The Codex (An Armour of God Thriller Book 2)

by Daniel Patterson

  Kurkul's big hand stretched across the table, palm up. Zack swallowed. This was not going well.

  Slowly he took the little statue out of his jacket pocket and placed it in Kurkul's hand.

  The police captain lifted it up to his eyes to examine it. Then he nodded as if satisfied that it was what he had been sent for.

  He palmed the statue into his hand, and it disappeared from Zack's view. "Take him."

  Hands grabbed Zack's arms and hauled him out of the booth roughly. "Whoa! Take him? Take him where?"

  This was not good—not good at all!

  Chapter Forty

  NOT THAT ANY PART of Greenland was particularly warm, but the holding room Zack sat in was definitely cold. The floor was bare concrete. The walls were made of metal. The chair he sat in was metal, just like the one on the other side of the rectangular metal table in front of him. The mirror on the wall opposite him was obviously two-way glass. Who was sitting on the other side, watching him?

  He had been in this room for maybe an hour after Captain Kurkul and company brought him to this building on the outskirts of the city. There had been no insignia on the front of the place. No signs, no lettering, nothing to indicate what its purpose was at all.

  Well, he knew its purpose now—interrogation of prisoners. This was definitely the most mysterious arrest Zack had ever experienced.

  As he was thinking about that fact and what it said about his life, a man walked in through the room's only door, closing it tightly behind him. He was a short man with a round belly and wore a dark suit and a silver tie. An unruly tuft of dark hair lurked like a spider on top of his head. There was a folder open in the man's hand as he walked over and sat in the chair across from Zack.

  For five or ten long minutes, the man said nothing. Just leafed through papers in the folder.

  Zack waited. He was familiar with the tactics of interview and interrogation. The man had his little games to play. Let him play them.

  "Where are you from, Mr. Cole?" the man asked finally in a heavily accented voice.

  So. These guys knew who Zack was. Which might mean a lot or might mean nothing.

  "You know my name. I'm sure you already know where I'm from."

  The man's hand hovered over a form, holding a pen.

  "I'm from New York. In America," he answered.

  The man looked up at him. "Is there any other?"

  "Well, there's a Greenland in New Hampshire. Just thought we should be specific."

  The man scribbled on the form and then snapped the folder shut and squared it neatly with the table's edge. "My name is Kalleg Neilson."

  "Just Kalleg Neilson?" Zack asked, crossing his arms over his chest. "Not Captain Neilson? Or Chief Inspector Neilson?"

  Kalleg Neilson waved a hand through the air. "You're thinking of the national police force, Mr. Cole. I am not a member of that agency."

  That caught Zack's attention. "Then who are you with?"

  "We," Neilson answered, "are the Defense Command. The police here are under our direct authority. Now then, introductions out of the way, shall we begin?"

  Chapter Forty-One

  ZACK CLAMPED HIS MOUTH shut. The Defense Command was the government defense ministry in Greenland. It answered to no one other than the Prime Minister of Denmark. Oh, he was in deep.

  "You intended to take something from this country that did not belong to you, is that correct?"

  The tiny figurine, so innocent looking, came out of Neilson's pocket to be placed on the table. Zack looked at the statue. So much trouble over such a little thing.

  "Where did you get this?" Neilson asked.

  "I'm sure you know where I got it," Zack said.

  Neilson looked at him, his mouth pursed into a thin line. It didn't look like he knew where he'd gotten it.

  "Mr. Cole, you left the Tasiilaq hospital in a hurry. You didn't even wait for a doctor's release. Captain Kurkul will return shortly with any other evidence you might have in your possession at your Nuuk hotel room. You can choose to give us answers now, or we can wait for the Captain."

  "You're going through my stuff?" Zack cried out.

  Neilson only looked at him.

  "You can't do that! That's invasion of personal privacy! You have no right!"

  "We have every right Mr. Cole. Robbery is a serious offense."

  Robbery? They were charging him with robbery?

  "Whoa! Wait a minute. Robbery? What are you talking about?"

  The door opened, and Captain Kurkul walked in, holding in his hand the one piece of evidence they did have.

  His camera.

  It wouldn't show a robbery, but it would show something else. Something far more valuable than a soapstone figurine.

  "Ah, Captain, so nice of you to join us," Neilson said like he'd been invited over for a nightcap.

  "We found this in his room," Kurkul said curtly, not one for conversation.

  "That is good news, we can use that." Neilson turned to Zack. "Of course, you won't mind."

  It wasn't a question.

  "There's nothing on there..." Zack tried.

  Kurkul left the camera on the table and exited the room.

  Zack stared at it, wondering for a moment if he could snatch it up and hit delete before being knocked unconscious. He decided to continue with his bravado tactic. "You want to tell me who exactly you think I stole the statue from?"

  Neilson didn't say anything.

  They didn't sit in silence for long before Kurkul returned with a laptop and a series of cables. He placed the laptop in front of Neilson and flipped it open. He tapped two or three keys with his thick fingers, and then methodically went through each cable until he found one to fit Zack's camera.

  Neilson's face dimly reflected the blue light of the laptop as Kurkul opened the photos. As he paged through them, his eyes stretched. "And the location where the pictures were taken?" Neilson asked.

  Kurkul tapped a few more keys.

  Zack's camera automatically allocated geocodes, latitude and longitude, altitude, bearing, distance in the image metadata. Since the pictures were taken underground, they wouldn't be tagged with the exact spot, but they would have the general location.

  "If you'll excuse me, Mr. Cole. I won't be long."

  And with that Neilson and Kurkul left the room.

  So he hadn't known where the figurine had come from.

  But he did now.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  IT WAS ANOTHER TWO hours before Mr. Neilson returned.

  "Mr. Cole, you have found something people have looked for, for centuries," he said, taking a seat once again across from Zack.

  "You knew about the soapstone figurine but not the village?" he asked, his curiosity overriding his intention to keep quiet.

  "Similar carvings were found in a highly respected Inuit elder's home after he passed away. It was said that his ancestors were the first Norse settlers to mix with the Inuit. When his granddaughters found the carvings, they donated them to the Greenland National Museum. They said their grandfather had never told them where he got them. After careful examination by the museum, the objects were dated to roughly the fifteenth century. Our researchers have no idea where they could have come from."

  This was amazing. Excitement burned inside Zack's belly. He loved stories like these. "How did you find out about the statue I found?"

  "The nurse at the Tasiilaq hospital. She thought you and your friend stole it from the museum. She's one of the granddaughters. Her sister works at the café here in Nuuk."

  That explained the nurse and waitress freaking out.

  "This is one of the biggest finds in the history of archaeology," Zack said, "if we could combine a team—"

  "That won't be happening," Neilson interrupted. "The Greenland National Museum will take things from here, and you will go home."

  "But I didn't get a chance to document—"

  "Mr. Cole, you had a responsibility to report your find to the National Museum a
s required under the Landsting Act, but you chose not to."

  "I was in the hospital," Zack protested. "I nearly died."

  "There are telephones in the hospital," Neilson pointed out. "Were you restricted from using them in some way?"

  Zack was silent.

  "No. So you have forfeited your right to be further associated with this find. The lost settlement is something the National Museum intends to protect. It is now up to the Government of Greenland and the Greenland National Museum when and if to make the news public."

  Zack was suddenly relieved he didn't take pictures of the Bible or bring it with him. It would undoubtedly have been taken from him as well.

  "But why?" Zack pressed. "Why keep something like that a secret? The academic community would love the chance to go down there and study that place. Can you even begin to realize how many questions could be answered in the site as perfectly preserved as that one is?"

  Neilson stared at him, waiting out Zack's questions. Then he calmly folded his hands together on top of the table. "This is a vulnerable cultural heritage site. This village is part of our national heritage. A fraction of Greenland that hasn't been polluted by the modern society, by machinery and technology and people looking for personal gain. We would like to keep it that way, keep it sacred."

  It didn't make sense. Zack could appreciate the fact that they didn't want to ruin how well it had been preserved, but this was something the world should know about. Something that would change what scientists knew about the past completely. "I understand what you're saying, Mr. Neilson. But with a proper team..."

  Neilson shook his head. "Mr. Cole. I'm asking you, my government is asking you, as a professional courtesy, not to discuss with anyone what you've seen here. We are just not willing to attract the kind of attention these discoveries would bring. There are some things the world is just not ready to see."

  "That's not your decision to make," Zack said.

  "Of course, it is."

  "Your government doesn't have the right to control the spread of scientific knowledge," Zack argued. "If you don't let us have an expedition, I will simply tell the world about it anyway."

  Neilson's face screwed up into an expression of distaste. "That wouldn't be in your best interests."

  "What could you possibly threaten me with? I'm curious. What?"

  "For one, you trespassed on a protected area. Under the Executive Order number one thirty-eight, on access to and conditions for traveling in certain parts of Greenland, section one. A permit is required for excursions outside an area of seventy-five kilometers from the center of Tasiilaq. Search and rescue workers under my control found you at eighty-five kilometers."

  "We were told we didn't need a permit for any area within one-hundred-fifty kilometers from Tasiilaq..." Zack protested.

  Neilson frowned. "I'm sure our government maps will show otherwise."

  Zack frowned. He was sure they would as well—now.

  "Number two. From this protected area, you removed an item considered to be a national treasure. A violation of the Landsting Act number eighteen on the preservation of cultural monuments, section seven, subsection three. 'Protected monuments must not be damaged, altered or moved, either in whole or in part.'"

  Zack didn't like where this was going.

  "Three, violation of Landsting Act section eleven. 'If an ancient site or monument is discovered, the developer shall immediately report the discovery to the Greenland National Museum, and work that affects the site or monument must be suspended.'"

  This just keeps getting better and better.

  "Finally, your exploration paperwork seems to be in order, but normally you are required to file twelve weeks before the anticipated start of your trip. You filed through the Chicago Museum of Biblical Antiquities five days ago. There are so many ways to forge paperwork these days, don't you agree?"

  "Are you suggesting that I falsified official documents? Faked my way into your country?"

  Neilson shrugged. "Is that so far beyond the realm of possibility?"

  Well, no. No, it's not. Zack had done that himself. Once. Maybe twice.

  "You see, Mr. Cole, I have so many reasons to not let you leave here. Under section three, six, four, dash one of the Penal Code for Greenland alone, I can order you locked away for a very long time," Neilson said to him. "And I could go home to my wife who is even now preparing my supper. She would be most happy to have me home on time for a change."

  Zack saw the rock, and he saw the hard place. And, he saw himself in between.

  "Okay," he relented. "Okay, I get it."

  "Do you also get that we are aware of your partner, Sydney Langtry?" Neilson asked.

  "She's not—"

  "Don't deny it now," Neilson interrupted. "Her name is right here on your exploration paperwork."

  "She won't say anything about this," Zack said.

  "But she already has Mr. Cole..."

  Father Giovanni. Sydney must have called him.

  "How did you—"

  "How did we know she talked?" Neilson said, completing Zack's question. "You didn't think we would question her as well?"

  "What have you done with her?"

  "She's fine."

  "Where is she?"

  Neilson glanced at his watch. "On a flight back to the United States by now. Best not worry about her, Mr. Cole. Worry about yourself. What you will do now is call Mr. Giovanni and explain that Miss Langtry made a mistake, and ask him to cancel any further excursions. We need assurances that neither you nor anyone associated with your employer will take any further action in our country."

  From the pocket of his suit coat, Neilson produced an iPhone. He slid the phone across the table to Zack and gestured toward it with a hand. "Go ahead."

  Trying to muster a bit of bravado, Zack said, "You want this on speaker phone?"

  "That won't be necessary. My phone is monitored through a secure server. Every word you and Mr. Giovanni say will be recorded."

  This was not a phone call that Zack was looking forward to. But it wasn't like he had a lot of choices here. Tapping in the number, he waited as the phone rang.

  "Hello?" said Father Giovanni's deep voice.

  "Hi, Father. It's Zack."

  "Zack!" Father Giovanni practically gushed. "You have no idea how excited I am!" He took a breath and intentionally changed to a serious tone. "First of all, are you alright? Sydney tells me you were injured."

  "Yeah, I'm all right, Father."

  "Good, good!" The excitement returned to his voice. "The kind of find that Syd described will put the museum on the front page! I knew I could trust you. I've already started putting lists together of what we'll need to go back. A find like this—"

  "Have you called anyone on this yet?" Zack interrupted.

  "Huh? What? Well, no, I haven't had a chance yet. I was waiting to hear from the leader of the team. Of course, that will be you..."

  "Okay. That's good," Zack wiped a hand across his forehead. What would be the best way to say this? "We need to hold off on this."

  Silence on the other end of the line.

  "Father?"

  "Are you serious? I'm surprised you don't have a team of your own down there right now!"

  "Look, Father, it's complicated. But the short version is we can't get back down there. It's not possible. There was a...a tremor. A small earthquake. There is no way to get back down."

  Well, that part was actually true. It hadn't done a lot of damage, but Father Giovanni didn't need to know that. Right now, he just needed him to change his mind.

  Father Giovanni was a man of integrity, a man of God, and a good friend. That's why what Zack was about to do was so hard.

  He was about to lie to Father Giovanni.

  Zack kept his gaze level on Neilson's as he spoke. "And besides that, Sydney may have exaggerated more than a little bit. You know she hasn't done much field work. We found a few pieces of pottery. We thought there would be a village down there. I fig
ured that was where all those caverns down there were leading. But we found a lot of nothing. We were lucky to get out alive."

  The sound of silence from the other end of the phone was heavy now. "I see," the father said at last. "Zack, is this like that time in the Andes?"

  "Yes, Father. This is like that."

  Good old Father Giovanni.

  Zack had run into a situation in the Andes. A phone call to Father Giovanni had gotten him out of it, but the call had been monitored. Father Giovanni didn't find out until later. But he remembered.

  "Okay, Zack, okay. I understand." Father Giovanni sighed heavily. "I'm sorry to hear that. Sorry indeed. I guess it's a good thing that I haven't called anyone else in on this. Get back here, and we'll settle up. You'll owe the museum some money to repay us for what we fronted you."

  "That was the deal, Father. If I came back empty handed, I'd pay you back." Neilson's expression never changed. He just sat there, staring at Zack as he listened to every word of the conversation.

  Father Giovanni told him again that he understood, and then hung up without saying goodbye. Zack pushed the phone back across the table to Neilson. "It's done."

  "So it is, Mr. Cole. And thank you. There's just one more thing," Neilson said, raising a finger momentarily.

  Of course, there is. Isn't there always?

  "Just like your partner, you will sign a paper apologizing to the Greenland National Museum and the Danish Government for your theft and trespass. Your permission to enter either Greenland or Denmark is hereby permanently revoked. We will keep an eye on both of you, Mr. Cole. We have connections with your government. We can have your passports revoked, your assets seized, and your reputations forever ruined if you make any attempt to return. Do you understand?"

  Zack swallowed hard. "I do."

  "You will sign?"

  "I will."

  "Good," said Neilson, pushing the papers across the table along with a pen.

  Zack signed all the indicated points.

  Neilson smiled. "Congratulations. You'll be allowed to leave the country on the first flight out tomorrow."