by Joe Corso
How did he do it? he thought. How could he possibly have escaped from that jail, when it was lined with titanium, which he knew made him helpless? But wait . . . that wasn’t exactly true. He somehow managed to deactivate the bombs, as he said he would, and he did it while never leaving his titanium-lined cell. The titanium must have weakened him, though, Mueller reasoned, or else he would have already fulfilled his promise to destroy him. He wished he knew how badly the titanium had weakened him. But that reasoning was good if he was right in his assumption, that Lucky had been weakened by the titanium. For all he knew, it may have all been an act to free his friends. But if that were the case, then why did he agree to take his scientists to the Russian nuclear site in Moscow and watch them activate the bombs. If this were an act, he could have just as easily taken his friends and disappeared. This was all so perplexing to Mueller, who considered himself just a simple man, with a simple plan to annihilate Russia and kill millions of people by detonating two nuclear bombs.
Mueller gave a sigh of relief when he saw that all of his money was still in his accounts; nothing had changed. Mueller’s hands shook as he picked up the phone, ordering Hans to come to his office right away. He was used to having things his own way, but Lucky Campo had surprised him. Damn, he should have kept his promise to release his friends, and then none of this would have mattered. Too late for that now; now he had to figure a way to stay one step ahead of Campo, and his gut was telling him that that wouldn’t happen.
“Hans, tell Willie to make more sheets of wood and titanium just like the ones he made for the cell. I want him to line every wall, ceiling, and floor with those sheets. And tell him what I said, and tell him I want them installed yesterday. That madman Lucky Campo has escaped, and I need those titanium sheets installed as soon as possible; they’ll protect me from him.”
After Hans left, Mueller put his hands on his lap and leaned back in his chair, thinking about the titanium sheets he was having built. What if it was all a ruse and titanium has no effect on him at all. What then?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
12th Century
The door to the inn opened and a gust of snow, mixed with cold air, followed six men into the inn, bringing a cold chill into the warm room. Everyone in the room stared at the men as they shook the snow off their clothes and stamped their feet. Of the six men, three were soldiers, two were priests, and the sixth man was a hard-looking civilian with a face that you could never forget. His most prominent facial features were a crooked scar that ran down the left side of his face, alongside a crushed nose that looked as if it had been kicked by a mule. His black hair was curly and unruly, and he stood about five-foot-seven with a well-formed body.
Father Ignatio recognized Father Patrick when he walked in, and he waved him over to his table. The three soldiers accompanying Father Patrick sat with Father Ignatio’s three soldiers. The civilian with the scarred face sat at a table by himself. Father Patrick, accompanied by Father Duffy, brought Father Ignatio up to date, telling him that the inquisitor general had sent his group as back up to assure a successful completion to their operation. Father Rodriguez, the inquisitor general, was taking no chances of the princess escaping the inquisition yet a third time. He wanted her in Spain to face charges of consorting with the devil.
Snow fell throughout the night, but it showed signs of stopping the following morning. Joseph Stengal spent a restless night waiting for morning to come so they could begin their journey again. He wanted to be the one to capture the princess, and bring her to Spain, not Keisling. He heard that she was beautiful, and he had never bedded a princess before, and that made it even more delicious. Once he captured her, without a timeframe to worry about, he could take his time returning to Spain. His orders were simple and very clear. Once he had her, he was told to take her to Spain and he was given no specific arrival date. He looked forward to the trip back, and having a taste of the wine, so to speak. Yes, once he had her, he would lose the others - or maybe he would just kill them. He liked that. If he were alone, with no one to interfere with him, he could take his time and enjoy her succulent young body whenever he felt like it. He sat back in his chair, in a dark corner of the inn, thinking about the three soldiers, formulating a plan of how he would kill them if it came to that. He poured himself a glass of un-watered wine from the pitcher the bartender brought to him, and he put the soldiers out of his mind for the moment, letting the warm feeling from the wine course through his body. That was the feeling he wanted to have when he finally became one with the princess.
At first light, Father Patrick and his small group of men left the warmth of the inn to begin their trek up the cold mountain. Father Ignatio had warned Father Patrick not to travel without taking firewood with them for warmth during the cold nights, advising him that there was very little wood to be found on the mountain trail. And so taking Father Ignatio’s advice, Father Patrick bought a small, sure-footed donkey and packed it with food and firewood. Father Patrick didn’t look forward to this assignment; there were still a lot of miles to travel before they arrived at their destination. He would, of course, obey the orders he was given, but he had no desire to be part of the plot to kidnap the princess and have her appear before the inquisition - and he had no desire to meet the king’s wizard again. The wizard really frightened him, especially when the priests told the inquisition what the wizard did to them, after their first two attempts to kidnap the princess failed. Father Matthew, the ex-inquisitor general, upon returning to Spain, described to the court his experience with the wizard. After giving his testimony, he left Spain, and retired to a farm on the outskirts of Paris, where he shut himself in his small house and never left it, not even to go to the village to attend mass on Sundays. But Father Leon, one of the priests who accompanied Father Matthew, that ill-fated day they met the wizard, told the inquisition priests how the wizard took their leader’s arm, and then disappeared right in front of their eyes. When they re-appeared a few minutes later, Father Matthew was a changed man. He swore them to silence, and told them that they must make sure that nothing were to happen to the princess, or the king and queen, for the wizard said if harm came to them, he would return and take them to one of the hell worlds, and leave them there for eternity. The priest made the sign of the cross after hearing what Father Leon just told him. He really wanted no part of this - but what could he do? He was given his orders, and now he must carry them out under the threat of excommunication. He loved the church, and he feared being excommunicated, never to experience God’s love. But more than that, he trembled at the thought of what the inquisition would do to him if he failed, in addition to excommunicating him. Then he thought of the great wizard and what he would do to him. He was in a quandary and he knew it. He decided that he would forge ahead, and do as he was ordered, and if the wizard were to appear, he would simply tell him the truth, and trust in his ability to see the truth, when it was told to him honestly.
CHAPTER 20
335 AD
Lucky sat patiently while the blacksmith poured a little oil to cool the wheel, and then went back to work on removing his bracelets. The belt powered cutting wheel seemed to be working. Whereas before, no matter what Lucky tried, he couldn’t even scratch the metal, let alone cut it. But the wheel was beginning to scratch its way into the metal. It wasn’t a thick bracelet. It was about a half inch in width and maybe an eighth of an inch thick, so the wheel didn’t have to cut deep, just enough to get it to a point where it could be crimped, so that it might snap and break open. At least that was the plan. The blacksmith was concerned that the pressure he was applying to the metal would snap it, and the wheel would cut deep into Lucky’s wrist. In order to prevent that from happening, the big blacksmith wasn’t applying all of his pressure on the cutting edge of the wheel, which slowed the process of cutting through the metal.
“How are we doing, Hermann?”
The blacksmith grunted. “We have a groove cut into the metal of about a sixty-fourth
of an inch. I’m going to lay your wrist with your palm up, and I’m going to place a chisel in that groove and hit it with my hammer, and try to use its tension to snap it. Okay. Here goes.” Hermann was worried that the chisel would break the metal ring, and then continue right into Lucky’s wrist. Well, if he wanted this bracelet removed, then there had to be some risks, so he lifted his hammer and CRACK - SNAP. The bracelet snapped free, but the chisel bit about a half-inch deep into Lucky’s wrist. Blood spurted from the gash, which he knew would need stitches, but Lucky wasn’t at all concerned about that. At least now, one wrist was free from the titanium bracelet. The blacksmith told his young apprentice to fetch the young lady who brought Lucky here, instructing him to tell her to bring a needle and thread with which to stitch his wrist. Now for the second bracelet. Hermann looked at his saw and was surprised to see that its teeth had flattened out, making it virtually useless.
“I have another saw. I’ll go and get it. Hmm, I have never seen this happen before. I’ve forged that saw with special metals, just so that this would never happen. I’ll be right back.”
About ten minutes later, the blacksmith returned, holding another saw similar to the first one. He didn’t say anything, but he reached down for Lucky’s wrist and began the same procedure as with the first bracelet, but he knew by his success in removing the first bracelet that he would be successful in removing this one. After about twenty minutes of filing, grinding, and cutting, he took a break and asked his apprentice to fetch some cold ale. He asked Lucky and his friends if they too, would care for some ale. Cold ale sounded good to them. The young slave arrived with a leather bag slung over her shoulder. While the men were waiting for the ale to arrive, she unwrapped the cloth strips that were wrapped around Lucky’s wrist to prevent his wrist from bleeding, and examined the wound. She tilted her head and leaned over, reaching into her bag for an antiseptic herb of some kind with which to clean the wound. She looked at Lucky, expecting him to scream, or yell or in some way express pain, but Lucky just held his arm out so she could work on it, and smiled at her. “Go ahead, honey, stitch the wrist up. It’s got to be done, so better sooner than later.” The girl understood and, after threading her needle, she cleaned the wound again, and then she began to stitch his wound. It only took a few stitches to close the wound, which was about the width of the half-inch wide chisel.
The men didn’t talk much, taking a few minutes to relax and enjoy their cool brews. Hermann was the first to speak. “Here, put this metal sheet under the bracelet, so that when I break through with the chisel, the metal sheet is between your wrist and the bracelet. It’s tight, but I think when I use the chisel, I’ll have enough room to break the bracelet, the same as I did with the other one. Only this time, we’ll try not to cut into your wrist.”
He looked at Lucky with sad, sincere eyes. “I didn’t mean to cut you.”
Lucky patted Hermann on the shoulder. “You did good, Hermann. Better than I would have expected. And if I have to get cut again, to get this damned thing off of me, I’d rather that, than continue to have this annoying thing around my wrist.” Hermann stopped the wheel.
”What’s wrong Hermann? Why are we stopping?”
“Nothing’s wrong. I just want to take a minute to examine the first bracelet.”
“Good idea. I’d like to have a look at it myself.” Hermann studied the bracelet, admiring the metal and the skill it took to create such a beautiful piece of understated jewelry.
“It looks like something was mixed in with the metal. I can’t make out what it is. It’s not metal and it is not wood. It is a type of material I’ve never seen before.”
“Hand it to me and let me look at it. Hmm, this is a fiber circuit board, and it appears to have been fused to the metal. Interesting, but not important. Let’s get back to work. I want this bracelet off of me as quick as possible.”
Hermann shook his head. “I’ve never seen metal like that before. It is something I’m not familiar with, and I have worked with every metal known to man.”
“Not this metal,” Lucky said. “This metal hasn’t been discovered yet and won’t be for another thousand years, and it is a very difficult metal to work with. You won’t understand what I’m about to tell you, but in the aircraft industry, when you drill into titanium, you must use a fresh drill for each hole you drill. That’s the rule; you drill only one hole at a time and then the drill bit has to be changed, that’s how hard even a thin piece of titanium is to drill through. So with all things considered, you’re doing damn good.”
Hermann listened, but it went in one ear and out the other, because he couldn’t quite grasp the meaning of what Lucky said.
“Okay, I’ve cut as deep as I did with the other bracelet, now I’m going to strike the chisel with the hammer again to see if I can break it.” CRACK. Nothing happened. “Hold on, I’m going to hit it a little harder this time.” CRACK - SNAP. The bracelet broke at the seam, right where Hermann had been filing, and the metal that he placed as protection between the bracelet and Lucky’s wrist did its job.
“Do you mind if I keep these? I’d like to study them in my spare time. See if I can duplicate the metal.”
“Sure. Be my guest. I no longer have any need for them.”
Hermann looked at Lucky. “If I may be so bold, Sir Lucky. May I ask how you came to have these on your wrists?” Lucky hesitated before telling him. What the hell, he figured. This guy died a thousand years ago.
“Sure, I’ll tell you how these bracelets came to be on my wrists. A very evil man kidnapped my two friends, and he used them as bait to capture me. In order to control me, he put these bracelets on my wrist, and the metal it’s made out of, well . . . it weakens me.”
“Caused you to become weak, sir? How can that be?”
Lucky had a problem now. He didn’t know how much he could tell this man. He was obviously intelligent. You could tell that by the questions he asked - but would he believe it if Lucky told him that he came from the future?
“I - I had certain - ah - certain abilities, which these bracelets neutralized. My abilities disappeared when these bracelets were put on me.”
“I’m confused, sir. What do you mean when you say that you had certain abilities, and these bracelets. . .” He pointed to the bracelets. “These bracelets, what’s the word you used? Neutralized - that’s it. These bracelets neutralized your abilities, but that still doesn’t tell me what those abilities were.”
Damn it. Lucky grabbed Hermann by the arm and led him to the back of his shop. “By abilities, I mean TIME TRAVEL. I can travel in time. That’s how I got here. Actually, I got here by accident. Before these bracelets were put on me, I could go anywhere in time I wanted, but with these on, I was terribly weakened, but even in my weakened state, I still managed to create a doorway to here. Now I have to figure a way to get me and my friends back home.” Hermann didn’t faint or tremble at the thought that he could be speaking to a man from the future. Instead, he asked to be shown something that would convince him that Lucky was telling him the truth. Lucky thought for a moment, and then he decided that the movie thing he did last night for Rufio, he would do now for Hermann, only he wouldn’t project an image on the wall; instead, he’d show it on the watch face. He looked at his iWatch and scrolled down to the camera icon and put it on movie, and then he pressed the start menu. Hermann looked at Lucky suspiciously. He knew he was doing something, but he couldn’t tell what it was.
Finally, Lucky came closer to him and said, “Now don’t say anything; just watch.” He pressed play, and the screen came to life, showing Hermann moving in full color.
“My God; that’s me. It’s true,” he said as he made the sign of the cross.
“Stop that, Hermann. I’m a man just like you, but instead of being born in your time, I was born in the 20th Century.” Hermann was white as a ghost. He staggered back, fell heavily onto his chair, and motioned to his apprentice.
“I need more ale. Plenty more ale.”
“Go fetch me ale, boy, and be quick about it.”
Lucky walked over to him and put his arm around his shoulder.
“This metal that you cut off of my wrists, which I am giving you as a gift, was forged 1000 years in the future, and it will not be discovered until the 20th Century. So you are now in possession of two very rare items, items that no one on this planet possesses. Treasure them and protect them, and I would advise you to tell no one about them, or your life could be in danger. Men would kill you for these bracelets, so be very careful whom you show them to, or to whom you talk to about them. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”
Hermann was at a loss for words. He knew that he now possessed something very special, and he was intelligent enough to know that what Lucky warned him about was true. Men would kill him, his family, and his friends to possess them.
“Yes, I understand. I will do as you say and tell no one.”
“Look at me, Hermann. Would you rather that I take them with me when I leave here? Or would you rather keep them? The decision is yours. If I take them with me, there will be no danger to you or your family; if you keep them, then the opposite is true.”
“No, please. I would like to keep them. It is something to make me remember what we did here this day. I’ll take care of the bracelets and no one will be the wiser.”
Lucky needn’t have worried about anyone discovering the titanium bracelets because just a few years later, in 346 AD, an earthquake destroyed this beautiful villa, and a landslide in 1161 buried what was left of it.
CHAPTER 21
335 AD
As soon as they left the blacksmith, Lucky knew that he needed to figure out their next move, so he quietly asked the boys to take a walk with him somewhere outside of the villa.
