The Atlantis Scrolls

Chapter 36

By late night they had all made it out of Wewelsburg and were heading for the airstrip in Hannover. Alexandr elected to take the heat off his companions because they were so kind to include his unconscious self in their escape from the underground tunnels. He had woken just before they exited the gate Purdue had removed on their arrival, feeling Sam’s shoulders supporting his limp physique in the ill-lit caverns of World War II.

Of course, a hefty fee offered by Dave Purdue did not hurt his sense of loyalty either and he thought it better to stay in the brigade’s good graces by not absconding. They were going to meet Otto Schmidt at the airstrip and get in touch with the brigade’s other commanders for further instruction.

Still, Purdue remained silent about his captive in Thurso, even when he received a new text, Muzzled the dog. It is rabid. Now that he had lost his sister and the Longinus, he was running out of trump cards to play when the opposing forces gathered on him and his friends.

“There he is!” Alexandr pointed at Otto when they arrived at Hannover Airport in Langenhagen. He was seated in a restaurant when Alexandr and Nina found him.

“Dr. Gould!” he exclaimed cheerily when he saw Nina. “Good to see you again.”

The German pilot was a very friendly man, and he was one of the men at the brigade who defended Nina and Sam when Bern accused them of having stolen the Longinus. With much difficulty they relayed the sad news to Otto and briefly filled him in about what had happened in the research facility.

“And there is no way you could have brought his body?” he finally asked.

“No, herr Schmidt,” Nina chipped in, “we had to get out before the weapon detonated. We still have no idea if it exploded. I suggest you refrain from sending more men in there to retrieve Bern’s body. It is far too dangerous.”

He heeded Nina’s warning, but promptly got in touch with his colleague, Bridges, to inform him of their status and the loss of the Longinus. Nina and Alexandr waited anxiously, hoping that Sam and Purdue would not run out of patience and join them before they had established a plan of action with Otto Schmidt’s assistance. Nina knew Purdue would offer to pay Schmidt for his trouble, but she reckoned it would be inappropriate after Purdue had admitted to stealing the Longinus in the first place. Alexandr and Nina made a pact to keep this fact to themselves, for now.

“All right, I have called in a status report. As fellow commander I am authorized to make any arrangements I see fit,” Otto told them when he returned from outside the building where he had placed the private call. “I will have you know that losing the Longinus and still not being closer to arresting Renata, is not sitting well with me… us. But as I trust you, and because you reported when you could have fled, I have decided to help you…”

“Oh, thank you!” Nina sighed in relief.

“BUT…” he continued, “I am not returning to Mönkh Saridag empty handed, so this is not getting you off the hook. Your friends, Alexandr, still have an hourglass rapidly losing sand. That has not changed. Am I clear?”

“Yes, sir,” Alexandr answered while Nina nodded gratefully.

“Now, tell me about your excursion you mentioned, Dr. Gould,” he told Nina, shifting in his seat to listen attentively.

“I have reason to believe I have discovered ancient scriptures as old as the Dead Sea Scrolls,” she started.

“Can I see them?” Otto asked.

“I would rather show them to you in a more… secluded location?” Nina smiled.

“Done. Where do we go?”

Less than thirty minutes later Otto’s Jet Ranger had four passengers — Purdue, Alexandr, Nina, and Sam — en route to Thurso. They would hold up at Purdue’s manor, the very same place Miss Maisy was attending to the guest of her nightmares without the knowledge of anyone other than Purdue and his so-called housekeeper. It would be the best place, Purdue suggested, because it had a makeshift laboratory in the basement where Nina could conduct radiocarbon tests on the scrolls she had found, scientifically dating the organic base of the parchment to check for authenticity.

For Otto there was the promise of taking back something from the discovery, although Purdue had been planning to rid himself of a very expensive and annoying asset sooner than later. All he wanted to do first was to see how Nina’s discovery panned out.

“So you think these are part of the Dead Sea Scrolls?” Sam asked her as she set up the machinery Purdue had made available to her, while Purdue, Alexandr, and Otto had elicited the help of a local physician to attend to their bullet wounds without asking too many questions.