by Rowan Casey
“And you think they’ve made the same connection that we have?” Matthias still had the feeling that Hautdesert and Grimm were playing games with him. They had gotten inside his head and made his mind play tricks on him. He knew that he was seeing things that weren’t there, how else could he account for mistaking the blind guy at the airport for the hulking stranger he had encountered in the pub in Brecon?
“Why not? If you can discover something, why couldn’t someone else?”
“And they can travel faster than a privately hired plane? Is that what you’re telling me? Or do you think that there’s more than one other person after this lump of rock?”
“There are ways of travel that are not open to everyone, but then almost anything is possible.”
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
“Wise words. Wiser than you can possibly know. You would do well to remember them.”
“I’ll send details of your hotel reservation to your phone. The bill has already been covered so there’s no need to dip into the remainder of your cash. It’s a cut above the guesthouse that you stayed in last night, so enjoy a little comfort and feel free to order whatever you like from room service.”
“The condemned man ate a hearty meal?”
“There’s no need to look at it like that. If all goes well you’ll be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor for some time to come. Who knows, you might even be convinced to join us.”
“I really don’t want to know what crackpot schemes you and Grimm have in mind, but I’m only in this for the money. Once this is done, or if I decide that the whole damn idea is stupid and I walk away, that’s it. I couldn’t care less if I never hear from you again, in fact I think I’d prefer it that way.”
“And yet you seem more than ready to cross the line and break the law. Doesn’t that make you think that you might not be quite what you think you are?”
“Like I said, I could still decide to walk away from all this.”
“Of course you could. But I don’t think you will. You will realize where your loyalties lie.”
“Loyalty? I don’t owe you any loyalty, nor Grimm.”
“Maybe not, but there is someone else you owe a debt of honor to, but you will have to discover that in your own time. Perhaps even tomorrow.”
“Who the hell are you talking about?” Matthias asked but by the time he had finished his question Hautdesert had already ended the call. That didn’t stop him from turning it over in his mind. Hautdesert talked in riddles all too often, but it was not all tricks to confuse him, there was something to his riddles. There had to be.
22
Hautdesert was right about the hotel being a cut above the guesthouse he had stayed in when he had been in North Wales, or the one in Glastonbury. It had been a while since he had spent a night in a five-star hotel, but it brought back plenty of memories of better times. Before he had taken the plunge and headed to America he had stayed in plenty of cheap places, but when he had first gone over there he had been feted by people with money and connections, people who wanted to impress him to begin with at least. But it hadn’t lasted. When the success had failed to materialize and the latest ‘next best thing’ appeared he was allowed to find his own way, and that meant cutting back on the types of places he stayed. He had known what it was like to live in luxury, but he had also known what it was like to be short of cash. He also knew which he preferred.
When he arrived at the hotel he found it only too easily to slip into the role he had tried to assume at the car rental desk in the airport. Here though, Grimm’s name did not seem to have the same effect. Matthias suspected that they were used to the famous and the wealthy passing through their doors with regularity, no one was going to be impressed by a foreign show business celebrity, no matter how famous he might be.
The room oozed quiet sophistication. Matthias had stayed in hotels that were much flashier than this, but none of them had shown as much class as this one. It also had the added bonus of a view of the castle, as if he could possibly get away from it, even if he had wanted to. Within a couple of minutes of dropping his bag on the bed he had pulled a bottle of beer from the minibar and taken a look at the room service menu. He suspected that the kitchen would prepare anything he asked for, but there was more than enough choice. He ordered Filet Mignon, then hit the shower, his stomach suddenly grumbling with a hunger he had not realized was there.
Forty minutes later he felt refreshed and satisfied though still dressed in the soft white dressing gown he had found hanging on the inside of the bathroom door. The light outside was starting to fade and the castle walls were already illuminated, turning the city into even more of a tourist attraction than it seemed in the day. He had to admit that it was beautiful though and would be even better when the traffic had started to disappear for the day.
There were a couple of guidebooks on the coffee table and Matthias pulled another cold beer from the minibar and settled down to read them. There were more than enough attractions in the city to keep someone occupied even when there were regular events taking place. He almost wished he had enough time to take a look around himself. Thankfully one of the books devoted most of its pages to the castle, with a section reserved for a history of the Stone of Scone. It pretty much confirmed what little he knew about it, but there were quite a few things he had not been aware of.
The Stone had been stolen before. Matthias was sure that somewhere in the recesses of his mind, he knew that. He even had a vague recollection that there had been a film made about the theft and its subsequent recovery. There had been a replica of the stone made, maybe more than one. Matthias wondered if there was any way that he could use that to his advantage. He needed to think, and he couldn’t do it sitting in a hotel room, no matter how fancy it was. He always thought better when he was moving, so he got dressed and headed out into the streets.
23
The early evening bustle was the same as so many of the cities he had visited; people leaving work late, others heading out for an early evening meal, or a trip to the theater. He had once been offered a part that would have led to him performing at The Festival Theatre but he had been tempted by a bigger part in a smaller production. It had been the right choice as far as his career had been concerned at the time, but he regretted the fact that he had not been to the city before this.
A few of the bars already sounded more than a little boisterous, drinkers who had started straight after work ended and were already well on the way to becoming too drunk to speak without slurring. Matthias had grown up around people like that and he knew that the theater had saved him from becoming one of them. He knew that he was capable of drinking with the best of them, but he was getting out of practice. He felt the urge to go inside one of the bars to join in, but he would be an outsider, a stranger in town and he was not going to be there long enough to become part of any group. Drinking alone had never bought him any real pleasure, and it wasn’t going to help him think any better.
He picked up a street map from the reception desk before he left the hotel. The receptionist kindly marked the hotel’s position with a cross, but he was pretty sure that he would be able to find his way back to it no matter how many twists and turns he took through the city streets. He would be able to retrace his steps if the need arose, it was something to do with the way his memory worked, but he knew that all he needed to do was head towards the castle. He would be able to find his hotel from there, even if there was no one around to ask for directions. And so he walked seemingly without aim, allowing his thoughts to wander as freely as his feet in the hope that something might spring to mind.
Whether someone else was trying to steal the stone was irrelevant, though it was tempting to suggest to Hautdesert that they be given the opportunity to do so, then steal it from them. If they failed though, the security would certainly be increased to make it more difficult for him to make an attempt himself. Even as he thoug
ht about it, he realized that they could even be trying to break into the castle later that night and he still knew almost nothing about the interior other than the little he had been able to glean from the guidebook. That thin volume had been written for the benefit of tourists and offered little that would be of assistance to a would-be burglar.
A glance at the map was enough to help point him in the direction of the Grassmarket, a busy thoroughfare where plenty of shops were still open and doing steady business with the early evening shoppers. The logo of one of the country’s largest chains of bookstores on the side of a carrier bag was enough to confirm that he was heading in the right direction. Just a few minutes later he spotted the shop he was looking for and headed inside.
Matthias was not disappointed. There was a whole section devoted to local interests and at least a third of them were about the castle. Some of them held no more depth than the guide he had read in his hotel room, while others held more historical detail than anyone other than an academic making a study of the structure or its history would find to be of interest. It didn’t take him too long to find one that fell between the two extremes. While the photographs of the castle were interesting, it was the floor plans of the various levels that were more likely to be of help. Matthias wasn’t really sure at what point he decided that he was really going to attempt to steal the stone, but when he handed over the thirty pounds for the hardback volume it somehow reinforced it. The transaction may only have been symbolic, but it struck him as being important somehow. He was committed.
The bookstore had a coffee shop that was still serving. Matthias took his purchase and decided that he didn’t want to waste time walking back to his hotel before he started to take a closer look at it. He was not disappointed. His coffee was almost cold by the time he had examined the various floor plans and worked out where everything lay in relation to each other. He was still a long way from having any kind of plan, but at least he might have saved himself a little time when he went inside in the morning with the rest of the paying visitors.
His fingers traced a path through rooms and along corridors. It was the shortest route he would need to be able to follow but the chances were that there would be guards along the way somewhere. If there were security cameras he might be able to find a way to deal with them, but guards made things more complicated. He wished more than anything that Hautdesert did not seem to think that there was so much urgency in dealing with the matter.
A second cup was placed on the table and the chair opposite Matthias was scraped back. He glanced up, surprised that someone decided to join him. He was even more surprised to see Hautdesert.
“Are you following me?”
“Not exactly,” Hautdesert said.
“Then how the hell did you find me?”
“Perhaps it’s magic.” There was a smirk on the man’s face and Matthias had a sudden urge to wipe it from his lips.
“You hacked my phone. That’s it, isn’t it? You hacked my fucking phone. That’s how you’ve always known where I was.” He couldn’t believe that he hadn’t thought of it before. That familiar feeling was starting to rise, and he rested his clenched fists on the table. He was not about to make any attempt to hide from Hautdesert exactly how he was feeling. The man held his hands up as if to declare his innocence, but he was not denying it
“I didn’t think you were the sort of person to get his hands dirty,” Matthias said.
“Are we talking about keeping tabs on you, or being here now, ready to lend a hand?”
“Being here. I would have thought that if you had plans to come here, you probably don’t even need me. So why are you here?”
Hautdesert didn’t answer immediately. He took a sip of his coffee and looked Matthias in the eye without blinking. “I want to be there when you touch the stone.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to see your reaction. I want to be there to catch you if you fall.”
“What?”
“Not literally of course, but there will be a moment when everything you thought you knew turns out not to be quite the reality you believed.”
“More riddles, more mind games.”
“Well, you asked. You’ll just have to wait and see for yourself.”
“You’re convinced that something’s going to happen.”
“If it doesn’t then the stone isn’t what we think it is. Either that, or you aren’t who we think you are.”
“Hey, I’m not claiming to be anyone. You and Grimm are the ones who approached me. If you’ve suddenly decided that I’m the wrong man for the job, then that’s not my fault.”
“You misunderstand,” Hautdesert said. “I have no doubt that you are who we believe you to be. You’ll have a better idea of what I’m talking about tomorrow.”
“And you will be there?”
“I will indeed. The castle opens to visitors at 9.30. I suggest that we are among the first to arrive to give ourselves as much time as possible, particularly as there is another complication.”
“What complication?”
“It appears that the Stone is about to go to the United States as part of an exhibition in New York.”
“How soon?”
“It gets taken off display when the castle closes tomorrow.”
“What happens to it then?
Hautdesert shrugged. “It flies to the States the following day.”
“So if we’re going to steal it we’re going to have to do it tomorrow, and in plain sight? Are you mad? We may as well give up now and go home. We’re not talking about something you can just slip into your pocket, this is a big lump of rock that will probably take two of us to shift. There’s no way we can do this.”
“All you have to do is believe that it’s possible. Would you think differently if the stone was the size of the Whetstone as it was portrayed in that picture in the church in Wales?”
“You’ve seen it? You’ve been there?”
Hautdesert shook his head. “I gave you a picture, remember?” he said. “Amazing what you can find on the Internet. So what do you think? Would it be easy to steal if it was a little smaller?”
“It would be easier if it was a lot smaller, but it’s not, is it? It’s pointless talking about impossibilities. These plans give a good idea of where things are, but it might look completely different when I get inside.”
“When we get inside.” Hautdesert reminded him.
“Ok, we. Let’s both get caught doing something stupid, shall we?”
“We won’t get caught. Even if we don’t get the stone out of there, we won’t get caught.” There was an incredible certainty in the man’s voice but Matthias didn’t know if it was an expression of arrogance or if he knew something he was keeping to himself. Did he have some way of getting them out of there if the wrong stuff hit the fan?
“You got some kind of magic wand?” Matthias laughed, but Hautdesert’s expression didn’t change.
“Sadly not, but maybe Grimm is not the only one with a few tricks up his sleeve.”
“I certainly hope that’s the case, because it’s going to take a miracle to pull this off.”
“Maybe not quite a miracle,” Hautdesert said. “But It may take something quite special.”
“Do you have a plan that you’re not sharing with me?”
“No more than an idea and a number of possibilities.” Hautdesert reached into his jacket pocket and produced an envelope. He placed it on the table and pushed it toward Matthias but kept one finger firmly on it.
“What’s that?” Matthias made no move to reach for it. Instead he leaned back in his chair.
“It’s a DVD. There’s a player in your room, I understand. Watch it tonight. You will need to learn to be the man on the screen.”
“You want me to play a part? I’m not sure that I’m up to it at the moment.”
“Worried that you’ve lost your talent?”
“Just a little rusty. I’m not sure that people are seeing me for a
nything more than I really am, and I’m pretty sure that they wouldn’t buy the idea that I really was someone I was trying to impersonate.”
“You’d be surprised. I’ve arranged for a suit to be sent to your hotel, wear it tomorrow. I’m pretty sure that it will fit, though it won’t hurt if it’s just a little too big.”
“Why? Are we going to smuggle the stone out under the jacket?”
Hautdesert snorted. “Take this seriously, your life may depend on it.”
“My life? I thought you said that there was no chance of us getting caught.”
“Not by the authorities, certainly. But they are not the ones we need to be concerned about.”
“You really do like to ramp up the tension, don’t you? Are you sure you’re not filming all this as part of some new tv show that Grimm is putting together?” He suddenly recalled the professor in Winchester and wondered if she had put the idea in his head. It didn’t seem beyond the realms of possibility. “I certainly wouldn’t put it past either of you.”
“I’m sure,” Hautdesert said pushing the envelope a little farther across the table before releasing it. He drained his coffee then got to his feet. “I’ll see you inside the castle tomorrow morning. Probably best if we don’t arrive together.”
Matthias watched him head out of the book shop and disappear into the flow of people before picking up the envelope. It contained only a single disk as Hautdesert had said, tucked into a protective case, but there was nothing to reveal its contents. There was nothing for it; he would have to go back to his hotel room to watch it if he was going to have any idea of what Hautdesert had in mind.
24
The dark blue suit was a decent cut but looked to be just a little on the large side. Matthias decided to sit and watch the DVD before trying it on though. His desire to know what was on the disk was greater than needing to be sure that the suit fit.
