The Medici Letters: The Secret Origins of the Renaissance

by Taylor Buck

  Nearly finished…

  The scan could’ve ended a month ago, but Foley kept scanning more areas around the city. He seemed determined to find something of value—at least that was his report. Jack’s theory was that Foley was prolonging the commission in order to further test his MOTSUs. He had extended the contract with the city 3 times now. Foley seemed quite content stationed in Florence. During one phone conversation, Kat had even joked to Jack that Foley might actually retire there—live his life out as an art curator or museum steward. It probably wasn’t far-fetched. In reality, it was a natural succession for an archaeologist in his mid 60s. But in all likelihood, Foley would stay active in the field until he was forced out. That’s what usually happened anyway. Kathleen hoped he would be around as long as possible. He was an industry veteran—a pioneer of imaging analysis and a longtime mentor to Kathleen. Together, they made good partners and forged the path of subsurface analysis in the 21st century.

  Jack was about to sit down at the table when his cell phone began rattling around on top of the counter.

  “You girls dig in. That might be Mom.”

  Jack walked over to the phone eagerly, hoping it was Kat. She hadn’t answered last night when he called her back. He sent her a few texts, too. Jack was actually quite concerned although he didn’t want to show it in front of the girls. He looked at the caller ID. The phone number registered an unidentified area code…European…but not Italian... Maybe she misplaced her phone and was calling from a different number.

  “Hello?”

  “Jack Cullen?”

  “Speaking.”

  “My name is Chester Allen. I work with your wife at TerraTEK…”

  “What can I do for you Chester?” Jack asked, trying to mask his concern.

  “It’s about Kathleen. Mr. Cullen, I’m afraid…” He paused.

  The brief silence on the line was a dagger piercing Jack in the heart. “What’s happened?” he stammered.

  “Kathleen was in an accident…” Chester paused again.

  “Mr. Cullen, I’m very sorry…she’s in a coma.”

  CHAPTER 3

  MASSACHUSETTS TURNPIKE

  SEPTEMBER 5

  JACK WASN’T QUITE SURE what had just happened. He wasn’t prepared on how to properly deliver the news to his daughters that their mother had been in an accident and was currently in a coma. As he sped along the turnpike, he tried to recall how he had told them—what he had actually said. Geez… He couldn’t remember…it all seemed a blur. It was still a blur.

  Not 6 hours ago Chester Allen from TerraTEK had informed him that Kathleen had been in an accident while climbing in the Swiss Alps. She was then flown to Lucerne and treated at Klinik St. Anna, which Chester assured Jack was the best hospital in Switzerland. He didn’t know all of the details but apparently she had been found at the bottom of a cliff, covered in snow, mentally and physically unresponsive and suffering from hypothermia. Dr. Foley was also found close by but unfortunately he had not survived.

  The Alps? What was Kat doing in Switzerland? Let alone climbing in the Alps?

  He also mentioned something about her level of consciousness being positive and something about a Glasgow Coma Scale and some numbers involved. Apparently Kathleen still had a healthy amount of functioning brain activity, which was an extremely good sign. They said if she continued to show improving brain activity she could even wake up in a day or two. It was all a guessing game, though. Jack had tried to keep up with the barrage of terms and numbers but he was taken completely off guard and felt as though he was in some sort of distant nightmare.

  He wanted to wake up…

  But it was all real.

  Focus. First things first. Jack knew he had to get to Kat right away. He called his younger sister, Margaret, who lived in upstate New York. He was careful not to divulge too much information. Chester had specifically told him not to contact anyone until they were able to talk face to face. It was an audacious request seeing that Jack had every right to take action into his own hands. However, something about the way Chester phrased the events made Jack uneasy, almost like there was more to the story than what he had provided.

  Jack told Margaret what he could, “Kat’s been in an accident. She’s alive. I need to get to her ASAP. Unfortunately I can’t tell you anymore.”

  Margaret immediately offered to come help. “Jack, I’m getting in the car right now. I’ll be there in 3 hours.”

  Jack knew the girls adored Aunt Margaret and would be completely fine staying with her while he went to Lucerne. Margaret was married with no kids and worked from home. Her husband, Sean, was a firefighter and worked long hours anyway. She insisted that she come help with the girls to which Jack appreciatively accepted.

  Jack knew it would be hard to be away from them…but he made the choice to go alone. A gut decision. Something about the ambiguity of it all made him uneasy. He wanted to keep the girls safe at home, just in case. Surprisingly, the girls seemed to take the news rather well—neither one cried. Valerie was old enough to know what was going on but Anna was still very confused by it all. Jack had a feeling the girls didn’t actually believe their mom could be seriously injured. It just wasn’t like Kat. She had always been the rock in the family, never showing weakness and never, ever admitting defeat.

  She’s too damn stubborn to stay in a coma, Jack thought to himself.

  He told Margaret that he would call her with an update when he landed and promised to fly them all out if her situation remained serious.

  Why was Kat in the Swiss Alps?

  There was more to the story. He just needed to get face to face with Chester and then he would extract every single detail of what TerraTEK knew. Jack would get answers. He wouldn’t stop until he found out exactly what happened.

  The Volvo engine roared as Jack weaved through the cars along the turnpike and made his way past the marked exits. It felt like time was slowing down, like the cars around him were deliberately driving slower just to piss him off. It wasn’t the case, though. Of course it isn’t. Why would they do that? He needed to remember to call the girls before he got on the plane. They would be okay while he was gone. They were tough, like their mom.

  What were you doing in the Alps, Kat?

  Jack looked out the window and shook the fatigue off. He could sleep on the plane. He would try anyway. The green road signs flashed by. Jack turned off the turnpike and took the exit toward Boston’s Logan International Airport.

  CHAPTER 4

  ZURICH, SWITZERLAND

  SEPTEMBER 6

  JACK’S PLANE TOUCHED DOWN at Zurich International Airport mid-morning the following day. Chester Allen was on the tarmac waiting to greet Jack as soon as he descended the steps.

  Chester Allen…

  Kat had mentioned Chester’s name in passing when talking about work; however, the two men had never met in person. From what Jack knew, Chester Allen was the brains behind the surveillance gadgets that TerraTEK sold to the military. Recruited straight out of MIT, he was another one of the wunderkinds lulled aboard the massive surveillance enterprise. From what Kat mentioned, besides being extremely intelligent in technical efficacies his social skills were slightly lacking—a common attribute of prodigious individuals. Apparently he had a tendency to be flippant and abrasive at times. Jack got a look at him while descending the plane stairs. He looked close to Jack’s height at 6’ and was probably 10 years younger. He wore a dark suit that seemed to be tailored to his wiry frame. His blonde hair was floppy and wavy, swept over the side to keep out of his face. He wore German designer glasses with black square-shaped frames that matched the angular lines of a strong jaw. He stood there like a statue jutting his hand out to Jack.

  “You must be Jack. I’m Chester Allen.” He smiled strangely, almost as if he expected some familiarity between them, even though this was their first time meeting. “I’m here to fill you in and take you to your wife.”

  “Thank you, Chester. Kathleen’s mentioned
you before. I appreciate your help with all this. I have to admit, I’m still in shock.”

  “We all are. Everyone at TerraTEK looks up to Kathleen and idolizes her work. She is an integral part of our company and we’ll do anything it takes to get her healthy again.”

  Jack nodded appreciatively. Chester was far more professional and composed than expected. Of course, he wasn’t sure what he had expected… a techno-hacker geek, maybe? Chester was the contrary. Polite and practiced. Jack also sensed a trace accent in his voice…difficult to place, though.

  “I’m sure you’re anxious to get to her so I’ll show you to the car. We can discuss everything along the way.” Chester signaled down the tarmac.

  “Yes, I am. And Lucerne, how far is it from here?”

  “Forty minutes,” Chester replied. “By autobahn.”

  “Great.”

  They walked through the terminal and out to the street. Jack noticed people traveling busily all around. Everyone appeared to be professional and well-groomed, as if Zurich were a city of fashion executives. Suits, ties and perfect hair. They all seemed intent on getting somewhere, and getting there fast. It exemplified the Swiss work ethic—everyone seemed to have a mission and a purpose.

  Waiting curbside of the terminal was an expensive black Audi sedan. The driver held the back door open for Jack to get in. “Do you have any luggage I can help with, sir?”

  “Just the one,” Jack answered pointing to the leather duffle slung over his shoulder. “I’ll keep it with me, though. Thanks.” Jack slid into the warm leather back seat beside Chester. Once seated, the driver navigated the car out of the busy airport. As soon as they reached the A4 motorway, Chester started in.

  “I’m sure this is very hard for you and your family to go through. As much as Kathleen means to us, I can only imagine how extremely difficult it is for you.”

  Jack nodded. “Like I said, I don’t think I’ve fully accepted that it’s happened.”

  Chester smiled amiably. “I know it’s difficult keeping this under wraps for the moment, but I appreciate your cooperation. You haven’t spoken to anyone about this, have you?”

  “My sister knows I’m here,” Jack replied. “But she doesn’t have any details.” He paused. “Of course, neither do I.”

  Chester nodded. “Yes, I understand. But just so you’re completely aware, we are operating under strict confidentiality until we know exactly what happened. The last thing we want is for this incident to get leaked to the public. The European media is quick to fabricate their own headlines if they aren’t provided accurate information. And even if they are, there’s no telling what story they’ll run.” Chester looked at Jack solemnly over the dark frames of his glasses. “Mr. Cullen, I’m sure you’ll agree that your wife’s reputation is not something that should be controlled by media inaccuracies.”

  Jack paused. He focused his thoughts and looked straight at Chester. “Mr. Allen, I need you to tell me what Kathleen was doing in Switzerland.”

  “Yes,” he said brushing his blonde mop aside. He adjusted his position in the back seat so that he could face Jack. “To be completely honest…we don’t entirely know.”

  Jack furrowed his brow. Chester’s reply was not what he had expected. “What do you mean, you don’t know? This entire project was organized by TerraTEK. You’re telling me you didn’t know that Kathleen was going to Switzerland?”

  “That’s correct,” Chester replied calmly. “The team was not scheduled to be in Switzerland at all. Frankly, it came as a complete surprise to us…”

  By Chester’s grave tone, Jack got the impression that Kathleen and Foley had possibly ventured outside of their authorized directive. But knowing Kat’s passion for her work, it came as no shock to him.

  “Our last communication with Kathleen and Foley was at 1pm on Friday. You said you talked with her at 3pm, which means you were actually the last person to communicate with her.”

  Jack tried to create a mental timeline, anything to make sense of this. If what Chester said was true, then the conversation they had in the car could’ve been critical.

  “Did Kathleen mention anything about where they were?” asked Chester.

  Jack scanned his memory for any key indicators. The phone call was brief. “Like I told you, she told me she had something to talk to me about but didn’t want to discuss it over the phone with my daughter in the car.”

  “Anything else? Nothing indicating where they were?”

  Jack played back the conversation in his head. They had talked about Anna’s coach having food poisoning. They talked about Valerie staying at a friend’s house for the night. Anna mentioned something about Pinocchio... Jack looked up. “Hang on. Kathleen mentioned that Pinocchio was from Florence; right she was. She spoke in the past tense.”

  Chester nodded as he quickly produced his phone.

  “It hadn’t crossed my mind but it makes sense,” said Jack. “They weren’t in Florence when we talked, they were probably already in Switzerland.”

  “Good,” Chester stated. “That can help us pinpoint when they actually left. If we can trace that to their scan logs on Thursday we may be able to…”

  “Chester,” Jack interjected. “If you don’t mind, can you go back a bit and start with what they were doing up until Thursday?”

  “Of course. Forgive me,” he said placing his phone back into his pocket. He leaned forward and straightened his jacket.

  “This past April, TerraTEK was commissioned by the city of Florence to do a subterranean blanket scan of the city. It seems the city of Florence has been bordering on financial distress and they focused their efforts on seeking to revive the city’s rich history by exploring under the surface for uncovered treasures.”

  Jack had heard of the city’s financial concern recently in a news article. Apparently Michelangelo’s David, arguably the most iconic figure of Florentine art, was in an ongoing custody battle between the city of Florence and the Italian government. Many residents were under the impression that David was a Florentine since his legendary creator was. Therefore any financial earnings associated with the sculpture would go to the city of Florence. It turned out that over 8 million Euros in ticket sales a year from L’Accademia, where David is presently displayed, had been going directly to the Italian government. This presented a problem that initiated an internal investigation. When the Heritage Ministry began searching through the trail of documents, they found that in 1873, the Italian government paid for David to be moved from its original spot in central Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio over a few blocks to L’Accademia. The ministry claimed that since the Italian government paid to move the statue, it amassed responsibility for it—even though it was the Florence city hall that commissioned its very creation in the 16th century. The debate ensued into a battle of legalities, and in the end, the Italian government won. They continued receiving full dividends of sales—distributing wealth to avenues of their choosing. Meanwhile, Florence city workers remained in loyal service to the great masters, continuing their duties to the museum by sweeping up discarded brochures and postcards left over by tourists.

  “We assembled a team headed by Dr. Foley and your wife. The city of Florence gave us approval to scan surface streets, public buildings and even some private residences. We used our most advanced GPR units and even field-tested our new MOTSUs to see what they were capable of in an urban environment.”

  “The robot ones, right?” asked Jack.

  “That’s right,” Chester said with a proud grin. “The MOTSUs are our mobile units. Remotely operated.”

  “Yeah, those things are creepy looking. Too much like giant spiders if you ask me,” Jack said.

  Chester smiled politely and continued. “The MOTSU scans returned with stunning results. They were able to interpolate a richly detailed underground map of the city. Some valuable artifacts surfaced, but nothing as exciting as what Kathleen honed in on.” Chester reached down to the leather briefcase beside his black wingtips. “
In the northeastern corner of Old Town, they found a deep cache located beneath an alleyway. It looked at first to be a tomb, but upon further examination the scans revealed a wall of scrolls…like a forgotten library.”

  Jack leaned forward, his interest piqued.

  Chester pulled out his tablet and loaded the scans for Jack to see. The screen showed a GPR view of an underground room. Jack was familiar with scans like these based on Kathleen’s line of work. She had taught him how to read GPR schematics. However, the one Chester pulled up was slightly different—more realistic, enhanced. Three-dimensional.

  “You can imagine the excitement buzzing around this find,” he said bowing his eyebrows in delight. “We got permission from the city to excavate so we set up a research station in an alleyway and Kathleen led the dig. It turned out to be one of the most rare findings in recent years—letters dating back to the 15th century—an underground vault storing important documents belonging to a prominent family in Renaissance Florence!” Chester stared at Jack with a gleam in his eye. “I think you may know who I’m referring to…”

  Of course he knew. There was only one family in Florentine history that had left such an enigmatic legacy behind that even today people spoke of their power, influence and patronage.

  “The Medici,” Jack answered assuredly.