, he built Constantinople but the congress washes right over the history around Constantinople and the Hippodrome.”

Crouch agreed. “All Roman arches are old,” he said. “Dating, I think from around the first century BCE onwards.”

“And they meant ‘envisioned’ back in 1815.” Alicia said. “That means they hadn’t been built yet.”

Crouch shook his head. “But that doesn’t fit either. Nobody would build a triumphal arch just to hide the Hercules. They’d secrete it in a quiet place they already have. I mean, the Hippodrome was already there. So was the Golden Palace and St. Mark’s Basilica. Even the Arc du Carrousel was built to commemorate Napoleon’s victories.”

“So maybe the arches weren’t built just for the Hercules,” Alicia shrugged, “but agreed at the secret congress to be utilized later in some way.”

Caitlyn stared at Crouch. “Something you just said.” She creased her brow. “Niggles at me. About Napoleon and his victories. I don’t…” she broke off, deep in thought.

“So where does all that leave us?” Russo grumbled, staring around at the erratic flows of tourists, the drifting crisp packets and empty coffee cups, the local cops trying their best to look friendly on every street corner, the ever-present, all-seeing monuments that marked eras long since absent from the world.

“Well, it leaves us with plenty to think about,” Crouch said a little grumpily. “And that’s why we’re here.”

“Not me.” Alicia looked like a caged lion. “I’m here for the mayhem. I’m just dying for some lout to bump into me so I can tear his head off.”

“Frustrated?” Russo enquired with a little smirk.

“I may be the worst woman here,” Alicia said with a tight, haughty smile. “But I’m still the best man.”

Crouch started walking away from the arch, pulling the team with him. “Do we know of any arches built after 1815?”

Alicia turned to Caitlyn. “Geek?”

The ex-MI5 agent looked flustered. “Sorry, I was… lost for a moment there. I’m sure the answer is staring us right in the face.”

“No,” Alicia said drily. “That’s me. And I’m not hiding any Hercules.”

“It’s not that.” Caitlyn said, oblivious to the sarcasm. “I’m thinking Napoleon was defeated. The Hercules and to some extent the quadriga always seem to have been spoils of war. So who defeated Napoleon?”

Crouch stopped very quickly. “Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley at the battle of Waterloo,” he said. “Better known as the Duke of Wellington.”

“And you’re saying the British built an arch in acknowledgement of that?” Alicia asked.

“No.” Caitlyn flicked rapidly at her Kindle Fire. “We built two. The first design was based on the Arch of Constantine,” she breathed rapidly. “and wow… the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel. The second, complete with quadriga, was also built to commemorate Britain’s victories in the Napoleonic Wars.”

The team stared at each other, mesmerized by Caityln’s words, astonished at the breakthrough.

“Which arches?” Crouch asked. “Don’t tell me—”

Caitlyn nodded. “You got it. The most obvious ones in plain sight. The first is Marble Arch, the second is Wellington Arch.”